Rapha’s Festive 500 began in 2010 as a simple challenge: brave the winter elements and ride 500 kilometers between December 24-31. Since then, riders have covered over 300 million Festive kilometers, including many virtual kilometers after Covid lockdowns opened the Festive 500 challenge to virtual rides.
This year, as in years past, Zwift is working with Rapha to host events and give unlocks to finishers. Here are all the details…
The Challenge
Your task is to ride 500 kilometers (310.7 miles) in eight days, from December 24-31. Outdoor bike, e-bike, handcycle, and virtual rides all count toward the total.
This is all tracked through Strava, so you’ll need to sign up for the Strava Challenge and upload your rides to Strava to be considered an official finisher.
RoboPacer-Led Festive 500 Events
Any miles you do on Zwift count toward the Festive 500 challenge, but Zwift is spinning up RoboPacer-led events to encourage riders to go the distance. Events are scheduled every two hours, and each event includes multiple pace options led by RoboPacers:
- A: 4.2 w/kg RoboPacer
- B: 3.2 w/kg RoboPacer
- C: 2.6 w/kg RoboPacer
- D: 2.2 w/kg RoboPacer
- E: 1.5 w/kg RoboPacer
Events will be 50 kilometers long and held on the following routes/dates:
- Dec 24-25: Greatest London Flat
- Dec 26-27: Waisted 8
- Dec 28-29: Triple Flat Loops
- Dec 30-31: Makuri 40
See all of Zwift’s Festive 500 Group Rides at zwift.com/events/series/rapha-festive-500-zwift
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Extra-Flat RoboPacer Routes
RoboPacers are always active in Zwift, leading always-on group rides at a variety of paces.
Zwift will be breaking the RoboPacers out of their normal schedule and moving them to flatter routes during Festive 500 week, so help riders rack up the miles.
See RoboPacer schedule for details >
Kit Unlock
Complete any of the official Zwift Festive 500 rides above and unlock the Rapha Festive 500 2024 kit, which mirrors the IRL kit available from Rapha:
Prize Drawing
Details of the Strava challenge say those who finish will earn the following:
- Entry into the prize draw to win a US$1,000 Rapha voucher
- A digital roundel for your Strava Trophy Case
- A 20% off code to spend at Rapha
- The chance to win more prizes in the Rapha Spirit of the Festive 500 awards
More Events from the Community
Community teams always create special events (group rides and even races) to help riders hit the Festive 500km goal. In fact, at least one crazy group is planning to ride the entire 500km in one event!
See all upcoming rides over 100km in ZwiftHacks >
Zwift CEO Eric Min is holding a ride on London’s PRL Full on December 28 at 8am ET. (It’s the last route badge he needs to earn). There might be some special kit unlock(s) associated with this ride… watch for a post about it in the coming days.
Check out the ride calendar in Zwift Companion or this ZwiftHacks link to find more fun, long Festive 500 rides.
Questions or Comments?
Are you up for the challenge? I know I’m in, just like last year. Share below!
No 100k in about 2h Events?
Get on board with the 1.5m 49kg crowd then yes. Or if you are especially ambitious tackle the uber pretzel with those stats and get it done in3.5 hours.
The 24th is actually a great opportunity to knock out the PRL Half or Full routes, as the guest world rotates through London.
Are those sunglasses considered part of the kit unlock?
No. Those look like the Rapha pro team glasses unlocked at level 83: https://zwiftinsider.com/level-61-100-unlocks/
Level 75 unlocks the Rapha Pro Team shoes so if you unlock the Festive 500 kit, finishing level 83 will give you the complete ensemble with the shoes and glasses 😁
“Your task is to ride 500 kilometers (310.7 miles) in eight days, from December 24-31, 2023.” You mean 2024, don’t you? 🙂
Whoops. Yes!
Missed the Strava link too: https://www.strava.com/challenges/4772
Link is in the post…
Link in post is for last year. Link in comment is correct.
