The Zwift community is special. When you do something that the community does not like, they will tell you about it. But equally, when you do something they like, they will let you know. Those are rules I like and can relate to because it makes things clear.
The event that I created for the purpose of the ‘Behind the Scenes’ article left me nervous. I was nervous that people would not attend, I was nervous that people would not like the format of the event, I was nervous about the feedback I would receive. I was nervous. All week.
The name was “Monday’s Mountain Massif TT,” a 12.2km TT up the reverse side of the Epic KOM, finishing up the Radio Tower. I developed the event concept for the purpose of explaining the work that goes into setting up an event. The event created an internal pressure within myself to deliver an exciting and new experience for my fellow Zwifters. How did I do?
The stats
460 signed up riders. 188 finishers on Zwift Power, across all categories.
Feedback
“Very nice event! If this becomes a regular event it would be great.” – Ole Christian Fagerli
“Thanks for organizing! I’ll certainly do more of these if it becomes more of a regular event! Nice addition could be to make it into a real TT event. Would be cool to have another climbing TT besides Bologna.” – Joris
“Great event Tim and a real race of truth, at least for finding your FTP. Perhaps next time (I hope there will be a next time) you might want to call it sandbaggers exposed.” – Russell
“It was a great event! It was a long time ago that my legs were so sore. I really enjoyed it. I blew up on the radio tower climb. It was also the first event where I was so overthinking my bike choice. I really loved the prep for the event. All total it made a great experience.” Ronald
“Love it hate it and love it and again and again and again. Heart, legs shouts to stop but after finish line and some downhill ride thoughts come maybe i will do it again! Thanks and till the next time!” Rob
Next Steps
The Zwift community had spoken, they liked my event, I was relieved as much as I was delighted. I promised that if people liked this event, I would approach Zwift about hosting it on a permanent basis, with a couple of minor tweaks to enhance the experience, including:
- Changing the time to 19:00 CET
- Moving the finish line back by 50 meters, so it just finishes a little closer to the top of the Radio Tower summit.
I contacted the Zwift Events Team who responded that they would see if it was possible.
Mountain Massif HQ
Behind the scenes, I did feel nervous in the lead up to the event. The day before, I had to reach out to the Zwift Events Team to enquire if everything was setup correctly because it was not visible on my Companion app, it had literally disappeared when I looked for the Monday event. Saturday night, the clocks had changed to signal the start of summertime and I feared that the change in time had impacted things.
In my previous article, I rightly praised the Events Team stating “If the IT function of Zwift are the cranks of the bike, then Mark’s [Cote, Director of Content Programming] Events Team are the handlebars, brakes, shifters and saddle, because his team is so integral to our experience and the unsung heroes.”
I should have added that “they are the mechanics too, fixing any issue we experience.”
I was extremely impressed when Mark personally responded and investigated the potential issue. Shortly after, he confirmed that the event was visible on all apps. I had previously checked the filters and had done all the obvious error checking, but no sooner had it disappeared; it reappeared in my Companion app, along with a few other events. It was strange, especially as I had taken screenshots and sent to Zwift to assist with error checking and verified with several friends.
What all this experience did was to reinforce my established belief that the Zwift Events Team do an excellent job and deliver first class service, even on a Sunday. Without them, these events we all enjoy and look forward to would not happen. Furthermore, I was impressed with Mark’s leadership in personally taking responsibility and ensuring everything was correct. I am confident that Mark’s vision of having “any Zwifter being able to find any content, within 15 minutes” will be achieved, sooner rather than later and for the benefit of the entire community.
The Event – The View from the Back
The time arrived to start the event. I had set up a Discord server and was pleased to warm up while chatting to my fellow Zwifters who were taking part. This was set up to provide a user experience similar to real life where you meet before an event and exchange stories whilst warming up. I was wanting to create an inclusive experience, to make this more than just a race. With 10 minutes to go, I left Discord and entered the pen. There would be no last minute joining for me.
It was nice to see the pen full of people; my one fear of putting on an event and being the solo participant was averted.
I’m not going to write my usual detailed story of my struggles, but let’s just say the race could be split into 3 sections, 1) the start 2) the climb 3) the Radio Tower.
The first 6-10 minute flat section, before the start of the climb, was punishing. I opted for a climbing set-up of the Specialized Tarmac Pro and Env 3.2 wheels, as recommended by Ben in this YouTube video. My tactic was not to go too deep and push too hard but at the same time not let the people on the TT bikes get too much of an advantage. This was more difficult than I thought, as you naturally try to keep pace.
