This is the first time I’ve noticed this event organiser, then I looked closely at the stylised writing which reads “Barely Established.” But on closer inspection, I don’t think this series is “Barely Established” as in the event description it notes ‘SNOW Sprint Series Season 5’!
Anyway, this event is a 16.2km sprint competition on the “Richmond 2015 UCI Worlds” course. Points are awarded for your segment times on each timed segment (sprints and KOMs), and finishing order doesn’t matter.
The L’Equipe Provence rides are always fun and well-led, and their niche is simple – Zwift badge hunting. This weekend, they are targeting the 100km badge on the “Tempus Fugit” course. The unique feature about this ride as it will be done using handcycles!
This is the first group ride I have seen using handcycles as the default bike, giving me another reason to highlight this event.
With 25,000 followers on Instagram, I am ashamed to say that I didn’t know about this group. But I do now and have subsequently followed them! They have a great logo and what looks like a fun Zwift race to go with it.
The race is a 15.5km event hosted on the “LaGuardia Loop” in New York. Expect this to be a frantic race on an undulating course.
I am highlighting my Saturday race because for the last several weeks, attendance at my “Structured Training workouts” has surpassed my expectations. Therefore, I would like to encourage those that have been honing their climbing skills to test their legs in this Saturday event!
It is a race on the “Climber’s Gambit” route in Watopia. This event provides a brilliant workout while not being too long in both distance and duration, leaving you with the rest of the day free to enjoy.
The Men’s Zwift Grand Prix “Squad Skirmish” happens tomorrow (Friday) at 6pm UTC.
This is the first time we’re seeing the “Squad Skirmish” format, which Zwift describes as “a highly strategic race where teams have to allocate their riders amongst a selection of different races in order to qualify for the final races and maximize their overall points score.”
This is round 3 of the Zwift Grand Prix, and the women will race their Squad Skirmish next Friday at the same time.
Race Details
Squad Skirmish consists of two rounds: the Qualifiers and the Finals. Each round contains 3 mini-races, with each race playing to the strengths of a different type of rider.
Teams are allowed to field up to 2 riders for each race, and must allocate their 5 riders across the 3 races, which means each team will be stuck with just a single rider in one of the three races. Allocating your riders across the three races will prove to be a big strategic challenge that is only magnified by teams not knowing which riders other teams have selected!
In the Qualifier round, each race will be raced multiple times.
All 12 teams will race the Qualifier round, but only the top 5 teams will advance to the Final round.
Points available at finish line each round for 1st-12th place, 12 points down to 1 point
Powerups: none
Finals
The top 5 teams based on total team points from races 1-3 will advance to the finals. These top 5 teams will have their points reset heading into the finals, which means the finals are where the top 5 positions on the day will be decided.
The bottom 7 teams, who didn’t advance, will be awarded positions 6-12 for the overall day based on their points totals.
Points available at finish line for 1st-10th place, 10 points down to 1 point
Powerups: none
Note: total race points will accrue across the 6 races and series points will be awarded according to each team’s final points tally.
Watch Live
Each Friday’s races will be livestreamed with commentary on Zwift’s YouTube and Facebook channels. Watch tomorrow’s men’s event below, and the women will race the same event next Friday (also below):
Here at Zwift Insider we’ve been reaching out to women’s Grand Prix teams, inviting them to write race recaps for each round. This week we’re featuring Wahoo Le Col, the team currently ranked 2nd overall who (as luck would have it) happened to win this round!
Here’s how each race unfolded, from the perspectives of each of the five WLC racers who took part.
Race 1: Nadia Gontova
The plan for the first race was to get as many riders into the top 30 as possible, which seemed also to be the plan for all the other teams since the first few minutes were a pretty mild pace. Even though the pace was slower than usual I could tell my legs were not quite prepared for what was to come when we hit the hills, and I focused on saving my energy.
The racing got fast going into the golden ticket sprint which fairly few riders contested, but I had to ramp up to 7/8 watts per kilo sitting in the pack. Then the race settled before hitting the first of 3 steep climbs leading to the finish. I positioned myself well near the front of the group and sagged the climb slightly to conserve some energy.
The second climb was also a full gas out-of-saddle effort and I focused on trying to maintain my position in the pack. Unfortunately as we got to the top of the climb I noticed the field splitting up the road and couldn’t get across the split before the descent. I sat in with my current group to try to maximize my points on the final climb of the race, knowing I wouldn’t make the cut for the next race. Luckily my teammates all rode the race perfectly, both conserving watts and holding good positions, and they all qualified for the second race!
Race 2: Kathrin Fuhrer
Hayley Simmons and Kirstin Kulchinsky attacked straight at the bottom of Fox Hill, but my goal for this race was to hold on to the pack as long as possible, staying comfortable being uncomfortable as long as possible. It was my only second race in the elite league of Zwift, but I knew it was going to be really hard and was ready to fight for the team. My teammates Lyndsey, Lizi, and Laura did a perfect job, trying to hold me in the pack. Unfortunately, I was not able to hold on to the leading pack over the very top of Fox Hill and obviously didn’t grab that golden ticket.
