First launched in 2017, Tour de Zwift is the biggest annual tour on the platform – a celebration of discovery across all Zwift worlds!
This year’s tour has just been announced. Beginning January 9, it consists of eight stages, each hosted in one of Zwift’s worlds. Each stage has three route options based on how far you want to ride.
So grab a friend and join the biggest party of the year! Here’s everything riders need to know about this year’s TdZ.
New This Year
Fresh Route Badges
Recently-launched route badges will be available on certain stages (you can also earn these badges by free riding the routes anytime you’d like.):
- Stage 2 – Richmond UCI Reverse
- Stage 3 – La Reine
- Stage 5 – Gotham Grind
- Stage 6 – Watopia’s Waistband
TdZ will be the first chance anyone gets to unlock one particular route badge, though. On stage 8, we’ll be able to ride the “Rolling Highlands” route on Zwift’s new Scotland map!
Pacer Groups
This year, multiple Robopacers will be in each event, riding at different paces. Join the category riding the route you want, then find a RoboPacer to group with once the pack gets rolling, so you can ride at your pace with others!
Note: Robopacers will be at the starting line when you join an event and can be identified by the beacon next to their name on the leaderboard. Only one Robopacer per event will have a beacon atop their avatar and be visible on the minimap.
And More
We all love Ride-Ons! During TdZ events, participants will be able to give new TdZ branded Ride-On bombs.
Speaking of branding, Zwift is partnering with Pedal Mafia to bring the Tour de Zwift collection to life, including cycling kit, run shirt, towels, socks, and more. (Hot tip: an early bird sale will be happening Dec 20-Dec 31 where Zwifters can get 20% off the entire collection and an additional 5% off bundle purchases.)
Ride Categories
TdZ events are group rides, not official races*. The ride category you join determines which route you will ride:
- A: Long Ride
- B: Standard Ride
- C: Short Ride
- D: Women-Only Ride (uses the Standard route)
Category groups will leave the pens two minutes apart, with A starting first. Late join will be enabled for TdZ events beginning January 25th.
*Some riders will race the stages, while others will treat them as social rides. Events do not count for ranking points on ZwiftPower, but everyone is free to go as easy or push as hard as they’d like. Just have fun!
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Stage Schedule and Route Details
Stage 1 (Jan 9-12): Yorkshire
- Long Ride: Royal Pump Room 8, 1 lap
- Standard + Women-Only: Tour of Tewit Well, 2 laps
- Short: Harrogate Circuit Reverse, 1 lap
Stage 2 (Jan 13-15): Richmond
- Long Ride: Richmond UCI Reverse, 3 laps
- Standard + Women-Only: 2015 UCI WOrlds Course, 2 laps
- Short: The Fan Flats, 3 laps
Stage 3 (Jan 16-19): France
- Long Ride: La Reine, 1 lap
- Standard + Women-Only: Douce France, 1 lap
- Short: Champs-Elysees, 2 laps
Stage 4 (Jan 20-22): London
- Long Ride: Surrey Hills, 1 lap
- Standard + Women-Only: Greatest London Loop Reverse, 1 lap
- Short: London Loop, 1 lap
Stage 5 (Jan 23-26): New York
- Long Ride: Everything Bagel, 1 lap
- Standard + Women-Only: Knickerbocker Reverse, 1 lap
- Short: Gotham Grind, 1 lap
Stage 6 (Jan 27-29): Watopia
- Long Ride: Three Sisters, 1 lap
- Standard + Women-Only: Climber’s Gambit, 1 lap
- Short: Watopia’s Waistband, 1 lap
Stage 7 (Jan 30-Feb 2): Makuri Islands
- Long Ride: Chasing the Sun, 1 lap
- Standard + Women-Only: Island Outskirts, 2 laps
- Short: Flatland Loop, 1 lap
Stage 8 (Feb 3-5): Scotland
This is your chance to experience the thrill of fast laps on a route designed to test the mettle of the athletes competing in the 2023 UCI Esports World Championship. Welcome to Zwift’s new Scotland map!
