CLIMB LIKE A STAGE WINNER

How to climb faster without losing weight? Chris Marshall-Bell asks an all-star selection of WorldTour stage winners

- Chris Matshall-Bell

Summer is in full swing: we’ve enjoyed a brilliant Tour de France and the Vuelta is just around the corner. If you’re anything like me, these Grand Tours always leave you wishing, if only I could climb as well as the pro mountain goats! OK, so we can’t really hope to match the powerful rhythm set by the world’s finest, but we certainly can learn from them. That’s why we’ve asked a selection of climbing specialists for their advice on how every rider can climb faster – without losing weight.

Being chivvied to shed kilos to climb faster is just too obvious, and too often leads to counter-productive crash diets, so we’re not going there. Amateur riders cannot reasonably be expected to reach pro-level leanness, which demands a monastic lifestyle and regime. Instead, we wanted to find practical advice applicable to all, whatever your current body fat percentage!

And anyway, you only had to witness Wout van Aert – no lightweight at 78kg (12st 4lb) – winning the Tour stage that included two ascents of Mont Ventoux to realise that you don’t have to have a whippet’s physique to climb brilliantly. There is hope for us all!

The following advice comes from four riders who have all won mountain stages of Grand Tours in the last few years. When it comes to tearing up a climb faster than anyone else, their qualifications speak for themselves.