After nearly a year of waiting, the Player Highlight feature finally landed in Zwift. This week’s top video gives a full rundown of the feature and the latest game release.
Additionally, we’ve selected a video about the Zwift Games, a rider’s first win on ZwiftPower, a comparison of MyWhoosh and Zwift, and a race between a lightweight climber and a heavier sprinter.
Latest Zwift Updates
Recently we had another pretty substantial week of Zwifty updates. This includes game version 1.59, Player Highlight, new Zwift Play firmware, and more. Watch as Shane Miller, GPLama, unpacks it all.
Who Is The Fastest GCN Presenter Now?
With the Zwift Games here, the GCN Presenters hold their own Zwift Games to crown the fastest GCN presenter. Watch as they battle it out!
First win on Zwift!? (power)
After lots of races and rides on Zwift, Ryan Condon finally takes a win on Zwift Power. In his latest video, he breaks down the race, telling the full story of how he got the win.
Is MyWhoosh Better Than Zwift?
Recently, MyWhoosh has gained significant traction, taking some users from Zwift. In his latest video, Oli Chi, ZRace Central, compares the two platforms.
110 KG Cyclist VS 60 KG Climber on Zwift?
Benji Naesen and his friend Guillaume race each other up the Epic KOM on Zwift. With Benji weighing in at 110 kg and Guillaume at 60kg, can Benji keep up with the lightweight climber?
Got a Great Zwift Video?
Share the link below and we may feature it in an upcoming post!
It’s Women’s History Month, so we wanted to talk up some new women-only Zwift events as well as some old favorites. Will this be the month you start racing or join some new women-only group rides? Let’s find out!
Zwift Games
This brand-new series organized by Zwift is bringing out the masses! Each stage includes women-only race events as well as mixed events. Get ready for some personal challenges as we navigate a mix of familiar and new courses!
Keep your eyes on the other riders in your category because all of the women’s cats start together. Get a strong start, settle into a comfortable pack position, and sit in until you arrive at key course features where you can pounce like a tiger (or maybe get dropped like yesterday’s news – and we’ve all been there)! The game is on!
The Iceni Women’s Series is back with some fun and dynamic courses! We’ll be traveling to Makuri, Watopia, Yorkshire, and France over four action-packed weeks. Are you challenging for points or hanging on for dear life? Regardless, come join in the fun in the company of other women!
This women-only group ride is a fixture on the Zwift event calendar. Every Sunday, join the 3R group leaders as they alternate between flat courses with some fun sprint segments (where the pack regroups after) and race recons of ZRL courses. This fun and friendly ride is worth checking out!
This BL13 series has a really neat format where each week, we are treated to back-to-back tiny races. Conservative riders might try to go easy on race one to feel strong for race two, and some might go hard in race one and hang on during race two, but who has the stamina to go hard on both? Come join and find out!
Thursday evenings just got a little more exciting with this weekly race series put on by Copenhagen Virtual Cycling (CVC) and eCykle Klub Danmark (eCKD). Week after week we’re treated to courses of varying lengths that suit riders of very different styles, and it’s ok if you have to miss a week or start late, as riders are able to drop a couple of races in the overall standings.
To wrap up this first week we have a women’s-only chase race to celebrate International Women’s Day (March 8). Race your way through Turf N Surf in Makuri with women in your category, and make sure to join the Discord voice channel to connect with your group and get helpful tips from the group Director Sportif. First category across the line wins, and all finishers will unlock their category’s race jersey!
How the Race Was Lost: Zwift Games Stage 1 (Loop de Loop): Dropped On the KOM… Twice
The Zwift Games have arrived, and it’s time to race against some stacked fields! I had the rare opportunity to race (and lose) Stage 1 twice while learning some lessons along the way, and thought it would be helpful to share and compare the experiences.
This stage was held on two laps of Watopia’s new Loop de Loop route, and as it turns out, this is a really fun race course. In two laps you’ll cover 24.9km with 289 meters of climbing, and the route includes lots of places to attack, no boring/flat bits, and a key climb that is just far enough from the finish to keep chasers interesting!
Read on to learn how the B-category races went for me…
The Start
Race 1 began with 200 riders, while Race 2 began with 107. Straight into The Esses, and Race 1 was definitely a bit spicier, with me needing to hold 20W more to hang in the front pack down to the JWB Sprint arch.
The pace was solid, but not crazy. Everyone knew the Hilly KOM up the road would be making the big selections. Still, riders were falling off the front pack as we headed back through The Esses and into downtown Watopia. By the time we hit the downtown banner, race 2’s peloton had shrunk to just 63 riders – 41% attrition, and we hadn’t even hit the Hilly KOM yet!
