As we make our way through the long winter months, it may be hard to stay motivated to ride indoors on Zwift. This week’s top video covers tips and tricks for staying entertained on Zwift!
We’ve also included videos about the best budget fans for Zwift, racing as a lightweight rider, Zwift update v1.06, and a gamer’s guide to Zwift.
4 Ways I Use Zwift That Keep Me From Getting Bored
Struggling to stay engaged on Zwift? Tariq from Smart Bike Trainers shares 4 ways that he keeps his Zwifting fun and interesting.
Cycplus Smart Fan vs Vacmaster Cardio 54 | Budget Fans Tested
Chad Rides compares two budget-friendly fans for indoor cycling. Which is the better option?
Why Zwift Racing Feels Unfair for Light Riders
On Zwift, many light riders often feel like they have to work harder than the heavier riders to keep up with the pack. Mackenzie Vaughan-Graham explains why it feels this way and tackles stage 3 of the Tour de Zwift.
Rolling Tide Race Series Announced: A Season-Long Race That Grows With You
Rolling Collective (RollCo) has launched Rolling Tide, a new year-long Zwift race series built around a simple but demanding idea: start small, build big.
Rolling Tide begins with a short, sharp opener and increases in distance by 1 kilometer every week, culminating in a full-distance endurance race at the end of the year. More than just another race on the calendar, Rolling Tide is about commitment, momentum, and shared growth, a collective journey where improvement is earned through consistency.
What Makes Rolling Tide Special
A Race that Evolves
Most events test riders on a single night. Rolling Tide tests them over time. Early weeks reward explosiveness and sharp efforts, while later races demand patience, pacing, and resilience. The format naturally evolves, mirroring the way real fitness is built.
A Reason to Come Back
Rolling Tide is supported by an ongoing ZwiftPower leaderboard, encouraging riders to measure progress, track rivals, and build season-long narratives. It’s not just about today’s result, it’s about where you finish after riding the entire tide.
Fair, Competitive, and Inclusive
Each race is run as a categorised scratch event, ensuring competitive racing at every level while keeping the shared experience intact. Whether riders are chasing podiums, rivalries, or personal milestones, everyone starts the journey together.
A Shared Story
Rolling Tide is designed to create familiarity. The same names. The same time slot. The same rising challenge. Riders will remember where they started and who they rode alongside when they reach the final weeks of the season.
Race Schedule and Details
Events occur weekly in 5 timeslots:
Wednesdays at
6:50pm UTC/1:50pm ET/10:50am PT
11:50pm UTC/6:50pm ET/3:50pm PT
Saturdays at
11:05am UTC/6:05am ET/3:05am PT
5:05pm UTC/12:05pm ET/9:05am PT
11:05pm UTC/6:05pm ET/3:05pm PT
The first race kicks off Wednesday in France: a 1km sprint on Macaron. There’s no lead-in, just a hard, straight start through to a harder finish. Can you be quick off the line without the benefit of building up momentum first? Is your pre-race warmup to scratch?
Rolling Collective (RollCo) is a community-driven cycling club built around shared momentum and riding Forward, Together. Through races, rides, and creative events, RollCo aims to build long-term engagement, meaningful competition, and a culture that celebrates showing up.
Next Up: Thoughts on Zwift’s Personalized Recommendations Beta
Two years ago, I found myself sitting on a couch in Eric Min’s living room, talking about where we’d love to see Zwift go next. The single biggest idea I shared was simply this: I want Zwift to give me a brilliant recommendation for each day’s workout.
As a Zwift fanboy, I know the platform has so much to offer. Routes to explore, community events, engaging races, workouts and training plans… there’s something there to motivate just about anyone, but it’s also easy to get lost!
As a cyclist, I know it’s easy to get confused about what I should do to get stronger. With training advice coming from all sides, sometimes I end up heading down rabbit trails, chasing the next shiny thing I saw on YouTube, instead of sticking to a consistent plan.
