First Serious Climb of the Year

The first climb was from 600m up to 1250m altitude. Amazingly, despite it still being winter there was a bee on the road at exactly 1000m altitude. All sorts of wild Alpine flowers were already starting to appear despite there being nothing surrounding them other than dead winter vegetation. Air temperature was high enough so that with correct clothing cycling was enjoyable and not cold. The second climb up to Notre dame du Pré  (1310m) from Moutiers (480m) is usually a killer as there are some really steep sections. I stayed focussed on pulling up on the pedals with the psoas muscles and was able to complete the climb without a drop off in performance. I’d dropped the saddle height 1.5cm to 71cm (above crank axel measured along the down-tube axis) making it the same as for my indoor Tacx trainer setup. This seemed to remove back strain but didn’t compromise performance or the ability to “pull up” on the pedals. Dropping the heel a little during the downstroke seemed to permit more leg muscles to be involved in the pulling up phase. I’d noticed that some pros have their saddle high and keep their toes pointed downwards all the way through their stroke – but this seems to be less powerful in both the upstroke and downstroke. There must be a good reason for them doing this – but for me it only seems to damage my back.