Training For a Hill TT

Hill time-trials take part in the latter stages of summer and early autumn and are the “fun” part of the timetrialling calendar. Essentially they are ‘organised Strava segments’ but up a hill. What can you do to improve your time to the top, and what are the critical skills required?

The Hill

This hill is usually 1-2km in length, though some courses are longer. However, the distance of the climb is less imposing than the elevation climbed, the average gradient and the maximum gradient. All these factors combine to make different ‘hills’ different levels of difficulty and also suit specific athletes.

The gradient makes the most significant impact on the type of gear ratio that you want to have. Often a rider’s race bike will be set up to ride fast, so the rear cassette is smaller to enable a power transfer at higher speeds. However, with a hill timetrial, you will travel slower, and so you need to consider gear selection accordingly and perhaps change the rear cassette.

When racing up a climb, the hill is not the same steepness across the road. Turns will be steeper towards the apex of the corner and shallower further away. The shorter racing- line, cutting the apex may actually be the slower path to take as it could slow

you down, or mean an increased level of effort to allow for the steepness. It can change your rhythm or momentum, which can have a lasting impact on the rest of the ride. Equally, riding in the shallower, wider route may take longer too. By choosing the right gears for the race, you shouldn’t be on the limit all the way up. This means you can select the route instead of being forced wide because you haven’t got the gear or the legs to go up!

The Bike

Unlike flatter time trials where aerodynamics advantages trump weight-saving gains, on hill timetrials, it is a race against gravity. Therefore, every effort is made to save weight. Some riders will go to excessive lengths to reduce any unnecessary weight like removing bar tape, choosing lightweight tyres, removing one of the front chainrings and getting rid of aerodynamic (but heavier) wheels. For most riders, or for those looking at giving it a go would do well only to empty their pockets and water bottle holders and leave their saddlebag at the bottom of the hill. Much more than that is likely to mean a lot of preparation for a “fun” event. Rear lights are mandatory in all Cycling Time Trial races and must remain on the frame!

Though it can be entertaining to see what can be stripped off a

bike to make it hill time trial-ready, it is worth being realistic. These races are won by having an excellent power to weight ratio. How much weight can you save from your bike and equipment? How much weight is that as an overall percentage of the rider and the bike? Though some people take this very seriously, they are also usually friendly events with traditionally drinks or lunches after a few minutes of reasonably vomit-inducing effort! Unless you are going to win an event, do enough to save lugging unnecessary extra weight up the side of a mountain, but if you spend longer than about 5-minutes saving unnecessary weight, then you have taken it too seriously. As you get more competitive, you can tailor the definition of “unnecessary”.

The Human

So far we have discussed the hill (that we have no control over except for the line through the corners) and the bike (which we can make lighter, but have limited control over.). Coaches always talk about “controlling the controllables”, so what does that mean in the context of hill time-trialling?

Firstly, the effort is short. Most time-trials are usually about 20 mins for 10 miles, an hour for 25 miles or hours for the 50 and 100-mile time trials. Road racers will be used to needing a snap for a sprint and sometimes may have an excellent anaerobic tolerance of a few minutes if they specialise in a long-range attack or breakaway. However, in hill time trialling, you need to be strong over 6-20 mins. This duration has a different physiological requirement to most other races.

When we start reviewing the power that can be sustained, recent work from Dr Andrew Coggan and Sufferfest are quite illuminating. This research shows that we can’t generically target a percentage of our FTP for these shorter durations as each person has their specific profile and therefore can be more or less effective at different races depending on their duration. For example, one rider may be able to sustain 126% of FTP for the climb of 8 mins, whereas the other may only be able to do 118%. These are the subtle differences we need to develop.

Therefore, to be successful, you need to improve your power output over these shorter durations through training. 5-min, 10 min and 12 min intervals need to be present along with your classic VO2Max efforts and shorter high-power efforts. As you extend your efforts, you may find your FTP drops a little bit as you become more anaerobically powerful. This is undoubtedly an acceptable payoff, and as you move through the season, work spent in these shorter durations may well help improve your FTP a few weeks later as the training shifts.

The other consideration is how you generate this power. There has been a long debate on high v

low cadences, but this is only half the conversation. Power is created by the average effective pedal force and the cadence. So you can sustain the same power with a high and low cadence if you adjust your force on the pedals. Because of the nature of hill riding, your cadence will naturally drop. Therefore, to sustain the same power, you will need to increase the force element of the power generated; you need to improve your leg strength. This can be done in the gym or specifically with over-gearing efforts.

Training on the turbo can help you with the over-gearing sets and is undoubtedly encouraged, but due to the change in the angle of your bike on a hill, one of the best ways to improve your hill time-trialling is to do hill repeats! The best hills for hill repeats aren’t the steepest you can find, preferably ones that allow you to change your gears and adjust your intensity a little bit on different reps. Training seated can help you make gains in your strength through overgearing and hill work quicker than ‘just standing’ on every climb or when the force gets too high. Finally, if you can find a hill which is of a similar gradient to the one you are racing on, you can then practice and test your gear

selection to enable you to have the best possible preparation for the event itself. As you get to know yourself better, you will learn what cadence works best for you and what the combination of gear/ cadence is most effective at getting you up the hill quickly.

A combination of hill repeats and over gearing will both help generate more leg strength and improve your ability to climb. However, success comes down to the simple case of the best Watt/ Kg ratio. It will be too late to consider reducing your weight in the weeks remaining, though the offseason is the best time to change your body composition. (We can leave that for another discussion.)

Pacing is of critical importance. It is easy to get carried away in the first minute due to the adrenaline and excitement of an event. Due to the short duration, you do not have the time to relax and recover before pushing again. Therefore, you need to feel for your tolerance and thresholds to make sure you don’t go off too hard in the first 90 seconds and sacrifice your speed in the latter stages of the climb. Know what your threshold and target power feel like to allow you to race by feel and not get carried away. On race day, aim

to build through the hill, so you finish strongest rather than starting hard and fading to the top.

Finally, consider the practicalities of the event. Make sure you warm-up for it properly. Most riders take a good 30 minutes to warm up, so either ride to the event, or have a turbo to warm-up (and stay warm) before starting. You are likely to strip down for the actual race (both the bike and yourself) so make sure you have somewhere safe to store your clothes, bottles and saddlebag but also ensure it is dry too. When you get to the top, it is worth returning to the start immediately as it means you can descend while you are warm before you get cold after stopping. Remaining at the finish line in race kit is certainly ill-advised.

Enjoy the hill time-trial season and if you are new to the sport, look for it as a tremendous opportunity to learn a bit about hills. Most new cyclists don’t like when there is a positive gradient but actively racing these events are an excellent way to take that discomfort head-on and learn how to become stronger.

Best of luck!