After a successful trial run series, Team DIRT Racing has announced the global launch of DIRT Racing Series, Season 1. Held on Tuesdays beginning May 31 (after Zwift Racing League wraps up), it looks to be an exciting, competitive series with rules and structure that make it extra fun.
Here’s how they describe it:
DIRT Racing Series is open for everyone, all Zwift Racers (new and experienced), all Zwift Clubs and all genders. Whether you’re a sprinter, a climber or a diesel – we think you should always be able to contribute to your team. With our balanced points structure ALL points will be valuable so you’ll have to push hard wherever you are in the race!
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DRS Basics
Here are some key things we spotted that make the DIRT Racing Series special:
- Split categories (A & A+, B+, B-, C+, C- & D) so the competition is tighter
- Team racing: open to teams of 4-8 riders
- Individual and Team leaderboards
- Balanced points allocation so more racers contribute (see Rules & Scoring page)
- No powerups, just pure old leg power
Series Schedule
The 5-stage series is held on Tuesdays in two different time slots:
- Time Zone 1: 10:45 BST / 05:45 EDT
- Time Zone 2: 18:45 BST / 13:45 EDT
The series begins with an individual time trial but also features three points races and a team time trial:
| Stage | Format | Date | Length | Elevation | Course | World |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stage 1 | iTT | 05/31 | 23.8km | 155m | Casse Pattes | France |
| Stage 2 | Race | 06/07 | 39.6km | 202m | Neokyo Crit Course | Makuri Islands |
| Stage 3 | Race | 06/14 | 34.5km | 545m | Everything Bagel | New York |
| Stage 4 | TTT | 06/21 | 36.4km | 163m | Triple Flat Loops | Watopia |
| Stage 5 | Race | 06/28 | 41.4km | 569m | Triple Loops | London |
Registration and More Info
Visit teamdirt.racing for more information on the DIRT Racing Series.
Ready to sign up? Register your team at teamdirt.racing/register-now
Questions or Comments?
Post below!
Can they add more time slots for the evening for those west coast folks?
Absolutely Chris! We managed to get the results processing working well in the trial series, so it was quick but it was still quite manual. But we’re working hard to automate it even further through this series so we can scale up for more time zones next time. Let us know if you’d be up for being a time zone champion for us when we do. 👍🏼
I would like to try it but like most folks, I have a weekday job. Americas CDT time puts me right before work or during lunch hour. Can’t make that happen. Looks fun though.
This sounds like a great series! Question on split categories. In the article it makes it seem like there is a C minus and a separate D category. But on the DIRT website it seems that there is a single category that puts lower C’s and all D’s into a single group. It’s called C / D. This seems like quite a large range as it goes from 0 to 2.84 w/kg for avg weight riders and up to 3.19 w/kg (up to 174 watts) for lighter riders. It seems like this will disadvantage true D’s. I am a low C and light so this won’t adversely affect me, but do think it that if the aim is to have “the closest category racers on your pen” it might make sense to split C’s and D’s. I suspect that grouping low end C’s and D’s may have been a decision made based on a concern about generally low numbers of entrants in D cat team racing. But I think part of the reason the numbers are usually low is because D riders have historically been discouraged when the competition isn’t close or fair due to having to compete with out-of-cat riders typically due to sandbagging or cruising. I think one of the best things about this series is the idea of having parity in the pens and I think this move on the low end may work against that.
Hey L Lashley – you make really good points and are spot on. We used zwiftinsiders analysis of the racing community to help guide where to draw the category lines. And there are just fewer D racers racing regularly than other categories. If you then look at the C Category what you find is that considerably more than 50% are in the top half of C. So the bottom half of C is also a little light in riders. Hence our decision to group them for Series 1. We really hope this continues to grow as if we were sure of having 6+ teams in a category then we’d split them out. We aren’t far away in Zone 2 this season with 9 teams so far and we’ll also keep an eye on the results to see how the teams with Ds are doing and just keep trying to make it better each season.
Bummer for me. A 2:45am or a 10:45am start Pacific doesn’t work for me. I have a fairly short window for Zwifting and as a result miss events on a regular basis I would like to do. I get it; entirely on me but a bummer nonetheless…
Another west coast rider here who would love to join if there was a suitable PST evening time.
Are individual riders allowed to race as i would be forever letting the team down, some weeks ill make it home after work in time but others not
Hi Dave – we totally understand. It is a team event only, but each team can have 8 riders and all are allowed to race each week … but only the top 4 scores count so someone not racing doesn’t necessarily harm the team. We felt this gave the best balance because we all know the difficulty of fitting our racing around work and family at DIRT.
Can I enter a team of 8 with different categories, or is it best for the team to be of similar category.
The website explains how it works for teams with multiple categories.
Hi sorry not about this subject!!!
??? Being move up categories base on watts I’m C category I race mixed b+c but need to push big watts to keep up so I’m almost B but no way à B cat rider in most race I’ll finish above 40th place in regular races the danger is TTT racing with mixed team I need to keep plus the hills 20 minute average too be bump up category it should be a combo of the watts plus placing in the race below 15th plus watts I think just going watts is not to us riders just try to keep up with your team team…
marc Gagné long time zwift rider (10$) I started riding with zwift