Having ridden a couple of the new climbs I think they are a good addition. Not as good as proper new roads but at least good for training. Especially with all the information that is currently displayed. I also think that color schemes for the different gradients fit in nicely. The experience can be improved with a number of things (some also mentioned by others):
Gradient changes are very bad sometimes: especially on Col des Aravis. Changing from -2 to >20% in a short space. Please make this more fluent or at least accurate to the IRL climb! Suppose it is caused by rounded altitude meters in the underlying gps data, should be easy to fix and would make the climb a lot more enjoyable.
Use the climb name in the savename, in stead of the name of the entrance to the portal
A little less colorful sky and a darker (not purple) road on the downhills
Hi,
I believe it has been flagged that the Avg power shown at the end currently includes the ālead inā section (before getting to the climb)ā¦ Hopefully this will be fixed soon to just show the climb avg power.
So, if you took the lead in section easier on your second climb, this may explain the lower avg even though you climbed faster/harder.
I climbed the Puy de DĆ“me last night for my first Climb Portal experience. I thought it was great. The visuals are a nice change and being able to see the color-coded gradient changes ahead (and the looming second half of the climb) helped a lot with pacing.
I do think there was a missed opportunity to tie in even more tightly with the Tour. I had logged in last night assuming I would be able to climb the Col de Grand Colombier before the peloton got to it today, but thatās not an option. Next year Zwift should really try to have each of the Tourās epic climbs ready to go and run them the day before and leading up to the the stage. Heck, get some of the commentators to climb them in Zwift so they talk about it on air. (Dan Lloyd would be game, but it would be even better someone convinced Carlton Kirby to do it.)
So, I settled on the Puy de DĆ“me, since that stage had been epic as well, and it did not disappoint.
I donāt think it has, but if Zwift implements user-uploaded GPX routes I bet it will look more like the portal climbs than anything else in the game.
When Climb Portal was unveiled I thought it would be really boring due to no scenery. I found longer climbs are, and I wonāt be doing them again. Iāve done all the Portal climbs.
An hour on the Tourmalet with no memorable reference points was a chore. Iād rather do AdZ or Ventoux.
But the shorter climbs are awesome for hill repeats. Iāll be doing them a lot.
I think if they toned down the sky/background a bit and put some crowds etc along the road it would make quite a bit of difference with speed perception.
I do like how they break down the climbs into segments like the Alpe, makes the longer climbs a bit more manageable
Iām a big fan of the Climb Portal, and the graphics donāt bother me at all. I like that the road color changes with gradient changes. Zwift could just use generic road graphics, with trees etc. on the side & pavement instead of the colored surface. But overall itās great.
Iād love to see the Mount Washington Auto Road as an option, itās 7.6 miles with 4,650 of elevation gain, averaging 12%, the lowest gradient is a brief period of ~6%, and hits 22% at the end.
There seems to be an issue with Gradient changes in sim mode in the portals. Happened yesterday and today, different climbs, both times France. Big changes would take 10ish seconds to be felt on my bike. Teleported to coco after and itās back to instantaneous. PC, France, Tacx bike.
ANT+ or BLE connection? Whichever it is, switch to the other and give it a go - I vaguely recall there being issues with one over the other with the NEObike. Odd that itād only be in the Climb Portal but itās worth troubleshooting.
I had my first go on the Climb Portal the other day, and it was a lot of fun. I have to say that itās a lot better than I expected. Even though I like a good climb, I was concerned by the āgamifiedā graphics and doubted that I would enjoy them.
But I was wrong. The coloured gradients give you a good idea of whatās coming up, along with the segment mini-map, and the sensation of (low in my case) speed is still there. Just need to do something a bit better with the colours when descending as others have said.
Like others, I hope that after the challenge finished weāre not just going to be limited to a single climb on any given day.
Sorter climps i may even attackā:thinking:
