The Chasing Tour (chasingtour.com) has just been announced, and it’s nothing we’ve seen before on Zwift! Built from the model of last year’s well-received “Chasing Yellow” series, this is a comprehensive, year-long Zwift racing calendar following the pro peloton tour.
Riders can participate in 90 days of racing that mirror what real-life pros will race on those same days: grand tours, stage races, seasonal series, and single-day races.
Table of Contents
Tour Summary
- 90 races
- 6 GC stage races (3 grand tours, 3 petite tours)
- 1 seasonal series
- 6 single day races
- culminating in 1 annual points competition
- prizes throughout from tour sponsor The Breakaway
Everything kicks off Saturday, March 4th with the single-day Chasing Bianche (52.4km/529m).
Race Your Way
Riders can participate in events whenever they want, riding as many or as few events as they wish. You may want to only try out a single-day race or one of the longer tours, and that’s perfectly fine. Of course, if you’re competing for the overall GC, you’ll want to participate in as many races as possible!
There are 4 time slots available for each race so riders from around the globe can complete at a time that works best for their schedule.
Competitions
Chasing Tour 2023 GC
- The individual rider GC is calculated off a rider’s point accumulation across the season.
- The team GC is calculated using the point accumulation from a team’s top 3 riders from each race event and GC competition.
Race Events
- There are 90 individual event races during the 2023 circuit.
- Riders are awarded points for each individual race event they participate in and complete.
- Many of the individual event races are organized into GC competitions.
GC | Stage Race
- Stage races evaluate a rider’s combined time over the course of multiple stages (race events).
- If a rider misses a stage they are given the last finishing time for the stage.
- Riders must complete the minimum required amount of stages within a GC competition to qualify for GC competition points. This is generally at least 2/3 of the stages.
- Don’t worry if you miss a stage, riders still earn points from the individual race events they complete within a stage race.
GC | Seasonal Series
- Seasonal event series evaluate a rider’s point accumulation across a defined set of races.
- There is no minimum required race count with the competition to earn GC placement and points.
Scoring
You earn points in two ways, from individual race events and general classification (GC) competitions. The more you ride, the more you earn.
Race Event Scoring
- Points are awarded for each category and event time zone
- Riders can complete the race in any time zone; its not required to always race in the same time zone
- Only the first completed event for a specific race counts
- Race event points determined by the race tier
GC Competition Scoring
- GC standing are calculated globally, not for each time zone
- Points awarded for each category
- Riders must complete the minimum number of GC competition events to receive GC points
Team Scoring
- The top 3 riders’ scores from each event count
- The top 3 riders from a GC competition count
Rules & Categories
Chasing Tour rules are quite simple:
- Riders must be registered on ZwiftPower (learn how to sign up)
- Heart rate monitors required
- No ZPower riders
Categorization is different than typical Zwift races, since the Chasing Tour is using the zwiftracing.app ranking system to provide categorization. Riders should sign up for the category that corresponds to their zwiftracing.app rank:
- A: Platinum, Challenge, Champion, Grand Champion
- B: Gold
- C: Silver
- D: Bronze
All categories will start at the same time and be visible to each other during the race. Categories are used at signup so riders can see their competition.
If you need help determining your category, see the CATEGORIES section of the Rules & Scoring page.
Prizes
Tour sponsor The Breakaway will provide grand prizes for each main tour (Chasing Pink, Chasing Yellow, Chasing Femmes, and Chasing Red).
Additionally, each 8-week or all-time PR earned on The Breakaway during each tour will earn you a virtual ticket for a raffle at the end of that tour. The more PR’s you get, the more chances to win!
For each tour, three finishers will be selected at random to receive:
- A Zwift Hub smart trainer
- A Hammerhead Karoo 2
- A $200 Gift Certificate to The Feed
Early Season Schedule
The full schedule is much too extensive to list here, but it can be found on the Chasing Tour Calendar. Here are the first races of the year:
- March 4 | Chasing Bianche (52.4km/529m, single day race)
- March 7 – March 12 | Chasing d’Azur (52.4km/529m, 6-day stage race)
- March 18 | Chasing Sanremo (69.9km/714m, single day race)
- March 24 – April 23 | Chasing Classics (52.4km/529m, 8 races seasonal series)
Learn More/Registration
- Register for the tour
- Tour calendar (event details and sign up links)
- View race results and GC standings
Visit www.chasingtour.com for more details
Questions or Comments?
Post below!
Very cool but it’s kind of disappointing that all these iconic names will be used and the routes are just the same maps we’ve been racing for years.
I wasn’t expecting new worlds or roads, but some custom courses would have been nice to create something a bit more of the flavour of the real events.
Go big or go home… First prize should be an interview on ZwiftInsider to that one brave soul who actually rides all 90 races. Points by damned.
