Each and every one of us knows what it’s like to ride a bike uphill. Still, when you sit in front of a TV and watch the great climbers in action, it can really be humbling. How many times have you watched the Tour de France and tried to comprehend how such scrawny guys can suddenly find a super-human power source and fly up mountains as if on a motorbike? Worse, they do so at speeds most of us struggle to manage on the flats!

Climbers are definitely a breed apart in relation to most cyclists, perhaps even a little insane. But it’s not just the pure diminutive climbers who have the ability to ride up mountains fast; just look at guys like Armstrong and Wiggins, not exactly small men, so there must be more to the art of climbing than size and a natural state of insanity!

There are numerous components of our cycling and genetic makeup that we can all work on to help us ride uphill faster. This is why we enlisted one of the current-day mountain greats to show us the tricks of the trade.

After cutting his teeth as a pro mountain biker, Cadel Evans made the switch to the road at the very top level of the Pro Tour in 2001. There was no lead in transition time; he went straight to the top of the podium in one of Europe’s toughest races, the Tour of Austria. Following that, he captured the pink leader’s jersey of the 2002 Giro d’Italia. However, in Italy he promptly took a harsh lesson in big mountain climbing on the fateful roads of the Dolomites, when he suffered his way out of the leader’s jersey while choking on sheer grit. Those lessons were learned hard and fast, and he has since gone on to demonstrate his learned abilities in the mountains of the Tour de France.

Recognizing Cadel Evans as one of the fastest climbers on the planet, we decided to go for a ride and to see what advice he would have for dealing with longer, sustained climbs as opposed to the short and sharp lactic efforts.

“First of all, you have to learn to like—or at least not dread—riding uphill. If you worry about it too much you’ll just freak yourself out before you even get there. The only way to get to this point is to keep riding in the hills, and learn to like them by knowing how you deal with things and working out how to handle them.

“You must believe in your ability, but temper that with a practical approach—in other words, know yourself and your potential limits. At times when it gets really tough, you need to pull the off switch and put yourself out of the picture, just focus on keeping a steady rhythm and distract yourself from the pain.”

“Without a doubt, power-to-weight ratio is important when trying to beat gravity. One of the easiest ways to give yourself a push uphill is to lose a few pounds, and most of us can do that without too much discomfort. Just imagine lugging a couple of bags of sugar around in your back pocket. It’s the same effect, and that’s a big difference.”

“Cyclists in general should avoid bulky muscle mass, but a strong trunk and upper body are very important for climbing. Coming from a mountain bike background, I developed a strong but lightweight upper body early on, but I  still focus on training for this in the offseason by using a Swiss ball and doing pilates. Your upper body can take a lot of the stress off your legs, especially when climbing out of the saddle, so it’s worth the extra effort.”

“No matter how good a climber you are, it always takes a while to get used to riding in the mountains, especially the high mountains.

“The more you ride in hills, the better you’ll get at it. I spend a lot of time riding in the mountains, especially coming up to a mountainous tour. A lot of the local guys stick to the flats all of the time, so they’ll never improve their climbing.

“I always ride for a while on the flat before tackling a real climb to make sure I’m well warmed up, and then ride at a good steady pace. To build power I do sustained efforts on climbs in a big gear, not for too long or flat out, and it tends to build strength a great deal.

“Before a big race, I make sure I do some high passes in training, otherwise it can be really tough when you get to the high cols.

“If you find yourself in the mountains, always try and build up to the higher climbs, and take things easy for a few days until your body and breathing get used to things; otherwise you’ll blow yourself and recovery will not be easy.”

“The lighter and stiffer your bike, the easier it will be to ride in the mountains. Keep things to a minimum; decent lightweight wheels and tires are probably the biggest factors when it comes to equipment. But never take any risks—remember, you generally have to get down the other side in one piece, too. Frame rigidity is also important to help maximize power transmission.”

“In general, I don’t tend to think too much about my breathing, unless I really start to suffer. If you’re riding at the right pace and effort level, this will take care of itself. But keeping my breathing smooth and regular helps me regulate my pace and keep calm when it starts to get really tough. But you need to remember that unless you are well acclimatized, the high passes can be difficult on the breathing, so you will need to ease off some to cope with them.”

“It’s really important to learn your limits and to know how you react to climbing and situations. It really depends on the situation and your abilities/ climbing style as to how you work out pace levels. Some riders use pulse meters to monitor things, which is okay when you’re on your own.

“But when you’re in a group, it’s a different matter. You need to figure out if you’re better easing off some and taking it at your own pace or whether to grin and bear it and risk overcooking things. In the 2009 Tour, I took the risk of overpushing myself to hang on to Lance; somehow I got away with it. But if I’d blown halfway up a climb with another one to come, then I’d have lost a whole load of time and places.

“If it’s late in the day and the last climb, then maybe you can go over the limit. If, on the other hand, it’s early in the day and you’re fighting to hang on to guys who are too fast, then maybe switch off and hit your own pace. This is where knowing yourself, the other riders and the route come into their own.”

“Never be afraid to ride too low a gear, as spinning an easy gear is better than struggling. By spinning a higher cadence, the workload is shifted to your cardiovascular system rather than your muscular system, allowing your body quicker recovery. For most of us, low gears and fast pedalling are key. Try and work on keeping a steady 70-75 rp pedal rate on longer climbs. Sometimes it can feel unnatural and strange pedaling so fast, but keep plugging away at it and train yourself to ride like that; there’s no bravado in riding a gear that’s too big.”

“Tactics are more of a luxury in the mountains; fitness tends to be the key factor, unless you’re really lucky and strong. The main thing is to mask your pain and suffering; try not to look too much as if you’re suffering, or at least not when you can be seen.

“Try to use a more experienced rider for pacing, keep calm, look for when riders start to suffer—bobbing around, heavy breathing, weaving around—then you can apply pressure, but don’t always be fooled if a rider seems to be suffering; Vinokourov is the classic example of unpredictability in that situation.”

“My climbing style is fairly unorthodox; it’s a bit like Armstrong or Pantani. I tend to ride out of the saddle quite a lot, which is mainly because I have good upper body power.

“If you can develop your upper body power, then you can ride this way to spread the load some. We all need to ride out of the saddle at times to ease the pressure on our lower back. It’s more efficient than staying in the saddle and only using your lower body.”