French cyclists use the term “casse-pattes” (literally “leg-breaking”) to refer to particularly difficult parts of a ride, or roads that awkwardly change gradient and break a cyclist’s rhythm.
Released with Zwift’s France map for the first-ever Virtual Tour de France, the Casse-Pattes route covers the large outer loop of the map in a clockwise direction. The first 12km is pan-flat with two timed sprint segments, but then that rhythm is broken up in the back half by two timed KOM climbs.
Route Basics
Length: 23 km (14.3 miles)
Elevation: 145 m (476‘)
Lead-In: 0.9 km (0.6 miles)
Map: France
Start & Finish
Begins and ends at the Marina Sprint banner.
Restriction:
Achievement Badge: 460 XP
Banners and Leaderboards
(in order of appearance)
Marina Sprint Reverse
Pavé Sprint Reverse
Aqueduc KOM Reverse
Petit KOM
Strava Segments
Strava SegmentsBike Selection
Despite two timed KOM segments, this route is very flat overall. Your fastest times will come from an aero setup!
Route Description
Route profile by ZwiftHub – the place to plan and track your route achievements!
Beginning with a short lead-in from the start pens, we travel east into the marina where we get a chance to hit the Marina Reverse Sprint. (This sprint banner is the official start/finish line for this loop.)
Enjoy the sites as you spin through the flattest portion of the France map. You’ll spot Mont Saint-Michel to your left, as well as a familiar Arch and Needle as you ride near the sea. Just past a field of sunflowers, you’ll enter a town that includes the Pavé sprint segment. Go for the green, then prep your legs for the short Aqueduc KOM.
-
- Marina
-
- Mont Saint-Michel
-
- Pavé sprint
You will descend into the fields of vineyards and flowers before it’s time to hit the big climb of this loop: the Petit KOM. At 2.7km with an average grade of 4% its zigzags are just long and steep enough to make your legs really feel the effort!
Recover as you descend and ride past the start pens, then it’s one final Marina Reverse sprint to the finish line.
-
- Lavender fields
-
- Aqueduc KOM
-
- Climbing the Petit KOM
Casse-Pattes is in the south Pacific … not in France?
Correct. Since the France map doesn’t correspond to any IRL French roads (except for the Ventoux portion), they didn’t place it in France GPS-wise. At least, I assume that’s the reason.
Is this the route to pick to shoot for the leader’s orange jersey for France?
It seems that the discovery rides with 1000 riders to draft off of are the best chance to set a PR on these courses. For comparison, I rode this twice, once on a TT setup (Shiv Disc + Zipp 858) in a discovery event after riding it on a climbing frame in an event where I got the advantage of drafting. It took me 33:26 per lap at 292w without drafting compared to 31:11 at 293w when drafting in a pack of 20 in the event. Discounting the one-watt difference, it goes to show how much of an impact drafting… Read more »