Zwift launched the much-anticipated Climb Portal this week, and with it a challenge for July calling Zwifters to complete at least two climbs to earn bragging rights and an achievement badge. Here are the details of the “Climb Portal First Ascent Challenge” which begins tomorrow at noon PST…
Getting Started
To sign up for the challenge, click its card on your homescreen, then click to register at the bottom-right. That’s it!
Completing the Challenge
To complete the challenge, you must complete at least two climbs: one climb from the “stage 1” group, and one climb from the “stage 2” group. Here’s the list of climbs grouped by stage:
Stage 1:
- Cote de Trebiac (3.4 km at 5.8%)
Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift Stage 2 on July 24, 2023
Stage 2 of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift brings an exciting climb in the final kilometers, perfect for riders to make their move. - Col des Aravis (4.4 km at 6%)
Tour de France Stage 15 on July 16, 2023
Experience the Col des Aravis—a renowned climb featured over 40 times in the Tour de France. - Col d’Aspin (12 km at 6.5%)
Tour de France Stage 6 on July 6, 2023
Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift Stage 7 on July 29, 2023
Climb Col d’Aspin—a Tour de France staple with 70+ appearances since 1910 and a pivotal climb on Stage 7 of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. - Puy de Dome (10.5 km at 8%)
Tour de France Stage 9 on July 9, 2023
Climb a piece of Tour de France history on Puy de Dome in Climb Portal. Closed since 1988, this historic climb and its switchbacks makes a triumphant return to the Tour this year.
Stage 2
- Cote de Domancy (2.6km at 8.6%)
Tour de France Stage 16 on July 18, 2023
A legendary climb named after Bernard Hinault. With its demanding gradient, it’s sure to be a key moment in the Tour’s only time trial on Stage 16. - Cote de Pike (2 km at 10%)
Tour de France Stage 1 on July 1, 2023
Stage 1 of Le Tour features the brutal Cote de Pike—a 2 km ascent with a 10% gradient. Expect time gaps and an exciting finish. Try it yourself, then watch the pros in action. - Col du Platzerwasel (7.1km at 8.4%)
Tour de France Stage 20 on July 22, 2023
The final ascent of this year’s Tour de France can be climbed on Zwift. Then get ready for some nail-biting action as the GC contenders battle it out on this climb on July 22! - Col du Tourmalet (16.9 km at 7.4%)
Tour de France Stage 6 on July 6, 2023
Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift Stage 7 on July 29, 2023
One of the most famed climbs in Tour history, the Col du Tourmalet has made over 85 appearances since 1910. This monumental climb offers a serious challenge for riders of all levels! Test your skills before watching the men attack it on Stage 6 and the women on Stage 7.
Choosing Your Climb
You can access all 8 climbs whenever you’d like during July. Just click the challenge card on your homescreen, then select a climb.
You can also access the climbs while free-riding in Watopia or France. If you do it this way, you’ll be taken to the scheduled portal climb for the day. July’s Climb Portal schedule:
July is a special launch month for the Climb Portal. Once August begins, Zwift tells us climbs will rotate every 2 weeks, with the France and Watopia Climb Portals both hosting the same climb at the same time.
Why not a host different climb in each portal? Zwift says regardless of whether you enter the climb from France or Watopia, everyone will be able to see each other on the portal climb (*mind blown*). So our guess is, Zwift wanted to ensure the day’s climb was well-populated. Of course, the Climb Portal schedule could always be changed, and Zwift assures us they’ll re-evaluate the scheduling as necessary.
Double Up
Zwift’s regular monthly mission for July was also announced this week, and it’s all about climbing. Named the “Climb Tourmalet” mission, completion requires a total of 2,115 meters of climbing – the same as climbing Col du Tourmalet.
Why not double up, and finish this mission while completing the First Ascent Challenge?
Questions or Comments?
Post below!
So are these actually new climbs in the game, or just repurposing all or part of existing climb?
New climbs, based on GPS data of the IRL climbs.
ooh, that’s interesting!
I hadn’t noticed that detail when skimming through. Thank you, signing up now.
I am curious how many people will finish this challenge…
You only need to do Cote de Trebiac (3.4 km at 5.8%) and Cote de Pike (2 km at 10%) to complete the challenge.
Not too bad.
If you had to complete all eight climbs it would be a fair bit harder.
2k at 10%….only
me. I will finish it.
If you only want to finish, it’s easy. Took me less then an hour. But of course everyone wants to do all eight climbs …
Thousands, would be my guess.
The Tourmalet is such a boring climb IRL unlike Alpe d’Huez or Ventoux, or many other Alpine or Pyrenean climbs. It’s good therefore that Zwift has provided a good selection of climbs on which to play.
