Yummy Monday · Body joy · Reading time: about 8 minutes
There are packages I wait for with childish anticipation. Right now: a Wahoo KICKR CLIMB is on its way to my house. And I'll honestly admit why I bought it – I need to get significantly better at climbing. That's where I lose. On the flat I can keep my flow, but as soon as the road points up, the negotiation with the legs begins. So today there will be a post about just that: what a KICKR CLIMB actually is, how it works, what it will do for my training – and how it talks to Zwift.
And because the timing couldn't be better: the 2026 Tour de France, the world's biggest cycling race, kicked off on Saturday. We take a look at what's already happened, who's fighting for the yellow jersey, and what bikes the pros are actually riding this year. Stay tuned!
What is a KICKR CLIMB?
The KICKR CLIMB is Wahoo’s ”incline simulator” – a motorized column that replaces the front wheel of the bike when it’s on the trainer. Instead of the front wheel resting on the floor, the front fork is attached to the CLIMB, which then raises and lowers the front of the bike in real time.
It is capable of simulating up to 20 % climb and down to –10 % downhill slope. To put that into perspective: most classic alpine climbs in the Tour de France average 7–10 %, but can be upwards of 13–14 %. So the CLIMB covers everything I'll ever encounter on real roads – and then some.
Important to know for those of you wondering the same thing: CLIMB is not a standalone device. It requires a compatible Wahoo trainer (KICKR or KICKR CORE) to work, as it is the trainer that sends the incline data to the column. The two talk to each other wirelessly, and then it is the training app – in my case Zwift – that conducts the entire orchestra.
Mine was bought used, for about half the price of new. It feels right in line with how I think about gadgets in general: quality stuff that lasts a long time deserves a second home. (The Right to Repair ideas from Tech Torsdag run deep.)
Why does slope matter indoors?
Here's what made me think. It's not that leaning the bike is "cool" - although it is. It's about three things that actually make a difference physiologically:
1. You use different muscles when going uphill. When the front of the bike is raised, your position on the saddle changes. The hip angle opens up, the center of gravity moves back, and you start to recruit the back of the thighs and seat in a different way than when you're sitting flat. These are the exact muscles that determine whether a long climb feels like a wall or like work you can distribute. If I always train in a flat position indoors, I'm simply not training what I'm worst at.
2. The body learns the technique. Climbing well isn’t just about watts – it’s about how you sit, how you transition between sitting and standing, where you put your weight. With CLIMB, your body gets to practice that in the living room, week after week, instead of just the times I find a real hill. And let’s be honest: really long climbs are in short supply here at home. If I want to do 20 minutes of continuous climbing outdoors, I’ll go. Indoors, it takes a few clicks.
3. The brain keeps up. It may sound vague, but anyone who has spent many hours on a trainer knows: monotony is the biggest enemy. When the bike moves beneath me, when I feel the slope starting in my hands and hips before I even look at the screen – then a large part of the ”indoor boredom” disappears. The training takes on a flow that resembles real cycling, and time passes faster.
How it works with Zwift
This is where the magic really happens. Zwift sends terrain data to the trainer, which adjusts the resistance – it’s the familiar experience that many people are familiar with. With CLIMB engaged, the same thing happens with the incline: when my avatar in Zwift starts climbing a virtual incline, the front of the bike rises at home, at the same gradient as on the screen. As I roll over the crest and down the other side, the front drops below horizontal, giving me that downhill feeling.
Everything happens automatically. I don’t have to press anything during the workout – CLIMB follows the path. There’s also a manual mode via a keypad on the column, if I want to lock in a certain incline for a specific interval workout. Think: 5 × 8 minutes at a constant 8 % incline. It’s the kind of structured climbing workout I’ve never been able to do before.
And the Zwift world is built for this. Alpe du Zwift – the virtual replica of Alpe d'Huez with its 21 hairpin bends – suddenly becomes something completely different when the bike actually leans through each bend. I suspect it will become my recurring enemy and best friend throughout the fall and winter.
What it means to me specifically
I'm thinking this way: one climbing-focused session a week throughout the indoor season, where the incline is the main focus. Long, steady climbs at a low pedal stroke for strength. Shorter, steeper hills to practice standing climbing. And then Alpe du Zwift as a monthly test – same hill, same conditions, black and white if I get better.
