“City and the Sgurr” Route Details (Scotland)
Ready to climb? City and the Sgurr should really be named “The Sgurr”, because it’s all about this climb. (Sgurr is Gaelic for “high sharp-pointed hill”, and the Sgurr’s summit is the highest point on the Scotland map.)
Races here will be interesting, since one side of the Sgurr is gravel, while the other is paved.
Route Basics
Length: 5.9 km (3.7 miles)
Elevation: 103m (338′)
+2.7km (1.7 miles) lead-in with 63m (207′) elevation
Map: Scotland
ZIMetrics
Rating: 5.8/100 🛈
Time Estimates 🛈
lead-in + first lap
4 W/kg: 15 minutes
3 W/kg: 18 minutes
2 W/kg: 23 minutes
Start & Finish
After a lead-in from Glasgow and up the gravel side of the Sgurr, the route begins at the top of the climb. It ends at the top, after you’ve climbed both sides.
Format: Loop
Ride Achievement Badge: 120 XP
Run Achievement Badge: none
Leaderboard Segments |
| Sgurr Summit South (1km, 3.3%) |
| Sgurr Summit North (1.6km, 3.7%) |
Strava Segments
Bike Selection
Bike selection here is tricky since the Glasgow side of the climb is mostly gravel (fastest on a gravel bike) and the other side of paved (faster on a road bike). Read more >
Route Description
Route profile by ZwiftHub – the place to plan and track your route achievements!
Begin in Glasgow with a lead-in that takes you out of the city and into the Highlands to take on the mostly-gravel climb to the Sgurr’s summit. This is no easy lead-in!
The route officially begins atop the Sgurr, then you’ll descend the shorter paved side, go around a roundabout, and climb back to the summit for your second time through the Sgurr Summit KOM banner.
Tour guide tip: get up here at night for epic views of the northern lights and Zwifty constellations.
Descend the gravel side of the Sgurr, ride through the mystical roundabout (especially fun at night), then climb up once more to finish off the route. That’s a total of three Sgurr ascents.
Enjoy the view from the top, then coast to the bottom. You’ve earned it!
Looks punchy and a great route for regular climbing intervals.
It’s never going to be quicker doing the whole thing on a gravel bike or by switching bikes
Anyone actually tried it on a road bike vs gravel? Looking a single lap + lead in it looks like about half of the total distance (4.3k of 8.6k) and ~70% of the total climbing (116m of 166m) is gravel including more than the last 1/3rd of the race. That feels like a route that might lend itself to a gravel bike for racing. Especially if a strong group of gravel riders can get a gap on the first climb (which is gravel).
Someone talk me out of this
Won a recent cat. C race over the sandy climb in Makuri (Mech Isle Loop) by gapping the group on the climb. Manegrd to keep up with the draft in the beginning (intense though) Gained 19 seconds on the climb, they clawed back 16s on the asphalt. If the following group is spent and/or noncohesive, or with a group of gravel bikes, you can make it work.
So it is definitely gravel bike for me. Also because I just went to cat. B and I’m 88kg. On the Tron in the sand I’ll just get killed anyway by the better riders. Just make sure you really push your advantage on the gravel parts.
Most important possibly: it will make the race more interesting!
Tried Tron against Gravel and Gravel Bike definitely quicker on the North climb & South Descent by a decent amount, worth a go for sure. Slower on the shorter South climb though.
Quick update. Saved 2x 20s (vs. my PR on Tron bike with equal power) on the North ascent. Don’t miss a group on the descent though, or you will lose all of that sweet advantage and more..
That’s what happened to me – missed the front group, found myself on my own all the way down the tarmac descent.
Only got caught at the roundabout, but dropped quite a few more places on the tarmac ascent
10th at the top of the lead in, still 10th at the roundabout, 21st at the top of the tarmac climb, 22nd at the 2nd roundabout, 14th at the finish.
But I was not the 14th strongest rider in that race – the choice of gravel bike gained me a lot of places.
The lead-in climb was 208 feet when I did this route. Just FYI.
Will these be sub-20min rides in the B cat? I’m Cat enforced into B, but a ZwiftPower C and don’t want to change cat’s on there for my WTRL team…
Sorry, wrong topic
Perhaps it’d be better for everyone if you raced in your true category.
I did this race on a gravel bike (Canyon Inflite, but close enough) and a road bike back during the Race Scotland Series. I was SIGNIFICANTLY faster on the gravel bike. Granted by form was increasing quickly that week, but I shaved minutes off the time which makes me think gravel is just faster. Stay in the draft until the foot of the first climb and make sure you are still with the group on the first descent and North ascent. It’s the shorter and less steep side anyway.