Eight climbs but only 1 available for 2 weeks seems like a bizarre decision as it means you’ll only be able to ride a particular climb for 2 weeks every 4 months. Why not change the climbs daily then you only have to wait 8 days to ride the same climb again.
Even better would be to keep the option to let the rider select which climb they want to ride.
I guess Zwift are doing it to maintain a population of riders on the climbs but I’m sure there are some riders who would like to do 2, 3 or maybe even 4 different climbs back to back in the one ride for the variety.
Or am I misinterpreting this? Does “rotate every 2 weeks” mean all 8 climbs will be rotated during the 2 week period? The first time I read that it seemed like it meant the climbs are only changed after 2 weeks.
No, you’re correct. That’s what Zwift tells me – they’ll select 1 climb which will run for 2 weeks straight in both Watopia and France.
Seems a bit odd to me as well, but I’m sure they have their reasons.
Wow, that is odd. Yeah, it will mean 3 months between each climb being available. Even copying the July schedule of 3 or 4 days for each climb would be preferable.
And that’s before Zwift starts adding more climbs which I believe they intend on doing. How are they going to fit them into the schedule? It might end up being that some of these shorter TdF climbs will only be available for a limited time and we will never see them again after July.
I am now completely lost, where does the ‘rotate every 2 weeks’ come from? In this article it says you can always select any of the, for now, 8 climbs before starting an activity. And if you just turn into the portal during a free ride, you will automatically be given the default climb. According the calendar that default climb changes every 4 days. Maybe that changes to 2 weeks after July, but still… you can always ride whatever climb you want.
We’ll see later today.
All eight are available for the test run during Tour de France in July. Come August they rotate.
Will these climbs be added to zwifthub for tracking?
Not planned at this time.
I would love the option to “portal back” to beginning of the climb at the top instead of descending…
I was thinking the same thing. Would be a good option.
But people love their free kilometers on the descent! 😒 That said, I would use a portal if it were there.
Come August, I certainly hope Zwift will re-consider and give us the possibility to choose whichever climb we want, whenever we want. If they don’t, the Climb Portal would lose its appeal as there are certain climbs I’m not interested in. Having to wait 2 weeks for them to select another climb is just no good…
I agree that like VenTop I would avoid certain climbs once completed. I understand wanting to have volume of riders as well. Perhaps they could have 2 options each day or something. Perhaps the volume of riders will help dictate the popular climbs and the rotation will be driven off popularity. Lots of what ifs to solve come August and beyond. I’m just excited for more rides.
I see your point, but my guess is Zwift wants to make sure the climbs are nicely populated so the social experience is there, and it’s not just a lonely climb. So the number of climbs available may vary depending on portal traffic levels…
This is not so climbs can be span round quickly.
It’s so they can skimp on paying for properly rendered new maps which have dried up completely.
if i wanted to ride around in Mario Kart i’d get a nintendo.
i and i would guess pretty much everyone on here like the greenery etc not graphics for 5yr olds.
just looked at Ful Gaz and i’ll be going there…..goodbye and good luck with your kid subscription
It’s not like all of Zwift has been converted to these colored roads. It’s a new feature, and completely optional. If you don’t like it – don’t ride it!
They could of easily written some auto render code that chucks in a few trees, grass and bushes. I think it looks awful for a 2 hour ride. Won’t stop me, but not a fan.
Personally, I think these are a fabulous addition to Zwift.
I don’t care about the scenery when i’m blowing out of my hoop during a training ride.
The variation in colour gradient, works perfectly when I’m staggering my efforts.
The more the merrier as far as I am concerned.
Apologies if already asked but will the portals also have the holo racer on them based on your previous/best time once you’ve completed climb?
Yes, they will.
Unfortunately, I can’t see this being very popular based of the way it’s being implemented which is a shame as I like climbing but I can’t see why I would choose to ride the short climbs which is half of them as they won’t take long so seem like they would be a distraction from a proper ride. Not having the 2 longer climbs available when I want to do something challenging means I will probably just ignore this feature.
You can see why they are only scheduling one climb at a time as it’s the same reason they don’t make all the worlds available at the same time. They are worried that people will choose to ride a route and there won’t be anybody to ride with. This I think is flawed logic and I wonder if they should open everything up all the time and give people the choice to ride what they want when they choose to do so this may make people happier with the product and be positive for Zwift and with their current strategy they aren’t increasing their subscription base based on Peak Numbers.
I was excited when I first heard about this feature, but I know I won’t enjoy it based on how it looks and the fact I can’t choose which climb I do. It’s a shame.
Updated just now. Card no longer on Home Screen. I registered before update. Am I missing something? Also monthly challenge figures no longer correct.
I did not register before update but i cant see the card either.
First issue resolved; second emailed Zwift. Probably wrong forum – sorry.
Does anyone actually see the Climb Portal? I just updated my version and its not there.
Opens at noon PST–in about 30 minutes from now.
