How realistic is Alpe du Zwift?

Have you every wondered how realistic Alpe du Zwift is when compared to Alpe d’Huez? I have now ridden Alpe d’Huez twice and Alpe Du Zwift multiple times. In this video I place the rides side by side, although I have to admit that the comparison is not an equal one.

The Alpe d’Huez ride was in 2022, when I have been training for our trip to the Alpes for several months. The Alpe du Zwift ride was on 26th December and was my first ride for 3 weeks (and I am 8kgs heavier!).

Overall I think Zwift have done a great job of re-creating Alpe d’Huez in the online environment. I set Zwift to the highest difficulty setting, so I was mostly using the 34 chainring during this ride (as I was on Alpe d’Huez). My average power and speed were a bit lower, and this was reflected in my overall time. Let me know what you think in the comments.

My time for the official Alpe d’Huez strava segment was 1h 16m 25s, but as you will see, I have several stops – moving time was 1hr 12m 44s. By best time on Zwift is currently 1hr 05m 32s.

If you ever get the chance to ride Alpe d’Huez in real life, you could do a lot worse than practising on Zwift!

🎵 Music from Artlist.io Data overlays (cadence, grade, power, speed) added using Wahoo Element Bolt and Telemetry Overlay.