ZwiftPower is an incredibly useful tool for Zwift racers. Not only does it show final race results (including crucial features like disqualification of those who don’t conform to race rules), it also ranks riders, lets you search upcoming events, and browse segment leaderboards for all timed laps, KOMs, and sprints in game.
This week, James Hodges (the programmer behind ZwiftPower) released a new feature: team rankings! Find it under Rankings>Teams.
The rankings are separated by gender as well as category, so while one team may be top-ranked in the A category, another team may be winning in C.
How Ranking Works
To understand how team rankings work, you first need to know that all riders on ZwiftPower have their own individual ranking score. The lower your score, the better.
(We won’t go into the details of how that ranking score is calculated, as it is rather complex and already explained thoroughly on ZwiftPower’s site. Go to Standings then click FAQ in the top-left to read how scoring works.)
To calculate team rankings, ZwiftPower chooses the 3 highest-ranked team members for each category then averages their ranking score to create an overall team score. Teams are ranked on this overall score.
Example: currently the highest-ranked women’s A team is DanishBikeRiders. The three highest-ranked riders on that team are:
- Cecilia Hansen (283.16 points)
- Louise Houbak (295.40 points)
- Vicki Whitelaw (323.17 points)
If you average their points, you get 300.58. This puts them in 1st place, ahead of Team TURBO whose score is 356.29.
More Competition, More Teamwork
This new team rankings feature adds some new levels of competition to Zwift racing:
- Team competition: entire teams, but especially the three highest-ranked riders in each team, now have an extra incentive to perform well, as their rankings affect the overall team score.
- Competition within teams: if you’re close to being one of your team’s top three riders, but haven’t quite made it, this may give you more motivation to improve your results.
It also sets up a situation where lower-ranked riders have an incentive to work for higher-ranked team members whose score is affecting the overall team score. And teamwork is always a good thing.
So kudos to James at ZwiftPower for rolling out yet another killer feature. Keep up the good work!
Your Thoughts
What do you think of ZwiftPower’s new team rankings? If you’re on a team, have you heard any talk about trying to boost your team’s ranking? Share below!
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