Alto del Yerbal

Alto del Yerbal cycling climb profile

Alto del Yerbal is the kind of climb where the headline number tells most of the story, and it is not a forgiving one. At 24.5 km with an average gradient of 8.95%, this is not a climb built around one decisive ramp or a short anaerobic sting. It is an HC ascent because the load is sustained, the vertical gain is large, and the gradient is high enough that small pacing errors compound quickly.

The climb starts at 644 m and finishes at 2,836 m, giving a net elevation gain of 2,192 m. That matters because the effort is not just long, it is continuous. Even without a detailed kilometre-by-kilometre breakdown, an average close to 9% over this distance means the road has to stay consistently heavy for most of the ascent. The listed maximum gradient of 17.73% confirms there are steeper ramps inside the climb, but the real difficulty is how those ramps arrive on top of an already demanding baseline.

How the gradient rides

Think of Alto del Yerbal less as a climb with obvious phases and more as a long resistance test. The average gradient is already steep enough that there is limited scope to recover while still moving efficiently. Any section that eases will not erase the cost of the sustained climbing, and any pitch toward the maximum gradient will feel much harder if you have ridden the opening too aggressively.

The key tactical point is that the climb asks for discipline from the bottom. A rider who treats the early kilometres as a normal threshold climb can find the second half becoming a survival effort. The numbers point to a climb where the correct pacing is conservative early, controlled through the middle, and only opportunistic near the summit if the legs are still responding.

Pacing and gearing notes

Use your /glossary/ftp as a ceiling, not a target, especially in the opening part of the climb. On an ascent this long and this steep, the cost of riding over threshold is not just the effort itself, but the recovery you will not get afterward. The gradient profile implied by the average leaves little room for coasting or resetting.

Gearing should be chosen for the steepest moments, not the average. An 8.95% average over 24.5 km is already low-cadence territory for many riders if over-geared, and ramps up to 17.73% can turn a marginal setup into a forced grind. Err toward a climbing gear that lets you stay seated and keep pressure smooth when the road bites.

Practical approach

• Start below the effort you think you can hold.
• Keep the steep ramps aerobic where possible, rather than fighting them out of the saddle.
• Avoid chasing speed changes early. On a climb with 2,192 m of net gain, consistency beats spikes.
• Save any real acceleration for the final portion, when the remaining distance is known and the summit is within reach.

Alto del Yerbal rewards riders who respect the arithmetic. The distance is long, the average gradient is severe, and the maximum gradient is steep enough to punish impatience. Ride it like an endurance climb with repeated strength demands, not like a single threshold interval.