How the Race Was Lost: Rising Empire VO2 Session (ZRL Race 2)
The second race of ZRL Round 2 was on two laps of New York’s Rising Empire for A and B teams. This course features the New York KOM in both directions, which meant a total of 4x hard climbs, and nightmares for me in the days leading up to the race…
Warmup and Planning
Leading up to the race, my Delusion teammates had been chatting on Discord. The consensus was that most of us were dreading it, a couple of weirdos were looking forward to it, and team captain Neil was clearly dodging it by trotting out the old chestnut of “I just crashed my bike, haven’t ridden since, and can’t put bibs on over all the road rash.” Likely excuse, Neil!
We basically decided everyone would race their own race, battling to stay in the furthest forward group possible, because ZRL’s points structure is such that everyone has an incentive to get across the line ahead of others on every points segment.
Knowing this race would require everything I had (and likely a bit more), I tried every trick in the book when it came to preparation. PR Lotion to my legs, 300mg of caffeine thanks to MEG gum, and even a Nomio shot (broccoli, yuck).
Having learned my lesson last week, I was on the bike with plenty of time for a good warmup. I spun up the legs, which felt less fresh than they should. Still, I put in a few good efforts to wake up my heart, then joined the pens in New York on my full-upgraded Pinarello Dogma F 2024 with ENVE 4.5 PRO wheels – the best climbing rig at my disposal.
Lap 1
Everyone knew the first real fireworks would explode the first time up the NY KOM. With the way this route is laid out and the way segment points work, there just isn’t enough incentive to do anything except sit in until that KOM.
I proposed a helpful neutral lead-in, and got some yes votes:
Unfortunately, we clearly didn’t have the supermajority agreement required for such a measure to pass. The glass road ramp was our first effort after averaging just 237W in the first 5 minutes, and while the watts jumped up significantly, it wasn’t enough to drop anyone.
After several rolling kilometers on the glass, we hit our first KOM segment. Up to this point, I had done my best to convince myself that I might just be able to hang with the front group over this first KOM, unlike every other race I’ve ever done on here.
Unfortunately, it quickly became evident that I was living in a fantasy world. You know that terrible feeling when the peloton flows past, and you’re dropping back with no ability to move up? That was the feeling. From a pack of 50, I saw myself quickly drop into the 40’s. No front group for me today. I came through the KOM banner in 39th, and the Zwift gods rewarded my efforts with a feather powerup:
This was the first of four feathers I would earn on the day. One atop each KOM. You can’t make this stuff up.
After the first KOM, Andy and Rob had made the front group. Fabian and Chris were up the road from me chasing, and Dylan was behind.
We descended to ground level and quickly hit the NY Sprint Reverse. I put in a quick dig to pip an opponent at the line (every point counts!) and earn an atta boy from Captain Neil. I also grabbed an aero powerup at the banner, which I put to good use just up the road, bridging up to Chris and Fabian’s group.
Sauce for Zwift was earning its monthly subscription cost in this race, giving me a helpful and clear view of time gaps between groups.
Then it was straight onto the glass for the “pre-climb” to the start line of the NY KOM Reverse. The group’s pace seemed much more manageable now, but as the actual KOM segment stretched out, I found myself near the back again, with Chris and Fabian several seconds ahead as we hit the top.
An aero or an anvil would have been handy on the descent to follow, but unfortunately, all I got was another feather as I rode through the KOM arch in 37th. So I put in some well-timed digs on the descent, supertucking as much as possible, catching a handful of riders so I was in a group starting at 31st place as we hit the tarmac again.
My group caught up to Fabian and Chris, and I used my feather to ease the effort up to the lap banner in a pack of 9 riders as lap 2 began.
Lap 2 + Finish
My pack of 9 constituted 29th-37th place, and we now chugged along on the flat first portion of the route. The effort felt quite easy, but hard enough that pushing to bridge to the next group didn’t seem like the right move.
Sauce showed 22 riders in front (1:24 ahead), 6 riders chasing (39s ahead), my group of 9, and Dylan’s group of 8 40s back. Andy and Rob were still in the front group.