I was in position 25 with 2 other riders. On the downhill of Box Hill I was able to recover well, taking advantage of the draft of the other two. The goal for Leith hill was to catch some of the riders up the road to improve my position at the KOM/finish line and earn more points for the team.
I tried to pace the 6km climb of Leith Hill pretty steady, just above my FTP power. 13 riders were in the leading pack ahead of me chasing KK and Hayley. I was pretty much focused on what was happening behind me so I could hold the distance up to the riders behind me, so I didn’t realize that I actually caught up to the chasing group which gave me a real motivation kick again! I tried just to keep my pace up and wanted to finish strong. I finished on Leith Hill at position 20, which I am pleased with. The team effort overall was fantastic with 3 riders in top 10 and so we were ready with Lizi Brooke and Lyndsey Cassie in round 3.
Race 2: Laura Simenc
The race went easy from the start over to London center, where teammate Lyndsey Cassie said we were just riding by her real-life flat.
The first climb to Fox Hill started very early, just after 1.7 km from the start. Soon a small group formed of about 15 riders. I noticed I could hold my watts high on the steep parts even if the pace was very high, and 3 of us from Wahoo Le Col made the leading group over the first Fox hill climb.
The second climb up Leith Hill started with a long segment of not very steep climbing where I managed to hold on to the group and the pace was not extremely high. This was followed by about 6 minutes of hard steep gradient climbing to the finish line. I went hard, but held my own pace at the start, waiting to go all out until the last 2 minutes. I ended in 10th place, a few seconds behind the winner, and scored maximum points for the team.
I did not expect it would go so well for me, since I am not extremely good on the longer climbs but more of a punchy rider. So I was really happy about the outcome and happy to contribute to my awesome team.
Race 3: Lizi Brooke And Lyndsey Cassie
After hanging on for dear life on Leith Hill with Ironman fatigue still in the legs I was thrilled to even get to round 3. The course being flat and snappy would finally play to my strengths of recovering fast and being aggressive in small doses while others are still suffering. I knew I had more in the tank like a spicey micro burst session, as long as it didn’t last long!
Lyndsey and I have recently started road racing together in real life and. Coming from time trial backgrounds and having no experience in road racing (but plenty on Zwift) we’ve just used the same tactics and it always gets us into the breakaway together. It’s really bonded us into a team to know we’re always there till the end usually dictating the race.
During the last few sprints of Crit City Lyndsey was as she always is – feeling great most of the time! Our plan was to let her disappear off the front whilst the pack were still recovering. No one chased as it was directly after the last sprint when we all had fresh lactate in the legs. This is where Lyndsey can suffer the most.
Putting 20 seconds into us we are all doing as little work as possible to recover for this final sprint. Now the pain is real. 7 microbursts in, one more to go and the lactate is real. Movistar make a savage early move and there’s nothing I can do but match it in delayed motion. Too little too late! Was I disappointed? Absolutely not. I came into round 3 on survival and made it right to the end. Super proud of the team for digging in harder than ever.
What a series!
Watch the full race broadcast:
Wahoo Le Col Ladies Social
The Wahoo Le Col ladies are an awesome bunch, and they host a ladies-only ride on Wednesdays at 18:30 BST/13:30pm EDT/10:30am PDT.
Zwift Racing League (ZRL) has taken racing to the next level on Zwift. It’s well-organized bike racing on an unprecedented scale, a multi-week team points competition held across timezones catering to thousands of teams. And that’s why serious Zwift racers show up week after week: because everyone knows ZRL is where Zwift racing is at its highest level.
With seven successful rounds completed, ZRL organizers WTRL continue to evolve their systems and tighten rulesets to provide a fair, engaging, and competitive platform for Zwift racing.
The next ZRL round begins November 8th, and it’s officially named 2022/23 Season – Round 2. We’ll use this page to display all the key info in one place, and update it as more info becomes available.
If you’re new to ZRL, you’ll definitely want to get familiar with the ruleset and scoring structures, as these will inform strategic decisions made as a team.
Timeslots and Divisions
Two new leagues have been created: ASIA and AMERICA S.
Teams and Registration
New teams can register now at wtrl.racing/zrl-registration. Team registration closes midnight UTC on Wednesday, Nov 2. You can have up to 12 riders nominated for your team. Again, see the ruleset for details.
Existing teams with 3 or more round 1 races are automatically reregistered.
Want to race, but don’t have a team? You can find a list of teams recruiting riders by visiting wtrl.racing/zwift-racing-league/#teams (“All Teams” in the ZRL menu). WTRL says an inquiry form will be available soon on that page, so you can click and ask to join a team that is recruiting.
Until then, you can track down the team’s contact info and message them, or simply post your info on the Facebook group to have teams contact you. Use tags so your post can easily be found by others using “popular topics”:
If you are looking for a team, tag your post with the topic #zrlteamhunt
If you are recruiting, tag your post with #zrlrecruiting
Tips for First-Timers
If this is your first time racing on Zwift, here are a few tips and links to get you started fast:
The category you’ll race is determined by your FTP in watts per kilogram. Talk to your team manager if you have any questions on where you should race, or read this post from Zwift.
