Last week, I shared Zwift’s Fall 2026 “This Season on Zwift” press release. But there’s actually more to TSOZ than I shared! Zwift held a call with cycling/fitness media days before the announcement, and that call covered upcoming features and changes that weren’t included in the press release.
(On top of that, there are other features and changes coming, some of them quite big, which Zwift didn’t mention at all. I can’t talk about those yet, but will of course spill the tea as soon as possible.)
Here’s everything else Zwift discussed on that media call…
Zwift Stats
Zwift kicked off the call with a run through some platform statistics, which are always fun.
Pro users: Over 300 professional athletes are active on Zwift, including WorldTour riders, World and Olympic Champions, and IRONMAN Triathletes. Many of these users are far from “casual” Zwifters, including:
- Lucy Charles Barclay, Level 111, 67,000km
- Jonas Abrahamsen: Level 102, 53,000km
- Sarah Gigante: Level 109, 62,000km
- Lionel Sanders, Level 102, 95,000km
- Sir Mark Cavendish: Level 61, 21,000km
Global community stats: The Zwift community is massive, and the numbers we record are quite impressive:
- More than 1 million riders come to Zwift to improve their fitness
- 88 million indoor activities on the platform in the past 365 days
- Over 25 million outdoor activities uploaded since May 2025
- Fastest growing category: Beginner & Recreational Cyclists
The average Zwifter: Along the lines of the recent GCN video, Zwift shared the numbers for “the average Zwifter Power Profile”:
- 5 sec power – 567 watts
- 1 min power – 314 watts
- 5 min power – 237 watts
- 20 min power – 206 watts
How we train: With Zwift’s Fitness Metrics being a fairly new feature, it’s interesting to see some aggregated data of the community’s metrics.
- 95% of Zwifters have a Fresh or Productive Training Status
- Less than 2% are Detraining and <3% are Overreaching
- ~60% of Zwifters complete a workout monthly
- Over the past 365 days, Zwifters have completed:
- Free Rides: 25,309,968
- Races: 2,695,829
- Climb Portal: 1,339,158
- RoboPacers: 5,048,084
- Group Rides: 5,184,652
Lastly, while discussing the upcoming new Halo bikes, it was mentioned that ~9k Zwifters have earned a Halo Bike through Bike Upgrades.
Workout Cleanup
Not the most glamorous news item (which may explain its absence from the press release), but important nonetheless, given how popular workouts are on Zwift! Zwift says October will bring updates to the workout library, including 40 new Endurance, Recovery, and VO2Max workouts. We’ll also see a fresh look to the library, including refreshed collections with more options in each collection.
(Lastly, I know from personal internal contacts that Zwift has tasked folks with cleaning up existing workouts – fixing minor errors like typos, instructions that don’t quite match the current interval, etc.)
Companion Home Screen Update
The Companion app is getting a refresh in October – that was mentioned in Zwift’s press release. But the release didn’t include the screenshot on the right below, which is shows the current state of development for the new “activity review” screen we’ll see after finishing our session.
You can see it shows how much the activity increased your training score, how much XP you earned, and your average watts. Of course, this screen will probably change before it’s released to the general public… but I like where it’s going.
Zwift + ROUVY
Zwift announced their acquisition of ROUVY back in April, but we haven’t seen any news of the two platforms working together since. On the TSOZ call, Zwift mentioned that, starting in late October, Zwifters will be able to connect their ROUVY accounts to Zwift in the same way we connect other apps (Strava, Wahoo, Garmin, etc). Your ROUVY rides will then accrue Zwift XP at the same rate as outdoor rides (5 XP per km).
ROUVY has already rolled out a Zwift connection which does the same thing, but in the other direction (that is, your Zwift rides will count towards ROUVY level progression). ROUVY says, “Only XP is shared between the two platforms. Your subscriptions, routes, workouts, and activity history stay separate.” Furthermore, “XP is shared only while you have an active subscription in ROUVY and an active membership in Zwift. Connecting the accounts does not give you access to the other platform, and there is no combined or discounted plan for the two.”
