Zwift CEO Eric Min is an avid Zwifter, reaching level 100 a few months ago after riding more than 80,000 km on the platform.
Over the past 10 years he’s led group rides, raced, and ridden every bit of tarmac in Zwift’s virtual worlds… including some roads none of us have ever seen!
But do you know what he hasn’t done yet? London’s The PRL Full – the longest route in Zwift.
That’s going to change soon, though. Next Saturday at 4pm UTC/11am ET/8am PT, Eric aims to cross this final route off his list. And he’s inviting the Zwift community to ride it with him, because long days in the saddle are always better with friends!
Sign up at zwift.com/events/view/4691206
About the Route
The PRL Full route was released with the original London map back in 2018, and the intent was to mimic the length (but not the actual roads) of the IRL Prudential Ride London event.
In contrast to Zwift’s other long routes, The PRL Full is quite simple: it’s just 11 laps of the London Loop, followed by a bit more riding to get you onto The Mall where you finish at the Classique forward sprint:
But simple doesn’t mean easy. The route is 173.5km (107.8 miles) long, with 2625m (8,599′) of elevation gain. Strava KOM holder Stefan Kirchmair did it in 3 hours and 58 minutes during a Zwift Insider badge hunt ride in March of 2021. But the rest of us mortals will need to plan on a ride that takes 5+ hours. (Our ZI Metrics estimate stays 280 minutes at 4 W/kg, 313 minutes at 3 W/kg, and 397 minutes at 2 W/kg.)
The big feature of the London Loop is Box Hill – 3km/1.9 miles long with 136m (446′) of elevation gain for an average gradient of 4.4%. It’s not a particularly long or steep climb, but 11x up any climb is a challenge!
Read more about The PRL Full >
Tips for a Successful Ride
- Show up on time. Yes, late join is enabled for this ride, but if you arrive late the game will place you with other riders partway into the route, which means you won’t earn the route badge. Ouch.
- This is not a race – it’s a group ride. You can treat it as a race if you’d like, of course, but the ride will break up naturally into pace groups. Find riders working at your target pace and work together. Don’t burn your legs up early.
- The VeloViewer Leaderboard shows that top riders crush The PRL Full in under 4.5 hours. But most mortals require 5-7 hours, with plenty taking even longer. You do you. Be sure to plan accordingly.
- Because of its repetitive nature, this route is best tackled in a group. Discord and in-game chat will help pass the time as well.
- Prep your fuel and get good rest the night before. It’ll be a long ride!
Join Me Discord
Zwift Insider’s Discord server will be open for voice chat during the ride, and I’ll be signed in as I ride the course with everyone else. (I bet I can even convince Eric Min to join us.)
This really helps pass the time, so we highly encourage it!
Join the server at https://discord.gg/zwiftinsider and sign into the Cycling Chat Room. And if you’re new to Discord, read “Using Discord on Zwift” for tips!
Rapha Festive 500
This event happens right in the middle of the Rapha Festive 500, and finishing it will let you check off over 30% of the 500km challenge! (Plus, finishers will unlock the new Rapha Festive 500 kit.)
Sign Up Now
Sign up for Eric Min’s PRL Full Ride at zwift.com/events/view/4691206.
Questions or Comments?
Post below and we’ll do our best to answer them!
I’m in! Won’t the draft effect shave off a few minutes off those estimate completion times?
Minutes in the span of 4-5 hours though… 😅
Estimated completion times already include the draft!
Luck that!
If it’s not banded with EM doing the pulling, this seems like a very, very painful way to get ~1/3 for the Festive 500 done. Heck … even if the is doing the pulling, it still sounds painful.
It is very painful. This is what Coffee Stops were made for.
Not being used up Box Hill
But to allow you to have a wee stop n refreshments refill as its a bit hard to get the wife to drive the car into the garage to hand them over without killing me…….
Mind you she might just run me over anyway to get the insurance sorted. 😁
Coffee stops were a life saver when I did PRL Full, except the last one I used didn’t stick to the rider next to me and I came back from the bathroom to see my avatar standing still. That chase back on was brutal, but there were very few riders that day and I refused to finish the last third on my own. Be careful when you use the coffee stop!
I did mine on a TT bike as a solo ride for the achievement. Before coffee stops; but you do get to coast downhill so can get off the bike for 3-4min on each lap. Also did it as a Z2 workout to maximize XP
I badge hunted this solo on a Wednesday while I still had cable TV service in 2020, and six hours of South Park got me through it. I remember the excitement of getting the badge for this. I haven’t even considered that the route is still available on Zwift since I never attempted it again. 😉
Suffering is more fun with friends. Good luck to everyone doing this and have fun!!!
