Col de VenceCat 2
- 9.66 km
- Length
- 6.5%
- Average
- 631 m
- Elevation gain
- 8.7%
- Steepest 500 m
- 963 m(sign)
- Summit
Vence gives you no warm-up. The first five hundred metres out of the town are among the steepest on the whole climb, and from there the gradient holds between six and seven per cent almost without a break. The hardest stretch comes earlier than most people expect, around the fourth kilometre. It does not get worse after that, but it does not ease off either. The top is open and exposed, with no shade and no water, so fill your bottles in Vence before you start. There are signs for cyclists along the road giving metres of climbing and kilometres left to the top.
How long will Col de Vence take you?
A rider at 3.0 W/kg takes about 46 minutes to climb Col de Vence.
Put in your weight and the average power you hold on the gradient. We add 9 kg for bike and kit. The model works the time out from physics, and it has been tested against real rides.
Riders
The road
The road up from Vence goes from the coast into a completely different landscape. Down below there are olive terraces and gardens. Higher up it is dry and bare, with no trees to give shade.
Paris–Nice uses this side regularly, and the climb is also on the Ironman course in Nice.
From the pass the view points inland rather than out to sea. Coursegoules sits on the far hillside, built into the wall of the Cheiron massif, and the road carries on onto a high plateau instead of dropping back to the coast.
The climb
There is no introduction. The first five hundred metres out of Vence are among the steepest on the whole climb.
The second and third kilometres are the shallowest, and that is the only break you get. Use it.
The fourth kilometre is the hardest. Half a kilometre of it measures close to nine per cent, and it does not get steeper than that.
From there the gradient holds between six and seven per cent to the top. The trees thin out along the way, and the last section is in the open. In the heat that is the worst of it, even though it is not the steepest.
