In the sport of road cycling, a climbing specialist is a cyclist who trains to ride especially well on highly inclined roads, as on mountains. On a cycling team, the job of the climber is to make the grueling work of climbing long stretches easier for the rest of the team or the peloton by allowing them to "draft." As in NASCAR and other races, the competitor at the front of the pack must do more work due to aerodynamic resistance, whereas his/her followers will have to do less work if they line up properly. Thus the climber must have a lot of endurance and specifically developed muscle for long hard climbs, depending on expected race conditions.

In the Tour de France, the best climber is awarded a polka dot jersery.

Currently active cyclists who are known as climbing specialists include:

• Lance Armstrong (United States)
• Jose Azevedo (Portugal)
• Ivan Basso (Italy)
• Felix Rafael Cárdenas (Colombia)
• Dario David Cioni (Italy)
• Damiano Cunego (Italy)
• Juan Manuel Garaté (Spain)
• Stefano Garzelli (Italy)
• Giuseppe Guerini (Italy)
• Roberto Heras (Spain)
• Andreas Klöden (Germany)
• Francisco Mancebo (Spain)
• Iban Mayo (Spain)
• Denis Menchov (Russia)
• David Moncoutié (France)
• Julio Alberto Pérez Cuapio (Mexico)
• Yaroslav Popovych (Ukraine)
• Carlos Sastre (Spain)
• Gilberto Simoni (Italy)
• Georg Totschnig (Austria)
• Jan Ullrich (Germany)
• Alejandro Valverde (Spain)
• Alexandre Vinokourov (Kazakhstan)
• Haimar Zubeldia (Spain)