Zwifters recently descended on Mallorca for Zwift Community Live 2026, an IRL event bringing people together from around the world for 3 days of epic riding. In this week’s top video, watch as one Zwifting YouTuber takes on his first group rides ever!
Zwift just shared a roadmap of what’s coming in the next few months with their “This Season on Zwift” press release, so two of our videos feature this info. We’ve also included videos about riding outdoors after a long indoor season, and racing the final stage of the Zwift Games.
Newbie Invited to Cycling’s Biggest Event… I Was Not Ready
Ryan Condon was in Mallorca for Zwift Community Live last week, and this is the first in his series of videos documenting his experience as a seasoned Zwift racer taking part in his first outdoor group rides ever.
Zwift Finally Has a Gravel Map – Plus Everything Else Coming This Season
Tariq Ali from Smart Bike Trainers discusses everything that Zwift announced in their latest “This Season on Zwift” press release.
I Finally Rode Outside After a Winter on Zwift
Cranks and Cadence shares how his experience riding on Zwift for the winter has shaped his outdoor riding, and compares Zwifting to outdoor riding.
How tough can an 11km race on Zwift really be?! (I wasn’t ready!)
Katie Kookaburra races stage 6a of the Zwift Games. Watch as she tackles this short yet brutal race.
Huge Changes Are Coming to Zwift!
Hear from Adam from Road to A as he shares a brief rundown of everything coming to Zwift over the next few months.
Got a Great Zwift Video?
Share the link below and we may feature it in an upcoming post!
The first race of Zwift Racing League 2025/26’s final round happens Tuesday, April 7, and it’s a team time trial with a spicy finish!
Hell of the North was named in a nod to Paris-Roubaix, my favorite one-day race on the cycling calendar. The name is perhaps a bit dramatic, given that this is a flat route with a “petit” climb at the end. Be that as it may, it’s one of France’s newer routes, hasn’t been raced yet in ZRL, and should make for an interesting opening TTT.
Let’s dig into the course, look at bike selection, and more!
Looking at the Route: Hell of the North
All riders will race 1 lap of France’s Hell of the North, for a total race length of 20.1km with 241m of elevation gain.
Broadly speaking, this is a simple route: 17km of flattish roads, finishing with the Petit KOM, a 2.7km climb averaging 4%:
But let’s drill down a bit into key sections and waypoints:
First Draft Powerup given in the start pens
Flat Start + Les Intestins (first 3.6 km): Get up to speed quickly on the flat lead-in, then rotate pulls in a way that keeps you fast over the three peaks of Les Intestins. This may be the most technical portion of the route.
Ramps Up Dos d’Âne Sprint @5.6 km (600 meters long, 2-3%): Two short, cobbled ramps up to the sprint arch will reward teams who raise their power to keep speeds high.
Dos d’Âne Sprint Arch and 2nd Draft Boost Powerup @6.1km
Sprinteur Sprint Arch and 3rd Draft Boost Powerup @11.9km
Ramp after Sprinteur Sprint@12.6 km (300 meters, 2.5%): Another slack climb you’ll want to power through.
Sprint du Cratère Reverse and 4th Draft Boost Powerup @13.4km
Ballon Sprint and 5th Draft Boost Powerup @16.2km
The Petit KOM is, of course, the standout feature on this route. In a scratch race, it’s where the pack breaks up as riders with high w/kg drop the sprinters whose wheels they’ve been borrowing thus far.
In a TTT, though, the Petit KOM requires a different kind of strategy. While it’s a sub 5-minute climb for A riders, and sub 6 minutes for B, it’s not just about the best effort you can put in. Because at only 3.9%, this is a very draftable climb, particularly in the flatter bits. (This climb zig-zags its way to the top, and the “zig” portions, when you’re traveling roughly toward the start pens, are much flatter than the “zags”.)
You may also want to sacrifice a rider or two, particularly on the flatter portions of the climb, since your time is taken based on the fourth rider to finish.
A few years ago, powerups were announced for a ZRL TTT… but as I recall, it never actually happened.
