This July, the Aussie Hump Day Ride Team (AHDR) is launching their inaugural Winter Tours. Aimed at Aussies with a 7:10pm AEST timeslot (that’s 5:10am EDT and 9:10am UTC), there are Women’s Tour events on four consecutive Monday nights starting July 1 and Open Tour events on four consecutive Tuesday nights starting July 2nd.
The Tours are separate category racing where each grade gets to race its own race. With General, Sprint, and KQOM Classifications plus prizes from AHDR Partners Giant and JetBlack, the Tour has plenty to offer everyone!
Note: prizes are available to Australian residents only due to shipping costs.
Route Descriptions
The Tours feature four iconic Zwift race courses in Watopia and Scotland. The first week kicks off with a short but fast 19km course in Watopia on the Ocean Lava Cliffside Loop where one climb will make or break the race!
The following week, the Tour heads to the Sand and Sequoias course for another short and fast race of 20km which features the first Sprint and KQOM points of the Tour through the desert and Titans Grove Reverse climb.
Week 3 is the Queen Stage on the Sugar Cookie course, a 39km course which features plenty of points opportunities for the sprinters in the race for Green! One climb up to the Bridge of disappearing watts before a right-hand turn along the cliffside and a downhill jungle finish!
The last week is one for the all-rounders with Scotland’s The Muckle Yin providing plenty of opportunities to grab points or for a breakaway to go for glory!
Race Details
Race Schedule
Aussie Hump Day Ride’s AHDRL Women’s Tour p/b Liv & Jet Black Monday Nights (AEST) 7:10pm
Aussie Hump Day Ride’s AHDR Open Tour p/b Giant & Jet Black Tuesday Nights(AEST) 7:10pm
How did you get into cycling? I found to the saddle and cycling due to a knee injury and during my rehab, I hated every minute on traditional motionary cycle in the gym. A friend that was cycling told me that I was strong on the bike and I should start cycling and race. Now, 4 years later, cycling has become one of my biggest passions.
How many years have you been racing on Zwift? I started 2020 on Zwift, raced a lot, but took a break season 2022/2023 but starting to get back again!
Are you part of a Virtual team? I’m racing for eSRT.
What do you love most about racing? I love getting really tired and pushing myself on Zwift.
What is your favourite style of race (e.g. points, scratch, iTT, TTT, Chase, duathlon)? My favourite style is crit races/scratch.
What is your favourite Zwift women’s race series? Favourite women’s series is hard to choose between Tour de Boudicca and Iceni. If I have to choose one, it will be Iceni then.
What is your most memorable racing experience, inside or outside or BOTH? My most memorable racing experience inside is Tour de Boudicca 3 years ago, when no one saw me coming in the final sprints (not even myself). I came 2nd and 1st in race 2 and 3. Outside – my first races 3 years ago. I had no idea how to race outside.
What is your favourite food to eat post race? Pasta
What advice would you give to a woman entering her first Zwift race? My best advice is don’t take it too serious, have fun and race hard!
Any upcoming race you are looking forward to? I’m looking forward to the next ZRL season!
That was possibly the world’s longest cafe stop. While the average caffeine and cake refuel stoppage time is, let’s say, 20-30 minutes, the Zwiftcast has had its feet up by the coffee machine and cake counter for something over two years!
But now we’re back and with the first recording session done, I did turn to my other half and say: You know what, I kinda missed it.
It was never the plan to bin off the Zwiftcast and then bring it back. We’re not pulling that trick some brands do as a marketing strategy – kill off a much-loved product knowing full well the outcry will serve up a shed load of free publicity and then, surprise surprise – “we’ll change our minds.”
No, when the decision was made, it felt final. But a few weeks ago HQ called and said, “Hey Simon, d’ya fancy bringing it back?” I was surprised how much I wanted to so it didn’t take long to say, “OK, but with conditions.”
Those are, essentially, that I’d relaunch the Zwiftcast, get it going on a nice regular cadence then hand over the reins to a refreshed team. The reasons are the same as I had for ending the podcast – I’ve got pretty bad hearing loss and now living mainly in Spain, I just don’t Zwift as much as when I lived in rainy Northern England.
But for now, we’re back with the old crew and firing on all cylinders. The plan is to widen and deepen the pool of hosts and co-hosts and I am especially interested in hearing from female Zwifters who may want to be a part of it. Drop me a message on FB or through the Zwiftcast Listeners group or even in comments here.
The Zwiftcast will be the same recipe of Zwifty chat and gossip alongside pre-recorded features with notable Zwifters and HQ staffers. We will still lob the odd well-aimed brick at HQ if they do something that the community reacts against. That ain’t gonna change.
