Here’s one final reminder that we’re hosting our first-ever official Zwift event this Saturday – and it’s gonna be huge!
Riding The Über Pretzel is a bit nutty, by anyone’s standards. It’s the longest route on Watopia, after all: 128.3 km (79.7 miles) long with 2335 m (7,661‘) of elevation. And it finishes with a climb up Alpe du Zwift.
So we figured only a few hundred riders would be crazy enough to join us.
Yet here we are, with precisely 4,164 riders signed up with two days to go. Far more than any other event on Zwift’s calendar!
You’re all insane. And so are we. See you out there!
Event Signup
“Zwift Insider Badge Hunters – The Uber Pretzel Edition” takes place on Saturday, February 20th, at 6am Pacific/9am Eastern/2pm GMT.
To sign up, find the event in Zwift Companion, or sign up on the web at zwift.com/events/view/1733428.
Be Prepared
Just about anyone can hop into a 1-hour Zwift ride unprepared, without worry. But when it comes to an undertaking like the Über Pretzel, you’ll want to put some extra time and effort into preparation. A few quick tips:
- Extras are helpful: towels, sweatbands, gloves, socks, and cycling kit can get saturated with sweat and other grossness after 2-3 hours in the indoor saddle. Consider grabbing extras of these items and swapping to them halfway through. There’s nothing so refreshing as a fresh chamois after 3 hours of riding!
- Charge the batteries: make sure any devices you’ll be using are fully charged, and/or you have charging cables within reach.
- Carb up: consider eating a high-carb dinner (pasta?) the night before, to top up those glycogen stores.
- Pre-hydrate: drink lots of water the day before the ride, so you’re fully hydrated when the event begins.
- Keep hydrating: fill lots of bottles before the ride, or have someone on hand who can do that for you. You don’t want to be conserving water intake on a ride of this length.
- Ventilate the space: if your pain cave gets humid, your sweat won’t be able to evaporate and cool you. Make sure your space stays well-ventilated by opening windows, running AC, etc.
- Mind your fueling: hopefully you already know what sort of snacks you’ll need for a multi-hour effort. Have them on hand!
- Chamois cream: highly recommended you remember this, if it’s something you find helpful on long rides.
Read “How to Fuel for a Long Ride On Zwift” for more tips from coach Shayne Gaffney.
FAQ
Will I earn the Über Pretzel route badge with this ride?
Yes.
Will my time count in the VeloViewer Route Hunter Leaderboard?
Yes.
What’s the pace going to be?
This isn’t a paced group ride. There is no ride leader. Think of it more like a Zwift Fondo. With so many riders signed up, there will be people riding at all paces. Just find a group holding your desired effort level, and work together!
Will there be rest stops?
Only if you stop. To rest. You do you! But you’ll probably lose whatever riders you’re currently with, unless you can convince them via in-game messaging to stop with you.
How long will this take?
The very strongest riders on Zwift can complete the route in just under 4 hours. With such a massive signup list, and double draft being used, we may very well see a new course record on Saturday!
Most mortals will require closer to 4.5-6 hours to finish. You can use BestBikeSplit’s Uber Pretzel model to enter your weight and average power and get a time estimate.
I’ve ridden this route before. Why is my time not showing on the Uber Pretzel Strava segment?
We modified the segment early this week so the one segment will match both free-ride and event efforts. Strava isn’t doing a great job of going back in time and matching old efforts to the new segment, but you can do the “Activity Type Hack” to get your old ride to match. Just edit that ride, changing the activity type to something else. Then change it back to “Virtual Ride”. All done!
I live in Australia, and this event is at 1am. Any chance of getting a better event time?
Not this time around. We may change things up for future events, but this is really a test case to see if we want to organize more of these events moving forward.
Will you be organizing more of these events?
We’ll see how this one goes first. We only want to add events to the calendar if they’re going to be special and really add value to Zwifter’s lives. Based on the response to this event, it looks like there may be more tough “Badge Hunters” rides in the future!