- Long Ride: Rolling Highlands, 3 laps
- Standard + Women-Only: Rolling Highlands, 2 laps
- Short: Rolling Highlands, 1 lap
Make-Up Week: Feb 6-12
If you missed any stages, they will all be available to ride during the make-up week.
Registration
Registration for TdZ is now open online and in game. Sign up at zwift.com/tour-de-zwift/ride.
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Unlocks
Riders will unlock items progressively as they complete TdZ stages:
- Socks: 1 stage
- Backwards Cap: 5 stages
- Kit: 8 stages
There’s also an event badge to unlock! After completing the tour, Zwifters will earn this badge which will be displayed with other achievement badges.
Questions and Comments
Share below!
I was excited for the kits because usually they’re really good, but this kit is really disappointingly bad. Past two year’s kits were great.
At least is something different than the tired looking pale pink and turquoise colours we got for off the MAAP and the two academies this year. Those went into the garage never to again see the light of day! I like the grey bibs here, definitely stands out vs the usual black ones.
“TdZ events are group rides, not official races”
And yet, they disable steering for “fairness”. Makes sense. Does Zwift just regret adding steering or something?
Kinda feels that way, doesn’t it?
The whole ‘steering’ option is pointless anyway, will they be also adding potholes, headwind and traffic lights soon?
I like running Repack Ridge once in a while. And it’s better now that you don’t become unstuck from the space-time continuum at the end. So more MTB trails for steering entertainment would be fun.
It always seemed overly gimmicky to me.
Zwift should do a Forwards Cap for the over 50’s.
Oi! I’m 51 and down with the kids! Flat cap, pipe and slippers please.
Will there be the chance to catch up on stages missed. I’m away for stage 1.
yes … Feb 6-12
They say feb 6 to 12th but I don´t see them. It says “activities will be available soon”
They are running right now, try looking at zwifthacks.com/events
Can you mix and match Long and Short rides?
yes
Yes
In the past I have tried to do as many as possible but the Tour of Watopia is better for that as it has double XP on all rides so my diary always looks full in March!
This:
Can someone who is an E rider(0.9-1.5) join this Tour?
For sure.
Please note that the categories for the Tour’s correspond to distance, not race/speed/wkg categories. A is the long route, B is the standard route, C is the short route, etc…
perhaps you can try to hold & use the draft from RoboPacers Taylor (1,1W) or Bernie (1,5W) if they will show up … and the shorter C routes should be also a good option for “beginners” … ride on Liz 🙋🏻♂️
I don’t mind the look of the kit.
What I woul dlove to see Zwift do is let you choose your bibs. It’s jersey and black bibs or specialty whole kits. Why not red bibs, blue bibs, just not white ones!
The white bibs could indicate to others if you’ve already deployed a breakaway burrito.
Brown bibs?
Wonder what pace the robopacers will be riding at.
“multiple Robopacers will be in each event, riding at different paces” I’d expect a wide choice of paces.
Double XP?
Nope. That’s only done for Tour of Watopia, which happens a month or two after TdZ…
Is this like the Makuri Tour that allowed a person to complete stages on their own or is credit only given through events? Unless I missed something, it doesn’t look like it. My 7 and 12 year old kids loved the flexibility when completing the Makuri.
You can ride them solo whenever you want. “…you can also earn these badges by free riding the routes anytime you’d like.”
You’ll get the badges if you free-ride them, yes. But you won’t get credit for finishing a stage, as far as I can tell. Haven’t seen any mention of that capability from Zwift in this tour.
The on-demand style that we had during the Tour of Makuri was an experiment and planning for the Tour de Zwift did not include the on-demand functionality.
Oh poop… I misunderstood that when I read it originally and thought it meant this was an on-demand tour like the Tour of Makuri (beer may have been involved). I missed the first 3 stages of TdZ but it shouldn’t be horrible to fit them in during make-up week.
how can I complete the stages on my own at different times to the one given through the events, please?