I’m sure race 1’s pack had shrunk too, but since Zwift only renders the closest 100 riders, all I knew was the pack still had at least 100 riders in it. On to the KOM!
The First Climb
In both races I was well-positioned heading into the first Hilly KOM, just a bike length or two from the front of the pack. This is a classic strategy used by “overmuscled” cyclists everywhere: starting a climb near the front of the pack allows you to slowly drop back in the pack over the course of the climb, while hopefully staying in touch with the back of the pack over the top so you don’t get dropped.
Done right, it lets you stay in touch with the top climbers while putting in a segment time that’s several seconds slower.
In Race 1 I averaged 425W and set a new race PR on the climb of 2:01. And I finished right near the front of the front pack!
In Race 2 I averaged 444W, setting a new race PR of 1:58. But the crazy part is, there were 7 riders who finished a few seconds ahead of me, across a gap that was too large for me to bridge alone! So strong.
That Middle Bit
In race 1, I finished the KOM in a front group of 36, and a group of 17 bridged up to us before we were done with the descent (impressive work, chasers). 1 lap down, and the attrition rate was already at 74%.
In race 2, the group of 7 stayed off the front until I and 10 others caught them as we headed into The Esses. With 18 in the front group, our attrition rate was now 83% with a lap to go.
Nothing remarkable happened in this middle bit in either race. The big selection had been made, legs were tired, and everyone knew the second (and final) KOM would be even tougher than the first.
Sidenote: Powerups
So many wasted draft boosts early in race 2!
The powerup scheme for Stage 1 was interesting. I loved it, but there were clearly lots of confused riders who didn’t understand what was going on!
We only received powerups at the JWB Sprint arch (so two powerup opportunities in the whole race) and the only powerup given was the Draft Boost.
I saw a lot of racers activating their powerup just before hitting the downtown arch, thinking that arch would give them another powerup. Even in the Elite race (shame on you, elite racers.) Because no: you weren’t getting another powerup at the downtown arch, or the hilly arch. So you needed to be smart about where to use the powerup for maximum benefit.
For most riders in the front group, the smart place to use the first draft boost was probably over the top of the Hilly KOM. This is where your legs would be most knackered, so you could benefit a lot from a bit of a respite as you sat in the wheels.
The second draft boost was ideally saved for the final sprint – but if you needed it in order to hang with a pack over the top of the KOM, you had to make the judgment call to use it or not.
The Final Climb
I started the final climb in race 1 a bit too far back, as the pack surged well before the KOM start line and I wasn’t able to quickly push to the front. This would prove a costly mistake as I hit the KOM arch with a small gap to the back of the strung-out front group. That gap? Just about the same size as my misjudged distance to the front of the group at the start of the segment.
I was better positioned for the start of the climb in race 2, but when we hit the second half of the climb it felt like the 10 riders just ahead powered up as my legs exploded! I went from tailgunning the front pack to 5 seconds off the back in that final 400 meters of Hilly KOM. Ouch. The front riders finished that KOM even faster than the first.
It’s interesting how similar my performances were on the final climb in the two races:
Race 1, 2nd KOM: 2:04, 417W
Race 2, 2nd KOM: 2:04, 416W
The Finish
In race 1, I activated my draft powerup just after the KOM arch so it would help me hang onto the snaking line of 7 riders chasing the front pack of 34. Coming into the finishing sprint a group of 32 was on the front chasing the podium, while I was in a pack of 9 fighting over the leftovers. I dug deep, but didn’t have much left. 36th place, 17.31 seconds behind the winner.
Supertucking the final descent!
In race 2 I crested the KOM in no man’s land, with the front group of 10 too far away to grab with nobody next to me to aid in the chase. But help came soon enough! A train of four zipped past and grabbed on. I hammered to the front on the descent, towing the group as I supertucked for a few seconds, grabbing a much-needed breather. 8 off the front, 7 of us chasing, and 1 in between the packs.
I fancied my chances in a sprint, since I still had my draft powerup. So I didn’t push to get off the front. Instead, I soft-pedaled, sitting in the draft until 300m to go. Then I hit the powerup, powered up myself, and started to hammer!
This sprint felt hyper-focused. I saw a rider just ahead, and sat on his wheel, waiting until I was closer to go all-in. I could also see we were going to catch the lone rider up the road, so I didn’t need to work extra hard to make that happen. Then I poured on what power I had left to come around the rider ahead, coming in first in the chase group… 9th overall.