“Mirrors the IRL kit from Rapha”? I’ve been checking regularly and there is no Festive 500 jersey available from Rapha, unless they are going on sale sometime after 12/16 (which is awfully late if you want one for the start of the event).
I’ve seen pics of an IRL kit – it was a long-sleeve jersey with the same look as the in-game kit. No idea why it’s not listed on Rapha’s site yet…
The PRL Full is also the one which is missing for me. So I was thinking to organize a group ride / event on December 24th, which also counts for the F500. Starting at 10am Amsterdam time. But I haven’t got a clue how to do so. Can you give me a bit of guidance? And would it be possible to let other riders join later, say every 30 minutes? Since you need to do 11 laps, it would make sense for people in other timezones to join as well and ride laps in the bunch as well.
Personally I wouldn’t bother with a group ride unless you have a bunch of mates keen to stick together and help each other out. It’s a long ride and you will definitely see alot of splits and solo riding in a group event of this length.
I thought Eric Min also said he hadn’t done the Uber Pretzel in the chat on his Thanksgiving Ride? If so it would be great if he also did a ride on that course at some point to encourage a big field.
He already did it, a couple weeks ago.
I guess 50km is a nice round number, but it seems a bit odd to have group rides that are 12.5km shy of what you need to average daily to ride 500km in 8 days.
Was thinking the same thing
Hey Eric, have you heard anything about the annual Fondos? It appears that they simply dropped them for this year?
Zwift said they didn’t organize them this year because there were so many other big events Zwift was doing. (10-year anniversary stuff, etc).
That’s fair enough. Thanks for confirming.
Anyone want to try and do this as one ride?
Thinking about 14 hours on a flat course with a RoboPacer
Looks like the pace bots are skipping my comfort endurance pace. They are going too slow with Bernie at 1.5 and skipping to Maria at 2.2. Now what you have listed in your article. They go 1.5, 2.2, 2.6, 3.2, 4.2.
I don’t know why all events are either under 1.5, or over 2.2. That is a huge jump in percent of effort. Most group rides are the same. Very few in the 2.0 area. I miss riding with groups. Mostly end up solo riding.
Ride with D Miguel at 1.8? Using a crappy frame/wheels or gravel bike should get you up to 2.0.
I can do that but I guess my real comment was where is the 1.8 on the festive rides. How many 4.2 are there?
He may have updated the article, 4.2 is gone and D 1.8 has been added.
the article does not match the events on the companion app for sign up.
But I just updated it now to match the events, now that they’re posted…
Thanks Eric. I still wish they could change to what you had. Oh well. I’ll still get my 500 in.
I haven’t changed anything.
By the way. I do 2.0 600kms.
Yeah, that’s… less than ideal.
My recommendation: get with Zwift and combine the two events. No reason why there should be two separate ones!
Really poor form of Zwift to place their PRL Full event on top of an existing PRL Full event (exact same time and date).
Yes, but that’s not the whole story, either.
After I saw someone complain about their being two PRL Full events at the same time, I reached out to Zwift to let them know. They realized they hadn’t noticed the overlap because Eric Min’s ride was originally slated for 3 hours earlier, then got moved.
To Zwift’s credit, once they realized there were two events, they reached out to ZZRC’s team lead to see if they wanted to combine events somehow. But ZZRC declined.
Of course, I’m hearing all this secondhand. But I’d say ZZRC doesn’t really get to complain at this point. A combined event would have been bigger and cooler for everyone involved, IMO, but they declined.
Don’t see how that makes any sort of sense. So ZZRC should just be happy to have their event taken over by Zwift because they couldn’t be bothered to care about already planned events? Again, this just exemplifies Zwift not really caring about community events. They should’ve put it on another day and/or time.
I get what you’re saying. BUT the ride is scheduled at a prime time on probably the most prime weekend of the year for long rides (middle of Festive 500).
Should ZZRC be able to “own” that route for that timeslot? Keep in mind they’ve currently got 24 riders signed up, while Eric Min’s ride has 481.
