Zwifter Jonathan Morin has collaborated with the team at Zwift HQ to create the first-ever “Chasing Yellow” event series. This unique series is an 18-stage event corresponding with the 18 stages of this year’s Tour de France which take place in France, with each stage set up as a mini version of that day’s TdF stage!
Series Basics
- 18 race stages
- 558km distance covered
- 8,764m of climbing
Schedule and Routes
Each day’s event begins at 1:15pm BST/8:15am EST/5:15am PST, about 1 hour after the real TdF stages begin. The idea is to ride on Zwift while watching the TdF live at the same time!
Race hard or casually roll along with others. You’ll never miss the best TdF action because each stage should end 1.5-2 hours before the pros are scheduled to finish IRL.
- Stage 1 – July 5: Watopia’s Figure 8 (30km, 234m)
- Stage 2 – July 6: Richmond’s 2015 UCI Worlds Course (2 Laps – 32.9km, 284m)
- Stage 3 – July 7: London’s Greatest London Loop (26.1km, 345m)
- Stage 4 – July 8: Watopia’s Climber’s Gambit (27.9km, 670m)
- Stage 5 – July 9: Watopia’s Out and Back Again (39.8km, 303m)
- Stage 6 – July 10: France’s La Reine (22.8km, 1181m)
- Rest Day – July 11
- Stage 7 – July 12: Greater London 8 (24.3km, 256m)
- Stage 8 – July 13: Watopia’s Four Horsemen (35.1k, 772m)
- Stage 9 – July 14: Watopia’s Tour of Fire and Ice (28.3km, 1161m)
- Stage 10 – July 15: France’s R.G.V. (34.7km, 150m)
- Stage 11 – July 16: Watopia’s Three Little Sisters (37.7km, 401m)
- Stage 12 – July 17: France’s Casse-Pattes (33.1km, 203m)
- Rest Day – July 18
- Stage 13 – July 19: Yorkshire’s Royal Pump Room 8 (27.8km, 480m)
- Stage 14 – July 20: London’s Surrey Hills (44.1k, 1029m)
- Stage 15 – July 21: Innsbruck’s Achterbahn (34.2km, 973m)
- Stage 16 – July 22: France’s Douce France (24.1km, 108m)
- Stage 17 – July 23: Watopia’s Tick Tock (19.2km, 44m)
- Stage 18 – July 24: France’s Champs-Elysees (5 Laps – 36.2km, 170m)
Download the event series flyer >
See all upcoming Chasing Yellow events at zwift.com/events/tag/chasingyellow >
Race Categories
The Chasing Yellow events are races, so you can earn ZwiftPower ranking points depending on your finish position. Unlike most Zwift races, though, these events are mass-start events with only one category.
Questions or Comments?
Post below!
Will there be any catch-up stages?
Nope.
the Tour stages are up to 5-6 hours long. By only have one start time is a disadvantage to some. Suggestion have more start times next TDF on zwift.
Way too late to announce this type of event….
Any additional times for west coast folks who don’t want to ride at 2am?
2am? It’s 5:15am here in California…
Not much use to those of us in Western Europe who have jobs.
Great idea!!! Overlap with work hours during the week, but I will do the weekend races!
WTF time zone is this aimed at?
This is an event for individuals that want to ride on Zwift while watching the Tour live on TV, thats how the timing of the events was determined.
Who is the clever brain of this worthless timeless event(s)? Way too many below average.
Hi Liam, that would be me. The idea is to bring cyclists together on Zwift while watching the Tour live on TV.
I bet he didn’t expect such a nice response. Thanks for setting this up Jon! Very cool idea.
Is there an overall GC or is each stage just a one off race?
I’m going to set up a GC for Jonathan.
Love it. Brilliant idea.
I love being Retired. I can ride each stage.
Thanks Zwift. 😁😁😁
Stage 8 – 4 Horsemen … is it really only the first 35k?
