For steep hills, should I train harder or get lower gears?

Question

I’ve just done a 1500km ultra cycling event, the lowest gear setup are front 30t back 40t. Along the journey there are many very long climbs that have more than 10% gradient. To conserve power I always push the bike on 10%++ gradients. I can stand to ride the hill but it will hurt my leg and chest. Now there many participant who DNF’d because they over pushed, and hurt they leg chest etc. I am very lucky to finish without any problem at all. Of course for next year I want to be faster on the climbs (since I was pushing on climbs this year)

The question is: Is better to train more on climb or just increase/lower gearing?

I am not athelete, just regular desk worker. My only training time was on weekends, and commuting.

Since I can hacking my bike, and put 52t on back. Weight won’t be a problem, since I have to bring touring kit too.

Answer 1

On road, gears much less than 1:1 aren't really quicker than walking anyway. 4.8km/h is a realistic walking pace pushing a bike uphill. With 30:40 you'll ride this at a low - but not unreasonable grinding up a hill - cadence of about 50rpm. There even comes a point when balance is the limiting factor.

It may be that your comfortable cadence is rather high; then you would benefit from lower gearing than me (I'm happiest at around 80rpm, which is rather low). A higher cadence in the same gear means more power, so if you're at your upper power limit and your lower cadence limit, a lower gera would help . I think you've already got that with 30:40.

Some points of comparison

While I haven't done a 1500km ride, I've done 750-800km in 3 days a couple of times, with a light touring load. The bike I used for that has a lowest gear of 30:32, and the one I've used more recently for a hilly 600km in 2 days has 30:30. My friends who have just got back from Paris-Brest-Paris (1200km in 90 hours) have similar gearing, down to 30:34 in the lowest case I know of - and a few were on fixed gears.

I struggle with my back if I pull up on the bars too much, but find standing unreasonably tiring, so do sometimes walk the steepest bits (>15-20%), particularly if there's a lot of climbing to come the next day. You sound like standing to climb has even more of an effect on you than on me. But 10% should be sustainable seated, just standing for a few strokes if there's a sudden extra-steep bit.

Broader aspects of multiple long days

The difficulty with such long days back to back is that recovery time is very limited. So as the ride wears on, you're starting each day in a worse state than the one before. Even if you don't get much rest, plenty of food is a must, and food, a bit of sleep, then more food is a good way to do that.

The load and the headwind combine to really limit your on-bike rest opportunities (and off-bike, because you're in the saddle for longer). That led to me cutting short one trip. Aerobars help with the headwind flat sections, and a few people climb on them (not me).

Putting these together, if your reserves are depleted and you have to keep climbing, your power will be low, meaning a low climb rate, and a low speed

Training

The most training most of us can do for something like this is to get a whole weekend at the same or slightly higher daily distance. The odd longer weekend helps a lot.

Fasted training may also be beneficial here, as it improves your power output when nutrition (in the form of carbs) is lacking. That could be a stretched commute of 30km before breakfast, once a week. If I was training for something like this, after a weekend of 400-600km, going out fasted (or with a protein shake) on the Monday morning would be brutal but realistic training, also for the psychological challenge of getting going again.

Answer 2

Training is always good, but if your gears are too hard for a sustainable pace there is no way around changing your gears.

Of course reducing weight would also help on climbs.

Answer 3

Since you want to be faster on climbs (as you clearly stated), you can't cheat physics (it's not meant as an elitist statement).

Lower gearing will just give you a comfortable cadence down to (s)low walking speeds but in order to actually get faster, there is no doubt that higher power (or power-to-weight) is the only way to achieve this. Your long rides and commuting probably build up some endurance capabilities but in order to bring up your sustainable power, you might want to consider some more focused (endurance/hill) workouts, if time and personal circumstances allow for it.

Of course, it gets way more complicated in an ultra cycling event because nutrition and recovery is limited, and headwinds may ruin your day more than it would on a cafè ride.

So, even using aero bars might also help, simply because you use less energy to the top of the next mountain, same goes for nutrition to a certain degree.

Answer 4

As @Chris H answered - it's a (vigorous) walking pace. So my advice is: walk. Not only does this relieve the hands and palms of pressure and the spine of bending in a weird leaned position but most importantly it uses different muscles. So - in a way - while pushing the bike You are resting from riding! Don't forget to enjoy the scenery though.

Answer 5

The heart is not the only blood pump in the body, the muscles also do if they work. There are valves in veins. Due that climbing with slow gear takes some load from the heart. Less problems with running out of breath.

I think this makes sense and better to train for a faster cadence.

Answer 6

The other questions of the OP suggest that they are more interested in off-road/gravel event. Another point that needs to be considered is traction, as gravel, loose surfaces or rocks and roots introduce traction limits. Too much torque to the pedals at the wrong time, and the rear wheel will slip.

Pedaling too hard when standing on the pedals can result in noncontinuous power/torque delivery, and traction can be lost when too much torque is applied, which typically result in putting the foot on the ground, and having some difficulties to restart.

Also, when there are "irregularities" (such as bigger rocks or roots), it's important to be able provide additional torque when the obstacle is reached, to clear it, and again it's easier in a high cadence/low torque situation than when standing on the pedals.

Personally I found it easier (with clipless pedals) to control the torque when pedaling at higher cadences and lower torque, so I would favour lower ratios in these cases. The ability to provide an as homogeneous torque as possible is a skill and require training as well.

Note that a lower gearing would only make slower ascents easier, to maintain a pace, endurance training is still required.

---

To illustrate the importance of a homogeneous torque when climbing on rough surface, higher-end e-MTB motors have typically a special mode where the assistance is adjusted during the crankset revolution to compensate for the "power peaks" that happen when pedaling.

Answer 7

Lower gears don't work past a certain point. Lower speed does (but that might need lower gearing in some cases).

A cyclist weighing 70 kg, pulling from bars up using 30 kg force, pulling from rear leg cleat 25 kg up, and pushing the front pedal with 55 kg extra force over cyclist's weight (70 kg), can produce 150 kg of pedaling force, or 250 Nm using 170 mm long cranks. At a cadence of 60 RPM (not very low gearing), that's already 1000 watts (multiplied by 2/pi in order to take into account that the 250 Nm is only achieved with cranks horizontal) or over 1.3 horsepower.

The limitation here is not force. It's power. A cyclist can maintain that 250 Nm of torque, assuming the pedals are rotating very slowly. The faster the pedals rotate, the more energy and oxygen the cyclist has to consume, which is impossible, since a human is not capable of over 1.3 horsepower in the long term.

The point where you need lower gearing is when you need to reduce your speed, and use a gear where lower speed would make the cranks rotate too slowly, so slowly that pedaling is difficult at these speeds.

I think you'll find that nearly every bicycle has low enough gearing for practically all of the hills. A 1:1 gear for example gives on a 700C wheel a speed of 5.1 km/h at 40 RPM cadence. If you want to go slower than that, you could be better off pushing the bike up and walking.