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Cycling Esports News Roundup: Zwift Grand Prix, UCI+MyWhoosh, ZADA+indieVelo, and more

Eric Schlange
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15
Cycling Esports News Roundup: Zwift Grand Prix, UCI+MyWhoosh, ZADA+indieVelo, and more

Cycling Esports News Roundup: Zwift Grand Prix, UCI+MyWhoosh, ZADA+indieVelo, and more

It’s been a busy week in the world of cycling esports, so here’s a quick post to catch you up on anything you may have missed.

Let’s discuss four pieces of recent noteworthy news for Zwift racers, in chronological order:

  • Zwift Grand Prix
  • Zwift partnering with IndieVelo founders for rider verification
  • UCI and MyWhoosh sign three-year Esports Worlds agreement
  • Zwift Championships

Zwift Grand Prix

Zwift retooled its elite racing series in 2022, rolling out the “Grand Prix” series and its suite of unique race formats. On July 31 Zwift’s competition team notified top teams’ managers that the next Grand Prix series is happening, and Zwift is now accepting applications for teams.

The Grand Prix will comprise 7 rounds, starting October 19 and ending mid-January 2024. Selected teams will be announced on or around September 8.

What’s different for the Grand Prix this year?

  • Grand Prix riders will be racing the ZRL course the Thursday/Friday before racers take it on, for rounds 2 and 3.
  • Some or all of the Grand Prix event formats will match ZRL’s, including the new scratch race format, TTT, and points races.
  • Teams will be required to have both a men’s and women’s team, which explains why we’ve seen some high-level men’s teams rolling out a women’s team in recent months (NeXT, BL13). Teams are allowed to partner with existing women’s teams in order to make this happen, which is a good move given the number of established women’s only teams on Zwift.

I’m happy to see the Grand Prix being linked into ZRL a bit more, like Zwift’s Premier League (predecessor to the Grand Prix) was in the past. It encourages community racers to watch Grand Prix events, and helps unite the entire Zwift racing community.

Zwift/ZADA/IndieVelo

Zwift’s ZADA has, for years, been responsible for verifying performances in high-level Zwift events. Originally a community-powered initiative, it was dissolved due to privacy issues, then returned in 2019 as an official Zwift governing body. It is referenced throughout Zwift’s official Cycling Esports Ruleset.

I’ve been wondering what was happening with ZADA for the past few months, after learning that ZADA’s former chairman (George Gilbert) had launched indieVelo, a race-focused indoor cycling platform. Who would take the reins at ZADA moving forward?

Turns out, it’s still going to be George Gilbert, as well as former ZADA team leader Bjoern Ossenbrink. Zwift told elite Team Managers on August 11:

“For 2023/24, we will continue to work with Dr. George Gilbert and Bjoern Ossenbrink from indievelo (previously part of ZADA), who will provide an independent governance and performance verification service for the ZGP on Zwift. This service will be delivering PV and governance solutions only.“

As I understand it, the indieVelo platform itself won’t be used for performance verification. Rather, Zwift is simply contracting with Gilbert and Ossenbrink, through the indieVelo corporate entity, to continue to do similar work as they’ve done in the past in verifying Zwift race performances.

Interesting times, indeed.

UCI Selects MyWhoosh as Esports Worlds Host

The biggest news in cycling esports this week is the UCI’s announcement that they’ve selected MyWhoosh as their partner for the next three Esports World Championships (2024, 2025, 2026).

This may come as a surprise to Zwifters (and Zwift itself), given that Zwift has been the only platform to host Esports Worlds thus far, having hosted it for three years. I reached out to Zwift for an official statement, and they said:

Naturally, we are disappointed by this outcome but we are extremely proud of the three great World Championships we have delivered with the UCI to date.

Our commitment to grow the sport of cycling esports from community racing upwards and to further develop our elite racing product remains unchanged. We will continue to innovate and drive this new sport forward.

The Zwift community is the bedrock of cycling esports and we will continue to create top-level elite events, including a Zwift Championship, that showcase racing on Zwift and celebrate the best Zwift racers in the world. Stay tuned for more details to come!