Yes, it’s only the first 35k. That’s where the event will end but you can continue to ride the entire route if you’d like.
Sorry, I have a job.
Good time for it if you live in Kazakhstan I guess.
Or most of the USA…
Jeez guys, so many negative responses just because the timing of these events do not suit your particular circumstances. Take a step back and realise that the whole point of this is that the timing coincides with a rather large cycling event which is happening in real life, during working hours, in Europe. There would be no point doing this at different times in the day.
Chapeau to the people who have put this together. If it doesn’t fit with your schedule (and it doesn’t with mine) then fine, don’t knock it but do other events
The main intention to do something “while watching the Tour live” is clear but I think many people are posting negative comments because they would like to take part in a Tour-like multiple stages event like this. And this is because a kind of thing like this is really lacking on Zwift (I know there are series and leagues, but not made of 18 stages in a row and most of them are points- based and mainly for sprinters -except the recent Dirt series which had a great range of different courses-. Personally, I would love to see more multi-stages events based only on overall time GC, like IRL. I am not posting any negative comments here because I like the way in which the person who organizes this has replied here, even to negative comments or mockery; that said, as many, I am sorry I can’t attend this because of its timing.
Fair points, and I agree with you that an official ZHQ-led multi-stage event around the Tour (or even better, each Grand Tour and the monuments) would be of huge interest.
But that frustration should be directed at Zwift, not at this event which has clearly been devised by one of us – an ordinary Zwifter. One of the great things about Zwift is that it is not all “top down” and there is the community-led element as well and in fact most events are generated by users. If anyone is prepared to get off their butt and set something up a series of events with a particular theme, they do not deserve to have it picked apart by the rest of us who only consume and do not contribute.
Yes, events like those could be interesting. Again, I can imagine they would still come from the community. I don’t see ZHQ putting efforts to organize stuff like that (at least if we consider what they have done until now. Hope to be wrong, of course).
And I agree with you, community contribution is great, I like anyone who is putting efforts into that; but community ideas can also be discussed and improved.
In this case, I think a second time slot on evenings/nights would have seen a good additional number of riders participating and it would not necessarily ruin the idea of doing it while watching the Tour live for those who can do that.
It could have been an added value, with a bit of lateral thinking.
Call it “option 2 – while I watch the highlights of the stage of the day :)”
Surely, much more work for who has to organize and manage the whole stuff, so…next time, may be (or never, who knows!)
I think I agree with some of the points made here. Worth bearing in mind that we have the TDFFaZ mission and events associated with them and wouldn’t want to take away from these.
There’s also the Zwift Classics, which include a French stage for a week (there are 7 weeks) and we’ll also be putting on an Alpe stage for 2 or 3 days.
Should we have put together a series for a TDF themed GC? Maybe, maybe not. I’ve always been open to supporting Community members (like Jonathan) who want to put on their own series. Whilst we have official series, there’s also a whole heap of Community ones to choose from too (Sisu Racing Tour springs to mind).
Really excited to preview the Richmond 3015 course
LOL. I could have sworn I fixed that typo once already. Oh well. Fixed again!
I think the idea is great, but sadly I would not be able to participate since I live in Europe and I have to work.
A nice alternative to this event would be the SISU tour which was mentioned earlier, see https://zwiftinsider.com/sisu-tour/
Great idea!
I’m In. Very Exciting TdF
Just discovered this, sounds great I’ve just been clicking off badgers while watching the replay, this will be more fun if I can drag my lazy a** out of bed 😀 Figures my first day will be my most hated route: Ventoux. I will try to wear a smile… Thank you Jon for putting this on, fantastic idea.
missed stage 8 will there be any chance zwift can have the event again
How do I actually join it? I can’t get into anything that resembles a way to sign-up or log-in
You’re on a post for 2022 😀
Check out https://zwiftinsider.com/chasing-yellow-21-stage-grand-tour-begins-june-29/