It really is great to be back. It’s been wonderful seeing how many previous Zwiftcast fans are so pleased to see us return too and also a word of thanks to HQ: They have an increasing focus on making the Zwift community happy and this is part of that. It’s an enlightened and welcome approach.
This weekend’s picks include a first-of-its-kind Climb Portal event, two stage races kicking off to coincide with the Tour de France, and two events held on Watopia’s new routes. See details below!
✅ New Roads ✅ Unique Event ✅ Kit Unlock ✅ Popular Event
On Saturday, for the first time ever, Zwift is holding group ride events in the Climb Portal! These events are happening throughout the next few weeks on climbs mirroring what the pro men are racing in the Tour de France.
This kickoff event is on the Cote des Forche climb – at only 3km the shortest (by far) of the climbs featured in the next few weeks. And there’s a bonus: complete any of these TdF Climb Portal events and you’ll unlock the new Santini TdF 2024 Grand Depart kit!
Chasing Yellow is a 21-stage Zwift race that runs alongside the IRL Tour de France, with Zwift routes chosen based on the day’s TdF route (flat, hilly, mountain, etc). It all starts on Saturday, along with Le Tour! Stage 1 covers the new event-only Itza Party route.
The SISU Tour is a 7-stage race event which also kicks off on Saturday. Stage 1 is on Watopia’s Coast Crusher, and all categories start together in these races, so be ready to push hard out of the gate!
The Phoenix Rising club is hosting a banded ride on Watopia’s new Peak Performance route, to help Zwifters earn elevation and unlock their Tron bike! This is a great chance for riders of all abilities to work together to earn a route badge, grab some elevation, and get a solid workout.
The final stage of this month’s ZRacing series is on Watopia’s new Mayan San Remo route. Need to unlock the achievement badge for this creatively-named event-only route? Here’s your chance!
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!
Big news for the Zwift racing community this week: Zwift Racing Score has entered the building! How does it work, and what does it mean for Zwift racing? Let’s dive in!
First, a Bit of History
It’s long been known that Zwift’s power-based categorization scheme, while easy to implement, is far from perfect. Grouping riders based on their power numbers will always enable sandbagging on some level since riders with numbers near the top of their categories can keep on winning without being bumped into a higher category.
We all knew that a results-based categorization system was needed. But how exactly should that work? While ranking models already existed in both the video game and bike racing worlds, there was no “off the shelf” formula Zwift could grab that worked quite how they’d like.
One year ago yesterday, Zwift announced the public launch of their Racing Score metric. But the racing community wasn’t impressed with the first iteration, since it was based on ZwiftPower’s ranking metric, which many racers see as flawed.
So Zwift went back to the drawing board, bringing community Zwifter and race ranking guru Tim Hanson of ZwiftRacing.app in as a consultant. The new Zwift Racing Score is nothing like the original, and that’s good news! Zwift heard from the community and made big changes. Next week, Zwifters will begin experimenting with the new Zwift Racing Score. Exciting times!
How It Works
Zwift Racing Score is on a scale of 0-1000 (higher is better), and categories are broken up by assigning Racing Score ranges to each category. For example, July’s 5-category ZRacing events use the following score ranges to populate categories:
725-1000
575-725
400-575
225-400
0-225
Zwift isn’t revealing the precise formula for computing each rider’s Zwift Racing Score. But here’s what we do know: everyone begins with a “seed” (initial) score computed based on your 30-second power, 10-minute power, and body weight. Zwift says:
“We calculate a new racer’s predicted score (seed score) using a compound formula based on CP30s and CP600s power outputs. We then normalize the power by weight and make further adjustments based on our analysis to ensure the score is fair across various weights and performance levels. After normalization, we apply a specific formula to transform these values into a final seed score between 0-1000.”
The primary way your score will increase or decrease is based on your finishing position in races and the quality of fields you race against. Again, Zwift isn’t sharing specifics. But the way they describe it working is exactly what we would expect:
“A higher finish against stronger competitors in races will increase your score more significantly. Conversely, lower placements or less strategic engagement in races will result in smaller gains or even reductions in your score. This method ensures that each racer’s score truly reflects their performance and growth in capability over time.”
There’s some level of “decay” built into the system, so your score may decrease if you don’t race. That said, your Racing Score won’t fall below your most recent calculated seed score.