Is this a major setback for Zwift? A sign that they’ve fallen from their lofty perch atop indoor cycling virtual mountain? Probably not. As DCRainmaker said in today’s post, “The point here being, everything about these selections are driven by money (and connections), not functionality or user bases.”

Zwift still possesses a pile of investor cash, but MyWhoosh, based in United Arab Emirates (UAE), is linked/backed by the government of UAE itself. And that government is not short on cash. Comparing the features and user bases of Zwift and MyWhoosh, one can only assume that the UCI made its decision based on financial motives.

Who knows? Three years from now we may find that MyWhoosh hosting Esports Worlds was a good thing for Zwift. First, it holds their feet to the fire. It may also allow Zwift to invest in other crucial projects that keep growing its user base, feature set, and hardware offerings, so the platform can continue dominating the indoor space.

Zwift Championships

Hidden in Zwift’s statement above re: Esports Worlds is a new event announcement: a “Zwift Championship”! What exactly is this? I have no idea, and Zwift isn’t sharing any info just yet. But my guess is, it will be a sort of “Esports Worlds” without all the UCI attachments.

Zwift, more than any other indoor cycling platform, knows how to organize a high-end racing event. With ZRL bigger than ever and the next Grand Prix series announced, we’ll probably see everything culminate in a Zwift Championship in early 2024.

Questions or Comments

Thoughts on anything above? Share below!

Notable Zwift Events for the Weekend of August 19-20

Oli Chi
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4
Notable Zwift Events for the Weekend of August 19-20

This weekend we have selected a host of endurance rides and races, including the first event of Zwift Insider’s new Epic Series! Other notable events include a popular race, a fresh endurance ride on Zwift, a classic endurance ride, and the final race of a popular series.


🤝Zwift Insider Mini Epic Ride

✅ Popular Event 　✅ Innovative Format 　✅ Jersey Unlock

After a year of running the Zwift Insider Tiny Races, we’ve decided to spice things up with an all-new ride/race series. The Zwift Insider Epic Series gives riders the opportunity take on longer and tougher courses as a group ride or a race. Eventually, the series will ramp up to tackling the 4 hardest courses on Zwift!

Each week the series alternates between a race and a group ride, and the series begins this weekend with riders tackling the Mountain 8 course in Watopia as a group ride.

Multiple time slots this weekend
Sign up at zwift.com/events/tag/epicseries


🥇 Chasing Tour | Chasing San Sebastian

✅ Popular Event 　✅ Highly Competitive

This weekend, Chasing Racing is holding the Chasing San Sebastian. As the name suggests, this race is taking place on the same day as the San Sebastian Classic in real life. This is easily one of the top races this weekend!

The race is pretty long, consisting of two laps on the Three Little Sisters course (so ~75km/47 miles) Tip: get the full race replica by queuing up the live coverage of the race.  

Multiple time slots this Saturday
Browse Chasing Tour events at zwift.com/events/tag/chasingtour


🥇 The Buildup by OverTheEdge

✅ Fresh Event

As a relatively new event on the calendar, OverTheEdge aims to provide competitive events to help riders prepare for the upcoming Zwift Racing League season. Similar to the Zwift Insider Epic Series, the courses will get progressively harder as the weeks go by.

This week, riders will be racing on The Pretzel in Watopia. Best of luck!

Sunday, August 20th @ 7 pm UTC/3 pm EDT/12 pm PDT
Sign up at zwift.com/events/view/3779831


🤝 3R Endurance Steady Ride

✅ Popular Event 　✅ Legacy Leaders

For those who fancy an endurance ride, 3R hosts a popular ride each week. This is a well-led and very well-supported group ride with an excellent team of leaders and sweepers present in the ride. Two pace options are available in this group ride: category B with a pace range of 3-3.5 w/kg and category C with a 2.3-2.5 w/kg.

Categories B and C will both be riding 100 km. However, category B will ride the Turf n’ Surf course while category C will ride the Watopia’s Waistband course.

Sunday, August 20th @ 6:30 am UTC
Sign up at zwift.com/events/view/3801433


🥇 FRR World Order

✅ Popular Event 　✅ Highly Competitive

Coming to its final week is the FRR World Order racing series. This is an individual racing league that is put on by Flamme Rouge Racing (FRR). All riders are placed into category E. However, they are later filtered out into FRR’s custom categories.