You looked in France?
I don’t see any Everstings from them yet, it’ll be interesting to see how long before folks start tagging these.
Was going to wait for the Tourmalet to try it, unless they promise to release the Stelvio in August. I’m sure there are plenty of people thinking about it.
If AdZ is the hardest climb (5/5 stars), how would you categorize the new climbs?
I would say if ADZ was a 5/5, Ven Top is a 7/5. Much steeper and longer.
When I select stage 1 nothing happens!?
I like this.
I’ve registered and completed one climb but it’s still showing as 0% Completed on the main bar. Am I missing something?
I think the registration and game update rollout has been a bit buggy. I’m on Apple TV, saw the challenge/registration for first time today, registered, could not access the portal but saw it in game (blocked). Quit game, noticed that Apple Store showed the update still available/not installed, so I updated and was able to access the two “scheduled” climbs but nothing has been applied towards the challenge. My guess is they’ll sort this out after a few days and we should just be patient. It does provide a healthier option to watch the TdF than my couch 🙂
Thanks Chan. Will do some more climbs and see what happens. It all counts towards my Garmin “Pointless Points” that help drive me to becomming less wobbly.
Where are the 8 routes from the challenge card ? I don’t see them – only the pike climb from the route menus
That’s the only one available for now. See the schedule above.
Just a hunch, but you probably registered for the challenge BEFORE updating the game version. Check your app store to make sure you’ve updated game (mine missed yesterday’s update). I got same result you describe, rode the only one available via the routes/calendar, did not seem to get credit toward that challenge. I exited game, went back in, saw the challenge progress updated and am now also to see/select all 8 climbs under that challenge “card”.
1 available in Watopia and 1 in France. Zwift insider posted the calendar
When I click the challenge card there’s no option to choose the climbs. Just a status showing 0% complete.
I am using the ATV and the only clImb option is the one in routes.
I’m seeing the same thing on ATV. Just reported it to Zwift.
You could ride Cote de Pike from the “Just Ride” list at the bottom. But that’s not as fun as having access to all 8 routes… hopefully they fix it soon.
Once I did the current climb it now allows me to ride any is the other climbs. Not sure if that’s by design but if anyone else has this issue, just choose the one down in the routes and finish it and it might unlock the selection for you.
I finished the Mont Saint-Michel portal climb, bit why my progress still show 0%?
*but
I initially completed two climbs from stage 2 (Platzerwasel then Tourmalet) then one from stage 1 (Trebiac). But now although the overall challenge says 100% complete, Tourmalet no longer says ‘complete’. Maybe this is by design, with only the first climb completed in each stage counting? Having said that it does say ‘crush one climb, or conquer them all…’
Any ideas? Maybe I should really fully RTFM 😂
I subscribed to the challenge and I keep having the same problem with all climbs; after a few kilometers, there is an intersection where I need to go left to start the climb, but I am repeatedly diverted to the right and cannot access the climb. Has anyone experienced the same problem ?
That’s odd. Are you perhaps not on the latest version (1.43)?
2/3’s of the way up Col d’Aspin I accidentally pressed the u-turn button. Did another u-turn and finished the climb. The app does not recognize this as a completed ride. Fix in order?
I have done 4 of the 8 climbs but only got the green complete check mark for 2 of them, if you have completed any of the climbs in the past does that mean you didn’t get the check mark?
It’s just a poor UI design by Zwift. They only mark the first climb you do on each stage as complete.
Why not offer a special kit for those who complete all 8 Tdf climbs. I’ve done two short ones already and found todays pay du dome really tough. An incentive might just encourage me to take on the other 2000+ ft climbs!
Question…. if you freeride and during ride the ride you decide to ride a climb, at completion of the ride are you credited the climb in the challenge? or does it only count when you choose the route from the challenge card on the homescreen?
Haven’t tested to confirm, but I THINK you’ll get credit for doing the stage if you free ride your way into it.
Good work here – one thing I didn’t like was no results posted in Strava after the ride – I guess there are no segments defined for the climbs?
I did the col des Aravis 3 times – each time faster and with higher wattage – but no results on strava. I would have been nice to see my summary power and times…
We have Strava segments for Aravis for both France and Watopia. If it didn’t show up for you, maybe you did your ride before we created them? You can try re-uploading your rides and they should match now…
France: https://www.strava.com/segments/34784290
Watopia: https://www.strava.com/segments/34888803
I might have missed this but do you receive anything for completing the challenge, like bonus XP or something like that? Sorry if I missed this somewhere.
Hi, today 31 of July I have tried to select the Climb Portal Challenge and I haven’t founded it… It should appear on my top home section, nor?
I understood that it should be accessible throughout the month of July, isn’t it? Today I have ride the Col du Tourmalet and I liked the idea of the Challenge a lot 🙂