How to Train for “Big” Climbs, from a Tour de France Finisher and Pro Coach

Written by:

Matthew Busche

CTS Senior Cycling Coach

Updated On

June 16, 2025

Climbing through the Alps and Pyrenees with my Trek Factory Racing teammates during the 2014 Tour de France was one of the highlights of my professional cycling career, and one of the things I love most about cycling is that we can all visit and experience the sport’s most famous and storied climbs. And it’s not just the great mountains of Europe, including the Dolomites. There are climbs all over the world that are as long or longer, steeper, and more difficult than Grand Tour climbs. If there’s a “big” climb on your bucket list or in your next event, a climb that lasts an hour or more and features 3,000-plus thousand feet in elevation gain, you must prepare specifically for the challenges of long, sustained climbing efforts. Here’s how to do it.   

What is different about cycling big mountain climbs?

Big mountain climbs are intimidating whether you’re a pro, an amateur racer, or a Time-Crunched Cyclist. They are a completely different environment for cycling and everything is working against you:

• Steepness: Iconic climbs in the Alps, Pyrenees, and Dolomites feature sustained grades between 8 and 10 percent, with steeper sections lasting a kilometer or more. Areas in South America, like Colombia, are known for steeper and longer climbs. North American climbs tend to be long but not as steep, featuring sustained grades between 5 and 8 percent.
• Heat: Riding at moderate to high levels of exertion to maintain relatively slow speeds means reduced airflow, increased body temperature, and high sweat rates. This is particularly true when climbing in still air or with a tailwind. 
• Limited resources: Food and water are harder to get and farther away, whether they’re coming from a team car, you’re waiting to see an aid station around a distant corner, or you’re relying on a mountain top cafe or fountain.
• Elevation: Depending on the location, you may be climbing into thinner air (elevations above 1500 meters or about 5000 feet) that makes it harder to deliver oxygen to working muscles right when you need it most.
• Duration: Major mountain passes can range from six to 20 miles from base to summit, and sometimes longer. This means you could be riding uphill for 40 minutes to beyond two hours. For moderately fit amateurs, average speeds are often about 5-7 mph on big mountain passes.

Always Take the Opportunity to Climb Big, Iconic Mountains

My Tour de France story started long before 2014, but the 2014 Tour de Suisse was a major turning point in my journey. It was in June and I was racing to secure my spot for the Tour team. In a gut-wrenching decision, I had to withdraw early with tendonitis, relatively certain my chance for Tour selection was over. Thankfully, some quick rehab and historically good performances gave me the opportunity I had dreamed of since watching Miguel Indurain win 5 Tours in a row in the 1990s. The 2014 Tour de France wasn’t the only time I rode some of those passes in the Alps and Pyrenees, but it was the only time I rode them lined with Tour de France fans!

As a coach I’ve worked with lots of athletes who have made pilgrimages to iconic cycling destinations, and in some cases it’s a once-in-a-lifetime kind of experience. You may only get one chance to ride an iconic climb or event like Alpe d’Huez, Mont Ventoux, the Galibier or Tourmalet, perhaps the Passo Stelvio or even Columbine at the Leadville 100, Pikes Peak in Colorado, or Haleakalā in Hawaii. 

Our stories might not be the same, but our preparations for cycling up major mountain climbs can be. The first step is realizing monster climbs are not insurmountable, but they do require specific training. You must create a plan, starting with general fitness, and progressing to more climbing specificity as your goal approaches. My plan was kind of multi-year as I trained from season to season, while yours might be more of a short term (6-12 months) but also build upon the cycling training you’ve already accomplished. 

The Best Predictor of Climbing Performance: Aerobic Conditioning

Before you get too wrapped up in whether you need a bigger VO2max, higher power at lactate threshold, greater anaerobic capacity, or the ability to stomach 100 grams of carbohydrate per hour, it’s important to recognize that aerobic metabolism gets you up  big mountain climbs. They are too long to rely predominantly on anaerobic metabolism. You cannot sprint your way up Alp d’Huez. So, in the big picture, the best thing you can do to get ready for a big trip to the Alps or Pyrenees, or to make a once-in-a-lifetime assault on Mont Ventoux, is… build your aerobic engine as strong as possible.

How to build a big aerobic engine for climbing:

• Zone 2 aerobic rides: No secret here. A big aerobic base starts with as much Zone 2 aerobic endurance work as you can accumulate within your available training time. 
• Tempo workouts: Long aerobic Tempo intervals, building up to 60-minute intervals, are important for big mountains. Try to use a bigger gear and lower cadence to increase tension on muscles and recruit more fast-twitch fibers.
• Increase FTP: Again, this is a similar strategy to training for any type of endurance cycling, but when preparing for long climbs you want to focus on “extensive intervals”, meaning longer duration at the lower end of the power zone, as opposed to “intensive intervals” that are shorter duration at the top end of the zone. Both have their place, but extensive intervals will more specific to long climbs.

Durability Training for Long Climbs

Beyond the most basic need of aerobic fitness, you can dive deeper into specifics. The Tour for me was 3 weeks of daily racing. It isn’t something you jump into without having done some 4-5 day stage races, then 7-10 day stage races. I had years of training in my legs, and many days of racing in my legs during those years. You likely have years of training in your legs as well, and all of that riding counts toward your preparation for big climbs. Now it’s time to focus some of your training on the specific demands of big climbs, especially if you’re headed to the mountains for a multi-day trip. 

For multi-day rides and races in the mountains, training needs to focus on durability and fatigue resistance. That can be accomplished through progressively extending long rides and creating mini training camps/blocks to mimic back-to-back riding days. The ideal situation is building up to 4 or even 5 days of consecutive riding, likely at least 4hrs each day. 

