“Col de la Couillole” Details (Zwift Climb Portal)
Key Details
- Category: HC
- Length: 18.3 km (11.4 miles)
- Elevation Gain: 1209 m (3,967‘)
- Average Gradient: 6.3%
- Country: France
- Watopia Climb Segment
- Watopia Descent Segment
- France Climb Segment
- France Descent Segment
- 5 W/kg: 50 minutes
- 4 W/kg: 62 minutes
- 3 W/kg: 78 minutes
- 2 W/kg: 114 minutes
Strava Segments
Time Estimates
First featured in Zwift’s Climb Portal Schedule in June 2024, the Col de la Couillole is the final climb of the IRL L’Etape du Tour de France and also the finishing climb for stage 20 of the 2024 Tour de France! (It also appears regularly in the Paris-Nice race.)
This col can be climbed from two different directions: Beuil in the west, and Saint-Sauveur-sur-Tinée in the east. Zwift’s segment climbs from Saint-Sauveur-sur-Tinée, the longer and more popular direction.
Here’s the IRL segment:
The shorter climbs seem to be the most popular, especially when you can do 2 or 3 ten minute climbs before you could finish one of these hour long climbs.
and as an added bonus, when doing Cheddar Gorge 3x you get 30 Bonus XP opportunities vs the 10 on climbing a longer climb once. Yesterday I got 1500 Bonus XP (6 250XP) + numerous 10XP when doing Cheddar Gorge 3x. I only got 1 250XP when riding the Couillole for the hour + 🙁 The shorter climbs are IDEAL XP mining opportunities IMO.
they should adjust this, and make the ratio/possibility higher on the longer climbs of getting the 250XP. too many people looking for shortcuts these days
Great, I love these longer climbs. So you can ride this one and VenTop in one ride. Did the same this month with Mt. Fuji and VenTop 3 times. Long amd hard day in the saddle 🙂
Why stopping before the Everest?
Why there are some 20% segments when they don’t exist IRL ? It’s the same with Tourmalet. We see easily that the two veloviewer’s profiles are not the same…
Hey man, just be thankful zwift exists. I remember spinning on the trainer staring at a wall for 3 hours.
On a wheel on dumb trainer at that, in my case.
Rollers for hours. These kids will never know the struggle.
The gradient are ok for Alpes d’Huez and Ventoux, they create climb portal to easily add reals climbs with less effort. I don’t think that check gradient for 1 climbs per month take so much work. This climb is so bad. You have 200m at 20% 300m descent and then 300m at 15%. I’m sure that changing only some gpx point could correct that
Such a disgrace. It literally takes 10-15 minutes top to check the gpx file for faulty data and fix it. I’ve done it myself many times. Looks like they just took the first .gpx file and uploaded it to their Climb-Portal generator and called it a day.
well said..somepeople take these things far too bloody seriously!
So the gradient is not even real? I was also confused after riding it today, some sections like a roller-coaster. If it doesn’t replicate the actual climb, I’m not sure what is the point of riding it, then.
Competitors have 4k filmed versions that look and feel way more realistic.
does zwift have the most moaning myrtals? I think so!
I really liked Fuji last month more than the Couillole. Fuji has the advantage of being able to freewheel the descent. At 125%, it would be good for an Everesting because you have five good chances to get off the bike, eat, and change bibs between ascents.
Just completed this. Not the strongest of climbers, so it took me 89 mins (76kg at 2.5 w/kg). Found it quite difficult on 100% trainer difficulty as the climb (unlike the IRL profile) is undulating, so difficult to get into a constant rhythm. There are kickers in the 12-14% range and a couple around 20%, with a max of 25%, but also a lot of flat sections to recover.
Personally I prefer the constant climbs like the Alpe, but still a good test for the legs!
I thought the whole idea of the Climb Portal was to give representative gradients, twists and turns of each mountain. It’s certainly NOT the case with this one which is NOTHING like the real thing.
The profile of this climb is so far from the actual climb, makes 0 sense!
I rode this as training for a trip to France in August. I found it harder than its 6.6% gradient belies, due to all the gradient changes. I was out of the saddle several times for the 18% and 22% sections near the beginning and again later. Is it true that it doesn’t reflect the real climb? I find that disappointing if true, as it’s nice to do a Climb Portal Reccy to get an idea before attempting IRL.
Confused!, Why have Zwift put a climb with such a different profile to IRL especially when folks will be using this in the lead up to Etape du Tour? Makes zero sense. Any “Insider” info?
Why do they have two long climbs available on the same day? d
oesn’t it make more sense to have one short and one long climb available at any time?
nice climb,sometimes steep,orther parts you can rouler,and recover a bit.And sometimes flat or a bit down.Took me with 2,1 watt/ kg 107minutes.And Don forget to go down🙂