I knew a simple, brilliant recommendation engine could help to solve both of these challenges. But also, it was no easy ask! (Especially back then, when Zwift wasn’t even “seeing” my outdoor rides.) Now, two years later, Zwift can see what we do outside, which is brilliant. But that doesn’t mean the holy grail of workout recommendation engines is easy to build. (Case in point: Strava’s new “Instant Workouts” feature, which hasn’t impressed anyone I know of.)
Zwift is completing a major rollout of their Next Up personalized recommendation engine this week. And while Next Up is still very much a beta in Zwift, and some of the feature requests I make below are already being worked on internally, I’m sharing this post now in hopes of sparking useful conversation and actionable feedback for Zwift’s team. This will, in turn, help to drive the development of what I believe is an important feature. So let’s dive in!
First, a Quick Explainer
If the Next Up feature is enabled for your account, you’ll see it at the top of your homescreen. It’s pretty hard to miss:
If you’re signed up for an event that’s coming soon, it will show that event as your first option. Otherwise, it shows the selected workout as your next option:
Click “Start Ride” to begin the recommended activity, or “Tune” to see and/or modify the recommendations. Next Up currently serves up four types of recommendations:
Planned: events you’ve signed up for, or today’s scheduled workout if you’re syncing from a third-party training plan provider like TrainerRoad. (You won’t see the “Planned” option if you aren’t signed up for events or syncing from a third-party provider.)
Workout: a structured workout from Zwift’s library
Route: a route from Zwift’s library
RoboPacer: a RoboPacer moving at a pace that works for your current fitness and freshness
Once you’re on the “Tune” screen, you can click the “Shorter” or “Longer” buttons to select a shorter or longer Workout, Route, or RoboPacer ride. You’re given two shorter options and two longer options, plus the default option, for a total of 5 possible Workouts, 5 Routes, and 5 RoboPacer lengths.
If you “tune” your RoboPacer ride, it just adds or subtracts 30 minutes from the stated duration. There is a timer in the game’s center HUD that pops up intermittently to show how much time you’ve got left to hit your goal:
See timer on center HUD
Two more things to call out:
Next Up has a limited presence in the Companion app as well (more on that below)
Next Up refreshes its activity recommendation once per day at this time (more on this below as well)
Rollout Plan and Target Audience
As I explained in this week’s post on Zwift’s version 1.106 release, Zwift released Next Up to all English-speaking Zwifters this week. The plan is to roll it out for all other supported languages by the end of February.
In terms of target audience, while the current iteration of Next Up can provide value to every Zwifter, it should prove especially useful to newer Zwifters and less experienced cyclists. More experienced Zwifters don’t necessarily need guidance on the next route to ride or which RoboPacer group to join, and many experienced cyclists already have some sort of training plan they’re following.
While Next Up could someday provide great value for all Zwifters (I discuss this more below), in its current form, it’s most helpful to newer riders. I would say this sort of Next Up’s “unofficial target audience.”
Feature Requests
Option to Turn It Off
I’m seeing more and more riders asking if the Next Up feature can just be toggled on and off, as they don’t have a use for it. While Zwift has never been big on letting people toggle key features, I think there’s some sense in this idea. Turning it off would save AI processing and free up screen space for the features people do want.
The Next Up feature, as it currently stands, isn’t super-useful to everyone. Until Zwift can build it out so it’s really good at knowing what you should do next, it makes good sense for Zwift to add a setting to turn it off.
Refreshing After Each Activity
Currently, the recommendations in Next Up for Workout, Route, and RoboPacer only refresh once a day. This is done to save AI cycles, no doubt, but it makes the feature feel rather “dumb” if you’re a rider who often does multiple activities in one Zwift session, or you’re a rider who does two distinct Zwift sessions in a day.
I would love to see the recommendation refresh after I save my Zwift activity. That means, for example, on Tuesdays I might log in for my ZRL race. It would recommend a race warmup for me (see that feature request below), then recommend the ZRL event to me, then recommend a cooldown.
To save on AI cycles, perhaps they could just add a refresh button to the UI, so I could easily get a new recommendation if I want it?