I thought the two races would be more different than they actually were. But it turns out both races behaved very similarly, and I got dropped from contention in the same place both times!
My race 2 result was better than race 1 – not just in terms of finish position, but in terms of ZwiftPower ranking (166.23 in race 2, vs 256.51 in race 1). My legs were also a bit fresher in race 2. In the end, neither result was particularly good, but that’s not surprising – I do best in flat/rolling races.
Race 1 was a good reminder of the importance of positioning myself near the front before short climbs. This strategy doesn’t do much good on longer climbs, but on shorter stuff it is a super-helpful strategy. I’d say official KOM segments where “sagging” works well include all these shorter climbs:
This season, the DIRT Racing Series went head to head with Zwift Racing League by holding their races on the same day (Tuesday) as Zwift’s biggest race series. I’ll be honest: I thought they were a bit crazy for doing so. But in the past several months I’ve heard nothing but rave reviews from the many Zwifters who chose to race DRS instead of ZRL.
Is one “better” than the other? Not necessarily. They’re just different. And sometimes, different is good.
DRS organizers have just announced Season 8, and registration opens today. Let’s dive into the details!
What Makes DIRT Racing Series Special?
Season after season, DIRT Racing Series has stood out with its unique features. One of the most exciting things about the DIRT Racing Series is that it’s truly shaped by the riders’ feedback. Every series so far has garnered feedback from what is now a rider base of thousands of racers and team captains – and it is this feedback that sets the innovations and improvements for every next season. It is not without reason that the participants call it the “racing series of the people, for the people, by the people”.
Team Racing for Everyone: Open to teams of up to 8 riders (no rider minimum), where the best 4 riders per stage contribute their points to the team.
Unique results-based category structure based on zwiftracing.appRace Rankings.
Varied Racing Formats: Individual Time Trial, Team Time Race (TTR), and Points Races ensure diverse and exciting challenges throughout the season.
Balanced Points System: Every racer contributes with a well-structured points allocation system.
Individual and Team leaderboards.
Grand Championship, covering multiple seasons.
No power-ups, just pure old leg power.
Season 8 Highlights
Dates: March 26 – April 30
Race Day: Every Monday or Tuesday
Number of Stages: 7 (final week has two stages)
Five Time Zones across two different days.
Series Schedule
This 7-stage series is held on Mondays and Tuesdays in five different time slots:
Monday:
EMEA C – 18:15 GMT/BST, 19:15 CET/CEST
Tuesday:
Atlantic US – 05:45 EST/EDT
EMEA W – 19:15 GMT/BST, 20:15 CET/CEST
US E – 19:30 EST/EDT
US W – 18:30 PDT
The series includes an Individual Time Trial, a Team Time Race, and five points races:
DRS organizers are also excited to announce a massive evolution in the DIRT Racing Series: the introduction of the DRS Grand Championship!
Instead of running a standalone Season every DRS, they are creating an overarching DRS Grand Championship that consists of 4 Seasons. This means:
Season leaderboards: Team and Individual Season Leaderboards, each Season with its own winners.
Grand Championship leaderboards: Team and Individual DRS Grand Championship Leaderboards, with the accumulated scores of each Season.
Returning teams: Returning teams add Season scores and Championship Points to the DRS Grand Championship’s Team Leaderboard, counting the best 3 of 4 Total Championship Points.
Returning riders: Returning riders add Season scores and Championship Points to the DRS Grand Championship’s Individual Leaderboards (Overall, Sprint, KOM), with the best 3 of 4 Championship Points counting.
Ties: New rules will break DRS Grand Championship ties for clear winners.
Season Finale: DRS Grand Championship winners will be immortalized in the new Wall of Fame!
Zwift version 1.60 begins its phased rollout today. It’s a minor update with a small Player Highlight upgrade and some priority bug fixes. See details below…
Ride On Bombs + Player Highlight
The new Player Highlight feature was released in the previous update, and today’s release expands the feature to include Ride On bomb highlighting.
Now when you send a Ride On bomb (by pressing the Z-button on Zwift Play or tapping on the Zwift Companion map) the riders receiving Ride Ons from your bomb are temporarily highlighted and an animation shows your bomb dropping.
The previous update caused some Coffee Stop bugs which made it so riders weren’t able to take Coffee Stops in certain situations. As cyclists, of course the Zwift community rose up in arms against such an injustice, so we’re happy to announce that Zwift reports today’s update should fix any Coffee Stop bugs.
