# Colorado Category Climbs



## CO Road Bike

I am sure this has been discussed many times before, especially during the Tour, but I am going to ask the question anyways so I apologize for the duplicate question. What category would some of the nice Colorado passes (e.g., Independence Pass, Vail Pass (Vail to Copper), Loveland Pass, etc.) be if they were in a pro cycling event like the Tour. I am watching the Tour and I would like some perspective as to the size of climbs the riders are making.


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## PhatTalc

It has been asked before, but it's a cool thread topic! 

TdF passes are ranked first for difficulty (length, steepness) and then for their influence on the stage outcome (a summit finnish will often get bumped up a category). Some get a bump due their fame!
On average, an HC category climb gains around 4000ft, Cat 1 about 2600ft and Cat 2 about 1500ft, but their is considerable overlap. The grades go between about 6 and 8% for HC/Cat 1 climbs, some are less but in general they are pretty steep. They all have difficult sections. In this year's tour, Mt Ventoux is a classic HC, long and steep (7.9%) and gaining about a mile vertical, whereas the Andorra Arcalis climb scraped HC categorisation because it ended the first real mountian stage. 

Colorado passes are much gentler, for acclimatised people. I used this before, it's pretty comprehensive, but for some reason they don't always use a sensible start end point for the climb.

Independence (and Mt. Evans) would get HC because they are giants even though they have a gentlish grade. Evans is also one of the biggest climbs in the US (certainly the highest) so would deserve HC for that alone. Loveland would get a 1 rating, just and I think most Colorado passes would be rated at 2-3, with only a few Cat 1.

In France it is easy to create a route about 100-140 miles long with 3-6 huge mountain passes in the way. In Co, it would be hard to find such a route. Personally, I think this year's tour has too few classic stages with Saw-tooth profiles and a true HC finish. Hopefully The penultimate stage will come up with the goodies...


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## dcp_nz

The big difference between climbs in Colorado and in France are altitude and gradient - Colorado climbs start high but because of winter conditions are low gradient.

Having ridden Independence Pass many times and Mt Ventoux last year I can say there is no comparison - Ventoux is much more difficult.

Rough numbers:
Mt Ventoux (from Bedouin) climbs about 6,000 ft in 20 kilometers
Independence Pass (from Aspen) climbs about 4,000 ft in 20 miles
That's 1.5 x vertical in 2/3 distance for Ventoux

Even factoring in the 8,000 ft starting elevation for Independence, Ventoux is a much harder climb.


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## Mootsie

Here is a listing of climbs in Colorado rated by difficulty. See the note at the bottom as to how they compare with Europe. This info is from the Rocky Mountain Cycling Club.



1 Mt. Evans 14150 9.0 
17 Grand Mesa -N 10840 8.6 
17 Grand Mesa -S 10840 6.3 
54 Magnolia 8223 6.0 
3 Cottonwood -E 12126 5.3 
15 Molas -S 10910 5.2 
2 Trail Ridge -E 12183 5.2 
13 Squaw\Juniper -W 11130 4.9 
12 Monarch -W 11312 4.9 
14 Red Mountain -N 11081 4.7 
6 Iceberg -E 11827 4.7 
12 Monarch -E 11312 4.6 
37 Lefthand Canyon 9173 4.6 
9 Slumgullion\Spring Creek -N 11530 4.6 
36 Golden Gate Canyon 9357 4.5 
47 Rist Canyon 7997 4.4 
4 Independence -W 12095 4.4 
50 SuperFlagstaff 7693 4.2 
22 St. Marys Glacier (Alice) 10314 4.2 
13 Squaw\Juniper -E 11130 4.1 
19 Coal Bank -S 10630 3.7 
53 Deer Creek \ High Grade 8450 3.6 
9 Slumgullion\Spring Creek -S 11530 3.5 
16 Wolf Creek -S 10850 3.4 
5 Loveland -W 11990 3.4 
11 Berthoud -S 11315 3.4 
25 La Manga\Cumbres -E&W 0230 3.3 
2 Trail Ridge -W 12183 3.2 
41 Hardscrabble -E 9085 3.2 
29 Cucharas -N 9941 2.9 
7 Fall River -W 11796 2.8 
4 Independence -E 12095 2.8 
59 Little Park Road 7011 2.8 
58 Cheyenne Canyon 7486 2.7 
23 Cameron -E 10276 2.6 
15 Molas -N 10910 2.5 
51 Black Canyon South Rim 8211 2.5 
46 Douglas 8268 2.5 
35 N. La Veta -E 9413 2.5 
3 Cottonwood -W 12126 2.4 
11 Berthoud -N 11315 2.4 
38 Ute -E 9165 2.4 
5 Loveland -E 11990 2.4 
52 Colorado National Monument 6655 2.3 
18 Milner -W 10758 2.3 
43 Dallas Divide -E 8970 2.3 
8 Hoosier -N 11541 2.2 
39 Wind River -N 9157 2.1 
40 Black Canyon North Rim 9117 2.1 
16 Wolf Creek -N 10850 2.1 
55 Ute Pass (Silverthorne) 9583 2.1 
56 Lookout Mnt 7317 2.1 
20 Vail -W 10600 2.1 
31 Gore -E 9527 2.0 
34 Rabbit Ears -W 9426 2.0 
14 Red Mountain -S 11081 2.0 
42 Poncha -N 9019 1.9 
21 Tennessee -N 10424 1.9 
44 McClure -S 8780 1.8 
44 McClure -N 8780 1.5 
28 Kenosha -E 9994 1.5 
26 N. Cochetopa -E 10149 1.5 
8 Hoosier -S 11541 1.4 
29 Cucharas -S 9941 1.3 
10 Fremont -N 11318 1.3 
24 Lizard Head -S 10250 1.3 
23 Cameron -W 10276 1.1 
27 Red Hill -E 10051 1.0 
24 Lizard Head -N 10250 0.9 
30 Willow Creek -S 9620 0.8 
20 Vail -E 10600 0.8 
30 Willow Creek -N 9621 0.7 
38 Ute -W 9165 0.7 
32 Wilkerson -E 9507 0.7 
10 Fremont -S 11318 0.6 
48 Yellow Jacket 1 -W 7780 0.4 
49 Yellow Jacket 2 -E 7424 0.3 
33 Trout Creek -E 9487 0.2 
45 Muddy -E 8772 0.05 
21 Tennessee -S 10424 0.04 