The goal? To be able to take me uphill next season without it feeling like someone is pulling the handbrake. To be able to choose the hilly rounds with joy instead of respect. It's physical joy for me: not to perform for someone else, but to feel that my body is taking me where I want it to go and that I'm developing.
I'll come back with a great review once it's been in use for a few weeks - with both wow feelings and any teething problems.
Tour de France 2026 – drama from the start
And now for the big thing happening right now: The Tour de France is rolling! The 113th edition started on Saturday, July 4, and runs until July 26. This year the start is extra special – the race began in Barcelona, only the third time in history that the Tour has started in Spain. In total, just over 3,300 kilometers and 21 stages await through the Pyrenees, the Massif Central, the Vosges, the Jura and the Alps before the classic finish in Paris.
The first stage was something we haven't seen in a long time: a team time trial as the opening stage, for the first time since 1971. Barely 20 kilometers through Barcelona with a tough final climb up to the Olympic Stadium. Visma–Lease a Bike rode the fastest, and thus pulled Jonas Vingegaard wearing the yellow jersey – his first since 2023. Tadej Pogačar ended up 12 seconds behind on day one.
Yesterday, Sunday, stage 2 came, from Tarragona to Barcelona, with three passages over the brutal hill up to Montjuïc Castle – 1.6 kilometers at over 9 % on average, with sections around 13 %. (Yes, I immediately thought: that's a hill for KICKR CLIMB.) The stage ended with a real talking point: Mexican Isaac del Toro, just 22 years old and a Tour debutant, won the stage – after his team captain Pogačar, who had started the sprint, seemingly let his young teammate cross the finish line. A double victory for the UAE and a beautiful moment of teamwork in a sport that can look so individual from the outside. Vingegaard kept his yellow.
The duel everyone is waiting for
This year's Tour is practically set up as a duel between two of the best climbers of all time: Tadej Pogacar, who is chasing his third consecutive Tour victory (and fifth overall), and Jonas Vingegaard, a two-time winner coming straight from a dominant victory in the Giro d'Italia last spring. Behind them lurks the Belgian Remco Evenepoel, the pace specialist who has become increasingly sharper in the mountains, the French super talent Paul Seixas who is doing his first Grand Tour – and so Del Toro, who after yesterday can no longer be called just a helper rider.
What I love about following the Tour alongside my own training is the contrast and kinship at the same time. They climb the Pyrenees for real; I climb them in my living room. But the feeling when the hill starts – we share that.
The bikes: who rides what?
For us cycling nerds, the Tour is also the world's largest technology fair. Some highlights from this year's starting field:
- Colnago – Pogačar and UAE ride the Italian classic's aero bike Y1Rs, the field's most expensive machine with a price tag of over 15,000 euros.
- Cervélo – Vingegaard and Visma–Lease a Bike switch between the aero model S5 and the super light R5 depending on the stage profile.
- Bianchi – and here my heart beats a little extra! The sky blue, historic brand (the same as my own Aria and my Via Nirone) is back in the top division and this year supplies Bahrain Victorious with the new Specialissima and the aero model Oltre. It's heartening to see the Celeste heritage in the Tour group again.
- Pinarello – Ineos as always rides its Dogma, and the brand has also doubled its presence through the new team Pinarello–Q36.5 with Tom Pidcock.
- Van Rysel – Decathlon's own brand, like the French jump Seixas competes on. Proof that top bikes no longer only come from the old prestige houses.
- In addition, rolls Specialized, Canyon, Trek, Cannondale and more in the bunch – pretty much the entire field on disc brakes, wireless gears and wider tires than just a few years ago.
Fun to know: the minimum weight for a racing bike is 6.8 kilos according to the rules – and several of the climbing bikes are now so light that teams actually have to add weight to meet the limit.
Movement of the week
This is what my Monday looks like: The Tour on the screen, dreams of an incline in my legs and a package on the way. If you also have a hill you want to befriend – start where you are. It doesn't have to be 20 %. It's enough to turn your face upwards and take the first step.
What is your relationship with uphills – love, hate, or something in between? Let us know in the comments. And stay tuned here on the blog, because once the CLIMB is assembled, there will be a report from the first climb.
Move with joy – see you on the slopes!
// Mary