Apple Watch Rollback
The release notes say “Reverted recent Apple Watch updates to address connectivity issues.” Apple Watch users have told us that the previous update seemed to break Watch connectivity with the game, so it’s good to see Zwift has rolled back the latest updates so Watch users can get heart rate into the game and Apple Health.
More Release Notes
Zwift provided notes on additional tweaks and bug fixes in this update:
The Ride Streak screen now automatically closes itself after a period of time. If you’d like to keep the screen open longer, touch or click anywhere to cancel the timer.
Fixed an issue where routes with minimum level requirements were not correctly locked in the Route selection screen.
Fixed an issue that could potentially award The Big Ring route badge after completing a different route.
Fixed an issue that could cause some rocks to flicker in Watopia.
Internal changes made to reduce the likelihood of red squares issues.
International Women’s Day “Chasing the Dream” Race Announced
International Women’s Day in 2024 is a day to “inspire others to understand and value women’s inclusion” to “forge a better world.” “And when women themselves are inspired to be included, there’s a sense of belonging, relevance, and empowerment.”
This International Women’s Day (March 8), join your fellow women Zwifters for a Chase race on Makuri’s Turf N Surf! See all the details below…
About the Chase Race
This is a unique racing format that rewards you for working together with women in your category. Often in Zwift racing you are trying to beat the racers of your speed on different teams, so this race style really asks a lot of women – to come together and work towards a common goal with women they are often trying to beat. This format is a fitting tribute to International Women’s Day – to celebrate the strength of the collective and show that racers are faster together than they are apart. Each category has an assigned captain who will lead the discussion on Discord (links to the channels are in the event details) and try to turn a churning mass into one with motivation, direction, and a common purpose.
Category D will start out first, with a 4-minute headstart on the C’s. Category B starts just 2 minutes after the C category, and then Category A will start 3 minutes after that, 9 minutes after the D category. The first person in each category to finish wins the race for the category. For instance, if a B category woman crosses the line first, then a D rider, then an A rider, the B cat wins, D cat gets second, etc. Each category has an assigned jersey and will be outfitted as follows once you enter the starting pen:
Category D – Zwift Academy 2020 Women’s jersey – starts on :00
Category C – Women’s Week 2018 jersey – starts on :04
Category B – Rapha Women’s Souplesse jersey – starts on :06
Category A – Voxwomen Tour jersey – starts on :09
Note: Racers will unlock that jersey for their garage once the course is completed.
Details and Registration
Details: Friday, March 8th at 11:00AM PST/2:00PM EST/7:00PM BST/8:00PM CET
In addition to the virtual racing, there will be a gathering of women racing in person at Molti Amici in Healdsburg, California, including a brand new D rider and two B riders, with local supporters enjoying an International Women’s Day cocktail and pizza.
Tiffany and partner Jonny will be serving up wood-fired pizza’s at Molti AmiciDanielle will be creating a FemmeCycle drink for International Women’s Day
We hope this is enough fun for both racers and spectators to warrant more of this type of competition, where non-racers can see the collaboration and effort needed to compete in races on Zwift!
Live Stream and Commentary
Livestream and commentary will be provided by Jillian Howland and Rhys Howell. Watch the live stream on Twitch at twitch.tv/rhysatcoalition.
Useful Links
Zwift Insider’s women’s site, which launched last month, hopes to be a place where women can come to experience a sense of belonging, relevance, and empowerment. If you haven’t visited yet, check it out!
For more information on International Women’s Day, as well as its mission and goal, please see their site at internationalwomensday.com.
Fuhrer Gives Zwift Craft Masterclass to Claim the Women’s Sprint Championships at the Zwift Games
Stage 1 of the elite Zwift Games happened over the weekend, and it was an exciting smashfest of top-tier talent! Below you’ll find Zwift’s complete press release on the women’s events.
The world’s best Zwifters lined up alongside one another for another night of rapid cycling esports racing. Following the same format as Saturday’s action, three short races tested the athletes to their limits. Tactics, drama and raw power shone through as the long startlist was whittled down to 30 for the second race, and 10 for the final. The winner claims $7,000 and a Gold Concept Z1 bike, as well as 100 crucial points towards the Wahoo Overall Championships.
Race One
The longest of the races, two laps of the new Loop de Loop course started steadily, with an initial attack coming from Em Nyquist on the descent of Hilly QOM. With around 10 kilometres to go, after Nyquist had been brought back by Emma Belforth and Charlotte Colclough, the pair went clear at 7 watts per kilo and grew their lead to over 40 seconds. While Belforth was looking relatively comfortable, the effort was clear on Colclough’s rider cam. On the second ascent of the Hilly QOM Colclough cracked, and sat up to wait for the group. Belforth pushed on at a steady pace, maintaining a healthy distance between the chasing group all the way to the line.