This race takes place on the London 8 Reverse course and features a custom finishing distance.

Multiple time slots this Saturday
Browse FRR events at zwift.com/events/tag/frr

How We Make Our Picks

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!

Your Thoughts

Got other events that stand out this weekend? Share below in the comments!

Top 5 Zwift Videos: First Time Up Alpe Du Zwift, Racing Cav, and Zwift’s MvdP Interview

Oli Chi
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0
Top 5 Zwift Videos: First Time Up Alpe Du Zwift, Racing Cav, and Zwift’s MvdP Interview

For this week’s top 5 Zwift videos, we’ve got a video about a rider’s first ascent up the Alpe Du Zwift, a tour of a new rider’s pain cave, commentary of a tough Zwift race, an interview with the road race world champion, and a Zwift race with Mark Cavendish.

First Time Climbing Alpe Du Zwift!

Ryan Condon started Zwifting a few months back and has been gaining fitness ever since. In this video, he climbs the iconic Alpe du Zwift for the first time.  

My Zwift Cycling Setup Tour (Pain Cave)

Ken Ellorando recently joined Zwift as a way for him to lose weight and build fitness. In this video, Ken gives viewers a tour of his pain cave. 

Zwift Race | 3.5w/kg in Cat C – Too much? Cheating?

Max Wilko from The Watt Life goes over his recent race where he raced a fast, big group of 150+ riders. In the end, Max averages 3.5 w/kg. Is it too much for category C?

Mathieu van der Poel x Matt Stephens | First Interview as Road Race World Champion

In Zwift’s latest YouTube video, Matt Stephens interviews Mathieu van der Poel, the 2023 Road Race World Champion.

Zwift: Race The Worlds with Mark Cavendish

Lee Cassidy recently raced the ZRacing “Race the Worlds” series where Mark Cavendish showed up to race… in B category!

Got a Great Zwift Video?

Share the link below and we may feature it in an upcoming post!

“Bealach na Bà” Climb Portal Details

Eric Schlange
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0
“Bealach na Bà” Climb Portal Details

“Bealach na Bà” Climb Portal Details

See https://zwiftinsider.com/portal/bealach-na-ba/

“Crow Road” Climb Portal Details

Eric Schlange
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0
“Crow Road” Climb Portal Details

“Crow Road” Climb Portal Details

See https://zwiftinsider.com/portal/crow-road/

Zwift Update Version 1.46 (117600) Released

Eric Schlange
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37
Zwift Update Version 1.46 (117600) Released

The latest Zwift update has been announced. Phased rollout of Zwift game version 1.46 begins today on PC, macOS, and Android platforms, while iOS and tvOS is planned to begin tomorrow.

This is a minor release release consisting mostly of bug fixes and small quality of life improvements. Let’s look at the details…

Pack Dynamics 4.1

Zwift says, “Made adjustments to Pack Dynamics in order to make groups feel even smoother. See this thread for details on PD 4.1.”

Zwift has been tweaking and testing the next version of their Pack Dynamics (dubbed Pack Dynamics 4.1, or PD4.1) since mid-May. Just last week PD4.1 was taken live throughout the Makuri Islands map, but it isn’t live anywhere else unless it’s specifically configured for particular events. Zwift says, “Pack Dynamics 4.1 will be turned on for the remaining worlds Sunday night Pacific/early morning Monday UTC and EU.”

How is PD4.1 different from the PD4 we’re used to? First, it’s worth mentioning that Zwift is making small changes, so you may not even notice the difference. That said, Zwift explains “The changes are essentially all towards a more realistic pack behaviour in an effort to get us closer to more dynamic race scenarios.” To make that happen, PD4.1 includes draft changes and tweaks that lead to less slingshotting and churn, especially at the front of the pack.

