bobinski
Legendary Member
- Location
- Tulse Hill
Well I've got no choice. I'll have to do it again.
Posted a few weeks back that I'd got to level 10 and was looking forward to riding the Alpe du Zwift. It was going to be the 4th version of Alpe d'HUez I'd ridden. I've done real life, Bkool, some simulator in my local bike shop that I can't remember and now Zwift! Except............ I then found out it was level 12 I needed to be at!!
Reached level 12 last week, so decided to take it on and picked the route with the longer run in to get nicely warmed up.
I was feeling a bit tired and sluggish from lots of hard rides over the previous week or so and decided to take it steady and not push too hard. I'd just started the climb when my Dad decided this was an excellent time to call my mobile. He's been in hospital so I had to take the call. No problem with that, but that put about a 4 minute dent in to my time on the climb, so I'm going to have to ride it again now!
When I posted that I was going to ride it when I got to level 10, a couple of people were interested in how I felt it compared to the real Alpe d'Huez. At the bottom it felt quite realistic as IRL it's quickly up to an 11% ramp and pretty much stays at 10/11% for the first 4 hairpins. I think the real Alpe eases a bit after that, but its never easy and is a tough climb, especially after a tough start. Alpe du Zwift seems to have far more and greater changes in gradient than real life. I can't honestly recall hitting 14% grades further up the climb, more of a relentless climb generally around 8% plus. So once I was past the first 4 hairpins, I really lost any thought of comparing it to the real life climb and just accepted it as a challenge.
As a few others have ridden Alpe d'Huez since, I'd be interested in their thoughts on how the two rides compare.
I'll certainly do it again anyway, as I think it will be excellent training for a trip to the Alps, Pyrenees, etc. And next time, I'm not answering the phone, Dad!
Others more experienced in riding both (Simon Warren) say that Zwift has nicely mirrored the differing gradients. All i can say having ridden Huez IRL recently is that it seemed much the same. Frigging tough start, easing off and i would say lots of changes in gradient there but some ramps here and there especially after the 3rd or 2nd last bend. 59min in zwift but 1h 14m 38s IRL with a loaded up bike etc. I would like to think i could knock it down to 1hr 10 with better pacing perhaps even less but that may be wishful thinking.
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