I am guessing that he meant cadence. Your speed, well at least my speed, will inevitably decrease going uphill. Dropping gears to correspond with keeping your cadence in the 80 to 90 range should help you from falling back on the shorter uphills.

I'm almost certain that's what buddy meant.
Practice counting cadence when you can measure it, say, when you're relaxing at home.
15 counts in 10 secs would be 90rpm
Compare that with the one per second: one one thousand, two one thousand, we learned as kids and see what your cadence is on the hills.
Choose a gear that gets you closer to the 90rpm on a given hill, then teach yourself to get used to that.

btw, Was he wearing a shirt that read, "Don't hate me 'cos I suck wheels" ?

heh.

PoC

Yeah, I would have stuck my frame pump in his spokes.

I bet he was talking about cadence. I think one thing that people learn when they get a power meter ir how much power they waste on hills. Especially in races, I think you're better off going to a super low gear on the uphills and just spinning like crazy, and then blowing by all the people that passed you on the downhill because they're all gasping for air.

Wheel suckers..ARRGH! Don't even get me started...
Ya wanna grab my wheel...? Fine. Ask first, then you sure as hell better take your pull at the front...MAN! He would have deserved an asphalt sandwich if you would have bumped and he'd gone down. And the unsolicited advice? Unless your Jens Voight, don't give it. I hate those guys...ARRGH...
(ok, so I had a bad day at school and I'm taking it out on wheel suckers...)

+1 that the guy's a total douche.

One thing to consider, though, is weight. I am not implying anything, but a larger rider will invariably struggle in the hills, leading to a feeling of "keep getting dropped."

I say this because I am, to my detriment, sometimes the counter-example. In a recent race (Sea Otter Classic Circuit race on Laguna Seca, which has one NASTY hill and lots of wind) I would find myself wasting the pack in the climb and getting dropped on the descent and subsequently staying dropped on the flats. Because I was the smallest rider in the bunch, I had an easier time on the hills but didn't have the raw power to keep up on the flats. If you've got powerful legs and a larger frame, you'll hold your own on the flats (advantageous for most tri's) even if others are sneaking by you on the climbs. Moral of the story is that it should all come out in the wash. All those guys who I passed in the hills came back past me and I finished 3rd from DFL. I wouldn't worry too much.

More hill work, more better.

This thread is awesome - After reading the OP, I was thinking that I would have jumped right of the bike and took him down (even at 25 MPH), but after reading some of the responses, I don't have too.

I have a granny gear on my road bike w/ a triple. When I know there are some particularly steep hills on a race course, I'll take the road bike instead of the tri bike with the dual chainrings. Better to climb easy than to either walk/push the bike up or kill your legs doing the climb and end up with dead running legs coming into T2.

Sounds like road rage is alive and well, even among cyclists!

I know it's easy to heap abuse on some poor bastard two thousand miles away but I hope this little venting isn't going to endorse any violence between fellow cyclists however misguided they may be. For all we know he's a kindergarten teacher who merely lacks a little tactfulness. I mean there's only so many words you can say in the five seconds as you pass someone and I'm certainly not suggesting that he was without blame for it but aren't we overreacting?

I'd rather take th ehigh road. Take his advice, get better and sometime down the road, when he's having a bad day, or is fixing a flat on the roadside, stop and help him and thank him for the inspiration he gave you to get better.

If you can't do that, if you can't curb your aggression or channel it into positive gains, take up hockey where it's not only approved of, but is even admired.

$.02

PoC

LOL!

PoC

Try proving it to yourself by riding the same hill several times, perhaps over several days to even out the fatigue factor, in different gears at different cadences and measure the times. Better yet get someone else to measure the times to make it a blind study.

Then remember that it isn't always about how fast you get up one hill. It may be about how much one hill, climbed badly, thrashes your quads and drains the energy you need for the rest of the race.

Think tortoise and hare.

PoC

+ a lot.

I weigh 255, and I'm not sloppy fat or anything. I'm fat, but I'm also just big boned, and I don't think that riding like lance would be the best approach for me. For some people, they're better off using their strength to hammer. Anyways, I totally agree.

And thats a pretty good reason that I'd be better at powering through hills, because I started as a sprinter in track and was never as successful in the long events. Of course in long course tri's you cannot simply muscle through a hill because you will be spent before the run, but in general riding it seems to work best for me. It's also important to note that you should practice your weaknesses, so I should continue to work on my endurance and try to spin at higher cadences.

As for Jan or Lance being the freak, its plain that they both were. I don't know about cadences of most riders, but wasn't Lance one of the first to use super high cadences? I was under the impression that he sparked a bit of a revolution in regards to spinning up hills..

So there I was out doing my long (2.5 hours since I only race sprint and olympic distances) ride this morning on the W&O bike trail out in Northern Virginia. I was crusiing along in my Z1 heart rate enjoying a beautiful morning. Then I hit a big bump and my speedometer magnet got loose so I pulled over to quickly fix it. Suddenly a pace line of 6 flashily dressed riders rolled by nicely tucked behind each other. I suddenly remembed this thread and wonder if perhaps these might be the same riders from Central Park now down in Virginia. I reasoned it could be and that someone should teach them a lesson. With magnet fixed and ego intact, I climbed back on and decided Z1 is for wimps. They had dropped one rider and as I closed on him I wondered what to say. Taking the high triathlete road I said, "Come on, we can catch them." He wasn't up for it.
I caught the other 5 about a mile down the trail. I hung on the back and got some water and Infinity as they sprinted up a short hill. I stayed behind as we crested the top and went down the other side before beginning a gradual 2 mile climb. (Pacelines aren't so effective uphills ;) )
As soon as we hit the bottom and started up, I pulled to the front. Only saying "on your left" in polite fashion as I went by. Now at the front I wondered what some of my other TriFuelers would do...
theShiba...open my water bottle and casually squirt it over my shoulder as I pretended to sneeze.
tribro...ask about possible advertising possibilities on Trifuel
UFTriGator...go faster.
While all good options, I opted for UFTriGator. I was just crossing Z4a for those of you keep score at home and I heard the guy behind me say "Let's go!" as I picked up the pace on the uphill. My legs were burning big time but I kept saying to myself, "I am a triathlete. I do pain" and off we went. One mile up the hill and I glance back. Only two guys still behind me. Z4b now and my coach isn't going to like this...but sometimes you just gotta feed the fragile male ego.
By the time I hit the top of the 2 mile uphill there wasn't a soul behind me. My legs killed, I thought I was going to puke but darn if I didn't feel good. (I had 7 miles left and kept a good pace to make sure they didn't regroup but there was no sign of them.)
I won't be able to walk later tonight but I feel good knowing there are 6 "fancy bike guys" who have sore legs AND bruised egos. (and I bet they can't swim either!)

Very well written. Made me smile.

iamtb13 - ya that is quite a, story...

For triathlon it is helpful if your cycling cadence is the same as your run cadence - mot people run at about 85-90 - hence where the cycling cadence is recommended.

It took me a full season to get comfortable riding at a higher cadence - I used to be at 75-80 - now 90-95. For me it certainly eased the transition from biking to running.

Tho best is just to get out there and do it.