Remember My Week
Currently, Next Up seems to recommend 1-hour activities every day. Yes, you can click to tune them longer or shorter, but it feels like the engine is a bit blind to my weekly habits.
For example, I’ve led my 100km Pizza Burner ride every Thursday morning for a year, yet it still recommends a 1-hour ride for me on Thursdays. And Saturdays are always a long day for me (2.5-4 hours, typically), but it’s still just recommending 1-hour rides. (And even if I try to tune them, the longest options are sometimes only 2 hours).
Next Up needs some logic to spot day-of-the-week patterns.
Event Recommendations
Zwift has always struggled to surface (or let people discover) events that will leave Zwifters coming back for more. Think about it: there’s still no tool in Zwift that says, “Show me the most popular events happening in the next hour” or “I want to do VO2 work in a group, what events are coming up?”
This is an untapped area with huge potential wins for Zwift.
Imagine if it could find the best event for you that was coming up soon? And you could tune the selection a bit, to choose between a handful of event options?
Currently, the “Planned” section of Next Up will show the next event you’re signed up for, assuming it’s coming up soon. But that’s just the most basic functionality Next Up should have. There’s much more Zwift can do…
Warmup Recommendations
If Zwift knows I’m signed up for a race that starts in 15-60 minutes, it should be recommending race warmups for me. There are several race warmup workouts in Zwift’s library, and there are also routes and RoboPacers I could ride that would do the job.
Route Recommendations
Zwift’s huge library of routes (well over 200 free rideable routes now) can be a bit overwhelming, especially to newer users. Add route badges into the mix, Route of the Week, and the huge variation in length and difficulty of routes, and you can see that a strong route recommendation engine would be a great addition to the game.
To Zwift’s credit, they’ve improved this portion of Next Up since its initial launch. It’s now recommending Tour de Zwift routes for me, for example – even though the explanation text doesn’t explain this (that’s coming soon).
Personally, I’d love it if the feature just brought up routes I haven’t ridden yet, and explained that if I ride the route, I’ll get the achievement badge and XP.
Improved Explanation Text
Speaking of the explanation text (we need a better name for this text that explains why a particular activity is being recommended) – there’s a lot of improvement that could happen here.
First: as a text guy, it’s mildly infuriating that I can’t read the full text from the screen in game. It ends with …, but there’s no way to click and read more. Zwift needs to fix this, as that explanatory text is going to play a key role in convincing Zwifters of the value of Next Up selections far into the future.
(To be fair, that text is fully readable in the Companion app).
Fixing the way the text is displayed is the easy part. Improving the actual text, I imagine, is much more challenging. You’ve got to keep it short, but also informative. Right now, the text feels overly simplified to me. I know there are unmentioned factors (like weekly goal settings) driving Next Up to recommend a particular activity, and I wish it would mention them.
Companion App Buildout
Currently, the Companion app only shows you the default Next Up activity. That means it shows you your “Planned” activity (an event you’ve signed up for, or a third-party workout), or if you have nothing planned, it will show you the selected workout of the day.
There’s no way to tune the workout in Companion. And no way to see selected routes or RoboPacers.
For Next Up to be useful, it definitely needs a strong presence in Companion, since this is where people go to plan their next activity. But right now, its presence in Companion feels a bit half-baked.
Zwift Training Plan Integration
It’s a bit odd, but if you’re signed up for a Zwift Training Plan, nothing about that plan shows up in Next Up. Ever.
Workouts from third-party providers like XERT will show up, but Zwift’s own Training Plan workouts do not.
My guess is this hasn’t been fixed yet because Training Plans have their own UI in game – a popup window where you select your workout for the day. That would need to be modified/removed, and Next Up may need to be modified somewhat to replace that functionality.
One possible solution: surface the day’s planned workout in Next Up, just like you’d do if I were using TrainerRoad for my plan. Swap the “Longer” and “Shorter” buttons for “next” and “previous”, so I can choose to execute a workout that’s scheduled for tomorrow, if that’s what I want.
