La Cadena Pass

Overview

La Cadena Pass is a Category 2 climb in Spain that runs 7.2 km from base to summit. It starts low, at 42 m of elevation, and tops out at 522 m, giving a net elevation gain of 480 m. That places it firmly in mid-mountain territory: long enough to demand pacing, short enough to ride hard once you know it.

The number that matters most here is the gap between net gain and total ascent. You climb 480 m net, but the road actually racks up 593 m of ascent — 113 m of that is climbing you do twice, gained on pitches you then give back before climbing again. This is an undulating road, not a steady drag. Every metre of descent inside the climb is a metre you have to re-earn, so the effort on the road is meaningfully harder than the net figure suggests. Treat this as a rolling climb, not a smooth one.

How the Gradient Unfolds

The 6.68% average is a blend, not a description of any single section. On an undulating profile with 593 m of total ascent packed into a 480 m net gain, the road swings above and below that mean constantly. Expect the ramps to bite harder than the average implies, with brief flats and dips in between that let the average settle.

• Recovery dips where the road briefly drops, resetting your legs before the next pitch
• Repeated short climbs stacked back to back, each steeper than the 6.68% mean
• The steepest ramp well into double digits — the section that dictates your gearing choice

Pacing Notes

Because this climb undulates, even-speed pacing will wreck you: holding a fixed pace over the steep pitches spikes your effort exactly where the road is hardest. Pace by effort instead. Aim to hold a steady target relative to your sustainable power output, letting your speed rise on the dips and drop on the ramps while your effort stays flat.

On the recovery sections, resist the urge to hammer to "make up time" — soft-pedal and bank the recovery for the next ramp. If you do not know your current threshold, run the FTP estimator first so your target on the steep pitches is grounded in real numbers rather than feel.

Gearing

The steep ramps on La Cadena govern your setup, not the average. For a climb like this, run a compact or sub-compact chainset paired with a wide-range cassette — a 34×32 or 34×34 gives you a bailout low gear for the steepest pitches without forcing you out of the saddle. Spinning a low gear keeps your effort even through the ramps, which is exactly what the undulation demands. Check your chainset and cassette before the ride: confirm the low gear you expect is actually on the bike, because there is no fixing it on the climb.

Summary

• Length: 7.2 km
• Average gradient: 6.68%
• Net elevation gain: 480 m
• Total ascent: 593 m
• Category: 2

La Cadena Pass is a rolling Category 2 climb whose real difficulty lives in the 113 m gap between net gain and total ascent. Pace by effort, gear for the ramps, and let the dips do the recovering for you.