Zwift Climb Portal: Bealach na Bà

A new one on me today, a first climb of Zwift’s reproduction of Bealach na Bà, a Category 2 climb covering 632m of elevation over 9km at an average of 7%.

One of the challenging parts of this climb is that the hardest part comes in the second half of the ride. At the half way point in terms of distance there is still 400m of climbing left to do. That means things definitely get steeper in the second half where your legs may already be tired.

Speaking of tired legs, mine seemed fine today but that was misleading as I really struggled for power.

Being a Saturday I was fairly free for time so got in a good 20 minute warm up. Easy pedalling really, sticking with a Cat D pacer bot and clocking up 10km or so. It would be good if there was a way to jump from that ride right on to the Climb Portal route, but there isn’t, so I had to stop and reset.

From there I set off in Watopia and was on the climb before I had even looked up from picking a mix to listen to whilst on the climb. No joke. I was glad to have done a separate warm up as that one was ridiculously short.

That does go some way to explaining my lacklustre pace in the 9th (first) segment.

However as I say, the bottom of this one is fairly flat. It’s deceptive in that by the end of the first (erm, 9th) segment you will have already clocked up 10% overall progress… however not all kilometres are created equally 🙂

The first four segments (9, 8, 7 and 6) are all around the 4.5% range. It all feels quite calm and relaxed.

I struggled to get above the 230w range on these segments, though this was because I was riding at about 40% trainer difficulty. I realised this far too late and wasn’t inclined to stop and change it being already underway.

Things do get increasingly harder from the 5th segment onwards. Suddenly the average gradient jumps to around 8% with each one getting that bit harder.

It’s tempting to go harder on the pedals at this point, especially watching the ETA tick up and your average KPH slow significantly. However there’s still a long way to go and pacing yourself is critical. Or at least it was for me.

Each of those harder sections has some steep gradients to tackle. 14% to 20% in places, although more 14s than 20s overall.

After each gruelling climb portion comes a small but welcome descent. Those do come back to bite you on the way down, but more on that later.

The toughest segment is #2 and I struggled on there to find pace but also with a number of technical issues. I got several connection drops where my rider came to a halt but I never stopped pedalling, so at least I kept my momentum. Even so it added extra seconds to what was already a fairly knackering experience.

With the end in sight, the second to last segment (labelled #1) wasn’t as hard as #2, and I feel like although my pace was the weakest of the whole ride during that part, I gave a better account of myself on that than in #2. Odd that.

Then finally the segment to the line felt practically flat at just 5% after the previous four brutalisers.

My time could definitely have been improved. I reckon I could shave at least a minute off my 38:42, partly through the connectivity issues, and partly because my overall average was lower than my FTP.

Anyway, I was bushed and very much looking forwards to 9km of free wheeling back down.

But no. It’s not a free wheel. You will need to pedal, especially on the bottom half. But even up top those little descents on the way up need a bit of leg work to up and over on the way back down.

Some of the steep gradients will see you rocketing in pace though – apparently I hit 90kph at one point, don’t remember that as the Climb Portal doesn’t do much to give the impression of speed. But if you’re looking to grab your speed demon badge then this one could be one to do it on.

After I was done with the descent, for reasons unknown this route continues on around the Volcano for a full lap.

Utterly pointless, and you don’t get anything for it in terms of a route badge or anything. At least not that I could see. I felt very disappointed for having done the full route and got nothing. Well, aside from the sore legs and floppy sense of achievement. Woo.

So that was that.

Absolutely bushed. A good workout but not a standout performance.

I think a recovery walk is in order.