Smart Activity Type Selection
Next Up currently defaults to showing me the recommended Workout for the day, and I have to click “Tune” to choose a non-workout activity.
Here’s the problem: I rarely do workouts! The vast majority of my activities are events, RoboPacer rides, or solo efforts on particular routes.
The feature should be better at choosing which activity type to display based on my habits and goals.
Don’t Forget the Runners
Zwift is nearly ready to enable the addition of our running activities to Fitness Metrics (it’s coming very soon!), so my guess is they plan for Next Up to expand into running recommendations in the future as well.
Final Thoughts
I’m sure there are other great things Zwift could do with Next Up that I didn’t cover above, and conversely, some of what I recommended above won’t prove useful to everyone. But the big thing I’m hoping Zwift and the Zwift Community both understand is that the Next Up concept has huge potential. Like I told Eric Min over 2 years ago, Zwift has the historic data needed to make smart activity recommendations. That engine in turn will:
Increase engagement among existing users as it helps them discover and participate in the types of activities that suit them best
Grow the subscriber base, because people are looking for fitness tools that provide simple, accurate, and affordable guidance
Help people build fitness, as it provides basic coaching guidance
In talking to contacts within Zwift, it’s clear the company knows that Next Up is an important feature, and is planning to continually invest in improvements.
I’ll wrap up with this: many Zwifters are asking if they can just turn off the Next Up feature. While I think a toggle is a good idea, I also know Zwift can make Next Up compelling enough that everyone will want to keep it turned on. Here’s hoping!
Share Your Thoughts
What do you think of the Next Up feature? Share your thoughts below! I would also recommend sharing your thoughts on this topic in Zwift’s forum.
This weekend’s picks are a rather eclectic mix. The headliners are two rides for two deserving causes. But we’re also featuring some extra-long rides, beginner-friendly rides, and of course, Tour de Zwift. See details below…
There are many IRL rides happening this weekend in cities across the US to honor Alex Pretti, a nurse and cyclist who was killed by Homeland Security agents last Saturday. Join the Zwift version. “We ride in unity. We ride together and stand together. Join us for a community ride to remember those who are lost and stand for civil rights.”
This ride is 60 minutes long, open-paced, on Makuri Islands’ Flatland Loop.
The Doddie Aid rides are usually led by Sir Chris Hoy, but he’s recovering from a bike crash. Still, this ride is worth doing – it’s for a good cause, and you’ll unlock the brand-new in-game Doddie Aid kit!
The ride is 75 minutes long, on the Scotland Smash route, at a stated pace of 1-2.5 W/kg.
The Velos squad has been riding a progressive series of epic Zwift rides in January, and this Saturday is the big one: The Uber Pretzel!
The ride is led at 2-2.5 W/kg, and officially ends after 2 hours. But riders are encouraged to continue riding after it ends, to finish out the route surrounded by other riders in the open world.
✅ Route Badge ✅ Beginner Friendly ✅ Keep Together ✅ Tour de Zwift Stage
If you have yet to climb Alpe du Zwift, consider this event for your first attempt. This is a banded ride, so as long as you keep pedaling, you’ll stay in the pack, no matter how hard you push.
Additionally, this ride is on the Tour of Fire and Ice route, which is the long ride for stage 6 of Tour de Zwift. That means you’ll get credit for stage completion!
Tour de Zwift is the biggest annual tour on the platform – a celebration of discovery across all Zwift worlds! We’re now past the halfway point, with stage 4 running through Sunday. Hundreds of riders are joining each event, so you’ll always have some company.
Each stage has three route length options. For stage 4, those are Triple Loops (41.4km, 569m), Greatest London Flat (31.1km, 223m), and London 8 (20.9km, 223m).
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!
The Syrup Cup: Maple Madness Race Series Announced
Cycling YouTuber and virtual racing enthusiast J. Dirom has just announced the second round of the Syrup Cup, a community-focused race series on Zwift designed for riders of all levels. The Syrup Cup brings together Zwifters from around the world for structured, regular competition — with a focus on fair racing, community spirit, and progression.