PD4.1 implements changes in three areas:

  1. New “Overtaking System”: this set of algorithms determines if you can “come around” the front rider in a group. You should notice that this is harder to do now, with less of the “automatic churn” on the front that tends to drive up pack speeds.
  2. Dynamic CdA: Zwift can now change your CdA (the air resistance or “drag” of your avatar’s body) dynamically based on whether you are in a high drafting situation or “attacking”. So you may have a slightly higher CdA while drafting in a pack (since a rider in that situation would often be sitting on the hoods) but a lower CdA while attacking (where a rider would logically be in the drops).
  3. Draft Mechanics: Zwift has tweaked the shape and strength of the draft put out by each rider by modifying the cone angle (shape of draft behind each rider), the fall-off (how quickly the draft diminishes) and the scale (how strong the draft is). The draft scale is higher in high draft situations (big packs) but also falls off quicker – so don’t lose the wheel!

You can read the entire 500+ reply thread on PD4.1 if you’d like, but as they say, “the proof is in the pudding.” Our tests and reports from others suggest that PD4.1 has reduced pack speeds noticeably. We’ll do some TTT tests once it’s live in Watopia, and we look forward to more dynamic racing!

Release Notes

Here are additional tweaks and bug fixes Zwift provided for this update, with notes from us in italics:

  • Introduced a new race results screen that will now appear for any race or event that has race results enabled. The screen is designed to be more useful to Zwifters immediately after a race by showing more relevant information in a cleaner format. This was introduced in the previous update, but now appears to be applied to group rides as well.
  • Zwift Play: In Events, fixed an issue where the Action Bar could incorrectly appear when using the in-game chat feature.
  • Fixed a potential crash that could occur when group ride leaders sent chat messages to the group.
  • Fixed an issue where the Scotland Loch Loop route progress bar would disappear after the second lap.
  • Fixed an issue where the running pairing screen could be shown after selecting a cycling Training Plan.
  • Fixed an issue where you could be pushed to the sides of the group if activating a Draft Boost power-up in a cycling group while a steering device is used. This was such a pain in the butt, so we’re stoked that it’s fixed! (Even tested it to confirm the fix is in…)
  • Fixed an issue where the “Searching for Devices” window could get stuck open in the Pairing screen.
  • Fixed an issue on the Save Activity screen where “No Club” sharing preference would not be remembered between sessions.
  • Fixed an issue where sound effects were not playing in the Garage and Drop Shop menus.
  • Fixed an issue where runners may appear to clip through the roadway on the France Champs-Élysées route.
  • Fixed an issue where grass and concrete terrain could appear black after doing an activity in Scotland and then immediately starting another activity in a different world. We definitely encountered this bug, and it made things feel… weird.
  • Fixed an issue which caused avatars to appear dimly-lit in the Garage.
  • Apple TV, iOS, Android:
    • Fixed an issue where custom workouts would not sync properly to mobile platforms and Apple TV.
    • Fixed an issue where custom workouts would appear on mobile platforms and Apple TV after being deleted on Windows or macOS.
    • Fixed an issue where devices would not auto-connect after ending an activity and immediately starting a new activity.
  • Android:
    • We’re beginning to roll out haptic feedback for Zwift Play controllers on Android. You’ll now feel your controllers vibrate when you return a Ride On, ride over boost strips and hazards in Repack Rush, use power-ups, brake, and more.
    • Fixed an issue where one Zwift Play controller may not automatically reconnect when starting a new session.
    • Fixed an issue where Climb Portal roads were invisible on some specific Android devices.
  • iOS:
    • When sending log files to Zwift from the Login Screen, instructions are now provided if an email client isn’t configured on the device.
  • macOS, iOS:

See and discuss release notes in the Zwift forum >

Questions or Comments?

If you spotted any other changes or bugs in the update, please comment below!

Zwift Insider Tiny Race Stats 2023: Rider Counts, Naughty Countries, Prolific Racers

Eric Schlange
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15
Zwift Insider Tiny Race Stats 2023: Rider Counts, Naughty Countries, Prolific Racers

Zwift Insider Tiny Race Stats 2023: Rider Counts, Naughty Countries, Prolific Racers

With over a year of Tiny Races under our belt, it’s time to crunch some numbers and share fun Tiny Race stats. How many riders participate each week? Which country is home to the most well-behaved riders (and the naughtiest)? And who has completed more Tiny Races than any other rider on Earth?

Let’s dive in and find out!