Double draft with 4100+ riders, really?? Could it be anymore of a slap in the face for riders who already completed this badge. Are e-bikes ok too?
Gimme a break. Double draft is far from e-bike mode. It really just helps people group up on descents and flats.
I wish I could take my “dislike” back so I could give you another one.
Can’t you just be excited for Eric to organize such a massive event and for all riders to have a chance to pick up the hardest (or second hardest) badge in game? I’m sure a lot of people would never even consider attempting the Uber Pretzel without an event like this.
This is just an embarrassing comment. Fortunately there are thousands of people who don’t think like you do. Thank you Eric for organizing what promises to be a fun event.
@T Scanlon – single draft as part of a meet up of 20 or so riders on 24th Jan? Could it be anymore of a slap in the face for riders who already completed this badge as part of the NO DRAFT Norseman series and were so useless at the time that they didn’t even remember to do it on a TT bike? Are e-bikes okay too? Or just maybe it’s no skin off my (or anyone else’s) nose and it remains a 4h+ effort with plenty of elevation to challenge anyone while enjoying the company of others and being… Read more »
Wait, Norseman was no draft and riders were supposed to use a TT bike? Count me in among those useless people who didn’t know about that when doing the event.
I did the Norseman Uber Pretzel ride on 8/1/2020 and 8/3/2019 and both rides had regular draft enabled, despite the organizer description. Unless you used a TT bike, which I recall the vast majority of riders on road bikes, there certainly was drafting; but not double draft.
Interesting Bobby. I did mine in summer of 2019 and defo no draft, no “close the gap” messages no easing of effort and no draft animation for those on road bikes 😢😁
Yes Alex. I thought it was a mistake at the time in the event description (do Triathlete’s not draft all of a sudden!?) but soon realised that there was no draft animation and those in the know at the front of the race were all on TT bikes. I particularly remember Casey Schumm wondering why people were on road bikes while he disappeared on his sleek TT machine. Of course I could have changed but by that point I was in too deep and decided to stick it out with the trusty Tron.
No one cares. That you did it. When you did it. Who you did it with, or not. It’s just for you, a personal accomplishment.
Ha. Came off more aggressive than my intent. My comment wasn’t meant to get you guys all riled, but clearly did. Just questioning the need for double draft with 4000+ riders. The e-bike comment was obviously a joke as I presume we all assume no one uses one on their trainer. Sounds like the ride was a big success, congrats Eric! Sorry I couldn’t join you, I stuck to my planned workout today. Thanks for all you do for the Zwift community. Nice stalking Hybrid Noob. That was actually my second time. The first time I did it solo and… Read more »
Thanks for putting this together Eric. Perfect opportunity for me to knock the last route badge off my list.
you can do it anytime you like…
I have been kicked off a course when there are a lot of riders on a route. I thought I read the latest update addressed this problem. Certainly don’t want this to happen on this ride!
Eric, will be riding this event with you….. I’ve already got the badge by riding it solo a few months ago.
Can your next organised ride please be the Full PRL….. Its my only route badge I haven’t got yet. 😁.
Ta very much…. Ride on. 😏
please schedule another one of these this winter. This is amazing, but unfortunately this date doesn’t work.
I’m really looking forward to this! Hoping to beat my PR with the help of a few strong riders. Thanks for the setup Eric!
4000k riders is crazy, good job promoting the event!
When I got the batch (my only time on the route) it took me a little under 4:10 in a regular draft event with less than 100 riders and without going all out. I wonder how realistic sub 3:45 would be if there’s a decent group at 3.5-4w/kg upfront followed by an all out effort up Alpe?
Let’s see what you’ve got!
Awesome! With so many riders signed up there will be gruppettos for everyone. Want to take a break? No problem, another pack will come along and sweep you up. Want to hammer on the front? Fantastic, your friends in the pack will dig the double draft. Thanks Eric – I’ve been putting off this badge, but looking forward to having it in the bag. When is full PRL?
just did a group ride (the Ryzon warmup ride) and on the companion app map there was no “white circle of rideons” available (to give a ride on to everyone in proximity) – can this be activated for this event? Could be a good chance to get the “received 100 rideons” badge)
I think it’s disabled for all events, I could be wrong, so feel free to chime in if you know differently.
