Official Zwift fondo events are always a blast, with hundreds of riders taking part. Like an outdoor fondo, they feature challenging routes with varying length options. Riders can race the event, or just push to do their best and finish a challenging effort.
The first events of a Zwift’s new monthly series have just been posted, and it all kicks off next weekend, November 8th!
Looking for Zwift fondo event times? Click here for a schedule from ZwiftHacks
Routes
Zwift Fondo events have three categories (A, B, and C) which are open to all riders. These categories don’t refer to rider strength or speed–they refer to route length.
For November the routes are (click for details):
Side note: we would really like to see Zwift expand the fondo routes to something that hasn’t been used in past fondos. Maybe it’s time for an Uber Pretzel fondo option?
Kit Unlocks
This is a 5-month series, and each month’s fondo has its own unique kit unlock. These kits are exclusive, meaning they will never be available anywhere else in game. A true badge of honor! Here’s a shot of November’s kit:
Upcoming Dates
This monthly series runs through March. Here are the upcoming fondo dates:
- 8 Nov
- 13 Dec
- 3 Jan
- 7 Feb
- 7 Mar
Is this a Race?
Officially, no. But thousands of riders will turn out for these popular “fun race” events, and the front of each category will certainly be filled with strong riders going all out. And that’s perfectly fine!
As Zwift says, in the end “It’s all about doing your best and trying to finish the toughest routes in Watopia.”
Questions or Comments
Share below!
Great – will see me through the new LOCKDOWN in the UK. 👌👍😁
frustrating they don’t have Fondo weekends and it’s only the Sunday
Yep. Oh, you have a JOB? Well, tough luck then. Come back when you’re unemployed!
Feel not good Mark as ride and not race or both option
Eric: Would be good if you could do some estimated “time for Cat B/C/D to complete” for each length of each of those monthly Fondos – especially with the amount of climbing in that route the longer versions might take deceptively long
Cheers 👍
Not exactly what you’re looking for but it may help to know you can go into the “history” tab on Zwift Power (next to the default “events” tab) and search for the routes to get some times from events run previously. For example this one https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=1078400 where the A bracket was the Gran Fondo route and the B was the Medio Fondo route.
Cheers, I did know about the event history option, I just didn’t think I’d find the fondo routes there so hadn’t tried it for this 👍
Agree with the side note. Different condo options please. It doesn’t seem it would be that hard. None even include Titans Grove or the desert. Lots of different routing options.
If we join these, will we get any route badge completions?
Not for these particular routes, since they’re event only routes. Event only routes don’t award badges.
Not even for those routes that string together to make the Fondo?…..
So with Fondo the group will not stay together like E ride (no drop)?
There will be several hundred riders (possible thousands), so you just need to find a group going at your pace. Definitely not a “no drop” social ride!
love the fondos but please please no more “kits” as prizes, I’ll take some virtual air in my tires before another kit at this point! 😛
The exact same routes, exact same format. Pretty lame.
I like the routes. Long enough to be a challenge and infrequent enough that i can set goals and see improvement. I’d like them to keep an annual Fondo series on this route – or at least if they add other routes in the series keep at least one or two on the official Fondo routes.
Wonder if we will get a XP multiplier event again like over the winter
Are these routes only for this Sunday or will they be repeated on the following dates? Thanks!
I don’t know, but in the past, Zwift has used these same fondo routes every month. I’m hoping they don’t this time around!
Ha, good luck with that. It’s been the same for years 😂
I am also desperately hoping they don’t just keep recycling that tired gran fondo route. The jungle has no appeal since the surface changes, and they’re not using any of the more recent expansion roads. The first few events were on the Mega Pretzel, which was HARD, but this route just lazes and meanders back over itself. I was bored and angry by the time we finally turned toward the mountain.
Mix it up! Tack a few miles onto the Four Horsemen, or make it 4 laps of Watopia’s Waistband for the flatlanders. Add SOMETHING from the Tempus Fugit side of the world.
Or go bigger(er) and give us a century event, since everything’s stupid again with the Covids. I did a ride last year where I hit every inch of road in Watopia, and it came in just over 100 miles. Took all day, but I’d bet there’s a substantial market for it.
