The world of virtual cycling continues to evolve, and the new E-Cycling Race Organization (ECRO) may just represent the next significant leap forward for competitive Zwift racing. Building upon the foundation established by the Chasing Tour, ECRO aims to “create a more immersive and strategic virtual cycling experience that benefits riders and team managers alike.”
From Chasing Tour to ECRO
Founded in 2022 by Jonathan Morin, the Chasing Tour successfully established a year-long racing calendar that brought structure and continuity to the Zwift racing scene (read about Chasing Tour 2023 here). Jonathan built ECRO by expanding this foundation into a comprehensive platform that introduces elements previously unseen in virtual cycling competitions.
The ECRO World Tour 2025 will feature 75 races throughout the year, including single-day races, week-long tours, and three multi-week grand tours. This extensive calendar establishes a professional-level competition structure that mirrors real-world pro cycling, and it all kicks off on March 8, 2025, with Chasing Bianche!
New Dimensions: Rider Economics and Team Management
What sets ECRO apart is its introduction of economic elements to virtual cycling. The platform implements features like:
- Rider Market Values: Riders have assigned virtual monetary values based on their performance and category
- Team Contracts: Teams can sign riders to formal agreements
- Rider Transfers: A transfer system allowing riders to move between teams
- Team Financials: Teams manage a virtual budget, profiting from rider development and transfers
(It’s important to note that all financial aspects within ECRO—including rider values, team budgets, and prizes—are virtual and do not represent real-world currency. These virtual economics simply add an engaging layer of strategy and simulation to the competition.)
Clear Categorization
ECRO employs a straightforward categorization system based on the zwiftracing.app 90-day vELO ratings:
🔴 A Category: 1900+ rating
🟢 B Category: 1450-1899 rating
🔵 C Category: 1150-1449 rating
🟡 D Category: 850-1149 rating
🟣 E Category: 0-849 rating
This system ensures fair competition within all skill levels, and scheduled recategorization points throughout the season help maintain competitive balance.
Team Structure and Competition
Teams add another dynamic element to the ECRO World Tour:
- Teams can consist of up to 12 riders across any of the 5 categories
- The top 6 riders in each category earn points for their team
- Teams accumulate points throughout the season for overall standings
Comprehensive Scoring and Competition Format
ECRO’s competition structure is multi-layered, offering riders and teams various ways to earn points:
- Individual Race Events: Points awarded based on race tier and finishing position
- Stage Races: Multi-race competitions using a global time-gap system pioneered by Chasing Tour to determine overall standings
- Seasonal Series: Multiple races where cumulative points determine the winner
- Season-Long Competition: All points contribute to the overall ECRO World Tour standings
This structure rewards consistent participation and performance throughout the season, encouraging engagement with the entire calendar of events.
Registration and Pricing
To participate officially in the ECRO World Tour, riders and teams must obtain licenses:
- Rider License: $7.99 for the 2025 season
- Team License: $12.99 for the 2025 season
(While anyone can participate in ECRO events on Zwift, only licensed riders will have their results counted toward the official ECRO World Tour standings. These fees support the ongoing development of the platform.)
Benefits for the Entire Zwift Racing Ecosystem
ECRO’s approach delivers benefits to riders and managers alike:
For Riders:
- Verified ECRO rider accounts with clear categorization
- Opportunities to join teams and develop virtual cycling careers
- Points-based competition with virtual prizes
- Professional racing structure
For Team Managers:
- Team creation and management tools
- Strategic rider recruitment and contract management
- Virtual financial system with potential growth through smart team building
- Season-long competition against other teams
Only on Zwift
According to Jonathan, “ECRO has chosen Zwift as its exclusive platform because Zwift provides the best in-game racing experience available in virtual cycling. The robust features, established community, and technical capabilities of Zwift create the perfect environment for ECRO’s vision. By building on Zwift’s foundation, ECRO is invested in seeing Zwift continue to be the home of elite e-cycling racing, furthering the platform’s position as the premier virtual cycling experience.”
Looking Ahead
The ECRO platform represents the most comprehensive attempt yet to create a professional-level virtual cycling ecosystem that mirrors the structure, strategy, and engagement of real-world professional cycling.
