Do you consider yourself a good time trialist? This weekend’s Chasing Cancellara events give you the chance to compare yourself to one of cycling’s all-time greatest, Fabian Cancellara. Here are the details…
Who is Fabian Cancellara?
Fabian Cancellara (or “Spartacus” as he is nicknamed, due to his stature) is a recently-retired Swiss professional road cycling legend and Time Trial Specialist.
His achievements are impressive. He was the 4x World Time Trial Champion and 2x Olympic Time Trial Champion as well as winning three of cycling’s most prestigious races, multiple times. These are referred to as “Monuments” and his victories include 3x Tour of Flanders, 3x Paris-Roubaix, and 1x Milan-San Remo. In addition, he has won 8 stages of the Tour de France, including holding the Yellow Jersey for 29 days, the most of any rider who hasn’t gone on to win the Tour.
Events
On February 13th and 14th, there will be individual TT’s on Watopia’s Tick Tock and Bologna’s Time Trial Lap routes. Unlike past Chasing Cancellara events, Fabian won’t be racing with everyone else. Instead, your goal is to beat Fabian’s pre-set times:
- Bologna Time Trial Lap: 17 minutes and 14 seconds
- Watopia’s Tick Tock: 27 minutes and 3 seconds
(It’s worth noting that neither of these course times is incredibly fast. The Tick Tock time, in particular, should be quite beatable by C-grade racers and up!)
Sign up and see what you can do!
Pick Your Bike
You will need to select your best Time Trial bike and prepare yourself for the “Race of Truth,” as Time Trials are often referred to.
For the Bologna course, be sure to read “How to Pace Your Best Zwift Bologna TT Race” as well as “Bikes Frame and Wheelset Recommendations for Zwift’s Bologna Time Trial Route“.
For Tick Tock, you’ll want the most aero frame and wheels available. Read “Zwift’s Fastest TT Bike Frames” and “Zwift’s Fastest Wheelsets” for our recommendations based on hundreds of in-game tests.
Bag the Jersey
The suffering will be worth it as when you finish one of the weekend races, you’ll unlock the exclusive in-game Chasing Cancellara kit!
See you on the start line!
Unfortunately we aren’t able to pick our own frame for this event (we can for wheels) as we have to ride the BMC Timemachine TT bike in game and probably because that is Fabian’s bike sponsor (they also may have put a little money into these events). Good luck to those racing these races.
Just an update which is we can’t even pick our own wheels (we are auto assigned DT wheels). Frustrating but understandable (they must be the co-sponsor of this event today [for Italy])
How did you get on? Did you beat the set time?
Hi Tim
Thank you for asking and today not great as I had trainer issues (not sure Fabian’s time as he was long done by the time I angrily crossed the finish long having screamed the entire ride at my trainer not working right). Did just over 24 minutes and I know I can do probably 20 had everything worked perfectly. Have a friend (where I bought the Kickr from) that is going to have a look at it to hopefully fix it before I start the process of chatting with Wahoo and maybe be without a trainer for a while (while they fix it) How did you do? Good luck tomorrow on Tempus.
This is a pointless event based on the fact the name’s sake rider isn’t taking part. Lets be honest It’s just an advert for BMC bikes with low goal times to try and encourage slow riders to take part to maximise the exposure for BMC.
I do agree that we should be able to pick our own bike for sure but I still think it is a cool event (obviously Fabian was told to scale it back as short of regular riders cheating, not many would be able to beat his time). If for nothing else we get to ride Bologna and see how the BMC rides (without spending the drops on it) and hey more events on Zwift can’t be a bad thing either. Good luck everyone
I was surprised by the time up Bologna, having gone quicker myself, then I realised these were pre-set by Zwift. I think your point about trying the BMC bike without spending the drops is a good one. I’m going to do the event as I like TT’s and I haven’t done Bologna since I raced it on Christmas Eve, as noted in my “View from the Back: Rapha 500” article, so think it will be interesting to see how I get on compared to other riders on exactly the same equipment (although, I wasn’t aware that was the case until you mentioned it, but having done the even last year, I do remember we were all on the same bike). And with a warm-up and the race, it’s not a huge investment in my time.
It is an okay bike but I honestly (now that I have ridden it [with my trainer issues discussed above]) would never buy it as it is too slow (doubtful even if my trainer was perfect it would be very fast). If I was forced to pick a TT bike, I would probably use my Shiv (the climbing one) with the 808 wheels and if I could use a road bike (my preferred choice since I can draft off of that) I would probably use my Tarmac SL7 with again the 808 or DT wheels. Tomorrow is for sure not going to be great as that BMC is going to fell like a boat anchor on Tempus and the same with the wheels so doubtful I will be setting any PRs tomorrow. Good luck everyone
He did ride it. Late on Saturday evening with a 15:51. Beating his pre-set time.
Brilliant, I beat Fabian! 15.31. Even a PB. I nearly fell off the bike with exhaustion though at the end 🤣
Cancellera rode in the 8.30 pm (UK time) Tick Tock race last night, too. It was a good event! Looks like Tim’s write-up was basing the target times on the segments, not the actual race course including the lead-in. So for Tick Tock, the target was 19.2 km at nearly 42.7 km/h and not 16.9 km at 37.6 km/h. That’s a 5 km/h difference and it made it pretty challenging: only 1 in 10 riders made the cut-off in our race.
Zwift didn’t tell us about the lead in, otherwise we would have made sure to have noted it. We also reached out to Fabian and his team to discuss the event, but got no response, which was unfortunate, we did try because we were hoping to include some hints and tips about pacing, I usually get it wrong. Maybe next time. 👍
Cancellara…1400 watts up the Muur leaving Boonen in his dust…after 220Ks of racing and attacking…
Is the 27:03 for the actual Tempus route or the route plus the lead-in? Based on my rough math that is a difference of 23ish vs 27ish mph.
I meant tic tock
That time is the full route people will be trying to be beat on Tempus tomorrow. That is pre set by Zwift as Fabian would (obviously) go much faster if that was his actual time on Tempus. Good luck
Sorry also meant Tick Tock (my brain keeps wanting to say Tempus as that is what the warm up rides Fabian hosted were on). Sorry Terry and good luck at beating the time.
Lead-in is included. That plus the no-drafting rule (there’s normally a great deal of drafting on Tick Tock) means it’s *really difficult* to make the cutoff. Ended up with a time of 26:58 at 4.45 W/kg avg. Contrary to what the article suggests, there’s no way a C-grade rider can pull it off.
I’m due for a 20 minute FTP test sometime next week, and the Bologna course might be a good length for it (at least at my wattage). How do these TT events work and is there a way I can kick off the actual 20 minute portion of the FTP test when I want to?
This will just be like your standard Bologna TT. Sign up, you will get a start time and then you will just go when it is your time. Go as hard as you can and hopefully get a PB. For the FTP part, the way I understood it, is that it requires 20 minutes, so it depends on how quick you can do the Bologna route. There is always the Tempus Fugit TT course to try if you want to do an FTP test like that or ZWC Hill Climb Battle on a Monday, a favourite race of mine.
Just carry on after the banner and keep pedalling til you’re at 20 mins. You might also break the 50mph mark and get the badge at the same time
I am no fast nor very fit beginner rider. My chances were very slim anyway to beat Cancellara but what I am pissed off by is the fact the actual route is 19.2k with 60m total ascent rather than 16.5k with 44m ascent. To me it is huge difference. It is as disappointing as is my riding….