Zwift has announced its first-ever “Tour for All”, a massive charity event to support Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in COVID-19 response.
This post includes details on all TfA stages, scheduling, pro racing, and more.
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Stage Details
This is a 5-stage event. As with past tours, each stage can be completed in a variety of ways. There are group rides and runs with both long and short distance formats, and women-only group rides. Those with a competitive streak will be able to take part in bike races during each stage, choosing from two different length options.
About Categories
Categories (A, B, C, and D) are used in different ways for different events in the TfA series:
- Group Rides and Runs: categories are used to organize these events into different distance groups, not different levels of fitness. So choose the category that matches the length you want, find a group going at your pace, and enjoy yourself! Additionally, for Group Rides, the C group is for women only.
- Race Rides: categories are used to organize the events into both distance and ability groups. A and B categories are the longer distance, C and D are shorter distance. A and C are for riders in the 3.2-5 w/kg range, B and D are for riders below that range.
Stage 1: May 4-7
Sign up for events at the Tour for All Ride homepage >
Sign up for events at the Tour for All Run homepage >
Stage 2: May 8-11
Sign up for events at the Tour for All Ride homepage >
Sign up for events at the Tour for All Run homepage >
Stage 3: May 12-15
Sign up for events at the Tour for All Ride homepage >
Sign up for events at the Tour for All Run homepage >
Stage 4: May 16-19
Sign up for events at the Tour for All Ride homepage >
Sign up for events at the Tour for All Run homepage >
Stage 5: May 20-23
For the tour’s final stage, routes were selected by some of the top ride leading teams on Zwift. Keith Hill After Party was selected by Team 3R, Watopia Pretzel was selected by AHDR, Sand and Sequoias was selected by PACK, and Surrey Hills was selected by ZZRC.
Sign up for events at the Tour for All Ride homepage >
Sign up for events at the Tour for All Run homepage >
Make-Up Days
Missed a stage? Make-up days are scheduled from May 24-30th.
See make-up events at the Tour for All Ride homepage >
See make-up events at the Tour for All Run homepage >
Tour For All Professional Race Series
Kicking off the Tour for All is a pro race series involving an unprecedented (on Zwift, at least) number of world tour pro teams. Races will be streamed on Eurosport and GCN! Get all the details here >
Tour for All Kit Unlock
Riders and runners will be equipped with the new TfA kit in all events. Zwift has not yet released the details for unlocking the kit permanently.
Supporting the Cause
Tour for All (TfA) is being held to raise funds for the COVID-19 Crisis Fund at MSF. Zwift is kicking things off with a massive $125,000 donation, and once 250,000 TfA rides or runs have been completed, they will donate another $125,000 – one dollar for every participant!
A Zwift x MSF donation page will be taken live before the tour kicks off, allowing Zwifters to make further donations if they desire.
About MSF
MSF is an international medical humanitarian organization delivering care to those most in need. Its team of over 43,000 doctors, nurses, and others assist people caught in crises around the world. MSF’s independent, neutral and impartial funding allows the organization access to patients in conflicts where others cannot go. It serves no agenda other than delivering quality medical care.
MSF teams are responding to COVID-19 on multiple fronts – caring for patients, offering health education and mental health support, and providing training for vital infection control measures in health facilities around the world.
As MSF scales up its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a key priority is to keep its more than 400 medical programs running for the tens of thousands of patients and extremely vulnerable communities they help support. This pandemic threatens the lives of people around the world, and presents even greater risks in countries with weak or fragile health systems.
Questions or Comments?
Share below!
Thank you for this information. This is a great cause and I am looking forward to riding/racing and donating. How does zwiftpower view me doing a ‘C” race when I am a “B” race at > 3.2 w/k
ZwiftPower will DQ you for racing in a category below your real category, even if you stay under the power limit.
if he’s talking about tour for all, then he can race C no problem. that is zwift’s fault for not sticking with designated category names from the beginning, then changing their meaning later
Just noticed the new animated maps (Magnificent 8), and love it!
Love the new maps too! and looks like banners/segments are about to be added as well?! Would also love to see a 2d route profile still
Great initiative, fun and helps raise awareness/donations. I’ve ordered my jersey and looking forward to riding it
So what do we reckon, will this new way of categorising races make it more or less likely that people end up in a race they find more fun?
Group ride C is women only
May I ride a TT bike in the group rides? I know I wouldn’t be able to draft.
