In 1994, Miguel “Big Mig” Induráin set a new hour record, breaking the 53-kilometer mark for the first time in history with a distance of 53.040 kilometers in Bourdeaux. And he did it atop the Pinarello Espada, a bike which quickly became legendary itself!
The carbon-framed, Campagnolo-equipped bike weighed in at 7.5 kilograms and was custom-molded to fit Big Mig. Only four versions of the bike were ever created, and Induráin won both of the long time trials at the 1995 Tour de France on a version modified to allow shifting.
Beginning May 3-5, you can saddle up on a Pinarello Espada in Zwift to take on an hour-long race led by the ‘Big Mig’ RoboPacer! It’s a fun chance to set your own 60-minute power PR while trying to match Miguel Induráin’s record-setting pace.
Event Details
Events will take place over 60 minutes on Watopia’s Tempus Fugit – the flattest route in game. These rides are not categorized, so everyone will begin together. Drafting is enabled, as is steering.
Everyone will be riding the Pinarello Espada, chasing the Big Mig bot which will be holding 510 watts, or 6.3 W/kg. (The bot is also set to 188cm in height and 81kg in weight, just like Miguel Induráin.)
See events at zwift.com/events/tag/espadachallenge
Events are scheduled every two hours from 4pm Friday May 3 UTC to 4am Monday May 6 UTC.
Be Sure To Update
Zwift says, “In order to ensure the best possible experience, Zwifter’s should be on the latest game version of 1.64.0.”
Keeping the Bike
For now, the Pinarello Espada is only available to ride as part of this event series. But Zwift says the frame “will become available to buy in the Drop Shop in the near future.”
Questions or Comments?
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6.3 w/ kg? Damn, I hope my motorcycle goes that fast.
That is probably about 5wkg max in the draft, still a very solid effort for one hour that only few can achieve.
It’s a TT frame so unless TT drafting is enabled you’d have to go the full 6.3W/kg to keep up.
It says in this article that drafting is enabled.
WOW….For a Hour!!!!! Time to Set up my Zwift Power Ranger Trainer!
And I don’t think that is going to Help much…😢
Yep, I just get to that Wkg on a sprint, so I don’t think I’ll keep that for an hour. So I’ll give it a go for as best I can do. 😁 😁
As a cat C rider, I think I can hold that for no more than a minute. I will continue doing the hour anyway to measure my personal hour record (hope more than 35km, please)
The natural questions that come to mind: how does that bike compare to the usual zwift aero bikes? Is it a a TT frame or road? How much approx is a rider going to have to hold to stay in the draft of that pacer?
It’s a TT bike. That’s actually it pictured halfway through the article.
How much one has to hold to hang on will depend on the pack. I can’t remember the values from Eric’s draft testing, but there’s an increasing watts saving up until fourth wheel (might have been as much as 37% for his bots).
If it was just you and the bot, I think at optimal draft position it’s around a 25% saving, so that’s around 4.7wkg. But that’s going to vary a bit based on rider specifics.
But wait, TT frames in zwift don’t get any draft benefit 🧐
They added the ability to draft TT bikes in team TT events a while back. And it looks like they are enabling it for these events as well, which is the first time I know of that it’s been enabled for a place where the group could be larger than a TTT (6?).
But you can set up the event so they do. Lots of custom event options in Zwift!
these aren’t races, as you are assigned a finishing position, and yet there are rankings pts? This makes no sense. But go ahead and waste an hour.
These are indeed races.
I think the issue is — how are they scored? If you look at zp results for timed events, the results appear to just be randomly assigned rather than based on distance covered. I think that is what he is getting at?
Ah, I see that now. Yeah, my guess is either 1) ZwiftPower can’t properly process results on time-based races or 2) the events aren’t set up correctly in ZP, and need to be tweaked.
If it’s #1, then basically the event needs to just be removed from ZP entirely, and the final results are just whatever you see in Companion. I’ve asked ZHQ what’s going on, we’ll see if we can get clarity…
I wonder also — I know WTRL do timed events for the weekly duathlons and somehow they get those scored correctly (by distance covered) on ZP.
I don’t think it is as fast as the Cadex. My only data point is segment time yesterday sitting 2nd wheel to big big was quite a bit slower than best effort in a TTT, assume similar w/kg for front rider from our team but lower absolute watts.
Can we get a velodrome in the drop shop?
I am not going out on a limb here and predicting this event is going to have a lot of 5 foot tall 100 lb. riders in it.
Does the event have double draft enabled? I was holding the pack with Mig doing around 3.5w/kg. I thought I should be needing to do around 4.3 as a minimum. Bit disappointing as I thought it was going to be way harder but I like the concept as an event.
How about one where the bot keeps getting faster every minute until there’s only one rider left who can hold the wheel? 😁
The event hasn’t even started. So you just rode with the normal Miguel bot.
The first event was yesterday at 9am PST. So I’m pretty sure he was in the right event. 😜
Reading comprehension must not be everyone’s strong suit in these comments.
The Mig was going under 50 kph. I thought he rode over 50? I saw a few riders behind him between 4-5 w/kg. Solo, I didn’t really notice much difference.
Eric, any test numbers yet?
Yeah. The bike is slower than the fastest TT rigs on Zwift, but only about 0.4kph slower.
Looks like groups are averaging around 49kph in these events. Maybe Zwift needs to reduce the air density. 😜
Yes, speed calculation in Zwift is off. I saw people doing short 7W/kg pulls (and encouraging others to do the same) to get the front group above 50km for the hour. They still did not succeed and were way short on the 53kph target of the irl Miguel Indurain.
MIG-bot suffering from Zwift’s famous height disadvantage.
It would be awesome if zwift would keep this pace partner option around.
completed the ride….didn’t get the bike
….did we have to keep up with Big Mig?? Nevermind….I see that was available just for the ride….doh
Any insights on the draft? Seems to me that the draft of big mig is alot better then the other robopacers. I can keep up at about 4,3 ish.
This while it feels as I need to match the w/kg of the other robopacers to keep up.
Is it because for Coco, Coco herself is in the draft of other riders? I haven’t seen Big Mig but guessing the entire pack is drafting behind Big Mig.