I always thought that would be a fun addition, though. And it sounds like it’s going to happen for this stage! WTRL says we’ll get a draft boost (van) powerup in the start pens, and at every arch. See notes above under “Looking at the Route” for arch locations.
Reminder: the draft boost increases the draft effect you are experiencing for 40 seconds. It’s best used at high speeds (flats and descents), and only helpful when you’re drafting!
Teams would be wise to discuss how to best use these powerups, as you will receive a total of 5 during the race. I see “offensive” and “defensive” approaches to powerup use in this race:
One smart “offensive” approach would be to trigger the powerup ~45 seconds before you’re slated to take a pull on the front, making it easier to sit on the wheel(s) near the front so your legs are as fresh as possible when it’s time to take your pull. This may allow you to take a slightly harder pull than usual, and if everyone on the team does this, it could trim valuable seconds off your time.
Alternatively, if a rider is struggling to stay in the wheels, they could use the powerup to ease their effort wherever they’re at in the pull order. This is the “defensive” approach. It’s also sort of the default/bailout approach, because some sprint arches come within a minute or two of each other, so you’ll want to trigger the powerup regardless of where you’re at in the pull order, just so it’s not wasted.
Bike Frame + Wheel Choice
Bike choice here is simple, assuming you have access to everything: go aero.
The math is straightforward: a lighter frame like the Scott Plasma RC Ultimate only saves half a second on the Petit KOM at 5 W/kg. And the fastest lightweight wheels (ENVE SES 4.5) don’t save any time over the DT Swiss ARC 1100 DICUT 85/Disc on the climb, given how aero the disc is.
That scant savings from a lighter frame will be wiped out on the flats, where the disc wheel drastically outperforms climbing wheels. So full aero it is.
Many recon rides are planned each week on the upcoming ZRL route. If you’re unfamiliar with this course, jump into an event and familiarize yourself with the route! Find a list of upcoming ZRL recon rides 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. I’ll add recons below as I find them, but please comment if you find a useful one that isn’t yet listed!
Mixed courses like this week give valuable seconds to “balanced” teams with two strengths:
Big pure-power riders who can keep their watts high on the front while staying in single-file formation to conserve in the draft behind
A set of four riders who have a high W/kg in that 4-6 minute VO2max window, to deliver the final punch up the Petit KOM.
On a course like this week’s, I recommend all team members set their Trainer Difficulty to the same value, and make sure that value is at least 75%, so you feel slight gradient changes and increase power to compensate. This will help you automatically punch on the uphills, keeping your overall speed high.
Your goal in a ZRL TTT is to get four riders across the line in the shortest time possible. That means every team’s pace plan will differ based on each rider’s abilities. I highly recommend having an experienced DS on Discord directing your team, especially if your team contains some inexperienced TTT riders.
Lastly, if you want to go further down the TTT rabbit hole, I highly recommend Dave Edmond’s Zwift TTT Calculator tool.
This year Zwift has a new surprise – they’ve swapped out the supertuck rider position for the superman! (Apologies for the low-quality images… I’m traveling and trying to get shots from a low-powered laptop…)
How To Be Super(wo)man
To get into the new Superman position on Zwift, five conditions must be met:
You must be on a road or gravel bike frame (no TT or MTB)
You must be traveling at least ~36MPH (~58km/hr)
The gradient’s decline must be at least -3%
Your power output must be below 11 watts
You must be out of the draft and not riding in a pack (safety first!)
It has to be April 1st (local time)… or thereabouts
Zwift will automatically place your avatar in the superman position if all these conditions are true. You come back out of the superman once any of these conditions is not met – for example, if the road flattens out to a -2% decline.
While I can’t recommend attempting this position in real life, I can promise you it’s possible:
There’s even a tutorial video. But don’t blame me if you try this and it doesn’t go well for you:
Your Thoughts
Based on this April 1st fun and recent images from the Pas Racing Series, it appears Zwift has worked up some new avatar poses/positions. What other avatar postures would you like to see? (I want a victory wheelie.) Share your thoughts below!