You can find instructions for connecting your Zwift account to ROUVY on this support page.
Background Pairing
While I’m often swapping trainers or other devices as I test hardware for Zwift Insider reviews, the vast majority of Zwifters connect the same trainer, heart rate monitor, and controllers before each session via the pairing screen. But next week, that will change! Automatic “background pairing” is coming to Zwift. I’ve been using it for several weeks now, and have no complaints. Now, instead of the pairing screen popping up before you reach the homescreen, a small dialogue pops up to show you connection progress:
It will warn you if it doesn’t reconnect all the hardware used in your previous session, and it stays out of the way if everything connects as expected. Easy.
Initially slated for a September 9 release, this feature is now planned for the next game release, v1.122, slated for this Tuesday (September 22).
Racing Changes
Lastly, while there were some mentions of upcoming racing changes and events in Zwift’s press release, it left out three racing-related items which I think are actually the most exciting.
First, Zwift has developed a Racing API that lets approved partners access results and register riders for events. Zwift told us that seven of the largest community organizers are already on the API, and there are more coming onboard. This API is what’s behind powerful new platforms like LeadoutEsports.com, which hosts our VO2sday results since ZwiftPower can’t handle duration-based events!
Next, Zwift told us they are “Actively working on bringing native points racing to Zwift.” (I already knew this, because I was on a call with various community organizers a couple of months ago. But now we can talk about it!) Zwift didn’t give an ETA for this release, but they are working with “several community organizers” to make sure what they build is fit for the task. Exciting stuff!
Lastly, the racing portion of our personal profiles at Zwift.com continues to grow richer, with the recent addition of a league results row, and the ability to click a race to see some personal metrics (see below). Zwift says the dashboard will soon include a chart of our Zwift Racing Score (ZRS) history, which I’m very much looking forward to. (I’ve seen mockups, and they look great!)
Your Thoughts
I hope you found some of the items above interesting… or even exciting. While most of them aren’t groundbreaking on their own, these types of small changes, when combined with many others over months and years, lead to that rich, engaging, yet easy-to-use experience that is the holy grail of software platforms.
Got thoughts about what Zwift has planned? Share below!
Garmin index2???
Would be great if Zwift captured weight from the Index S2. I’d also like Garmin Connect training plan integration so I know what I’m doing that week and can just select the workout in Zwift. Garmin Connect badges and intensity minutes would be the icing on the cake too
Still to this point in time, DCRainmaker has been the only person that said this was “absolutely coming no later than Fall 2026”.. but I still haven’t seen anyone actually confirm it. This is what we get when DCR And Insider are the only public sources for news like this I guess, where not everything is shared publicly, and nothing is ever confirmed by ZHQ.
So, despite coming out months ago, I still have no way, from my Zwift.com MyFeed page, to click and go my see all my racing results, correct? How can this be so hard? It is very hard to get excited about new features when “old” features aren’t even there yet.
Profile>My Profile>Racing
seems to be there
It is there. It is just sort of “mystery meat” navigation to get to it.
No mention of solo structured workouts in the number of activities completed list? From what I remember that was the top type of activity when you posted numbers about 1.5yrs ago. Curious if it’s still the top.
Yeah, Zwift didn’t include that metric. But I bet it’s still on top!
So is the workouts number above Zwift organized group workouts only?
Which number, Theia?
I am curious to know if the background pairing will work for Ride and Run independently. I have noticed that if I ride multiple days in a row, Zwift will find and pair my trainer at startup. Great. But changing activities seems to confuse it – I have to find and select devices each time. It would be helpful if Zwift knows my account always uses ABC setup for Ride and XYZ setup for Run.
Wow. You’re lucky. I can’t Zwift Run to connect to RunPod in less than a bloody hour……
Okay, I know this is a little personal, but us Clydesdales are interested:
Whats the average weight?
(Which is the same thing — in this situation, give or take — as asking what’s the average watts per kg?)
