Rapha Rising 3-Day Series Announced February 23-26

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!

Eric Schlange
Eric Schlangehttp://www.zwiftinsider.com
Eric runs Zwift Insider in his spare time when he isn't on the bike or managing various business interests. He lives in Northern California with his beautiful wife, two kids and dog. Follow on Strava

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Bryan Hall
Bryan Hall
9 months ago

Just to be clear, I just need to complete stage 3 in order to unlock the kit, not all three stages, correct?

Kevin
Kevin
9 months ago
Reply to  Bryan Hall

No, all three stages.

Marty
Marty
9 months ago
Reply to  Bryan Hall

Kit as in jersey/bibs. Socks and cap are separate

Ionstorm
Ionstorm
9 months ago
Reply to  Bryan Hall

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.

richard
richard
9 months ago

I enjoyed this last year.. seems quite lazy to have same kit.. same routes again

Kevin
Kevin
9 months ago

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.

Jonathan_G
Member
Jonathan_G(@jg_jonno)
9 months ago

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!

Corey
Corey
9 months ago

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!

Tim D
Tim D
9 months ago
Reply to  Corey

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!

🍹ꕥ𝕾𝖆𝖗𝖗𝖎𝖑𝖆ོ࿐
Member
🍹ꕥ𝕾𝖆𝖗𝖗𝖎𝖑𝖆ོ࿐(@sarrila909)
9 months ago

Open the iPad and have a look. I have all three.
i want shoes🩰 & sunglasses👓

David
David
9 months ago

Maybe stupid question, still new to Zwift :]
Do you “have” to race these events?
Or could I just ride them in Zone2?

Lloyd
Lloyd
9 months ago

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!

Kevin
Kevin
9 months ago
Reply to  Lloyd

Unfortunately they really haven’t added any bigger climbs for a while…2.5 years since Ven-Top?

Tom Hibberd
Tom Hibberd
9 months ago

Disjointing that they haven’t updated the kit from last year.

M4rk0
M4rk0
9 months ago
Reply to  Tom Hibberd

I’d prefer doing races where you lose kits from your garage. Who really wants more kits? 😀

Jay
Jay
9 months ago

Lazy repeating the kit. Will skip. Only ride these events for kits if they look good and have this already.

Dana
Dana
9 months ago

absolutely i will try, i hope i can manage my time, strength, and stamina between zwifting and family time

Magnus
Magnus
9 months ago

Did the same last year and it was good fun. Do you know if any registration is required?

A.H
A.H
9 months ago

not riding same event for rewards I already have, how lazy that they couldn’t even change the shirt colour, shame on you Zwift,

steve jenks
steve jenks
9 months ago

no category for men only

Mia Wallace
Mia Wallace
9 months ago
Reply to  Eric Schlange

For the same reason we have one for women only, of course. We aren’t some weaker sex who need your protection, y’know.

Frank Joseph Wilkes
Frank Joseph Wilkes
9 months ago

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.

M H
M H
9 months ago
Reply to  Eric Schlange

Also, these events are rides, not races, so I doubt they will dq anyone. :/

Mike H
Mike H
9 months ago
Reply to  Eric Schlange

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… Read more »

James M
James M
9 months ago
Reply to  Mike H

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.

Mike H
Mike H
9 months ago
Reply to  James M

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… Read more »

Danielle
Danielle
9 months ago

If I just ride stage 3 will it give me the jersey minus the cap and socks?

Marty
Marty
9 months ago
Reply to  Eric Schlange

Too late now, but stage 3 unlocked EVERYTHING

Cougie
Cougie
9 months ago

Ah. Sunday is my outdoors ride.
Can I do the third stage on the Monday or is that too late?

John
John
9 months ago

Can these all be completed on day 1??

Dana
Dana
9 months ago
Reply to  John

i believe not

Darren
Darren
9 months ago

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?

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