UPDATE March 26, 2024: in March, Zwift reconfigured these events to be rides with a results screen at the end, instead of standard races. They’ve told us this change was made to make the L’Etape du Tour events feel more like sportives than races.
L’Etape du Tour de France is one of the biggest amateur Gran Fondos in the world, with over 16,000 participants each year. Riders return year after year to take on a full Tour de France mountain stage, and Zwift has a history of working with L’Etape as a training partner.
This year, Zwift is hosting a creative and challenging Virtual L’Etape du Tour de France series which is sure to be very popular with riders. Whether you’re training for the IRL L’Etape or just looking to get some hard racing in, you’ll want to add these events to your calendar!
All the details for the series are below, although some links are not yet active and will be updated as Zwift updates their sites.
Schedule and Routes
This is a monthly series, with events scheduled one week per month. Shorter Prologue races happen midweek, with Grand Fondos on the weekend. Events are scheduled every two hours for maximum availability (see upcoming events).
February
- Prologue: February 20-23
- Going Coastal 1 lap (18.7 km/11.6 miles, 63 m/207′)
- Main Stage: February 23-26
- Big Foot Hills, 1 Lap (69.9 km/43.4 miles, 707 m/2,320′)
March
- Prologue: March 26-29
- Greater London Flat 1 Lap (17.3 km/10.75 miles, 45 m/148′)
- Main Stage: March 29-Apr 1
- The London Pretzel 1 Lap (56.1 km/34.8 miles, 531 m/1,742′)
April
- Prologue: April 23-26
- Neon Flats 1 Lap (15 km/9.3 miles, 72 m/236′)
- Main Stage: April 26-29
- Country to Coastal 2 Laps (67 km/41.7 miles, 548 m/1,798′)
July
- Prologue: July 2-5
- R.G.V. 1 Lap (25.1 km/15.6 miles, 107 m/351′)
- Main Stage: July 5-8
- Petit Boucle 1 Lap (62 km/38.5 miles, 430 m/1,411′)
Note: there are no make-up weeks in this series.
See all upcoming L’Etape du Tour events >
Categories
These are race events, not group rides. But there are no categories, so everyone will start together and ride together until gaps open up and packs form. Pace yourself accordingly!
ZwiftPower GC
You can treat these events as one-off races, competing in them whenever you’d like. However, some riders will compete for the time-based general classification, which ranks riders based on their total time for each stage.
Each month will have a GC competition on ZwiftPower (look under “Leagues”) based on that month’s Prologue and Main Stage events. There will also be an overall GC which includes all four months.
February GC on ZwiftPower >
Overall GC on ZwiftPower >
Official Kit Unlock
Complete any of the weekend Main Stage events to unlock the virtual Santini L’Etape du Tour de France official event kit in game!
Climb of the Month: Col de la Couillole
This series takes a break in June for obvious reasons, but while we’re on break, the Climb of the Month in the Climb Portal will be Col de la Couillole, the final climb of the IRL L’Etape du Tour de France. At 15.7 kilometers with a rock-steady 7.1% gradient, this is also the finishing climb for stage 20 of the 2024 Tour de France!
Win a Trip
L’Etape du Tour de France is already sold out for 2024, but you could win a spot!
Complete one Prologue ride and one Gran Fondo every month between February and April, and you will be entered for a chance to win a trip to participate in the L’Etape du Tour de France live. Read the terms and conditions >
Questions or Comments?
Check out Zwift’s L’Etape FAQ, or post below!
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