Zwift racing is fast becoming a cycling discipline all its own. While fitness is a major factor, more riders than ever are jumping in and realizing they need to learn new lingo, strategies, and game-specific facts to product top results.
The 5 Intermediate Zwift Racing Tips post received a lot of good feedback, so here’s a follow-up with four more tips.
#1: Show Up Early
For larger races (75+ riders) joining the event as early as possible assures you a starting position closer to the front. Pro tip: once you’re in position, you can actually quit Zwift, go ride a warmup, etc, then join again before the event starts – and you’ll be placed in your original position!
Since the first few minutes of any Zwift race is fast and crazy, being near the front of the pack at the beginning helps you keep track of attacks and easily spot packs of riders going off the front.
#2: Tweak Trainer Difficulty
This tip only applies to smart trainer users – but that’s most of us these days. In races do you typically overtake riders on short climbs, then need to put down extra power to stay with the pack on descents? That’s the joy of racing against “dumb” trainer users. (For the details behind why this happens, read “Hanging with the Group Over Gradient Changes” and “Using the Trainer Difficulty Setting in Zwift“)
One way to reduce this yo-yo effect is to adjust your trainer difficulty settings under Menu>Settings to something in the 10-30% range. Doing so will make your resistance change less in response to gradient changes, helping you keep the power more consistent so you can ride more efficiently.
#3: Mind the Gap
Often in races it’s not the gap that opens ahead of our wheel that gets us – it’s the gap that opens one or two riders ahead! This tip applies outdoors as well, but minding the gap is an especially devilish challenge on Zwift because of how the draft works, and because we aren’t always paying close attention to the riders ahead.
The further back you are in a group, the more chance you run of being on the wrong side of any gaps that form. Floating near the back of a group isn’t dangerous when the group is blobbed up, but when it stretches out due to riders pushing the pace at the front, gaps will form!
Route knowledge will help you anticipate most of the stretches that will occur. Having a large enough screen, and paying close attention to it, will also help you maintain ideal position. If the group begins to stretch, push hard to get near the front while staying out of the wind. It may feel like unnecessary work, but if a gap forms several riders up, you may never have a chance to close it!
#4: Follow the Race Broadcast
Nathan Guerra and the team at Zwift Community Live (ZCL) have been doing a wonderful job of covering Zwift races since the early days. If you’re in a race ZCL is covering, watch or listen to the broadcast to get a full picture of what is going on. Knowing you’re being watched may help you push just a bit harder!
Find ZCL on YouTube // Twitch // Facebook
(Note: broadcasts generally focus on the A category, but will go back to lower categories whenever possible.)
What About You?
Are any of these tips particularly useful to you? Got other tips to share? Comment below!
You may have covered this in previous articles, but for those of us who are heavier and climb slower, it pays to be near the front of the group at the start of a climb. Hopefully, still in the group by the top….
For sure! As a bigger rider going to the front is key. If I don’t get to the front I have to work hard on the downside to get back in the group vs if I push the pace I can catch my breath a bit on the downhill. Depends on how long the hill is though. If it’s too long there’s nothing that helps (other than eating healthier)
As you previously mentioned, get your cadence way up just before the banner drops— these races start off F A S T
I wouldn’t say get your CADENCE up. I’d say get your POWER up.
Oh i misunderstood. Thanks for clarifying- I’ll try that next race 🙌🏻
I would suggest playing with the trainer difficulty, I find I have to put it above 50% for flatter races, so that I can feel the small climbs and have enough resistance to produce good power to stay in the group.
Yes, on a flat course higher TD is often a great idea, so you can feel the little changes.
I have always kept my Tacx NEO at 100% to simulate my actual gearing. When I have changed it to sub 50% I feel I have to spin too much to keep the same power. This might be helpful during Alpe Du Zwift but for racing on mainly flat courses I don’t know why I would want to alter my real world gearing?
I believe the recommendation is for courses where you have ups and downs. It’s on the downhill where you get gaped by those on non-smart trainers when your trainer is on 100% difficulty. As such, you’d be fine at 100% if the race ends at the top of Alpe du Zwift.
100% TD is especially bad on the Alpe climb in a race due to the constant changes of the gradients. During the bends you and over all the unnatural waves in the course you loose much of the resistance. Did you watch Rohan Dennis on the Ineos Alpe Race? Totally constant watts like in TTing, a sign for 0%. Other than in racing I’d go with 100% for the realism too.
Zwift is NOT the same as outdoor riding – good luck kidding yourself.
Because Zwift racing is quite different to actual real proper bunch racing. As you know, in real riding on the downhills it’s not possible to keep your power high. You coast, get aero or pedal at a lower power output.
When people set trainer difficulty to under 10% they can hammer full power on the uphill, flats AND downhill. Plus they don’t need to change gear as often.
Good luck with your 100% gearing but I for one often hammer short climbs in a race and then push through over the top and a bit into the descent. It breaks packs every time and 100% riders are the first ones to get caught out in these situations because they just can’t keep the power down downhill. This is where point 3 of this post comes into play… mind the gap, except there will be nothing you can do until you hit a flatter bit.
Eric you’re giving away ALL the Zwift Racing secrets! I’d add another tip that if you really want to be competitive in your correctly assigned group and eventually Podium, it’s wise to pick a single race course and distance that repeats every week at the same time and make that your focus for a few months. This allows you to gear your weekly training around that race and be fresh for it. It allows you to build the specific fitness for that course and really-truly learn how to race that course based off where the breaks usually happen week after… Read more »
This is great advice. Thanks.
yup, definitely pick a race course you like and feel suits you and hit it 5-6 times over a few weeks. your ability to predict how the race will unfold increases dramatically, and that ability feels like crosses over to other courses.
When I race or fast training ride, I set use view (1) on my laptop. Then I look at my helmet and where it lines up with the riders jersey in front of me. I pick something on the riders jersey – a number, lettering, then if my view starts to show more of the riders back, I know I have to speed up, or if its the opposite, and you keep running up on the rider, I know I can back off a bit. Especially in (sticky draft) you don’t want to put out more power than you need… Read more »
@ Eric: about the 1st tip, what I’ve been wondering for a while now: do you want to sign up as soon as you can and be all the way on the first line of the starting grid or do you want to hold off a little bit and try to time it to be on the 3rd-4th line? Starting from the 3rd or 4th line guarantees you’re in the draft from the get go… on the first line you’re straight into the “wind”.
Thank you. Very useful. I haven’t been racing much on Zwift, but it’s true that the start is mental, and you can loose grip pretty fast.
Another tip is to forget all about the Zwift Companion and messaging while racing.
Ride On!
I get that the article is about racing and that is quite specific in Zwift world but if I am training for outdoor races indoor (and yes, I get that I should ride outside…), but if I use Zwift for that then higher TD is a better option. Is that correct?
There’s not a simple answer to this question. What is the goal of your Zwift training? What kind of terrain will you be racing outdoors? Lots of “it depends”…
But yes, I’d say if the terrain you’re racing in Zwift is similar to what you’re racing outside, it would make sense to run TD at 100%.
Thanks!