You can’t.
Big name worlds are awesome, but how about adding Caribbean islands or track racing or cycle cross
A little correction: the article says “Stage 8 (Feb 3-5): Scotland”, but it will actually be held in the period Feb 6-12. I think it skips that weekend because there are already Gran Fondo rides then. Zwift doesn’t mention concrete times for the make up week yet, but it should be Feb 13-19.
Make up Week and Scotland Rides coincides on Zwift HP, Feb 6-12. in my opinion, ZIs Dates look more reasonable.
The dates I have above are what Zwift gave me. And the stage 8 events aren’t on the calendar yet. My guess is the dates above are correct, and details at https://www.zwift.com/tour-de-zwift/ride will be corrected when we get closer to the date.
This looks like being much harder than previous year …
Will late joining be a feature of the 2023 tour?
Word is no late join for TDZ this year.
Is stage 1 Cat A only 1 lap? Seems too short. Listed shorter than Cat B.
27.7km for A, 21.8 for B. Those are total lengths.
In order to get credit for the completing the stage, do you need to only complete 1 route on the stage or all 3?
Just one route per stage. You’re free to do them all if you want, but only one needed to get the credit/unlock.
Thx!
Just one.
Just completed my first stage and looks like they’ve turned off the leaderboard again. I know it’s not supposed to be competitive but it’s a good marker for those of us that like to pace or challenge ourselves against the field. I’m in no fit state to ‘win’ one, but I like to pick a position around my level of fitness once the route settles and try to stay or beat it as motivation to work hard. Shame we don’t get the option to turn it on if wanted.
Zwift power records this
I’ll always be baffled an annoyed that they didn’t design France better. Having La Reine skip the Ventoux start was really poor.
Just completed stage 1 ‘C’ and noticed that on my app the TdZ stage 1 completion ‘tick’ has not changed, all 1 – 8 are still white. My wife has run stage 1 and has a green ‘tick 1’ on her events banner… ?
Temporary bug I hear. Give it time, should fix itself.
It just has Eric, too impatient!🍻
Thanks Eric, I’m too impatient, it’s now updated green & panic over 🍻
At which time are the starts each day?
Every hour!
If you join a stage late (late joiner up to 30 mins after the start), does it drop you into the starting pens or do you join the ride at some point around the route?
There’s no late join for this TdZ
The addition of the Pace Partners is the BEST thing they’ve added for this year. I didn’t realize they would be there until someone mentioned it in the chat. It was only C and D pacer bots, and I rode with a group at a fairly standard “B” pace of 3.5 w/kg, but I’m definitely using those bots when I drop in on rides that are supposed to be recovery miles.
Looks like everyone in western time zones are out of luck to participate on stages the evening of last day stages are scheduled. 8pm on the 12th right now and stage 2 is up and stage 1 is unavailable.
Yeah I was surprised at that — I just spent 20 minutes poking around both here and zwift.com and I can’t find where they say when the stage day ends, but it looks like midnight UTC (I guess that makes sense if nothing else specified), which means 7 PM for eastern North America and 4 PM Pacific. So if you’re in the west and riding evenings, shift all the stage dates ahead one day.
Can you get the kit with doubling one stage? I’ll miss stage 8 and the makeup week.
It looks like not. I’ve already ridden more than 5 routes, but only 4 stages. No cap so far.
Can you ride by yourself or it has to be with a group?
Has to be done in an event. You can always let everyone else leave then ride by yourself if you want..
And it’s getting harder every year. Last year Richmond UCI route (2 laps) was long ride. This year standard.
Where can we view the results of each ride?
Zwiftpower.com
Does the drops multiplier work with the pace partners during these events?
No. Just there for pacing.
For anyone planning to do the long “La Reine” route for stage 3, I was awarded a few extra powers ups at various points of the route (as well as at the end of the Balloon Sprint and the Petit KOM). So don’t save your feathers for too long, or hold on to aero/drafting PUs, as you may miss out on the chance to get another feather PU.
