Col de VescavoCat 2
- 5.67 km
- Length
- 5.6%
- Average
- 317 m
- Elevation gain
- 10.4%
- Steepest 500 m
- 476 m(GPX)
- Summit
Vescavo starts in Olivetta San Michele, on the Italian side. The first two kilometres are steady. The third is comfortably the hardest, with half a kilometre above ten per cent. Right after it comes the thing the average cannot tell you: a kilometre that is flat, and that drops for part of its length. It is the only place you get a rest. Here the road and the national border run in practically the same line for a few hundred metres, and the sign reading FRANCE stands where the road finally stays on the French side. The last two kilometres climb steadily again, a little harder than the first two. The descent takes you down to Sospel.
How long will Col de Vescavo take you?
A rider at 3.0 W/kg takes about 26 minutes to climb Col de Vescavo.
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
Narrow tarmac with no centre line, and a 30 km/h limit through the houses at the bottom. Above the village the hillside is held back by rockfall netting on one side, with a guardrail towards the valley on the other. The olive terraces sit below you almost the whole way up. On the third kilometre the road shares its line with the national border: for a few hundred metres there is less than twenty metres between the tarmac and the border.
The climb
Two quiet kilometres out of Olivetta, then a third that is the hardest part of the whole climb. The steepest half-kilometre sits there. The fourth kilometre is the rest: flat on paper, and it drops for part of its length, so you get your breath back before the final section. The last two kilometres climb steadily, without the ramps of the third, and they finish on the French side.
Gallery