Overall Numbers

With Tiny Race results saved through October 15, 2022, we’ve got 10 months of weekly data to work with. Here are the total number of races finished each week, broken down by the three event timeslots we run (2am, 8am, and 2pm Pacific time):

Zones 1 and 2 track quite closely to each other, with zone 1 being popular in the UK/Europe and zone being popular in the US/Canada. Zone 3 is always much smaller. While Zone 3 mostly exists to cater to Australia and New Zealand, it’s interesting to note that race completions have dropped off during the southern hemisphere’s winter, indicating that 1) Aussies and Kiwis don’t Zwift more in the winter and/or 2) a good portion of Zone 3’s racers aren’t in the southern hemisphere.

Next, we look at how many unique riders participated each week, combined across all three zones. We see a similar trend to the chart above, with numbers decreasing in summer months:

We peaked at 1278 riders on February 18, which was the second week of our special Worlds Experience races.

Next, we wanted to break down participation by location. Which countries participate the most in Tiny Races?

No surprise that the USA is first and Great Britain second, but if we look closer, ZwiftPower breaks out England, Scotland, and Wales as separate countries. If you add their numbers to Great Britain’s, GB is far and away the most Tiny Racing country!

Race Finishers and Rule-Breakers

As you may (or may not) know, the Tiny Races have a rather unique “no sniping” rule which we instituted in late 2022. The intention of the Tiny Races is to do 4 back-to-back hard races in one hour, but we found some riders were jumping into races (especially later races of the 4) so they could get a better result against riders who had accumulated fatigue from earlier races.

So we made a rule: once you skip a race of the 4, you can’t come back. If you do, your results in those later races will be marked with a shameful “DQ” in ZwiftPower.

So how many disqualifications do we issue? A lot, sadly:

We’ve noticed a consistent trend, though: Zone 1 gets less DQs than Zone 2, who gets less than Zone 3. Why? We’re not sure.

Disqualification Rates by Zone:

  • Zone 1: 8.14%
  • Zone 2: 9.05%
  • Zone 3: 10.62%

Going further down the rulebreaking rabbit hole, here’s a list of countries whose riders participate in the Tiny Races, sorted by who is naughtiest (or nicest, depending on how you look at it). This shows the percentage of race finishes which end up being disqualified for breaking the rules. (Keep in mind you have to be registered on ZwiftPower to even show up in the results, so this chart – and all of the charts on this page – leaves out data from riders who aren’t on ZP.)

Colombia makes quite a showing with their 36.97% DQ rate. But this is only out of 119 total race finishes, so it could be skewed by just one or two particularly naughty riders. The bigger surprise is Italy being the second-naughtiest at 17.71%, since that country accounts for 1993 race finishes. Che sorpresa!

Kudos to Romania for having the lowest overall DQ percentage. Also, a shout out to the good people of Sweden, who have the fourth-lowest DQ rate at just 5.39% from a whopping 6514 race finishes.

It’s not easy to finish all 4 Tiny Races, with each race being a sort of VO2 interval followed by a sprint! How many riders are able to finish all 4 races each week?

Categories A, B, and C are pretty close, sitting around an 80% completion rate. Category D struggles more, partly due to lower fitness levels but also due to some scheduling snafus on our part, where early races went a bit long and riders couldn’t finish and get in the pens for the next race. You can see we’ve improved in that area in recent months.

Which categories were the most popular?

A, B, and C are quite similar in size. We’re especially stoked to see all the A riders participating since that indicates the Tiny Races are a well-respected event among Zwift’s top racers.

D category has less than half the race completions of the other categories. This isn’t surprising, though, given the global stats we see for Zwift races.

Most Prolific Riders

Lastly, we wanted to see which individual riders had races the most Tiny Races. The results amazed us! (These numbers don’t include any races where the rider was DQ for any reason):

Amazing numbers from Nozaki, who is ranked 27th in the A category and has completed over 4000 Zwift races.

Looking a bit deeper, 40 riders have successfully completed 100 or more Tiny Races. Awesome!

Wrapping It Up

The Tiny Races evolved quite a bit over the past year, thanks largely to feedback from racers worldwide. Thank you for trusting us enough to race our races and share your feedback. It means a lot.