Zwift Racing Score will show up on both the Zwift Companion app and zwift.com website in three different ways:
Viewing your current Racing Score
Signing up for scored races
Viewing scored race results
IMPORTANT: you must be a member of the Zwift Labs club in order to see your current score. Otherwise, you will only be able to see your score in scored race results. Join the Zwift Labs club >
Here are some screenshots showing how Zwift’s Racing Score will be displayed in Companion and online:
Viewing Current Score
Race Signup
Race Results
Upcoming Events
Zwift is setting up particular events from Zwift-owned racing series and some community-organized races to begin testing Zwift Racing Score. I call these “scored races” below, which means two things: the races use Zwift Racing Score for categorization, and the race results will affect your Racing Score.
Zwift zRacing Series (starting July 1): 4 time slots per day with be scored races: 0810, 1110, 1710, and 2210 UTC. These time slots will use 5 categories, except the 1710 time slot which will use 10 categories. The 10-category events are actually two separate events – a “low end” and a “high end” – each with 5 categories.
Zwift Crit Racing Club (starting July 1): 3 time slots per day will be scored races: 0940, 1740, and 2240 UTC. These time slots will use 5 categories.
Zwift Hill Climb Racing (starting July 5): 1 time slot for each week’s race will be scored. This time slot will use 5 categories.
Zwift Women’s Racing Series (starting July 2): all events for this series will be scored, and will split riders into 5 categories.
HERD Beginner Racing (starting July 6): all events for this series will be scored, and will split riders into 5 categories.
SZR Summer High-Low Series: all events for this series will be scored, and will split riders into 10 categories.
Zwift Insider Tiny Races (starting July 6): all events will be scored, and will split riders into 5 categories.
For now, all scored races will live under the Zwift Labs club, to make it clear that Zwift Racing Score is still in its testing phase. Join the Zwift Labs club to easily access these events in Zwift Companion and share feedback via club chat.
Zwift says, “Through Zwift Labs, we’re activating Racing Score on a select set of Zwift-owned and community-led races. Our goal is to engage with a diverse group of seasoned racers and thoroughly test various racing scenarios during this initial phase of implementation. But it’s about much more than just racing, it’s crucial that we hear about all your individual experiences, as this will shape future development.”
If you participate in a scored race, be sure to share feedback in the Zwift Labs club chat afterward!
Concluding Thoughts
While it was a long time coming, I’m stoked that Zwift is finally rolling out Racing Score. And I’m crossing my fingers, hoping that everyone’s experience with scored races is a good one.
Because if Racing Score works as intended, it’s going to be the biggest change to Zwift Racing since category enforcement rolled out in February 2022. Results-based categorization means the end of sandbagging, which is huge. It also opens up the possibility of custom categories, meaning race organizers can modify the number of categories and their breakpoints, mixing up the race packs so riders aren’t always near the top or bottom of a category.
My guess is Zwift plans to test Racing Score for July and August, so it’s ready to go when Zwift season begins ramping up in September. I can’t wait to hop in and give it a try myself!
Questions or Comments?
Got comments or questions about Zwift Racing Score? Share below, or in the Zwift Labs club chat!
“Vive la France!” ZRacing Series Details (July 2024)
Zwift’s “ZRacing” is the platform’s most popular ongoing race series. In July, the series is themed around the Tour de France, with all routes in Zwift’s France or Paris maps. Additionally, in a fresh twist, certain ZRacing events for July will use Zwift’s new Zwift Racing Score!
Read on for details about race routes, the overall monthly GC competition, and more…
Vive la France! – July’s Route Schedule
Here are the routes we’ll be racing in July (click route for details):
The ZRacing series consists of monthly sets of weekly races. Each race is scheduled for seven days (Monday through Sunday) and timeslots are consistent week to week.
Races are scheduled hourly times each day at 10 minutes past the hour, so there are plenty of available times to find a race.
For the first time ever, this month 4 ZRacing events per day will use the new Zwift Racing Score for categorization. Additionally, if you race these events, your race result will impact your Zwift Racing Score!
Scored events will occur at 0810, 1110, 1710, and 2210 UTC each day. These time slots will use 5 categories, except the 1710 time slot which will use 10 categories.
IMPORTANT: if you want to compete in the monthly GC (see below), you’ll want to race the “normal” events, not these scored events, because the scored categories don’t line up with the GC categories on ZwiftPower.
Monthly GC on ZwiftPower
Each monthly series includes a time-based GC (general classification) tracking riders’ best finishing times for each week’s race. The overall winners in each category for the month are the riders with the lowest overall time for that month’s set of races.