“Always sprint for a finish line” and “try to hold on even if you have to burn matches to do so” are my two golden rules when it comes to riding and racing on Zwift. They obviously mostly apply to racing, but as I’m coming back from an annoying cycling-related knee injury that kept me off the bike for nearly nine weeks, these rules also apply to most of the group rides I take part in nowadays. too.
Other people’s “Zone 2” seems to be my threshold at the moment, but I’m getting there. My power, endurance, and—most importantly—my ability to recover quickly are all returning to their pre-injury levels, slowly but surely.
However (and this is a big HOWEVER)… getting dropped in Zwift is still light years ahead of where I was only six years ago. Like a toddler in a sweet shop, I still see smashing myself around Watopia as a privilege, not something I have to force myself to do and I have to remind myself of that every time I end up finishing mid-pack in a race or questioning all of life’s choices while trying to hold onto Eric Schlange in one of his weekly “fun” Pizza Burners. But that’s just my competitive side coming out. That childish grin quickly returns whenever I think back to my “pre-fitness” days in 2018.
(Seriously though, someone really needs to report Eric’s weekly “pizza burner” ride description to the Federal Trade Commission—100 km at threshold is more than just a “spin”…)
It’s only now, having just checked when my first ever Zwift-related video was uploaded (1st May 2023), that I’ve realised I’ve been riding and racing on Zwift for almost three years. Wowsers! Time really does fly when you’re having fun.
My name is Ryan Condon, and I’ve been making entertaining YouTube videos about my fitness journey for the past six years. Zwifting on my trusty Zwift Ride in my homemade “pain cave” has been a huge part of that journey.
“He’s not fat, he’s big-boned.”
At the end of 2018 and the beginning of 2019, I weighed 190 kg. To put that into perspective, the average UK man in his 40s weighs 83 kg. I was 107 kg heavier than the Joe Bloggs you walk past every day on your local high street.
The physical and mental implications of weighing this much were massive. Being tall (6’2”) had helped me “get away” with being “big”—a term my grandma used to describe me.
“He’s not fat, he’s big-boned,” she’d snap whenever anyone dared mention my disproportionate size in front of her when I was a teenager. Unfortunately for me, I wasn’t anywhere near as confident as she was when dealing with the snide remarks from my schoolmates.
By the age of 38, my knees ached, my energy was non-existent, and my sleep was a joke—I probably averaged three to four hours a night. Depression and anxiety were taking hold, although I didn’t recognise it at the time.
I grew up in a working-class London family; feelings weren’t discussed, and “depression” was something other people had. I was also likely alcohol-dependent by this point. I made a video about this subject (which you can watch here), but in a nutshell, the mental darkness I lived with was amplified by my drinking. At one point, I was even too heavy to weigh myself on standard bathroom scales. That sense of alienation—of being on my own—was staggering.
Half the Man I Used To Be
Fast forward six years: I no longer drink, I’m teetotal, I’m vegan (a story for another time), and I now weigh anywhere between 87–89 kg, depending on which way the wind is blowing or how many croissants I’ve had that day.
I’m literally half the man I used to be, and I’m in the best shape of my life. That 103kg of body fat I lost (as my partner Tracie likes to joke) is more than the weight of an entire adult male.
When I started uploading videos to YouTube, I realised there were almost no fitness influencers catering to bigger men (or bigger people in general). Most assumed you already had a base level of fitness and of course, I didn’t. I just wanted to know:
How do I start?
How do I keep moving?
What can I eat?
And most importantly… how do I stay motivated?
Because I couldn’t see anyone who looked like me online—unless they were the experiment or the butt of the joke in a MrBeast-style video—I decided to document my own weight-loss journey, with an emphasis on making the videos entertaining, hoping it might inspire others like me… those who knew enough to know that doing something—anything—is better than doing nothing.
I’m not a nutritionist or fitness expert. I simply share what works for me, hoping to inspire others in the way I once wanted to be inspired.
