“Road to Sky” Route Details (Watopia)
Watopia’s “Road to Sky” route is the shortest route which includes Alpe du Zwift, a massive climb modeled after the iconic Alp d’Huez.
Route Basics
Length: 17.3 km (10.7 miles)
Elevation: 1045m (3,428′)
+0.1km (0.1 miles) lead-in
Map: Watopia
ZIMetrics
Rating: 25.2/100 🛈
Time Estimates 🛈
4 W/kg: 55 minutes
3 W/kg: 69 minutes
2 W/kg: 100 minutes
Start & Finish
Format: Point-to-Point
Restriction: Level 6+
Ride Achievement Badge: 380 XP
Run Achievement Badge: none
Leaderboard Segments |
| Alpe du Zwift KOM (12.2km, 8.5%) |
Strava Segments
Bike Selection
Looking to get your fastest time up the Alpe? Check out Fastest Bike Frame and Wheelset for Climbing Alpe du Zwift.
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Estimate ride time, IF and TSS, plan your power, and more!
Route Description
Route profile by ZwiftHub – the place to plan and track your route achievements!
Zwift created this route using GPS data to perfectly match the incline and distance of the storied climb with its 21 hairpin turns. The climb to Alp d’Huez actually has two different finish points: the “tourist version” and the Tour de France version. Alpe du Zwift matches the tourist version, which is ~2km shorter with 40 meters less climbing than the TdF. In all, Alpe du Zwift is 12.24km (7.6 miles) long, with a total elevation gain of over 1000 meters (3400′)! Read more >
If you choose this route for a freeride you’ll begin just a few hundred yards before the jungle start pens. Events on Road to Sky now begin in the jungle start pens.
So whatever type of ride you’re doing, you’ll drop into the jungle, wave to the sloth and enjoy a little gravel riding before you hang a right and head up the Alpe.
The route ends at the KOM banner atop Alpe du Zwift.
The Strava segment links back to this page?
What a great site thanks
For a race, is it worth starting with a MTB then switching to a lighter bike?
Just wondering if the 5kms or so is enough of a stretch that you can get a lead and not lose it vs just starting with a lighter bike from the start
I’d say a definite yes. I hate riding the gravel in my Tron bike
Hi, is it possible to invite a friend to join in a meet-up for Alpe Du Zwift (road to sky), even if that friend is level 5?
Definitely!
I just did this route, BIG step up for me so super pleased. Is it really only 380xp though? That seems a bit stingy 🙁
Ahhh it’s related to distance only
Make sure that you ride back down to get another 240 free XP without actually having to sit on the bike and ride
To get the xp point on descent do you have to return from where you start ?
Or you can just return to the start of the climb . There s about 5km difference
Its just the 12km from the descent (12*20 XP), so to the start of the climb.
Can I ride up alpe du zwift on workout mode and still get the achievement 380xp ?Also if I do alpe de zwift for the 3rd time will I always get the 380xp achievement each time?
You only get the XP bonus when completing a new route, but of course gain regular XP points for each km or mile ridden.
Why did the road to the sky take me on a 11 mile with 498 feet of climb ride?
I don’t understand the graphic display of my previous 30 days rides up AdZ in the sector stats. Is the vertical axis showing ET or speed? Does the horizontal axis show the most recent ride on the right or the left?
Just did alpe du zwift and I got a new pr. Got the confetti. Luckily I noticed my time in the couple of seconds it shows it because my new pr isn’t showing up on zwift companion. Ugh!
@Eric Schlange do you perhaps know why the corners 20 to 19 and 19 to 18 arent shown as a segment in Strava ?
Because those segments are too short – Strava won’t let me make them into segments. (Their minimum used to be 300m. Now it’s 500m.)
Is there a place where you can see the different avg % of each turn/interval? Like it’s shown on the climb portal?
@Eric Schlange is this something you know about?
Nothing in game that shows average gradient. There are Strava segments for most of the sections, though, and you could check those out.
Ok. Thank you. Maybe i was hoping it could be added to this page 🙂
How many riders get off the bike to change into dry cycling pants? I climb 8 miles and if I want to go to the top have to make change . Or now I just ride 8 miles which gives me 2000 ft which used to take 1:02, now I’m at 54:16 . so I’m thinking quality of quantity , but I also want and know I can ride the whole ride and PR it . With soaking pants . LOL
Hi, how come zwift companion shows 30 km for the road to sky race?
What Road to Sky race? Post a link?
Zwift Hill Climb Racing Club – Alpe du Zwift KQOM https://www.zwift.com/events/view/4366234
I guess they set it up to be that long. Not sure why? I think what would happen if it’s set to that length is you’d basically climb the Alpe, then descend to the bottom. Maybe they just wanted the event to have a fun finish?
Funny how hard it is to find info about the race…the map…etc..a hint is here: https://zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=4366241
It looks like there is a decent after climbing it all but then climbing up again because altogether it seems to have 1800m of climbing 🙂 Nice.
That map on ZwiftPower isn’t accurate, since ZP doesn’t know what to do with an event that is longer than the length of a one-way route.
I’ve climbed the Alpe du zwift course 29 times and still haven’t received the 25x badge. I have used different trainers and climbed the course using a workout segment. Does that make a difference?
No, that shouldn’t matter.
If one intends to ride AdZ twice, do you need to turn around after completing the first ascent or will the route take you back to the start of the climb (where one would turn around to avoid the gravel piece)?
The route takes u back to the start of the climb, where u can turn around
To be precise, it automatically turns you around at the TOP of the climb, but not at the bottom. So you’ll have to flip a u-turn there if you’re doing repeats.
Thanks Andy & Eric
Is there any reason why the Strava ticked AdZ segment shows an average gradient of -0.8 % for the climb and an elevation gain of just 223m for the full climb?
Because Strava broke the elevation profiles of segments when they marked them as officially verified. Verified Zwift segments, for whatever reason, are using the IRL GPS elevation data from wherever they’re located on the map.
I told Strava about this (months ago) but nothing has changed. Emailed them again about it today…
Did this today, first time, though had done part of it with ZG25, so had some idea. Not a great ride for a fat middle aged dude, but happy with 75 minutes on the KOM. Probably could have paced myself better, but two things I didn’t love more than others… 1- the route doesn’t take you back down, which is 90% of the fun of any mountain climb. 2- after you round the 20th turn, it doesn’t end. It goes on. And the turn segment counter goes away, and you’re like “What?!?” At least I was.
Will revisit in a month or two.
Once you reach the top and keep riding do you reset to the bottom by itself? And then you take a U turn manually at the base if you want to repeat?? But where? Is there any marker? Trying to understand how to use this route as part of “everesting – 8K meters climbing in single effort ”
Yes, you’ll loop around automatically at the top and descend. At the bottom, you’ll need to flip a manual u-turn to begin climbing again.
welchen Link muss ich anklicken um direkt diese Strecke abzufahren ?
Inwiefern Link? Du wählst die Strecke „Road to Sky“ in Zwift aus.
I haven’t tackled the Alp yet, my trainer difficulty is 100%, is it cheating if I reduce that to say 60/70 %.
I already know I’ll run out of gears on 100% (using 50/34 with 11-28 cassette).
Not cheating, since you still have to do the same amount of work. See https://zwiftinsider.com/using-the-trainer-difficulty-setting-in-zwift/
Ok, Thank you.