I rode one this morning without a problem and the KM’s went towards the CeramicSpeed Mission.
Does anyone know if these group rides will be offering double/bonus XP?
There’s nothing mentioned about it on the Zwift FAQ for TFA, so not likely.
just done stage 1 and despite getting banner saying completed and it showing in my feed as done not showing on tour progress. having all sorts of issues with events and missions lately.
David, I did the 9am ride and I don’t yet have the tick in the Stage 1 Tour Progress box. Guessing it will appear a little later, maybe after the first stage is finished and we are onto the second 🤷♂️
I was on the 9am one too. Lets hope your right.
David, I’ve found my TICK…. It’s shown me completing stage 1 as a run! No idea why, hopefully Zwift will sort.
Havin the same issue now seen in Companion app
Hello! Where can you view results and confirmation of completion of the stage?
Thanks in advance
I took part in the 12:10 race, didn’t get a check on the screen either. Not sure why
Just rode the Group Ride Longer Stage 1 Tempus Fugit and had the feeling that there is no draft, it was really hard effort (maybe it was also a personal feeling after the easy group ride straight before in my legs 😉 )
Maybe anyone agrees or denies?! Haven’t read anything about nodraft
Draft was fine on Shorter Stage 1 – Finished in just over 40 mins
I rode the “A” ride this morning and the draft was fine. The problem (and it’s not really a problem) is the real “A” riders punishing us “C” riders. I got off cleanly in the first group but I am not able to sustain 4.8w/kg for more than 30 seconds so I got spat off quickly.
I managed to stay with the 50th place group for the rest of the first lap but got gapped off by five riders in front of me not hanging. I hit it as hard as I could be couldn’t get back on. Truthfully, I was probably at the end of my rope when we got dropped so I can’t complain. Much.
Rode a few km with another guy and then a group caught us and we managed to stay on for nearly the rest of the “ride”. There was draft but when you’re on the rivet for most of the event, it sure doesn’t feel like it. It was the most intense event I’ve done on Zwift.
Ok maybe they really crahed me today as well
Normally Im a good B rider with 3.9-4.1wkg FTP, but today the engine was stuttering and I had no really draft feeling
Tomorrow is a rest day needed definitely!
thx guys
there’s no specific category for B riders in this event so you will be racing with A riders, good luck ;D
Great try Mark! Here’s to dreaming that we all can be Alpha riders!
or
“Alpha children wear grey. They work much harder than we do, because they’re so frightfully clever. I’m really awfully glad I’m a Beta, because I don’t work so hard. And then we are much better than the Gammas and Deltas” – BNW
Well, as a solid “D” rider with a 2.2w/kg FTP, I have no illusions about what’s going to happen to me in a Zwift event with a range of abilities, but I don’t mind! I just grab a wheel in a big group and hang on for dear life until I dribble off the back of the group, whimpering, then the group behind reels me in and I try to stay with them if I’ve got the gas… rinse and repeat until the finish line. These events are very intense, people treat them more like races than casual rides I think, and for me it’s a very hard and fun workout…I was 500th out of 689, and that didn’t bother me at all. I ride my ride.
stick to “group ride” events rather than “race” events if you want a slightly more relaxed pace (although there will always be some nutters who cane it on them, but you just ignore them and find a group to stick with).
I did the first race and it is uploaded on my profile but I didn’t register on the Zwift Tour page. Can the race be added after the fact?
Mine isn’t showing as completing the ride, but it is showing that I completed Stage One of the Run…. I didn’t run and I didn’t register for the run… Go figure..
My companion app also just updated to show the TFA progress, and gives me credit for the run, not ride…
It’s the same on the desktop interface – on the run page stage 1 is checked, but not on ride.
Are these double XP like the tour de Watopia?
No.
I am planning on racing stage 1 today. On zwiftpower, I am categorized as “B” but just barely (3.2w/kg @ 70Kg). Should I enter A/C and hang on until I get dropped, or B/D and have a chance of hanging with the front group? What do you think is the proper race etiquette 😊?
Proper race etiquette is to NOT sandbag. So if you think you’re risking that, then race the higher cat!
Thanks Eric, raced higher cat, got smoked, but hit new power PRs!
But
But we have to move up a category because of the sandbaggers, that’s what he is saying.