Maple Madness is all about that February energy – that in-between time where winter still grips hard, but the first signs of the maple harvest are starting to stir. The taps are in, the races are harder. It’s raw, cold, and competitive, with riders getting ready before everyone else even realizes the season has started!
J. says, “The Syrup Cup is designed like a local weeknight criterium — competitive, fun, and open to riders who just want to race hard and have a voice in the community.”
What Makes the Syrup Cup Special
Shared Coverage: Select races will be featured in post-race highlights and analysis across J. Dirom’s YouTube and social channels.
GC Rankings: Based on ZwiftPower times, with time bonuses (10, 6, and 4 seconds) awarded to the top three riders in each category. These bonuses are subtracted from the rider’s overall time.
Timeslot: Races happen weekly on Mondays at 6:15pm ET/3:15pm PT, which isn’t a common day or time for Zwift races.
Routes, Schedule, and Registration
Races happen weekly on Mondays at 11:15pm UTC/6:15pm ET/3:15pm PT. Riders are grouped using custom Zwift Racing Score ranges.
There’s much to discuss, including crucial course segments, powerup usage, bike decisions, and strategic options. Let’s go!
Looking at the Route
Each lap of Cobbled Climbs is 9.2 km (5.7 miles) long. A/B teams will race 4 laps (37km), while C/D will race 3 (27.8km).
The route is essentially Richmond’s 2015 UCI Worlds Course without the flat first half. What you’re left with are the pitchy parts: KOM intermediates for curvy, cobbled Libby Hill and short, steep 23rd Street, plus the third climb (Governor Street) which isn’t isn’t a points intermediate, but is draggy and painful nonetheless. Plus, it leads into the false-flat finish!
Here’s the lap profile, including the two KOM intermediates we’ll be contesting for points on each lap:
We begin at the standard Richmond start/finish banner, but make a quick left turn, and another left, onto the descent of E Main St. (This is the longest descent on the route, so enjoy it while it lasts.)
After some flats and rollers along the river the road tilts up and you know what’s coming: our first KOM of the day. Twisty, bumpy Libby Hill!
Hammer your way up this climb (most riders will finish it in 60-110s), then recover for a few seconds as you descend to the start of our next KOM: the short, straight 23rd Street KOM. This is essentially a “sprint-climb” (25-30s), which is why Peter Sagan was able to drop everyone in his famous attack here in the 2015 UCI Worlds race.
If you’re struggling, do everything you can to hold onto the wheels over the 23rd Street KOM, knowing you’ve got a bit of recovery just up the road on the Broad Street descent and the flat that follows. You can even supertuck the descent like Sagan did (but can’t anymore – thanks for ruining the fun, UCI!)
Less than a minute after the Broad Street descent, we begin the final climb of the lap: Governor Street! This is not a timed KOM, but it’s where the race-winning final moves are often made, and it feels so long in the final minutes of a race. (Expect riders to ride this conservatively until the final lap. Better to save your climbing efforts for the KOMs handing out points!)
Finish this climb as the road turns a hard left, then it’s ~600 meters of a false flat straightaway to the finish (or the start of the next lap).
For this race, four types of powerups are being handed out with equal probability at each arch. There are three arches per lap:
Lap Arch
Libby Hill KOM Arch
23rd St. KOM Arch
Cloaking (ghost): makes you invisible to other riders for 15 seconds. Disabled within 400m of the finish line. Use when you want to get away from one or more riders. Deploy then hammer, in hopes that you will create enough of a gap that your opponents can’t grab your wheel once it’s visible again. Since most riders won’t be looking to attack solo, this will be the most trashed powerup in the race by far.
Burrito: turns off the draft effect for riders in a cone-shaped window behind you for 20 seconds. Use when attacking off the front so opponents have to work harder to follow you, or in the peloton to make others work harder. A real heartbreaker, getting hit with this on a KOM segment!
Draft Boost (van): increases the draft effect you are experiencing for 40 seconds. Use at higher speeds (flats and descents) when you are already drafting off another rider (since this powerup only helps when you are drafting.) This will be quite handy in the long finish, if you’re with other riders.
