Bike cadence for hills

Linda Johnson

I have a very hilly course to bike in Canada July 7th. How should I train for these desert hills? Spin a high cadence in the lowest gear and sit back in my seat, or try and push the highest speed. I don't want to exhaust my legs for the half marathon. I can keep a cadence of 90 -on the flats, which is efficient, but what cadence should I hold for hills going 11-12 mph? I am also trying to attack any hill in my neighborhood to get stronger!

morpheus

others may correct me, but the general consensus is to have gearing that will allow you to spin, rather than mash, up the hills. Ideally, cadence of 80-95 (very individual) will give us the best run. On hills, reality sets in and the cadence will often drop below that 80 mark. I have proper gearing for my area and its pretty common that my cadence drops to around 70, sometimes 65, on many of our hills.

Are you riding with power? Power numbers used to control effort on the hills is even better.

cgres123

Gearing X 2, at a minimum a compact crank of 50/34 and cassette of 12/25.

Linda Johnson

Thanks, this is all valuable information to help me on the hills. Currently, I am training with 25 gears, and will switch to my race wheels with 27 or 28 to give me that extra ease to get up the hills in Penticton!

Pina

Sounds like your racing the Desert Half Iron. I've ridden these mountains a lot. A very challenging run awaits you if you spin below 80 on those mountains. Don't be intimidated by them and know 90% of the field will ride them incorrectly. Hold your watts/RPE spin as close to your running cadence as possible and you'll execute well.

Linda Johnson

Thanks Suhki, I will use my cadence wisely, and save myself for the hot desert run! :-)