Col du Zad

Col du Zad cycling climb profile

Col du Zad is a category 2 Moroccan climb that looks manageable on paper, but its difficulty sits in the gap between the average gradient and the time spent climbing. At 19.9 km, with an average gradient of 3.26%, it is not a wall. It is a long aerobic drag that rewards patience, smooth torque, and disciplined pacing more than short-climb aggression.

The road rises from 1532 m to 2180 m, gaining 648 m from bottom to summit. That elevation profile matters. Even if the gradients are modest, the climb is long enough and high enough that riders who treat the opening as free speed can find the upper section much less forgiving.

How the gradient unfolds

The headline number is the 3.26% average, but that should not be read as easy. Over nearly 20 km, even a moderate gradient becomes a sustained metabolic demand. The max gradient of 7.47% tells the more useful story: Col du Zad is mostly controlled, but it contains ramps steep enough to interrupt rhythm if you are riding too close to your limit.

This is the kind of climb where the average can tempt riders into over-gearing. A shallow grade encourages speed, and speed encourages pressure on the pedals. The risk is not one decisive steep pitch. The risk is accumulating fatigue across a climb that never asks for an all-out effort, but keeps asking for work.

Pacing strategy

Ride Col du Zad as a steady-state climb, not as a sequence of attacks. The best approach is to start below your sustainable climbing effort, settle into a repeatable rhythm, and only let the effort rise once the summit is clearly within reach.

If you pace by power, keep the lower half conservative relative to /glossary/ftp. The climb is long enough that a small early overshoot compounds. If you pace by feel, the first part should feel almost restrained: breathing controlled, cadence comfortable, and no need to force the gear.

The max gradient of 7.47% is the key pacing warning. Those steeper moments should be absorbed with cadence and gearing, not matched with a spike in effort. If you have to stand, use it to reset posture rather than to accelerate.

Gearing notes

Do not gear for the 3.26% average alone. Gear for a long climb with intermittent steeper ramps. A setup that lets you stay seated and maintain cadence on gradients approaching the maximum will save more energy than a bigger gear that feels fast early.

For endurance riders, the practical goal is simple: keep the chain under control, avoid grinding, and leave enough range to handle the steepest sections without crossing into a threshold effort too soon. Col du Zad is not brutally steep, but its length makes poor gear selection expensive.

What decides a good ride

Col du Zad is a climb of restraint. The rider who wins against it is not necessarily the rider who can produce the biggest surge, but the one who can keep pressure on the pedals for 19.9 km without letting the modest average gradient disguise the real workload.

Treat it as a long aerobic climb with a few sharper interruptions, respect the altitude gain from 1532 m to 2180 m, and save your harder effort for the final portion rather than spending it in the opening kilometers.