What’s the phrase, “Go big or go home”? Well, I’m already at home with Zwift, so that meant I had to go big. And BIG I have gone. I have expanded my popular Mountain Massif TT series and am launching a new event!
My popular Monday Mountain Massif TT is already running early in the week, so I have teamed up with global powerhouse Muc-Off for a Friday event and they are going to sponsor this during September and October. (Read more about Muc-Off and their products as they apply to Zwifters here.)
Interesting Notes
I’ve kept the popular format of Monday’s Mountain Massif TT but am hosting this new event on the majestic Alpe Du Zwift. Being a fan of interesting routes, I have a slight variation on the Road to Sky route – in this event, you don’t have to worry about reaching the summit as this epic Mountain TT will finish at turn 8, a total of 12km from the pens, with 622 meters of climbing.
Apart from the obvious climbing challenge, there is the added complexity of a possible bike change. Do you start on a mountain bike and zip through the jungle before switching to a climbing rig, or do you go full climbing setup from the start, avoiding the bike change?
For my original Monday Mountain Massif TT, one dedicated Zwifter called Titanium Ben produced this excellent video to analyse setups. I’m curious to see if this could be replicated on this new route.
Finish On Turn 8
The point of finishing on turn 8 is to enable you to go absolutely full gas on the lower slopes, encouraging you to push yourself harder for a shorter amount of time.
The inaugural event will take place on Friday 17th September.
I’ll delve into my list of contacts to see who I can rustle up to join the suffer fest, but already our Zwift friends from Castelli Cycling have confirmed they are going to attend and Muc-Off are going to see if the Canyon ESports team they proudly sponsor is up for the challenge.
There may be some giveaways too…
I’m excited to give this a go, it’s going to be hard – but that is the fun after all!
Event Details and Signup
Route: truncated Road to Sky (12km)
Date: Friday 17th September
Sign-up links: 12pm CEST & 7pm CEST
Questions or Comments?
Post below!
Sounds interesting. How many metres of climbing is it up to Turn 8?
Hi, around 622 meters of climbing. Hope to see you there.
Ahhh, so a bit like riding up the Epic KOM to the radio tower! I always think it’d be good for Zwift to put a finishing/bonus arch by the radio tower.
I actually wish that they would just have a route you can ride, like my Monday Mountain Massif TT, my course is the truncated Mountain 8. Like you said, if they had a banner at the Radio Tower, you could finish there and on the route you could do some super fun races in Meet-Ups with your friends, racing up the Epic KOM reverse. Maybe I need to champion my route to be made into a permanent one that people can do, and get a badge for, call it the Mountain Massif badge 🤔👍
How come these articles always get posted 1 or 2 days before an event?!
Done some tests Tim! Tt vs road bike https://youtu.be/o4f_cNA8sZ4
And bike swap? https://youtu.be/bumdSSSi8uQ
Excellent videos. Thank you
Ed is back for the early race, best of the rest again haha.
He might have a technical that gives us a chance! See you at the start. Ride On!
Uff, that was hard, plus I was having streaming issues through the jungle. How did you go? I did a bike swap, then through my sweaty eyes I saw I was catching you near the finish, but never got close. Good event for 20 mins power, I moved up into A+ class after being a “tactical A” for ages.
Congratulations on your uplift. It was a tough event. Hope you enjoyed it. I was completely on the limit. Great to see so many people get new 20 minute PB’s. I hope that it grows in popularity. Thank you for attending and am glad that the early slot worked for our friends in the Sothern Hemisphere. Hope to see you next week!
I think this event is a hit! Zwift Power indicates that many people hit new personal bests in terms of 20 minute power. My opinion is:
Events on Zwift don’t come much tougher than that!
The shortness and steepness of the route meant that you were pushing above your http://FTP.
By having a truncated route meant that you pushed hard. Harder than you would when normally tackling a climb like the Alpe.
A pleasantly, painful race.
Nice TT climbing event👌 Thanks Tim for the idea to organize these climbing races (Monday and this one) on Zwift 👍. One question: why does a A rider with a much slower time than a B rider get more ranking points? Is this right?
Hi Thomas, great question, I don’t understand Zwift Power and the points. I have tried to, but gave up. I’ll stick to my articles and trying to create fun events. I am glad you enjoy my events, they certainly make you work hard and are a bit different – also pleased that by offering two time slots I can accommodate more of the Zwift community, my only worry is am I neglecting the West Coast of the US with the times? Really grateful for being able to team up with Muc-Off for this new event. We got a few interesting articles planned which I am going be working on.