The 2011 Tour de France went from a week in the windy, wet, and rolling terrain of northern France into the Massif Central for the beginning of the second week of the race. This is a mountainous region, but there’s a big difference between this central region of France and the major mountain ranges of the Pyrenees and Alps. These are often referred to as the “medium mountains stages” because the climbs are not nearly as great as the ascents in the Alps and Pyrenees, nor are the elevations at the summits.
But just because the climbs aren’t as big or as long as the major mountain stages, these races through the Massif Central can be extremely difficult. The challenge here is that the peloton does not split up like it does on major mountain stages. In these stages, the majority of the field largely stays intact all the way to the finish; meaning riders who struggle to climb have to stay with the fastest climbers in the world a lot longer than they will when the big mountains arrive.
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The other reason these stages are so hard is that there’s no break for your legs. When you’re racing through the Massif Central, it seems like you’re constantly going up or down; there are virtually no flat roads in the region. The descents are not long enough to provide a lot of recovery and the pace up the climbs can be quite high because riders can see the summits or know they’re only a few minutes away. In the big mountains, after the initial flurry of speed heading into the climb, the pace settles down (unless you’re fighting in the contenders’ group) because the climb is going to last 30 minutes or more.
Skills & Technique
In races with big rolling hills or a series of climbs that only last 5-10 minutes, it’s important to conserve as much energy as possible in the early climbs. Amateur racers frequently struggle with this balance between riding strong enough in the early going to stay with the pack, while still conserving power for later climbs.
One way to delay the onset of fatigue is to think about how you’re generating your power for climbing. Standing up in a big gear and stomping your way to the summit of a short climb feels pretty good when you’re fresh at the beginning of a ride, but you’re recruiting a lot of muscle fibers and a lot of them are fast-twitch fibers that fatigue quickly. You want to save these for big accelerations when you really need them and should instead rely as much as possible as the endurance-oriented slow-twitch fibers.
To do this, stay seated in the early climbs, shift into easier gears, and bring your cadence up. Your power output will be the same, or may be even higher, than when you’re out of saddle stomping on the pedals.
When you do choose to get out of the saddle – which is a good idea every few minutes to stretch your back, give your legs a bit of a break by changing your pedaling position, and reset your seated climbing position – it’s very important that you take advantage of the increased leverage that standing up provides. In the seated position, much of your bodyweight is supported by the saddle. When you stand up, you have the opportunity to use the vast majority of your weight to push directly down on the pedals. It’s like giving your leg muscles a power boost, but if you stay in the same gear you were in when you were seated you don’t gain any additional advantage. Shift into one or two harder gears and get your weight over the pedals. Your cadence will fall when you’re out of the saddle, so shifting into a bigger gear and using your weight is the way you can maintain – or even increase – your power output and speed.
Hill Accelerations
One of my favorite workouts for riders who need the strength for successive and endless hills is hill accelerations. The point of these intervals is to settle into a good and sustainable rhythm for the early part of the hill and then increase your effort level and power output as you approach the summit.
Pros will do these on climbs that last 10 minutes or more, but for most amateurs preparing for hilly road races or centuries, shorter intervals work very well. Find a hill (or a series of hills) that takes two to four minutes to climb. Roll into the hill at a moderate pace, and settle into a challenging but sustainable pace and a cadence of 80-90 RPM (RPE of 7-8 out of 10, or if you’re familiar with the CTS Field Test it would be 86-90% of Field Test power, 92-94% of Field Test heart rate, or a pace that’s below your lactate threshold pace).
Use your gears to stay at this effort level until you’re about 30-45 seconds from the summit. Now start gradually accelerating, first by increasing your cadence and then by shifting gears, so you accelerate all the way to the top. When you reach the summit you should be at a 9 out of 10 in terms of effort level, at least 95% of your Field Test power and 95-97% of your Field Test heart rate or higher. Recovery should be three to five minutes of easy pedaling. Advanced riders can reduce the recovery to one to two minutes. Beginner and intermediate riders should aim to do five to eight hill accelerations; advanced riders can do 10.
While hill accelerations are good for developing the power to cope with the pace changes and surges that happen as you crest multiple hills, at some point you’re going to want to use a hill to launch a race winning attack or get away from your buddies during a group ride or century.
Hill Attacks
Hill attacks bridge the gap between working on the individual components of attacking on climbs (the VO2 effort of making the attack, and the lactate threshold effort of staying away) and enables athletes to practice race-winning moves in training. First you need to get the gap, but that effort generates a lot of lactate and you have to have the ability to continue riding fast while you process that lactate. These intervals get you there.
Find a hill that takes at least four minutes to climb. If you don’t have any, do it on flat ground. This workout is just as good at preparing an athlete for flat-ground attacks and breakaways. Ride into the beginning of the four-minute interval at a challenging pace, and then start the interval by attacking, out of the saddle, as hard as you can go, for 45 seconds. After your initial acceleration, settle into the highest intensity you can maintain and hold this intensity for the rest of the climb (or until you reach four minutes if you’re doing these on flat ground or on a long climb).
Your power output during this portion of the interval should be in your climbing repeat range or higher, and your cadence should be above 80 RPM. The intensity for climbing repeats is 95-100% of Field Test power. If you’re using heart rate, your range should be 95-97% of your Field Test heart rate. This would be an RPE of 8-9 out of ten. Take five minutes of easy spinning recovery between intervals. Beginners should complete four intervals; intermediate and advanced riders should complete six intervals.
Click here for CTS Field Test Instructions.
Chris Carmichael rode the Tour de France in 1986 with 7-Eleven and has been writing Tour de France commentary for the past 11 years. He is CEO and Head Coach of Carmichael Training Systems, the premier destination for coaching, training camps, and performance testing since 2000; and Official Coaching and Camps Partner of Ironman. Follow Chris on Twitter at www.twitter.com/trainright, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/carmichaeltrainingsystems, or www.trainright.com.
