The Anatomy Of The Perfect Climber

Andrew further is a national hill climbing Champion a freak of nature when the road turns uphill the times and speeds he rise are some of the steepest gradients is simply jaw dropping [Music] you may have seen him on the channel already as we've put him up against a variety of challenges but in this video we're going to take a deeper dive into what makes a man so fast what actually is the anatomy of a climber let's find out [Music] first off I think we should run through some of the vital statistics what are the numbers and what are we looking at with this top Trump Andrew feather is 37 years old whilst a three-time national Hill Climb champion this isn't his full-time job June is nine to five he's a solicitor his weight is 63 kilos height 178 centimeters tall and he has a recorded VO2 max of 81.6 and obviously he has enough power in those legs to be listed as an official backup energy supply for the southwest of England more on that later interesting stats then but to start with let's look at Andrew's VO2 max 81.6 for his age is Sky High the context Chris Froome has a VO2 max of 84.6 and a healthy untrained male would have 44 as their VO2 max so quite a bit higher than that number but why is a VO2 max so important for climbing Hills the benefits of having a high VO2 max are clear your body will be able to consume more oxygen and be more effective at using that oxygen to generate the most amount of energy possible which is vitally important for climbing up those Hills foreign right then Andrew you breathe oxygen like a hippo and climb up mountains like a goat hippos can hold their breath for five minutes by the way folks is that number though you're here to Max something you've been aware of over the years now have you tested it often I've tested the vat Max twice so um once back in 2019 uh which was on a kind of static bike which was not my normal setup so it's quite hard to get the power down and I test it again after that in 2020 uh on my own bike and that was that was an improved performance just because I was used to the position and stuff so um definitely definitely made a difference and how important do you think having such a high VO2 max is because obviously the science is really clear but when you're when you're riding up these Hills you're going as high as you can are you literally always at your max are you just your heart rate is just Sky High and you're just gasping for every last bit of oxygen I think certainly at the end I'm at my Max I always try and Pace it well so I've got a hard finish kind of thing but always within the first half I'm trying to ride Within Myself so I think you know Hill Climb has definitely won the second half the climb say I try and hold myself back a little bit okay well we've got some power testing for you now because I'd like to get a bit of a deeper look into your sort of numbers and where where your current Fitness is and where your strengths lie as a hill climber it's over those shorter intervals or the long ones I've got a 30 second one minute five minute and 20 minute test planned if that's okay with you okay sounds good nice one but I'm going to start with the short ones you've got to climb over here okay come on mate Andrew's race weights when he's really going for it on these hill climbs is 63 kilos now you can see the advantage of that because if he was to ride the climb that we're going to do today at my weight he needs 60 of these bottles strapped to his back or maybe even one good quality garden bench or the average sized 10 year old child strapped to his back that's a lot of weight and it's a lot of weight that he doesn't need to carry so it's obvious why that lightness helps him go up climbs fast but at the same time he's also got a good bit of strength in those legs so I'm really ensured to find out where his power lies in some testing today okay then got a bit of power testing coming up I do feel slightly cruel but it's all for the greater good and that is finding out where Andrew strengths exactly lie and there's a Ferocious Beast under that hood we sent Andrew to Outdoors recently for a GCM plus film to see if you could take the Kom and I tell you what the results are pretty starting stay tuned for that film which is on GCM plus soon anyway now though 30 second Sprint coming up you ready Andrew yep 30 seconds Max seated Sprint let's see where those power numbers lie here he comes looking sprightly and he's starting oh no false start right rolling number two here we go [Applause] take three here we go [Applause] and he's off here we go now then time for the one minute effort one minute as hard as you can five minutes all out here we go [Applause] all right the big one now 20 minute effort long interval long effort good luck mate [Music] it's gonna run out of space on the climb but I've told him to continue on until the 20 minutes is up catch him in a set [Music] [Music] Foundry