Why? Didn’t you know humans can be 4’10” or 6’10” (bell curve yada yada)? I have a BKI of 25 and my scale says 15% fat. It turns out my weight is impacted by my big cyclist thighs. Who bloody cares about weight.
You could apply that same logic to the numbers already given. People are just curious by nature.
I’m curious to see the watt breakdown by male/female as it will look different to just averaging all riders.
Check out the GCN video: https://zwiftinsider.com/gcn-power-data-video/
Some of these features are good, not sure why background pairing was not included on the press release.
Exciting news Eric. Thanks for the ‘insider’ news of Zwift improvements. I’m looking forward to them, especially the new roads and route opportunities.
You briefly mentioned some synergies between Zwift and their Rouvy platform. As someone who has completed all routes and climbs on Zwift, and I know you’re probably NDA’d up, but would you say my opening a Rouvy account, while keeping Zwift of course, would be a good idea?
I would only open a Rouvy account if riding on that platform is more motivating than riding on Zwift for you. Whatever gets you riding, I say!
Done all the routes = do all the routes faster…
Sound advice. I shall try🙂
Exciting to hear that Zwift is putting meaningful focus on racing. The API is hopefully an indication that Zwift wants to make life easier on race organizers! And points racing would be an awesome addition! Well done, Zwift!
The phrase, don’t count your chickens comes to mind, Zwift has a history of saying they are working on something only for it to never see the light of day.
I hope the background pairing preserves the battery level display for Zwift Ride. I typically don’t look down at the controls to see what color they are flashing after I press to turn them on. Having it front and center on the pair screen is very helpful.
How many Zwifters have achieved level 100 or above?
Based on the rider list during my 100km Pizza Burner, it’s about 95% of all Zwifters. 😂
But yeah, I don’t know how many Zwifters are at level 100 or higher.
My ZRS puts me at the bottom of cat C so, every race, I’m riding alone. I’d like to see Zwift eliminate the fixed categories and just break up racers into groups having similar ZRS. That way I’d be racing the fastest D racers.
I would love to see the A-D Cats eliminated/replaced by ZRS!
Damn, I got my hopes up when I read “Rouvy Connections”, I was thinking reduced Rouvy subscription rate for Zwifters or Climb Portal changing from a “psychedelic nothingness” to Rouvy video clips, oh well I keep living in hope…
Wait, so despite Rouvy claiming you can gain XP on Zwift it’s not live yet? I’m confused
I hadn’t seen their announcement. Updated the text above, assuming their announcement is accurate (although it does say Zwift has this feature set up on their end, and it’s not…)
I still think our garage needs to way better organized!
Thanks, Eric
There’s a lot to digest in this – more than the press release, really. I’ll be coming back to this article for some time.
Any idea whether the effort to pull ZwiftPower’s function into My.Zwift is still a project?
Thanks again,
Thanks for the great information, Eric.
I’m trying to anticipate what new race developments we could see with native point integration. Should we expect to see live points updates during a race to see standings both during and immediately after crossing the finish line?
Will FAL and FTS have clear banners/markings one the game eliminating guess work and course memorization?
Can race organizers set the values of segments and even create their own segments?
I’m excited about what this functionality could unlock with some creativity!
What is meant by “native points racing”, does that mean Zwift automatically tallying points and results without manual organiser work after the event has finished?
That, but ALSO showing points live in game during the race. And also possibly some cool custom ways of setting up how points work, where points segments are located, etc.
^THIS is exactly what I am hoping for! Live points and the ability to set the segments will unlock some potential.
Native secondary power source would be great 👍
Manually uploading duals to ZP is such a pain in the….
Will we be able to create our own workouts? Rouvy has that feature, so I’m hoping the same for Zwift
I’m confused… We can already create our own workouts on Zwift.
@eric Will this include an update to the Club-workout library too??
For this is still a highly crippled library and after many years of asking for the complete library being available to clubs, we still have to do with only a handfull of workouts.
There where some rumors that this has been talked about at the Zwift-meetup, but we still get no responce what so ever when we ask about any development concerning Clubs.
That wasn’t mentioned on the call. But I agree that it could use some attention!