How to ride the Col d'Eze

How to ride the Col d’Eze.

Not the most exciting blog in the world but certainly one I do think I have a little bit of an insight into. I think to date I have ridden up this road 30 plus times. I have still not put in, well, lets say a competitive time compared to the pro’s, but I have consistently improved and now have snuck into the top 20 on Strava.

This climb in my opinion is not a genuine climb. What I call a genuine climb is more consistent climbing throughout. Col d’Eze hits you hard early on, around 8 minutes or 8%. I can hear some of you saying “I think thats a climb”, well yes it is. Let me continue though and you will see my point... So then you get a few hundred meters of (false) flat. Then follows another 3 minutes of 7-8%. After this my argument hopefully starts to stack up a little bit. We then have a long section which starts to head back towards the ocean where the max grade is around 4% and lots of this is properly flat (0 or 1%), you can regularly see 40kph on this “climb” in this part of the effort. So for 5 minutes you sort of get a rest if you fancy it. If not you can get into an aero position and reap the benefits.

Then we are back to the climbing bit, another good solid section of 6-7 minutes of 7-8%. This is where you start to get some truly epic views of the Cotes d’Azur and its coastline. Once this section is put away you are reasonably in the clear again. The last 4-5 minutes start to help you out, you can really start to build that average speed up again. 4% mostly, and the last 1500m, well this flat and then down hill! On a climb... yes its downhill, descending. Here you will sometimes see speeds of 50+ kph... Then you see the Paris-Nice finish line just outside a hotel and another 30-40 seconds and the village sign for “Col d’Eze”. There you have it, the finish.

One of the stunning views climbing Col d'zee unlocks...

So that is a rough outline of the climb. Now what follows is how I think you can get the best time out of it.

When you watch the professionals going up this climb you see the major majority riding time trial bikes. The ones who are not on TT bikes usually are on road bikes with Tri bars. So this shouts aero before we even get on the climb. Saying this, and before you all pack your time trial bikes you have to remember these guys are producing some epic amounts of power, so when they are on a 2% stretch they can be hitting 35+kph where aerodynamics make a huge difference. If you are not ploughing out 4+ W/Kg then a standard bike maybe your weapon of choice for comfort.

When I paid my first visit to Justin in France, I had no idea about cycling. Literally none, and less about climbing. I just worked hard for the full climb. Out at Justin’s the standard procedure was, on the last day, usually the 5th day after 4 super tough days we would all trundle to the start of the climb and go off in reverse order 1 minute apart. Any thought of aerodynamics back then I would have laughed at you. Now with a little bit more knowledge I have changed how I ride this climb completely. Not only am I thinking about the aerodynamics and how slippery my kit and bike is. I am also considering that old favorite... weight!

A little while ago when I seemingly couldn’t get any faster up this climb I started to go off it, thats when I thought it as not a genuine climb hence I was no good up it. More recently I have started to enjoy it more and more as it has it all really on a speed perspective. You have to be light, or should I say your W/Kg needs to be decent to get over the steep ramps. You also need to be slippery and aero, if not you are speedy on the steep climbing sections to only be let down when you kit is flapping about in the wind and you are sat up eating all the benefits of “free speed”.

So what decision did I make to my most recent PB up Col d”Eze.... Well I decided to take my huge saddle bag off and went for the minimum kit, I was only a walk from the apartment if I did get a mechanical a taxi with the €20 in my sock (don’t worry that €20 has already been spent, not a nice smelling note that one now...) would have got me out of jail. So that lightened me up significantly. Next only taking one water bottle and making sure it is only half full at the start, some for the route and a little for the descent back. So without getting a new bike that has dropped over 1kg from my previous PB.

Next up is aerodynamics, so the biggest problem with aero is you. and the thing that covers you and hides your dignity.... bib shorts and jersey, this I changed for a skin suit. I have a second hand one (luckily long arms for this time of year) not the best fit, but either way it would be a massive saving at speed compared to my ill fitting jersey tops. Overshoes, if my slippery ones had not broken I would have put these on (so a bit more speed to come maybe), but I didn’t so bare shoes. Helmet, now, I am not one for wanting a lot of attention, and as much as I wanted to be uber fast up the climb I also didn’t want to make headline next week in Nice with me being on the front pages “British moron rides d’Eze slowly with aero helmet”. So I opted for my standard one, more speed to come there too if I fancy looking like a pillock. I did consider taking off my second water bottle cage, again this would have made a difference but I could not be bothered in the end so left it on.

So the changes I have noted are the changes I made from my effort 2 weeks ago. The other change is how you ride the climb, what I mean by that is how you put your effort out. Usually I say on a “genuine” climb you sit at a power number you know you can do and suffer steadily. This is no normal climb, I have tried the steady number way. It worked for a while as I was getting stronger but then I plateaued. So now we tend to put more effort (only slightly) on the steeper sections. Then when you get to a false flat you hit the gas for a few seconds to get the speed nice and high, then I almost take a little breather. In the “breather” section the negative part is that you have to get aerodynamic, tuck your arms in, head down, I even keep my knees in a little bit. I feel that it all counts and justifies me “taking it easy” in these lower grade sections. :-)

So today I went for all the suggestions above. I know the climb so well that I also know my own personal split times at 4 different places on route. At the first point I was already around 15 seconds up, this was a surprise but a sign the weight loss has helped on the steeper stuff. At each check point I was ahead and kept on the numbers. Although these numbers were down on what I would usually do I ended up with a much better time. around 25 seconds I think.

The other thing to look at is my previous best was done as intervals. 1 min on, 3 mins off. the off’s were still at threshold so a hard hard climb. All the same, I think this shows that when you do Col d’Eze you have to place those efforts (or “on’s”) exactly where the false flats are appearing and get the pace high.

Anyway, I think I have fully bored the life out of most people. Undoubtedly most of you will say “why don’t you just enjoy the stunning views, etc, etc”.... Well I did that too but on the way down. Suffer one way and enjoy the other.

Me after Monday's last day effort.

So below are my best 10 times over the 2 and a half years.

27:23

26:57

26:34

26:33

25:52

25:25

25:24

25:18

25:11

25:06

And Monday: 24:39

By the Summer/end of the season I would like to take another minute off the above... We shall see.

Thanks for reading.