So whether you’re a casual Zwift racer looking to test yourself against others, a competitive rider seeking structured competition, or someone interested in the team management aspects of cycling, I’d recommend looking into what ECRO is doing today.
For more information or to register for the ECRO World Tour 2025, visit www.ecro.app.
Your Thoughts
What do you think of ECRO’s approach to Zwift racing? Share your thoughts below!
I’ll be a bit ironic: If they believe Zwift offers the best race experience, then why don’t they use the Zwift Racing Score instead of the vELO ratings?
I guess because “the best” in this regards refers to the “the best available” which does not necessarily mean that there is no way to improve it…
The best racing experience is Zwift…. using vELO ratings.
you right 🙂
My guess is “race experience” here refers to actual in-game experience. Like having a sufficient number of riders (without bots) and the overall world experience, rider animations, physics, etc. Not so much the rankings that determine who races who…
I’m glad they chose Zwift after Zwift got smacked in the face by the UCI Worlds choosing MyWhoosh.
I would not call it as UCI selected. More like myWoosh bought it for huge amount of money
Did not know that. Thanks for this info. That kind of makes it a little easier to swallow, but these days money talks, not loyalty.
I hope Cycling Canada got something from MyWhoosh this year too!
It could keep the hot garbage mess of a National Championship event with 5 participants from being a total loss.
So as a random if you win a race Zwiftracing, Zwiftpower and Zwift itself will show you as the winner but ECRO won’t unless you pay them an additional £7.99. Also multiple folk are having issue selecting a slot without a paywall popping up asking them to pay. Enjoy the grift!
Fair point. I guess that is one issue with racing on zwift.
I don’t know if it is different if you are “commited” as part of a team and participate in regular races, because I do not. I race occasionally for fun or getting a good workout in.
I never won a race on zwift. On zwift power I did. Now: is that because the sandbaggers are kicked on zwiftpower, or because the winner of the race is not registered on zwiftpower?
Any “other” racing system should have an exhaustive list of participants, which they can not get due to data security.
That said, ECRO might think they can achieve that by concentrating on the “commited” racers having to pay for it. I guess a D to C rider won’t bother ECRO, not sure about B, but maybe a couple of A’s oder A+ might be interested.
All in all, I like the idea, and I see reason to pay for it, from the creators standpoint. From the standpoint of racers I do not. Make it free and available to everbody with some adverts or give some more features you have to pay for. Similar to Strava, not saying that they are (still) doing a good job, but they initially did: “if it’s not on strava it didn’t happen”
just my 2 cents
75 events for for like 8 bucks seems like a pretty good deal to me. Especially when you have Zwift and Strava who are the ones really doing the grifting here. Looks like it is trying something new and different with the contracts and virtual money values and we really should be rewarding innovation instead of condemning it
sure, 8 bucks compared to strava and zwift is not too much, but adding all up? I mean, don’t get me wrong, I am not missing the “good all days” staring at a wall and follow watt numbers for no more than 90 mins on the dumb trainer. But 8+20+~7, that is 35 bucks for “just” riding and racing indoors.
£7.99 is an annual fee, though. Not exactly going to break the bank. It funds the development of the ECRO platform, which seems fair enough for me. A far cry from grift, IMO…
Ah, thanks clarifying, I thought its per month. In this case, forget what I just said, that is totally fair. I guess it’s even okay to be spend if for a rubbish racer like me 😀
Although not breaking the bank, I feel it sets a precedent for having events behind a paywall, which is not good for the majority of the Zwift community.
I too wish it didn’t come to this, but what has Zwift delivered after a 33% price hike? ZRS is bad, ZRacing is bad (and Zwift Games is just ZRacing, always has been), ZwiftPower is largely abandoned, and ZHQ refuses to do anything about (intentional or unintentional) cheating.
Just looks primarily like a personal money-making exercise for those behind the “Chasing Tour” events. Each registered Rider having to pay $8 and each Team paying $13.
I don’t know how many people participated in those events but I know they attracted quite a lot of people across the various categories in the past, so for exmaple if we say that 30 Teams of 12 Riders sign-up then that’s $3,270, and I imagine that far more people than example that were involved previously – Surely the least they could do is offer a set percentage of that income as real-life prize money for the top finishers.