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 B, 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 B, C, and D categories without a HRM, but your points are cut in half.)
It’s really best that you have at least a few races under your belt before you try to join a team, so you know what sort of power numbers you can hold in a race.
Race Routes and Dates
Each ZRL round is made up of weekly races which are a mix of points races and team time trial (TTT) formats. Points race winners are the teams who amass the most total points by the end of the race, while TTT winners are the teams who complete the racecourse fastest (team time is taken from the fourth rider across the line).
“Intermediates” are sections on the course where riders compete for points. Intermediates may count for Fastest-Through-Segment (FTS) and/or First-Across-Line (FAL) points – see the scoring page for details.
Race #1: Roule Ma Poule November 8, 2022 (Points Race)
You’ll want to be warmed up for this one, because it heads straight up the backside of the Petit KOM! Dropped riders will try to rejoin the front, but their efforts may be in vain given how flat the rest of the course is.
Race #2: Greater London Flat November 15, 2022 (TTT)
Our first TTT of this round takes us on two loops of the fairly flat Greater London Flat route. This will be an exercise in formation and optimal pacing.
Race #3: Two Bridges Loop November 22, 2022 (Points Race)
This popular race course makes another appearance in ZRL, but this time the C/D groups are racing 5 laps… no easy task! (It was 3 last time this was raced). As always, the foot of the Hilly KOM Reverse will prove decisive. But so will the anvil powerups, which can be put to good use in at least two places on this route.
Race #4: Sprinter’s Playground November 29, 2022 (Points Race)
First raced in the finals of ZRL 2021/22 Round 3, this course was a painful exercise in match burning/conservation and teamwork. Who will attack which sprints? Can you break away and take max points at key portions of the route? One thing is for sure: you’ll need to keep your eyes open.
Race #5: Watopia’s Waistband December 6, 2022 (TTT)
We’ve raced this former Rebel Route as a ZRL TTT in the past, and it’s flat and fast! With no significant climbs, the win here will be determined by your ability to maximize each team member’s contribution through efficient formations and smart rotations.
Race #6: Cobbled Climbs December 13, 2022 (Points Race)
Punchy climbers, rejoice! WTRL saved the Queen stage for the end. This route was first used in ZRL 2020/21 Round 3. It was murderous then, and it will be murderous now.
The transformed Premier League has turned into the Zwift Grand Prix. There are 6 rounds that run from September 23rd to January 20th, with Men and Women racing a week apart in an equal distance, equal payout, equal time coverage series.
As a quasi-contributor to Zwift Insider and a rider/director of a league team, I wanted to give an unfiltered behind-the-scenes look at the action. Look for a recap after each round of the Grand Prix.
Round 2 of the Zwift Grand Prix was a format was called “Team Elimination Omnium”. Not the clearest name for a new type of Zwift racing, but it is a name. In “Team Elimination Omnium” the whole field of 60 riders (12 teams, 5 riders per team) started the race together. But just to start. In this three-race series the field goes from 60 racers to 30 and then down to 10 for the final race.
There is one wrinkle in the format in that you can win a Golden Ticket at an early sprint point which will get you through to the next round automatically. They awarded the top 5 at the sprint point in race one and to the top 3 at the sprint point in race 2. So basically to advance in race one you needed a top 25 at the finish or a Golden Ticket. For race two you needed a top 7 or one of the 3 Golden Tickets. The final round was an elimination race in Crit City. Last across the sprint or finish line each lap was eliminated till there were three racers left to sprint for the win.
It’s a bit complicated, but it is a really intriguing race format. Lots of opportunity for strategy. Risk and reward. Severe consequences for failing. The rider who wins will be an exceptional Zwifter. This race format is being considered for the UCI e-sports worlds. If the goal is to create compelling racing and also reward great Zwiftcraft and watts, this format is spot on.
What got a bit wonky however is the fact that this is a team race. Why that changes things is that the winner of the race is the team with the most points. Scoring the most points and winning the race were not the same thing. An additional layer of confusion was added in that scoring was based on a unique number system for each round. In round 1 the top 30 scored 20 points. Then the points went down to 1 over the next 20 riders. There were no points for the golden tickets. So you could advance without scoring and with the effort required to get a golden ticket, you were very unlikely to score any points at the finish. In round 2 the top 10 got 21 points then down by one for each place after. In the final round Winner scored 9 points with 10th place scoring no points. So if you were the unfortunate soul to get eliminated first in the last round, you got nothing (FORESHADOWING HERE).
Race 1
The first race was on the UCI Richmond worlds course. Perhaps my favorite Sagan win of all time was on this course. It is also a very famous/infamous course on Zwift. Not a course for pure sprinters, not a course for pure climbers. It’s hard for everyone. The Golden ticket sprint was on Broad Street, the last sprint point before descending to the climbs. So getting top 5 here would let you skip the incredibly hard finishing section. But the winner of this sprint was either going to be the winner of the sprint lottery or perhaps a reward for a very hard do-or-die break. It might be easy to think about just going for top 25 but in a field as talented as the Grand Prix field, top 25 is no easy feat.