I hope we get some new Fondo routes at some point. The Gran Fondo reminds me of driving in Italy: “Isn’t that the same village we just past a while ago?”
Is it just me or are these not showing up in the Companion app?
Yeah it seems like it’s not on zwift.com either. Find the event on zwifthacks and click on the link to zwift to find the event.
I see the events on both Companion and zwift.com. I just set the filters on either to show only Fondo events and viola!
any idea when the December event will start showing in Companion or zwift.com for registration?
I would guess 1-2 weeks before the event date.
is the fondo series only available 1 day a month?
Yep.
I did the Fondo and did not get the kit. Why?
At 10 Am today the Server are completly overloaded.
After 10km i stopped and logged out, because with 1 Frame/ sec it is no fun.
I am wondering if nobody else had this experience today ??
Did not have this kind before…
Not a server issue, typically. Probably a case of your Zwift device being underpowered for what Zwift was throwing at it. What device were you using?
Hi Eric, Have used the same PC as every time, in Ulta resolution. Have done in the past a lot of events (including Fondos), never hat this issue.
Hope in Dezember it works well…
Drop the resolution down for the next event.
Hi Eric,
I tried participating today in the Fondo using my tablet running Zwift (as per usual).
Unfortunately the event was completely unrideable as I had roughly 0,25 frames per second, I suspect this is due to the many participants.
After 30 minutes of real world riding on my trainer I was less than 4 minutes into the event according to the App. There were roughly 200 people behind me so I suspect they had a similiar problem. I quit the event very frustrated as I was excited to participate and planned my activities and even food for the event.
Is there any configuration/setup that helps tablet/smartphone devices manage such big events or do those only work with computers with dedicated GPUs?
Regards
Timo
I am using my iPad and did not get this problem this morning. But, did not get my Fondo kit 🙁
My guess is you were on an Android tablet? Simply put, performance on Android is often spotty because Zwift can’t customize itself to every iteration of Android device (there are too many!)
You’ll certainly get better performance on IPads, AppleTV, and a good PC.
I did the gran fondo this morning but don’t see the kit after completion? Hmm, what am I missing?
Same here!!
Youre lucky… nobody needs even more kits
Did the Fondo this morning, got the kit … it doesn’t look anything like the image shown above.
Interesting! Who knows?
If we missed the first date can we catch up ?.
Nope. It’s just one day each month, and if you miss it you miss out!
Just find this on zwifthack: https://zwift.com/events/view/1215298?__znl=fr-fr . Maybe they add another dates?
“Oops! Looks like we can’t find that event.”
Link correct ??
Yeah the link no longer work and the events listed on zwifthack disappear …
Once next month’s events are added, they will show up on the ZwiftHacks link.
How soon will Zwift post the December onwards events so i can sign up?
Any chance you’ve had a chance to see the kits for the remaining 4 Fondos this year yet and can share them? I’m guessing they’re all the same basic kit but with different colour combos than the first one, so don’t want to miss out on a nice colour combo 🙂
I have not, unfortunately.
December’s kit is uploaded. No route yet, probably next week.
https://zwift.com/events/series/zwift-fondo-series-2020-21
Any idea when (what time) these events are? The December event is in 11 days and I can’t find the times. I would have thought they’d be up weeks in advance. Is it like the Nations Challenge where there are a bunch of starts throughout the day?
Probably the worst marketing of these. If you go to events and use filters to select cycling and fondo, nothing comes up. If you go to the fondo page on zwift it tells you about it it lists that dates and then says “events below” and there is nothing below.
Dunno if you want to update this post, but there have been two changes to the fondo schedule worth noting.
For the first time, the Feb fondo ran for two days: 6th & 7th. According to the Zwift.com fondo page, the March fondo will also do the same.
In addition, after Zwift and you published the original March 7th fondo date, the date was moved two weeks later on the Zwift.com fondo page. So according to them, and unless it’s a bizarre mistake, the next fondo will run March 20 & 21, *not* on March 7th as shown on this page above.
Thanks for this