testing's over my cake sampling is over too now it's time to run for your results so um you gave them all to me I've written them down I've converted to what's a kilo based on your weight today she said is around 68 kilos yep um which is a little bit different when you're in the Race season but more on that in a second but I'll just run through the results your 30-second effort that was 11.7 Watts a kilo one minute that was 8.6 Watts a kilo five minutes 6.9 what's a kilo and the 20 minute was 420 so 40 Watts that's 6.12 watts per kilo okay which is uh which is pretty solid I mean let's break that down a bit so if you took that to a kind of a power profiling chart and looked at how that might compare to other Riders values I think your third second you're one minute whilst it's still really good it's your five minute your 20 minutes which is just really just unbelievable that is massive power for your weight so is that something you notice first and foremost that you are you feel better at those longer efforts compared to the shorter ones yeah I think I mean typically the UK Hill Climb sign that's really between two and two and eight minutes perhaps so that's really there that's really the period I'm focused on so um generally I wait Rider Hill Climb which is under two minutes because I know that is kind of favoring more of the sprinters but in terms of training how do you train yourself to do these sort of numbers is this just something you go out and you've been doing your whole life you've been riding loads of Hills doing lots of climbing and it's just naturally flowed to this or oh do you really nail down some specifics I think it's just um it's just really going I mean typically I ride maybe two hours per day maybe one where I stay and and during that two-hour ride I normally try and do a couple of efforts you know and those will be typically you know three four five minute efforts really so it's um it's just really doing that it's no more scientific than that I'm not sort of um you know I'm not following a specific plan as to as see how I kind of create my best numbers really it's just I think it's it's just enjoying your riding really and that's what I do I enjoy going out riding I enjoy doing the hill hill climb efforts whether that be in hill climbs itself or whether it's just being training so yeah I'm not particularly scientific in my Approach whether that's a good thing or a bad thing I don't know maybe do track heels you track where you're training and you make a note of what you've done or yeah I mean I've got I use drivers just as you know comparing my numbers to previous years kind of thing and that's always quite a useful tool um I'd like to look at my power meets obviously when I get back and look at look at the the data from the ride so I kind of know where I am um I'm never too worried this time of year I mean at the moment this is probably the furthest I can be out from the hill climb season so I just enjoy really eating lots of foods not worrying about my weight just enjoying going out for a gentle ride really it's great it's very something you have to focus on or it's just you just you could do your training you do your eyes you do your your Hill Club as hard as you can and then you don't focus on the outside of that yeah I mean I'm someone who who can fluctuate a lot with my weight so and I think it all comes down to nutrition like if I'm if I'm sort of careful with what I eat which I am during the hill climb season just generally eating less really um my weight comes down pretty fast and as soon as I finish the hill climb season it's straight into junk food and eating lots of cakes and uh probably all the things that you know would horrify a very serious cyclist and how long do you hold your form for because you were saying it is the winter you're not in that sort of season but you're really trying to to nail the climbs to your best of your ability how long do you hold that top form for I try and look at sort of maybe dropping a little bit of weight from sort of March you know next month really oh wow okay that's soon Yeah March April time and I find that also you know the weight comes off with with the weather as well so once it gets hotter kind of thing you you know you're sweating more out on a bike you know you also lose you know I find I lose lose body fat much quicker so talking to food we have got a few cakes yeah tuck into so we'll get those into you get you a bit recovered from effort and then I'd love to hear about your bike and your bike fit how that okay that impacts you you're climbing you're climbing form okay so tuck in Andrew yeah foreign brought you back outside back into the wind which is seemingly whipped us into a few shivers today but I thought we'd talk about your bike set up and especially your bike fit before before we let you go what do you do when you get a new bike how did you set it up what are the main things