I’d love to see a PRL Full day. Or days…
Groups rides starting every half hour, so they’re events and you can’t accidentally turn off the course.
Set up as all riders visible so the groups can merge along the way, different strength riders can go join up even if they didn’t start at the same time.
And put all the pace partners on London Loop to add even more wheels that you might be able to sit behind.
On noes, the one day between christmas and new years I can’t do it 🙁
My one and only time was with the ZI route badge ride…never again. 6h30 it took and I was a mess, but got it done!
Kudos to you Eric for doing this torture. You’re a better man than I, Gunga Din
I’ll be there and on discord. Trying to convince some team glassforge to join also. I also sent the link to some Colorado cyclists that are always up for a challenge.
Excellent. See/chat with you then!
I did this solo march 2024 – I hadn’t rode 100 miles since pre COVID but I had been on zwift for 2.5 years and it was BRUTAL. I was in pain, sore feet, dizzy and feeling sick by the end and jelly legs and that was with 2 breaks to eat – it took 7 hrs 8 mins I was 54 yo. Hehehe I found out at end my feet were in pain because I forgot to put the insoles back in my shoes 😂😂😂 hard as nails💪
LOL what?! You rode this whole friggin route with no insoles?!
That’s nuts. I’ve felt what that feels like, and I think I’d last about 15 minutes max.
Hehehe and that reminds me to add insult to injury zwift never gave me the 100 mile badge – I think I might email support to see if they can add it
Good news zwift support unlocked the No Big Deal badge 🥳
Any chance for a similar one starting in the morning in Europe? 7 hours earlier? 10 am Amsterdam time?
There is one tomorrow @ 9:05 with the Vikings
I did it in a little under 4:30 back in the day, curious to see how much slower I would be today. 5:30 sounds realistic but I haven’t done a >3 hour ride in at least two years.
For me, this is the toughest route in Zwift. I did it solo and it took me just under six hours. I bonked and was praying for death on the last lap and a half. Fuel and hydrate, fuel and hydrate, fuel and hydrate. Have fun !!
I did this when the route first came out, one the most boring, painfull rides I have ever done. I would rather put my finger in the mains socket than do this route again. 😜
misery loves company. looking forward to it!
The Pinarello Dogma 2024 paired with DT Swiss, ARC1100 DiCut Disc wheels appears to be the best choice for this ride despite all the elevation gain according to:
The TT bike is about 4 minutes faster based on a projected 2.5 w/kg., but drafting is disabled on TT bikes correct?
https://zwifterbikes.web.app/route/the-prl-full
Is this going to be better than the Tron?
I’m sure I’ve late joined events and still got the route badge?
Simply joining late doesn’t prevent getting a badge, but … in my experience, you must ride through the start gate and the end gate in that order to get a route badge. So, if you start late and miss the start gate you will be facing riding the route through the end gate and then doing the route from start gate to end gate. On shorter routes, that’s not a big deal. On a 108 mile route, I would stop my ride and find another group/event to join at the beginning. As always, your mileage could vary.
I don’t even think that that is a requirement. I have late joined elevation evaluation when it was in the TdZ last year. I skipped out nearly half an hour and a bit more than half of the flat section. Definitely no start gate but I still got the badge. Another example where it didn’t work was the castle crit on Makuri. Late joined with Les than 2k to go. Didn’t get the badge then. Nevertheless I’m not going to chance not getting the badge on such a long ride and will definitely join in the pen rather than late
Correction: it was accelerate to elevate (south coast leading into the Alpe). Had some family stuff come up so wasn’t able to join you after all. At the time of writing this you’re probably all still going. Ride on!
Does anyone know if this event is open or closed? While start time is too late for me I wondered about starting earlier and joining the ride maybe half way through?
If anyone missed doing this I’d be down to do a makeup group PRL attempt ! DM me !
Loved that ride because there where a lot of entries then. I get that it’s normal when you have more entries in winter and when it’s Rapha500 but now a days its less interesting because there are a lot (to many?) of events on the calender and few/some entries. I now it’s summer and ghere are other platfofms but my opinion is that you can have more entries when you have less events. At this time you can’t find to many “ride events” with a lot of entries to do the long routes. To many races with to little entries… It’s always nicer to ride with more people but always with Robopacers gets a little boring over time.