This is the first in our ‘Trail Tips’ series with Nathan McComb. He’s a very skilful rider and has plenty of tips to help you tackle those tricky sections you might meet on the trail. This time he takes us up a steep rocky climb, with plenty of roots and loose rocks to get over.
In this video, Nathan talks about the best ways to get up steep, loose climbs – what gears to be in, where your weight should be and how to get over obstacles with ease.
This climb is tricky and loose with really no grip in the middle section. At the top there are a lot of big steps, roots and rocks.
From the top, this climb doesn’t look too steep, but we have four tricky sections to contend with. You need to be carrying quite a lot of speed up the first section and then make it around a tight corner at the tree.
The second tricky part is the loose gravelly climb in the middle, which is really hard to carry momentum through.
At the top there are two technical sections together – first there’s a root right across the trail, which kills your momentum. Directly after that, there is another tricky rock step. There’s no real grip. Rocks are all over the place. Lots of potential to catch your pedals and you’ve really got to carry the momentum.
The start of the climb has a nice gradual gradient to it and then it really starts to kick up. This means that we can really carry as much speed as possible, to conserve energy for the loose gravelly parts in the middle and the steep steps at the top.
When we get close to the top, it’s really tempting to stand up and put some power through those cranks, but you’re just going to end up losing traction on the loose gravel and maybe go over the bars. So it’s best to get the weight onto the seat, which gets the grip into the back wheel and helps the tire really dig into the ground. At the same time, spinning in a light gear the whole way up the climb.
The hardest part of the climb is at the top, with the step up over the root. It’s one fluid motion that requires momentum and timing. First, we’ve got to drive down hard on the pedals and get our weight off the handlebars. This will allow us to get the front wheel up onto the roots. We then push our weight forward and thrust the bike up onto the step, to help the back wheel up and over the root.
Then look ahead to the rocks and it’s the same process again. We want to carry our momentum, get our weight back, let the front wheel roll up onto the rocks, move forward and thrust up. Again, keeping the legs spinning, keeping that bike gripping and driving up the hill.
Nathan races for Vitus/First tracks and also runs guided MTB holidays in the south of Spain.
