Tour de Zwift 2024 is fully underway, with hundreds (sometimes thousands) of riders jumping into group rides and races. It’s Zwift’s biggest annual party on wheels!
The vast majority of TdZ events are group rides, not official races. But of course, that doesn’t stop some riders from going all-out and treating them as a race!
Other riders treat them as easy recovery rides, while others choose a longer-than-comfortable route for the challenge of completing it. Lots of riders. Lots of goals.
Today we’re announcing a fun little challenge to add another dimension to your TdZ group rides: the Tour de Zwift Chase Challenge! The idea is simple: catch as many riders as possible during your TdZ group ride, record your numbers, and share them on this page. The two top chasers will receive our Watopia map poster as a prize.
One Challenge, Two Contests
The big idea of this challenge is to catch riders up the road during your Tour de Zwift group ride. But group sizes can vary a lot from event to event and category to category, so we’re actually awarding two winners in the challenge:
- Overtaker Award: for the rider who passes the most people, as documented by their screenshots.
- Pack Gobbler Award: for the rider who passes the highest percentage of the group, as documented by their screenshots.
Challenge Rules
- To document your TdZ Chase Challenge, you must post screenshots or video(s) showing your full Zwift screen. Two screenshots are required:
- Starting Shot: your starting position is the position shown at the top of the rider list on your screenshot/video at least 1km into the ride. (The 1km requirement is in place so you can’t just sit in the pens for a few seconds to let everyone ride away before taking your first screenshot.) If you’re sharing via video, the starting number is what’s shown when your distance ticks over to 1km (or 0.6 miles).
- Ending Shot: your ending numbers screenshot can be from any location within the final kilometer (final 0.6 miles) of the event. Most riders will just use the screenshot automatically taken when you cross the finish line.
- After getting your screenshots, you must share them as a comment on this post. Three sharing methods are allowed:
- Upload your screenshots as part of your comment on this Zwift Insider post. Only one image is allowed per comment, so you’ll need to post two comments.
- Video links to YouTube or Twitch are allowed.
- Links to public Strava activities including the necessary screenshots and/or videos are allowed.
- Your comment on this Zwift Insider post is your official entry. Along with the necessary photos/videos/links, your comment must include a summary of the final numbers, so we don’t have to do the math on our end and people can scan comments to see how others did:
- You’ll need three numbers: your Starting Position (S), Finishing Positioning (F), and Total Riders In Event (T). Note that total riders in event is the second number showed at the top of the rider list on your ending shot.
- Your comment/entry can just be something simple like this: “S-F riders overtaken, which was (S-F)/T percent of the group.” See example below…
- You can enter as many times as you’d like.
- Poster prize (see below) is only offered for smart trainer/power meter users. (Simply put, the lightning bolt must be visible next to your power number in screenshots.)
Entry Example
From the screenshots above, I can get the following numbers:
- Starting Position: 507
- Finishing Position: 202
- Total Riders in Event: 1022 (from ending shot)
I would then share those two screenshots in comments on this post, along with the following summary:
305 riders overtaken, which was 29.8% of the group.
Poster Prizes!
We will ship a Watopia map poster to the “Overtaker” and “Pack Gobbler” award winners once TdZ ends.
We assume someone (or multiple someones) will probably gobble the entire group. If there is a tie of any sort, the win will go to whoever rode in the largest event (highest total rider count in the ending shot) because gobbling up a pack of 100 riders is easier than gobbling up a pack of 300!
Alternative Contests
Along with the official Chase Challenge contest, consider making your TdZ group rides more interesting by taking on a few alternative personal challenges:
- HR Efficiency: can you overtake many riders while keeping your average heart rate down in zone 2? This pushes you to ride as efficiently as possible.
- Power Efficiency: similar to HR efficiency but based on power. Keep your overall average power low, while overtaking as many riders as possible.
- Most Improved: you may have difficulty competing with the Chase Challenge numbers of super strong riders. But you can still compare your own personal numbers and try to improve them as TdZ goes on.
Ride Smarter (and Harder?)
To perform your best in the Chase Challenge, you’ll have to ride efficiently and make lots of strategic decisions:
- Know the course
- Use steering to cut corners
- Use powerups at the perfect time
- Put in a well-timed dig to bridge up to the next pack of riders. Or don’t put in the dig, because you know your pack will reel in the riders ahead within a few minutes!