That 3270 will probably be peanuts for the amount of time they put into it if you have to work out an hourly salary.
I don’t think Jonathan’s retiring anytime soon on that $3270…
So for the full experience, I need to register with Zwift, Zwiftpower, Zwiftracing.app, and now ECRO, pay two of them, get 5 different FTP estimates, and then there is still issues that I can only fix with Sauce and endless debates about steering in my team?
If ZHQ properly developed and managed racing we wouldn’t be here. And yet…
I applaud ECRO for their initiative. But for me this this doesn’t tackle the key problems with Zwift from a racing perspective, namely it doesn’t provide for height and weight verification (unless that’s what the reference to verified accounts means) or require dual recording, and without those things racing on Zwift has no real credibility, which is such a shame for all the riders who put in so much effort. Zwift also doesn’t have the routes the deliver on the calendar they are proposing, only Rouvy can do that.
I’ve become a fan of watching the Zwift Elite racing, something I’d probably never believe if you told me that a few years ago.
Will this improve the viewing experience? I would think it would make it easier to find events to watch, but would there be a broadcast to support the Elite events?
I know viewership isn’t massive for the events, but the product has some low hanging fruit for improvement. I’m excited to see how this play out, could be a step in the right direction.
Chasing Tour races, now ECRO World Tour, aren’t elite races. They’re for anyone who wants a good hard race, whether elite-tier or Cat E. Some people stream them but the focus is on quality events for the participants, not for viewers.
As one of the top racers past couple years on chasing tour series as regional summer heatwaves make outside riding not possible so series allowed me to get good rides in. This year is looking better setup with less races not about 100. So not dead tired coming into zwift peak season 2025-26 and still great prep for the fall races on zwift and real life but the pay to be scored part is questionable. When the sisu which has rival stage races in the spring/summer window is free with prizes. Or the hisp club (sorry if name wrong) has some stage races in these coming months as well for free. So pay to scored is hard call for the series March-early Oct. which most people did not even do half the races. it could be worth to pay if do most the series going series GC. If not you get great a workout in.
I am all for Elite events, World Tour series etc, but I would not pay for it myself, ever.
Having seen that RacePasses have been made available to those who pay (and with no clear explanation that they will be made available to non-payers closer to the event start time), it’s tantamount to a paywall access only, which I think is terrible for the future of community events.
I really hope does not set a precedent or become the norm.
It won’t be getting my support or any promotion within our club from me!
Seems to have had a backlash from most in our club and I’d agree. Seems to be a quick money making scheme. Many race organisers/club managers do this for free, the amount of time put in is nearly a full time job and we ask nothing in return because we love it. There is plenty to do on Zwift without paying extra (I know £8 isn’t a lot) but I’ll be sticking to ladder racing and other community events out there that are free (and promoting those within our club).
I can understand not wanting to pay, but “quick money making scheme” is very unfair to Jon, who has now put 3 years into this series and self-funded all of the hosting and development costs.
Can’t wait for this to kick off again! I build my whole year of riding around this series.
I think everyone getting mad at Jon in the comments should instead be mad at Zwift for not using some of their subscription money to fund this kind of community tool and event development. He’s created a year-long series that’s attracted over 1000 registrants, an all-new team contract system, an all-new equipment verification system, and all he’s asking is to not be out of pocket. People like Jon (and all the other community organisers and developers out there) add so much value to the Zwift product and they should be recognised accordingly.
I started riding this series last year, and all I can say is I am hooked. Do not let the license fee deter you.
I was very critical of sauce when it released,but not necessarily because of the cost amount, but because it offered tools that werent accessible to non-payers, or what is referred to as “pay to win” in the gaming community.
This is different. No one is forcing you to enter. You can still participate in the whole world tour for free and get credible results from zwiftpower.
I participated in six Chasing Tour events last season and while my race time field was small, at times less than 15 racers in my category, the quality was generally good and there was parity. I registered on the ECRO website and was able to access the events via the companion app without paying for a license. After I went through the ECRO website and the Discord channel I wanted to support the effort and paid the $7.99. I think it is important to note again you can participate at no cost an individual racer. You will not contest for GC or prizes.