I think i got an extra one just after the Petit KOM (having already got 10XP at the end of the KOM) plus again at c.16km plus one other which I cannot now recall. In total I got 3 feather PUs in one ride, so the organisers may have been kind and increased the chances of getting that PU.
I wish they were on demand.
What time do the stages change? I logged on the 19th at 6pm central standard time to do stage 3 and the only option was stage 4? Makes no sense. Messed up my whole schedule!
I believe the stages change at midnight UTC.
Re: TdZ kit. My understanding is that you get the kit upon completion of all 8 stages.
I’ve noticed that upon completing a stage, my avatar switches back to the kit I had on prior to participating in the stage. However, I have noticed that many other riders remain in the TdZ kit after the stage is complete. Is there a way to get the kit prior to completing all 8 stages? Just curious.
Thanks!
No Innsbruck? Seems to be the only world missing.
No late join, 1 minute after trying to get in with login issues? Nice one Zwift! 👏🏼🤦🏻♂️
Do you complete a stage if you finish one of the “courses” in a different activity? Like, if I get the Surrey Hills badge while doing a workout, will it also count towards this TdZ stage?
It will not. Gotta be a TdZ event.
It’s the 22nd today but when I logged in to Zwift it was stage 5 not stage 4
Change over happens around 0 UTC, so depends what time zone you are in. Look at the schedule beforehand, all the rides are in the schedule.
LOVING the tour this year. I don’t remember so many rides having SO MANY people on every event (thousands), especially flat or rolling routes. I would ride Douce France 2x in a row because not only do the groups push you (they all seem to be races and you get caught up in it), but FAST. Hoping to do the same with Waistband. When will the Scotland routes be released?
Zwift chanced the long ride of Stage 7. You can now ride the chase the sun instead of the Makuri 40. To bad, I was hoping to at the makuri 40 route badge to my collection
Makuri 40 is more fun, now you have to do the temple dirt climb
I just changed stage 7’s long ride to Chasing the Sun from Makuri 40. I think there’s a bug in the latest update that messes up routing for some Makuri routes, hence Zwift changing it.
Not only there. Been sent the wrong direction on Climbers Gambit right out of the start pen yesterday. Then I thought: Ok, lets then just go with Jaques. Re-Entered game and Zwift was like “Hey your event started. Late join?” – Hm, well… suspicious but ok. Did the ride then but it didn’t finish at the Epic KOM nor at the ride distance. Shoulda known before.
Similar bug last thursday. Wattfabrik chose to race “Legends and Lava”. For ~1/2 of riders Zwift didn’t recognize the finish line (But James mentioned this was a known bug).
Wonder why it’s so hard for Zwift ot choose the correct route and register the finish line correctly.
In makeup week, it would be handy to be able to see what number stage the event is without opening the event
Any ideas why I haven’t been able to get into Stage 8? I’ve tried a couple of times to join the ride with no luck. I sign up successfully via the Companion app but when I try to join the ride within the game, it does nothing even though there’s a green check mark next to the ride I’m trying to join. TIA
The only thing I can think is perhaps you haven’t updated your Zwift game since Scotland came out? Make sure it’s up to date – latest version 1.33.2!
You’re a genius. That was it. Thanks.
Are there any details of the schedule during the makeup week?
It’s all up there, just look at zwifthacks.com/events
Today is Feb 6 but only some of the stages are available for make up. How does one know when a stage becomes available. Zwift is infuriating in this way – they really don’t think their web site through and make it easy for participation sometimes.
You can see the full schedule more easily at https://zwifthacks.com/app/events/
It looks like they rotate through the stages every half hour. So every 4 hours there is one instance of each of the 8 stages.
Can I do a mix of rides and runs to unlock items? If so, do a ride and run on the same stage count as different events towards unlocking items?
Hi, can I complete stage 8 Scotland at any time soon? I went on holiday 1st Feb – 13th Feb. I’ve completed stages 1- 7 🤦🏼♂️