Leveling Up with Zwift
Indoor cycling on Zwift was the extra string to my bow that I was looking for back in 2023. By then, I had already managed to lose 70 kg through walking and then running, getting down to about 120 kg. But my body adapted and my weight loss plateaued, even though I was still exercising and eating sensibly.
It was then that I discovered indoor cycling—specifically Zwift—purely by chance, and it completely revolutionised my fitness and weight-loss progress, helping me lose another 30 kg of body fat.
I very recently crossed the 10,000 km mark for total lifetime distance covered, with well over 113,000 metres climbed. That’s a big benchmark for me.
It’s still “rookie numbers” compared to others on the platform, but I’ve also made and uploaded over 100 Zwift-related videos to my YouTube channel, so I like to think I have some lived experience on the subject.
I’ve also become quite a capable racer, climbing from Category D into Category B. That just means I went from complete beginner to an above-average, pretty good Zwifter at my peak. However, at the end of last year I suffered a sports-related knee injury that kept me from working out and Zwifting for nearly nine weeks. As any Zwifter knows, without regular training you lose your power and endurance much quicker than it takes to gain them.
I’m now back on the road to recovery. I’ve regained about 80% of my pre-injury Zwifting abilities and have managed to get myself back into the upper end of Category C with my ZRS hovering somewhere around 420; however, at my peak, I reached 570, and I’d like to get back there as soon as possible.
The Process and the Pillars
I love running and cycling outside, and nothing will ever replace that vibe. However, when time is scarce or it’s chucking it down and I don’t fancy a Special Forces selection test just to fit in my cardio for the day… Zwift is the answer.
It fits into my plan easily, no matter the weather. If I’ve got everything set up just the way I like it, there should be no barriers—and no barriers means no excuses and of course, no excuses = consistency.
When I started on Zwift for the first time, I didn’t really know what my real power number was, even after several months of consistent riding. This is because we’re programmed to hold back as humans. No one jumps into a fast group ride or race and completely buries themselves the first time they try. It’s counterintuitive to everything we’ve been told to do. So we end up getting dropped—which is fine. It’s all part of the process and that’s the single best piece of advice I can give any new Zwifter: Trust the process! Just jump in feet first and learn through the baptism of fire.
I now have three “pillars” that I try to stick to every day:
Eat clean, portion-controlled meals — three per day. For context, I used to eat 4,000–5,000 calories daily. Now I focus on the right quantity of quality food, averaging about 2,000 calories per day. Any less than this and I don’t have the energy to keep going.
Move consistently and do something every day. I started with walking, and now I run 5 km or cycle 25 km every day as a minimum. If I’m training for an event, this ramps up.
Use motivational tactics to maintain discipline. I highly recommend reading Atomic Habits by James Clear and The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson. (There’s a lot I learned from these books, but the two biggest takeaways were how to build strong habits that break bad ones, and the idea that you have a finite number of “f*cks” to give—so choose carefully what you spend them on. Psychological tactics like this massively helped keep me off the sofa and into the pain cave, even when it was hard.)
Obviously, there’s a lot more to this. The nuances are hard to highlight in one article without disappearing down a fitness rabbit hole, but these three pillars are what I think about every day when planning my week ahead.
100 Small Moments
Back in 2019, I started by walking every day for a whole year without a single day off. I even made a video about it:
This might be a risky thing to say—especially on a website dedicated to cyclists—but I still consider walking to be the best exercise for weight loss. However, cycling and Zwifting are catching up quickly in my mind.
People often ask if I had a defining wake-up moment.
Honestly, I didn’t.
There wasn’t one big “eureka” moment—there were hundreds of small moments of realisation.
Buying plus-size clothes. Making excuses at my daughter’s school sports day. Not being able to fit on a rollercoaster at a theme park.
Just three of many dominoes that had to fall before I finally pulled the trigger and made the change.
A David Goggins quote resonated with me:
“To achieve greatness, one must be willing to be unbalanced for a period of time.”
Back when I was walking 10 miles every day, I was unbalanced—in the best possible way.
