How did you get into cycling? My dad! Started racing BMX when I was 5 and never stopped pedaling a bike.
How many years have you been racing on Zwift? 5? I think?
Are you part of a Virtual team? Yes! The best, Aeonian!
What do you love most about racing? The friendship and community of women I race with and against and the convenience of doing it from home.
What is your favourite style of race (e.g. points, scratch, iTT, TTT, Chase, duathlon)?Points, Scratch and TTT… I like variety!
What is your favourite Zwift women’s race series? Any women’s series Karla Williams is involved with.
What is your most memorable racing experience, inside or outside or BOTH? Winning the Zwift Grand Prix with Aeonian in 2023.
What is your favourite food to eat post-race? Cookies
What advice would you give to a woman entering her first Zwift race? Draft!
Any upcoming race you are looking forward to? I’ve got some big outdoor races coming up but looking forward to possibly doing the WTRL TTT worlds with the ladies and def back into ZRL and Grand Prix in the fall.
Riders who jump into the world of Zwift soon learn that the vibrant community is really the game’s secret sauce. Simply put, there are many rabid Zwift users who love to dig into the game’s details and push it to its limits. (I should know: I am one!)
This month, WTRL and Zwift are collaborating with the community to design a route that will be raced in the Zwift Racing League. Here’s how it will work!
Contest Basics
Riders have just 10 days (August 12 deadline) to create and submit a route for consideration. The selected racer-created route will be used for the final race of ZRL’s 2024/25 Round 1 on October 15th.
This is a unique opportunity for ZRL participants to influence the series, showcase your creativity, and leave a lasting impact on the community! The winning route will not only debut in the Zwift Racing League but also become available to all Zwift users in the future.
Plan Your Route: I recommend using zwiftmap.com to design your course. It makes it easy and fun!
Test Your Route: Ride your designed route on Zwift to ensure it provides an exciting racing experience.
Submit Your Route:
Send a link to your Zwift Activity covering the route to [email protected].
Include the following information:
Route Start Location: You may need to ride to the start point near the event paddocks. Let WTRL know the kilometer in your activity where the route starts.
Route End Location: Try to finish your activity where the route ends at a segment arch.
Lappable Routes: If applicable, specify the lap point, especially if there’s a lengthy lead-in. Point to Point non-lapped routes or single-lap routes are preferred.
Description: Write a short description (max 100 words) explaining why your route would be ideal for the ZRL.
Route Requirements
Start and End Points: The route must start at an event paddock and end at an existing segment arch.
Distance and Elevation: The rroute should be 20-35 km long and not exceed 400m of elevation gain.
Originality: The route must be unique and not an existing in-game route.
No U-Turns: Only intersections can be used.
Existing Roads: Only existing roads can be used.
World Selection: You can use any Zwift world.
Submission Deadline
Submit your route by August 12th, 2024. After the deadline, a panel of judges will shortlist three routes. The community will then vote to determine the winner!
Helpful Notes
To find your Zwift Activity link log on to www.zwift.com/feed, click on JUST ME, find your ride activity, click on the activity name to navigate to the activity, then copy the full URL of the activity to submit. The link will be in this format: https://www.zwift.com/activity/[activityID]
The activity’s privacy setting will need to be set to Public. This can be changed using the settings cog on the activity page.
If you want to make your route on a world that is not available on the world rotation, you can access the world using the My List feature. Details of this process can be found in Zwift Insider’s My List article.
Now in its 13th round, Zwift Racing League continues to take racing to the next level on Zwift! Team signups for the first round of the new season are now open.
Here’s everything you need to know about what’s coming next for Zwift Racing League…
Intro to Zwift Racing League (ZRL)
ZRL is the world’s largest virtual cycling competition. How big is it? Over 36,000 riders participated in the 2023/24 season, making it the biggest season on record!
