Looking for a tour of France? Released with Zwift’s France map for the first-ever Virtual Tour de France, the Tire-Bouchon route is the longest on the map (along with Petit Boucle).
Its name translates to “corkscrew” in French, and that’s exactly what your ride may feel like as you cover all the France map’s roads in both directions (except for the road up Mont Ventoux).Â
Looking for a tour of France? Released with Zwift’s France map for the first-ever Virtual Tour de France, the Tire-Bouchon route is the longest on the map (along with Petit Boucle).
Its name translates to “corkscrew” in French, and that’s exactly what your ride may feel like as you cover all the France map’s roads in both directions (except for the road up Mont Ventoux).Â
Route Basics
Length: 61 km (37.9 miles)
Elevation: 431 m (1,414‘)
Lead-In: 3.1 km (1.9 miles)
Map: France
Start & Finish
Route begins and ends at Petit KOM arch. Lead-in from start pens/spawn point is significant, with some climbing (see Strava segment below).
Restriction:
Achievement Badge: 1220 XP
Bike Selection
This route is very flat overall. Your fastest times will come from an aero setup!
Route Description
Route profile by ZwiftHub – the place to plan and track your route achievements!
The route begins (and ends) at the Petit KOM arch. That means a significant lead-in from the start pens, so be ready for some climbing out of the gate! Once you ride through the Petit KOM arch you will descend the zigzags and turn left onto the Balloon fields, hitting Ballon Sprint Reverse.
Then it’s a right turn onto the Marina Sprint Reverse, through the marina town and past some of the key sites of this route: the lighthouse, Mont Saint-Michel, and the Needle & Arch. Just past the field of sunflowers you’ll ride into town and over the Pavé Sprint Reverse segment, then it’s past more fields and up the short Aqueduc KOM Reverse.
The largest climb of the route is next, the Petit KOM. (Now we’re riding roads we’ve already covered, but in the other direction!) Climb those zigzags then descend past the start pens, turning right to ride the twisty road along the river and past the hot air balloons once more, onto the Ballon Sprint.
Turn left and hit the Aqueduc KOM and Pavé Sprint, ride around to the marina and a Marina Sprint, then past the start pens and up the climb to the Petit KOM banner to finish. You did it!
When will these French routes be available?
Last I heard, around Aug 10.
There is something wrong with the France software. I selected Tire-Bouchon and clicked ok. It put me on Ven-Top. It took me a while to figure it out. I exited and went back to the route selection to make sure I hadn’t selected the wrong route. I had not. This time, I selected Let’s ride with the same route. It put me on a flat which looked like Tire-Bouchon. The first time, when it put me on ven-top, the first turn of my pedal was on a 6 percent grade.
How far up the Ventoux KOM did you ride?
The lead-in for this route is nearly two miles, which includes the first mile of the Ventoux KOM before you turn left down the Petit KOM to start the route.
Hi that happened me as well!! I thought I was on the correct route and slowly realised I wasn’t!! I just climbed Ventoux anyway! Took 5 minutes off my pb. I was annoyed as I wasn’t prepared to climb it again!!!
Hi Eric – thanks for summarising these routes for us. I just did Tire Bouchons and it was 64.4km long with 591metres. I did the first bit as an intervals workout session, but I don’t think that would change the route. Anyway, I’ve got the badge – just 32 more to go!!
I also had 591 meters for the climbing. It’s more than Petit Boucle (the other 61 km route) because you climb the hill for Petit KOM THREE times not TWO as in P. Boucle.
It seems that the rule for first-time on a route is simply the XP for the KM’s of the route (without the lead-in). I got my 1220 (61 times 20) XP points for the first-time ride and 1360 (68 times 20) XP points for the 68 KM activity, a wee more downhill.
Tackled this route yesterday using a Meetup and got to 39.31 miles without any achievement.
Studied the route and you need 40.0 miles to complete the route, as well as 1,939 ft of elevation gain. If you do a meetup for the route, it will ‘end’ about 1-2 miles before the end, which is a continuous climb.
Thank you Zachary… I have done it three times with no route badge achievement… because I just did not go far enough. The description above says that you climb right out of the box, but the profile shows that you descend (?)
For my Meetup & ‘free ride’ selection of route, both started with a climb, which is the Lead-In for the route. (Meetups sometimes skip Lead-ins)
Here is my full activity from getting the badge. You can stop at mile 40 to get the Badge, but I decided to go the extra 2 miles since it was all downhill. Mile 40 is shortly after the left turn off Ven-Top and you’ll see a Finish Line banner (which is actually where you start the route)
https://www.strava.com/activities/4516681996
I stopped at over 63 km and no badge. It was posted as 61-62 km. Couldn’t see an arch on the mini map showing up. Sounds like it was not too much farther.
Wish I had read this before I did a meetup to tick off this badge. As you noted, the Meet-up ended and I did not get the badge. It’s one of only 3 I have yet to do so I am not too happy about it!
Greate work on this site. Could be useful a estimate of the time spend depending on the Watts/kg
Just keep going on this one, its definately more than 61km. Including the descent at the end (Petit KOM reverse I think) I did 68km.
I climbed this route yesterday. Im you want the badge, you have to climb the petit kom and you‘ll geht the Badge as son as you turn to the left at the roundabout and cross the red arch. I Kiew this was going to Happen, because Zwift seems to give the badge after the the first sprint or climb scoring after the start.I mean, of there is a score more or less right after the start,be prepared to receive the badge not after the completion of the route, baut passing this scoring again. In this case you receive the badge… Read more »
I just completed this route right now.. it’s literally 64.4 km to get the badge!! Keep going until you get it.
Keep going until 64.4 and the Petit KOM banner – from the meet up point – it will get you the route badge… I aborted the ride too early (badgeless as a result) 3 times before catching on