As part of Zwift’s celebration of the Tour de France, there is a series of four climbs representative of four climbs during this year’s tour.
The first, Mûr De Bretagne, I did a week ago. This is the easiest of the bunch and I managed to get up it in 13:42.
Later in the week, I ascended the Col de La Croix Saint-Robert in 37:28.
This week’s climb was the much harder Hautacam at 15.2km long and with 1,034 metres of ascent. This would take a little longer.
The guide time was around 90 minutes but I was expecting it to take a bit longer.
After the lead in, I was on the climb as watched as the percentage completed crept up extremely slowly. The average gradient was around 8% but as well as more resistance to simulate climbing there was no momentum meaning that if I slowed down I had to work extra hard to get moving again.
After two hours and twenty one minutes, I reached the summit. I had pedalled up in low gears for the last, probably, quarter of the climb but all I wanted to do was finish – I wasn’t racing.
Once at the top, I did a U-turn, turned the pedals over a few time and was soon hurtling down the slope. What took me one hundred and forty one minutes to get up, I descended in eleven.
THAT was my longest ride on Zwift so far and by far. The legs were humming but I managed to climb into(and out of) the shower before rewarding myself with a couple of pints and pasta.