For a few years now, Zwift’s race calendar has included some unmaintained or poorly attended events. And while Zwift announced a cleanup effort two years ago, that initiative was later paused… until this week, when Zwift informed race organizers of a calendar “cleanup” currently underway. Let’s look at the details!
It’s About Participation Levels
Zwift’s announcement says, “We are taking action now in order to ensure that all races on the platform have adequate participation and provide a great racing experience for all involved.” In talking to contacts within Zwift, that statement nicely summarizes their reasons for culling some events from the calendar.
Back in 2022, when Zwift first looked at removing races from the calendar, they shared this interesting bit of info which is still true today:
Detailed analysis of all racing events demonstrates a very clear correlation between the number of participants in an event/subgroup and the percentage of starters that go on to complete the race – (finishing %s are one of our clearest measures of race quality) -. This correlation is not surprising – we know that in smaller races and/or subgroups it’s more likely that you’ll end up alone and you’ll be less likely to finish the race. This is also supported by a range of qualitative feedback we receive.
Racers know intuitively that most events need a sort of “critical mass” if the experience is going to be a fun one. How many riders are needed in order to make it fun? Opinion will vary, but I’d say you need at least 10 riders in your category, and even more as the race grows longer or the course more hilly.
Zwift has come up with their own criteria for participation to decide which events are removed from the public calendar. They looked at participation numbers for the month of November 2024 and required events to hit particular targets:
- For most racing events, less than 30 participants on average per week
- For hill climb and time trial events, less than 20 participants on average per week
By the Numbers
Zwift says approximately 240 weekly community race events will be moved to their respective clubs in this cleanup, while all Zwift-owned TT and Hill Climb events will also be removed (approximately 70 per week).
With around 1200 weekly race events scheduled in recent weeks, that means we’ll seeing an overall reduction in race events of approximately 25%.
Public to Private
Events that don’t meet the minimum participation requirements will be moved from the public calendar to the host club’s private calendar, meaning they will still exist and continue repeating each week, but you must be a member of the club to see the event in your Companion app schedule.
If you’re a race organizer who is wondering if this move impacts your events, check your email. Zwift’s James Bailey has contacted any impacted racing organizers directly.
Target Date
Zwift says they are “aiming to complete these changes by 16th December.”
Getting Back On the Calendar
Having your event moved to your club’s private calendar isn’t necessarily the end of the line for your race. The event could return to the public calendar if you’re able to boost participation levels.
Zwift says, “If any of these events subsequently achieve the criteria (for a minimum of three weeks in a row), we will be happy to reinstate the specific event(s) to the public calendar.”
It sounds like Zwift will be more strategic moving forward when it comes to considering new event requests. James Bailey says, “Going forward we will start to manage the public racing calendar much more actively and will carefully consider any new event requests with respect to the current volume of events, activity on the platform and other factors at the relevant time of day. The criteria outlined above will also apply to new events, which will undergo a trial period. Should you wish to create any new events please continue to contact me directly, and we can discuss your request in the context of the above.”
Concluding Thoughts
I, for one, welcome this move from Zwift. I think most racers will, too, because there have been too many poorly maintained and/or poorly attended races on the calendar for far too long.
When you have 10 races scheduled near the top of each hour instead of 3-5, some riders will inevitably sign up for races with poor participation numbers, and the experience for those riders will be degraded. It’s not always easy to figure out which race(s) will be getting large enough fields when you’re browsing events a few hours (or days) out.
Here’s an interesting stat: sources within Zwift tell me that the majority of riders sign up for races within 24 minutes of the event. That means you can’t be sure of how much participation a race will have until the final minutes leading into the event. Therefore, Zwift needs to be even more careful to curate their race calendar so riders know when they sign up for an event, they’ll have a great experience racing against a competitive field.
Questions or Comments?
What do you think of Zwift’s move to clean up the race calendar? Share below!
wpDiscuz