Oh I have no idea if it’s possible to be activated – I’ll be handing out rideons like it’s Halloween candy either way 🙂 It’s just easier if there’s the white circle option!
Disabled for all events. No way to enable it… unless you’re the ride leader. They get access to tap it!
I know this has always been the case but has it ever been revealed why exactly? Some type of performance issue concern if everyone on a mass start event goes white circle, ride on crazy at the same time? Otherwise events seem like the most useful application 🤔
So bummed. I would love to do this ride, even though I got the badge already. But I have another commitment on Sat morning. 😪 Have fun and ride on everyone!
Eric has finally seen the light and created a segment that includes both event and free ride efforts! Hurray! Now can we get similar segments for every route affected by this problem? And can we never edit previous segments (that loses all old efforts) but only create new segments and potentially rename the old segment if necessary? (We’ve all got hundreds if not thousands of zwift rides by now, it’s an impossible task to go back and find activities and do the activity type hack on the ones that might fix a segment.) Thanks!
In answer to your questions:
No: because it doesn’t make sense to do this for lap routes
No: because we don’t need old segments hanging around. (Probably won’t see much segment editing in the future anyway…)
😀
In reply to your answers: Yes: it makes sense to do this for lap routes, people aren’t commonly doing laps of mountain route, and even if they are (for this example or any other route) how else do I answer the question: where is my fastest lap of the mountain route? I can’t compare my best solo effort to my best group ride to my best race effort. Yes: we absolutely do want old segments hanging around! This is the only way we can compare our old efforts to our new efforts and feel good about improving ourselves. If the… Read more »
Also, I’m sure it was also your intention to not have much segment editing when you edited the epic kom reverse segment years ago, but yet here we are.
I agree it doesn’t make sense to do this for lap routes.
So you did for the Über Pretzel since it is not a lap route. Brilliant. But I would argue neither are the Pretzel, Four Horsemen and Three Sisters.
And probably neither are Mountain route, Mountain 8, Big Loop and Bigger Loop for that matter. (nor the Mega Pretzel, Muir and the Mountain and Big Foot Hills, but since they don’t start downtown I guess they’re ok already or?)
already done it, and didnt need a crowd to help
OMG, you are truly a king among men! Thank you for stopping by to share that, we are all more enlightened for you taking the time to put us all in our place. Thank you again dear king.
Probably because no crowd wants to ride with someone who posts embarrassing comments like this. You should start a podcast called “You’re doing it wrong”
I wish I was as awesome as you. Please tell us more about how awesome you are.
Bertie big bollocks enters the discussion
Any tips to ensure stability of the Zwift App in such a big ride?
Phenomenal response to signups!
If running on Windows, consider reducing the game resolution one level, as it’s easier on the app to render a lot of riders at lower resolution. See https://zwiftinsider.com/zwift-pc-guide/ . I’ve not had a problem on iPad, which runs at low resolution (good enough for me!)
Another tip for long rides: take a pee break on the Epic KOM descent. Just time it so it doesn’t overlap the little climb part-way down.
Game resolution setting has no bearing at all on performance in a big event. As explained in that article, CPU bottleneck is the reason. It’ll be same on 576p as it is on 4K.
What bike is the best for this event ? the tron or canyon aeroad with all around wheels like dt or zipp 454? and who choose to swap the bike at the foot of the alpe?
Biggest bike swap gain will be to mtb on the jungle part!!
Tron for me for the duration. I *think*, from what I can remember, swapping at the base of the Alpe would gain you all of 20 seconds going all out lightweight – e.g. Tarmac Pro and Lightweight Mellenstein. The swap and lost momentum will take just as long, so you might as well save yourself the faff.
