Up the Alpe

So rode the Alpe Du Zwift today. It's a Zwift clone on Alpe D'huez the most iconic climb of the tour de France. The tour doesn't go up it every year (rather, most years) and every time the climb is rammed top to bottom with cycling fans.

The Alpe:

The Alpe during the tour:

The Alpe is 21 hairpin turns cut into the side of a mountain, connected by a number of short straights. It's a bloody tough climb (13.1 Km, average gradient of 8.1%, 1071 m of ascent) - by no means the toughest climb in France (there are indeed longer and steeper climbs), but still damn hard. And it has done a fantastic job of capturing the imagination, and damn near every rider has an ascent of Alpe D'Huez on their bucket list.

So it was rather cool when Zwift embedded their own version of the Alpe into their platform. And these's been many an article written to see how Alpe Du Zwift compares to the real thing. And long story short, the answer is really bloody well: the subtle changes to the gradient, the feel in and out of the hairpins, and most critically, the ascent times.

Today was my fist full Alpe on the whole preparation (I've done plenty of 30 & 60 minute efforts on it, but this was my first crack at the whole thing in toto. And it bloody hurt.

I punched out a muscular 2 hours, 5 minutes and 56 seconds (here's the Strava link). Now given the fastest legit (i.e. free of doping) up the Alpe is 39 minutes, 22 seconds by Nairo Quintana (a Columbian pro cyclist), i don't think I'll be getting smashed with calls from pro teams anytime soon.

It was though a completed Alpe Du Zwift. And I had to suffer like a dog to get up it.

I've zero idea exactly what that means for Hotham or Buffalo on Saturday. That said, it's nice to have the Alpe under my belt.