Heavier cyclists are quicker up hill?

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

Milzy

Guru
My mate can blast out 600 w on flat but I destroy him up hills because my power to weight ratio is more advanced than his.
 

huwsparky

Über Member
Location
Llangrannog
I posted above it was 'all' about p-w ratio, but I think it should have been 'mostly'!

I do much better climbing steep hills spinning low gears than I do grinding high ones.

My climbing speed recently has been limited by backache rather than being breathless or my heart beating too fast.
How you achieve the power is irrelevant. How fast any individual will go up a given hill without taking aerodynamics into account is down to the weight and the power.

If A 50kg rider is riding side by side with a 100kg rider the 50kg rider needs half the power. Doesn't matter if one is breathing heavy or has a bad back or even pedaling one with one foot.
 
How you achieve the power is irrelevant. How fast any individual will go up a given hill without taking aerodynamics into account is down to the weight and the power.

If A 50kg rider is riding side by side with a 100kg rider the 50kg rider needs half the power. Doesn't matter if one is breathing heavy or has a bad back or even pedaling one with one foot.

Surely they would only have half the power if they were only using one foot.
 

ColinJ

Puzzle game procrastinator!
How you achieve the power is irrelevant. How fast any individual will go up a given hill without taking aerodynamics into account is down to the weight and the power.

If A 50kg rider is riding side by side with a 100kg rider the 50kg rider needs half the power. Doesn't matter if one is breathing heavy or has a bad back or even pedaling one with one foot.
It should be pretty obvious that I know that, given that I actually originally posted "all about power-to-weight ratio" ... :whistle:

It is also obvious that the only power that matters is the power that you actually manage to generate.

What I was getting at is that my body is quite capable of generating 20%, 25%, 30% (?) more power when my back isn't hurting. I can do a climb at the start of a ride (after a good warm-up) much quicker than I can later on when my back muscles are in knots.

PS So an important question for me is "Why does my back start hurting after doing a lot of climbing even though I have a wide range of gears to use, and I am used to hills?
 
Last edited:

vickster

Legendary Member
It should be pretty obvious that I know that, given that I actually originally posted "all about power-to-weight ratio" ... :whistle:

It is also obvious that the only power that matters is the power that you actually manage to generate.

What I was getting at is that my body is quite capable of generating 20%, 25%, 30% (?) more power when my back isn't hurting. I can do a climb at the start of a ride (after a good warm-up) much quicker than I can later on when my back muscles are in knots.

PS So an important question for me is "Why does my back start hurting after doing a lot of climbing even though I have a wide range of gears to use, and I am used to hills?
Tight hamstrings, hip flexors, glutes?
 

Drago

Legendary Member
How you achieve the power is irrelevant. How fast any individual will go up a given hill without taking aerodynamics into account is down to the weight and the power.

If A 50kg rider is riding side by side with a 100kg rider the 50kg rider needs half the power. Doesn't matter if one is breathing heavy or has a bad back or even pedaling one with one foot.

But the 100kg rider may be capable of making twice the power. Or more. I'm 111kg, and I'm pretty sure I can crank out more power than a 55kg rider of otherwise comparable age, health and fitness, simply because I am able to support the musculature to do so.
 
Top Bottom