It takes 15-20 seconds to swap bikes, how much time it saves depends on rider power and weight. 20s saving would not justify it. I did swap bikes before the climb, but only because after three and a half hours solid riding, I took a couple of minutes break before the climb
However I saved over two minutes in the jungle by using a gravel bike over someone who finished the entire route within 2 minutes of me, so very similar performance otherwise.
p.s. the MB would indeed save close to a minute around the jungle…BUT having seen people try this swap a few times in a group rides/races it never really works out – you lose the group swapping, have to make a bigger effort to catch, MB or no, then get slightly ahead (tempered by the brief boarded/hard earth bits that count as tarmac) only for the swap at the end to put you out the back door again. I reckon losing the group and the draft just isn’t worth it most of the time.
more than a minute, and with 4000 riders there are always other groups. I swapped and gained 40 places. 750->775 after the change-> 750 at the bottom -> 700 when the gravel ended, 710 after swapping back.
I’ve also lost contact with a group before and then regretted not changing,
Each to their own, variety is the spice of life, I’m glad it worked out for you 👍 My own observation of the group around P100 was 2 of them tried a swap and both of them ended up worse off. The best result was someone deciding to prematurely switch back to a road bike when they couldn’t establish a significant lead. They ended up just getting back on to the big group after having to out right sprint to make it back. I really can’t be doing with the faff of the bike change anyway but it’s nice that… Read more »
I would normally agree, but given the number of riders here, there would definitely be a group you could catch on to. I didn’t swap myself, but I do recall losing a few net places to people who did.
This did bring up a minor visual bug: a number of people looked like they were on MTBs well after we exited the jungle. I reminded one guy to switch to a road bike, but he confirmed that he already had. Several people on chat remarked that they kept seeing people on MTBs.
I wondered about those mbs. There was me thinking there were a few super strong people keeping pace on a MB after the jungle!
If you want to switch it would be to MTB for the jungle. Pretty sure a lot of people will do that.
The couple of times I’ve “raced” there, like the Zwift Fondo a couple weeks ago, there’s always been an agreement among the lead group not to swap because it’s not really in the spirit of the game. One guy says “no swap?” and everyone else agrees.
The way I look at it, if swapping bikes is good enough for a pro like Roglic to do in the TdF, it’s good enough for little old me. I lost 20 places during the swap, then ended up passing 160 others by the end of the jungle. Totally worth it. It was fun passing people putting out .5/.6 more w/kg than I was.
My strategy will be to pick the lightest set possible. Because of the double draft the groups will most likely only be split on the uphill sections, most notably Epic KOM. The faster your ascent of Epic KOM, the faster your group is going to be. My guess is that this will make more difference than going for a more aero approach, with a slower ascent of Epic KOM and then trying to compensate (solo, as part of a group?) with a more aero bike. And again, because of the double draft, I don’t think that you will really suffer… Read more »
Looking at Eric’s wonderful data on this very site I would say aero trumps all on Zwift with the main exception of the long steep climbs of the Alpe and Ventoux. The gentler gradients on the Epic or Volcano don’t make enough difference for the lightweights to win there, especially with all the other flatter riding at either side. It will be that bit harder to sit in the draft with a lightweight and double draft doesn’t make a big difference here, in fact I find it easier to get spat in double draft as any gap quickly widens…that might… Read more »
Do keep in mind that no tests have been done in groups rides. Aero almost always trumps weight, also in real life, but always when tested alone in the wind. But I don’t mind, the more aero around me the better ^^ Epic KOM is btw not that steep, but radio tower sure is
Absolutely and it’s good to try different things 🙂 I have tried the lightweight strategy before in mixed terrain rides like this, though shorter, and my personal observation at the time has always been it’s much harder work overall but who knows I might have just been having (another) off day! The Radio Tower is indeed steep and lightweight will be great there but it’s done and dusted in 5-6 minutes. Given the full lightweight setup up the Alpe compared to the Tron saves just 20 seconds it may only be good for just a few seconds there but interesting… Read more »
Haha true! Good luck!
