Today, Zwift launched an eight-climb challenge featuring legendary climbs of the Spring Classics. The series runs from March 9 to May 1 3, and features three new Climb Portals. Read on for details!
Challenge Requirements
The Challenge features eight climbs, including three that are brand-new:
- Cipressa (6.4km, 228m, 3.5%)
- Poggio (4.3km, 136m, 3.2%)
- Oude Kwaremont (1.5km, 64m, 4.3%)
- Koppenberg (0.6km, 63m, 10.8%)
- Paterberg (0.4km, 45m, 11.9%)
- Cauberg (0.8km, 57m, 7.1%)
- Mur de Huy (1.3km, 124m, 9.8%)
- Côte de La Redoute (1.5km, 153m, 10.2%)
Finish all eight climbs to complete the Challenge!
Joining the Challenge
Everyone is automatically signed up for this challenge. As long as you’ve got version 1.108 or higher installed, you’ll see a progress bar in the challenge card on your homescreen.
Click that card to access the climbs and see reward details.
Challenge Rewards
You will earn 500 XP for every two climbs you complete in the challenge, which means you will earn a total of 2000 XP if you complete the full Challenge.
Read more about Zwift levels and unlocks >
Deadline
This challenge goes live at 9:00 PT on March 9, 2026, and ends May 1 3, 2026, at 23:59 PT.
(I recommend finishing before the final day, though, as some past Challenges have ended earlier than expected, and you don’t want to be caught out if that happens.)
Questions or Comments?
Post below!
2000XP for some mini-climbs. Every week Zwift is giving away thousands of XP for doing very little.
True, but some of us who like climbing and the portal climbs are happy to have something new to complete since there hasn’t been anything new on the portal since last July! Being able to select them all from a challenge screen until May basically gives 8 to 10 portal options to choose from for the next two months. I’ll be using them for 2 to 5 minute VO2 Max intervals and be grateful.
And beyond level 40 it does absolutely nothing for you 🙂
LOL -2 votes from level 100 elitist 😀 Sure a few cosmetics and bragging rights, but beyond that….nothing functional, so stop crying.
In the past 2000XP was about what you got in bonuses for 8 climbs on the portal. There was a one in ten chance of 250XP on each of the 10 arches on the way up.
France or Watopia route?
France
Yep, another zwift test to do. Thanks Guys n Eric. It pays to read Zwift Insider. 👍 👍 👍
To earn credit towards the challenge, do you have to proceed straight up the climb from the start of the ride? Or can we do an extended warmup outside the portal before heading back in/up?
You can do an extended warmup.
Will there be a new portal master list please ?
The list at https://zwiftinsider.com/climb-portal-list/ is current.
That sounds like fun, but it would be so cool to be able to combine climbs in one ride to give it the classics vibe! It’s fun to have the Cipressa and the Poggio, but it doesn’t really feel like San Remo if you can’t do them back to back…
Are you going to do 220km and a trip over the Epic KOM to mimic the Turcino as well to get the full San Remo feeling? 😅
I just might! it’d take me 12h but who’s counting?
I did four of them in a row over two days. It made for good interval-like workouts.
It seems like Zwift could open all of the portals as a choice.
Great to see this. Reminder, some Strava portal rides are inaccurate.
Often you will see other climbs overlap on Strava maps.
On Zwift, they all work fine at least.
I checked earlier this morning 3/10/2026 U.S. EST, the update finally kicked in sometime in the afternoon. I’m able to see it now. You?
Zee, i think i replied to your post, it was meant for Aryeh. Sorry.
I’m on 1.108.0 and I don’t have that challenge on my home page. After Alpecin Team Camp I have Fitness Tune Up.
Hi Aryeh – I have same situation. On latest version with no pending updates and Route / Climb of Week tiles have refreshed overnight but no Zwift Spring Classics tiles. I’m UK based so not sure whether being rolled out by region but given Challenge started 9th March would expect it to be there now.
Maybe it’s a tease like the Stelvio and it’s coming on March 9, but they won’t tell you which year? I also don’t see anything available to ride. Must be 2027 or 2028 . . .
Same here.
I can’t see this yet anyone else with the same issue
Same here. Week rides are refreshed but no spring classic tile
Hi everybody,
I am not much of a climber. 😄
Will it be possible to take the climbs at 50%, and will that count towards the challenge?
Right now I am not seeing the challenge in my Zwift yet.
Quite likely. Climb of the week also counts at all percentages so no reason to expect this would be any different.
