I always try and do the longer route options…will definitely be doing those this year as I am soooo close to hitting Level 100 (turned over 98 last Saturday). Wanna use TdZ to get me over the top.
I’ll likely be doing workouts as I ride the stages though…been doing that the last couple of years and it is always engaging to see where I can finish up in the stage, depending on the type of workout I ma doing.
Very similar spot, actually - I’m halfway through level 97 and looking to finally hit 100. I also typically just do TR workouts while adding Zwift for distraction, but did actually enjoy joining the Festive 500 group rides this year in sim mode. We’ll see how TdZ turns out…
From Zwift Insider:
"New this year, Zwift is featuring “The Ultimate Challenge.” This is for riders only, and completing the challenge requires you to complete all 18 routes featured in this year’s stages.
…
While completing the regular Tour de Zwift requires you to complete stages in group rides, you can select any of the routes and ride them on demand in order to get credit toward The Ultimate Challenge. Note, though, that your ride must be done after the first TdZ event kicks off on January 6, and before Tour de Zwift ends on February 23."
So as long as you do at least one TdeZ group ride per stage you can do a mix of workouts and solo rides as well. Nice.
Well crap…there is no 2x XP this year!!
My motivation to participate just took a hit. 
There never is! Only Tour of Watopia has double XP.
No, TdZ has definitely offered 2x XP in the past.
Must’ve been before my time, although Zwift Insider reckons it’s never had Double XP as well 
And done! Did the runs as well. Silly me didn’t realize until this week I only needed to do one of the group rides for each stage and the rest could be done on demand, so I took advantage of the Zwift + TR integration to do this week’s long and standard courses.
Anyone else finish the ultimate challenge?
Yep. Wore the kit and hat once (and never again) 
I didn’t know about any challenge, but enjoyed joining a handful of TDZ rides this winter.
This is the first time I recall them using routes pushing out to ~90 minutes, works well to break the monotony of Z2 work with a bunch of others riding around you. Maybe they have had the longer routes in the past and I just didn’t notice.
Group rides over 60 minutes are surprisingly hard to come by in Zwift for whatever reason. The BMTR club has some really good longer options, but I struggle to find stuff outside of that.
You can search for events by distance or time on https://zwifthacks.com/ 
Thanks. Yeah, I’m a longtime user of Zwifthacks and it’s a great search tool, the problem is that there just aren’t many long rides (and it’s even more limiting when trying to find a suitable pace). One thing I like about jumping int the TDZ rides is that you can ride at any pace and you’re likely to have company. Honestly, most of the TDZ rides aren’t that different than doing a solo ride when just doing steady state work, but it’s a little more interesting when there are others around. It’s still mostly background distraction while listening to podcasts, etc., but every little bit helps.
Yeah, the Long Route, or A rides, usually had a few throughout the event that pushed up around 90 min. All depends on the elevation, obviously.
I did all the routes for TdZ ultimate challenge. Some I did as good zone 2 workouts and some I did as hard efforts. I even did some C and B rides back to back to make for a long 2-3 hour ride. Ended up hitting a 1 hour Power PR this week on the Stage 6 A ride (300 watts) finishing at 1 hour and 11 seconds which I was happy about.
I am still following a plan but have been doing less structured workouts and more group zwift riding. The pacer group rides that go 24/7 are really good to get a long ride in at a specific w/kg. Plus doing a couple races every week is like doing my two hard interval workouts I try to do each week.
“like” != “equivalent to”
It very much depends on how the race goes. A cat is like a dog, but don’t expect it to fetch sticks when you throw them.