With over 150 weekly timeslots available, riders can race each week’s event multiple times and try to better their finishing time. Tip: the fastest times usually come from the largest race fields!
You must use a heart rate monitor to show up in ZwiftPower results for this series.
Each month’s ZRacing series has a unique achievement badge, which you can unlock by finishing every stage for the month. There are no makeup events, so if you miss a stage, you miss out on the badge and competing in the GC.
One and Done
Zwift has planned these events to deliver a solid 1-hour workout, so each race should only take around 1 hour to complete, including your warmup and cooldown.
Zwift Women’s Racing Series #2 Begins July 2 with Scored Races
Zwift Women’s Racing Series returned in May, and participation numbers were solid. So Zwift has spun up a fresh round which includes the new element of scored races!
This is an 8-week series featuring time trials and scratch races. Riders accumulate points based on their weekly performance, and it all begins on Tuesday, July 2! See all the details below…
Event Schedule
Races happen on Tuesdays (Wednesdays in Australia/New Zealand) in four different timeslots:
2 laps (16.1km, 142m), fastest course time decides the winner
Points Scoring and Series Competition
This is a points series where your best result each week earns you a certain number of points. Your best 6 weekly results will then be used for the overall ranking, which means you can miss two weeks or perhaps have an off week or two but still be competitive in the overall rankings.
Points are awarded based on your position in each event: if you win, you will score 100 points, 99 for second, all the way down to 1 point for 100th position.
Final results for each race can be found on ZwiftPower, and the overall series rankings can be found under Leagues>Zwift Women’s Racing Series.
If you upgrade mid-series, your points cannot be transferred to your new category. If you think it is likely that you will upgrade during this series, we recommend entering all races at the higher category.
These races are open to all women, but for your results to count, you must be wearing a heart rate monitor and using either a smart trainer or power meter. zPower riders will not be allowed to join these events.
First-Timers
Never raced before on Zwift? This is a great place to start! Here are a few tips to get you started:
It was announced two weeks ago, and we published our full review a few days later. But today is the big day Zwift begins taking orders for the bargain-priced new Zwift Ride Smart Bike!
Pricing and Availability
Zwift Ride with KICKR CORE is now shipping to the US, UK, EU, Canada, and Australia. Orders may be placed at zwift.com and wahoofitness.com (Canadian and Australian customers must order via Wahoo).
Note: if you purchase Zwift Ride via the links above, Zwift Insider will be paid an affiliate commission by Zwift or Wahoo. Thanks for your support!
Key Features
Virtual Shifting: flawless, instant, silent shifting via the handlebar controllers includes in-game gearing and shifting customization
Easy Adjustability: use the integrated Zwift Key to easily adjust saddle tilt, height and fore/aft as well as bar height and fore/aft
Real Feel: resistance changes to match in-game gradients, and Erg mode capability helps ensure you hit the right power numbers for your customized workouts
Always Ready: with its small footprint and easy one-time setup, you don’t need to bother with moving your bike on and off the trainer
Specifications:
Power Accuracy: +/-2%
Max Power: 1800W
Max Grade: 16%
Rider Fit Range: 5’-6’6” (152–198cm)
Max Rider Weight: 265 lbs/120 kg
Product Weight: 78 lbs. (frame + trainer)
See a full list of detailed specs in our review, or get a quick rundown of Zwift Ride’s key features from Rahsaan:
This week Hollie and Dustin talk to Eric Schlange, the Zwift insider. We cover so many topics. Everything from Dustin was right about June 12th – it was an expensive tablet holder – to how to contribute to the Zwift Insider website to what is coming to Zwift this summer to hardware, to how Mark King is one of the greatest bass players of all time and more!
SPECIAL THANKS to Eric Schlange for making this work!
Approximate Times:
00:00:00 Intros and Weekly Catch Up
00:15:00 Zwift Ride
00:27:00 Apple TV discussion
00:30:00 Who’s using what devices to run Zwift?
00:35:00 How Zwift are getting more riders
00:41:00 How Zwift are dealing with other platforms
00:46:00 MARK KING RULES!
00:50:00 HUD Refresh and new things coming to Zwift
00:53:00 Tim Hanson is a Legend – Zwift Race Score
00:58:00 Zwift Going Public?
01:01:00 Zwift History: What Happened to CVR?
01:06:00 PacerBot / Vacuum Cleaners
01:08:00 Sauce Discussion
01:11:00 What Watopian Weekly has in store this season
Each week Dustin and the Queen of Yorkshire, Hollie, get together to talk about Zwift, life, and everything else. Watopian Weekly is available on Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube, and iHeartRadio.
