Possible stupid question - hill pacing (TT's and Races)

mpatts

Morning all,

A dumb question (possibly).

Options for long(2m+) hills as far as I see it are:

Sub FTP 'pacing' up it, or full gas threshold efforts. Onbviously in races there are times when full gas is unavoidable or optimal, but what about TT's?

thegibdog

Generally in a TT you'd want to be riding up the hills above threshold (but keeping it aerobic) as that is when you get more return for your effort. I'm not sure why you'd ride the climbs below threshold unless it was a very long TT - threshold is the power you can maintain for an hour, not full gas. Like you say, in a road race your pace will be determined by the race situation.

Grill

For TT's you'll want to pace climbs with around 10% (and no more than 15%) more power than the targeted AP for the distance. You'll also want to pull back by around the same amount on the descents.