“Gotthard Pass” Details (Zwift Climb Portal)

Key Details

Located in southern Switzerland near the Italian border between the charming villages of Hospental (to the north) and Airolo (to the south), St. Gotthard Pass is a legendary Alpine pass regularly featured in the Tour de Suisse. In fact, it hosted four mountain finishes in 2024’s race!

The “old road” has a history tracing back to the Romans, and that’s reflected in the impossibly well-kept cobbles that pave its endless hairpins.

Zwift’s portal traverses the more iconic southern route from Airolo. Snow and ice conditions mean the IRL road is only open from June to October, but on Zwift the weather is always welcoming!

Here’s the IRL segment:

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16 Comments
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Nrx
Nrx
1 year ago

Almost 4km longer the zwift one. Weird discrepancies.

Simon
Simon
1 year ago
Reply to  Nrx

It’s the climb from Airolo to the Gotthard Pass. The length is correct.

Nrx
Nrx
1 year ago
Reply to  Simon

IRL segment shows 11.8km, zwift segment 14.5km. Where does the difference come from? At first glance they look the same. Is Zwift climb starting earlier and finishing later?

Simon
Simon
1 year ago
Reply to  Nrx

https://www.quaeldich.de/paesse/st-gotthardpass/ there is the whole climb 14km.

Speed Brophy
Speed Brophy
1 year ago

This looks pretty awesome – almost steady after 5,5 km.

I have a question: How do I figure out the time estimates for 125% Heroic level?

Mathew Rose
Mathew Rose
1 year ago
Reply to  Speed Brophy

I’ve been doing every climb at all four gradient options. A quick rule of thumb is this, (assuming a similar wattage). If a climb takes 36 minutes at 100% gradient, you can do the 75% version and you should be between 32 and 31 minutes and expect the 125% heroic version to be between 40 and 41 minutes. Whatever the gap is in terms of time saved going to 75%, the gap up to 125% should be the same in terms of extra time. The long climbs over an hour like Mt. Hamilton, my gap gets out to 7-8 minutes more, but figure on a gap of around 5 minutes for a 40 minute climb like this.

Christian
Christian
1 year ago

The time estimates seem off. 99 minutes at 2 W/kg sounds right, but 5W at 19 minutes seems very quick, no?

Last edited 1 year ago by Christian
Christian
Christian
1 year ago
Reply to  Eric Schlange

Perfect, Thank you so much! 🙂

Marco
Marco
1 year ago

Finally a climb in Switzerland! One of the most beautiful climbs in Europe!

Simon
Simon
1 year ago

I did it in June this year, and the road was “closed” even as late as the middle of the month. The barrier was down at about half distance, after which the cobbles are unrelenting all the way to the top. There was snow banked up at the road-side and some of the road surface was damaged still from the winter. But, there was just one other rider, no cars, no motorbikes but lots of marmots enjoying the solitude. It is a great ride and I’m looking forward to completing it several times in December in the virtual world and then again for real in June.

Peter Josefchak
Peter Josefchak
1 year ago

Just finished this one. Enjoyed it – except that on 8/10 stages I got the dreaded 10XP! It seems that 10XP comes up far too often than any of the other PUs. Is the algorithm properly calibrated? A climbing mind would like to know. Thanks

ZSM
ZSM
10 months ago

Happy to see this scheduled on the climb of the (next) week. I’ve done it in this direction at night in June this year, during the RACH1000 and thanks to my 32mm tubeless, the cobbles were relatively smooth. Looking forward to do it in the comfort of my bathroom! ;o) and without any cold wind during the last switchbacks.Maybe without any emotion passing the top also…

Thorben
Thorben
10 months ago

Eric,
it would be awesome if you could add the ETA for the different % per climb as well.

Jdkdkd
Jdkdkd
7 months ago

Beschissenere App kenn ich nicht!