Organized by WTRL, this is a team-based points competition spread across multiple weeks, with teams organized into divisions based on time zones and ability. Races happen every Tuesday, and the season is broken into three 6-week rounds with short breaks in between.
ZRL is Zwift racing at its highest level. Its unique structure and varied race formats drive serious Zwift racers to show up week after week while providing a place for new racers who jump in and find their first team home.
This page contains the latest info about the current ZRL round, and is updated as WTRL announces new details.
Route Design Contest
For the first time in Zwift’s history, a unique chance is being offered to Zwifters to design a route. The chosen route will be used for the final race of round 1, and will also become available to all Zwift users in the future!
If you’re new to ZRL, you’ll definitely want to get familiar with the ruleset and scoring structure, as these inform strategic team decisions.
There are no rule updates for round 1 at this time, but scoring is changing somewhat. Here are the new details:
FAL points: the first 20 across the line now score (1st gets 20, 2nd gets 19, down to 20th getting 1) vs the top 10 scoring in previous rounds
FTS points: unchanged – fastest 10 score, 10 points down to 1
FIN points: at the finish line, points are issued based on number of riders beaten (ie field of 50, 10th place = 40 points). There are also podium bonus points: 1st = 5, 2nd = 3, 3rd = 1.
Timeslots and Divisions
Some divisions and start times get tweaked between each round, so make sure you pick the time slot that works for your team.
Teams and Registration
ZRL is a team-based competition – you cannot sign up as an individual rider. Teams can have up to 12 racers rostered, but only 6 can race in each event. Teams must have at least 4 riders on their roster, and a rider can be rostered on no more than 2 teams per round.
If you’re already a member of a larger Zwift Club, contact a senior Club representative to see if you can join one of your Club’s ZRL teams.
Join an official team-lead ZRL Group Recon Ride where several teams can be found looking for more riders. These run several times a day starting two weeks before the first race. Learn more >
Join the ZRL Facebook Group and post preferred race times/league, Pace Group Category, and any other preferences under the #zrlteamhunt tag where many teams are eagerly waiting.
Reply to one of the #zrlrecruiting posts that teams make in the ZRL Facebook Group if you don’t want to post your own request.
Reach out directly to WTRL and they can match you to a team based on race times, category, and team preferences.
Race Routes and Dates
Each ZRL round comprises weekly races which are either scratch races, points races, or team time trials (TTT). Scratch Races and Points Races are both actually points-based in terms of final results, but Points races include intermediate segments while Scratch Race points are all earned at the finish line. TTT winners are the teams who complete the race course fastest, with team time taken from the fourth rider across the line.
Race #1: Douce France September 10, 2024 (TTT)
We start with a TTT this round, on a route familiar to ZRL racers. It’s not a particularly technical TTT route, but you will need to work to keep it together on Les Intestins at the start, and up the Aqueduc KOM!
Race #2: Sugar Cookie September 17, 2024 (Points Race)
A new route for ZRL (as are the rest of the routes this round!), Sugar Cookie starts with four sprint sections in quick succession, then throws in a spicy VO2 climb up to the Epic KOM cutoff road that will surely force the race’s key selection.
PowerUps (in order of arches): Aero, Aero, Aero, Aero, Feather 🛈
Intermediate Segments:
Stoneway Sprint (FAL)
Acropolis Sprint (FTS)
Sasquatch Sprint (FAL)
Woodland Sprint (FAL)
Race #3: Country to Coastal September 24, 2024 (Scratch Race)
This is a fairly flat route… except when it isn’t! There are no KOM sections here, but the opening climb to the start/finish, plus the climbs up to the Shisa Sprint and up through the slot canyon will all prove decisive when it comes to sprint FAL segment points and overall finishing points.
Our second TTT of the round starts off fairly flat, then takes riders over Box Hill. It’s an uncharacteristically climby route for a TTT that will test your w/kg while challenging teams’ abilities to stay together.