I would ride in the B/D category. I’m at the bottom of B (3.4w/kg) and riding in the big boy (and girl) group is … challenging. I rode the A ride on Monday and it was the most intense “ride” I’ve ever done on Zwift. Completion of the event resulted in becoming a B along with a 10 watt jump in my FTP.
yo why are the categories so confusing for group ride vs race ride? why couldn’t it just be the same order for both, bet there will be lots of people picking the wrong category by mistake with it set up this way..!
So why did Zwift set up the races as rides? Since there is already a group ride category (of which the Monday 6am PDT “ride” was the most intense event I’ve done on Zwift) I don’t understand why the races aren’t races.
[New guy question.] Does Zwift every tally up how many folks participate in these events? Is there a counter somewhere to see how they’re doing for getting 250K to do one stage? I see that there is a counter on each event for the number of folks registered
Oh yes, they’ve got all those numbers at HQ for sure. They don’t generally show them until after the event, if at all, though. Which is a bummer sometimes – I would love to see how many miles we’ve ridden so far in TfA, for example!
Eric, will there be make up stages for this event scheduled? There wasn’t anything mentioned about it in your post. I’m a bit tardy in finding out the news about this tour because I have been concentrating on riding outdoors.
I’d bet money we’ll have make-ups, yes! Zwift hasn’t mentioned it yet, but they DO say TfA runs through May 30th… and stage 5 ends May 23rd. So my guess is, like past tours, that final week is the make-up week.
Sure hope they do the makeup day thing. My goal for T4All was to ride every long and short route, and then got to Stage 5 and they hit us with 4 different routes 3 of which will be long and hard (for me at least) and just the 4 days to do them, and 3 of those 4 days are during the week (still working my 8 to 5, albeit remotely so my riding doesn’t usually start until 6 pm/6:30 pm each night), so really hoping I can get some extra days to complete 2 of those 4 for Stage 5, otherwise, may need to abandon my long/short goal for every Stage.
I didn’t read the fine print about race categories and got dq’d for 3.6w/kg as a B. Is this the first time they threw in that A/C, B/D wrinkle?
…and is there any punishment going forward on Zwiftpower
I don’t understand the logic of stage 5 group ride. Cat A Group Ride (Keith Hill) is shorter than Cat B (Pretzel) and Cat D (Surrey Hills) for some reason.
Ho Eric,
for stage 3 Category A on NY, in article i dont see frame and wheels advice.
There are 2 short climbs, Is better an aero bike or light to perform on 2 pivotal climbs?
Why put B category riders 1.0 – 3.1,that is a D-C category so anyone entering technically cant win it unless your a D,in which case will be moved up and wont win,I think it’s very confusing,basically I think these tours are just catering for the A-A+ riders,they are the only ones that are getting a placing,all the rest are either getting DQ’D or just wont win,or win by default,a B rider cannot enter a race that is tops 3.1 anyway because the B avarage is higher,you man have a valid answer to this but this is so confusing for me,I’m struggling to hold 70th place and I’m getting DQ’d,can you see my point?
Will there be make up days?
I think that the A & B group ride descriptions of Stages 4 & 5 of the T4all are reversed in your descriptions. In both cases, and Stage 5 in particular, the B group ride is shown to be much longer than the A. Nevertheless, this is a fabulous resource! Thank you.
Nope–those are accurate. Stage 5 is a different setup than the other stages. And stage 4 has Road to Sky for group A, which is short in terms of miles, but long in terms of effort!
ur for all
Question about Stage 4, why does it say 17.9 miles is the distance, but then the total is 26.5 miles.
It’s a custom endpoint for the route – so it ends earlier than usual.
Ahhhh, gotcha, so it doesn’t do the full loop it stops at the 17.9 mark. Thanks so much for the info!
was wondering this myself, thanks!
I suspect the custom route goes only to the top of the KOM, you could ride back down afterwards on your own.
Will there be an opportunity to make up for missed stages?
Yes.
are double xp points being awarded during the tour?
No
hi
when is state tour for all stage 1 make up date
Will we see any general classification for the tour?
Will they be holding make-up rides for stage 5? I can only see them scheduled for stages 1-4, thanks.
You unlock the TfA kit permanently when you log in next after finishing the tour.
Is it just the in game kit jersey and shorts or is there a bonus extra, like the shoes on completing this year’s ToW. I’m recovering from C-19, have stages 1-3 banked and would like to finish IF I can. Thanks.
Just the jersey and shorts, no shoes unfortunately. Best wishes for your recovery!