We know your speed in Zwift is affected by the frame and wheelset you use. In fact, we’ve done a lot of testing to figure out just which combinations are fastest.
But what about climbing? Any cyclist worth their chamois knows the fastest bike on the flats isn’t the fastest bike on the climbs. It’s just physics: when the road is flat, most of your resistance comes from wind, so aero is everything. But when the road turns up, gravity kicks in and weight matters.
The massive Alpe du Zwift provides a perfect testing ground for us, and the prize spinner at the top even gives you a set of Lightweight Meilenstein wheels if you’re lucky.
Zwift’s Drop Shop now gives us access to 26 different wheelsets and 50 different bike frames. So we had to run some tests to find out: what is the fastest bike+wheelset combination up Alpe du Zwift?
Wheels: Lightweight Meilensteins Still King
The Lightweight Meilenstein set is still the fastest up the Alpe, beating the closest competition by 5 seconds with (75kg rider at 300 watts). These wheels can be tough to obtain: you only get them when the spinner at the top of the Alpe lands on the wheels, and that can take a while! (It took me 13 trips up the Alpe, which seems about average.)
Frame: A New (and Unlikely) King
The fastest frame up the Alpe isn’t the previous winner (Trek Emonda). It’s not even the new Specialized Tarmac Pro or the Cannondale Evo, which would both be logical options. No, it’s the Zwift Safety Bike: a throwback to cycling’s early days.
The Safety Bike is also the most expensive frame in the Drop Shop, by more than a factor of 3. 3,550,000 Drops! Now you know why. Over one hundred years of engineering have brought us here, and this kind of all-steel, single-speed performance doesn’t come cheap. What a time to be alive! 😃
The Zwift Safety frameset coupled with the new Meilenstein Lightweight wheels beats all other combinations, whether you ride up the Alpe at 1 w/kg or 5 w/kg.
Honorable mention goes to the Specialized Tarmac Pro and Cannondale Evo frames, who made it up the Alpe 7 and 10 seconds behind the Safety Bike, respectively.
The trusty Tron bike? We’re sorry to report it has put on a little weight, and isn’t climbing well anymore. We’ll talk about that in another post soon.
Browse our test data spreadsheet for more results >
Other Wheel Options
If you don’t yet have the Lightweight wheels, the ENVE SES 3.4’s are the next best. You’ll lose around 5 seconds compared to the Meilensteins, but maybe you’ll finally unlock your own set of Lightweights when you get to the top!
See 9 Fastest* Wheels for Climbing for a list of the best climbing wheels.
I hope this information helps you earn a PR next time you hit the Alpe. Of course, equipment changes help a bit, but it’s our fitness and willingness to suffer that really make the difference. So climb on!
To Eric, great work and thanks for all your testing, To Zwift, Safety bike, fastest up the Alpe, Ridiculous.
This must be Zwift’s attempt at telling us to not take things too seriously … it is a “game” after all.
I like it. It’s funny! Not ridiculous at all. Lots of games have silly items be the best in the game.
How much faster is the Safety over the Edmonda (2nd?)?
Safety is 13s faster than Emonda if you use Lightweights and do 300w @ 75kg. 2 other frames are faster than Emonda now. See https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/1/d/1_dvNbBEKAztJwjX-2CDdWmVSR4jP92o-eiNCB7hl5IY/edit#gid=1812742034
Nice test… How did you do it.. Did you “Fake out” zwift and somehow send a constant wattage signal to the software? Or hack it to just tell Zwift the steady wattage?
Eric, I’m confused by the disparity between the data in the spreadsheet and the previous articles. For example, the ‘fastest frame’ article says the tron bike is still fastest for the volcano climb but the spreadsheet lists 16 frame/wheel combinations that are faster. Same for the fastest wheels – in the article there is no mention of the 32mm carbon despite being towards the top on the spreadsheet.
Thanks for your hard work on this!
Eric, having done all the testing, what is your theoretical “best bike/wheel” combo for something like 4 Horsemen, which has everything, flats, descents, and big climbs?
Aero bike with something like 858s? Or do you think the Epic KOM and Alpe are too much for a heavier wheelset, and you’d shot for a “combo” wheelset like the 454s or the ENVE 78s?
I assume the Tron is still the fastest overall, as out seems to climb better than any aero/wheel combo and is notably faster on flats than any climbing combo
Without testing the new wheelsets on the Epic KOM it’s hard to say, so my approach would be to pick a wheelset that helps shore up the area where I’m weakest. I get dropped on climbs, so I’ll go with a more climbing-oriented wheelset, knowing I can hang on the flats even if my wheelset isn’t the most aero. So probably Zipp 454 or ENVE SES 3.4. Both of those made this list (https://zwiftinsider.com/9-fastest-wheels-for-climbers/) but also turned in pretty decent times on the mixed/flat test route.
I must be reading it wrong. I thought it said S5 and Madone were faster than Safety. On Alp. I’ll study it later. Think I’ll just try to bank a few million for future. Bring back the Trike 😎
Answered my own questions. Italics on the spreadsheet indicate TT bikes, so tron bike is still the fastest non-TT bike. For climbing, not every frame/wheel combination was tested (understandably). The 32mm carbon was just used as a baseline wheel set but the results are interchangeable. e.g. if the ENVE SES 3.4’s make the Safety bike faster, they’ll also make the Tarmac Pro faster, even though it wasn’t explicitly tested.
You’ve got it figured out, sir!
Do you know if you get the spinner if you finish a workout during the climb and finish it off in free-ride afterwards?
Yes, you do.