As I’ve been riding my bike up mountains this week, I’ve decided hill climbing would be a good topic for this blog. Even though this year’s RAGBRAI is not as long as many, it is the 10th hilliest which means it packs in the climbing a little more frequently than in years past. This year the elevation gain for the entire ride is 16,027 feet. Let’s put that in perspective: Mt Everest is 29,032 feet high, so you will be climbing more than halfway up the equivalent of that during this year’s ride. Or, it is equivalent of riding up almost 1300 flights of stairs, or 9 times up the World Trade Center building. So, bottom line, there will be some climbing and you had better be prepared.
How to Prepare for Climbing Hills
There are three ways you can prepare: ride hills in training, use the wind to simulate the hill, or use larger gears to simulate hills.
The first one is obvious – to get better and stronger at climbing, go ride hills. You should go looking for hills when you ride, don’t avoid them. The more you ride them, the better you will get and the more confidence you will have when you see a hill looming on the horizon. Don’t have many hills where you live? As long as you have at least one, you can ride up and down it several times on a ride to get in good hill training. That may seem silly but it won’t when you are on RAGBRAI passing people on hills.
Oh, you don’t have any hills at all where you live? Well that’s where wind and gears can be used to simulate hills. Instead of cursing the wind, take advantage of its resistance and pretend it is a long hill. Push hard on the pedals as if you are climbing a hill.
Or, you can just put your bike into a hard gear and grind away for a while on the flat ground. Another option is if you use a smart trainer and an app like Zwift or Rouvy, these have great climbs you can do on your indoor trainer to practice hill climbing. All of these methods will help build leg strength and mental fortitude.
Use Your Gears
As long as you are riding a bike with gears, use them on hills! Don’t be afraid to use them all and go all the way down to your easiest gear when climbing hills. The idea of gears is to make pedaling easier when the gravity gets harder. Yes, you go slower, but these easy gears allow you to get up hills. So relax, take your time and spin an easy gear to get up climbs. You can refer to my previous article on spinning here for more tips.
Climbing is a Mental Game
Just like riding into a headwind, riding uphill requires mental toughness. It feels as if gravity is working against you, and it is, but don’t take it personally. Take your time, work your way up those hills, you will get there. It’s okay to stop partway up and get a breather, or even to walk your bike on steeper hills if you need to. No shame in that.
One thing I notice when climbing and having to downshift is that I get impatient. I don’t like slowing down and sometimes on long climbs it seems like I’m never going to get there. But I do, just not as fast as if I were riding on the level. The good thing about hills compared to a headwind, hills eventually end.
So work on training for hills, build strength and confidence, and know you will be able to tackle half of Mt Everest come July!
Coach David Ertl
Find all of Coach Ertl’s Training Blogs, as well as the 2026 Training Plan in our Training section on RAGBRAI.com.
David Ertl is a USA Cycling Advanced Certified Coach. He coaches individual cyclists through the Peaks Coaching Group www.peakscoachinggroup.com/davidertl. Ertlalso provides cycling training plans and ebooks at his website: www.CyclesportCoaching.com. You can contact Coach Ertl at: [email protected].