Good luck, and Ride On!
Up for It?
Let’s go! Post your entries below!
Are you doing a lanterne rouge as well, that’s much more suited to my capabilities.
Yes. I hereby promise to grant 1000 Unicorn Points to the Lantern Rouge of this challenge.
I’ll post my first entry here, mostly as an example of how to do this. (Hopefully I can improve these numbers in a later ride…) Starting shot:
Ending shot.
Result: 305 riders overtaken, which was 29.8% of the group.
Aw man, I did something similiar to this for the first stage, but didn’t take a screen shot. The group had like 300 people and I finished at about 150th
Just gotta do it again. Lots of stages left!
Cool idea!
Brilliant idea. I’ve found that the rides I enjoy most are when I come from the back and gain hundreds of places before the finish
I often end up riding these that way! Sometimes because I start with the idea that I’ll just treat it as a Z2 ride but can’t resist pushing across groups, and sometimes because I missed the start!
I rode one yesterday like this. Went from 335th to 28th out of 408 riders. 307 overtaken for 75.2%. Technically my start photo doesn’t quite comply with the 1km rule as you posted this after my ride, but I started over a minute late (you can see from the map) so hopefully that makes up for it!
Sure someone will smash this but it is a fun way to ride these!
Start photo
Hilarious challenge – love it. I wish I had known about this before today’s particularly feisty Stage 2 ride in Scotland. I don’t have my starting screen shot from a km out. But, the B group ride was fast and huge today – 1,370 on this ride at the end. I started off in the low 600’s for position, but finished at position 330 according to my Strava finish line crossing. Not bad. Now that I know this is a ‘thing’ – let’s see what happens on the next Stage.
Git er dun, Wallace!
Are ZPower riders allowed in this?
Oh, good question. I’m gonna say no, and add it to the rules above. Basically, if there isn’t a lightning bolt next to your power number in the rider list, you won’t win the prize. Feel free to give it a go for the challenge of it, of course.
Great news! I’m not a ZPower rider, so I’m all good. Thank you for the clarification.
If it is one rider then is a TT
Might also be worth calling out whether coffee breaks are legal (though it’s hard to enforce)
I’d say they’re quite legal, especially since I don’t want to try to enforce making them illegal. 😀
At first I was thinking coffee breaks unfair, but realize that if someone wastes 3 minutes not passing people, they only hurt themselves. I guess there’s still a way to game it to your advantage, but not sure how Eric could figure out who used it anyway. I choose not to use them.
S – 466
F – 6
T – 551
Riders overtaken – 460
% overtaken – 83.5%
Finish
I’m so impressed. I suspect consistency pays off.
According to zwift insider Total should be used from finish shot
@Eric Schlange if that’s the rule, let me know. At the 1k mark, 551 were listed, but by the end there were 582.
That’s the rule!
Updated numbers would be:
S – 466
F – 6
T – 582
Riders overtaken – 460
% overtaken – 79.0%
That’s going to be hard to beat. Well done!!!
Starting position 427
Finishing position 33
Total riders 500
Riders overtaken 394 which is 78.8%
Finish position
Starting Position: 309
Finishing Position: 62
Total Riders in Event: 344
71.8% of group overtaken
Starting Position: 309
Finishing Position: 62
Total Riders in Event: 344
71.8% of group overtaken
This is like ALL my rides, start slow, then, SNAP, start chasing!
Great idea!
The Total number differs in Start and End shot often (late joiners vs early leavers). Using the Total from End shot, you might benefit from late joiners having joined behind you. Using Total from Start shot, you benefit from early leavers in front of you.
I guess there is only compromise and it would depend on where late joiners are added…in front of you or behind you…
Maybe Total from Start pic could be the better compromise?
I almost always do interval workouts during these tours so I go flying by folks on my efforts and get passed like crazy during the recovery intervals. Never ending up with a good overall result of course, but at least for me adds a fun element to structured training.
Same here. So much more fun than training alone.
Dear Zwift,
I was fine with joining this ride and ‘taking it easy’ but then there was this Eric bloke who MADE me pedal like a lunatic.
Starting position 412th
Finishing position 107th and also lying on the floor having a cry.