My obsession, once directed at my career, was now fuelling my health, fitness, and eventually my family life. But I had to face “40 days and nights in the desert” before I could reset my factory settings. This combination of dietary discipline, physical movement, and psychological commitment transformed my life.
Mindset, willpower, and behaviour change are more important than fad diets or gimmicky exercises.
My motivation has to be personal—losing weight just to look good for a holiday won’t sustain long-term change.
Find your “happy place”—your reason to move forward even when it’s tough.
Don’t sweat the small stuff. I used to get frustrated when things didn’t go to plan. Now I choose what I care about, and when things go wrong I try to adapt instead of reacting.
Celebrate meaningful achievements. Rewards should reinforce progress—not undo it. There is no secret sauce.
“Change happens when the fear of staying the same outweighs the fear of change.”
Believe in yourself. Be kind to yourself. Keep moving forward.
Small steps matter. Consistency matters.
Your journey is yours—nobody else’s.
You can watch all of my videos on my YouTube channel: Ryan Condon.
All About the New Princeton Carbonworks Wake 6560 White Wheels in Zwift
Princeton Carbonworks has arrived in Zwift, with three wheelsets released to the game: the Alta 3532, the Wake 6560 White, and the Mach TSV2/Blur Disc. Today, we’re looking at the Wake 6560, the company’s popular flagship racing wheelset, known for aero performance and light weight.
A bit of trivia: the “Wake” name is a nod to the collegiate rowing roots of Princeton Carbonworks’ founders.
Here’s how these wheels (the Wake 6560 Evolution II) are described: “The 6th iteration of the Wake series and the largest step change in performance they’ve made yet. Faster. Lighter. Stiffer.”
The wheels are now available in the Drop Shop, accessible at level 32 and above, for 685,000 Drops. Notably, they are rated 4 stars for aero and 4 for weight, the only wheelset in game with such a high rating, apart from the newish ENVE SES 4.5 PRO. Since Zwift’s 4-star rating system isn’t precise enough for our taste, we ran these wheels through our standard battery of tests to determine exactly how they perform in Zwift and stack up against other wheelsets in game.
Let’s dive in and learn all about the performance of this wheelset from Princeton Carbonworks…
Aero (Flat/Rolling) Performance
Princeton’s Wake 6560 wheels deliver impressive aero performance, edging out the ENVE SES 4.5 PRO but falling just behind the most aero hoops in game: the ENVE SES 8.9, DT Swiss ARC 1100 DICUT 65, and ENVE SES 7.8.
As the 4th-fastest wheels in game, the Wake 6560 lose 4.4 seconds across an hour of riding compared to the ENVE SES 8.9. They lose 10.2 seconds across an hour compared to the fastest disc wheelset in game, the DT Swiss ARC 1100 DICUT 85/Disc.
Climb Performance
You would think such a deep wheelset wouldn’t climb well, but this is 2026, and wheelmakers are working miracles. With a claimed 1250-gram wheelset weight, the Wake 6560 is a bit lighter than the ENVE SES 4.5 PRO, and it shows in Zwift.
Princeton’s Wake 6560 wheels gain 12.3 seconds over our baseline wheels in an hour of climbing, beating the former top climbers (Zipp 353 NSW and Lightweight Meilenstein) by 2.5 seconds, and beating the ENVE SES 4.5 PRO by 2.9 seconds. They lose only to Princeton’s own Alta 3532 wheels, and then only by 1.8 seconds over an hour. How’s that for an all-arounder performance?
Note: all test results above are from a 75kg, 183cm rider holding 300W steady using the Zwift Carbon frame.
Conclusions
The Wake 6560 wheels from Princeton are Zwift’s new top all-arounders, edging out the ENVE SES 4.5 PRO in both our flat and climb tests and, in fact, outclimbing all the best dedicated climbing wheels in the game, apart from the new Princeton Alta 3532 hoops!
If you’re looking for a wheelset to use in races with significant climbs, this is the best one available in Zwift today.
