Cycling Climbing Categories
Tour de France climbing categories are assigned subjectively based on:
- length of the climb
- altitude difference from bottom to top
- average (and steepest) grade
- summit elevation
- climb’s position on the stage (early or late)
- width and conditions of the road
After considering all these factors, the Tour’s director sportif makes his recommendations after driving over the stage routes a couple of months before the race. Also, the Tour is supposed to be tough, so what might be a Cat 2 climb in The Tour might be a Cat 1 in another race. The categories are supposed to be the riders’ perceived difficulty on the climb, so the numbers given below are only a guideline.
- Typically for the Tour, Category 4 is an easy, short climb.
- Category 3 is the easiest “real” climb - ie, 5km at a 5% grade.
- Category 2 is about as tough as you could ever see here in the states. (Something like 5km at a grade of 8-8.5%)
- Category 1 typically a long climb (15 - 20+ km) at a not too steep grade - 5-6%.
- Hors Category (HC) is long and steep. The altitude difference is at least 1000km and an average grade of 7% or more.