Next weekend a Rapha-powered series launches on the biggest climbs in Zwift. Three rides in three days, with 9881′ (3012 meters) of elevation gain. Are you up for it?
Along the way you’ll unlock the Rapha Rising kit, and there’s also a GC competition on ZwiftPower. Expect a big turnout, as last year thousands signed up for each stage!
Categories, General Classification, and More
These events use the standard ZwiftPower categories based on rider FTP:
- A: 4+ w/kg
- B: 3.2 w/kg
- C: 2.5 w/kg
- D: below 2.5 w/kg
There is also an “E” category for women only.
These are doubledraft events with staggered starts, so categories will not be mixing.
Although these are classified as rides, not races (so no ZwiftPower ranking points) a General Classification has been set up on ZwiftPower to rank riders across all three stages based on the cumulative stage times. Riders who are registered on ZwiftPower will be listed in the overall GC for the series.
See the GC rankings on ZwiftPower >
Stage and Schedule Details
Each stage will be available every two hours across a 36-hour period, with stages overlapping. There will be no makeup rides for the Rapha Rising, so make sure you plan ahead!
STAGE 1:
Climber’s Gambit
Watopia
Thur Feb 23 2am-Fri Feb 24 noon UTC
18.64 miles/30 km
2,300’/701 m
Route Details >
STAGE 2:
Tour of Fire and Ice
Watopia
Fri Feb 24 2am-Sat Feb 25 noon UTC
17.6 miles/28.3 km
3,809’/1,161 m
Route details >
STAGE 3:
La Reine
France
Sat Feb 25 2am-Sun Feb 26 noon UTC
14.2 miles/22.8 km
3,875’/1,181 m
Route details >
See all upcoming events at zwift.com/events/series/rapha-rising-2023
Kit Unlock
Riders will progressively unlock the 2022 Rapha Rising kit as they complete each stage:
- Complete Stage 1: 2022 Rapha Rising socks
- Complete Stage 2: 2022 Rapha Rising cap
- Complete Stage 3: 2022 Rapha Rising kit
Note: this is the second year of Rapha Rising, and this year’s unlocks are the same as last year’s.
Questions or Comments?
Post below!
Just to be clear, I just need to complete stage 3 in order to unlock the kit, not all three stages, correct?
No, all three stages.
Kit as in jersey/bibs. Socks and cap are separate
Based on the fact that a friend of mine did not do stage 1 but got the hat on stage 2, looks like you’d get the jersey by doing stage 3 only.
I enjoyed this last year.. seems quite lazy to have same kit.. same routes again
Not quite the same routes – Road to Sky was swapped out for Tour of Fire and Ice.
I’ll bet that having the same kit, plus the same routes as last year – which includes the awful la Reine – will lower the potential numbers… shame really.
Remember this being pretty evil last year. Might have been tempted if they’d mixed up the routes a bit and it was a chance to knock off a different climbey route badge, but they’re almost identical to previous, and having gone up La Reine to finish of TdZ on Saturday, I’m really not in such a rush to do it again so quickly!
Really great event that I enjoyed the challenge of last year. I actually like that the routes are the same so you can compare against your results from last year but not having a new kit to unlock is disappointing. It is a bit crazy how often I’ll do events to unlock virtual kits that I don’t even like the look of!
We’re all suckers for shiny new things! I still wear the tyrolean hat from the Oktoberfest last year. Wouldnt we caught wearing it outside. But inside … oh bring on the craziest kit possible!
Open the iPad and have a look. I have all three.
i want shoes🩰 & sunglasses👓
Maybe stupid question, still new to Zwift :]
Do you “have” to race these events?
Or could I just ride them in Zone2?
You don’t have to race them. Go as hard as you want, no big deal!
Really enjoyed Haute Watopia a couple of years ago and hoped that Rapha Rising would carry on the baton. Zwift promoted multistage GC events are quite rare. A bit uninspired that it’s all the same climbs as last year….
