Sportives + Hills

dav3e

I'm aware that most sportives are pretty hilly, and at some point I would like to try one, but I am concerned about my own ability to conquer climbs, as one man's steep climb may be another man's 'speed hump' !

If anyone on here has been up Sheephouse Lane, Rivington, could you comment on whether this is a climb that would be comparable to any that are on local north west sportives, (as I know I can get up Sheephouse Lane). Thanks in advance.

Cleat Eastwood

Its not so much the steepness of the hills as the gearing you have.

Sheephouse lane I reckon is about average for a tough sportive - and i'm ging on the gradient of it. Some sportives have shallower gradients but longer climbs - others have short but steep climbs - I found it best to practice on the short steep ones as this has stood me in good stead fr the longer shallower ones.

Sheephouse is certainly as steep as the climbs in the cheshire cat apart from its signature 25% mow cop. Sportives these days though are looking to have a unique challenge and ridiculously steep climbs can often obscure the 'easier' ones.

Anyway - theres a few coming up - the ride with brad, the lancashire hotpot and in october the rivington 100. I reckon if you can do the rivi - sheephouse climb you'd do well on any of those.

GeorgeShaw

I found it best to practice on the short steep ones as this has stood me in good stead fr the longer shallower ones.

Hmm, depends on what you mean by short. If it's short enough to be "grunted" over (anaerobic) then it's no preparation for a longer (aerobic) hill.

For example, I rode a medium hilly sportive at the end of last year, and I hadn't trained much last year due to illness. I rode the second half with a friend of a friend who was pretty fit but not a club cyclist. We ended up in a continual yo-yo. I could easily overtake him on short ramps as I had cycling-specific strength and a working anaerobic system. But on longer hills I just died and his non-specific aerobic strength gave me a good kicking.

So for longer hills I'd say strong TT-style efforts and/or finding a good shallow long hill for hill repeats are better. As long as you're putting in those 5 minute plus strong consistent efforts, the rest is just gearing.

Cleat Eastwood

haha no I dont mean short sharp bursts of speed. I meant goign up them slowly in a higher gear as if to mimic the effort on the longer climbs I've done.