Race #5: Glyph Heights October 8, 2024 (Points Race)
The Queen Stage of this round, Glyph Heights has an uphill finish and includes three official KOM segments. The longest climb of the race isn’t even an official segment, though: it’s the upper half of The Grade followed by the last 3km of the Epic KOM!
Race #6: BRAE-kfast Crits and Grits October 15, 2024 (Scratch Race)
For the first time ever, Zwift + WTRL hosted a contest for Zwifters to design a custom race course for this event. And we have a winner! Click route below for details…
The minimum category you’ll race is determined by your power history on Zwift. See this post for details.
Riders must use a power sensor to transmit power to the game – this would be a smart trainer, smartbike, or power meter. (You’re allowed to race C and D categories with a “classic” trainer and virtual power, but your points are cut in half.)
Heart rate monitors are required. (You’re allowed to race without a HRM, but your points are cut in half.)
Cadence monitors are required (new rule for Round 2).
You’ll want to have at least a few races under your belt before you try to join a team, so you are confident that you’re in the correct category. It causes a lot of hassle if you join a team, and then are forced to upgrade to a new category mid-round.
Recons and Broadcasts
Official Recon Rides
If you’re unfamiliar with a particular week’s race course, join a ZRL recon ride! These happen multiple times per day and are led by experienced racers who may share route info and racing tips as you ride.
This weekend’s five picks make a nice mix of events. We’ve got a badge hunt ride on a rarely-seen new route, a stupidly long group ride, Zwift Labs test races, and a long race balanced out by some Tiny Races. Enjoy!
The DIRT team’s badge hunt rides take on less popular routes to help you earn those route badges and extra XP! This week is Mayan San Remo – 21.4km with 219 of climbing. Expect a pace of 2.2w/kg on the flats, and 2.75w/kg on the climbs.
Zwift is continuing to test and tweak their new racing score metric (see latest news), and there are lots of races planned this weekend for further testing! Join the Crit Racing Club on Duchy Estate, the ZRacing events Coastal Crown Loop, HERD Beginner Races on Sand And Sequoias, the Women’s Racing Series on Neokyo All-Nighter, or the Tiny Races (see below)!
Looking for an extra-long race this weekend? The DBR squad has organized a race on the Zwift Games 2024 Epic Route (81.7km, 878m elevation) that will surely push you to your limits.
The race uses standard category enforcement, double draft, and all categories start at the same time.
Every month, the USMeS squad tackles a long ride over 100 miles long. This month it’s on Big Foot Hills, with a total distance of 205km (127 miles) and 2130m of climbing!
This is an open-paced group ride, and there are generally two leader beacons: one running at 2.5w/kg pace and the other at ~3.0w/kg plus.
We’re continuing to use our custom Zwift Racing Score bands in order to optimize pack sizes, and we’re seeing a really solid turnout of riders each Saturday. In fact, the Tiny Races are the most popular race happening each Saturday!
The top group (category A) is especially large, making for some very competitive racing on the pointy end. If you’re a strong rider looking for a set of hard race efforts, this is the place to be each Saturday.
We choose each weekend’s Notable Events based on a variety of factors including:
Is the event unique/innovative in some way?
Are celebrities (pro riders, etc) attending/leading?
Are signup counts already high, meaning the event is extra-popular?
Does the ride include desirable unlocks or prizes?
Does the event appeal to ladies on Zwift? (We like to support this under-represented group!)
Is it for a good cause?
Is it just plain crazy (extra long races, world record attempts, etc)?
Is it a long-running, popular weekly event with a dedicated leader who deserves a shout out?
In the end, we want to call attention to events that are extra-special and therefore extra-appealing to Zwifters. If you think your event qualifies, comment below with a link/details and we may just include it in an upcoming post!
Last week TriDot, the official training platform of Ironman, became the first platform to integrate with Zwift via Zwift’s new Training API. This API allows providers of structured workouts to send planned workouts to Zwift, so athletes can execute those workouts as rides or runs from within Zwift. It also lets Zwift send completed workout data back to the workout provider for processing and storage.