A sleepy start to the race was broken by an all-in attack by Luca Vertallito (Team Castelli pb Elite). He opened a good gap and the first response was Spencer Seggebruch (Coalition Alpha) and Riccardo Panizza (Team Castelli pb Elite) who tried to go across. With 1km to go the pack opened up and more tried to bridge. Everything got lined out and the three attackers started to break and get swallowed up. As the race hit the line only Seggebruch held on by half a bike length to take a golden ticket and the last 4 spots went to Nielsen, Mehl, Van Den Eeckhaut, and Havot.
Seggebruch “Skipping” the Richmond Climbs
Seggebruch won his gamble and was able to take the finish easy and finish several minutes down. Likely saving some kjs, but his effort to win was substance. Those that tried to get across or jumped too early and faded, like my teammate Yumeto (Velocio) paid the price and finished out of contention and without points.
The rest of race 1 placed out as usual. Libby and 23rd Street were very hard and the finish climb and finish straight were a boxing match. There was a bit of a powerup lottery here as there was supposed to be Aero, Draft, Invisibility, and Ghost but it ended up being Aero, Draft, Feather, or NOTHING. I was unfortunate enough to go no powerup twice, get two trucks for the climbs, and then no powerup for the final. The final climb to the finish saw everyone with a feather go for it. Then over the top the trucks and aero powerups went out in mass.
Finishing straight. Look at those Power-Ups!
I knew this was a race finish that you really couldn’t come back on and you needed to climb that final pitch on Governor’s Street towards the front. If you sag it, it’s really hard to make up big gaps. I followed the feathers up the climb and when we got over the top I was in 5th on Duffy Jr’s (NeXT eSport pb Enshored) wheel. He and nearly everyone else dropped powerups and I went from 5th with 280m to go to looking like I was going to get swarmed and pooped out past qualifying. It was very disheartening to see a sea of riders with powerups blow by. Thankfully, I held on and finished 19th. That Duffy Jr wheel I was on? He won convincingly.
Race 2
The second race was on Surrey Hills. Talk about infamous courses. The modified course does Fox Hill and finishes at the top of Leith Hill. The 3 Golden Tickets available were for top 3 over Fox Hill. The second race started about 5 minutes after the finish of race 1.
Personally, I totally spaced out and missed the banner dropping and had to chase back on after giving the pack a head start. Not a recommended strategy.
To start, Timothy Rugg (Wahoo Le Col) hit out to get a gap before the first climb. With tired legs, a smaller pack, and general fear of the difficult course it was a bold but also smart move. Unfortunately for him the pack surged the bottom half of the climb and caught him, but then the pack sat up. Seizing on this lull Dan Jamrozik (Velocio) jumped and got a gap. The pack did not respond and Dan took the first golden ticket by a large margin. Behind Mäding (Wahoo Le Col) and Vujasin (Coalition Alpha) executed a perfect sprint over the unmotivated pack to take the last two Golden Tickets.
The pack descended together but the gloves came off early on Leith Hill. With over 5km to go Turek (NeXT eSport pb Enshored) attacked on the early slopes and Teugels (ABUS – Le Col) followed. Behind Zanasca (Team Castelli pb Elite), S. Van Aelst (ABUS – Le Col) and Maertens (Toyota Cryo-RDT) bridged up. If you were to list the best climbers on Zwift that is just about all of them.
Personally, I was right there when they went across and decided to sit up and let the pack chase. I was sick all week and didn’t trust myself to do any work and to commit so early. It was a terrible mistake.
1km to go all the qualifying spots are up the road.
Duffy and Dawson attacked as the pack sat up and it dramatically changed the dynamic of the race. There were now 7 guys up the road and just about everyone in the pack had a teammate up the road. With only 7 advancing it made the race 100% up the road. The pack slowed more and the gaps exploded.
With a kilometer to go the pack was almost 40 seconds down on the leader Teugels. But the light of hope wasn’t fully out. Duffy Jr started to fade. If the pack could catch him one spot was up to advance to round three. Knowing the pack wasn’t going to try and chase their teammates I had no choice but to set the pace and hope I could pull away. I was able to pull Duffy back but Nehr (NeXT eSport pb Enshored) and Alvarado (Wahoo Le Col) blew by with exceptional finish speed to power away with Nehr taking the final spot. Personally, it was very disappointing, but it was a very exciting finish. A gloves-off battle on a savagely hard climb. A true donnybrook.
Race 3
The third race was a Crit City elimination race. A miss and out styled race where the last one across the sprint line or the lap line was kicked out of the race. After 7 eliminations, the last three raced to the finish to sort the top three. With everyone having to sprint it becomes a survival of the fittest. Who can keep jumping hard but also who can time their sprint consistently. Easy to jump early, easy to jump late.
In the first sprint everyone accelerated hard and the first one out was Jamrozik. The first to feel the pain of the perma-ghost, deleted from the race.