Positions gobbled: 305
Percentage something or other… 305 / 473 = 64%. POOR.
There were – according to the final screenshot 500 riders by the time me and my avatar crossed the line…but if I used that number in the complex calculations… 305 / 500 I get an even poorer result, so I don’t wish to talk about it.
Finishing photo… marvellous.
Great idea Eric – you swine.
I had the wrong wheelset on too, dammit.
This is the best entry yet! LOL.
I’m gonna tell my Team Captain at Snow CC (J. Sanderson). He will definitely give me a sticker for my good behaviour chart.
What a fun challenge! I wonder if there will be a separate prize for ladies? I went from 62nd to 3rd out of 107. Would that be a 55% increase?
Here is the finishing photo.
1262 riders, 67.1%
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2027540475?t=00h02m41s
So is this correct, I started 1026th and finished 126th of a total 1399 so percentage of overtakes is 67.1%
Do you mean you started 1066, like your screenshot shows? If so, yes, 67.1% is correct. Nice work!
Yes indeed, thanks for confirming. I did fill out a feedback form a while back and said it would be exciting to introduce some games of some sort so I’m excited to see where this goes! Tag team climbing events would be cool. 🙏
I missed the key first pic showing me over 700 back (thanks to the workers who showed up 3 minutes into the ride). But “officially” started 655 back and finished 309 out of 977 riders. So I passed 346 riders which was 35.4% of the group. Unofficially, I started 722 so my unofficial result would be: 413 riders passed which was 42.2% of the group.
Finish
I’ve been, ‘coursing’, (my name for it), on Zwift for years.
Start late and chase or ride off the front on a shorter course and try to lap the pace group.
Starting position 1608
Finishing position 105
Total riders 2062
Riders overtaken 1503 which is 72’89%
Finish
Shouldn’t the late starts be counted as starting in front of you since late starts join the peloton group.
So for example
At start of race there were 426 riders and by the end 441.
My starting position was 343 and finished 44. But with the late starts, my true starting position was 358 on the basis that the 15 late starters all joined the peloton.
I know this effects everyone, but some will have more late starts than others.
Anyhow, this was great fun and a tough challenge. 3 of us tried to do this together
On basis of calculations given in rules.
343 – 44 = 299
299/441= 65%
@Steve I agree with you here and @Tim or @Tim brought up the same thing. The more I think about it, it seems like we should add the late riders to our effort. @Eric Schlange thoughts?
Here’s an example:
(S) Let’s say I start in 460th at 1km(T1) And there are 500 racers by 1kmThen, the whole race I stay in the same group and we don’t pass anyone20 people join by the finish(T2) Now there are 520 racers(F) Since late joiners get thrown up front, I’m now in 480th(O = S -F) According to the current math, I have been overtaken by 20 people (460 – 480 = -20)But I actually stayed in the exact same place and am getting punished for late riders being moved to the front by Zwift 😰(O = [S – F] + [T2 – T1]) To get the correct number of overtaken, I’d need to add the late riders into my calc ([460 – 480] + [520 – 500] = 0)(%O = O / T2) My % overtaken calc stays the sameThe more late riders there are, the bigger up or down effect it has on results. If you look at Steve’s in this post there were 15 late riders, his numbers would actually be 314 overtaken (vs 299) and 71% overtaken (vs 65%). In Cristian’s example above that, there were 175 late riders. His numbers would actually be 1,678 overtaken (vs 1,503) and 81.4% (vs 72.9%). Those are some distinct differences.
And this is the problem with Zwift… There were 2+ racers, so now it’s a race and I want to the right people to win. Plus this challenge is super fun! Sorry @Eric Schlange! 😂 I will volunteer myself to help solve this issue by recalcing if needed! I’m a huge beneficiary of Zwift Insider and would be glad to put my skills to use to help for free.
I don’t disagree with the logic… but I’d rather not change the calculation at this point, and I don’t like making the calculation even more complex than it already is.
Late joiners will just have to be the wild card this time around!
You left out “use coffee stops on climbs” in your “ride smarter” recommendations.
That’s the hidden 200IQ idea!
Went for a low HR efficiency challenge today, since it’s a recovery day. Starting shot.
Ending shot.
369-95=274 riders passed.
