All About Zwift Games 2026: Where the World Comes to Race!
The third edition of Zwift Games, the platform’s most popular stage race series, has just been announced. Racing begins February 16, but related rides kick off today!
Below, you’ll find everything you need to know about indoor cycling’s premier race festival.
Table of Contents
New This Year
Zwift’s learnings from previous Games have been applied to this year’s events, leading to various improvements, including:
- Fresh routes: Six new routes have been added to the game to host the Games stages.
- Road to Glory intro events: New to Zwift racing? These orientation events kick off today.
- Power metrics in leaderboards: Web-based GC leaderboards now include 90-day and Zwift Games 2026 power best metrics, so you can directly compare your Zwift Games metrics to recent performances.
- On demand: Zwift Games routes can be ridden “on-demand” as a solo effort beginning Friday, February 13 when the quest opens at 16:00 UTC. This makes it easy to recon the races, and you’ll also get credit for completing the stage!
- Bonus Stage 6: for the first time, Zwift is offering a sixth “bonus stage” with two unique race formats:
- Individual Time Trial: This will be Zwift’s first mainstream TT experience
- Crit Cade: Gamified race in Crit City using steering, boosts, and hazards
- New unlocks: Of course, what would a big Zwift event be without new unlocks? This year features Oakley glasses and a helmet, Zwift Games 2026 kit, and a big XP bonus!
- Equipment not neutralized: This will be the first year that bike frames and wheels aren’t neutralized, meaning your virtual bike choices will affect your speed in game. Upgrades also count!
- Bonus XP at arches: Most Zwift Games races will give you a feather powerup in the start pen, and that’s the only powerup you’ll get for the entire race. Any arches you ride through without holding a powerup will give you a 10 XP bonus, and there’s an increased 5% chance that you’ll get a 250 XP bonus at each arch.
Most of these new items are discussed in more detail below. Read on!
Stage Details
Zwift Games is an escalating challenge! Stages get progressively more difficult, with each route both longer and more climby than the one before:
Stage 1, February 16-22: Sprint
- Makuri Islands’ Kaze Kicker (17.3km, 140m elevation)
- Powerup: Feather given in the pens
- Sign up at zwift.com/events/tag/zwiftgames2026stage1 >
Stage 2, February 23-March 1: Sprint
- New York’s Hudson Hustle (20.4km, 216m elevation)
- Powerup: Feather given in the pens
- Sign up at zwift.com/events/tag/zwiftgames2026stage2 >
Stage 3, March 2-8: Punch
- Richmond’s Cobbled Crown (24.3km, 288m elevation)
- Powerup: Feather given in the pens
- Sign up at zwift.com/events/tag/zwiftgames2026stage3 >
Stage 4, March 9-15: Climb
- France’s Peaky Pavé (30.8km, 371m elevation)
- Powerup: Feather given in the pens
- Sign up at zwift.com/events/tag/zwiftgames2026stage4 >
Stage 5, March 16-22: Epic
- Watopia’s Three Step Sisters (38.1km, 586m elevation)
- Powerups: Feather given in the pens, and at the arches prior to the final two climbs
- Sign up at zwift.com/events/tag/zwiftgames2026stage5 >
Stage 6, March 23-29: Bonus/Optional Races
- iTT on Scotland’s The Epiloch (10.9km, 92m elevation)
- Scratch Race on Crit City’s Crit Cade (steering required) – learn more about Crit Cade events
Make-Up Races: March 30-April 5
See all upcoming races at zwift.com/events/tag/zwiftgames2026
Standard Schedule
The largest race fields will be found in the Standard (mixed) events held hourly, 24x daily, at 10 minutes past the hour. These races alternate each hour between two different Racing Score ranges:
- Range 1: 0-159 | 160-269 | 270-389 | 390-509 | 510-650
- Range 2: 0-209 | 210-329 | 330-449 | 450-569 | 570-725
The two ranges give racers a choice between a stronger category that may help them get a faster course time (great for the GC competition) or a slightly weaker category that gives them a better shot at a race win.
Advanced Schedule
Racers with a racing score of 650+ can jump into the Advanced Races held every two hours at 15 minutes past the hour.
See Advanced races at zwift.com/events/tag/zwiftgames2026advanced
Women-Only Schedule
Women-only races will be held 5x daily at 10am, 12pm, 5pm, 6pm, and midnight UTC.
These races will use their own Racing Score-based bands: 0-199 | 200-299 | 300-399 | 400-499 | 500+.
If you’re a woman who hasn’t raced yet on Zwift, see our Women’s Racing homepage for a bit of inspiration >
GC Leaderboards
Zwift Games race results will be delivered via leaderboards on Zwift.com. The following leaderboards will be available:
- Overall General Classification
- Rankings for each stage (1-5)
- Ranking for TT (Bonus stage)
- Ranking for Crit Cade
Leaderboard rankings can be filtered by Gender, Racing Score band (buckets of 100), and Country. These filters can be used in combination.
This year, Zwift has added power metrics to the leaderboard, so you can compare your Zwift Games numbers to your 90-day bests. Here’s a mockup Zwift sent, where my League Best numbers may be a bit overstated…
View Leaderboards at zwift.com/racing/leagues/zwiftgames2026
Zwift Games Unlocks
A total of four in-game rewards are available to all Zwifters:
- Any one stage: Oakley Sphaera Strike Glasses
- Any three stages: Zwift Games 2026 Kit
- Any five stages: Oakley Velo Stelvio Helmet
- All six stages: 6000 XP bonus
Road to Glory Events
This year, Zwift has spun up special “Road to Glory” events to help newer racers learn the basics of Zwift racing. These group rides feature on-screen text throughout the event explaining powerups, drafting, Ride Ons, particular Watopia course features, and more. Rides are on 1 lap of Watopia’s Triple Twist, which is 24.5km long, with 201m of elevation gain.
I recently rode a Road to Glory preview event and found it well-planned, with many helpful tips packed into a relatively short time. I highly recommend it if you’re at all nervous about Zwift racing and looking for some hands-on training.
How to Register
No special registration is required – simply join any Zwift Games event to participate, or ride the courses on demand! Events should be available for signup beginning today (February 9).
See all upcoming races at zwift.com/events/tag/zwiftgames2026
Questions or Comments?
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