Pain of the first elimination
As the race progressed we saw early jumps, late jumps, and dead legs get riders eliminated. By the fourth lap the final selection was made of Vujasin (Coalition Alpha), Teugels (ABUS – Le Col), and Dawson (Wahoo Le Col). Coming off the sprint and into the small downhill Vujasin attacked through the group, dropped an anvil powerup and laid down the law. A brilliant move to take the win.
The interesting part of all this was, although Lionel won the race, his team ended up 5th. This was because of the point structure. By advancing with Golden Tickets and not riding to the finish with the front group points were not scored. Saving energy made winning easier, but also made for less points scored. I like that pay off, as you give up something to get something, but really did you get much? Because that brilliant ride by Lionel only scored him 9 points.
NeXT eSport pb Enshored played the game of numbers, skipped the Golden Tickets, and maximized points to win the race overall. It didn’t feel like they won, that was squarely on the shoulders of Vujasin, but it was Next that played the points the best. Either way every round was exciting and full of compelling and tactical racing occured. The days of massive group blob sprints are over. The Grand Prix is turning out Zwift unique, but road racing exciting races. Love it.
Final Results
Watch the Live Stream
What’s Next?
The next Men’s race is on October 21 at 2pm EDT. Watch it below:
Lucianotes: La Món Cambil, an IRL Epic Ride (Part 1)
When a friend of yours has a crazy idea there are two ways to react:
Try to reason him
Acknowledge that the first option has zero chance of working, and decide to get into trouble with him
How Our Delusion Began
That’s exactly what happened to me when Món shared with me that he committed to his family to ride from his current place to his hometown village, Cambil, in one go. 425km and close to 4000m elevation.
Don’t ask me why. I should have asked why. Instead, my immediate reaction was, “Let’s do it together”.
That’s how LaMónCambil® was born. (the “®” thing is only to illustrate how pedantic (arrogant?) I am).
We would cross the Provinces of Madrid, Toledo, Ciudad Real, and Jaén. Following the steps of Don Quixote de la Mancha.
I met Món virtually during the first season of ZRL back in October 2020. As we live close to each other we started riding together IRL, completing gravel events and 300km brevet. After all those hours together I can say we have become close friends.
We decided 26th August 2022 would be the day we would leave from Barajas in Madrid, at 5:30PM, ride through the night and arrive at Cambil around 1PM the following day. This would guarantee that we avoid the above 40°C temperatures of Andalusia during the afternoon.
Preparing for a challenge can be even more rewarding than accomplishing it. Getting fitter, projecting yourself into the adventure, wondering how it will be. Talking about it with fellow zwifters, family, and friends.
When explaining to them LaMónCambil®, the reactions varied from hysterical dismissive laughs to uncontrolled jaw-dropping. Very few of them were really encouraging, which motivated us even more.
Món and I spent months preparing the ride. Track, food, stops, water, alignment of the stars and planets. Weeks and weeks of very disciplined neverending Zone 2 sessions made us feel invincible. Also Lorena, Món’s wife, would always be within 60km of us with her car in case of emergency.
This was our schedule:
Note to myself: always get a Plan B, C, and D.
Upon departure on the 26th of August, we pretty much had everything under control.
Note to myself: this assumption means you are the most arrogant bipède this earth has ever hosted.
The Highway to Hell
Weather forecast seemed totally positive, which got confirmed until 9PM, the moment we started perceiving some clouds on the horizon.
We had our first shower just before dinner at 9:30PM (Yes, in Spain it is not unusual to get dinner at 10PM). The rain was intense but very short, around 10 minutes, so we felt unlucky but agreed that, all things considered, it was not very important.
After 108km and 700m elevation, we had dinner with Lorena in Lillo. We were fully on schedule.
We started pedaling again at 11PM, and Món received a call from Lorena telling us that she was in the car 30km ahead and that a huge storm had hit her. Ten minutes later, we got served. Heavy rain and 50 km/h face-side wind at night. Not what we had ordered!
Things got even uglier when lighting started striking around us, and turned totally nightmarish when, at 1:30AM, hail was invited to the party, beating our helmets with a tremendous amount of noise.
We were supposed to be flying at 30 km/h in the flats, but were instead at maximum 15 km/h. It was as if all the power-downs I had imagined in January were applied to us at the same time, plus a double anvil before the Zwift September update.
We were in the middle of nowhere, with no place to hide, wasting an enormous amount of watts and, even more importantly, an enormous amount of willpower fighting the wind and the apocalyptic climate conditions.
That is when one of the most memorable moments of LaMónCambil® occurred.
Món looked at the sky and said, “We can see all the stars, where does the freaking rain and hail come from?”
It was impossible to explain. There were no clouds above us but it was still raining like there was no tomorrow. Later we were told that given the huge amount of wind the rain could come from very far away, but I started doubting that I had my entire brain with me.
I could not get out of my head the image of the weather forecast provided by Epic Ride Weather an hour before we left.
As the storm was getting more and more intense, we stopped on the side of the road to reassess the situation. It was dangerous to continue as we could barely see anything beyond 10 meters, but it was similarly dangerous to stay where we were because of the lightning and the cold. Even worse, given the weather conditions the likelihood Lorena would be able to find us was close to zero. Prisoner’s dilemma.
