Watch the Femmes Mission 2022

Yes, it’s true: Zwift is the title sponsor for Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift! At Zwift, we’re committed to elevating women’s cycling, and we’re in it for the long haul. With this historic moment of the first edition of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, we are excited to announce the ‘Watch the Femmes’ Mission.

During this series, you will get to participate in eight stages modeled after the stages in the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. There will be amazing unlocks along the way! After completing a series ride, you will unlock a cap and socks and, once you have completed the mission, you will unlock the full kit and the mission completion badge. Plus have an opportunity to win a signed winners jersey from the inaugural Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift!

Looking for more info on how to join Watch the Femmes? You can learn more on our Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift main page or Support Hub FAQ.

Q: Why is Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift so important to women’s racing?
A: Because the women’s peloton should have a spot at competing in the biggest cycling race in the world. By sponsoring the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, we are challenging the cycling community to rethink what pro cycling looks like and to pave the way for future pro cyclists. As a community, it’s up to us to keep it fun and ride like the entire sport depends on it. The finish line is just the beginning!

Q: What is a grand tour, and how is it different from a one-day classic like Paris-Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift?
A: The overall winner of a multi-day stage race is the rider who completes all stages in the least amount of time. Each stage presents different challenges that suit different riders’ abilities. Flat terrain suits riders with a dominant sprint finish, rolling hilly terrain suits strong breakaway specialists, and steep mountain stages favor pure climbers.

Q: Are there any stages in particular that I shouldn’t miss?
A: All eight stages will showcase intense racing action, starting with Stage 1 in Paris where the fastest sprinters will battle it out on the famed cobblestones of the Champs-Elysées.

Each stage this year has a progressively hillier profile, where strong breakaway specialists will have opportunities to take a stage win.

A Queen of the Mountains will emerge from the pack on the final two mountainous stages. The infamous climb up La Super Planche des Belles Fille will decide the overall winner of the maillot jaune.

Q: What do the yellow / polka dot / green / white jerseys mean?
A: After each stage, the rider with the lowest cumulative time (a.k.a. the best time) starts the next day wearing the coveted maillot jaune (yellow jersey). The overall winner puts on the final yellow jersey on the last day.

There are also competitions for riders targeting points in the sprint competitions on flatter routes (green jersey) and Queen of the Mountain (QOM) points on hillier stages (polka dot jersey). Points for both competitions are offered mid-stage as well as the stage finale. Athletes must carefully choose the moments to exert their effort to earn those points.

In Zwift, you’ll see arches that mark both the sprint and QOM // KOM segments. Time your all-out efforts just right and you can earn the leader’s jersey in-game! There’s a prize for the best young rider under age 26 (white jersey), marking them as talents with a bright future.

At Zwift, we are so excited to be a partner in the evolution of Women’s Pro Cycling. Stay tuned for more awesome content, plus chances to win swag during Tour de France Femmes avec Zwif

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Is there any way of withdrawing from this Mission? I’ve searched all currently available Zwift Watch the Femmes sites and support pages in vain. In previous missions, there have been specific withdrawal URLs.

I happily signed up the other day when I saw the tile appear in the home screen, but now realise that I won’t be available to take part in enough Zwift rides this July. I’d prefer not to see the mission tile for a whole month knowing I won’t be doing the rides.

Edit:
Recent examples have been:
zwift dot com/campaign-withdrawal/tdz2022ride
zwift dot com/campaign-withdrawal/kask2022

but the equivalent:
zwift dot com/campaign-withdrawal/watchthefemmes

just returns an empty, valid page. Thanks in advance for getting it set up. :+1:

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I am trying to figure out how I can actually watch the femmes when the time comes. I am in the US. I joined a podcast ride this AM, but despite being a ‘watch the femmes’ ride, there was no mention of how to watch the femmes. Thank you in advance - for any assistance in this.

Hi @Terry_Adams1

Welcome to the forum.

In the USA you can find the Giro Donne on GCN+

Also see this post: Watch the Giro d'Italia Donne 2022 Here (No Spoilers)

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HI @Terry_Adams1

As Gerrie noted, the Giro d’Italia Donne is the Women’s World Tour stage race that’s happening right now. GCN+ is indeed the English-language streaming source for the United States. Many of the riders are racing both the Giro and the Tour.

