Zwift has just announced a 3-stage, 3-day event series featuring the Innsbruck course. Here are all the details…
Schedule
The tour begins February 21st and ends February 23rd. 3 stages, 3 days. Short and sweet!
See event dates and sign up at Zwift.com >
There will be no make-up days.
Ride Categories
Each stage event includes three ride categories to select from when signing up: A, B, and C. A is the longer ride, B is the shorter ride, and C is the same course as B, but for women only.
- Group A: 122.3km (76 miles) with 2839m (9315′) of elevation
- Groups B and C: 85km (52.9 miles) with 1951m (6401′) of elevation
These events are officially group rides, not races. But there will certainly be many riders who treat the event as a race, so do whatever you’d like – take it easy, or go hard. It’s all good!
Stage Details
- Stage 1: Lutscher route. A group rides 2 times up the KOM while B/C ride just 1.
A Distance: 24.2km (15 miles)
B/C Distance: 10.8km (6.7 miles)
A Elevation Gain: 824m (2703′)
B/C Elevation Gain: 427m (1400′) - Stage 2: 2018 UCI Worlds Course Short Lap route. A group rides 2 laps while B/C ride 1 lap.
Distance (per lap): 23.6km (14.7 miles)
Elevation Gain (per lap): 487m (1598′) - Stage 3: Innsbruck KOM After Party route, 1 lap for all categories.
Distance: 37.2km (23.1 miles)
Elevation Gain: 640m (2100′)
Kit Unlock
Complete any stage of the tour and unlock the Tour of Innsbruck kit. (This is the same kit which was awarded in the 2018 ToI.)
Kind of wish they changed the kit, but I’ll do this anyway. I like the stage group/race rides. I actually prefer the ones that are consecutive days. Should be fun climbing! However, Zwift come on, you gotta make new kits!
Do these rides get you the route badges. I have noticed that I have done some group rides on certain routes but never got the route badge (Richmond UCI course) whereas other events like Lecol Metric century I was able to get the route badge.
Yes, they should! If they don’t it’s a bug of some kind.
Got the Jersey and the 2018 UCI…badge yesterday! But someone said if you do all three you get socks? Is this true…or just a rumor?
I’d hoped the first stage would be Lutscher CCW instead of the forward direction, to mix it up a bit. Now you’ll climb the regular KOM 6 times in 3 days when you do all A races! If Lutscher would have been done in the other direction, it would be 3 times the regular KOM and 3 times the other side. I’d like that better, but oh well.. 🙂
Good point.
Yeah, it does seem a little repetitive to have to climb the Forward KOM on EVERY stage (6 times total for A’s as you say, 4 times for B and C) and yet never the Reverse. Also no flat stage (e.g. only Innsbruckring, no KOM) for some reason.
Does the Innsbruck KOM After Party route always consist of 3 laps of the Innsbruckring, plus once up the KOM? I’m slightly confused by it being “1 lap” when the course isn’t a circuit.
Yes, that’s how that particular route always works.
Thanks Eric!
Another useless jersey in my virtual closet. They should really start thinking about new and different awards.
I agree the Jersey doesn’t have any real value, however, none of the achievements or virtual bicycles, hats, gloves or wheels have any value beyond having something to work for while training. Zwift helps us become better cyclists IRL. I enjoy having something to work for even if it is just to say I have 108 jerseys, while usually wearing just one or two.
The stage 1 A group information isn’t correct I think on the Zwift website, or do we have to do the Lutcher lead-in part twice?
Information on the Zwift website their total distance seems to be off :hmm:
A GROUP
COURSE: Lutscher
ELEVATION GAIN: 823 m / 2703 ft
LAP DISTANCE: 24.2 km / 15.1 mi
LAPS: 2
TOTAL DISTANCE: 48.4 km / 30.2 mi
Correct. I think they just doubled the lap distance, but that’s not how the Lutscher route works. 😀
Apparently it turns out they even shortened it to the A Group doing the regular Lutscher (24 km) and the B & C Groups only doing 10 km (kinda like a less steep version of the Bologna TT – short run in and a climb to finish it off)
I guess only the A group will get the Lutscher route achievement, despite the B/C also being called Lutscher. I’d be pretty disappointed to only get half a lollipop!
I just updated the post above to reflect what Zwift is now showing for stage 1.
Hi Eric, On the Zwift event page they list Stage 1 A group ride at 48.4km with 1646mm elevation gain (https://zwift.com/events/view/337915) while you list 37.9km with 1225m elevation gain. Any ideas on the discrepancy?
I believe I’m accurate. I think whoever did the Zwift data just doubled the Lutscher route’s distance, but that’s not how the route works. It has a lead-in, then you just do loops around the KOM loop.
They’ve updated these numbers now–the whole stage is shorter. I’ve updated them in the post above.
A free commemorative t-shirt (custom ordered for sizing) for all official finishers would be a nice gesture on Zwift’s part. Could draw in more participants and make for good advertising for their product too! But on the other hand if the current format works for them why do anything more than necessary. Oh well.. lol
I’d love to be able to order a commemorative shirt, bidon, even a kit, after finishing a big challenge. Especially if it was priced to sell!
No event shirts that I known of…However they do sell jerseys and kits:
https://zwift.com/shop/category/clothing-cycling
And “Lifestyle” route T-shirts:
https://zwift.com/shop/category/clothing-lifestyle
But…I’ve got too many event jerseys! shirts! …and would actually prefer event Socks! Like these:
https://zwift.com/shop/product/big-z-cycling-socks
only even specific…Maybe RedBubble if Zwift won’t do it officially…unless they objected? or Licensed?
Nothing for Innsbruck, but they have this for TDZ2020:
https://zwift.com/shop/product/tour-de-zwift-2020-bottle
Still don’t completely get why they don’t run these events in the evening PST. I get that we probably aren’t peak use but does making an event available have a downside?