These wheels have been, or will soon be, added to the following posts:
Important note: this post contains speed test results for Zwift frames or wheels. These results may change over time, and a bike's performance relative to others may also change. We don't always revise posts when performance rankings change, but we do keep current, master versions of our speed test results which are always available. See the frame charts, wheel charts, and Tron vs Top Performers for current performance data.
Pas Racing Series Announced: New Gravel, New Bikes, New Unlocks!
Table of Contents
Zwift + Pas Normal Studios are partnering for a race series April 6 to May 3, and it’s going to be a gravel blowout! The series features three new gravel-focused routes and is timed to line up with new gravel frames and wheelsets in Zwift’s Drop Shop. And on top of all that, we’ve got a kit unlock on offer as well!
These races will be popular for several reasons, including prominence on the calendar as they effectively replace Zwift’s regular ZRacing events for four weeks. Read about the series below…
Route Details and Schedule
Here are the routes we’ll be racing in the Pas Normal Racing series:
Zwift is using this series as an opportunity to refresh the Drop Shop’s gravel offerings more than ever before, with 5 frames arriving along with 2 wheelsets! Some of these are already in game and available for purchase, and we’ve completed and published our performance tests. Others will arrive in Zwift’s next game update, which is scheduled to roll out April 7.
Finish any stage of this series and unlock the in-game Pas Normal Racing kit.
XP Bonuses
Like Zwift’s regular ZRacing series, this race series includes XP bonuses for stage completion! A total of 2000 XP is available:
1 stage: 1000 XP
2 stages: +500 XP
3 stages: +300 XP
4 stages: +200 XP
GC Leaderboards
Zwift’s web-based leaderboards are used to track the monthly GC competition in ZRacing and similar series. Unlike past years, no ZwiftPower registration or use is necessary.
Your GC ranking is based on your best finishing time for each stage, and you can race each stage more than once to try for a better time.
Category Options
For their monthly series, Zwift typically schedules three different categorization schemes to encourage “Fairer, more competitive racing for everyone.” The different racing score ranges are titled Advanced, Range 1, and Range 2:
Zwift Camp: Breakthrough Announced, Begins April 6
Table of Contents
This season, Zwift is leaning heavily into the Zwift Camp concept, launching a three-camp series that kicked off with Zwift Camp: Baseline in September.
Next week (Monday, April 6), the third and final Camp of the season begins. Named “Zwift Camp: Breakthrough”, it’s a 5-stage workout series all about helping you transition to outdoor riding. Dive into all the details below!
Breakthrough Basics
After Zwift Camp: Baseline showed us our power bests across various intervals, and Zwift Camp: Build pushed us to get stronger, Zwift Camp: Breakthrough is here to help us transition confidently into outdoor riding.
The Camp consists of five different workouts, spread across five weeks. You can finish each workout once and complete the Camp, but you can also do a workout multiple times if you’re looking for additional training.
Instead of targeting power intervals like the first two camps, ZC: Breakthrough workouts target your technique while helping you build enduring fitness:
Stage 1: Foundations
Stage 2: Body Control
Stage 3: Cadence Mastery
Stage 4: Standing Skills
Stage 5: Flow Session
Workouts + Schedule
Stages can be completed as on-demand (solo) efforts whenever you’d like, or you can join a scheduled group event.
Stage 1: April 6-12
Foundations: Good posture and a cleaner pedal stroke save you tons of energy. It’s how you make outdoor rides feel effortless. The workout reinforces “calm control” while you build sustainable fitness with mostly steady work, then finishes by sharpening leg speed so you can stay smooth across different cadences.
Body Control: Riding outdoors is all about tiny adjustments. When your position changes, staying steady is what keeps rides calm and efficient. The workout guides riders through hand-position changes, one-leg focus drills, and calm upper-body control so adjustments feel natural, not messy, and you stay efficient and confident outside.
Unlock: Princeton Wake 6560 Wheels Lava Red Colorway
Cadence Mastery: We’re teaching cadence adaptability: staying smooth and in control even when rhythm changes (wind, terrain, surges, group pace). The workout emphasizes switching between higher and lower stroke speeds while keeping power steady, so outdoor riding feels composed instead of chaotic.