But I’ll still do it!
Unfortunately they really haven’t added any bigger climbs for a while…2.5 years since Ven-Top?
Disjointing that they haven’t updated the kit from last year.
I’d prefer doing races where you lose kits from your garage. Who really wants more kits? 😀
Lazy repeating the kit. Will skip. Only ride these events for kits if they look good and have this already.
absolutely i will try, i hope i can manage my time, strength, and stamina between zwifting and family time
Did the same last year and it was good fun. Do you know if any registration is required?
No reg required, apart from signing up for the events like any other Zwift event.
not riding same event for rewards I already have, how lazy that they couldn’t even change the shirt colour, shame on you Zwift,
no category for men only
Correct. Why would there be?
For the same reason we have one for women only, of course. We aren’t some weaker sex who need your protection, y’know.
Eric, thanks so much for having this event. I absolutely loved it last year. I realize that you can’t really have category enforcement in the sign up (since many people are not on ZP), but when it comes to the GC competition, will people riding above their category in any of the 3 get DQ’d from the GC competition? Again, thanks for this event. If I had my way, there would be one like it every month.
Hi Frank – this isn’t my event, I just wrote a post about it!
It’s super goofy to me that they didn’t use Zwift’s category enforcement for these events. No idea why not.
I assume people riding out of category will be DQ on ZwiftPower, but that’s up to the organizers and how they set it up. Based on what I’m seeing on ZwiftPower for these events, it looks like riders who out of category will be removed from final results.
Also, these events are rides, not races, so I doubt they will dq anyone. :/
Good point.
I just had the same question (I’m right on the C/B line now as I slowly get back to race weight after a decade of child-rearing dadbod 😉 )
Forum thread from 2022 – https://forums.zwift.com/t/group-ride-sandbaggers-rapha-rising/578708/25
It appears in 2022 they DQd you after-the-fact out of ZwiftPower if it appeared you were in the wrong category, but they did not want to make it a Zwift “race” so there was no category enforcement in-game. That’s a strange hybrid as the people racing it will certainly be affected, but it’s their choice, why not?
You can always ride up of course, it’s just riding down that’ll DQ you from any of the events / the GC.
I’m pretty sure I’ll be a C throughout but hey, maybe the last half kilo that seals the deal will be burnt off with all the climbing ;-).
See you out there
There were plenty of people ‘racing’ in C last night that shouldn’t have been. Some of them were banging on how about they wouldn’t be DQd as it’s only an event.
Very happy to see a lot of UPG and WKG DQs in zwift power this morning.
I would personally like to thank all the Bs for the double draft up to the base of the epic KOM, but please enter your category for stage 2/3.
Same this morning (https://zwiftpower.com/profile.php?z=1862983)! the doubledraft is pretty epic but I was 30th in the “C”s in game, then on ZwiftPower I’m 4th and if you look at the profiles of the ones not DQd already, 1st is “Almost B” (one more race at this level and they’re up), 2nd same, 3rd and me are Cs, 5th “Almost B” etc.
So I’m thinking out of the top 40 in game in the Cs pen, there were probably 3 “real C”s.
Okay, I recognize the *only* real leaderboard is when you click the “All” button and just stack it up but working through the categories is motivating, its why categories exist.
Anyway, no way I push myself that hard without treating it as a race, and I’ll get faster so all in good fun. Be interesting to see if I can hold this effort through the whole GC
If I just ride stage 3 will it give me the jersey minus the cap and socks?
According to what the event info says, yes. But I’m just going off of what was published, so don’t blame the messenger if it doesn’t work!
Too late now, but stage 3 unlocked EVERYTHING
Ah. Sunday is my outdoors ride.
Can I do the third stage on the Monday or is that too late?
Can these all be completed on day 1??
i believe not
I’m cat C but missed the start due to technical issues. If I joined cat D I’d be dq’d from Zwift power but would I still get the jersey?
Will they be running this 3 day GC event this year? I hope so. It is a great event!