“This is not for you. Nothing personal. But it’s not. This is for people with fight. Resilience. And minds tougher than their bodies…”
That’s how the Norseman website introduces the event. It’s not your typical triathlon: it’s an extreme triathlon. It begins with a 3.8km (2.3 mile) swim in near-freezing water, then continues to a 180km (112 mile) ride up a mountain, finishing with a marathon that includes steep climbing for the final 10+ miles. Begin at sea level, finish at 1,850m above sea level with a total ascent of 5,000m.
Zwift has hosted a Norseman series every year since 2018, and they’re always popular with athletes wanting to push themselves to the limit. This year’s events have just rolled out (although they’re still being added to the calendar). The series runs from June 28-Aug 8, starting with 5 weeks of workouts and culminating in a week of races with jersey unlocks and giveaways available. Here are the details…
Norseman Festival of Climbing Workout Series
The 5-week workout series begins June 28 and runs through August 1. These workouts are designed to prepare Zwifters for the rigors of the Festival of Climbing Races. Each week features a fresh run workout as well as a bike workout, all designed by coach Graeme Stewart, who is a 4x Norseman finisher (doing his 5th this year to earn his green jersey).
Graeme will be leading select rides and runs throughout the series.
See upcoming Norseman run and ride workouts >
Norseman Festival of Climbing
The final week of the series (August 2-8) is the Norseman Festival of Climbing. This is a challenging week of races finishing with a long ride race on August 7th and a half marathon run race on August 8th.
Race Week Details
- Day 1 (Aug 2):
Bike: Mountain 8 (32.5km // 677m)
Run: A – Hilly Route Reverse (9.6km) | B – That’s Amore (6.7km) - Day 2 (Aug 3):
Bike: Quatch Quest (46.2km // 1,683m)
Run: A – Flat Irons (15.6km) | B – Park to Peak (4.7km) - Day 3 (Aug 4):
Bike: Innsbruck KOM After Party (37.4km // 640m)
Run: A – Spirit Forest (12.4km) | B – Sea to Tree (3.9km) - Day 4 (Aug 5):
Bike: Ven-Top (20.9km // 1,534m) |
Run: A – Whole Lotta Lava (17.2km) | B – Volcano Circuit (5.4km) - Day 5 (Aug 7):
Bike A – 7 Horsemen (123km // 2,783m) [custom distance 4 Horsemen route, ending atop Epic KOM]
Bike B – 4 Horsemen (90.4km // 2,111m) - Day 6 (Aug 8):
Run: Three Sisters Half Marathon (21.1km) [custom distance]
Jersey Unlocks
Two jerseys are available during race week:
- The Norseman White jersey and run shirt for completing any of the races. This is a brand new kit for the series.
- The coveted Norseman Black jersey and run shirt is reserved for Zwifters completing the August 7th Cat A race (7 Horsemen race) and Aug. 8th half marathon race.
Prize Drawing
Two Norseman 2022 Race Entries are up for grabs (1 male and 1 female). Zwifters can earn up to 2 entries into the drawing by completing the 7 Horsemen race and/or the Three Sisters Half Marathon run race.
Four Horsemen is hard but seven?
Guessing the seven horsemen is hilly, volcano, mountain, adz, hilly, volcano, mountain?
Can I just clarify – do you get the black jersey if you complete either the bike (A, 7th Aug) OR run (8th Aug), or is it for doing both. Thanks.
Official site says “or”:
“Eyeing that iconic Norseman Black jersey? Complete a race on August 7 or 8 in Group A and it’s all yours.”
No route badge, I guess, except maybe a rebel route.
The A ride on the 7th looks it does the whole four horsemen route + part of it again. So about 1.5 four horsemen laps. So should be able to get the route badge.
Right. I meant a new route badge different than 4 Horsemen. I was hoping to have some additional incentive for Uber Pretzel, but nope.
A good way to knock out thoes hard route badges if not done yet. The Aug. 7th custom distance is going to be harder than than the uber pretzel. That event/race day is up for hardest event on zwift for the year award. Hopefully there will more time slots for thoes in the americas west region for that week which tends to hurt for time slots in many events.
Do we think Uber Pretzel will make the event list?
I remember a few years ago when we had to do BOTH the Uber Pretzel Bike Saturday and a 20k run on Sunday. I’d counted only 38 guys who did both and 8 women – if I remember correctly.
Anyone else having a hard time getting the workouts to show up on Companion app? If I search using this site I can find them and add it but it won’t show up until I do that on the Companion.
Too bad. During my holiday again😪. Should be another one in Europe’s winter.
By any chance someone has all Norsemen workouts in his files? Or maybe those workouts will be implemented ingame?
Not sure why the Norseman Festival of Climbing workouts haven’t been added to the Training section of Zwift? Last year’s training rides are there. I have ended up missing a couple of the training rides and it would be good to be able to do them prior to race week.
Got same problem 🙂 those trainings are nowhere to be found…
Just a heads up, all – next week’s races are now on the calendar! See https://www.zwift.com/uk/events/series/norseman-festival-of-climbing-2021
Thanks for the update! I’ve been anxiously awaiting this schedule to be released.
Do you know if there’s going to be a General Classification leaderboard, like there was for the most recent Haute Route races?
First stage was on tt bikesno draft. It wasnt mentioned anywhere. And few big stages are coming. If its on tt bikes and no draft…. well good luck 😉
Why is drafting allowed ? Real Norseman is without, isn’t it ?
In 2018 on the Zwift Event, all racers were allocated non-drafting TT bikes !
(https://www.zwift.com/p/the-norseman-faq?__znl=fr-fr)
Just did day 1 and TT bikes were mandatory – but you could pick whichever TT Bike/Wheelset combo you wanted.
Yes thanx, me too ! If would be perfect if all event of the week are on TT bikes
It looks like events today (and into the future) are drafting events, without TT bikes. I wonder if the initial Day 1 events were misconfigured?
I just joined an event and it forced me onto the Cervelo S5.
Looked at the big ride on the companion app description for the weekend it also shows cervelo s5 assigned as of now. So wheel choice is up to the riders.
Thanks for the info. I am really looking forward to the long race on the four horsemen route this Saturday! Drafting will make it a lot more fun 🙂
They were not 🙂 2nd and 3rd stage didnt have draft (Quatch quest and Innsbruck KOM after party). Today is ventop, so draft basically doesnt matter as much. Hope saturday’s 123km and 4km up will have draft ON, otherwise we are done 😛
Norseman = TT Race IRL. So no Draft is OK.
Hmmm, that is interesting info. Racing 123km without draft is just silly. The course is really special so I will start but only continue if there is draft. Fingers crossed.
Finished the long ride and with jersey unlock. That ride was the hardest of the year for sure.
Has anyone else experienced app freeze when passing back under the banner on either Epic KOM / Radio Tower or Alpe du Zwift? This has happened three ties to me (twice during Specialized Roval challenges and once yesterday during Norseman) in the last 2 weeks and is making me crazy. For 2 of the 3 I was able to use the Companion App to finish but yesterday it was on AdZ and only halfway through the Norseman ride and did not continue in Companion App. Incredibly frustrating on a once a Year ride.