You too!
Great!
maybe you can geht an aggreement to Not change to MTB?
also more badges like 100 kmh and ride ons will ne possible. Maybe you can give hints for That!
+4800 this morning! And I see at least one pro too. This should be blast! Thanks for doing this Eric. I’m going to give the ZI Discord server a try this time and see if it works for me.
Almost 4900 this morning! Do you think it’ll hit 5K? I see at least 1 Pro and a couple of Zwift HQers. This should be really fun. I like this route because it takes you all over Watopia without too much repeated looping around. The only bummer is that the Watopia nature reserve isn’t included.
Just started zwift a couple weeks ago, only have a few routes under my belt. But when I see an event with 4k participants, I want to be a part of that!!! Thanks for putting it together ❤
Hey Eric,
on which points would you recommend to change the bike?
My plan looks like:
Tron until Jungle. MTB for Jungle loop and change back to Tron until AdZ
Best regards
Thorben
That’s a good plan, but I would only swap to MTB if I was in a very small group or alone. With double draft, you’ll go just as fast in the pack with road bikes as you would slow with MTB.
The best situation if you’re in a group is to get everyone (or most everyone) to swap to MTB at the same time. Then you can really work together and fly through the jungle!
It would be RAD if you’d make this a no drop ride 🙂
LOL. Not happening! There’s no such thing as a free pretzel! 😀
Oh God, T Scanlon (first commenter) would have a coronary! 🙂
Anyone else thinking “this is my only chance at the Imperial 100 jersey because I’m never doing this again?” Down AdZ and limp home for 12 more miles……
Might be easier to sign up to one of those big endurance rides on tempus fugit with double draft…
I’m here for the Uber. The 100 would be a bonus. ‘Cause when I say never again this long on a trainer I mean it!
Yesss. sounds like a good idea on the couch the night before. i imagine i will have a different idea after getting to the top (if i do).
Yep. I’ll be stoked if I can even finish the route, but I can’t imagine me not limping all the way to that 100-mile mark after that.
12 more painful miles in the jungle.
What about PRL full? a route that is naturally 100 miles
How can Mr. Zwift Insider not have all the badges? That’s a bit embarrassing, isn’t it?
Not really. 😂
Why would he? He talked his wife into doing that instead and she made a series out of it here. Good reading. 🙂
What zone would be a good target for power ? Blue Green Yellow??
Red 😜
Purple then
Plaid
Is this still on ? Wasn’t on my list of events today. Looks like I’m riding sooo.
This is strange. I signed up, I had it on my list. I got the 15 minute reminder. I log in, no event. It is not on the side board. It is not in my companion. I can’t ride with friends. What happened?
My older iPad Pro crashed with all the riders. I had to restart the app. It offered to let me rejoin and I did but I could not see anyone on this group ride, I could see other riders not on the ride. I assume because late join was off. Maybe in the future late join could be on for people who crah? I may not get the badge but I would still have a fun ride.
-Christopher
Welp… zwift crashed coming down from the radio tower and I couldn’t rejoin… Have a good ride yall!
Zwift froze up for me too – halfway up the volcano KOM and couldn’t rejoin either. Hope everyone else has a good ride. May have to do it solo tomorrow instead…
Zwift crashed just after Jungle Circuit turned back to tarmac. Could not re-join event. I hope this was an isolated issue. May try solo next weekend.
crashed here too. I think there were too many riders at once.
Spectacular event. Thank you for organizing!!!
Outstanding event, thanks for arranging it Eric! I actually enjoyed it…well up until an implosion in the last half hour that is!
You and me both! I think a lot of folks imploded in the last 30-60 minutes! I sure did.
For me it was more a gradual power loss than an implosion, but it certainly was pain for the last hour.
I was a bit vexed with people pushing up and down the reverse KOM, I lost my group because I supertucked on the descent, and only got a new group of decent size halfway through the fuego flats.