Aero Boost (helmet): makes you more aerodynamic (reduces your CdA by 25%) for 15 seconds. Use at higher speeds (flats and descents), especially when no draft is available (although it is still useful when drafting.) This will give you a nice edge on the 23rd St KOM, and on the finishing straight.
Bike Recommendations
The fact that 85% of this race’s points will be earned at the top of the two KOM segments makes us steer away from pure aero setups and look at climbing bikes and all-arounders instead. Because while a more aero setup has a pure time advantage on laps of the full course, it’s the KOM times that really matter.
Here are our test times, set with our standard bot (75kg, 183cm rider) at 6 W/kg (450W) on Libby Hill and 8 W/kg (600W) on 23rd St:
Bike + Wheels
Libby
23rd St
S-Works Aethos + ENVE SES 4.5 Pro
1:24.05
30.15
S-Works Tarmac SL8 + ENVE SES 4.5 Pro
1:25.18
29.75
S-Works Tarmac SL8 + DT Swiss 65
1:24.73
29.71
Tron
1:24.85
29.92
Notice how the lighter setup does better on Libby (a longer, slower climb) while the more aero setup is best on 23rd St (because it’s a higher-speed climb). Which setup do you choose? That may depend on which of the two KOMs you want to be set up for.
Our recommendation, then, is to use the newish DT Swiss 65 paired with one of these bikes:
Of course, your frame’s upgrade status should impact your decision. A fully upgraded Aethos will outclimb the other four frames, but that’s not the case when comparing un-upgraded versions.
Lots of recon events are scheduled on upcoming ZRL routes, led by various teams. See upcoming ZRL recons for this race at zwift.com/events/tag/zrlrecon.
Additionally, riders in the Zwift community do a great job every week creating recon videos that preview the courses and offer tips to help you perform your best on the day. Here are the recons I’ve found (comment if you find another!)
J Dirom
John Rice
Beccah Niesen
Nathan Krake
Strategic Options
Points Distributions, Cobbled Climbs
4 Laps
3 Laps
These charts show the maximum points a team of 6 could earn in a race with 60 participants. To learn how ZRL points races work, see this post.
How will these races unfold? What strategies will teams employ? Here’s what I predict:
Honey, I Shrunk the Peloton: The front group will get smaller on each lap, with a small pack of only 5-10 duking it out across the finish line. Some races will even see breakaway wins by just 1-3 riders.
First Lap FTS: Fastest Through Segment top 5 times will all be set on the first lap. Why? Because the pack draft will be largest then, plus riders will simply be too tired to better their times on subsequent laps.
Not Lonely for Long: Chase groups will catch some lone riders up the road at the start of each lap (through the flat/descent portion), but those same riders will attack again on the climbs and get away. Which begs the question: is it even worth chasing? On the other hand…
Never Gonna Give You Up: This is a longish race with lots of punchy climbing, and riders may have a hard time pacing their efforts properly. Some will push hard to make the front selection, but blow up on subsequent laps. Chase groups shouldn’t give up hope, because that front group will keep shrinking, and there may be opportunities late in the race for intermediate and high finish points if you’re in the first chase groups.
Spirit of Sagan: This course lends itself to breakaways, particularly on one of the final lap’s climbs. Riders who don’t fancy a pack sprint will try to get away on one of the final hills, grabbing max intermediate points in the process.
Your Thoughts
Any insights or further thoughts on this race? Share below!
Zwift’s Climb Portal gives Zwifters access to a growing library of famous real-life climbs in a gamified environment where roads are colored based on gradient. Learn more about the Climb Portal >
While the library of climbs continues to grow, only up to three climbs are accessible on any given day. The climb of the month (in green below) is available in France, while a second climb rotates every few days and is only available in Watopia. Both of these climbs can be selected at the bottom left of your Zwift homescreen (scroll down).
There is also a third place where another climb is featured: in the Climb of the Week box on the homescreen. Learn more >
Learn more about a climb by clicking it in the schedule below.