My heart rate tipped into the 170s, which was an indicator that I was pushing too hard. Part of my trouble was my heart rate was naturally elevated due to nerves. I don’t normally get nervous before a Zwift race, but when it is your event, it’s a totally different experience!
The start of the climb couldn’t come fast enough and fortunately I was able to make up several places as I noticed some people who had started on a TT bike had stopped and were changing to a climbing setup. I thought that was an interesting tactic, but I’m not sure how successful it was.
Onto the climb. I tried to get into a rhythm, but couldn’t find it. I certainly wasn’t in my groove like my previous mountain climb. Despite this, I just kept turning the cranks, trying to do myself proud in my own event.
As I progressed up the mountain, I was trading places with various riders and was starting to tire, a long way before the last difficult climb up to the Radio Tower.
I would say the last 8 minutes was pure torture. But, I had nobody else to blame except myself. This was harder than I expected. A lot harder. I would go as far as to say “brutally hard!”
On the final climb up to the Radio Tower, I was able to pass a fellow competitor on a TT bike. They had done exceptionally well; it just looked like the TT bike seemed too heavy to make it up the 13% gradients. That put me in 11th place and now it was simply a question of holding on to the end. I became more focussed on the gap to the people behind me instead of ahead.
As I crested the climb, I was expecting the finish line to be just at the top of the final little climb, by the Radio Tower. But it was probably 50 meters further than I planned, which was simply too much for me. My legs gave out and I coasted over the line.
Despite the exhaustion, I was happy. I had competed in a race of my own design and enjoyed it. Then as other racers finished, I started receiving live feedback, which delighted me. The Zwift community had spoken – they liked the event. Mission accomplished!
My final thoughts
I thoroughly enjoyed the process of designing an event and engaging with Zwift to get it built. Equally, I enjoyed my attempts to promote it through my network. I was worried about the outcome but the pilot showed that I had delivered something the community liked. Ted, a rider from Race3R told me on Discord that the 30 minutes all-out effort was a thoroughly intense workout and that he enjoyed the fact that the event was slightly shorter than the normal Zwift races.
The Zwift Events Team deliver – again!
As I finished writing this article, my e-mail “pinged,” Mark had responded. The opening sentence read:
Hey Tim,
I added this event to our recurring schedule and it’s on every Monday. Next week’s event is here: https://www.zwift.com/events/view/1981008
Brilliant! I had established a new regular recurring event for the Zwift community to enjoy. I could not be happier. That’s my Monday nights taken care of, for the foreseeable future.
I will leave the final words to the first-ever event winner, Ed Laverack who posted on Twitter “A great event it was too! Absolutely cracking format.”
Watch Ed’s race recording:
See you all Monday night, 7pm CET. Thanks to all of those who participated.
Questions or Comments?
Share below!
This looks like a very interesting event but Monday seems like a poor choice of day. For many many Monday is a rest or recovery day after a big weekend. Anyone follow following that framework means this this event is off limits.
Stuart, please tell me the best day then to run the event. How about Tuesday? No, because ZRL. How about Wednesday? No, because most people can’t walk after ZRL and may even do the Zwift Duathlon League which was / is a Wednesday. How about Thursday? No, because that is TTT, run by WTRL, that has a massive following. What about Friday? No, because most people are exhausted by Friday having worked all week, myself included and a 30 minute TT is not on the agenda, especially if they did the TTT the day before. Then you got the weekend rides. What you are really saying is that day doesn’t suit your schedule. Many people, may rest on Sunday after doing a long rider on Saturday, so actually, a short 30 minute time trial on Monday might suit them. So actually, a lot of thought was put into the best day including running a pilot that had a good turn out.
I think you’re both right. Monday is a bad day for many because of long rides Saturday and Sunday on cycling plans and long ride Saturday long run Sunday (or vice versa) on triathlon plans. That’s probably the reason why none of the other cool Zwift stuff is on Monday. Which also means it’s the only day that really works if you want to establish something that targets people who already have a full Zwift schedule.
I had planned on making it for the first one and tweaked my schedule for that, only to have a call run an hour over basically eliminating lunch break. Will try to make the next one. Do you plan on always using the same route or eventually alternating with Alpe or Ven-Top?
