Last week Zwift rolled out a set of events based on the IRL Chasing Cancellara series. Like last year, the series begins with a set of workouts hosted by Fabian Cancellara, who is an Olympic gold medalist, 3x Paris–Roubaix champion, and multiple Tour de France stage winner (in case you didn’t know). And it ends in a big main event, which thousands of Zwifters have already signed up for! Here are the details…
Main Event Switchup
The final event happens on June 28th at 7pm BST/2pm EDT/11am PDT.
But this year, the big finale has been flipped on its head! Instead of Fabian starting and everyone else chasing, riders sign up for a category, and groups are let go in a staggered order (with slower categories starting first). Cancellara will start last, and he has to work to catch all of us over one lap of Dust In the Wind.
Like other Zwift chase/handicap races, riders will need to suffer as a team to stay away from hard-charging Fabian. It won’t be easy – Cancellara averaged 440w (5.76 w/kg) for 72 minutes when he won Olympic TT gold in 2016!
Categories and Times
- A (4-5 w/kg): starts at 11:16am PDT
- B (3.2-4 wkg): starts at 11:13am PDT
- C (2.5-3.1 w/kg): starts at 11:07am PDT
- D (1-2.4 w/kg): starts at 11am PDT
Workouts
There are three workouts left, each replicating the efforts required for a different type of bike race. Fabian will be hosting each workout:
- TT Workout: June 18th, 7pm BST/2pm EDT/11am PDT – Tempus Fugit
- Grand Tour Workout: June 23rd, 11am BST/6am/3am PDT – Dust In the Wind
- Olympics Workout: June 25th, 7pm BST/2pm EDT/11am PDT – Greatest London Loop
How many hours of a headstart can I have?
We’ll call your start time, Bill o’clock
It can be a new “F” category for “F”at out of shape guys like me.
Shitty time for Europe
That’s a matter of personal opinion, Cancellera is European, times will never work for every country and, having seen Cancellera on another Zwift group ride at about that time, I wonder if this is simply the time which works best for him?
It’s 8pm Swiss time, maybe after his kids have gone to bed?
Seems like those handicaps are really small. Only the strong A’s will have a chance, well and maybe sandbaggers.
All the cheats will be up for it. You know, 2 mtrs tall and weighing 58kg!
If Cancellera starts with the rest of the A’s, I only get a three minute headstart at the bottom end of B. Hopefully that’s just a zwift category thing and he’s going to sit on the start for a while after the A’s start!
He’s retired and enjoying the good life. Still stronger than most, but I bet a good portion stay away.
Hmmm, I have a feeling that some riders on zpower will ruin the show… let’s hope not, it’s a cool initiative.
Sounds awesome… But can be ruined by sandbaggers
I did a group ride with Cancellara a while ago. He was so friendly to every one, probably the best group rider ever. I don’t think he will be chatting so much on this one 😁
2am in Singapore… Hard pass.
Start times are interesting. Bs have no chance to stay away. I think the As will catch all groups. But someone will outsprint Spartacus 🙂
I’m still new to Zwift and cycling. How does one go about watching this event without actually participating?
If it isn’t being live-streamed, then the way to watch it is to sign up for the event like you’re riding it… but instead, just click on another rider (like Fabian) in the list of riders once the event begins, and you can watch it from their perspective.
Anyone know what happened to Fabian in this event? I rode it and there was a lot of chatter about him losing connectivity and dropping out halfway through? He never passed me anyway and I’m pretty slow.