The annual Virtual El Giro de Rigo is a popular event, kicking off the Northern Hemisphere’s indoor season and its big rides.
This year’s event has just been announced, and it looks to be bigger and better than ever! More timeslots, a jersey unlock, a new in-game frame, plus an IRL bike giveaway! Let’s dig into the details…
First: the Workouts
We’ve already started a 4-week training block designed to help riders build fitness heading into the big weekend. If you need a little structure in your training, check out the “2021 Giro de Rigo Workout Series” events. It’s a series of 7 workouts, and each is scheduled for a few days before progressing to the next.
See workout details and upcoming events >
Saturday Warmup – Ride with Rigo
There’s one single warmup event scheduled for Saturday, November 20th. El Giro de Rigo founder Rigoberto Urán will be riding in the event and interacting with riders, along with some special guests. And of course, he’ll be joined by hundreds of others!
The event is at 10am PST/1pm EST/ 6pm GMT. It’s a single-lap ride on Watopia’s Road to Ruins route (30.2km, 275m) at a stated pace of 2-2.5w/kg.
Sign up for the warmup event >
The Main Event: Virtual El Giro de Rigo
This year’s event gives riders a choice of two different routes. Choose A or B category based on which route you’d like to ride:
- A: Watopia Big Foot Hills (1 lap)
- 70 km (43.5 miles)
- 707 m (2,320‘)
- B: Watopia Figure 8 (1 lap)
- 30 km (18.6 miles)
- 234 m (768‘)
There are no pace categories or women’s-only categories.
Events are scheduled at the top of the hour, every hour, on November 21st. So everyone will be able to find a time slot that works for them!
Sign up for the Virtual El Giro de Rigo >
New Bike Day
Today, October 30th, Rigoberto Urán launched his own bike line, named “Uranium”.
Participants in Saturday’s warmup ride as well as the Virtual El Giro de Rigo will be placed on the new in-game Uranium Nuclear bike.
ZwiftHQ has confirmed that riders will also unlock the bike when they complete either course of Sunday’s Virtual El Giro de Rigo.
Update: ZwiftHQ has not set up these events to unlock the Uranium Nuclear bike. (This was the original plan, which was later changed.) Finishers who want the frame added to their garage may contact Zwift support to get the bike added to their garage.
(We don’t have access to the new frame yet in game, but we’ll publish a separate post about it once it’s available in the Drop Shop.)
Kit Unlock and IRL Bike Giveaway
Along with the Uranium bike, riders who complete either course of Sunday’s Virtual El Giro de Rigo will unlock this year’s official green event kit for their garage.
You will also be entered into a giveaway to win a complete IRL Uranium bike!
Questions or Comments?
Post below!
The warmup and final ride events appear on Zwift to be scheduled for Sunday and Monday respectively in the Eastern time zone. Bug?
Yeah. Zwift’s events team will be fixing these ASAP from what I hear.
How do you unlock the new bike from the event? Can you complete any workout or do you need to do the actual El Giro de Rigo event? Do you have to do both the “Ride with Rigo” AND “El Giro de Rigo” events? The wording in Zwift’s announcement is quite ambiguous…
ZwiftHQ just confirmed with me “riders will unlock the kit and bike for completing the event.”
Update: ZwiftHQ has not set up these events to unlock the Uranium Nuclear bike. We will update this post with instructions for finishers who want the frame added to their garage.
Any luck with this yet? I contacted Zwift support after the event and got a very non-committal response saying it may or may not be unlocked in my garage – and no progress since
Can you catch up on Rides 1 and 2? I’ve looked in the calendar and don’t see them and also unable to see them in any group workout.
I don’t think so. I think once they’ve run for their handful of days they’re gone.
That is too bad. I am traveling for work and will not have the ability to ride indoors. Would have liked to get the bike and event kit, but I guess I will just go actually ride Mount Diablo instead! 😅
Given how much time Rigo spent “interacting with riders” at last years event, I think I’ll give this one a miss. He didn’t even bother saying “Hi and thanks for coming” 😞
Thanks for the insight. I won’t bother either.
The ride tomorrow is not on Zwiftpower? Will the results be there in the end?
Good question. The rides are currently classified as Group Workouts, which is of course wrong. I’ve told ZHQ. We’ll see if they fix them in time.
Thanks Eric, you must be doing some magic, its now changed to a group ride
Yup, they wrote back and said they fixed it!