As we head into peak Zwifting months, we’re looking forward to the Tiny Races being more popular than ever. Stay tuned as we roll out new routes, and perhaps even some prize giveaways and midweek race times!

Questions or Comments?

Did you find any of the data above particularly interesting? Got a Tiny Race question or comment? Share below!

Tiny Race Series – August 19 Routes and Last Week’s Results

Eric Schlange
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4
Tiny Race Series – August 19 Routes and Last Week’s Results

Tiny Race Series – August 19 Routes and Last Week’s Results

The Tiny Races happen every Saturday and they’re are all about getting a hard, fun effort done in 1 hour. You’re meant to race all 4 races back-to-back, with each lasting just 5-10 minutes, giving you a short break in between.

This week we’re featuring four varied routes on four different maps. But first, let’s look at last Saturday’s winners!

Austrian Georg Sauer won it all in the zone 3 D’s last week and got upgraded by Zwift’s category enforcement. So this week he gave it a go in category C, and did impressively well! Watch his video:

(He thought he podiumed the final race… but he actually got 1st in ZwiftPower thanks to other riders getting sniping DQs. Congrats on your first C race and first C win, Georg!)

Got a great YouTube video of your Tiny Race experience? Post it in the comments and we may feature it on Zwift Insider!

Last Week’s Results

Overall Winners

Zone 1 (9am UTC)

A: Jacek Karluk (Dragons)
B: C.RED
C: Aleksandr Dubs (FFZ)
D: B B

Zone 2 (3pm UTC)

A: Simon Nielsen (KALAS eSRT)
B: Richard Shoebridge (EVO)
C: Hugo Freitas
D: B B

Zone 3 (9pm UTC)

A: Dobiacco
B: David Bertovic (The VICS)
C: Carlos Méndez (MOTORES HINO)
D: Matthew K

Women’s Winners

Zone 1 (9am UTC)

A: –
B: Jackie Gilbert (SYNERGY)
C: Mini Yoshimochi（TMR）
D: Manon Holtman (HERD)

Zone 2 (3pm UTC)

A: –
B: –
C: Claire Cameron (Saris+TPC)
D: J Diels

Zone 3 (9pm UTC)

A: WubbaLubbaDubDub
B: –
C: Moar Shimz
D: –

This Week’s Routes: Four Worlds of Hurt

Four routes, four worlds. They’re all quite varied, too, with finishes on a punchy climb, a rolling sprint, a draggy climb, and a flat sprint (respectively).

Here are photos so you can see the precise location of the custom finish line for race 3:

Approaching Mountain 8 finish
Mountain 8 finish line
  • Race 1: Innsbruckring (5.435 km, ending atop Leg Snapper)
    • Always a crowd favorite, Innsbruckring’s Leg Snapper is made even more dynamic when the race finishes at its top. Will you save your legs for that final effort, or try to sneak away early?
    • Powerup: Feather (1x)
  • Race 2: Douce France (7.047km, ends at Ballon Sprint)
    • This rolling, twisty route will take you flying through Les Intestins and over a few rollers before sprinting for the Ballon Sprint arch.
    • Powerup: none
  • Race 3: Watopia Mountain 8 (5.67km, ends on bridge after initial climb)
    • The climbiest of this week’s routes takes you through the Ocean Boulevard tunnel and past the windmills before attacking the base of the Epic KQOM Reverse climb. The finish line is on a false flat, on the bridge after the initial snaking climb (see photos).
    • Powerup: none
  • Race 4: Classique (5.638km, ends at Classique banner)
    • We finish our day on the iconic Classique sprint within view of Buckingham Palace. This finish is all about timing. You can see the banner from a long way out, but when do you go go go?!
    • Powerup: Aero (1x)

Sign up at zwift.com/events/tag/tinyraces

Pack Dynamics 4.1

All Tiny Races are currently using Zwift’s experimental Pack Dynamics 4.1.

Read more about PD4.1 on this forum thread, and chime in there after your races to share your experience and help Zwift improve their pack dynamics!

ZwiftPower Results

Zwift displays preliminary race results in game when you cross the line, but points are computed after all four races are finished, with final results on ZwiftPower. (We have to do some data processing on our side to compute results, so if your rankings don’t show up right away, be patient.)

