With so many different racing events to take part in, it’s always great to see something a little bit different. The Herd Summer Racing League, now into its 4th season, gives all riders something to race for.
What is the Herd Summer Racing League?
The Herd Summer Racing League is a 12-week, category-based series, with opportunities to race each week in seven events from Friday to Sunday. (Only your position for your first completed race will count each week, in case you were thinking about doing it more than once!)
Similar to the Zwift Racing League (although HSRL was around before ZRL), points are awarded both for your overall finishing position in your category (1/3 of the total points) as well as for the fastest times on the ‘prime’ Sprint and KOM segments (2/3 of the total points).
So this means if you’re light enough to be a mountain goat, or strong enough to be a super-fast sprinter, there’s usually something for you to target in each week’s race. Course knowledge is massively important, so you’re well-positioned to hammer those primes and get maximum points!
Season 4 of the HSRL runs from April 2-June 20, 2021. Season 5 will be hot on its heels from June 25-August 12.
Stage and Route Details
Organizer James Bailey tells us, “I’ve gone for routes that offer a good amount of variety, short and long, flat and hilly, to give all different kinds of riders something that they will be able to excel in.”
| Stage One – April 2nd to 4th: Bologna Time Trial TT Laps: 1 Distance: 8.0km Elevation: 230m Notes: No primes in the prologue event, just a dash to the top of the hill! This event will use the TT module, so riders will be sent off with staggered starts. |
| Stage Two – April 9th to 11th: Watopia’s Big Foot Hills Laps: 1 Distance: 69.0km Elevation: 713m Notes: Primes: Fuego Flats Sprint, Titans Grove KOM, Zwift KOM, Volcano KOM, Titans Grove Reverse KOM, Zwift KOM Reverse. |
| Stage Three – April 16th to 18th: Paris’ Champs-Élysées Laps: 6 Distance: 42.8km Elevation: 247m Notes: Primes: Lutece Sprint x6 |
| Stage Four – April 23rd to 25th: France’s Douce France Laps: 2 Distance: 48.8km Elevation: 269m Notes: Primes: Ballon Sprint x2, Aqueduc KOM x2, Pavé Sprint x2, Marina Sprint x2. |
| Stage Five – April 30th to May 2nd: Watopia’s Tempus Fugit TT Laps: 1 Distance: 17.3km Elevation: 16m Notes: No primes in this event, just a single lap of Tempus Fugit using the TT module, so riders will be sent off with staggered starts. |
| Stage Six – May 7th to 9th: Watopia’s Figure 8 Laps: 1 Distance: 30.2km Elevation: 255m Notes: Primes: Zwift KOM Reverse, Watopia Sprint Reverse, Zwift KOM, Watopia Sprint. |
| Stage Seven – May 14th to 16th: Watopia’s Out and Back Again Laps: 1 Distance: 42.3km Elevation: 333m Notes: Primes: Fuego Flats Sprint, Watopia Sprint, Volcano KOM, Zwift KOM Reverse. |
| Stage Eight – May 21st to 23rd: Greater London Flat Laps: 3 Distance: 40.8km Elevation: 204m Notes: Primes: Mall Sprint x3. |
| Stage Nine – May 28th to 30th: Innsbruck’s Achterbahn Laps: 1 Distance: 47.6km Elevation: 990m Notes: Primes: Innsbruck KOM Reverse, Innsbruck Sprint Reverse, Innsbruck KOM, Innsbruck Sprint. |
| Stage Ten – June 4th to 6th: London’s Classique Laps: 6 Distance: 38.7km Elevation: 195m Notes: Primes: Mall Sprint x6. |
| Stage Eleven – June 11th to 13th: France’s Petit Boucle Laps: 1 Distance: 61.8km Elevation: 483m Notes: Primes: Pavé Sprint Reverse, Aqueduc KOM Reverse, Ballon Sprint reverse, Aqueduc KOM, Pavé Sprint, Marina Sprint, Ballon Sprint, Petit KOM. |
| Stage Twelve – June 18th to 20th: Watopia’s Hilly Route Laps: 10 Distance: 92.2km Elevation: 1080m Notes: Primes: Zwift KOM x10, Watopia Sprint x10. NB: Category A complete 10 laps, Category B complete 9 laps, Category C complete 8 laps and Category D complete 7 laps. |
About Herd Racing League
The Herd Racing League is the sister racing group of The Herd and prides itself on encouraging a welcoming and supportive ideology for their racers of all shapes, sizes and ability levels. Herd DS James Bailey first took on organizing the HSRL in 2020.
The DIRT OBC (operation bear claw) crew raced this series as B’s last summer, and we had an absolute blast. James is a top-notch organizer.
Our DIRT OBC team will be definitely racing this series again as both A’s and B’s this time around! Looking forward to the competition!
I’ll 2nd Dustin’s affirmation of the HSRL. It was a great time last year and extremely well organized. On the other hand I will never forgive this series for punching my ticket to Cat A.
Any idea what sort of time of day these are on? I’ve looked on companion app for stage 1 next weekend but can’t find them.
Pete, all times UTC/GMT. Friday 1800 & 2150. Saturday 0800, 1100 & 1900, Sunday 0000 and 1330. I need Zwift to do a couple of things first but they should be on companion around Tuesday.
Excellent, I can defo make it then. Thanks
Still doesn’t seem to be on the companion app
NM. Got it through Zwift Power. Much more efficient
How do we register a team?
You shouldn’t need to register a team. If it’s like last year it just uses the team you’re registered on on zwiftpower. Top 5 results from the weekend go toward team standing.
It’s more a club than a team. If you enter an event and have a team in ZwiftPower, you will score points for that team in the league. It’s not individual teams of 6 like in ZRL
Looks like a great, varied format of courses and points!
One question – is there individual and team points rankings or just one or the other?
Think I’ve answered my own question in that the individual rankings seems to be the primary thing with a subsidiary team score available too?
Basically individual racing but points scored towards your team standing – there was a lot of competition in the team standings last year!
Great, thanks. It’s nice to have an individual option that ZRL doesn’t offer 👍
I can’t find tomorrow’s event on either the Companion App or Zwift Power?
Stupid me, the UK’s time went forward an hour from GMT to BST last weekend. It’s there at 1900 hrs!
This video explainer of the series is AMAZING! https://youtu.be/3JXIrhheoS8
Am I right, when I say my position overall doesn’t effect in my sprint or kom points? When I’m the last in the field and I will do the fastest sprint time and for a kom, I’ll get the max points then right? The points will given for “fastest over the line” and not “first over line” right?
Correct