The Tour de France, the toughest and most prestigious competition in professional road cycling, is usually held in July. The coronavirus pandemic, however, has forced the time-honoured sport to delay major events such as the Giro d'Italia and cancel smaller ones including the Paris-Roubaix, Tour of Yorkshire and Volta a Catalunya. The Tour de France is currently scheduled to start on August 29th which, while accepted and supported by most cyclists, leaves an obvious hole in the racing calendar.
Enter Zwift. Today, the company is announcing that it will host a virtual Tour de France over three weekends starting on July 4th. It won’t be an exact replica — the real Tour de France is gruelling, and riders will want to peak during the actual race one month later — but will hopefully recreate some of the event’s competitive riding and festival-like atmosphere.
It feels like Zwift has been building up to this moment. The startup offers an app with virtual worlds that runners, cyclists and triathletes can traverse using their personal treadmill or bike trainer. A virtual avatar will match their performance at home — speeding up when they jog or pedal faster, and dropping off when their legs start to tire — and take other factors like drafting into account. Some treadmills and trainers will also adjust their angle slightly to match the slope that you’re trying to climb.
Zwift has a free run and riding mode, as well as structured workouts and competitive races. Professional cyclists have embraced the latter during COVID-19, and Zwift has respond by putting on additional events that can be watched on its YouTube channel. These broadcasts don’t have the same production values as the Overwatch League or League of Legends European Championship (LEC), but it’s something that cycling fans have been able to latch onto during a tumultuous period for the industry.
Zwift events are different from traditional races — turning is automated, for instance, and it’s harder to sense when another rider might attack. Some Zwift events have Mario Kart-style power-ups, too, that let the rider turn invisible, become lighter, or increase the effects of drafting temporarily. Zwift isn’t concerned about absolute realism and most cyclists have accepted that the platform requires some fresh thinking and strategies.
The competition will be held over six stages that each take roughly an hour to complete.
The virtual Tour de France should be Zwift’s biggest event yet. The competition will be held over six stages that each take roughly an hour to complete. Men and women will race separately, just like real life, but compete over identical courses. The first two stages will take place in Watopia — a fictional world that Zwift developed for its broader running and cycling community — with “several visual additions” inspired by Nice, the coastal town that will host the tour’s ‘Grand Départ’ in real life.