April is Classics time in outdoor road racing, and the Queen of the Classics, Paris Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift, arrives Saturday, April 8th. Zwift is hosting a variety of events and a mission to celebrate the big race, including a month of cobbled race routes… both old and new.
Cobble Crusher – April’s Route Schedule
This month’s races all take place on cobbly Zwift routes, with stages 1 and 4 including fresh cobbles on previously-paved portions of France:
- Stage 1 (Apr 3-9): R.G.V.
- 1 lap (24.8km, 133m elevation)
- Powerups: Draft Boost (50%), Aero Boost (50%)
- Stage 2 (Apr 10-16): Lutece Express
- 3 laps (23.4km, 142m elevation)
- Powerups: Burrito (50%), Ghost (50%)
- Stage 3 (Apr 17-23): Cobbled Climbs
- 2 laps (18.6km, 268m)
- Powerups: Feather (50%), Anvil (50%)
- Stage 4 (Apr 24-30: Casse-Pattes
- 1 lap (23.7km, 155m)
- Powerups: Draft Boost (50%), Aero Boost (50%)
See upcoming Cobble Crusher events >
Series Structure
The ZRacing series consists of monthly sets of weekly races. Each race is scheduled for seven days (beginning 1:10am UTC on Monday and running through to the next Sunday). Timeslots are consistent week to week and month to month.
Races are scheduled ~15 times each day, so there are plenty of available times to find a race.
See upcoming events at zwift.com/events/tag/zracingapr2023
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Monthly GC on ZwiftPower
Each monthly set of races has a time-based GC (general classification) which tracks riders’ best finishing times for each week’s race. The overall winners in each category for the month will be the riders with the lowest overall time for that month’s set of races.
See April’s GC on ZwiftPower >
With over 100 weekly timeslots available, riders can race each week’s event multiple times and try to better their finishing time.
Note: you must use a heart rate monitor and be on a smart trainer, smart bike, or power meter to show up in ZwiftPower results for this series.
If you aren’t signed up for ZwiftPower, check out our post How to Sign Up for ZwiftPower (and Why Every Zwifter Should Do It).
Get the Badge
Each month’s series has a unique achievement badge, which you can unlock by finishing every stage for the month.
One and Done
Zwift has planned these events around the idea of a solid 1-hour workout, so each race should only take around 1 hour to complete, including your warmup and cooldown.
Past Rounds
April is the eighth round of the ZRacing series which began in September 2022 with Get Rolling. This was followed by October’s Race Like a Champ, November’s Race Makuri, December’s Race Like a Pro, January’s Flat is Fast, and February’s Race Scotland, and March’s Race London.
Questions or Comments?
Post below!
Hi Eric: Lutece Express wrong link,
Fixed.
Casse-Pattes ??
Fixed.
Cobbles are slower than pavement on road tires, but road tires are still the fastest on cobbles, right?
Totally unrelated question that I wasn’t clear on from previous communications from Zwift, do these races count at Watch the Femmes events that lead to the Watch the Femmes rewards? I love riding in my WTF socks at times and I read that they have matching sunglasses this year.
I am fairly certain that ANY miles you ride during the Watch the Femmes Challenge count.
According to Zwift Insider, road tires are still fastest on cobbles. See the article “Rolling Resistance on Zwift: Crr and Watt Savings of Various Wheels”.
@Eric Schlange the links to stages 2 & 4 are incorrect in your post above, just FYI
Fixed, thanks!
Question: Does wheel or bike selection matter on the Zwift cobbles?
Yes… but all road bikes (and wheels) are affected equally by cobbles. See this article: https://zwiftinsider.com/crr
You mention that Lutece Express is getting cobbles over previously-paved portions, but I believe the entire course other than the start pens is already cobbles. Is that true or is something changing?
My boo-boo. It’s stages 1 and 4 (in France) that have new cobbles. Corrected above.
Our the new cobble sections present in the race only?
They’re present in other France events this month too. Our guess is it’s an event-specific setting, but it’s possible they rolled it out for all riding in France…
Eric, do you know how many km are with new cobbles round about ?
I do not.
Not another burrito/ghost double whammy race. Yuck.
Now we just need some trainer setups that shake like a washing machine.. sort of a reverse Obree job I guess.
Tacx Neo 2 can do that (the feature is called Road Feel). This really helps during races to keep on pushing 🙂 Unfortunately it is quite loud, so nothing for late night racing…
Hi Eric.
Thanks for all your good work.
Your weekly race schedule shows a race on Sunday morning at 11:10. The last 2 Sundays (as I write) ie March 26 and April 2, there’s been no race at 11:10. Preceding and following hours yes, but missing out 11:10. I don’t know if this is a recent change to the race schedule, or how long it has been this way. I can’t remember about March 19 or Sundays before that, and couldn’t vouch for other days of the week.
You showed the same race schedule for the month of March, and I was caught out on March 26, and learned my lesson for April 2.
Cheers,
Gerry.
Yeah, I get that schedule direct from Zwift… but I don’t think it’s quite accurate. Even today I’m seeing stuff that’s an hour off. I’ll send it back to them and see if they can fix it! I’ll reply here if it gets updated.
I’m thinking now this is down to clock change. I was caught out the weekend the clocks went forward here (I’m in the UK), so as of March 26, we’re on British Summer Time, which is GMT +1. I guess your schedule is GMT. I need to allow for that.
…or maybe nowhere near GMT!!
what’s the link on zwiftpower? is it under series or leagues? so many items in those two lists, Zwift has grown!!!
Just added the link above. It’s under Leagues: https://zwiftpower.com/league.php?id=1658
Are the new cobbles permanent additions to those routes or just for this event?
Temporary.
I would really like to know which days and time slots I would need to race on to be competitive. Ever since I started participating in these races I often end up in a race with 12 people. The group rides in zone 1-2 until the final sprint which ultimately results in a poor overall GC a few minutes behind racers that competed in other races throughout the week.
Eric, any way to get the powers that be to improve search functionality for events in Zwift Companion App? For example, all major Zwift events should have a selection box (that’s inclusive). At the moment I’m only interested in riding Tour of Watopia and the April Racing League. Yes, I can toggle on just Tour of Watopia (great), but I can’t for Racing League. And if toggle on both Tour of Watopia and category enforced races (because that’s what April League is), nothing displays because it’s an “AND” not an “OR”. But broader, I should be able to just search for “event name” and it will display all events of that name if I’m interested in something in particular (as well as the selection boxes for major Zwift events).
…if you’re a bit useless and disorganised(…) is there an opportunity to catch stage one again?
Anyone know if they are doing makeup races?
They are not. They never have for this series.
I’ve been away – can I catch up the 1st 2 stages in early May? There are normally catch up weeks?
Nope. This series never does catch up events.
Nooooooooo!!! That’s me sulking then. 🙂 Thanks for letting me know.
The best bike for the cobble crusher series (gravel or road)
Already any information about May‘s Crit Club? Seems to start with 3 laps of Volcano Circuit CCW.
Yup. Publishing a post in the next couple of days!
Anyone having the issue of finishing the fourth stage here, but the challenge remains incomplete? Anyone every had a similar issue with a monthly race series? If so, how did you get it fixed?
Yes I did – I dropped a note to the chat. It’s happened 3 times recently. It counts for the Femme but doesn’t for the stage itself.