· Updated · 4 min read
The Col du Pain opened: a timed climb with a weekly polka-dot jersey
On 29 October Tour du Pain got its first mountain. The Col du Pain rises on the north side of the lake: 974 metres long with 73 metres of climbing and two hairpins, a leaderboard that resets every Monday, and a polka-dot jersey for the week's fastest rider. Over the following week it got snow, a crowd, ghosts of your clubmates and a baguette at the top.
A side road off the lap
The climb opened in version 1.19.0. At 4.9 km on the 8.3 km lake loop a sign offers the turn-off; press C or tap the button to take it. Ride on and your lap stays exactly as it was, so nobody is sent up a mountain they didn't ask for.
Take it and you pass under the "Début du Col" arch, climb about 1 km at 7.5 % on average with a 9.5 % kick, and cross the KOM line under the "Sommet" arch. A fast descent down the back puts you on the loop again at 5.3 km. For a 75 kg rider the climb takes about three minutes at 380 W, and just under four at 4 W/kg.
The HUD counts down to the top and shows your time there. The gradient changes your speed in the game, but the trainer still feels flat. The Col's metres and climbing count toward your ride's distance, your bread, the .fit file and Strava.
The Leaderboard and the polka-dot jersey
The boards went live earlier that day, in 1.15.0. Signed-in riders' climbs are kept on an all-time board and a weekly board that starts on Monday at 00:00 Amsterdam time. A tie goes to the earlier effort. A time only counts when you ride with a trainer or a power meter.
1.16.0 added the Leaderboard screen: open it from Home or press K. It has This week and All time, the top 100 with flag, time and gap, and your own row marked even when you're further down. The week's fastest rider wears the polka-dot jersey, and everyone on the road sees it.
From 1.19.5 the jersey can change hands in the middle of a ride. Take the top time on the Col and everyone sees you in polka dots within half a minute.
Snow, a crowd and paint on the road
1.19.8 turned the top half into a real snowy mountain, with shaded slopes, rocks, snowy pines and dark wet asphalt. The turn-off sign grew so "← COL DU PAIN" and "1,0 km · 7,5 %" read from the saddle, and the game stopped offering the turn-off when it's too late to brake for it. Over the KOM line the road now eases straight into the descent, so you roll down instead of stopping on a flat summit.
Then 1.20.0 made it feel like a mountain stage. The crowd thickens into a tunnel of fans over the last few hundred metres, with flags, bakers in toques waving baguettes, campers on the slopes and paint on the road: ALLEZ, PAIN !, PAS DE PAIN SANS PEINE, the metres to go and the Col's all-time best names near the top. How busy it gets follows your graphics setting.
Climbing with other riders
Riding along (see riding with friends and your club) learned the Col in 1.19.3. When the rider you follow takes the turn-off, you take it too and stay beside them up and down. In the last 150 m before the sign you ride just behind them, so you see them turn in time. A climb you were carried up never counts on the Leaderboard.
On 31 October two club changes followed. In 1.28.13 riding along on a club ride stopped costing you your Col time: from the turn-off to the top you climb on your own legs, and the first rider up waits up to five minutes before the group rides on together.
In 1.28.18 clubs got ghosts. Switch it on on the club page and a see-through clubmate rides beside you, with your gap on the Col card. Only your best time and your times every 200 m are shared, and only with clubmates who switched it on too. Clubs have their own guide to indoor club rides.
A baguette at the top
On 4 November 1.30.0 put one extra baguette on every climb, on top of the one you earn every 5 km. A plate under the turn-off sign shows it before you choose. The Col card now draws the climb's profile coloured by steepness, with you on it and what's left to go.
Times, tactics and the rest of the climb are in the Col du Pain guide. You can ride it in the demo too, without a trainer, though demo times don't go on the Leaderboard.