Cycling Climbs: Elevation Profiles and How Long They Take

How to read an elevation profile

An elevation profile is the road seen from the side: distance runs across, elevation runs up. What really matters is three numbers: length, elevation gain (how far up you go) and the average grade, which is the gain divided by the distance. A 6.2-mile (10 km) climb that gains 2,625 ft (800 m) averages 8%.

The average can fool you. Two climbs at 8% can feel completely different if one is steady and the other mixes flat stretches with 15% ramps. That's why every climb page also gives the max grade and, when we've been able to verify it, a segment-by-segment profile with this color code:

• < 3%
• 3–6%
• 6–9%
• 9–12%
• 12–15%
• ≥ 15%

What VAM means

VAM (from the Italian velocità ascensionale media, average climbing speed) is how many vertical meters you climb in an hour. It's the standard way to compare different climbs: if you ride the Angliru in 1 hr 20 min, you gain 4,154 ft (1,266 m) in 80 minutes, a VAM of about 950 m/h (3,100 ft per hour). It mostly depends on your watts per kilo (power divided by body weight in kilograms): at 3 W/kg you climb at about 850-950 m/h on an 8% grade; the best pros go over 1,700 m/h.

How we rate difficulty: the FIETS index

To rank the climbs we use the FIETS index, created by the Dutch magazine Fiets. The formula is public:

FIETS = H² / (D × 10) + (T − 1,000) / 1,000

H is the elevation gain in meters, D the distance in meters and T the summit elevation in meters (the second term only counts above 1,000 m, or 3,281 ft, because there's less oxygen higher up). We group the scores into five bands of our own:

The index doesn't see the shape of the profile, so a climb with brutal ramps can score the same as a steady one. Use it to compare, and always check the max grade before choosing your gearing with the gear ratio calculator. Formula source: Runalyze, “Climb Score” (FIETS index).

Where the numbers come from

Every figure is checked against at least two sources (climb databases, Grand Tour organizers, Wikipedia and local sites), which we cite at the bottom of each climb page. When they disagree, we explain why. The profiles are our own drawings made from that data.