Inspired by stage 13 of Tour de France 2025 – a mountain ITT won by Tadej Pogačar on a lightweight aero road bike instead of the traditional time-trial setup used by his competitors – Torturefest Cult has announced a weekly/monthly ITT climbing league running from October 2026 to March 2027.
The Format
Events in this series are similar in format to Zwift’s ITT Racing League, where the weekly distance increases, but in the ITT Climbing League elevation is the target which increases each week:
- Week 1 Max Elevation 250 meters
- Week 2 Max Elevation 450 meters
- Week 3 Max Elevation 650 meters
- Week 4 Max Elevation 850 meters
- Week 5 when it rarely happens… Alpe Du Zwift
The clock runs from the start pen to the banner finish, and routes have been selected/designed to provide world and climb type variations to keep it interesting and challenging.
Strategic Options
Unlike some other KOM segment smash races, racing strategy comes into play with this league. You will have to work different power ranges, manage energy levels, and ponder bike choices.
- No draft regardless of bike.
- No powerups, just you and your watts.
- Weekly distances will fluctuate – for example, week 2 could be 15km and week 3 only 10km. Elevation is the primary focus.
- Categories are enforced, and you must wear a HRM.
- Identical setup to Zwift ITT League in ZwiftPower, with weekly and monthly results.
- Some weeks will have long lead-ins to the climb which creates the bike choice dilemma: TT bike, climbing bike, or mid-race bike change (which has gotten easier as per Zwift Insider’s recent test)?
- What is the intensity of your effort on each climb in a week where the course has multiple climbs?
- How do you regulate your power on the flat sections before or between climbs?
Sign Up
One week it’s long draggy climbs, next week it’s multiple smaller climb This is weekly climbing, Russian roulette style. The first month’s events are now live on the calendar:
im thinking no bike switch for me . Don’t want to lose any time
When I click “Sign up at zwift.com/events/tag/torturefestitt >” I get to a very non-informative page (see screenshot, if adding the image works here today…).
I wish that list of events would be a little bit more informative! What if it could list the course, the distance, the elevation or even the course profile, instead of just the time slot?
Now you need to click on each event to see what it is. Maybe they’re all the same, but you won’t know until you’re done clicking multiple of them…
I’d love to do these, but the times don’t work. No European afternoon slots. 🙁