On June 1, Zwift quietly launched a series of “XP Express” events for riders and runners. Held on weekdays, these events award double XP. And even without any official announcements, they’ve become instantly popular, with hundreds of riders in each event.
This isn’t surprising, of course. With new levels recently launching for riders and runners, everyone on Zwift has levels to chase!
Event Details
Rides are classified as group rides (not races). But of course, with hundreds of riders in a mass-start event, the front is guaranteed to be a bit spicy. Rides are 45 minutes long, with no leader or stated pace.
The schedule is confusing because some days the rides are hourly, while other days they are every three hours. The changeover between days happens around 6am PDT, making it more confusing still. The best advice I can give you is: just check the calendar.
Many of the rides will be hosted by community teams, including today’s event with Team Vegan. This is a nice gesture by Zwift, and a smart one: instead of these events feeling like they’re crowding the calendar, they become opportunities for teams to gain more exposure, grow their communities, and give each event a unique flavor. A win-win-win for Zwift, teams, and riders!
See upcoming XP Express rides at zwift.com/events/tag/xpexpress
Likewise, runs are classified as group runs. They are 30 minutes long, with no leader or stated pace, and are scheduled every three hours.
See upcoming XP Express runs at zwift.com/events/tag/xpexpressrun
XP Express events are currently showing on the public calendar through July 3, 2026, and it’s possible that we won’t see more of these until next summer.
Double XP + Route of the Week
XP Express rides change their route each week, matching the Route of the Week featured routes. That means you’ll get an additional 500XP the first time you ride the route each week, in addition to double distance XP!
As you ride, your distance XP will be double the normal rate: 40XP per kilometer or 64XP per mile. Runners also earn double, grabbing 80XP per kilometer or 120XP per mile. (Zwift says, “The XP Express is the ‘super shoe’ of Zwift running, where every stride counts twice.”)
New to Zwift? Learn how leveling up works with Zwift XP for cyclists and runners
Questions or comments?
Post below!
Rode 2 today , The one with Club Shark Worx SWX was a large strong group, alot of fun and friendly chatter . And great kit with Erlank leading the way . PR on Tempus . You were right Eric about chasing the levels . The group had so many orange strips , would be a great idea , a kit with 1 orange strip 100+ 2 200+ and so forth . White with orange strips .
I was thinking something similar with the bands. But make them different colors like professional jerseys: green, yellow, pink tc. Having multiple bands may muddy the names more, but definitely think level 200 needs its own pop and each hundreds past that
does an entry level frame get 42 a km ?
That’s a good question. Is it upgraded to 5? It might, but the only way to find out is to ride.
Yes, entry level bikes fully upgraded gives you 42 XP
Yup.
Nope, 41xp, and only 60xp back from hijacked xp’s
I did two of these events on my Zwift Aero bike upgraded to Level 5 and only got 41 XP per km instead of 42.
Only got 41XP/KM.
I have a question about using banked XP on this double XP event. I am only getting 100XP per km. I thought I would get 160 (40 from the double, plus 3 times from the banked XP as I burn through my banked XP. Don’t mind only getting 100 as long as they are not taking more than 60 out of my bank. Any idea how they are using the banked XP in this scenario.
For anyone Level 100 + (using banked XP), you get the usual 4x acceleration + 20XP extra per km … so essentially it is 5x acceleration for Level 100+ riders. The Route of the Week bonus will give you an extra 2000XP.
The odd thing is, I did ROTW on Monday, and only got the 500XP. Zwift didn’t pull anything from my bank to pair with it.
Same here
So the 4x multiplier only applies to base XP not the bonus XP, correct? How about the 5% bonus for using a Level 5 Zwift bike? Is the 4x multiplier applied on the top of the 5%? Here is the breakdown of my XP Express ride on Tempus Fugit: 28 km in the event: 28*101 = 2828 XP, 2 km after: 2*81 =162 XP, 525 bonus for route of the week with 5% bonus applied = 2100 XP. That gives me 5090 XP total. I got 5,055 XP for that ride so there is a mismatch somewhere. I also got a few 2 XP bonuses from ride-ons. Does the 4x multiplier apply to those too? It is confusing b/c the multiplier applies in some cases and does not apply in certain scenarios. It would be simpler to have it applied to all XPs earned including bonuses and double XP points (which would essentially be 8x bonus)
The 5% does not add XP to the amount you get back from hijacked XP’s. You get 21XP per km, but only 60km from your bank, and double XP are not actually double…On an upgraded entry level bike, your progress is 101XP per km on these “double” XP events. Same for bonuses, you get 262XP when you hit 250XP but only 750XP back from the bank.
Thanks for clarifying
Aren’t the zracing events that are running this month much more than double xp if you work it out?
Depends how lucky you are on the spinner
With the number of banners though, odds are pretty good, and your expected xp is higher for sure.
Interesting tidbit you might want to add to this article, you get double XP for the 5 minute cooldown as well.
To me it looks like the events are scheduled every three hours, not every hour as stated in the article. Could someone confirm this?
The scheduling looks a bit… odd today. In the next few hours, it does indeed look like the events are less frequent. But then tomorrow and on later dates, they’re hourly. Not sure what’s going on. I’ll page James Bailey…
Just got confirmation on Zwift about the schedule, and updated the article to reflect it.
“The schedule is confusing, because some days the rides are hourly, while other days they are every three hours. The changeover between days happens around 6am PDT, making it more confusing still. The best advice I can give you is: just check the calendar.”
Thanks a lot for the explanation Eric! Highly appreciate your efforts, as always!
What is the average amount of xp gained without any of the other bonus stuff…
I really wish they would have made all the banners worth XP in these events (like they did in the ZRacing series)
After updating to Ride of the Week, these rides no longer seem to match the Route of the Week.
So are these done as of the last ride today?
has this series ended?
disappeared from the schedule
It appears so. Similar to what happened last year.