Confirmed, 50% is possible. Just did Cauberg, Koppenberg, Paterberg, Mur de Huy. Pitty you have to do the 1.5km lead-in each time, but that’s recovery time :p
Once again fuming at phased roll out….today I have the time to do these, which probably means I’ll get the new version tomorrow when I don’t have time 😑
And yes, I know I’ve got months to complete these, it’s a me problem 😀
Wait….I do have 1.108 but don’t see the challenge :/
I have v1.108 and I dont see the Challenge either.
I do not have that challenge card on my screen either!
V 1.108.0 US based. No challenge
Maybe 3/10 at noon?
Definitely not 3/9.
Too bad they don’t give you the you the option to stich all 8 climbs together in the same ride for a sufferfest. 🙂
I think you need to do your research better next time, still no Spring Classics challenge available. 🤔
Yeah, I based this post on what Zwift told me in terms of a launch time. Clearly they were incorrect. 😀 That said, they’re telling me this should launch in most time zones by the end of today.
Sorry if I was harsh, Eric! Really loving the site and the hard work! 😀 I understand that you are not in control of the Zwift launch times. But it’s not the first time Zwift challenges doesn’t pop up as planned. Guess I just want Zwift to get better with the communication sometimes 🙂
No worries, sir. It’s frustrating to me as well, to the point where I sometimes wait so I can verify things are the way ZHQ says they’ll be, before I publish…
It’s frustrating especially because they’ve pretty much gone into a state where they treat you as the official communication channel. Wouldn’t know where/if to find anything on Zwift’s official channels. They seem to have abandoned Twitter altogether, Facebook is just a collection of marketing posts. Anything useful I get from here :p
Yeah Zwift definitely makes good use of Eric as an official channel when it suits them and takes advantage of Eric being an unofficial channel when it suits them as well. It’s very good for zwift.
A little bit harsh, I think Dave. Eric spends a lot of his free time on this site giving us lots of information that makes Zwifting much more enjoyable. I can’t imagine he would post something that he believes isn’t correct.
Eric is paid for this site, it’s not his free time.
Well I’m on 1.109 and its not there either. 🙁
Yes I have it now !!!!!!! Thanks
For those of you who were looking for this chalenge and couldn’t find it – apologies. It should be available for you now (it’s not part of a phased rollout)
Since these all take you to the France portal, does anyone know what happens if you manually roll up to the France portal (without having selected a climb portal route)? Do you get placed in the climb of the month portal or do you get to choose from a list of all these climb portals + the climb of the month?
In a free ride, you would find the scheduled ride for the month only.
March is Puy de Dome.
All eight in a row, done.
I wonder how the pros would do.
Something fishy going on with the results of Paterberg.
I recorded 45s, an average speed of 32kph, and 10wkg. I carried speed into the portal and had a feather.
Meanwhile the segment leader recorded 28s at 11wkg and somehow averaged 48kph. That’s a whopping 37% faster for only 10% more power to weight. Then there are several riders who have registered less than 45s using less than 400w (some 0 watts).
i suspect something is broken, or coffee stop is being used to maintain entry speed.
I see what’s happens. Strava has wrongly attributed the first 400m of Bealach na Ba climb portal as also Paterberg. it’s much shallower gradient, so anyone flying into the Bealach portal is getting top 10 KOMs on Paterberg. 😔
Yup… and I’ve told Zwift very clearly that this is an issue in the past, and even suggested what would be an easy fix: simply add a slight turn at the start of the climb, so the roads don’t overlap with other roads. Because Strava doesn’t seem to match roads based on elevation, but just on GPS coordinates (the overhead view, latitude/longitude).
But apparently Zwift isn’t that concerned with this issue.
Didn’t zwift pull a climb portal because of this issue though? So their concern seems to vary a lot.
I got strava credit for riding Koppenberg when I was actually riding Cauberg. Kind of a mess.
Hopefully doing these virtually goes better than doing them in real life where I found myself walking the Koppenberg…
2 mins and change on the Koppenburg, but I wouldn’t call it an easy 500 xp.
Darn, I missed this being announced and missed riding the Cipressa before the Milan San Remo race this weekend just gone. I got a kick last year watching the race, understanding the gradients and where the attacks were likely to occur. Glad I will be able to do for the print classics now.
I wonder if you can do them all in one ride without splitting your activity
Prediction : once lv101 is live with 4x progress bonus using accumulated XP, Paterberg 50% will become a LV-farming spot for deranged maniacs since you get 120xp/2min cycle on a TT bike there (U-turn at top). This means 3600xp/hour, so with 4x it will be 1h30/level.
Definitely the most insanity-inducing routine but you know how it is.
Is there a change in the dates? The challenge is missing for the home page as of 6 April.
Same for me. I had 1 climb left to complete the challenge and now it is missing
Sorry. Never trust zwift end dates, get it done early if you want to.