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Zwift to add part of 2018 Road Worlds course to platform

Users of the virtual cycling platform - including pros doing route recces - will be able to ride part of the Innsbruck-Tirol course from August

Zwift users – or Zwifters as the virtual cycling platform calls them – will be able to test themselves against part of the course of this year’s UCI Road Cycling World Championships course with the company’s announcement today of a partnership today with the organisers of September’s event in Innsbruck-Tirol, Austria.

The new feature will go live in August and is based around the the opening 15-mile circuit of the course - in its entirety, billed the toughest in decades - as well as featuring landmarks from the region.

Zwift says it will also give pro riders who use the platform a chance to recce the part of the course known as the ‘Olympic lap’ – ridden seven times during the men’s race and three times in the women’s version and with a 5-mile climb – before heading out to Austria for the event.

Zwift co-founder and CEO Eric Min said: “This course is something we’ve not seen at the UCI Road World Championships for many years and will translate into something incredible for our Zwift community

“It’s going to be fantastic to be riding alongside World Championship contenders conducting their course recons on Zwift. I can’t wait.”

The company highlights that remote course familiarisation is already commonly used in Formula 1 motor car racing and the August release will enable cyclists to do likewise for the first time.

Team Dimension Data’s Berhard Eisel, likely to be one of the men representing the host nation, said:  “This has the potential to be truly ground-breaking for the national teams

“The lead contenders will certainly be performing course reconnaissance in the coming months, as is the norm. However, what is new is the ability to repeatedly train on a key segment of the course and understand when the best moments to attack will come.

“For riders such as myself, who will serve as supporting riders, we need to understand when the critical moments of the race will come and ensure our leaders are in the best position possible. And it will be super motivating to prepare alongside Zwifters from all over the world.”

Esther Wilhelm, head of communications of the Innsbruck organising committee, commented:  “Legacy is an important consideration for any host city. Zwift will help us to enable more people worldwide to experience the challenges and beauty of Innsbruck-Tirol.

“The World Championships will be a celebration of the fantastic cycling here. Zwift will be the perfect platform for people to train for their next cycling holiday or sportive event here in Tirol.”

> Get started with Zwift and make your home trainer sessions more fun with virtual rides, races and group training sessions

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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fukawitribe | 5 years ago
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It will be a new world apparently and will be available after the Worlds finish, but no information about scheduling as yet (that i've seen anyway). That said, events can now be run in maps out of schedule - so i'd imagine that a fair few folk will be creating events on there from the get-go even if Zwift don't allow user world switching from their GUI (which they probably sometime will at a guess). You can also use the world tag hack to set the current map to what you want, when you want anyway - either directly or via a GUI like zwiftpref.

https://zwiftinsider.com/world-tag/

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kitkat | 5 years ago
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It would be nice to understand if this was going into one of the existing 'worlds' or a new one. Also, If it's a new world I wonder what the availbility will be, will it be part of the rotation or will it be an always available world, up to the point of the race?

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CXR94Di2 | 5 years ago
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Niceyes

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