you do to set your bike up for a hill climb I think the main things for me personally is really is is The Handlebar position and also the lever position I like having those in a really upright position so when I'm riding out the saddle which I'm predominantly doing during a hill climb I've got something to put my weight against but you know it might not be the most aerodynamic but for me it's just it's just comfort and it feels it feels good when I'm riding out the saddle so just having that proper grip on the bars yeah that's really what you're aiming exactly yeah did you do anything to improve your upper body strength I do uh I do a few a few press-ups each day and I've always done that for years really um yeah just just to keep kind of core strength really okay um whether whether it does any good or not I don't know but um it's just something I've always done yeah for the viewers at home how many press-ups can you do I do about 20. so not not too many 20 more than me father let's talk about yourself you do ride out of the saddle a lot and during your climbing efforts uh that's obviously something you prefer I get much more power riding out the saddle compared to riding in the saddle but obviously there are times on a climb particularly when it's shallow the gradient like today was quite shallow gradient so you know there's certain parts to climb where you're probably better to ride in the saddle and that's something that I've been experimenting with this year in terms of just the height of the saddle and and slightly bringing it forward so my weight is is over the cranks and I'm finding that's unable to produce a bit a bit more power like that really yeah and still no biotic on the bike still no bar so it's certainly something I should really get on I'm Gonna Save every single grab yeah well it's worth it flipping heck it's light yeah it is it is yeah I think it's um yeah 6.7 kilos um so yeah I like to talk about your mentality now though Andrew because to go full gas up a climb as hard as you can day in day out and train for that it's tough going like how do you psych yourself up for that effort all the time I suppose at this time of year it's I don't really do those Hill Climb efforts but moving through to the spring you know I'd be doing more specific Hill Climb efforts and I yeah I I always try and Pace it well even on the training a training Hill Climb effort kind of thing and not you know instantly go you know half a lever out the gates really and just kind of ride into the climb and finish off always really strongly okay but how do you deal with the pain and the suffering I don't know I just it's something I've always done and something I said it's just weird to say enjoyment but um I enjoy pushing myself out on the clients and I think a lot of it is you know particularly climbing a lot of it is really mental so I always like to ride a climb without looking at my palm East and I always find that I get my best numbers when I'm not looking at my power meter really yeah kind of I find that if you're looking down at your power meets on the climb and riding to a specific power it almost plays your head and you you know you feel that you know you suddenly feel perhaps your powers dropping on a certain part of the climb and then you you kind of try and counter that with going harder and you end up going back and forth kind of thing so I just rise to feel really predominantly that's okay that's always how I ride my best rides okay nice yeah it's a good way to be I feel I almost lost touch with that from when I saw I started towards when I was still racing towards the end of all that so um yeah it's a good point to make yeah big thanks to Andrew for joining us today and sharing that insight into what it takes for your top class climber and I hope you guys found this video useful too let us know in the comment section below where you think we should send Andrew next what should his next challenge be on gcn and do you think you've got the anatomy of a climber let us know and I'm really interested to see where you think we should set Andrew because I I've got some ideas of my own but as always thanks for watching and we'll see you on the next video I'm gonna go and write up some climbs quite slowly cheers Andrew cheers

Channel: Global Cycling Network

Views: 185,428

Keywords: steepest, steepest climb, steepest road, world's steepest, feather, andrew feather, feather gcn, gcn stig, stig gcn, hardest climb, bike climb, cycling climb, fitness, power, climber, get faster, vo2, boost vo2, hill climb, improve, how to, get stronger, bike riding, GCN, Global Cycling Network, Sports, Cycling, Bike, Bikes, Bicycle (Product Category), Road Bike, Cyclist, Road Bicycle, GCN Cycling, velo, sec-feature, sca15, gc21s, ꗧ, c1, ꔈ, ꗶ, Ղ, n1, ସ, ଙ, ホ, ᠫ, パ, ළ, ꔹ, э, Բ, ፕ15, ザ, ጞ, 4976

Id: fmXf7t0drKQ

Length: 14min 44sec (884 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 19 2023