Tips for Steep Climbs on Cyclocross Bikes

Video Transcript

"MICKEY DENONCOURT: It's hard to film the subtle weight shifts that go on when you're climbing a really steep climb especially a loose one. You're moving between the front of the bike and the back of the bike, rocking back and forth a whole lot between trying to keep your front tire on the ground and then moving your weight back to keep the rear wheel from spinning. But basically on a cyclocross bike, the easiest way to get up a hill that's really hard is you have a lot of speed coming into it. You make sure that you take the corners before it really quickly. You arc them well and corner them well. And then when you get climbing, you make sure that you look ahead. You look to the top of the climb, you know, because you've walked the course, you know what sort of rough stuff you have ahead of you. And then when you're ultimately on the climb and sort of struggling, what you have to deal with is like this slight, you know, these weight shifts between your front wheel. Mostly, you want to ride over your front wheel to keep it down and you get a nice, open hip angle and stuff that way, and then as your back wheel starts to spin you need to move back just that little second to counteract your pedal strokes. So sometimes you see you've got this sort of rocking motion going on a steep climb where you're moving up on the top part of the stroke and moving back and up sort of like rocking, keeping your elbows nice and bent and low just to force your tires into the ground. So the big thing to keep in mind is look for the smooth lines when you're walking the course, carry your speed into the steep sections so you don't have to pedal as much when you're on it, and then once you get to the steep part where it feels like you're about to fall over, you know, really be sure to move your body weight back and forth if you need to keep your front tire on the ground, to keep your rear tire from spinning and to just sort of keep your overall momentum going up the hill."