Michael Knudsen to ride 5,000km RAAM course … on Zwift in a shopping centre

Danish ultracyclist Michael Knudsen is training to ride the Race Across America next year – and as part of his training, from 28 October he will be riding the 5,000-kilometre course on Zwift in a shopping centre in Copenhagen.

For the full-on authentic experience, he’ll even be sleeping next to his home trainer and bike at Fields Shopping, one of the biggest shopping centres in Scandinavia.

Knudsen admits that the virtual ride, which starts on 28 October, is something of a PR stunt to “get the word out” ahead of him riding RAAM for real next June.

Ahead of finishing second in the 9,100-kilometre Red Bull Trans-Siberian Extreme in 2017, he undertook a similar PR stunt-cum-training block by spending a week virtually riding the combined elevation of the highest peak on each continent – a total elevation gain of more than 40,000 metres.

> Danish cyclist completes 'Seven Summits' turbo ride – with more than 40,000m height gain in a week

Speaking of his forthcoming challenge, he told road.cc: “Now it’s getting totally out of hand and I've got the biggest, most stupid and craziest indoor project lined up in just over a month.

“From 28 October I'll be sitting in my home trainer in Fields Shopping, Copenhagen. Here I'll be riding the total 5,000 kilometres of Race Across America non-stop on Zwift.

“This will absolutely shatter the current indoor World Record.

“I'll be sleeping in the shopping mall next to the bike to make it as ‘RAAM-ish’ as possible.”

He added: “Zwift is going to come with some set-ups so people in the shopping mall can try Zwift and join me on the route.”