8 Virtual Cycling Challenges to Better Your Performance
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With winter training in full swing it’s not always possible to ride outdoors with early sunsets, brutal weather, and never ending to-do lists. So, for your convenience and sanity you’ll probably spend plenty of time on your indoor trainer to maintain your fitness for springtime. But who wants to slug through another solo training plan?
To keep you riding consistently, build strength, and save you from abject boredom, virtual cycling challenges could offer the key. With a variety of challenges to fit almost any riding schedule and ability, you can choose a challenge from this list to kick the new year into gear.
So whether you need a few rides to dust off your gears or want an ultra-long sufferfest to get you to the top of high peak, there’s a challenge suitable for every rider.
8 Virtual Cycling Challenges to Conquer This Year
You never truly know what to expect from a race or challenge until you go full throttle and enter one. But with these virtual cycling challenges, you can expect to log a certain number of miles or participate in workouts over a designated period. Though most of them are indoor challenges, at least one gives you the option to test your watts outdoors, and some of them will require a paid subscription.
Most of these virtual challenges are app-based so you can set goals and track your progress in the app to ensure you fulfill all your training needs this season. Before you begin, you will need some cycling gear: a bike (obviously), GPS computer, smart trainer or smart bike, cadence sensor, and heart rate monitor.
1. FulGaz Grand Tour
Date: January 1, 2024 – February 18, 2024
Goal: Build riding consistency (with some competition)
Price: $15 per month/$126 per year
App: FulGaz
Prize(s): A two-day trip for two people to Monterosa, Italy; a Volta Catalunya VIP experience for two people; four Race Across Series entries to either Belgium, Paris, Switzerland, or France races to a distance of choice; and 21 Precision Fuel and Hydration e-gift cards.
The first leg of the six-week Fulgaz grand tour starts in Italy and requires you to complete workouts that range between 9 to 50 kilometers. with each lasting between 45 minutes to an hour and 45 minutes.
The second phase opens on January 15, 2024 and features rides through some of the most breathtaking vistas in France. From riding through a medieval Red Village to putting down the hammer on the Rocamadour individual time trial, these workouts are slightly longer than those in the first leg of the tour. With routes building from about 50 minutes to just shy of two hours and elevation topping 1,512 meters, saddle time will begin to tick up consistently.
You will travel through Spain in the final leg of the tour, which opens on January 29, 2024. Though workouts will taper between about 40 minutes and an hour and a half, efforts are still high. Routes include everything from extended warmups with less than 200 meters of elevation to variable 16-percent inclines along La Victoria.
For a chance to win a prize, you must complete all 21 stages between January 1, 2024 - February 11, 2024 at 11:59 pm, share a picture of your favorite ride(s) on Facebook or Instagram following the FulGaz guidelines (see here).
2. 2024 USA Cycling Esports League and National Championships
Date: December 2, 2023 – January 27, 2024
Goal: Compete in 2024 USAC National Championship
Price: $15 per month/$149 per year plus license cost
App: Zwift
Prize(s): Zwift virtual championship jersey for winners
The third-annual Esports National Championships hosted by USA Cycling, Zwift, and Echelon Racing Promotions is currently underway. The six-race series kicked off with the first three races hosted on December 2, 16, and 30, 2023, which served as qualifiers for the USA Nationals Championship set for January 6 to 7, 2024. Even if you missed the qualifiers, you can still participate in the series as additional races will be offered on January 13, 20, and 27.
To compete in any of these races, you must have a Zwift membership, Zwift Power profile–a free account that requires a separate registration and tracks your race results—a current and valid USA Cycling license, and U.S. citizenship or permanent residence.
Each event will differ and total race distances will vary between 25 to 46 kilometers. You can race in a criterium, hill climb, time trial, gravel, and two rolling segments.
To ensure racing in a virtual world is fair, Zwift uses Category Enforcement—riders will compete against competitors with similar functional threshold power (FTP). With only women’s and men’s fields, racers will be grouped according to FTP correlated categories—A through D. For example, women riders in Category A must have an FTP greater than or equal to 3.88 watts per kilogram body mass, while women riders in Category D must have an FTP of less than 2.625 watts per kilogram body mass.
3. The Wahooligan Tour
Date: February 25, 2024 – March 2, 2024
Goal: Complete workouts in a given stage within a 50-hour window
Price: $15 per month/$149 per year plus $20 donation
App: Wahoo SYSTM
Prize(s): Earn a digital Wahoo badge
During the Wahooligan Tour, a seven-day challenge, you can do good for your body while raising funds for the Davis Phinney Foundation. Founded by former professional cyclist and Olympian Davis Phinney, the non-profit aims to spread awareness and to support those affected by Parkinson’s Disease.
During this cycling challenge, you can expect to be tested by a range of workouts across the Wahoo X platform—from the borders of Sufferlandria and beyond—to test your mental and physical limits.
