Anyone who’s been paying attention to cycling lately knows that riders worldwide are joining Zwift in droves. This mass indoor migration includes pro riders in the upper echelons of the sport on WorldTour teams like Mitchelton-Scott, Bahrain McLaren, Trek-Segafredo, Ineos, Jumbo-Visma, Cofidis, EF Pro Cycling, Israel Start-Up Nation, NTT, and Team INEOS. As a huge cycling fan, it puts a smile on my face whenever I spot one of my favorite pros spinning around Watopia!
While you pros have historically stayed away from Zwift races, we’re seeing you jumping into these competitive events in increasing numbers. This is fun to see! But here’s the weird part: you’re not winning! (Well, not very often at least.)
I’ve been thinking about writing this “letter to the pros” for a while, then a recent race made me decide to pull the trigger. Mathieu Van der Poel and his Alpecin-Fenix team raced the Richmond UCI route against some top community teams in a one-off race titled “Ronde van Zwift”. And even though Alpecin-Fenix brought 18 team riders to the event (the community teams each brought 7), they still neglected to place a single rider in the top 10, with only a couple of riders holding onto the main pack through to the finish!
Watch Lionel Sanders’ view of the race:
This isn’t an edge case, either. Pro teams have historically performed poorly in Zwift races against top community teams. What’s happening here, pros? Why are the world’s top road racers being beaten by amateurs?
Here are the reasons, as I see them. With a few tips along the way.
Insufficient Course Knowledge
You wouldn’t go into an outdoor race without a course recce, and this is also true on Zwift! But when I’ve spoken with pros before races, it’s clear they have very little knowledge of the route they’re about to take on. It’s not a difficult job – most race routes are quite short, the route details are readily available online, and you can hop into Zwift at any time to pre-ride your race route.
When you research your route, start by paying attention to just a few key things:
- Length and elevation: this is obvious. You need to know how long the race will last, and what sort of profile it has.
- Climbs: whenever the road turns up, wattage will jump as well. This is where attacks and selections happen.
- Banner locations: you will need to know the location of any sprint and KOM banners, especially in points races. But even in simple scratch races, the banners are where you get powerups, so knowing their location is an important part of knowing when to use or hold a powerup.
- Finish: ride the final kilometers several times, because chances are your race will end in a pack finish. You need to know how best to strategically ride the final minutes of your race.
Wimpy Setups
I laugh every time I see a pro rider trying to race on Zwift while squinting at an underpowered laptop screen set on a table off to one side. (I only laugh to keep from crying… it’s a sad situation indeed). The vast majority of top Zwift racers do so with a large monitor or TV so they can clearly see what’s going on.
Worse yet, recently I’ve seen many pros riding outdoors with no fans. My guess is they will only make this mistake once, because pros know that overheating results in reduced power. Unless the winds are high outside, you will need a fan! Outside air doesn’t move enough to dissipate the superheated pocket surrounding your body. And of course, if you’re indoors a fan is even more essential.
Working Too Hard
Mastering the draft on Zwift is not difficult, but it does take a little practice since it doesn’t “feel” anything like drafting IRL. Drafting out on the road is intuitive because when you’re not drafting you feel the wind and the increased effort. Plus, you can steer yourself back to an ideal drafting position whenever you’d like, unless there are teams working some wicked echelons in the crosswinds.
On Zwift, being in the draft saves you 30% or more. But you don’t feel the draft – that is, resistance doesn’t drop when you enter the draft, or increase when you leave it. So you have to pay attention to your location in the pack on screen. Again and again I’ve seen pro riders killing themselves on the front of the pack, only to get shelled off the back on the first climb. (This may be a team tactic, but I doubt it.)
Smart racers on Zwift know to shelter themselves in the pack and conserve energy so they have it when it matters. Yes, at times you may have some domestiques whose only job is to keep the pace high by pinning it at the front of the pack – but pros new to Zwift should probably work on just hanging with the front pack first!
Not Your Typical Road Race
Zwift races are nothing like the 5+ hour road races enjoyed by pros during a typical season. In terms of effort level, Zwift races are most comparable to cyclocross or short TT races. Here are a few key things that characterize most Zwift races:
- The start will be fast. There are no neutral starts on Zwift! Instead, the peloton will push hard from the gun in order to establish a selection. Be pedaling hard when the clock hits zero.
- You should never stop pedaling, except perhaps on a steep descent. Doing so will get you spit out the back, never to return.
- Expect to be riding near threshold for the entire event… except when you have to go harder!
- If you’re dropped, you won’t return. There are no team cars to help pull you back to the pack, and your teammates dropping back probably won’t help, either. When you get dropped from the front of a Zwift race, chances are you’re not coming back.
Serious Business… for Some
As a top pro accustomed to racing and training outdoors, you may think Zwift racing is a bit silly. And that’s understandable. But here’s what you need to know: the community teams you’re competing against take it very seriously. Not only are they stacked with super-strong athletes, but they’ve also been racing on Zwift 2, 3, 4 times a week… for years!
They know the routes like the back of their hand, and they’ve got big screens, strong fans, and high framerates. If you think you can just pop open your laptop, log into Zwift, and beat these teams – you’re probably in for a rude awakening.
In a typical year, at this point in the season, a pro could be excused for not giving Zwift races any serious thought. But this isn’t a typical year. Zwift racing is (arguably) the only serious indoor platform in town, and cycling is only indoors for the foreseeable future. In an industry where camera time leads to sponsor money and fan engagement is paramount, pro teams would be well-advised to avoid “doing a Cofidis“.
We all want to see you pros competing in Zwift races, but it’s going to take some practice and homework if you want to perform well.
And we hope you do, because it’ll be fun to watch.
See you on course!