When I work with Time-Crunched Cyclists and athletes who have full-time jobs and families, we need to get creative. That might mean taking a Friday and/or a Monday off, or utilizing long holiday weekends. If your schedule can’t accommodate mini camps, then training needs to build more and more load into the weeks, getting to the point where you might do some long Tempo work Tuesday through Friday (yes, 4 days in a row!) and cap it off with a long ride or two on the weekend. 

For me, training for the Tour involved year over year consistency, but it also included training camps. I would do them at home or away, multiple days or weeks at a time. Usually those camps might come before or after a bigger race, which in combination would serve as a large training stimulus, more closely aligned with some parts of the upcoming event. My camps often previewed some crucial stages or climbs from upcoming races, which I recommend if it’s feasible for athletes.

How to Train for Long Climbs When You Don’t Live Near Them

During my time racing and training, I was fortunate to have access to great training grounds to simulate the demands of my races. If you’re living in North Dakota and trying to train for a multi-day climbing event, then you have to be intentional and creative to simulate the duration and grades of your targeted climbs. Here are some common options I use with athletes who don’t live near big mountains:

• Low Cadence Tempo Workouts: As described earlier, these aerobic intervals are done at 76-90% of threshold power, meaning a challenging aerobic intensity at about a 6-7 on a 10-point RPE scale. But keeping your cadence below about 80-85rpm makes this more climbing-specific when you have to do them on flat ground or rolling terrain. These intervals can be very long, up to 60-90 minutes in one sustained effort.
• Indoor trainer: Unless you’re blessed to live in a rural area or somewhere with long climbs, the trainer is arguably the most efficient tool to use. You can find video routes of many climbs you might be targeting on apps like Rouvy, or you can climb Alp du Zwift, or just set your resistance and go.
• Muscular Endurance Workouts: Slightly different than the Low Cadence Tempo Workouts, muscular endurance intervals feature high torque and very low cadences to recruit more muscle fibers. They are more a neuromuscular exercise than an aerobic or even anaerobic exercise. To do them, shift into your biggest (or nearly biggest) gear and ride into a headwind, keeping your cadence at or below 75rpm. You can do these on medium length hills, too. Keep the duration of individual intervals to about 5-8 minutes.
• Strength Training: Even though big climbs are mostly powered by aerobic conditioning, some good old fashioned muscle helps. Leg strength is important, including bilateral (squats, leg press) and unilateral (lunges, step ups) exercises. In my experience, glute strength and core strength are critical for fatigue resistance during long climbs, too. 

For me, much of my training for long climbs included training on climbs, but using variable cadences and intensities, which would help mimic the demands of the races I was in. There were also times when the racing itself was so intense and so frequent that my time at home in between was pretty much recovery focused. Don’t forget that if you don’t recover, all your hard work will be for naught!

Nutrition and Hydration Tips for Long Climbs

Most sports nutrition guidelines recommend consuming carbohydrates and water based on hourly energy expenditure and fluid losses from sweat. These hold true for long climbs as well. In line with current guidelines, this could mean aiming to consume 1-2 bottles of fluid per hour along with, conservatively, 75-90 grams of carbohydrate (or calories equivalent to about 50% of your hourly energy expenditure). 

There are a few specific challenges that make fueling difficult on long climbs:

• It’s hot: You may consume fluid faster than you expect because you’re going slower and sweating more. Plan ahead. Know where aid stations will be in a race/event. If touring, get local intel on whether there are water sources on the mountain. In French and Swiss villages, for instance, there are often public fountains with drinkable spring water!
• It’s harder to access food: If you are not proficient at opening packages with one hand or riding no handed, it can be difficult to eat while climbing. Practice at home and choose foods that can be easily opened and consumed with one hand (e.g., gels > chews). 
• You’re working hard: People who are mentally and physically pinned often forget to eat and drink. Whether you’re captivated by the beauty of the landscape or the intensity of the effort, don’t forget to eat and drink! 

My Tour de France Story

My Tour de France journey was tumultuous, but three of the most memorable weeks of my life. We started in the United Kingdom and the crowds were 5 or 6 people deep, pretty much the entire length of the opening three stages. Riding in the breakaway on Stage 2 was a definite highlight. Then I crashed three times during the “Roubaix” stage, all BEFORE the cobbles. And the following day I crashed another two times. Not wanting to go too many days without a crash, I hit the ground again on Stage 9 or 10, which then thankfully was the end of my bad luck. 

I’ll never forget climbing the Col du Tourmalet. I heartbreakingly lost contact with the top 30 riders in the final couple hundred meters from the summit and was unable to match the speed of the group by myself on the descent. Perhaps the most memorable moment, though, was riding onto the Champs Elysses with the French fighter jets flying overhead, giving me shivers I’ll never forget. I’ll also never forget how leg sapping the Champs Elysses was. Yes, it was the final stage and accumulated fatigue is real, but the race for the win on the Champs was intense, almost like everyone had forgotten the previous 20 stages. I don’t know how my boss at CTS, Jeff Pierce, managed to win that stage in 1987! 

Now It’s Your Turn!

The iconic climbs of the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia, Vuelta a España, Tour of California, USA Pro Challenge, and countless other races and destinations are waiting for you. I promise the experience of riding on these majestic climbs is worth the effort in terms of travel and training and sweat. Pictures and even aerial footage from Tour de France broadcasts don’t do them justice. But do yourself a favor and prepare yourself in training. They are much more fun when you can choose your pace rather than having the mountain dictate the pace for you.