Matty Hayman will be getting outside and racing Paris-Roubaix again this year to help launch the new Zwift Real Roubaix app.

AF Press Release – 01/04/2019

Online indoor cycling platform Zwift have just announced they will be launching a special ‘Real Roubaix Zwift’ course in time for next Sunday’s l’enfer du Nord. Available only for the week leading up to the race, it will surely be in demand from users all around the world seeking a virtual taste of the infamous pavé.

However, acknowledging that Paris-Roubaix can be just as much about luck as it is power, Zwift have tried to replicate certain ‘real-world’ aspects into their version of the single-day Classic.

Officially embargoed to keep the public in suspense of what these features might be, Zwift Insider have let us have an exclusive sneak preview, and we can say they really have done an incredible job.

Firstly, you are given a budget to spec your bike out with all the upgrades you’d expect for a Roubaix ride: from FMB tubulars to double bar tape and everything in between. Of course, the better you’ve performed on previous Zwift courses the more upgrades you are allowed.

Once your bike is pimped, the actual race experience is completely different too. For example, leading into the first section of pave you are pushed further and further back by other riders, only able to keep your place if you pedal out some decent watts or use special ‘Elbow Hit’ tokens – something you can purchase on the initial set-up page. On the pave you are subjected to random obstacles such as spectators on the course, dogs running out into the bunch and riders crashing right in front of you; even the neutral service car swerves towards you, using up multiple Elbow Hit tokens if you want try and stay upright. Besides all this, TV camera motorbikes buzz all around, slowing you and even pushing you into the crowd. To replicate steering on the cobbles your on-screen position seems involuntary; on more than one occasion we found ourselves stopped in a drainage ditch. Expect multiple punctures as you race along too, noticed either by an unexplained ramp of power required or similar steering problems before a flashing ‘puncture’ notification appears on the screen, after which you are left to wait for neutral support (unless you find a spectator on the course willing to give you a correct wheel; hint – don’t ride disc brakes!).

Zwift have also added a ‘Gel Up’ feature, requiring the user to slow for Feed Zones. “We’ve calculated the calories required to ride through this course,” says Zwift Insider, “so the ‘fuel’ feature was also added, which gradually diminishes as you ride but replenishes if you slow and accept a musette at a feed zone. If you don’t stop, the torque increases, replicating ‘bonking’. However, you can accept ‘gifts’ along the way of special ‘frites and Jupiler’ from spectators that will enable you to keep riding but at a much reduced pace.”

If you do actually make it to the finish, one sting in the tail is that your time and data will not be recorded unless you’ve finished within the official cut-off of +5% of the best time currently posted on the platform.

In addition to these ‘real world’ features, Zwift have also been working alongside Wahoo Fitness who will be unblocking the ‘pave’ feature in their Kickr Climb model for this week. Simulating a high frequency impact during the virtual secteurs of the course to replicate the actual experience of riding over the cobbles, it will also move violently if you are caught in a crash. We used it in conjunction with the road pattern features incorporated into the Tacx NEO, and would recommend double wrapping your handlebar tape and also adding grip tape on your bottle cages so your water bottle doesn’t fly out during one of the secteurs.

Apart from this course being available through the online platform for the next seven days, visitors to a special Zwift pop-up demo tent housed at the entrance of the Arenberg Forest secteur can test themselves against the ‘Real Roubaix Zwift’ virtual course, so to give riders a chance to feel what it’s really like to ride on the cobbles of the Paris-Roubaix.