Unlike most virtual challenges, you race against yourself and the clock, not other riders. With the goal of building consistency, you will have a 50-hour window to complete each stage of the Tour throughout the week. Additionally, to boost motivation, Wahoo will host live sessions and one week after the Tour concludes, finishers will be randomly selected for a number of prizes. You can boost your prize selection chances by increasing donations or fundraising during the Tour.
4. Everesting
Date: Year round
Goal: Climb the height of Everest
Price: $29 or free to do on your own
App: Strava and Zwift (or anywhere you want to track your elevation gain)
Prize(s): Entry into Everesting hall of fame if using apps
Everesting, the challenge of riding almost 29,029 feet—the actual elevation of Mount Everest—in one attempt is hard but not impossible. You can choose any climb, whether indoors or outdoors, and repeat the hill as many times as necessary to log the required elevation. Everesting has no time limit and only one rule: No sleeping allowed.
To best prepare, you can use the Everesting calculator to determine how many times you will need to summit your hill of choice. If you’re not sure where to start, reference a study published in Scientific Reports that suggests elite cyclists—riders able to push 2.5 to 3.0 watts per kilogram body mass consistently—should select a hill with gradients greater than 12 percent, while amateur and recreational cyclists—riders pushing less power—should select hills with a gradient of 10 percent or less to minimize the time to complete the Everesting challenge.
If you want to make it official, when riding indoors, the Everesting challenge must be completed on Zwift. For all other riders, the challenge must be recorded on Strava. Once finished, riders should enter the Strava link of their Everesting climb on the Everesting site. All submissions are approved by hand and final approval is completed within one week.
5. Strava Ride Challenges
Date: Year round
Goal: Various
Price: $12 per month or $80 per year
App: Strava
Prize(s): Earn a digital finisher’s badge
You can kick the year off with month-long challenges of varying distances, elevation, and time. All challenges can be completed using a handcycle, virtually or outdoors, and all cycling activities labeled “Everyone,”“Only You,” or “Followers,” will count toward the rider’s position on the Strava leaderboard. All rides must be uploaded within three-days of the challenge ending to count.
So whether you’re interested in completing a Gran Fondo (62.1 miles), climbing 7,000 meters (22,965.9 feet), riding 200-kilometer (124.3 miles) or 600-kilometer (372.8 miles) in a month, there’s a challenge for you to work toward. Ride activities also count toward other Strava challenges including 15-minutes of activity three days a week and 30-hours or 400-minutes of activity in a month.
6. The Annual 2024
Date: January 1, 2024 – December 31, 2024
Goal: Stay active
Price: $44 per month
App: Peloton
Prize(s): Digital badge
The fifth iteration of the Annual Challenge aims to help Peloton subscribers build consistency throughout the year by tracking active minutes across all disciplines—cycling, treadmill, rower, or cross-training workouts on the Peloton App.
With 13 tiers–1,000 to 10,000 minutes, 15,000 minutes, 18,000 minutes, and 20,000 minutes–you can work your way up the leaderboard while conquering each tier. With over 88,000 participants registered, you will have plenty of company throughout the year.
7. Sunday Race Club Series
Date: Every Sunday
Goal: Build consistency and strength
Price: Free
App: MyWhoosh
Prize(s): Approximately $17,000
MyWhoosh provides a number of weekly cycling challenges, including a Sunday challenge that offers a significant cash prize of about $17,000.
With four men’s and women’s category races hosted every Sunday, riders of all abilities can test their skills against other competitors worldwide. To ensure a fair and competitive racing environment, all riders must participate in the MyWhoosh Power Passport Test. Based on these results, MyWhoosh categorizes riders every week based on available participants. In short, Category 1 riders demonstrate a stronger racing ability than Category 4 riders.
You must complete a pre-race verification before applying to race in the “In Venue” virtual world. After completing three events, you can qualify to compete in fields of up to 600 participants. The top five finishers each week are eligible for payout. Prize money will be awarded to winners of each qualifier race of the month—one each week—and the final race of the month. Payout can take up to ten weeks to be processed and proceeds are deposited into the winner’s bank account.
8. Rapha Festive 500
Date: December 24, 2024 – December 31, 2024
Goal: Ride 500 kilometers
Price: Free
App: Strava
Prize(s): Earn a digital Strava badge
In the soon-to-be 14th year of this global cycling challenge, the Rapha Festive 500 challenges you to conquer 310.6 miles between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. You must register on Strava and brave whatever elements old man winter throws at you. Later this year, you can opt to tackle the miles solo or subscribe to the misery loves company mantra and clip in with ride partners, or roll as an entire club.
If you’re in need of a club, you can find Festive 500 riders in Bentonville, Arkansa; Boulder, Colorado; Chicago; Los Angeles; Miami; New York City; San Francisco; and Seattle.
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