Passing on Hills
November 12, 2008 by Phil Hodsdon
Filed under Tips
I have a great ride twice a week, usually weekends, at Cherry Creek State Park in South Denver. There is a loop that goes around the outside of the park. You can ride on the inside of the loop, but when you get to the backside, there is a reservoir earthen wall that forces you to ride around on the outside of it. Here’s a map of the ride.
It is about a 15-mile loop, more or less, and I usually manage to make it around the loop in 75 minutes. There are about 2 miles of trail and about 13 miles of pavement or cement sidewalk. The ride has 2 big hills: The first is about an 8% grade for about a mile and the second is about a 6% grade dropping to a 4% grade for about 2.5 miles. This second hill, averaging 10 MPH, takes about 15 minutes for me to get up it on my 35 pound mountain bike.
This second hill is really the focus of this week’s story. If you look back at the Map, listed above, this hill is on the outside of the earthen dam, along route 225. It starts at the North, and about the halfway point, going to the West, you hit the nadir and then you have your long uphill climb. It’s a great hill for interval training and I’ve seen some real rock stars take that hill at 20 mph all the way to the western part of the earthen dam. They were on road bikes; mountain biker stars can take that hill at around 14-15 mph.
This past Saturday, as I hit the nadir, I steeled myself for the long ride up. I was passed at the start by a couple on new mountain bikes. The woman, a young blond, in her early twenties, weighing 120 pounds, with a helmet threaded blond pony tail, waving in the wind, passed me with about 6 inches to spare. It always amazes me that people would pass that close to me with a 6 foot wide concrete walkway to ride on and never say a thing: The male, a little bit older, did say: “on your left” and then gave me about a foot clear passage. That was appreciated.
Within the first half mile, this couple had a 50-yard lead on me. I was thinking there was no way I was going to catch them as we moved up the hill. They were too aggressive, too strong, and they were half my age. Then I noticed a few things: 1. They were peddling at a high gear. Their feet were moving at roughly half the RPM’s than I usually cycle at. 2. They were wearing sneakers, not bike shoes. 3. Their bike’s seats were lower than they should have been; resulting in a lunging pedaling motion.
I remembered the story of the Tortoise and the Hare and thought to myself, that if I stayed in form, I could catch them by the top of the hill. I knew a few things about climbing: 1. Keeping your RPM’s up (around 60) gives you a smoother ride and doesn’t burn out your muscles; adjust gearing to the slope of the hill. 2. Wearing bike shoes, which are hard soled, is a more direct transfer of energy to the pedals, verses sneakers that lose energy when they flex on every down pedal. Proper seat height, custom fitted for your height and bike results in a much more efficient pedaling motion. Bike shoes can give you a direct energy efficiency estimated at 3-5%.
Over the next mile, it was all I could do to stay close to the jackrabbitting couple. I stayed at 60 RPM’s and I resisted the urge to just go all out. On the second mile, I started to creep closer and closer. I saw the blond glance back at me and she redoubled her efforts; but she was laboring, still in a high gear and she finally stood up to get her leverage working for her.
At the end of the second mile, I was still feeling strong and I passed the gentleman and had the blond in my sights. I stayed in form; kept adjusting my gearing for the magical 60 RPM, in a comfortable cadence. With two hundred yards to go, I quite easily passed her and politely said: “On your left” and blew past her. I could hear her grunting and then, when I got to the light at the top of the hill, glanced back and she was stopped; bent over, exhausted.
My buddy Jeff, an avid mountain biker, who races in Winterpark, told me that you win races on the hills, where you break their spirit. There is a reason Lance Armstrong won 7 tours in a row; he won them in the mountains.
See you on the trails.
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This post was written by:
Phil Hodsdon - who has written 5 posts on Mountain bike product reviews, bike builds, trail reviews, forum, and tips - MTOBikes.com.
Phil is a 51 year old father of three lovely girls; married to a wonderful woman; has a great job, and is a mountain biking fanatic. You can see him on the trails inside Cherry Creek State Park, Winter Park, and Vail, Co. Phil aspires to ride the best mountain bike trails in Colorado and the World.
Where is the 2 mile hill? I live right there and that would make great riding… I can think of a few hills, one a pretty steep whopper under 225, but I can’t think of any continuous hills that go for 2.5 miles much less even a continuous mile? I haven’t found them all yet, so I’m definitely interested…
Scott,
If you look at the map; measure it from the Cherry Creek Trailhead to the Cherry Creek High School. It is the steep whopper under 225! There’s actually a shorter but steeper hill from East Lake View Road, by the Wetlands Preserve, up to the East Entrance. The best trail rides in the park are unmarked inside the CottonWood creek loop; but there are stumps to jump, tics to avoid, and its impassible in the rain/snow. Please look for a upcomming article on riding on snow/ice as I detail my experiments in riding across a frozen resovoir, racing iceboats in Jan/Feb.
[...] Another fellow blogger placed an interesting blog post on Passing on a Mountain Bike on Hills | Mountain bike product …Here’s a brief overviewMy buddy Jeff, an avid mountain biker, who races in Winterpark, told me that you win races on the hills, where you break their spirit. There is a reason Lance Armstrong won 7 tours in a row; he won them in the mountains. Check out the rest of this topic over here [...]