Still, it was very motivating to ride in the groups, and I’m glad to have done it. I don’t know when I would have tried it on my own, if ever. Many thanks for organizing the ride!
Thank you Eric! I’d say that was a huge success. Everyone was having fun in the chat – which was a good distraction. More of these please!
Eric, that was Beautifully Awful !
Great bunch to riders to be with, even the chat was entertaining (not like some TdeZ rides…)
Still feeling the Stoke an hour later, despite dying at 90km so had to Zombie ride up the Alpe.
Never enjoyed the last 700m as much, even found 300+w from somewhere to gain 20 places (still down 500 from my peak 🙂 )
Brilliant event cheers. That would be tough on your own. Getting in blobs with like minded people really helps.
it’s a shame you can’t do one for the long France rebel route
Thanks for organising Eric. Having so many people to ride with certainly made the challenge less painful. Although, that said, fighting cramp for the last 5km of the Alpe wasn’t ideal😅
Great ride and great event! I’m going to be walking slowly for a few days. Should’ve changed to the MTB for the Jungle. Burned a few matches in there that I could’ve used on The Alpe. I literally lost 100 places in there…
This was a hugely succesful event in my opinion! Thanks for organising! What could be mext…? Gotta be PRL full! 😉 Count me in if you ever plan to do more of these!
Thanks for the route badge and the 100mi badge! No way I would’ve gotten either without this event. Excited for the next one already.
Great ride! Thanks so much. I ended up getting the Uber Pretzel badge, the Jensie badge, and then I went out to the flats and got the 100mi badge. Whew, I’m cooked. It was really nice having everyone out there. And Eric was even in my 100 person bubble for most of the approach up AdZ. I did end up switching from the tron to the mtn bike for the Jungle loop. I was 1911 position when I stopped, 1960 when I got the Mountain bike up and running, and then 1730 when I was back on the tron bike… Read more »
That was great fun – if you fancy organising PRL Full in two weeks I’ll be there too, the double draft encouraged good blobbing on the flats and the chat was entertaining all ride. Definitely more of these are needed!
Thanks Eric! Keep up the good work.
Thanks for this really enjoyed it.
I know I won’t be the only one having ADZ nightmares tonight! Awesome event, so glad to have been a part of it, the group effort was everything. I ended up finishing at 100 miles and am paying for it now.
Eric,thanks great event! Took me 5:03, but i think the woman who finished in 9:48 or so on ZP needs a serious shout out for perseverance.
Thank you for this great ride and the opportunity to get the badge 🙂
The next tour should be the PRL Full… But maybe we could start at 5am Pacific/8am Eastern/1pm GMT 🙂
Again, thank you for this great ride.
Thanks Eric, that was a great event. I got to the bottom of AdZ thinking “oh no!”, but I got it done, ticked the badge off and claimed the XP 😀 Hoping that more of these events can be put on in the future.
Thanks Eric for yesterdays challenge! That hurt so good 😀
PRL Full next, I want to see a 4,000 strong conga line going up Box Hill on Double Draft !
And if anyone wants to be negative about this, I did the PRL Full on a world hack to get to Lvl 50 with maybe 5 on the hill tops (I died, but I did it 🙂 )
Thank you for an absolutely great event, Eric. Wouldn’t have done the Über without it.
Hope you will organize a PRL Full as well. Saturday is a great day for this, but I’d really love having the event start one or two hours earlier.
Thanks for organizing this Eric. Great doing this ride with so many riders. Couple comments: 1 Saw you on adz and you were riding an mtb, wow!?!? 2. I don’t know what difference there is between organizing a “race” vs “event,” but imo the zwift companion “race” stats are more useful than the “event” stats, even when it’s not a race, like the fondos. Thanks again.
Any idea when ride statistics will be shared? Percentage of male/female riders, total finishers, etc. Or is that only available on Zwift Power?
As soon as Zwift gets them to me! Request has been made…
That was bloomin’ brilliant. Thanks for organising! Mtb in the jungle gained 100 places and AdZ is a real battle of attrition