How To Ride Steep Climbs On A Road Bike

Conquering climbs can often be one of the hardest parts of cycling. You see a steep hill coming up and prepare yourself to smash it but end up suffering and slowly slogging your way up. So we give you some tips that can help you get up and over those steep climbs just a little bit easier.

0:00 - Intro
0:34 - Gear selection
1:52 - Body position
3:10 - Scan the road
3:49 - Restarting a climb
4:42 - Positivity

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Have you got any climbing tips? 🤔 Share them with the community in the comment section below! 💬

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🎵 Music - licensed by Epidemic Sound 🎵
Why So Gloomy - Lofive
Catch Up to You - FLYIN
Matrix - BLUE STEEL

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📸 Photos - © Velo Collection (TDW) / Getty Images & © Sprint Cycling Agency

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[DslainteC]

As a 57 year-old 350 lbs man, I'm slowly getting into climbs on my rides. Learning how to get out of the saddle has helped tremendously. I've been able to ride up some 5-6% grades lately so that's been a boost in confidence. Thanks for the tips you shared here. Onwards and upwards!

[NunoJoel]

The best Tip is: Have Easy Enough Gears that make u able to spin 90+ with ease so focus on a minimum 50-34 front and at back at least 32-34 cassete and that is ideal for starters

[bubblesezblonde]

Yet another Celtic duo vid that addresses cycling questions for the average rider. Gearing is soo important I've found. The 3X chainring on my road bike (a sister to Felix' s 'dream bike' ) makes horrible climbs doable. Loved the vid!!!

[colnago]

Start your climb in the lowest gears, then as you near the top start going up the cassette. Too many of my mates still hit the bottom of the climb too hard and then spend the rest of it trying to recover from that initial effort and moving to the easiest gears (until they run out of them). I might get dropped initially, but time and again I'll crest first.

[apuldram]

Unbelievably Dura Ace now have a 1:1 gear ratio (34/34). This is what I’ve been using for touring (28/28 with a triple) for the past 30 years, including bike camping. Norfolk, Lincolnshire, Netherlands? No, Sierra Nevada, Cascades and Norway… and I’m not a strong bike rider.

[amywong]

Love how you're explaining it while you're doing it. You guys (and girls) are so down to earth and relatable. Thanks!

[DoNuT_]

My tip: If there is a serious climb, drop onto the small chainring, largest cog and wait for it to end. Plus: go compact.

[Xhadp]

Agree with you Manon on body position and sitting down! I'd prefer siting down over the popularized advice of standing up, don't have to worry about shifting to a better gearing for standing up, lower COG helps on balancing on the bike. More consistent power as well,

Also agree on gearing ! Why is the norm a 1:1 ratio? I use that even on slopes as shallow as 5%. It should be much higher than that. I hate hate HATE that I have to dive into full specs list to see what the gearing is for new bikes. Step it up!

[zensenpai]

Zig zag and make full use of the clock in your pedal stroke.

As soon as you're reaching dead spots on your stroke, that's how you stall on a hill climb.

Keep that pedal stroke going and practice climbing hills on the regular to get better at it. This is from someone who rides a single speed in a hilly neighborhood.

The steepest in my area is a 9.5% grade climb that spans for about 300m which I have done a few times. But it can definitely gas me out even though my legs aren't tired. I recommend trying out a single speed, it'll make you quite strong.

[AlexWheeler-bz]

Because I don't live in a hilly area, I've been practicing climbing on my indoor trainer with ROUVY. I must say, I improved and can't wait to try it on real terrain.:)

[waynetunheim]

What a kite show.

Love the long snakes. Nice compliment to all the other kites.
Thanks for the video

[UserNo]

I have always struggled with whether I should go to a harder gear and then stand and pedal at a low cadence, or go to an easy gear, sit on the saddle and use a high cadence to get to the top. I've just realized recently that for longer climbs, an easy gear, sitting and pedalling at a higher cadence is better on my knees and doesn't leave my legs as fatigued. On very short steep climbs, I'll stand and use a harder gear.

And once I can no longer pedal, I walk my bike up. 😂

[BikeCoffee-Cake]

Love the tips! I’ve got GRX 2x gears with 48/31 on the front and 11-34 at the back.
The 31-34 really helps on the super steep 15%+ hills.

[paulnewman]

I do 20% rides on grave paths and tarmac quite often and i tend to pick someting as a target not too far say 20 meters away focus on that then repeat small goals

[jacksonbangs]

These tips sure help me conquer the steep climbs here in Southern Oregon in the USA. The grades here can get as steep as 10%.

Really great info on this video, I usually avoid hills like the plague, but had an "epic" ride with two of my buddies a few weeks ago, one climb, all the way down to our lunch stop "North hill" in Essex, all the way down thinking, we've got to cycle back up this one! What made it worse, I put the route together 🤣but I did it, really proud of myself, shows if I can do it, anyone can 😉

[frankfotofilm]

Gear selection and cadence is really not an option when you ride a 40+ years old road bike with 2x6 gears and down tube shifters... Makes climbing a whole different ball game and I really start to appreciate the riders of the past who had to deal with these sort of "limitations" (as we would now call it from our perspective)!

[DangerousDan]

Doesn't matter how low a gear you select or can select, there are climbs where it is so steep that you can benefit from learning to stand and pedal as slow as you would walk. Let your weight do the work while just lifting your legs. This gives the big muscles a rest for when you get back to a lower more manageable grade.

[werd]

Why is Manon's Pinarello squeaking like that 🤣

[ChrisCapoccia]

Another approach to getting restarted on a steep climb is a U-turn. Go down the hill as slow as you can just to have enough time to clip in and get in the right gear. Then turn around and go up