Món was really down. I was in shock and not able to make any decision. We were lost, and even a little scared although neither of us wanted to show it to the other.
There was no point in insisting, we were already an hour and a half behind schedule and there was no hope that the weather situation would improve in the short term.
We were very close to the premature end of LaMónCambil®…
Tiny Race Series – October 22 Route Details, and Last Week’s Results
Last week’s Tiny Races were a pile of painful fun as huge numbers of riders turned out for our “Downtown”-themed races. Each race began in Downtown Watopia, but went in a different direction. And each race had more climbing than the one before, piling on the hurt.
Here’s a report of what happened last week, and what we have planned for this week.
Anti-Sniping: How Did It Go?
As you may recall, we implemented a “no sniping” rule for the first time in last week’s races. Specifically, if you don’t finish all four Tiny Races in the timezone you race, you’ll be disqualified from ZwiftPower results for whatever races you did finish.
So how did the new rule work out? Pretty well. Or pretty badly, depending on how you look at it. Rather than dig into the details in this post, I wrote up a separate article sharing stats and explaining the various struggles I’m having making Tiny Races behave the way I’d like.
As of today, the Anti-Sniping rule is still planned for upcoming races. As always, read the event description or the current week’s Tiny Race update post for details.
Last Week’s Results
I raced the zone 2 B’s last week, and the field was huge – around 160-170 riders in each race. Congrats to all the winners!
A: none B: Jen Moroz (OTR) C: Leanne Dalley (CrushPod) D: Jadene White
This Week’s Routes: Early Climbs
Two new routes this week, and two routes we’ve used before. The theme this week is early climbs. The idea is, what if each race featured a climb early on, with the change for riders to chase back on afterward? Can the strong climbers stay away, or can the chasers bring it back? We’ll find out.
Here are photos so you can see the precise location of the custom finish lines for race 1:
Approaching the Yorkshire finishYorkshire finish
Race 1: Hilly Route (3.2 km, ends atop post-KOM kicker)
Starting off with a bang, we’ll hammer up Watopia’s well-known Hilly KOM, grab our anvil powerups, then begin a descent. The road turns a sharp right onto a short uphill kicker, and the finish line is at the top.
Most racers know Crit City well, but have you ever raced just 3 laps? Hopefully somebody will go long on the final twisty climb and really make it interesting.
This new route in Yorkshire ends on the straight false flat following the super-steep Pot Bank descent (see photos above for location). Do you use your anvil on an early downhill to chase back on, or save it for Pot Bank so you can hit crazy fast speeds?
The Harlem Hill climb will stretch and split the field. But with a few kilometers left until the line, some riders may be able to chase back onto the front. This is our longest race of the day, so we put it at the end in case some D riders need a few extra minutes to cross the line.
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, just 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:
Tiny Race rules are simple. Four races, four rules:
You must have a ZwiftPower account, because final results are processed by ZwiftPower (learn how to sign up)
You must finish all 4 Tiny Races in your timezone, otherwise you will be disqualified from whatever Tiny Races you did finish. No points sniping!
Heart rate monitors are required
ZPower/Virtual power is not allowed. Smart trainer/smart bike or power meter required.
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 out their legs together and have some fun chatting about how it all went down. Find them at zwift.com/events/tag/tinyraces.
As I started putting together this week’s Tiny Race post (congratulating last week’s winners and announcing this week’s routes), I wrote up a section discussing the new Anti-Sniping rules and various challenges I’ve had trying to roll them out.
That section kept growing, until I realized it had taken over the post, making it rather long and awkward for all the racers who just wanted to learn about this week’s routes.
So I’m doing a separate post instead, a sort of brain dump full of notes explaining what I’ve learned and am learning about race management via ZwiftPower. Buckle up. Let’s go!
Anti-Sniping: How Did It Go?
As you may recall, we implemented a “no sniping” rule for the first time in October 15th’s races. Specifically, if you don’t finish all four Tiny Races in the timezone you race, you’ll be disqualified from ZwiftPower results for whatever races you did finish. Because it’s not sporting to hop into a race with fresh legs when other riders are coming in with tired legs after finishing earlier races.
So how did the new rule work out? Pretty well. Or pretty badly, depending on how you look at it. Here are the numbers of race results (riders crossing the finish line) vs sniping DQs for each time zone:
Results
Sniping DQs
DQ Rate
Zone 1
1353
273
20%
Zone 2
1546
300
19%
Zone 3
475
112
24%
Do I like the fact that 1 in 5 riders who crossed the finish line got removed from the final results? Of course not. But do I think it’s fairer to remove those riders, so only riders finishing all 4 races are in the final results? Yes.
In a glorious stroke of irony, I got to DQ myself as a sniper, thanks to a Zwift bug that caused my finishes in race 2 and 3 go unrecorded by Zwift or ZwiftPower. You can see my full 4-race series below… and yes, I’ve reached out to Zwift to see if I can help them track down this bug.