The Training API was announced a few months ago as “coming soon,” to be released in early summer. TriDot is the first platform to begin using the new API, so I wanted to share the news and what’s coming next with this feature.
First, A Bit About TriDot
If you’re a triathlete, you’re probably already familiar with TriDot. They are, after all, the official training platform of Ironman!
Their “Optimized Training technology” is powered by the nSight Optimization Engine which uses their proprietary dataset of more than 50 million optimized training sessions from more than 250,000 athletes worldwide to “produce the best results within a given amount of time and an acceptable injury-risk tolerance.”
TriDot’s training programs continually adapt to you, which is essential if you want to get the best results in less time with fewer injuries. This adaptation also makes TriDot a great first use case for Zwift’s new Training API, as any training plan changes will be automatically synced with Zwift (once TriDot enables this functionality – more on that below). TriDot’s massive community of triathletes and training plans that include both running and riding are additional reasons why it just makes sense for TriDot and Zwift to launch this feature together.
Monthly TriDot plans range from the $14.99 “Lifestyle” plan to $399 with a dedicated coach. TriDot also offers a free trial if you want to dip your toe in and check it out.
How It Works
TriDot’s description of their Zwift integration is clear and concise: “Send sessions to Zwift and auto-sync completed sessions to TriDot.”
As a TriDot user, you’ll still manage your training plan from within the TriDot app. But the Training API was created so providers like TriDot could send your planned workouts to Zwift, allowing you to complete the workouts from within Zwift. This lets you stick to your structured training plan while enjoying the social and fun engagement of Zwift’s platform!
The Training API does a lot that we haven’t seen yet, including allowing third-party workout providers like TriDot to automatically send your planned sessions to Zwift. But TriDot hasn’t rolled out that “auto-sync” functionality quite yet (Wednesday’s announcement email says “automatic push is coming soon”). For now, you’ll need to send your TriDot workout to Zwift for it to show up in-game.
This is easily done via the TriDot app or web interface:
When you open up Zwift, if you have a ride workout scheduled for the day that you’ve sent over from TriDot, it will show up on your homescreen’s “For You” carousel. Just click and go. Easy!
Today’s TriDot workout under “For You”. Just click and go!
(Runners don’t have a “For You” carousel in Zwift at this time, but you can always access your workouts by going to Workouts>Custom>TriDot. Cyclists may do the same.)
Some additional noteworthy details:
You can send workouts to Zwift that are far into the future, but only the next seven days’ worth will be available under the Custom tab of Workouts.
Multiple workouts can be scheduled on the same day (a must for many of the triathletes using TriDot).
Some providers, particularly TriDot, assign times to workouts on your training calendar. If you have a workout scheduled for today, it will only show up under “For You” if its scheduled time has already passed, or you’re within 1 hour of the scheduled start time.
TriDot workouts will remain visible in Zwift for 2 days after their scheduled date, so you can still execute a workout even if you are a day or two late.
Once you finish your workout in Zwift, full workout data will be automatically sent back to TriDot.
Zwift currently only loads up synced workouts on startup, so if you send a new or modified workout over from TriDot you’ll need to restart Zwift to see those changes. (Zwift tells me they are rolling out an update in the next couple of weeks so changes to workouts are visible without a reboot.)
As I’ve said in previous posts, the Training API’s powerful new level of integration is great news for Zwifters, since it will make massive libraries of high-quality training plans and workouts available from within our favorite virtual world.
TriDot is the first of three training plan providers initially working to integrate with Zwift via the new API. While this first rollout isn’t using the Training API’s full capabilities quite yet, after talking to contacts within Zwift I’m confident we’ll see things getting dialed in quickly as we head into Zwift season and more providers come on board.
Watch this space for news in the next month or two as TriDot adds auto-sync functionality and new providers come online!