274/451=60.8%
Love this as I occasionally do this on my own for training, hanging in pen for about a minute or so and then seeing how many I can catch. That said not sure I’ve ever hit 75+% like some are already posting, but you’ve thrown down the gauntlet!
Another way to put the slower riders down, lots of people deliberately going slower at the start……..where is the motivation for those of us who find these events a challenge……let the racers join the races….!!!
As a C rider, I don’t expect to be able to compete with the top guns, but this was fun nonetheless! A good personal challenge.
Starting position: 754
Ending position (at 1k remaining allowable by rule): 150
Total riders: 1035
Riders passed: 604 (58.4%)
Start photo:
Finish photo:
I’m always up for a ridiculous contest! Tough start — I had exactly 0 seconds to warm up before chasing down the lead group. Literally hopped on my bike as the 10 second countdown timer started dinging. Good times.
281 riders overtaken, which was 68% of the group.
I wish I could have seen my position at the very start in the pens, as I’m sure I was one of the very last riders to join. Passed dozens before the position numbers started showing up.
Finishing shot
1548 – 240 = 1308 overtaken
1308 / 1882 = 69.5%
Zwift – Group Ride: Stage 2 | Ride | Tour de Zwift 2024 (B) on Rolling Highlands in Scotland | Virtual Ride | Strava
Thanks for the awesome challenge Eric! I look forward to trying it with 1,000 riders next
after first km 173rd
passed 172 out of 207
83% passed
Finish shot
I’ll skip the screenshots since I’m well out of contention for prizes, but here are my numbers from the Stage 2 A ride:
Total Riders: 255
Position at Mile 0.7: 228
Finish Position: 121
Riders Passed: 107
Percent Passed: 42%
Great excuse to turn myself inside out for an hour… thanks Eric!
868 – 288 = 580 riders passed
580/992 = 58%
Strategy was to start as far back as possible (slow bike race to 1km!) which makes overtaking initially harder but catching anywhere near the pointy end impossible (for me). Might try a faster start next time to avoid losing too much ground early on.
End:
It’s an interesting quandary, right?
I think that going harder at the start probably won’t be as effective as waiting. Because it’s much easier to pass, say, 100 riders near the back, than it is to pass the front 100 riders. At least, that’s the way I think about it.
I DO want to try this one day with fresh legs, though, to see if I can make it anywhere near the front. So far my efforts have been zone 2 rides with little power spikes to bridge between groups.
Yep I think you’re right.I did find starting at the back I spent most of it pretty much on my own, whereas if you start further up maybe you could draft a bit more.
And yes re your 2nd point whilst I did end up pushing pretty hard this wasn’t full ZRL pace so would like to try it full gas as you say.
My experience was different. I started towards back but passed the most people early and mid-ride. And they were in groups. Helped that I had feathers to use on uphills where I was able to power pass many. And, there were others I could group with along the way. I figured there was no way I’d pass the Uber strong riders up front anyway (the “racers”). What was interesting were the invisible riders. Since you don’t see everyone in a large group ride I’d sometimes pass one visible rider but my place would jump several spots. Conversely, at times I’d be riding solo and suddenly drop a spot. Next time I may wait for a weekend ride with more riders. I see some people here with 1000 riders in their group. % probably won’t change, but I’ll pass more people.
IMO slow roll (or start late — but join pens on time though!) and then ITT through at least first couple of groups but usually at the back you’ll burn through them. Take breaks as needed.
For Eric’s challenge you’ll want to get as close to the rider before last before you start your effort but tbh I happily start further back and happily chase but then again I’m not planning on sharing screenshots later. 🙂
As you get closer to the front you’ll have some interesting choices (and these have changed as Pack Dynamics have changed) — stay and rest with a bigger group that might be going faster together than they otherwise would or just keep ITTing ala Wout. The middle ground IMO is the most fruitful where you pick where you bridge between big groups. Terrain matters a lot too in picking your spots.
One concern that increases as you get near the front is that you may be in the last big group already.
Even towards the pointy end on anything above about 40 mins and certainly an hour long people really start to fade (or give up, which for your purposes is the same thing). The more they exploded the race earlier the less help they will have too.
You may not catch the top 5 or 10 or something but they’re probably all late joining coffee stopping Saucing ZPowering bot cheaters anyways, right? 🙂
Reading this back unenforceable rule #1923 might be ‘no changing to a TT bike at any point’, though that’s not really what I meant.
