“Bealach na Bà” Details (Zwift Climb Portal)
Key Details
- Category: 2nd
- Length: 9 km (5.6 miles)
- Elevation Gain: 632 m (2,073‘)
- Average Gradient: 6.9%
- Country: Scotland
- Watopia Climb Segment
- Watopia Descent Segment
- France Climb Segment
- France Descent Segment
- 5 W/kg: 26 minutes
- 4 W/kg: 32 minutes
- 3 W/kg: 40 minutes
- 2 W/kg: 59 minutes
Strava Segments
Time Estimates
Located in the Scottish Highlands, Bealach-Na-Ba offers views toward the Island of Raasay and the Isle of Skye. The name is Gaelic for Pass of the Cattle, as it was historically used as a drovers’ road.
Considered by some to be Britain’s (and Scotland’s) toughest bike climb, it’s also been called the “Holy Grail” of Britain’s climbs because reaching it in real life is nearly as difficult as climbing it!
Starting from near sea level, it rises over 600m in 9km – reaching 20% at its steepest gradient. Zwift’s version isn’t any easier than Scotland’s, but at least getting there is simpler.
This IRL segment is very similar to Zwift’s Climb Portal version, and is the official segment from Simon Warren’s popular 100 Greatest Cycling Climbs:
The Veloviewer real world map shows this will overlap with the real life segment, is that correct or on Strava will it show as coming off the France route?
The Veloviewer profile+overhead map included at the bottom of the post is for the IRL segment.
All the Zwift segments are attached to Watopia or France, which is located (GPS-wise) out in the middle of nowhere… definitely not overlaid on the actual climbs.
Thanks Eric, I thought that would be the case.
IRL Bealach na Ba is a challenging & very scenic climb, although it definitely isn’t the toughest climb in Britain (compared to, for example Hardknott Pass, Honister Pass or Wrynose Pass). The main difficulty with Bealach na Ba is that it is a very narrow road & often it is very busy with traffic…..presumably this won’t be a problem on Zwift.
Very scenic if you’re lucky with the weather. Still never seen anything but cloud from the top 😂
Aiiii…sunny at the bottom horizontal rain up top….fond memories
Just because they are steeper in places does not make them
harder 😂
Very subjective. Hardknott Pass (for example) is quite a bit easier than the Bealach if you ask me.
you obviously are not riding Hardknott hard enough then…nothing easy about it
Where can I find when the different climb portals are available?
https://zwiftinsider.com/climb-portal-schedule/
doesnt look like any major humps for the descent, meaning it could be possible to freewheel down when doing hill repeats
There is certainly zero respite on the climb IRL so you should fly down it on the Climb Portal. It does traverse quite steep slopes so any apparent downhill bits will be an artefact from overlaying the track on the terrain model.
I certainly HOPE it’s good for freewheeling. It got tedious on Crow Road to have 8 or 9 minutes of pedaling on the descent side after 16 minutes climbing. If you can freewheel down, it looks like a mid-length option that sits between Epic KOM and AdZ
Did 7 reps this morning starting literaly 2 minutes after the portal opened this climb. No freewheeling all the way down, in fact there were several humps that were too large to clear without pedaling. Savage climb, especially segment 2 which I now have a love-hate relationship with ^^ In any case, nice to get the vE basecamp done, that completes my vE collection. =)
Definitely a limitation of the portal model then – the real climb is all up-up-up. Sounds like they have got the top of the climb right though 😉
Yeah, I did the climb at 10 p.m. local time, right when it rolled over, and realized pretty quickly going up that there would not be any freewheeling going down. To add insult to injury, I got 6 feather powerups, but none of them on the last three segments. Still going back for more, though, tonight.
Just piqued my curiosity enough to ride it. There are a few flats that don’t exist in real life but it does capture the feel of the climb really well. The brutality of sections 3 and 2 and the relief of the hairpins where 8% feels like a false flat work especially well….
But – they really need to lock the track to the elevation of the GPS trace rather than their terrain model to avoid these false lumps.
One of the most beautiful climbs I’ve ever ridden, on a hot, cloudless day two years ago. As this was western Scotland, it is probably a once-a-year circumstance! The descent down the other side to Applecross and north along the peninsula is breathtaking. Not sure climb portal will have quite the same visuals, but good that it’s included! https://www.strava.com/activities/5846521791
Did this today; 37:11 at 3.4 w/kg compared to my real life effort of 37:04 at 4.0 w/kg (and I had a pretty clear run at it traffic-wise). Much less effort required to get up the Zwift version, and I definitely don’t recall any downhill sections either 😉 still, a great thing to have in game. At the top I swapped to the Cadex TT bike with disc wheels, then banged in an aero-helmet assisted sprint on the higher of the two 20% ramps – 116kph reached with ease, and I’m only a 72kg rider. New contender for easiest place to get the 100kph badge!
Definitely i think.I’m 108kg.Didn’t pedal,no power up,got up to 98kph.Started to pedal but too late.😄
is there a 100kph badge?
Yup. See https://zwiftinsider.com/badges/
I finished the ride after the decent. But i think i was to early because i was not at the finish flag of the route. Do you have to complete volcano cicuit also after descent?
Will all of these climbs be available soon for “on demand” rides instead of being scheduled only on specific days?
They won’t all be available on demand, but the schedule IS going to change so more climbs are available on any given day. Not sure when that will happen though. Soon.
Any plans for some of the climbs in England specifically Cumbria to be added in the future?
How come the Zwift version has a clear decent section, 2/3 of the way up, and the IRL segment dpes not?