Hi Alex, hopefully you will be able to make the event tomorrow. I have no plans to change the route and don’t want to. I want this event to run every Monday so that if you can’t make the event one week, like what happened to you with your meeting, you can attend the following week. I would like to offer it at additional time slots to cater for the world, but first I need to get this established. The route is staying the same to establish Monday as “Mountain Monday” in the same way as Zwift has established “Time Trial Tuesday” with a TT on Bologna, every Tuesday.
Ideally, we get regular attenders and a community grows, in the same way as running clubs have regular training days, I see this as no different, hence why Discord was established to accompany the event. I want this to be more than just “turn up, race and go.” With the race being around 30-40 minutes, there chance for a warm-up / warm down, if people want.
This is a unique event and hopefully a following develops.
In the future, perhaps I can arrange a Time Trial up the Alpe, but on a different day as so not to interfere with this event. However, as explained in the article, getting an event on Zwift is very difficult / impossible, so to firstly run the pilot last week was special, but then secondly to have this as a regular event, is just amazing and something I am very proud of as it’s nice to give back to the community.
As I have said in the article, I can’t thank the Zwift Events Team enough for helping making this happen. They have been brilliant.
All good points to a poorly phased comment that should have been more along the lines of “for some, following longer rides on both days at the weekend…”
As often, writing fails to convey the conversation, some = a few, many = most which may not be the case.
Getting any event on a busy schedule is a feat in itself, congratulations.
As mentioned in the article, over 400 joined, and nearly 200 showed up as completed on ZP (which means that there’s a good chance that will over 200 actually completed it)
Monday may not be a great day for a lot of people, but seems like it’s a good day for quite a few.
Personally, Sundays are usually my long easier days, so a Monday wouldn’t be bad.
Congratulations on getting this one up, I’ll definitely see if I can make it work in my schedule and time zone
Ah, just realized it’s 1am for me (west coast Australia) I will keep my eyes open though should the time ever change. It looks like a great event
If this gets regular attendance, then I will ask Zwift to run in multiple time slots to cater for riders across the globe. It was a good event last week, so certainly has potential to expand. But it is a case of little by little. I would like to have jerseys for the event too. The good thing is that is in the calendar now, so I have to work to promote it.
Thankfully it’s recurring! Will definitely do it once it fits my schedule! Thanks Tim 🙂
Hi, yes, every week, so no pressure, hopefully you can fit it into your schedule. That is the beauty now it is a regular on the calendar, it reduces the pressure, as you know it is there next week. 👍
Thanks again for getting this race/format up and running, great to see it added to weekly schedule. The race provides a brutally clear picture of one’s true abilities against the clock in three pretty distinct sections…flat, up, and really up! Pacing every bit as important as brute power. I’d encourage all Zwifter’s to give this race a go, it can help paint a clear picture of what areas you need to work on if you are seeking new PR’s.
You are absolutely correct and an excellent summary about the 3 sections sections. I look forward to seeing you there tomorrow.
Great effort and thanks for setting this up! I missed the first one but I am thankful to you and especially Zwift, that you and they made it a weekly event – superb. I will really do this as I like this kind of stuff. Thanks and see you on the roads. Ride On
I look forward to seeing you there tomorrow, as I said in the article, the Zwift Events Team have been brilliant, but also I have to praise the community for coming to support the pilot and providing excellent feedback that enabled this to be established in the calendar. I am just keen to ensure it is a well supported event.
So just curious, having never done a TT event on Zwift, what makes this a TT event? Was drafting disabled in it? Could you limit it to only TT bikes (this would be cruel)?
Hi, drafting is disabled but you can pick your bike. There is no conveyor belt that shoots riders off because it is not available on the course, and I opted for a mass start instead per category. Come and try it and see what you think.
I also didn’t limit it to TT bikes as I want the bike selection to impact how you race the event. For example, last week people changed bikes before the climb from TT to a climbing setup.
I’m kind of curious myself if there’s any advantage of swapping bikes for that route. Only one I’ve done it on so far is for the Alpe, because of the Jungle section. Can take it slightly easier at the beginning and make up a lot of ground, then do the swap. But that’s going from dirt to road.
For this one, I _may_ do the first one with the Canyon, kind of a best of both worlds, then try something else to compare.
If it’s on tomorrow, I might just be there since I have the day off. 19:00 CET is 1pm EST, so not sure if my employer would let me skip work 🙂
Best of luck with it, and congrats on the great turnout so far.
