Rapha Rising [2023]

Events
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One of the toughest challenges on Zwift is back! Rapha Rising is a three back-to-back days of epic climbing to put your endurance to the test!

RaphaRisingSeriesPage
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Rapha Rising starts February 23, 2023 @ 18:00 UTC and ends on February 27, 2023 @ 04:00 UTC. three stages to put your endurance to the test. Each stage will be available every two hours across a 36-hour period, with stages overlapping. There will be no makeup rides for the Rapha Rising!

Late Join will be disabled for all Rapha Rising events. Join the event early and get warmed up!

Stage 1: Climbers Gambit

Length: 27.9 km (17.3 miles)
Elevation: 670 m (2,198‘)
Lead-In: 0 km ( miles)
Map: Watopia
Major Climb: Epic KOM Reverse
Zwift Insider Route Guide: HERE

Stage 2: Tour of Fire and Ice

Length: 25.5 km (15.8 miles)
Elevation: 1161 m (3,809‘)
Lead-In: 2.8 km (1.7 miles)
Map: Watopia
Major Climb: Alpe du Zwift
Zwift Insider Route Guide: HERE

Stage 3: La Reine

Length: 22.8 km (14.2 miles)
Elevation: 1181 m (3,875‘)
Lead-In: 0 km ( miles)
Map: France
Major Climb: Mont Ventoux
Zwift Insider Route Guide: HERE

You will have the opportunity to unlock the Rapha Rising socks by completing stage 1, Rapha Rising cap by completing Stage 2, and Rapha Rising kit by completing stage 3. This year’s unlocks are the same as last years (If you completed the ride and aren’t finding your unlock, please log out and log back in). This means that if you unlocked them previously you’ll just have to ride for personal pride and enjoyment, oh and maybe to improve on your position in the General Classification. However, if you’re signed up to February’s Mission, you’ll have the opportunity to cover the full 3,000m of cumulative elevation required to earn the badge unlock in just one weekend!

To learn more about Rapha Rising you can check out the event series page here or check out the FAQ here.

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Does it really start at 18:00 UTC ?
1st event by me is at 20:UTC !

Thx

1 Like
4

I really love this event. (And other big events)

But could Zwift, please announce this earlier

I plan my IRL events on the second of January for the entire season.

Some Zwift events are worth for me to make time for (or taper?)

Why is it so hard to announce them sooner, or at least mention when to expect such an event?

3 Likes
5

First event is definitely 1800 UTC

6

Pffff did stage 1;

Assumed it was autocat, so joined B (because I’m a solid B in Zwift’s eyes)

and it is more fun to race with 140 people in B than 14 in A who outclass me.

But UPG in the end results because I’m A with 4.01wkg according to ZwiftPower.

:disappointed:

O wait, just checked Zwift again and promoted to A because of todays race.

Whoop whoop A with 0.01 wkg margin

7

Interesting, kinda surprised they aren’t using Category Enforcement instead of UPGs via ZP. Congrats on promotion to ZP A though! Is your CE category B?

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I was, because of todays effort I’m an A in autocat as well.

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All the time and effort to create CE Category enforcement and then not using it seem like a big loss.

3 Likes
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I have a hard time understanding why they don’t just rip off the band-aid and switch to CE for all events. The flaws in CE are no worse than the flaws in ZP categories. Just standardize and let whatever happens happen. As a race participant I couldn’t care less about what retrograde organizers think about it. Let them quit organizing if they don’t like it. No loss.

Edit: OK I would like to still support other ranking systems like zwiftracing.app that may depend on non-CE events. But the vast majority of non-CE events are just garbage in the calendar.

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"You choose how you want to ride the events, most will just aim to complete this epic achievement, some will want to race!

If you’re trying to turn this series into something a bit more competitive, register on ZwiftPower prior to the challenge in order to participate in the General Classification for time-based, multi-stage results."

I rode C cat even though I’m a B because I was aiming just to complete the ride (which I did averaging 3w/kg). If it was CE I would have been in B cat riding solo out at the back. Instead I just have an UPG on ZP which is fine as it excludes me from the GC because I’m out of cat.

In C cat no-one in the top 20 averaged less than 3.5w/kg and the real C cat winner on ZwiftPower finished 28th. The D cat winner on ZP finished 34th. You might as well just start everyone off together either in E cat and divide it up into the cats later on or start all cats together but with CE.

2 Likes
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Yeah, I saw all the UPGs in the list and I guess that’s why. I wonder why they didn’t just have everyone start together (As E cat) if they were going to do it that way.

1 Like
13

With starts every two hours plus overlap of the stages starting everyone together would also make the rides way less diluted.

1 Like
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Also I was thinking, ok I’m A cat now, so upg. (Seems reasonable)

But I did outperform myself, and set a pb on the last climb, and was 8th.

I’m a heavier rider (88kg) so my wkg on the same speed is lower then a lighter climber.

So I do have to climb it with RAW-power. Last climb I did average 400watts, and still did not win a B-event, but UPG.

How? (And the B-winner, averaged 4.7wkg for the route, I did 3,8 and he beat met with 2 minutes, we started the climb together)

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Yeah, super light climbers are gonna have the advantage on these climbs due to w/kg. On flatter races you probably won’t have any trouble keeping up with A due to your high raw watts.

1 Like
16

If I just ride stage 3 will I get only the jersey? Or will I not get anything because I didn’t ride stages 1 and 2?

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Very odd to have a group ride configured to disqualify riders for being out of category (why even have categories for a group ride where everyone’s on the same route?). And if you think of it as a race, well it’s a sandbagger’s delight. I finished 99 of the ZP-registered riders (unfiltered view) and 65 ahead of me got DQ. What a strange event.

It would make more sense to either make it a race with CE, or make it not a race, start everyone together and don’t disqualify anyone.

5 Likes
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O yes this is a weird setup. A group ride with DQ :thinking:

This was the perfect event to use CE.

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Anyone else find it very odd for a clothing brand like Rapha that they wouldn’t even come up with a new design for this years kit?

3 Likes
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Why not make this a mass start like the TdZ events. Or Cat enforce it. Last year. I joined as a C. In all three races, most of the top 30 people were disqualified.
My son did stage 1 yesterday as a C. Was killing himself trying not to get dropped before reaching the climb. Did get dropped in Titans. Made it to the bottom of the climb in 55th place. Passed 33 people on the way up to finish 22nd. Four minutes behind the C leaders who did 4.2, 3.85 and 3.63 w/kg average. But in the end, got a podium Silver because 20 people ahead of him were disqualified.
Maybe he should be happy, but the ride itself was horrible because he was struggling to keep up with strong B riders through Titans grove. If you take away the 41 A or B riders in C cat race, he probably would have had a much more enjoyable ride to the bottom of epic. And be in better riding shape today for stage 2.
My race wasn’t quite as bad, with only 10 of the top 30 being disqualified. But, I also got dropped 2-3 minutes into the race.

1 Like
21

I was planning to do all 3 stages but after this morning, I will rather pick another event that use CE or just do a workout.

1 Like