This weekend’s five picks make a nice mix of events. We’ve got a badge hunt ride on a rarely-seen new route, a stupidly long group ride, Zwift Labs test races, and a long race balanced out by some Tiny Races. Enjoy!
🤝 DIRT Badge Hunts – Mayan San Remo
✅ Route Badge ✅ Beginner Friendly
The DIRT team’s badge hunt rides take on less popular routes to help you earn those route badges and extra XP! This week is Mayan San Remo – 21.4km with 219 of climbing. Expect a pace of 2.2w/kg on the flats, and 2.75w/kg on the climbs.
Saturday, August 3 @ 10am UTC/6am EDT/3am PDT
Sign up at zwift.com/events/view/4463249
🥇 Zwift Racing Scores Events
✅ Racing Score ✅ Test Event
Zwift is continuing to test and tweak their new racing score metric (see latest news), and there are lots of races planned this weekend for further testing! Join the Crit Racing Club on Duchy Estate, the ZRacing events Coastal Crown Loop, HERD Beginner Races on Sand And Sequoias, the Women’s Racing Series on Neokyo All-Nighter, or the Tiny Races (see below)!
Lots of events Saturday and Sunday
See upcoming events at zwift.com/events/tag/zwiftlabs
🥇 DBR Saturday Race
✅ Endurance Challenge
Looking for an extra-long race this weekend? The DBR squad has organized a race on the Zwift Games 2024 Epic Route (81.7km, 878m elevation) that will surely push you to your limits.
The race uses standard category enforcement, double draft, and all categories start at the same time.
Saturday, August 3 @ 8:30am UTC/4:30am EDT/1:30am PDT
Sign up at zwift.com/events/view/4463221
🤝 USMeS Monthly Century Ride
✅ Endurance Challenge
Every month, the USMeS squad tackles a long ride over 100 miles long. This month it’s on Big Foot Hills, with a total distance of 205km (127 miles) and 2130m of climbing!
This is an open-paced group ride, and there are generally two leader beacons: one running at 2.5w/kg pace and the other at ~3.0w/kg plus.
Saturday, August 3 @ 1pm UTC/9am EDT/6am PDT
Sign up at zwift.com/events/view/4436023
🥇 Tiny Races, with Live Broadcast!
✅ Racing Score ✅ Popular Event
This Saturday’s Zone 3 Tiny Races will be live broadcast by ZMS Esports Studio.
We’re continuing to use our custom Zwift Racing Score bands in order to optimize pack sizes, and we’re seeing a really solid turnout of riders each Saturday. In fact, the Tiny Races are the most popular race happening each Saturday!
The top group (category A) is especially large, making for some very competitive racing on the pointy end. If you’re a strong rider looking for a set of hard race efforts, this is the place to be each Saturday.
Three timeslots each Saturday
Sign up at zwift.com/events/tag/tinyraces
How We Make Our Picks
We choose each weekend’s Notable Events based on a variety of factors including:
- Is the event unique/innovative in some way?
- Are celebrities (pro riders, etc) attending/leading?
- Are signup counts already high, meaning the event is extra-popular?
- Does the ride include desirable unlocks or prizes?
- Does the event appeal to ladies on Zwift? (We like to support this under-represented group!)
- Is it for a good cause?
- Is it just plain crazy (extra long races, world record attempts, etc)?
- Is it a long-running, popular weekly event with a dedicated leader who deserves a shout out?
In the end, we want to call attention to events that are extra-special and therefore extra-appealing to Zwifters. If you think your event qualifies, comment below with a link/details and we may just include it in an upcoming post!