Don’t let people knock the choice of time or the day of the week. Whatever you choose is always going to not suit someone else. That’s the nature of a 24/7 platform like Zwift. With status of organizer goes the privilege. If other don’t like that they can organise their own.
As it was, gutted to have missed it as I double-booked myself with ToW, so roll on the next time chance.
Hi Mark, thank for the message, it would be good to have you a tomorrow’s event, 7pm CET, if you can make it. Now this is a regular event in the calendar, there is no pressure if you can’t make it, as it will be there next week. 👍
I entered this last week in the E category and ‘enjoyed’ it, sort of 😂. Seriously it was a great event. Just looking at tomorrow’s event and E doesn’t appear to be women only. I debated which category to enter last week-women only, my women’s race category or my mixed race category. Is there no women’s category now?
Hi Caroline, that is a good spot, I will contact Zwift now and get that fixed. Yes, E should be women only. Thanks for that. 👍
Hi Caroline, the Zwift Events Team fixed it within a few hours, so it is Women only in Pen E. Another example of the Events Team being excellent. 👍
Thanks for organising it, Tim. I opted to skip a week of the Mad Mondays series to participate, and will do so again at some point, or between each MM series. Rode the Tron, but looking forward to trying alternative set-ups, and will target sub-30’ 😱 Good luck with hosting a great new regular event 👍
Tim, great event and delighted that it will be a regular on the calendar. I look to taking part whenever possible.
Brilliant Phil, I just finished the event. It is a challenge but this will get you fit and strong for sure. I look forward to seeing you at the end. Honestly, there is nothing like this on Zwift. It really is different. 👍
Managed to join today. Was a lot of fun but as hard as advertised. Thanks for organizing!
For some reason decided to eat lunch 30 minutes before the start, won’t ever do that again.
It is hard event. Brilliant how you managed to fit it in your lunch break. Hope you will make it next week. I am convinced that regularly doing this event will help improve us a riders as today I had a dropped Bluetooth connection on the start line and batted to 10th getting my highest power along the way. Like you, I enjoyed it. 👍
I’ll definitely try to make it again!
Curious how much faster/slower the Tron bike would be compared to Tarmac Pro with Enve 3.4. I used the latter and it took me not very long to make up a 20 second deficit on the hill over somebody on a TT bike. So TT is probably out of the equation.
Also still not sure what pacing approach is perfect. Did the flat part just below FTP and hammered uphill until 0.5km before the finish line. Trying to tell myself I could have kept it up all the way if necessary but am not convinced I wouldn’t have cracked right before the end.
Is there any evidence suggesting to keep an even pace for the full race or to go even slower on the flat part to have more in the tank for the mountain?
Can we please have the same event in the late evening for North America? There is a real dearth of TT events in the late evenings for us here after the children has gone to bed.
Hi Jeff, I totally agree with what you are saying. I do want to offer one for people in North America. Also, I would like to offer a time slot for people in the Southern Hemisphere. My plan is to make sure that I have got more feedback like what you have stated, also positive feedback where people like the event, so I can present to Zwift and ask for more time slots. I definitely want to expand this but have to do it incrementally. It certainly is high on my agenda to push this to North America. I really want this to become established like Bologna TT. On top of that I am getting some branding done so everything looks eye catching. That will also help get it established. It is a good event and a lot of fun. Just out of interest, when you say “Evening” in North America, is that East Coast or West Coast? It’s like Australia, many time zones makes it a challenge so any advice is welcome. Thank you for taking an interest, feedback really is appreciated.
Thanks so much Tim! Selfishly speaking Eastern Standard Time. 🙂 but perhaps not that selfish because the total population in this time zone is approximately 300 mm – the 7th most populous time zone in the world. 🙂
I did the inaugural event and thought it was great. I wasn’t able to do it yesterday but I am off work every second Monday so I’m hoping to get in to do it semi regularly. I also appreciate starting it an hour earlier as last time I had to jump off the bike and rush to pick up my wife at work – now I’ll be able to cooldown first. 🙂
Hi, I am glad you enjoyed the event. I am hoping that due to it’s uniqueness people will attend regularly and there will be a core of riders battling it out. Due to it’s difficulty, there has to be training benefits to it also. I’m glad the time suits, I had a few people contact me directly about the time, so it seems sensible to change it. I’m just glad the Events Team were able to accommodate, as I said throughout the article, they have been brilliant. See you next week.👍