ZZRC, IMO, missed a big chance to combine their ride with Eric’s, get a lot of exposure for their team, and have a better ride experience for everyone involved.
They should not own the route for that timeslot. However, Zwift HQ specifically should not be in the habit of taking over community-organised events. And yeah, unsurprisingly people have left the ZZRC ride now as it’s being pushed in the background by an event that is being pushed by Zwift HQ.
The line about ZZRC “missing an opportunity” is just ridiculous. Their chance was organising a good event, and that chance has been removed by Zwift HQ. The idea that having their name be a footnote of a Zwift/Erik Min ride in exchange for having their event cancelled would be an “opportunity” is frankly as insulting as the move by Zwift.
It demonstrates how Zwift feel about community rides… Unsurprisingly their events will always take priority.
Could you start at 11 pm on the 23rd and finish at 12:30 the 24th? Would that still count?
I don’t know maybe start at midnight to be safe 👍 12 hours is very ambitious Chris? I do this every year and it takes me roughly 16hrs and I’m no slouch. Feel terrible for a few days after though 😂🍺🍺
Thanks for the post. My strategy will be 100K for three days, a rest day, then 100K for two more days. The 50K organized rides will help; two per day back to back.
If I join a ride for the Greatest London Flat and I continue the loop after completing the route, will the extra miles count toward the total for the 500?
Yes
Does the event start on the 24th Eve, so for example 8pm Eastern or would a ride at 7am Eastern on the 24th count? Thanks
A couple of comments.
The Festive 500 is over 8 days. That equals 62.5 km per day, but the Zwift rides are only 50kms.
They don’t seem to have picked the flattest courses available.
We’re after kms not climbing metres.
Lastly they don’t seem to have the pacing right.
This morning the D grade was advertised as 2.2kw but was easily 2.5.
There were heaps of comments and complaints.
I rode the Cat D ride and not only was it faster than advertised but there was no Pacer. Plus to top it all off I lost my picture, but not the connection, around 2/3rds of the ride and by the time I had sorted it the group I was with had long gone. Not a huge problem as the next group were only 10 secs back by that time but I was working my socks off to stay with them at the time.
Can you do a workout during one of the pacer group rides? I’ve got zone 2 workout I need to do & it’d be fun to do it with a group for the festive 500. I’d plan to join the 1.5 w/kg as the 2.2 w/kg was waaay faster than that and more tempo/threshold pace than zone 2 as I’d planned for the other day.
I’ve been doing most of my kms in F500 with RoboPacer at 1.8 Wkg, when I tried joining the F500 group rode at 2.2 Wkg I found I was doing less kms per minute!……I often am doing mental maths as I ride, working out averages etc. and it deffo was slower at 2.2 than with a RoboPacer at 1.8, so for less effort I’m sticking to the RP’s, anyone else aware of this phenomenon?
I’m assuming it’s 31st Dec inclusive? Ie it’s still going on the 31st?
Yes, goes through the end of the year.
There are no rides listed on Companion today.
I noticed that as well. Zero Rapha500 pacer groups listed at all. Pretty disappointed. Already covered the 500 km 2 days ago, but not on Zwift and wanted the “special” jersey. May have waited too late to do my Zwift portion. Oh well.
Nope. Only ride listed on Dec 31 was at 4am MST. Ridiculous. Guess I missed my chance for the Zwift jersey.
Hi,
Quick question regarding the unlock pictures shown above.
What glasses are worn by the man showing off the kit you unlock?
I thought they also would be unlocked once completing an event.
Saw someone else already asked this below. My bad.
Why do the group rides end at 5am MST on the 31st?
Ooof. So I guess there were some today, but I sure missed them. Nothing now. Thanks for the heads up. :sigh:
I do not see any Rapha Festive 500 events today (Dec 31). Am I missing something?
Any news about 2025 Festive 500 yet?
It’s happening! Watch for a post here early next week.
Cheers Eric