I did it! Then realized I screwed up. But submitting anyway knowing it won’t count and I’ll have to do it again. Sadly, while I did take a “test” screenshot at .7km from start, my photo at 1km apparently did not take. Damn you sweat. But at least I’ve given myself a target and something for others to view.
324 Riders
114 Finishing Position
210 Riders Passed
64.9% of Group Passed
Starting shot:
Result: 465 riders overtaken which was 72,4% of the whole group.
Finish shot:
Hey Eric. This challenge is an awesome idea! I have 2 questions. 1) If the number of riders is taken from the second screenshot, doesn’t that mean it includes people who joined late and jumped ahead of you? It also omits people who might have fallen behind and quit the event. Seems like # riders should come from the first SS. 2) Would it be possible to update this page periodically with the current leaders so we know what we need to beat if we’re going to make a submission? Thanks!
Hi Jonathan,
Yes, it includes people who late joined ahead you. All part of the challenge! (See comments above, others have mentioned the same thing). It doesn’t omit those who quit, though – that total rider count includes people who dropped out, according to ZHQ.
As for updating the page with current leaders…. good idea. But no promises!
@Eric Schlange I got really into this competition and may have accidentally created a leaderboard so I could see who I needed to beat. 😅 I’m sure you’re doing it elsewhere, but if you need it/want ownership of this let me know. Here’s the entry form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd6IE6AeHaS2SeHgfi2Pn7jboeVpN-2GejgXQDzjc-SKVlibw/viewform and here’s the leaderboard: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1efl6x-pGwjyERvZgdRIfXAUKHQwKtjDVL6voiuadbnQ/edit?usp=sharing
@eschlange1
This is brilliant (not only because I’m currently second 😜). Would be nice to have a link to this in your post.
Glad you like the idea Mathias!
My first time pushing the effort… starting pic:
Ending pic.
435-67=368 riders passed
368/517=71.2% of the group passed
Some
great efforts posted. I’m trying to decide what’s more impressive. Passing a higher percentage of a smaller group or passing a larger number of riders in a large group? And is a longer course more or less challenging?
Starting pos: 283
Finishing pos: 2
Total riders: 335
Riders overtaken: 281 (83.9% of group)
Have video as well
Finish
https://youtu.be/BXWyyCrAs78?si=0hLd8JhFbcpV-G2G Youtube vid of the ride
Kabooom!!! That’s sooo coooooool.
The positive feedback and participation shows that Zwift should pick up on this kind of race format as well as similar formats (chase races come to mind) and also develop new formats of racing and better integrate all these directly into the software!
Started 263 of 315
finished 56th
passed 207 riders 65.7%
Attempt 2 with a larger group! The fun part is recruiting riders as you catch groups. Shout out to A.B. And Menzel pushing all the way!
667 of 791 riders overtaken
84.3%
FTP increase >> Oh Yeah!!!
P1254/1394 at 1K. Finished P277 for 70% pass rate and 977 total rider pass
Strava Post = https://www.strava.com/activities/10550637018
3rd attempt. This is too fun.
S – 1,072
F – 122
T – 1,280
Riders overtaken – 950
% overtaken – 74.2%
Finish photo
S – 1013
F – 611
T – 1280
Riders overtaken – 402
% overtaken – 31.4%
Finish Photo
Starting position
https://strava.app.link/Kxtbtw4wmGb
S – 193
F – 23
T – 225
170 riders passed or 75.5% of the field.
First try, screenhot at 1km, pos 749
Probably shouldn’t havee tried it just after finishing a workout, but he, it was snowing and at least 4 meters from the shed to the house, no way I could have made that.
And the finish, pos 176 of 971.
573 riders overtaken, 59%.
It was fun, trying to get from blob to blob. Seems the best jumps can be made on hills though, as some blobs tried to keep up. 😉 Could have done better if I joined later or waited a bit I guess, but were’s the fun in that.
Started 427
finished 137 of 524
404 overtaken. 77.2%
Starting: 314
Finish: 16
Total Riders: 354
overtaken: 298
84.2%
link to Strava: https://strava.app.link/Bnz7iXWFnGb
Finish photo