Cycling Hill Sprints - How to get high cycling power when you need it

While visiting Wellington a few months ago I got the chance to ride some of my old hill sprints. Hungerford Road is one of them tipping out at around 17%, this short climb is tough.

Hill sprints are a great way to develop raw power that you can use in road races, criteriums, sprints and recreational rides when you need to put down short burst of high instant cycling power. This article discusses what to look for to find the perfect hill sprint climb and how to use them to develop your instant killer cycling power.

Here is a view of the street from the bottom. After it curves up the top it goes for another 50m.

These signs are a dead giveaway that you are going to encounter a great hill for hill repeats. This one is at the top of Hungerford Road. The reason for this sign is that cars can burn out their clutch trying to do a hill start on such a steep gradient. Don't stall your bike on one of these climbs as you'll never get started again unless you are able to roll down the hill first.

Here is a shot looking down Hungerford Road. It's steep so you'll need good breaks to come down this hill.

Here is another located in the same area, Lavaud Street. Off to the left is a nice hill sprint hill perfect built for hill sprints.

Here is a view from the bottom. Nice and straight with a good start from a dead end street. Low traffic and a good turn around point when you are seeing stars at the top. This one has a gradient of around 10%.

Finally, there is Cave Road just around the corner from Hungerford Road. The top has a dead end and there is not much traffic. This one is long and climbs up over some nasty steep pinches as you wind up the hill.

This one finishes where the red dot is after a few switch backs.

So how do hill sprints improve your fitness, what do you need to look for and how do you do them?

Hill sprints are short climbs of around 50-750 meters that have a gradient anywhere between 4% and 20%. They are designed to develop short burst of high instant intense cycling power like when you have to:

• Move quickly up the pack into a more favourable position
• Start an attack
• Follow an attack
• Start a counter attack
• Sprinting
• Bridge across to a break just in front of you
• Ride fast over steep short hill

Hill sprints are done at maximal effort for the duration of the climb. Your pacing is dependent on the length of the climb and the gradient. Generally, steep climbs are of short duration while longer climbs are for less steep hills. There is no golden rule for hill climbs or the ideal perfect climb. The short climbs develop more muscular power while the longer climbs are for developing your VO2MAX. Cycling hill sprints can be as short as ten seconds or as long as a minute and a half.

So what are some of the tips for a good cycling hill sprint?

• Start the hill sprint from an almost complete standstill.
• The first few pedal strokes are important so keep good form.
• You can do them seated and standing (in the drops) on the bike. The seated help with developing good power in races when the pace surges without having to get out of your seat. The standing ones help your sprint.
• Ideally the gearing can be high but adjusting the gear adjusts the amount of pressure applied to the pedals. Again harder gears and low cadences develop more muscular power while easier gears and higher cadences develop good VO2MAX
• Do between 3-15 efforts
• Rest completely between each effort to ensure that each effort is at maximum (up to 5 mins)
• As you progress through the efforts if you power drops below 25% of the first effort stop the session and go home.

What do you look for in a good cycling hill sprint?

This is dependent on what you want to achieve. If it is short high muscular power you want then short steep hills are what you'll be looking for. Longer climbs with less steep gradients are good for improving VO2MAX. To get a general workout you'll be looking for a short steep and a long less steep hill to do your repeats on.

Here are some other safety points to look out for while doing cycling hill sprints?

• Make sure that the street is clear of busy traffic. Last thing you want is to be sprinting into the back of a car or worst, head on into one.
• Make sure that you have a clear exit after you have finished at the top of the climb. If you go hard enough you'll be seeing stars so ensure that it's safe and away from busy traffic.
• Always look before you do your u-turn before you start or after you finish the sprint. Again, last thing you want to do is a u-turn into an oncoming car so always look first.

Your cycling coach can help you with develop a cycling program that incorporates hill sprints and can provide advice on customising the hills, gradients, cadence and lengths to your personal goals.

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