Tomorrow, February 8th, Zwift is hosting a fundraiser ride that works differently than any ride we can recall from Zwift’s past. And it’s gonna be MASSIVE – the biggest single group ride in Zwift’s history!
But first, a little background.
About Fight ALS
In 2017, pro cyclist André Greipel’s mother Gudrun passed away after a long fight with ALS (otherwise known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease). ALS is a brain disease affecting 450,000 people across the globe. It impacts nerve cells, deteriorating muscle control and eventually paralyzing patients. Many die within five years after diagnosis.
The donations for this event go entirely to ALS researcher Professor Prudlo, currently conducting research at the DZNE, the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases.
$1 Per Rider
Zwift will donate $1 for every Zwifter that joins the rides the ride, up to $10,000! We already have over 6,300 riders signed up. Let’s make it 10k!
Additional Fundraising
You may also donate directly via Paypal or other methods. Imagine if each rider participating also donated $5? See donation info and link here.
Ride Schedule and Details
The ride is 60 minutes long, at a 2-2.5w/kg pace, on the Watopia’s Waistband route. It is scheduled for Saturday, February 8th, at 9am Pacific/12pm Eastern/5pm GMT.
Everyone completing the ride with unlock the Fight ALS kit.
I signed up for the ride. But, my smart trainer is broken and is giving me continuously maximum resistance. If you fall out of the group, do you still get the jersey and will your ride count for the donation by Zwift?
Yes, as long as you finish the ride you should get the jersey and the donation should still happen. Doesn’t matter if you finish way behind the main group!
I signed up several days ago. My son and I have been tracking the ever-increasing rider count. He is eagerly looking forward to seeing 7,000+ riders on Zwift! I’m hoping my computer’s GPU can handle that number. Ride on everyone!
I’ve signed up for this and am looking forward to riding the Waistband for the first time. See you tomorrow!
Zwift couldn’t cope with the number of starters. Screen crashed and never recovered. Maybe they should donate the full $10,000 as compensation for the thousands of users left disappoint. Although people Rode the distance the screen didn’t clock the milage so no jerseys are received. Also donated £10 to the charity via PayPal. Very disappointing zwift, get your act together
First ten minutes were tough since everyone was bunched together, but the game was stable for me after that. Received the jersey after 60 mins
It was OK for me. However at the start, I was riding with a lot of bicyles with no riders on. Fun to watch, and it only lasted a couple of minutes. It all went fine to the finish. I had been a little worried, as my ZWIFT run on a 9 year old computer, but no problems.
Does anyone know how many finished the ride. I think a saw about 6.300 riders on screen.
Great ride for a great cause. Ny first group ride on zwift and i enjoyed it a lot. Thanks for this site Eric.
Very happy to do the ride, lost my grandmother to ALS when I was younger and I think of her often. I regularly donate to research and including that with seat time is always a win. Like many have said, the beginning was pretty choppy but once the group spread out it seemed to even out and time ticked away and the Jersey came as promised. Ride on everyone!
did the ride, in the starting pens starting to loose the other riders AppleTV App), from 2 minutes into the ride I was TT’ing it solo, finished the Waistband with 20sec to spare
I had a similar experience: all other riders winked out of the existence a few minutes after the start, but they popped back in past the Italian Village, and then it was a stable ride until the end. Loved that unlimited draft!
I had the same experience as all the riders vanished 4 minutes into the ride and I ended up riding solo till the end.
After all the riders disappeared I did a force crash out then logged back in, the system found the riders and it took me to the middle of the lead pack…where I was quickly dropped…LOL Was an experience to be dropped as 6,000 other riders swam upstream past me! Time for a new FTP test… Hahaha…
Not happy with the glitches. Sent me off the course. After the 60 minute mark it kicked me out and took my jersey away, never to be seen again. Then I continued riding another 10 minutes and Zwift companion froze up. The ride didn’t make it to Strava and Zwift says I only rode 54 minutes…. it’s a shame because it was for a good cause….one of my best friends suffers from this disease. and yes, they should just round up their donation to $10k and call it a day.