Complete List of Training API Partners
TriDot is the first to be added to the list of Training API partners at Zwift. Here’s the complete list, which will be updated as new partners are added:
Are you a TriDot user? Have you tried their Zwift integration yet? Which training plan provider would you most like to see hooked up via Zwift’s Training API? Share your thoughts below!
Now, a month into the tests, statistics and racer opinions have emerged which are in turn driving changes to the ZRS system as Zwift works to make it ready for a larger release.
Let’s take a look at some of the numbers, opinions, and changes made or planned. But first…
Take Our Poll!
I’m curious: if you’ve tried one or more scored races, what do you think of Zwift Racing Score? Here’s a one-question poll where you can rate your experience:
[ays_poll id=”2″]
Some Stats
Zwift staff recently shared a forum post that includes some ZRS stats and plans (see it here).
As of July 30, over 12,750 unique racers had joined over 25,000 scored races. Most riders have finished just one scored race, which makes some sense, since there aren’t a lot of scored races available:
The distribution of racing scores is as follows:
Summarizing Feedback
There’s a lot of feedback flowing in from the ZRS test events, with riders posting comments in the Zwift forums and the Zwift Labs club.
I certainly haven’t read all the feedback… but I’ve read a lot of it. Here are some of the themes I’m noticing:
Race groups seem more diverse. That is, you’ve got riders with strong 30s power and relatively low FTPs mixed in with riders who have higher FTP but a poor sprint. This should result in more interesting races as the high FTP riders put in hard, longer attacks to try to drop sprinters before the line.
Heavier riders and/or those with big 30s power feel like they’re seeded too high. Some riders with a strong sprint (in terms of pure watts) are complaining that they are getting dropped quickly in their races. This seems to be more than a “you’re at the bottom of your category” issue, and more of a “your seed score is higher than it should be” issue. But it could also be a “you’re having to work for the result instead of just sitting in then sprinting” issue.
Seed score increases are confusing some riders. Your seed score is based on your 30s and 10-minute power, and you can set a new PR for either of these in any Zwift activity. It’s very possible to set a new PR in a race and have your ZRS change based on a new seed score as well as your race result. This could be a bit confusing, and Zwift may need to make some UI changes to improve the experience.
(Possibly) unrealistic expectations: I’ve seen various comments from riders whose expectations don’t seem realistic. A few examples:
“My ZRS band is harder than my old category enforcement category, and this is wrong.” It’s two completely different categorization systems, and nothing says that you should be at the same place in the pecking order in both.
“My score isn’t changing enough.” If the ZRS system is accurate, your score shouldn’t be changing drastically between events. Your ZRS is supposed to predict race performance, and if it does that well, you should finish at or near your current ZRS.
“I got dropped. The system is broken.” Lots of riders get dropped. You may have been at the top of your category before, and now you’re at the bottom. Some riders with strong sprints have been sitting in and sandbagging the lower categories and are now being forced to race against stronger riders. ZRS wasn’t meant to make racing easier: it was meant to make it fairer.
ZRS Changes
Zwift’s devs have already made some changes to ZRS since its initial rollout, including:
Slowing the rate at which your ZRS decays
Fixing some UI bugs
Showing your updated score when you return to the game homescreen after a race
Changing ZRS-based bands in ZRacing events to use different score ranges
Additional changes are planned for August:
New indicator icons in race results to show if you hit your floor value or had a major jump based on setting a new 30s to 600s best
“We will also be fixing an issue that prevented score from moving as quickly as they should when a new 90-day power best/floor is established”
Fixing web results so up/down arrows display correctly
Join a Scored Race!
If you haven’t tried a race using Zwift Racing Score, give it a try! Here’s a list of upcoming ZRS test races: zwift.com/events/tag/zwiftlabs
Questions Or Comments?
Questions about how ZRS works? Comments about it? Post below!
