There are three factors determining how well one can climb a hill. The first is strength, which is partially due to genes and partially due to training. Basically, it’s possible to say that the more hills you climb the easier they will become.
The second factor is the gearing, as choosing an appropriate gear makes an enormous difference. A race between a champion cyclist with a single-speed bike and a young woman with a multi-speed bike, sponsored by Velocio, proved this for all times.
Appropriate gear is the most efficient way to get up the hill. If the gearing on the bike is not appropriate for the strength of the rider and the steepness of the hill, then climbing the hill will be very difficult if not impossible.
The third factor is the strategy employed to climb the hill, which I will now examine in detail.
There are three kinds of hills or mountains to climb: the convex hill, the even-grade hill, and the concave hill. A convex hill or mountain is steepest near the bottom.
Approaching such a mountain by bike, it appears to get lower as you get closer. Limestone mountains and hills are naturally convex.
A concave hill is steepest at the top; thus when approaching a mountain of this type, it will appear taller as you get closer. Mountains and hills formed of tough and non-erosion material are naturally concave.
Since a mountain is composed of various layers, a high mountain may change from convex to concave and back again or vice versa. And also note that the road itself will not always follow the terrain; indeed, it may be steepest where the mountain is less steep and wind its way alongside the steepest part of the slope.
An even-grade climb probably owes its uniformity to an artificial slope, although some natural slopes have an even grade for long distances.