Unlock: Pinarello Dogma F 2024 Starry Red Colorway
Standing Skills: The goal is to make standing feel just as smooth and confident as sitting. The workout focuses on clean seated-to-standing transitions while maintaining control, building confidence for rollers, small rises, quick changes in pace, and “stretch-and-reset” moments outdoors.
Flow Session: The “put it all together” capstone. This is practice for the real world—you’re training control, not just fitness. Posture, pedal stroke, cadence control, and standing transitions blended into one steady, outdoor-ready rhythm. The script positions it as the final integration—helping riders feel calm, smooth, and capable when roads, terrain, and pace change.
Each stage is a week long, with events beginning at 9am PST on Monday and scheduled hourly on the hour until 8am PST the following Monday.
Progressive Unlocks
Four unlocks are available as you work your way through Zwift Camp: Breakthrough:
Complete Stage 1: Oakley Velo Kato glasses
Complete Stage 2: Lava Red Colorway for Princetown Carbonworks Wake 6560 wheels*
Complete Stage 3: Starry Red Colorway for Pinarello Dogma F 2024 frame*
Complete all 5 Stages: Zwift Camp: Breakthrough cycling kit
*These unlocks are for colorways only. You must still purchase the base Princetown Carbonworks Wake 6560 wheels and Pinarello Dogma F 2024 frame in the DropShop.
Questions or Comments?
What do you think of this last Zwift Camp of the season? Planning to participate? Got questions? Share your thoughts below!
Female Cycling Force Wants To See More Women on Bikes
As part of Women’s History Month, we’re featuring four different women’s clubs with a strong presence on Zwift. Looking to join a women’s club? See our Women’s Clubs on Zwift post!
When was your club founded?
Female Cycling Force started in 2021. In 2025, we officially became a brand (femalecyclingforce.com).
How did your club come to exist?
Our founder Linda began road cycling at a time when the only options were to ride with men or to ride alone. Unwilling to accept that reality, she founded Female Cycling Force to connect women in cycling and to inspire more women to start riding themselves.
Have any/all your club members ever met up IRL? If so, please tell us about it!
Yes! We organize weekly rides in Munich and Stuttgart, as well as camps, so the Female Cycling Force community can meet in person from all around the world.
Do most/many/any of your members also ride outdoors?
Yes, we all ride outdoors as well.
What do you see as the biggest hurdle for women to start cycling?
A lack of role models, the fear of being dropped on rides, feeling “not good enough” for group rides, as well as the overwhelming number of different bikes and not knowing which one is best for them.
Is the answer the same for women starting cycling on Zwift?
No, Zwift is definitely easier and more accessible for everyone.
Screenshot
Do you have thoughts/ideas/dreams for how we (we as a collective humanity, not necessarily Zwift – but it can include Zwift if you want) get more women riding?
Create more safe spaces, and give more role models a stage. Also, research and testing should not be men-specific with products adapted for women. Instead, test with women and make products for women!
What is a fun fact you’d like to share about your club?
Even if we are a female-only community, our biggest supporters are men!
If you had a magic wand to change one thing about the Zwift product OR the Zwift community, what would you wish for?
Zwift events headline our list of notable events this weekend, with the Big Spin, Zwift Games, and the zFondo series earning their spots for different reasons. We’ve also got two community race series to feature – one wrapping up with a banger of a long course, and another just starting, with age group-based categories!
The Zwift Games are wrapping up, with the final stage happening this week. Stage 6 is actually two different races – a time trial on Scotland’s new The Epiloch (11.1km, 93m), and a Crit Cade steering-required race on 5 laps of Crit City’s The Bell Lap (15.8km, 128m).
The Crit Cade events are particularly interesting to me, since they’re the largest field of steering Zwifters we’ve ever seen. I hear the races have been pretty wild!
