One of the most effective climbing weapons is the standing and cadence change transition.
In this video I show you how to use cadence as a way to create a massive acceleration without increasing your power much.
I used this transition at the end of a long, very difficult stage in the Tour de Georgia. While we all aspire to be able to attack with big power at the end of a hard ride or race, the reality is you have much less power available due to fatigue.
Another reason to learn how to attack using transitions is to avoid going too hard. If you attack and go too much over your threshold zones on a climb it often can hurt your effort after the acceleration. With this technique you are able to stay close to your threshold so after you accelerate you can keep climbing strongly! Working on this is a way you can take your climbing to a new level.
During the video you can I t-up the attack transition lowering my cadence while seated. This is to set up a sharper change in cadence when I attack.
I suddenly transition to standing by jumping out of the saddle and go right into a very high cadence. I chose my effort to be on a very steep gradient that then had a shallower gradient right after. This is to allow me to dramatically increase my speed as well as have an easier time holding it.
By matching the transition to the high cadence with the change in terrain from steep to shallow, I am able to produce a sharp attack but ONLY increase the power approx 20 watts (as there are not a lot of watts left.
You can see this type of execution effort creates a solid gap quickly.
With not much power or energy left I continue to use transitions to hold my pace and gap to the finish line.
Transitions like this are a skill that must be practiced frequently and can be used not just to attack, but also to get more speed out of your power. Super next level stuff!