Lets be honest, they choose Zwift because it has the most people and therefore offers the best opportunity to make money out of race licenses. If another platform had more riders they would have chosen that.
And at least we got another race score system, just what we needed. Why can’t people just get behind the system that Zwift has developed rather than making their own arbitrary system, the answer is they want to justify their system and make it look like they know better than Zwift.
ECRO uses ZwiftRacing.app, which predates ZRS by years, and was an excellent system, long before ZRS v1 (which was completely scrapped after the announcement because it was a terrible idea, if you’ll remember) was even announced. Suggest complaining to ZHQ about their broken ZRS system rather than complaining about an independent race organizer using a proven system that’s about as close to perfect as it gets.
While not particularly interested in this myself, it’s an interesting concept for the more serious racers amoung us. If you think this is about making money, you are delusional about the numbers that compete in these events.
I say let them have a go, and let’s see how it works out. This literally could be an epic event in time but only time will tell. Give them a chance.
This gives me pro cycling manager game/fantasy league vibes. My curiosity compels me to give it try.
I understand that organizing well-structured races takes work. But if this becomes the norm, it will make Zwift that much more expensive. In my opinion, this should be included in the subscription. And then it’s up to Zwift to pay the race organizers.
Is there a discord for ECRO?
Looking for that too! Anyone?
Found it! https://discord.gg/Mw9gMBuQ
Thanks for the ECRO Discord link, but unfortunately it has expired. Could you provide a fresh one. please? Thank you!
Hi. New to the Ecro racing. Competed in the event on Saturday which appeared on Zwift Power, however the second one ‘Chasing d’Azur’ is not appearing on my sign ups (though is on Companion app). Is there a logical reason for it? DO I need to be in a team to compete in this event?
It’s now appeared.
For anyone else reading – because they are private events (to help improve participant quality / reduce number of Faker McChuckleheads) they may appear only with some delay on zwiftpower signups. If you have it signed up on zwift.com and it shows up in companion app you are ready to roll for that race slot though as you found
Cheers and good luck out there
how to you register for these events. I go to the calendar page on ECRO and click on an event and no times or links are listed
So let’s say i wanna ride with a team, how do i find one?
I was wondering the same thing. Did you find out?
Yes and it ain’t easy haha. When signed up, add your discord name to your profile. After that you can join their Discord server. Follow these steps: https://www.ecro.app/platform/rider/discord
Sorted, that wasn’t obvious!
Wo1wwwsssw
Yeszs
Not here to yuck anyone’s yum, but this is wildly over the top, IMO, as someone who races outside a bit, had kids, and has a job. I don’t know who has the free time for this! Lol. Committed to 6-8 weeks in a row for a single ZRL series is hard enough! Getting five guys available to do a single Ladder race is hard enough!
Hi Eric,
Do we know the best way to get in touch with ECRO, Tune Bike Works are keen to iron out some squad issues.
My apologies for asking here, but I haven’t found a contact spot on ECRO app. Cheers LJ
They have a #ticket on their discord
https://www.ecro.app/platform/rider/discord
Why doing categorizations and then let them start all together? I never understand this mode of racing. This races will always results in elimination driving, where lighter riders have nothing to say. I was willing to join but I dont want doing elimination drivings for three weeks. It would be so easy doing staggered starts!!!
Is there a place to chat and discuss upcoming/past events? I thought there was a Discord server but I seem unable to find it? There used to be a Chasing Racing discord, but I can’t find that either. I wanted to ask if the new upgraded bikes are in effect or if they have been neutralised? Also wondered why the Cat’s are not evenly spread. The B-Cat has a very large range (450) compared to the C & D cats at 300pts.
Any idea how to contact ECRO? My Chasing Pink results are not showing up
bonjour je participe au chassing yellow tour, tour de france en 21 étapes moi alain Lepatriarche et mon copain eric Auf arrivee a la 19 eme etape on se fait disqualifier code DQ C05 a priori a cause de notre age 60+ et nous n’avons pas poster Dual recording data analysis c chose faite sur etape 19 et 20 mais toujours disqualifier c dommage de payer 7 euros c de la discrimination ou je sais pas ou s’adresser pour retablir cette injustice c un jeux mais quand meme si on respecte les regles cordialement😂