The last community race of the Zwift World Series happens next week, with riders tackling the climby Power to the Tower route. While race 5’s has been delayed for elite racers (read more here), all are welcome to participate in next week’s community events.
Here are the big reasons why the Zwift World Series community races are interesting:
- They function as a monument race one weekend per month from September to January, offering a chance to challenge and test yourself against the Zwift racing community
- Plenty of opportunities to participate, with races scheduled from Thursday to Sunday across multiple time slots
- Global Leaderboards for each month’s races (here is the leaderboard for race #5)
- Zwift World Series Community kit unlock when you complete any of the five races
- Three brand-new courses and two never before featured in Zwift racing (see all routes here)
Route Details: Power to the Tower
This route has, by far, the most elevation of the five ZWS races. It also may be the most inventive of the new routes created for the Zwift World Series. It features three tough climbs: the Epic KOM Reverse, The Grade, and the Epic KOM forward. And it’s the only route in game that uses the Radio Tower KOM as the finish line!
- Format: Scratch Race
- Laps: 1
- Distance: 45.3km
- Elevation: 1496m
- Powerups: Draft awarded at the Epic KOM (1x)
- More Route Details >
Race 5 Schedule and Signup
Community races January 9-12, 2025
Elite qualifier canceled, with elite race rescheduled for April 24, 2025 (read more)
Sign up at zwift.com/events/tag/zwscommunity
See complete World Series season schedule >
Kit Unlock
Complete any Zwift World Series race and unlock the Zwift World Series Community kit:
Questions or Comments?
Post below!
This route is a beast. At the end everyone will be toasted.
Some of us would be toasted well before that.
The end will me more like charcoal
Is the TD again set at 100% for this ?
That was only for the elite races.
Amazed they didn’t go mass start for this. With so many hills there will be riders scattered down the road, might as well maximise the chance of finding someone to ride with.
It sounds fun racing.
Do you know what time and day are usually the most crowded?
Tuesday morning around 10-11am Pacific are where peak Zwift usually happens.
Thank you
I meant for this specific World Series event.
And what bike/wheels would you recommend?
You can look at past ZWS event results on ZwiftPower to see which ones had the most riders: https://zwiftpower.com/
Bike/wheels? Go with a climbing bike. https://zwiftinsider.com/fastest-climbing-by-level/
Hey, Eric! I’m not sure my knee is ready for this one yet post surgery, but if I do decide to do it, how can I ensure I can also check off this route in the Grade Challenge? I had terrible luck a few months ago getting rides to count.
Thanks.
Who’s bright idea was it to put truck powerups on this route instead of feathers??? 😂
If the route profile itself didn’t convince you there was a sadist on staff, the powerup choice creates a pretty good closing argument.
Interesting on where to use it, though. I finished the race with it still unused. In hindsight, would have used it in the lead-in to Epic KoM.
Is the Zwiftpower GC for race 5 working properly? Can’t see times, points or rankings!
Hi, I did this route in the Zwift World Series Januari 10. Is this normally supposed to influence one’s racing score? Thanks.
Yes. You can look at the event results in the Companion app to see your score/result.
Hi Eric. Thanks so much for your reply! This then makes me wonder. I started the race with just a few other riders. Very early in the race two of them got away. I let them go since their racing score was much higher than mine. I was curious if they would blow up because there was a bit of climbing to do. After a while I noticed that one of them had disappeared, making me number two in the race. The number one gradually got away further and further up to a point where he was 5+ minutes ahead of me. I still was curious to perhaps see if he would blow up, and so he did. It was fun to see how his advantage gradually shrunk. It was even greater fun to get past him, and gradually get ahead of him 5+ minutes. After a while he completely disappeared. After my finish I realized that I was the only one who finished. To my surprise this totally hadn’t changed my racing score. It was, and stil is 140. So what if every rider in the race drops out, and you’re the only one to finish, is it logical that there’s no improvement in the racing score at all? Thanks. Ride on.
Seems logical to me. If you’re the only finisher, Zwift has no one to compare your performance to, so what would they change your score to?
(Your score COULD change if you set a new 5-minute power PB during the race, of course. This changes your ZRS seed score, which would affect your score on some level.)
Aha, I see. So that’s what counts yes. The racing scores in the race will be counted against each other. I guess that would mean if one wins a race against only lower racing scores the winning racing score will not improve either? A first place doesn’t automatically counts for a certain extra amount of racing score points? That’s probably the reason why the number 2 dropped out. He realised that finishing behind a lower racing score than his wouldn’t give hime any points. Thanks in advance Eric. 👍
There are podium bonus points, so your score might still increase even if everyone you beat had a lower score. Read about ZRS here: https://zwiftinsider.com/racing-score
I see. Thanks for the reply Eric. If there are bonus points for a podium (and you might get them even if everyone else’s racing score is lower than your’s) I don’t see the logic in me not getting the bonus in this case. A win is a win, even when everyone drops out of the race and one keeps going. Especially in an endurance race like this one. Quitting a race is losing a race. When you’re the one and only to finish, you should get the podium bonus. Fair and simple. And there’s not any rocket science in that. I think what’s in the way here, is the fact that Zwift doesn’t want to be too hard on the ones giving up, because otherwise people might become more hesitant to join a race. Dropping out of a race shouldn’t be rewarded like that, because it is a great disadvantage to the one(s) who keep going. IMHO 😊 But we keep riding on. Thanks again. 👍