Riders will earn points based on finish position in each of the 4 Tiny Races. The category winner of each week’s series is the rider with the most points across their timezone’s 4 races. Here are the links for each timezone’s results on ZwiftPower:

Rules

Tiny Race rules are simple, but still every week 6-8% of registered ZwiftPower racers get disqualified and removed from the final results. Don’t let that be you! Four races, four rules:

  • You must have a ZwiftPower account, because final results are processed by ZwiftPower (learn how to sign up)
  • No skipping then returning. These races are meant to be raced as a set of 4. If you need to leave early, that’s fine… but once you miss a race in your hour’s set of 4, don’t come back and race another or you’ll be disqualified from that race since you rested while others were racing! (Example: racing only races 1 and 2 is fine. Racing 1, 2, and 4 is not – you will be DQ from race 4. And if you race 2, 3, and 4, you’ll be DQ from all those races, since you skipped race 1!)
  • Heart rate monitors are required.
  • Smart trainer/smart bike or power meter required. ZPower/Virtual power is not allowed.

Join a Chat & Chill Cooldown

Immediately following each hour’s racing, we’ve scheduled 30-minute “Chat & Chill” events where riders from all categories can spin their legs together and chat about how it all went down. Find them at zwift.com/events/tag/tinyraces.

Zwift Insider Kit Unlock

Finish any Tiny Race or a Chat & Chill ride and unlock the Zwift Insider “Ride Smarter // Ride Harder” in-game kit.

Questions or Comments

Post below!

Announcing Team Electric Spirit Co. Preprandial Crits, Evening Edition

Douglas Cook
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2
Announcing Team Electric Spirit Co. Preprandial Crits, Evening Edition

Announcing Team Electric Spirit Co. Preprandial Crits, Evening Edition

The end of the summer off-season is the scourge of Zwift team captains and managers everywhere. Riders come back from several months of riding IRL and want to enter a big Zwift series, but they have no race category. The last thing anyone needs is to get to the day of the first big ZRL or DRS race and realize they can’t race!

The Preprandial Crits are here to solve just that problem. This is a series specifically designed to get your ZwiftPower/Zwift Racing category updated in the quickest way possible (less than 15 minutes!), and it’s running for the 2 weeks prior to the new DRS and ZRL seasons with time zones for EMEA, APAC and AMER.

The Races

Races will run Monday-Friday from August 21-September 1 in 3 time slots:

  • 19:00 BST / 18:00 UTC / 11:00 PST
  • 19:00 EST / 23:00 UTC / 16:00 PST
  • 19:15 Singapore / 11:15 UTC / 4:15 PST

Each day will run over a different course, with a target race time for mid-pack riders of 15 minutes.

Categories will be split according to standard Zwift categories, but everyone will start together, making for a great challenge in such a short race to see how long you can grab on the coattails of the category above! This also means if you are coming back with no category, you’ll be abe to find a pace that works for you.

Your top 3 results over the 2-week series will count towards the Preprandial league. Events will be as inclusive as possible and allow Zpower riders and those without a HRM to participate in individual races but not count on the official ZP results.

In summary, this short series is low on admin effort but high on fun, so turn up, race fair, and enjoy yourself!

Points Mean Prizes

Courtesy of Electric Spirit Co., prizes are available to series winners. As an alcohol brand, prizes will only be given to over 18s with UK shipping only. You may be asked to verify your age before we send your prize.

Winners will be those listed as series leaders on ZwiftPower at the end of the series. Please get in touch via Facebook to get your prize.

Series points will be allocated to the top 6 finishing positions every race. Your best 3 finishes will count for series points, you can only score in one race per day. If you enter more than one event per day your highest-scoring event that day will count.

Top points scorer per category for men and women will get 50% off a bottle of gin at electricspirit.co.

Getting Involved

Find the events in your Companion app, on Zwift.com, or via Zwift Hacks. Some events will auto-create 6 days in advance, so never fear, the APAC ones will pop up soon. (Note, only the events from Aug 21-Sept 1 count towards the series):

Check the individual race details or full series details on ZwiftPower for more info on scoring etc.