Race favourites Lou Bates, Vicki Whitelaw, Kathrin Fuhrer, Charlotte Colclough, Gabriela Guerra, Liz Van Houweling, Kristen Kulchinsky and Mika Söderström all made it through, however Olympic Esports Legend Lam Kong rolled in at 36 and didn’t progress.
Race Two
Following a short break and the offer of respite for the riders, the top 30 set off on another new course, the Jurassic Coast route.
Only a couple of kilometres into the race, Belforth struck again. The group looked at one another, letting the gap grow to 10 seconds in a few hundred metres. After an initial response from Kristin Kulchinsky that looked set to bring Belforth back, impetus faded and with half the race done, it was clear the peloton was, as commentator Nathan Guerra, “racing for nine places now.”
Similar to the previous night, the ridiculously fast finish favoured the sprinters with Zwift craft, and who held their nerve, with those who went early fading at the last.
Söderström won the bunch sprint for second ahead of Ellexi Snover in third.
Race Three
The scene then was set for the final race, 15 kilometres in Glasgow Crit Circuit over five laps.
Everyone was expecting Belforth to be well and truly beat from the first two races, but the Swedish MTB rider attacked early, once, twice, three times in the first lap. The result started to feel like an inevitability but the other riders dug deep and refused to let the elastic snap. After a quiet second lap the race became more animated on the third and fourth, with a rhythm setting in, Belforth attacking, Lou Bates and Kulchinsky responding. The 10 were all together on the final ascent of the Clyde Kicker, Belforth went one final time at just under 9 w/kg, pain etched on her face, but she couldn’t hold it. Bates came through as the riders turned onto the final straight with 200 metres to go and a number of riders on her shoulder. Söderström looked to be certain for the win until Fuhrer’s final surge, pipping her on the line along with van Houweling who claimed second.
Michał Kamiński Wins the Men’s Sprint Championships at the Zwift Games
Stage 1 of the elite Zwift Games happened over the weekend, and it was an exciting smashfest of top-tier talent! Below you’ll find Zwift’s complete press release on the men’s events.
The three race Sprint Championships had a stacked startlist of the world’s best cycling esports specialists from all over the world. Tactics, race craft, and peak performance were needed from any rider hoping to make it through to the final race. Only the top 30 made it through to the second race, only the top 10 from the second race had the chance to claim the top prize; $7,000 and a Gold Concept Z1 bike.
Race One
Taking place on the brand new Loop de Loop course, the first of Zwift Games Sprint races had a twitchy first few kilometres. The peloton waited until the first Hilly KOM ascent before picking up the pace and with nine kilometres to go, Nico Severa made the first meaningful attack and pushed a gap out to over 20 seconds. Vidal Mehl was the next to break off the front with what looked like an overly ambitious attack three kilometres from the line with the pack close behind. Mehl made it stick though and caught Severa with 300 metres to go and took victory 0.1 seconds ahead of the pack with the top 30 all finishing within one second.
Race Two
Next up was another new course, the Jurassic Coast route. A few minor attacks in the first half of the race including from Cycling Esports World Champion Bjørn Andreassen, making a statement that he wasn’t looking to just make up numbers. The bunch stayed together until 8 kilometres to go, as fan favourite Teppo Laurio hit the front before Hüseyin Çelebi broke away and built a lead of 8 seconds with 3 kilometres to go. As the finish line approached Haavard Gjeldnes took Zwift craft to the next level, he’d barely featured throughout the race but timed his sprint perfectly, taking 1st place. Big names missed out on the top 10 including USA Cycling National Champion Brian Duffy Jr and Andreassenn.
Race Three
Glasgow Crit Circuit hosted the showdown between the world’s best Cycling Esports sprinters, just over a year since the same course hosted the Cycling Esports World Championships in 2023. A quiet first lap was followed up with a rapid second. Gjeldnes and Bart Van Den Eeckhaut held a 10 second gap the second time up the Clyde Kicker but by lap three the race was back together. Michał Kamiński tested his competitor’s legs with just over a lap to go, pushing over 8 w/kg but the other nine riders quickly reeled him in. The stage looked to be set for a bunch sprint. As the group of ten descended the Clyde Kicker for the final time with the distance counter measuring under 1 kilometre to go, many commentators on the live YouTube broadcast were pointing out Holden Comeau as the favourite due to his impressive peak power. Kamiński, comfortably sitting at the back, dropped his Draft Powerup, put the hammer down, and didn’t look back.