So what is the "hardest" climb in the Colorado database?
Mt. Evans earns that distinction with a rating of 9.0. Three of our climbs rate greater than a 6. For European references: L'alpe d'Huez scores a 10.0 (and it is only about 1/3 as long as Mt. Evans), and Mont Ventoux rates 12.7! The highest rated climb listed at KOMCycling.com is the 2,865 meter climb up Pic Du Midi Di Bigorre in the French Pyrenees with a rating of 19.7.


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## topmounter

The start points do seem odd... I wonder how Magnolia would rate if you started it from the bottom in Boulder... I'd also expect a bit higher rating for the ride up to Ward, but I've never started that ride from the intersection of LHC & 36. It'd also be interesting to see a ranking for Jamestown / Super-James.


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## nepbug

dcp_nz said:


> The big difference between climbs in Colorado and in France are altitude and gradient - Colorado climbs start high but because of winter conditions are low gradient.
> 
> Having ridden Independence Pass many times and Mt Ventoux last year I can say there is no comparison - Ventoux is much more difficult.
> 
> Rough numbers:
> Mt Ventoux (from Bedouin) climbs about 6,000 ft in 20 kilometers
> Independence Pass (from Aspen) climbs about 4,000 ft in 20 miles
> That's 1.5 x vertical in 2/3 distance for Ventoux
> 
> Even factoring in the 8,000 ft starting elevation for Independence, Ventoux is a much harder climb.


Having just returned from the Alps and riding many of the classics here are a few of the comparisons I came up with.

Col du Galibier (starting in La Grave and first going over Col du Lautaret) is similar to Independence Pass

Alpe d'Huez is like Flagstaff, but longer.

Ventoux is a monster, Super James with several more of the super sections stacked on top of it. Ventoux is deep into the HC classification. Independence is easier, but it would still be an HC climb.

Having ridden some of the other Cat 1s and HCs in this year's tour I would say we would have a pretty good amount of both in CO, obviously more cat 1s than HC though.


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## tour

the problem with colorados climbs is they start so high, its tough to add a lot of vert to them. i live in summit county, and the lowest the county goes is around 8700 feet. save evans, nothing goes beyond 12000 and some change, so even though there are great climbs, you cant go up much further from where you start.

contrast that to france, and you can start some climbs at almost sea level, and climb up to almost 7000 feet, and you see where some of the differences come from in difficulty


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## zenyu

*nope*

Independence is NOT an HC climb, it is category 1 according to mapmyride dot com. I'm looking on the quiznos stages at thier website for this summers race which includes Independence and they aren't listing the climb categories for some retarded reason. They need to like hire a real webmaster I guess for their race. Anyway, yeah, I thought Independence would be HC but it's not, Vail pass actually has much more steeper gradients (especially on the bike path, I think it's like 12 percent at one point)


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