✅ Bonus XP ✅ Popular ✅ Endurance Challenge ✅ Jersey Unlock
This weekend is the last zFondo weekend of Zwift’s 2025/26 series. Rides will be on the Zwift Gran Fondo 2022 route, clocking in at 92.7km with 1116m of elevation.
The final race of the SISU Racing Club Championships happens this weekend, and it’s a popular event, on a long, challenging route! This is the “road race” stage of the series, held on New York’s Fuhgeddaboudit (79km, 838m).
Even if you haven’t been racing the series, you’re invited to jump in and take part in the race. Lots of riders already signing up, so this will be a banger of an endurance challenge!
This week, the Herd kicks off their 6-week season of masters racing on New York’s Green to Screen (28.4km, 207m). There will be 5 age groups (u40, 40-49, 50-59, 60-69 and 70+) but all categories start together to give everyone a chance to find a group to ride with.
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!
All About the New Zipp 303 XPLR SW Gravel Wheels in Zwift
Zipp has a long history of cool IRL wheelsets being brought into Zwift, but until the latest game update, there were no Zipp gravel wheels in game.
But that’s all changed: the Zipp 303 XPLR SW wheels have arrived, and with them, boosted gravel bike performance in Zwift dirt!
Here’s how these wheels are described in the Drop Shop: “Wide, aero, and unapologetically quick. The 303 XPLR SW pairs a broad rim profile with gravel-tuned efficiency to smooth chatter and hold speed where others stall. It feels planted in corners and eager when you hit the gas. Built for riders who don’t just survive gravel, they press it.”
The wheels are now available in the Drop Shop, accessible at level 35 and above, for 550,000 Drops. Notably, they are rated 3 stars for aero and 2 for weight, the only gravel wheelset in game with such a high rating, which should indicate that they’ll perform better than any other gravel wheels in Zwift. Since Zwift’s 4-star rating system isn’t precise enough for our taste, we ran these wheels through our standard battery of tests to determine exactly how they perform in Zwift and stack up against other gravel wheelsets.
It’s worth noting that when Zwift adjusted equipment performance approximately 1 year ago, they made all existing gravel wheelsets perform identically. Since that time, no new gravel wheels have been added to the game. But that all changes with Zwift’s latest release: these new wheels are the latest in gravel tech, and as such, they outperform gravel wheels in game that are several years old.
Let’s dive in and learn all about the performance of Zipp’s first gravel wheelset in Zwift!
Aero (Flat/Rolling) Performance
Zipp’s 303 XPLR wheels are the most aero gravel wheelset in Zwift, turning in an hour flat test approximately 13 seconds faster than the other gravel wheels.
Climb Performance
The 303 XPLR wheels also outclimb all the other gravel wheelsets in game, but not by much: they beat the other wheelsets by just 1.5-2 seconds across an hour of climbing.
Note: all test results above are from a 75kg, 183cm rider holding 300W steady using the Zwift Carbon frame.
Jungle (Dirt) Performance
The aero advantage and slight climbing advantage shown in our pavement tests translate into improved performance for the Zipp 303 XPLR wheels in our Jungle Circuit test. While these wheels have the same Crr in dirt as Zwift’s other gravel wheels, they’re more aero and slightly lighter, resulting in a 15-second advantage across an hour of dirt riding.
Conclusions
The Zipp 303 XPLR SW are Zwift’s new top gravel wheels, so if you’re racing in the dirt, you’ll want to pick up a set.
Note, though, that there are rumors of fresh dirt roads coming to Zwift, and probably more gravel frames and wheels coming to the game shortly. It’s possible that even faster gravel wheels will be added to the Drop Shop soon, so unless you’ve got a dirt race coming up, you might wait a few weeks to make your purchase.
These wheels have been, or will soon be, added to the following posts:
Important note: this post contains speed test results for Zwift frames or wheels. These results may change over time, and a bike's performance relative to others may also change. We don't always revise posts when performance rankings change, but we do keep current, master versions of our speed test results which are always available. See the frame charts, wheel charts, and Tron vs Top Performers for current performance data.