This does look very interesting. However, all racers start together and using ZP categories, asandbaggers delight. A C rider can top the standings by sitting in the draft of As and Bs the whole time.
Yeah it seems to be a really weird approach. I wont bother with it for this reason
All CAT starts are awful! As a C rider you have no idea who you are racing against off the line. As you say, many will draft the A riders for a decent stretch.
Then as a C, draft the As (which, other As and Bs will be drafting as well, so try to keep up)
And this is about the long game, not individual races
If you’re a C who can hang with the A start, then you are probably not a real C to begin with.
Also looks like a good D rider is going to struggle against the Cs. A D rider at 2.4/2.5 W/kg has no chance against a 3W/kg C rider.
Well, as a D Sub2.0, wlecome to the club.
This also benefits heavier riders. Draft is highest at high speeds, highest speeds are on flat and down hill, heavier riders have an advantage here due to having higher power in any wkg based split. They are more likely to be able to stick with drafting cat above
Although true, it’s not how things usually go
You’re assuming that the heavier riders are going all out from the start and can separate from the rest.
If they don’t, then the lightweights will just tag along (which usually happens), and if there’s a climb then the lightweights can take advantage of that.
And for a C to stick with the heavier As and Bs (cat above), then those other cats won’t be giving their all, but the C would have to put out more effort % to stick with them.
In a wkg based split why did you assume that the lightweight rider can take advantage of a climb? This is only true if they are so light that they fall beneath the wattage floor. Given the split is by definition done by wkg and this is the metric thats important on a climb (when steep enough) then they should have, on average, the same wkg and same pace up a climb A C doesnt need to stick with heavier As, they can just stick with a B pack that is faster than the Cs pack and hold in the… Read more »
I can’t understand why race organizers continue to put on races with all categories starting together. The race is decided by who can hang in with the A cat start the longest, it’s so f’ing boring.
So true, and for me its not about sandbagging but about the tactics in a race. If all start together the tactic for all non-A riders is to just give it your all to stay with them. In a category only race there can be tactics, attacks and such – so much more fun!
“A C rider can top the standings by sitting in the draft of As and Bs the whole time.”
But if that were the case, then the As and Bs would be taking it easy. This is very unlikely. A C will not sit in the draft of As and Bs the entire time.
If he/she can do that, deserves to win. Not so easy to hang on faster riders at some people thing. I am a D sub2.0 and I cannot hold in the draft of a pack of strong D riders. No matter how hard I try, always get dropped.
Yeah so I raced it this morning in the 1100UTC timeslot and it was FEROCIOUS at the start. I’m a C that can podium so I was curious about exactly your assertion and of course I want to hang on to the As and Bs. Yeah so about that :-), I got popped off the front group in the Titans Grove *rollers* not even the KOM. And I was popped off the next group at the ramp that comes up to the Epic KOM start after the spruce goose bridge. And I still came in 5th in the Cs, missing… Read more »
I’ve reached out to the organiser to see if they are interested in organising results using ZwiftRacing.app. Could be a much better approach than using ZP cats which really rewards sandbaggers in mass start races.
Was about to cancel my registration (if that’s possible), but if they go this route, I’m in!
Great Idea for Euros. But they need a few more time slots that are going to suit Aussies.
Well said, Ekul. The US/UK centric folks at Zwift have never had much consideration for us ‘down under’ riders!
No Zpower riders, so that takes out a bunch of us that have wheel on trainers, seems like zwift are happy to take our money every month but not allow us to participate in most of the “events”
I would love to see a zpower only category for you Richard!
So Mike, you saying im the only one on Zpower with wheel on trainer? pretty sure there are plenty more.
Two things:
First, wheel on is not the same as Zpower. Zpower means you don’t have a power meter or smart trainer, which means your estimated power numbers in Zwift are just a guess. That’s why it’s disallowed. A smart wheel on trainer is allowed.
Second: this race series isn’t organized by Zwift, so I wouldn’t blame them for the race organizer excluding certain people.
hello nothing for category D?
Way to long for me and to commit to a year of racing is just crazy. I understand that you can do as few races as you wish but for myself doing only some of it is pointless. All in or nothing. WTRL or FRR is a great format, but a year long , nope. We are not pros and trying to replicate as such is madness IMHO.
The race itself was fierce enough with enough riders that even if you just do one or two, if it’s “the big race” of the day (that is: most participants) it could just be one-off fun.
Great to have something a bit different in the racing landscape. Looks like a few wrinkles to iron out but then we all have them! Got to say I quite enjoy the simplicity of everyone just riding together, most of these events are on the longer side or over days anyway so all well and good “just” drafting…until you potentially blow up 10k later or the next stage! HERD and SISU events I have enjoyed riding in have reverted to an all cats visible format and are much better for it imo, although the simple, less arbitrary cat boundary, E… Read more »
I really like the idea. It’s a shame that there are only 4 starttimes, and their missing out on the early morning starters CEST (eg around 0600/0700 AM).
