Indoor season is picking up, and we’ve got some fun races on tap for the weekend. See our picks below, which include Zwift Academy’s final race, Community Racing Festival events, race recons, and a fun fondo!
🥇 Zwift Academy 2024 – Race 2
✅ Unique Event ✅ Highly Competitive
The second race of Zwift Academy 2024 is now underway, with events running through the end of this weekend. It’s a circuit race across 9 laps of Yorkshire’s Duchy Estate. Can you hang on for that final sprint against racers giving all they’ve got?
Note: even though Zwift transitioned most races to using Zwift Racing Score this week, the Zwift Academy Race 2 events are using the older category scheme.
Lots of events Saturday and Sunday
Sign up at zwift.com/events/tag/zwiftacademy2024stage8
🤝 ZRL BRAEk-fast Crits and Grits Race Recons
✅ Race Recon ✅ Beginner-Friendly ✅ Route Badge
Zwift Racing League has its last race of round 1 on Tuesday, on the Zwifter-created BRAEk-fast Crits and Grits route.
Read our full guide for race #6 >
If you aren’t familiar with this route – take heart. Nobody else is! But you can pre-ride it in one of the many recon rides being held over the weekend!
Multiple timeslots on Saturday and Sunday
See upcoming events at zwift.com/events/tag/zrlrecon
🤝 GXY Annual Celebration Group Ride
✅ Beginner Friendly ✅ Good Cause ✅ Route Badge
One of the most popular rides this weekend in terms of signups, the Galaxy team has organized this social ride “to celebrate the life of all those riders on Zwift who have sadly passed away.”
This is a longer ride at a slower pace (1.8-2.5w/kg) on the newer Navig8 route in Watopia (66.1km, 423m).
Sunday, October 13 @ 10pm UTC/6am EDT/3am PDT
Sign up at zwift.com/events/view/4245929
🥇Community Racing Festival – First Weekend
✅ Double XP
This is the first weekend of Zwift’s Community Racing Festival, where each weekday features a different racing team and their choice of race course. And every event gives out double XP!
On the weekends, races rotate each hour between each of the 5 events held in the prior week. That means this weekend features events hosted by AHDR, Rhino Racing, Cycle Nation, Aeonian, and DBR.
Hourly events this weekend
See upcoming events at zwift.com/events/tag/communityracingfestival
🥇 La Cyclo MedioFondo by Foudre
✅ Route Badge ✅ Endurance Challenge
Looking to grab the new Makuri Pretzel route badge (1550XP, 78.8km, 621m) at a faster pace? Check out this race from the Foudre team.
It’s a mass start event (no categories), so go out there, find a group to work with, and smash it!
Sunday, October 13 @ 7:45am UTC/3:45am EDT/12:45am PDT
Sign up at zwift.com/events/view/4536513
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!