Originally Posted by
gthomson
Does anyone have any tactics or techniques they want to share when climbing on Zwift? I'm not a big fan of hills to begin with, being 5'11" and 185 on a really good day, I am not fast up a hill and Zwift seems to punish me with no regret.
I tried climbing Mont Ventoux last summer and got about half way up and thought, forget this. I did Alpe Du Zwift a few years back during the original Tour Da Zwift and thought that was hell. The other night I thought, maybe I'll give this another try and so I chose. Sea to Sky route to challenge the mountain. Well about 50 minutes in I was only half way so I bailed.
Determined not to give up, I tackled it again on Sunday when I had more time and slogged my up. Finally finished it in 1:35 roughly and earned a blue helmet. I was soaked, my legs were toast and i was tired for the rest of the day. I had earned the Trek Emonda the first attempt, so used that for the 2nd ride, put on my Zipp 202 wheels but it didn't help much.
Anyone consider this fun?
It is fun when you can do it. We were all where you were once. i used to not like hills so much but now love them. most of my rides include climbing because it is a challenge. i can do the alpe in under 60 minutes now and that big hill in france in under 90. the hill in france is the only hill i ride now that makes me tired for the rest of the day.
were i you i would keep to zwift's KOM hills. either direction are not too bad. get those to the point where they are easy then go do the alpe again.
what i like about the new road added between teh two ends of the KOM route is that now i can take that short cut and go back up again. hit the tower once or twice and feel good about it in the end.