Is that Breakaway app required? It’s only for Apple devices and I’m not on it. Or is it only using ZwiftPower?
Not required.
I have to disagree with many of you that think all Cat starts just favour sandbaggers, I would say that Cat only starts favour sandbaggers! The reasoning being if a SB sticks with a pack of Higher cat riders from the start, the wkg required to stick in that pack is higher(even when drafting) taking their average wkg higher, then when break points are hit in the race,Higher Cat riders will kick off, this raises their average higher again and may well mean they near the upgrade mark, this is not what a SB wants! A SB wants to sit… Read more »
For me it is about making racing more realistic and not about sandbaggers. Sandbaggers will always be there and always find a way to sandbag, i.e. delete intense and long efforts in ZwiftPower, etc.. However, when all riders start in one Pen the race will be dictated by the strongest category present, in most cases Cat A. As a lower category rider you just have to fight to stay with the main group. If you fail, your race is over, if you manage to stay with the group you may win your sub-category. In contrast, if al riders of one… Read more »
I noticed there’s separate A/B/C pens for the 1300 UTC timeslots, while it’s an all racers E pen only for the other three race timeslots (1030, 1900, 0100). Maybe this is to address some of the concerns of those who always think everything’s set up to disadvantage them, although it seems to me trying to please everybody all the time is a losing battle. Re only having four timeslots: I’m actually happy to see it. I’ve done FRR tours, and while they’re great, the high number (6+) of timeslots each day seems to always result in a number of them… Read more »
I’ve been confused about those categories for the different time slots, but I’m not passed considering it to have been done in error. I think I’ll have to do the 1900 slot regardless, so I hope they all count the same.
All the results will be re-categorized based on zwiftracing.app categories anyway (riders being moved both up and down if they were in the “wrong” pen based on zwiftracing.app, so the letters may be wrong in-game (don’t assume you shouldn’t chase/push during race based on letter categories for riders in other words…) but the results will come out right. The different pens etc for different slots is because some events were official Zwift public events and some were club events. I think the best thing to do based on the Chasing Racing Discord conversations is to join the Chasing Racing club… Read more »
According to the race description, they have now changed to categories A, B, C and D based on the zwiftracing.app ranking. It’s unclear whether we should select this category ourselves or if we should all use cat E, since it seems to be unable to let me into the A pen (the race description says we will be re-categorized after event completion, but it also says we will be punished if we don’t select the right category…).
Received email this morning asking folks to re-assign themselves:
“Because of this new enhancement, some events still have a category E which could not be deleted otherwise existing rider registration would have been lost.
If you have signed up for a race event in category E we ask that you kindly switch to your appropriate race category for the event. If you or other riders are unable to make the switch before the event, no problem, event results will be recategorized at event completion.”
I managed to move myself from E to A in the end…
Still wondering when that recategorisation is going to happen – there’s still cat E riders in the results, and some cat B riders that should have been A (probably similar in C and D).
Yeah, I’m sure there will be some shuffling of results in the next day or so, there’s probably quite a few people ‘missed the memo’ on which category to put themselves in. I’m usually a Cat D in Zwift but a low-to-middle ‘silver’ rider according to zwiftracing.app, so it was weird signing up for the ‘C’ race. I finished 45/60 but had some tech issues before ride start so I didn’t get a proper ‘jump’ at the start that I would have liked.
Correct. I updated the post above to reflect the new categorization scheme.
You might want to update again to really push folks to head over to the Chasing Racing Discord (invite that should not expire I think: https://discord.gg/TXthzjQGdP) because the race announcement channel (https://discord.com/channels/998260205005570170/1081244568202268775) has important announcements. Specifically: for the ITT coming up as stage 1 of Chasing Azur stage race, *one* of the events is a formal public created-by-Zwift TT so it looks like a TT but Zwift didn’t create official events for all time slots so the rest of the slots are “Club” events. Club Events cannot be ITTs (srsly…) so they are mass start but no draft. In the… Read more »
I sent them a couple questions about categorization and points and they’ve made some updates that really clarifies things. My final question now is when they mention that riders will improve etc and cat up on zwiftracing.app (which will – I think – by their system of record for categories?) they mention that if that happens in the first 5 races they apply it for the whole season. Okay, but …what happens to your Chasing GC points if upgrade in for example the 10th race? Do I just become a B and keep my C points / rolling them into… Read more »
Got a reply: after 5 events in a row in the same category, you’re locked in that category for the season. Vamos!