My guess is the “sniper rate” will drop over the next few weeks as riders figure out what’s going on. Or maybe it won’t decrease at all. Here’s why…
ZwiftPower Ranking Madness
I confirmed this weekend that even when you DQ a rider from a race in ZwiftPower, they still “earn” ZwiftPower ranking points. The way it works is so goofy it has to be a bug, not a feature.
When the rider is DQ, their result for the race shows no points. All good. But if you look in their profile, if their race result in that DQ race was good enough to be in their top 5 results and thus boost their overall ranking, you’ll see the DQ race points in that list.
One particular rider from this weekend is a perfect example of how this bug works. The rider finished the first three races, but not the fourth, so they were disqualified from those three races. But if you look at his top 5 points results, 3 of the results are from the Tiny Races he was disqualified from!
I’ve reached out to Zwift, posted a forum question, and posted in the Zwift Racers Facebook group, all to ask if anyone knows of a disqualification code or some other trick I could use to truly remove ranking points from results. We’ll see what I uncover…
Editing Race Results on ZwiftPower
I’ve never seen this documented, so I’ll explain it here in case it helps some other race organizer in the future. Let’s open the ZwiftPower kimono just a bit!
ZwiftPower gives organizers the ability to edit race results in very specific ways. It starts by clicking “Edit Results” from the options menu at the top-right:
From there you’ll see a comma-delimited list of all the results, grouped by category and ordered by finishing order. Each result looks like this:
B, ua, 3, 2707, Eric Schlange [ZwftInsdr], 58160, 3397809063136107568, 0.000,
Those data fields are Category, country, PowerType, Team ID, Name, Zwift ID, Result ID, Penalty (seconds), Notes
There’s a second tab titled “Copy rider to apply edit”. This is where the magic happens. If you copy one of the results from the “All Riders” tab into “Copy rider to apply edit”, you can change the data. For instance, my result in Race 4 was changed from what you see above to this:
DQ, ua, 3, 2707, Eric Schlange [ZwftInsdr], 58160, 3397809063136107568, 0.000, Only finished 2 of required 4 races.
(Note: I added the explanatory note to all DQs, but I can’t see any place it actually shows up in ZwiftPower.)
So edit the results, then click “Update Results” and viola, the results list is changed! (Sometimes it takes a minute or so for the results to be regenerated.)
Changing a rider’s category to another code like “DQ” or “1R” or whatever will remove them from the results. They’ll be visible in the “Unfiltered” tab of the race results, along with the DQ code you gave them.
It’s important to note what you can’t change in the results. You can’t remove a rider completely – you can only edit their record. And crucially, as explained above, you can’t change the points result they earned – all you can do is hide that result. But it will still show up in their Best 5 scores, if the result was good enough.
Time Penalties? Nope.
In what I thought was a stroke of genius, I realized that adding a time penalty might solve my problems. “Perfect!” I thought. “I can add 5 minutes to a sniper’s finishing time and they’ll move to the bottom of the results and not get a points boost.”
Wrong. ZwiftPower still calculates the ranking result based on the initial finishing order. The time penalty changes how they’re displayed, but doesn’t change the points.
DQ Code Minutiae
A variety of codes have been used over the years to flag ZwiftPower results. These codes are poorly documented, and in fact race organizers can put in whatever code they’d like. But rumor has it, some codes behave in special ways.
Early feedback from some of the “snipers” was that they didn’t like the “DQ” tag next to their name in ZwiftPower, so I changed that to 1R, 2R, or 3R, depending on how many races the rider had completed.
But as I pored over the data, I realized that my custom 1R, etc codes weren’t behaving in the same way that a DQ code behaves. To be specific (and I know we’re getting into the tall weeds here), a DQ code takes the rider out of the Race Quality calculation, which in turn modifies the overall ranking points for the race (read how ZwiftPower ranking points are calculated).
But even if the rider’s ranking was taken out of the Race Quality calculation (meaning they finished in the top 10 of the race) they still get their ranking points added to their “Best 5” results, boosting their score. Which is a serious bug, because the rider is now gaining a ranking boost, without “contributing” their own high ranking to the Race Quality score.
Best 5 Score Calculation
Adding to my frustration, ZwiftPower only re-calculates riders’ Best 5 results on a nightly basis. I’m not sure when it happens, but I would guess between 9pm-midnight Pacific time.
So as I’m messing around with various DQ codes, I can’t tell if any of them remove results from the Best 5 list until the next day. Hmph.
Shrinkage Rates
Along with all the silliness above, I’ve also been pondering race shrinkage this week. Specifically, how the rider counts shrink throughout the Tiny Race process.
For example, this is what Zone 2’s B category numbers looked like this week:
Signups: 193
Starters: 167
Finishers: 151
ZwiftPower-Registered Finishers: 148 (if you aren’t on ZP, you’re not in the final results)
Final Finisher Count after DQ: 123 (24 riders DQ for racing less than 4 races, 1 rider DQ for no HR)
So that’s interesting – actually a very low rate of post-race shrinkage (final finisher count is just 2.6% reduced from in-game finisher count) if you remove the “sniping” DQs. With the sniping DQs the final results list was 18.5% reduced from the finishers list that pops up in Zwift at the end of the race.
