HOW TO WIN ON THE GRADE ON ZWIFT! - Oh hill no!

[@psymanj73]

Top tips from a top climber, who is a top rider and most importantly, a top all round bloke! Kudos to you, Gerben! 💪 🚲 👊

[@RideWithGerben]

Thx Simon! Hope it helps. :D

[@SteakandChains]

I’m glad you noticed Mr A kept going to massive watts then dropping. When i saw it in your first video i was so confused as to how and why someone would ride like that. It seems like they tried to pass you but kept stopping. Great breakdown!

[@RideWithGerben]

Yes! That guy was microbursting and cheating at the same time. Crazy.

[@lee-cycling]

This was a great video. Really cool to see a deep dive on this. I think you got the strategy just right. I did this today, and I wish I'd seen this video before. It would have helped. The lesson is watch more Gerben.

[@RideWithGerben]

Sometimes I accidentally get it right! LOL! Thx Lee!

[@robertnobles8189]

This is great timing and helpful advice. They just scheduled the Grade for next week’s Hill Climb iTT series!

[@RideWithGerben]

They did? Nice! Thank you for watching!

[@tathh2531]

Great advice Gerben, did my run this morning and smashed it. Surprised I did almost all the things you advised 😄 My graph was a sea of red and orange. Blow my old FTP away. It's going to make workouts a touch harder now 😂 Worried now I'll get bumped to Cat B if I keep these efforts up 😧

[@RideWithGerben]

Congratulations! Ride this well and you are A cat in no time 🤣

[@anemlachhomebrewing3690]

Great vid, will use your tips for my next attempt. Did my first attempt literally 2hrs ago, thought I way dying from just after the flat section to the top…. Hurt locker 😅

[@RideWithGerben]

Yes! The real pain is the second half of the climb!

[@anemlachhomebrewing3690]

@@RideWithGerben I should have watched your vid first 😜

[@eloann]

Pushing at the end is probably best to complete the climb as quickly as possible, but if using it as a test I'd argue keeping a steady wattage throughout is more relevant. I managed 290W for about 14:30 (similar weight to you) coming off a 2 weeks sick break ; I'll aim for 300 next time.

[@RideWithGerben]

Yes. Steady power is the best. The flat bit at 1.3k makes it difficult though. So I negative splitted it.

[@ryancraig2795]

I actually enjoy this climb, and have done it twice in the last couple weeks. It's not so bad, only 300m.

[@RideWithGerben]

I don’t enjoy it that much, mostly due to the flat bit that kills the rhythm. But I will be back on this one soon 😄

[@jeffreyanthony7348]

Thanks for sharing

[@RideWithGerben]

Anytime Jeffrey. Thx for watching!

[@davidcarino6500]

Thank you 👍

[@RideWithGerben]

You are welcome 🙏

[@CalmLikeABomb76]

Enjoy the coffee and keep up the good work :)

[@RideWithGerben]

Many thanks man!!! ☕️☕️☕️☕️

[@BAKPDLPaul]

Just tried this route yesterday and it was comfortable on the first climb (able to hold 3.3 w/kg) then soon as I hit the flat section lactate kicked in and made my legs suffer thereby dropping my ftp down to 252

[@RideWithGerben]

Yes. Pace it somewhat slower in the first half. Second half is wayyy steeper. And the surface is snow/ice, so you go slower to enhance the suffering 😅

[@BAKPDLPaul]

@@RideWithGerben that’s the thing though I was holding it lower Z5 high Z4…once hit the flat (kickr climb was on full) resistance was instantly reduced and I used it to recover slightly. So would you recommend turning off climbing resistance?

[@BAKPDLPaul]

@@RideWithGerben the way I saw was 2 x 10-12 min blocks

[@RideWithGerben]

@@BAKPDLPaul No. Gear down a little on the flat bit, try to keep power the same as on the climb.

[@BAKPDLPaul]

@@RideWithGerben I was down to gear 4 couldn’t go any lower (leave some gears for recovery) 😂

[@LD-bv1pm]

I also tried to save a bit for the end but then I thought - does a 10% drop in power have a bigger impact on a 13% grade than an 8% grade? Would I have been better putting out more power on the flatter bits?

[@RideWithGerben]

On a light bike like this one I am in camp more power on the steep bits to profit more from the low weight.

[@pierrex3226]

How do you think this compares with Alpes du zwift for everesting purposes?

[@RideWithGerben]

This has the potential to be better. It’s steeper.

[@patrickj4747]

Did you adjust your trainer difficulty or did you have it at 100%?

[@RideWithGerben]

100% hence the grinding 🤣

[@carloss5099]

What is your weight?

[@RideWithGerben]

72/73 kilograms

[@carloss5099]

@@RideWithGerben Thank nice ride

[@elgrupo2069]

I didn't get it what is the difference between your average power of 325W and your grade 286W? Anyway, thanks for explanation 🙂

[@RideWithGerben]

Yeah. Zwift magic. It takes a formula to your power to get a guesstimation of your FTP. I've read it is based on performances of thousands of Zwifters.

[@jakobjas4212]

Like Gerben said, it's an estimation of your FTP based on thousands of data points. The calculation falls on a power curve, so for example, if your climb takes 20 minutes your FTP figure will be around 95% of you avg power, if the climb only takes 12 minutes, it might be around 85% of the avg power for the climb (not exact figure, just for example). Gerben took 13 minutes and his estimated FTP was around 87% of his avg power.

[@ryancraig2795]

​@@jakobjas4212interesting. My FTP score of 202 was only 10 less than my average for the climb, so like you say about 95%. Yeah, I'm not very fast. But getting faster, slowly 😂

[@tommytello]

did you stand at any point?

[@RideWithGerben]

Yes I did. Most of it in the second half.