Tiny Race Series – Sniper DQ, October 15 Route Details, and Last Week’s Results

Make no mistake: Tiny Races are tough! The races are short, the fields are strong, and the effort level is high. As Tiny Races have grown in popularity, we’ve seen an increase in the number of riders “sniping” races: racing just one or two events, hoping to grab some easy ZwiftPower ranking points.

No More Sniping

This weekend I’ve knocked together some code in order to try something new: if you don’t finish all four Tiny Races in the timezone you race, you’ll be disqualified from ZwiftPower results for whatever races you did finish. That’s right: no more points sniping!

My guess is this will cause a decrease in signup numbers, but an increase in race fairness and quality. That’s a trade I’m willing to make!

Last Week’s Results

I raced the zone 2 B’s last week, and Zwift Academy winner and current EF Education-TIBCO-SVB pro rider Tanja Erath was in the field, smashing all four races. She took the win for the ladies, while Nathan Guerra’s better half Gabriela took the A win in zone 1 for the ladies. Super fun!

Overall Podiums

Women’s Podiums

This Week’s Routes: Going Downtown

We’ve got four fresh routes this week, all in Watopia, all beginning from the downtown start pens. But each route heads in a different direction, and they’ll get harder (read: more climby) with each race!

Here are photos so you can see the precise location of the custom finish line for race 1:

• Race 1: Bigger Loop (6.75 km, ending at rock underpass heading into the Ghost Town)
  • Starting off with our flattest route, you’ll climb to the desert from downtown Watopia, pick up your ghost powerup at the rock arch, then sprint for the custom finish line beneath the huge rocks as you enter the Ghost Town.
  • Powerup: Ghost
• Race 2: Beach Island Loop (6.166km, ends at JWB Sprint)
  • This will be a wild finish! Everything will kick off when we hurt the Dirty Sorpressa which snakes up to the Italian Villas. But wait – you’ve got some cobbled road following the Sorpressa, plus the JWB Sprint! Where do you use your powerup? Where do you attack?
  • Powerup: Aero Boost
• Race 3: Two Bridges Loop (1 lap)
  • Basically a perfect loop for a Tiny Race, this is going to be made even more fun with the inclusion of the anvil powerup. Remember, the anvil now only makes you heavier on descents, so it’s safe to use at any time!
  • Powerup: Anvil x2
• Race 4: Downtown Titans (6.804km, ending atop Titans Grove KOM Reverse)
  • Saving the best (biggest) climb for last, we’ll start in downtown but work our way up to Titans Grove, riding the uphill rollercoaster through the redwood tree and waving hello to Jarvis before attacking the Titans Grove KOM Reverse.
  • Powerup: none

Sign up at zwift.com/events/tag/tinyraces

ZwiftPower Results

Zwift displays preliminary race results in game when you cross the line, but points are computed after all four races are finished, with final results on ZwiftPower. (We have to do some data processing on our side to compute results, so if your rankings don’t show up right away, just be patient.)

Riders will earn points based on finish position in each of the 4 Tiny Races. The category winner of each week’s series is the rider with the most points across their timezone’s 4 races. Here are the links for each timezone’s results on ZwiftPower:

• Zone 1 (8am UTC)
• Zone 2 (2pm UTC)
• Zone 3 (8pm UTC)

Rules

Tiny Race rules are simple. Final results live on ZwiftPower, and:

• Heart rate monitors are required
• You must finish all 4 Tiny Races in your timezone, otherwise you will be disqualified from whatever Tiny Races you did finish. No points sniping!

Join a Chat & Chill Cooldown

Immediately following each hour’s racing, we’ve scheduled 30-minute “Chat & Chill” events where riders from all categories can spin out their legs together and have some fun chatting about how it all went down. Find them at zwift.com/events/tag/tinyraces.

Questions or Comments

Post below!