But the story is very different in lower categories. Glancing at the numbers, it appears that shrinkage increases as categories get lower, which isn’t surprising. Look at the D race in Zone 2, for example:
Signups: 79
Starters: (unknown)
Finishers: 62
ZwiftPower-Registered Finishers: 49
Final Finisher Count after DQ: 17 (28 riders DQ for racing less than 4 races, 2 rider DQ for no HR, 2 rider DQ for using ZPower)
Without the sniping DQs, that’s still a shrinkage rate of 43.5% (62 finishers, but only 35 would show up in ZwiftPower after HR and ZPower DQs)! Add in the sniping DQs and the final results list is 72.5% smaller than the original finishers list!
Why is this? Multiple factors, really. While some D racers are serious, dedicated racers, many are newer riders who don’t know how Zwift works. So you get a lot more Ds who aren’t even on ZwiftPower, for example. And more Ds who don’t read the event description or follow Zwift Insider and read up on route and rule details. You’ll also see more ZPower-using riders in D than you will in B. And lastly, D racers are by definition not as strong as higher-category racers, so there’s more of a chance they may blow up and not finish all 4 races.
These shrinkage rates bug me, and here’s why: it’s (nearly) 100% preventable. Consider this:
Some riders are removed from results because they aren’t signed up for ZwiftPower. Surely Zwift knows the ZP registration status of every user at this point. Why not let event organizers require ZwiftPower registration before you can join the event?
Sniping DQs: these could be greatly reduced if Zwift allowed event signups to “stack” – that is, you sign up for one event, it also signs you up for the others in the set. Alternatively, I think these numbers will decrease as riders learn the rules, and perhaps if I can communicate them more clearly.
HR and ZPower DQs: these are a smaller problem than the others above, and Zwift has actually just enabled a solution in the past week or so, allowing event organizers to prevent ZPower riders or riders without HR from joining their event.
Wrapping It Up
I’m not going to lie: I’ve asked myself, “Is all this hassle worth it?” I can definitely see why some race organizers just “set it and forget it”, creating simple races that work within Zwift+ZwiftPower’s abilities and require zero upkeep.
But I’m also not interested in hosting “just another Zwift race”. If I’m going to put Zwift Insider’s name on it, I want it to be special.
On top of that, I’m interested in learning how ZwiftPower works from a race organizer’s point of view, so all of this has been rather interesting to me. In that way, this post is just a continuation of what I’ve always done with Zwift: dig deep and figure out how it works. Then share that information with others.
If you made it this far, chapeau! You have a bright future ahead as a Zwift race organizer. Ride on.
This November the Zwift community is invited to join André Greipel, one of the most renowned cyclists in history, for a series of events.
How the Rides Work
André is one of the winningest cyclists in recent history, having amassed a total of 158 victories over a remarkable 16 years riding with some of the world’s top teams. He is known for his strength as a sprinter, earning him the nickname ‘The Gorilla’.
In the “André Greipel Sprint School” series Zwifters can ride alongside André while he recounts some of his favorite sprint victories. You’ll also get in a solid sprint workout!
These events are on circuit routes, and each lap has one or more sprint segments. Each lap André will lead out the community to help them take the green jersey.
These events are intended to be for users of all abilities, so when not on the gas the power will be 1.5wkg.
Schedule and Routes
Events will run for 4 weeks on Wednesdays at 6pm UTC from November 2-23rd.
This is a smaller update than last month but it includes some welcome and much-requested changes. While it doesn’t include new roads (those will come in November), it includes more new stuff than we’ve seen in the past several months, and that’s great news.
Category Enforcement and Hardware Requirements UI
Events using category enforcement and/or hardware requirements now visibly indicate this in-game, on Zwift Companion, and on the Zwift.com website. These “rules” are indicated with a warning sign ⚠️. Here’ what it looks like in the Companion app:
Pace Partner UI Update
Pacer Group cards on the homescreen now show average w/kg and speed values, allowing you to see the average pace the group will cruise at during the ride. This is a welcome upgrade, as the w/kg will no longer change depending on whether the group is actively ascending or descending.
Pace Partner Drops Multiplier Game Updated
The Pace Partner Drops Multiplier Game encourages riders to stick with their Pace Partner by multiplying the rate at which you accumulate Drops, as long as you stay near a Pace Partner.
In the past, the multiplier would go up to 2.5x, then revert back to 1x to start over again.
Now once you reach 2.5x, the multiplier will stay at that level as long as you stay with the Pace Partner. Time for a shopping spree!
Here’s Zwift’s list of fixes and improvements included in this update:
Improved reliability of joining a Pacer Group.
A new font family has been introduced for better functionality in-game. Areas of the game that require smaller font sizes will use a slightly different font better suited for its size.
Although we liked seeing your bunny hops and hurdles, we fixed a recent issue where small gaps in roads appeared.
Smoothed out avatar transitions between “in the drops” and “on the hoods” animations.
