When the Tour de France hits the mountains, the pure climbers come to the fore. But what actually makes a cyclist a climber?
The mountains of the Grand Tours see some of the most spectacular battles in cycling.
Climbers are riders who specialise in winning these stages, though sadly many of the best performances in Grand Tours have been drug assisted.
Previously climbers like Marco Pantani, would attack and change tempo constantly. Now many stronger climbers - including Bradley Wiggins when he won the Tour - tend ride a constantly high tempo and use their power metre to measure their effort.
When in his climbing prime, Wiggins would pace himself evenly up an ascent unlike the explosive riders, like Dan Martin, who can vary climbing speed greatly.
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Despite the different riding styles, these riders all tend to be light with a high power to weight ratio.
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Away from the high mountains of the Grand Tours, the climbs tend to be shorter and a more explosive type of rider comes to the fore, although there is some crossover.
Cyclists such as Philippe Gilbert and Peter Sagan specialise in these explosive, shorter climbs but are also able to hold their own on the medium length mountains encountered in week-long stage races.
On the climbs of the Ardennes classics, mountain climbers like Dan Martin and Joaquim Rodriguez come into direct competition with the Gilberts of the pro-cycling world.
In this clip we examine what makes some riders such good climbers.
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