Questions or Comments?

Share below!

Epic Series Announced: Ride and Race Zwift’s Toughest Routes

Eric Schlange
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Epic Series Announced: Ride and Race Zwift’s Toughest Routes

Epic Series Announced: Ride and Race Zwift’s Toughest Routes

One year after we kicked off the hugely successful Tiny Race series, Zwift Insider is spinning up a new series unlike anything you’ve seen before on Zwift.

In contrast to our Tiny Races (4 races in 1 hour), the Epic Series is all about going big. Tackle Zwift’s toughest routes with us. And do it as a group ride or a race. You choose!

The Mini Epic will head up the Innsbruck KOM in October…twice!

Series Structure

The initial series comprises six 4-week blocks, and each block’s routes are tougher than the previous block. Each 4-week block is structured like this:

The series is structured this way for a few reasons:

  1. Holding group rides and races helps racers and non-racers alike earn the harder route badges and push themselves to new limits.
  2. Mini Epics provide a challenging option for riders who aren’t yet able to take on the full Epic events.
  3. Group rides give racers the option of a recon ride one week before racing.
  4. Routes get more challenging with each 4-week block so you can build endurance and conquer Zwift’s six toughest routes.
We’ll tackle Watopia’s Epic KOM multiple times during the series…

Routes and Event Times

Epic Series events are scheduled each weekend starting August 19th, with six timeslots to choose from:

  • Saturdays: 6:30am, 12:30pm, 6:30pm UTC (11:30pm, 5:30am, 11:30am PDT)
  • Sundays: 9:30am, 3:30pm, 9:30pm UTC (2:30am, 8:30am, 2:30pm PDT)

See upcoming Epic Series events at zwift.com/events/tag/epicseries

DateEvent TypeRouteDistanceElevation
Aug 19-20Mini Epic RideMountain 832.5km677m
Aug 26-27Mini Epic RaceMountain 832.5km677m
Sep 2-3Epic RideQuatch Quest46.2km1683m
Sep 9-10Epic RaceQuatch Quest46.2km1683m
Sep 16-17Mini Epic RideBigger Loop53.6km678m
Sep 23-24Mini Epic RaceBigger Loop53.6km678m
Sep 30-Oct 1Epic RideThe Pretzel72.7km1333m
Oct 7-8Epic RaceThe Pretzel72.7km1333m
Oct 14-15Mini Epic RideLutscher24.5km828m
Oct 21-22Mini Epic RaceLutscher24.5km828m
Oct 28-29Epic RideMega Pretzel111km1659m
Nov 4-5Epic RaceMega Pretzel111km1659m
Nov 11-12Mini Epic RideRoad to Sky17.6km1046m
Nov 18-19Mini Epic RaceRoad to Sky17.6km1046m
Nov 25-26Epic RideFour Horsemen90.4km2111m
Dec 2-3Epic RaceFour Horsemen90.4km2111m
Dec 9-10Mini Epic RideTour of Fire & Ice28.1km1184m
Dec 16-17Mini Epic RaceTour of Fire & Ice28.1km1184m
Dec 23-24Epic RideThe Über Pretzel128.8km2381m
Dec 30-31Epic RaceThe Über Pretzel128.8km2381m
Jan 6-7Mini Epic RideLa Reine22.9km1205m
Jan 13-14Mini Epic RaceLa Reine22.9km1205m
Jan 20-21Epic RideThe PRL Full173.8km2628m
Jan 27-28Epic RaceThe PRL Full173.8km2628m

See upcoming Epic Series events at zwift.com/events/tag/epicseries

Epic Series Rules

Epic Series group rides are open-paced events with only one category. Just jump in and find a group going your speed. You do you!

Each Epic Series race event is a standalone event (no series GC) using the following rules:

  • Only Feathers: only feather powerups will be given. Because mountains.
  • Zwift’s category-enforcing pace groups are used. All categories will start together and be visible to each other, to give riders a maximum chance of having others to ride with on the long routes.
  • Heart rate monitors are required.
  • Smart trainer/smart bike or power meter required. ZPower/Virtual power is not allowed.

Questions or Comments?

Share below!

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