Tindevegen
- 18.16 km
- Length
- 7.1%
- Average
- 1,295 m
- Elevation gain
- 11.9%
- Steepest 500 m
- 1,314 m(GPX)
- Summit
Tindevegen runs between Ovre Ardal and Turtagro, and the name comes from what you ride towards: the peaks of Hurrungane. It is a toll road, but it is open to bikes. The climb starts down in the village, and the first bends sit above the rooftops with the whole of Ardal below you. From there it heads inland towards the high mountains. The road is shut in winter and is usually cleared around the turn of April into May.
How long will Tindevegen take you?
A rider at 3.0 W/kg takes about 97 minutes to climb Tindevegen.
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 Tindevegen is a toll road between Øvre Årdal and Turtagrø. It is surfaced and open from roughly 1 May to 1 November; in spring it is ploughed out around the turn of April into May.
The toll point stands at Berdalsbandet, near the road's high point at 1,320 metres. The toll applies to motorcycles, cars, campervans and caravans.
The name comes from what you ride towards. The Hurrungane peaks stand directly ahead of you on the upper section, and from Turtagrø on the far side start several of the best-known walks in Jotunheimen.
The climb
A long gentle middle section splits the climb in two, and that makes it easy to spend too much early.
The first five kilometres up out of Årdal run between nine and ten per cent. Nothing on the climb is steeper, and it arrives with no warm-up at all. Then it lets go abruptly: four kilometres between three and four per cent, where you can sit and breathe.
After that it starts again, and harder. The eleventh kilometre is the steepest on the whole climb at eleven per cent, and the two after it sit at ten and nine. From there it alternates short easier stretches with fresh ramps — the eighteenth and nineteenth kilometres are back at seven and eight, and the steepest ramp hits thirteen per cent almost at the very end.
Go hard on the first five and you pay for it from the eleventh on.