If you know the sport of cycling and can figure out what’s happening even if the commentary is in Italian - please join us on this thread where I’ll embed each day’s feed from the Giro organizers.

Once the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift starts later this month - NBC-Universal is the Tour’s US broadcast partner. In addition to over the air coverage on one of NBC’s channels, you can livestream the race if you’re a Peacock subscriber.

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LoL. I edited my post as you posted your reply. Thanks :+1:

As someone pointed out in a prologue ride yesterday, Zwift’s choice of name for this series is surprising given the initialism it produces.
Unless the graphic designers who produced these socks have been away from English-language popular culture for the last 50+ years, they must have been chuckling to themselves:

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@manda_F
I appreciate that yesterday was a public holiday in the US, so am not expecting super rapid reactions. Just bumping this before it gets buried. As noted Saturday, the page exists but doesn’t contain the usual withdrawal button:

@Roule_Thoune - Thanks for bumping this. Here is the withdraw link for this mission: The at Home Cycling & Running Virtual Training App

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While we’re on the subject of where you can #watchthefemmes here’s the list of global broadcast and livestreaming partners for the 2022 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift:

  • Broadcast in 190 countries with at least 2.5 hours live coverage on each stage.
  • Airs approximately 15:00 - 17:00 CET.

Americas:
USA: CNBC, Peacock
Canada: Flobikes
Pan Central & South America: ESPN

Europe:
Pan-Europe: Eurosport, GCN
Belgium: RTBF, VRT
EU & UK: Eurosport & GCN
France: France3
Denmark: DKTV2
Germany: One/Sportschau
Ireland: TG4
Norway: TV2
Netherlands: NOS
Spain: RTVE
Switzerland: SRG-SSR (news)

Africa & MENA
Pan- Subsaharan Africa: Supersport, TV5 Monde
Pan- MENA: GCN, beIn Sports, SSC, TV5 Monde

Asia & Oceania:
Pan-Asia (excluding China and Japan): Eurosport Asia, GCN.
China: Zhibo
Japan: Jsports
Australia: SBS, GCN
New Zealand: Sky Sport

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If you could, who here would rock WTF socks? :person_raising_hand:

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Can we give them out to the odd forum poster too? Asking for a friend …

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For the record, the WTF socks are in-game only. We haven’t made them IRL, but we’ve discussed it as a possibility.

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Is Missions before it was a specific stage and they showed which you had completed and which you had not. I’m not see that this time. Is it simply 8 stages as a whole and you complete the mission?

Hi @Chris_Crush_MS - For the Watch the Femmes mission, you can complete any eight events between July 1st - August 1st and they do not have to be in order. We have specially designed an eight stage series that loosely mirrors the stages in TdFFaZ. Here is the link to the events page.

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Hi! How to “complete the mission”? I’ve unlocked cap and socks from last Watch the Femmes, but now I’ve finished 2 current rides (different Stages) and still can’t unlock the t-shirt :frowning: What should I do?
Cheers!

Hi @Michal_Nowak welcome to Zwift forums.

Good question! As covered in our FAQ linked above, you’ll unlock the jersey when you’ve completed the eight stages of the Mission by August 1. How are you doing with that? You still have three days to finish.

Q: Are there rides I can do in Zwift?
A: In honor of the eight stages of TdFFaZ, we are challenging our community to complete eight events between July 1 st - August 1st. We have specially designed an eight stage series that loosely mirrors the stages in TdFFaZ. Details for the community events are on our Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift main page and to get engaged in the conversation, visit our Community Forums.

Q: What do I get for completing Watch the Femmes?
A: For all series rides, caps and socks will be automatically assigned and unlocked upon completion of the event. During these rides, you will also be assigned a pretty awesome ‘Watch the Femmes’ kit that can be unlocked, along with the badge, after completing the entire mission. Trust us, this is a kit that you don’t want to miss.

Thanks for reply!
Don’t think I can still do it tho… there’ll be Stage 7 on Saturday and Stage 8 on Sunday… I’ll still be missing 1, 2, 3 and 5 :frowning: What a shame. Would do it in one day if there’s any possibility :sweat_smile:

I think you just have to do 8 rides, not rides on 8 different days So, if you can do them all in one day I think that would actually work.

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