The second lap was, in many ways, similar to the first. Quite chill on the flats, hard VO2 efforts on the climbs, and some well-timed supertucks to catch riders on the longer descents. My pack of 9 had definitely calmed down, as evidenced by me being on the front near the top of the climb!
Another feather granted at the top, another slight sprint dig to grab some extra points, then it was back onto the glass roads for our final go at the KOM. The three Delusion riders lead the charge for part of it:
Once again, I got distanced over the top, and the Zwift gods handed me another feather as punishment. I supertucked to catch a rider up the road, then Chris put in a good dig to bridge up to me, and the two of us pushed to stay away from chasers just behind and finish in 30th and 31st place.
Andy had our team’s best finish on the day, in 8th. Not bad for a C rider, eh? Rob was 15th, Fabian 28th, me 30th, Chris 31st, and Dylan 40th. Delusion would finish 4th overall, with the win going to Team Santysiak Epica Avvoltoi (that’s a mouthful). Nice work, SEA!
Interestingly, there’s now a 3-way tie for 1st place in our division (B1 Development, Lime):
It may be too early to say, but it looks like there are clearly 4 leading teams in this division. While we won last round, this round will be much more difficult, with three races featuring significant key climbs.
I think we can win the TTTs, and do decently well in Glasgow on the punchy points race. But those three hilly races? Those will be a real challenge. We’ll have to push hard to do our best in races that don’t particularly suit us, to keep our overall points high enough to have a shot at the title.
Personally, I was disappointed in my performance in this race. I’ve never done well on the NY KOMs, but I’ve done better than this! Looking at my power numbers up those climbs, I just didn’t have the power I have on better days. Instead of holding 350-370W for 4 minutes, I was doing 320-330W. Not sure what the problem was, not sure if a few more watts would have helped at all, but I’ll try to be better prepared next week when we tackle the Fox Hill 3x.
I’m not sure you could design a better Zwift course than this for a race-based VO2 workout. We had 4 VO2-length efforts, with easy riding in between to recover. So if nothing else, I got in a helpful VO2 workout, which is always a good thing. (I’ve been doing a lot of endurance work lately, but I fear that has come at a cost to my 2-5 minute power. Time for more targeted workouts.)
Ten years ago today, I went for my first ride on Zwift.
The winter of 2015 was my first “indoor season” as a serious cyclist, and I was already dreading the roller sessions. At the time, none of my local riding buddies were on Zwift. None of them had even heard of it. But I saw it somewhere on Facebook, downloaded the game, ran it in “just watch” mode, and immediately knew I had to give it a try.
First Zwift session: November 12, 2015
I found a website in Germany selling Tacx Vortex Smart trainers for ~$290 to my door, so I pulled the trigger. The night it arrived I put it together, hooked my bike in, and went for my first Zwift ride from the middle of my living room. The trainer wasn’t calibrated, I had no fan, and I wasn’t dressed for a real ride… so that effort didn’t last long.
But two days later, I went for my first “real” Zwift ride – two laps of Watopia’s Hilly Route (the only route in Watopia at the time). Uploading it to Strava certainly confused local friends. “Are you in the Solomon Islands right now?”
I wish I had been on Zwift from the beginning, but when Zwift beta launched in 2014 I was just rediscovering cycling after an 18-year hiatus.
It has become my habit each November 12th to post a refreshed Zwiftversary article. So here I am, once again looking back at my journey and delivering my perspective as a Zwifter and the editor of the web’s biggest Zwift fansite (5,043 posts and counting).
Growth Trends
The all-time Peak Zwift of 49,114 came in January 2021. Remember that time? It was actually illegal to ride your bike outdoors in some European countries, as COVID lockdowns sent Zwift numbers off the charts.
A year later, traffic numbers were much lower than their mid-COVID peak, and really, since that time, if you remove seasonality, numbers have basically held steady as far as I can tell. We certainly aren’t seeing the massive year-over-year growth we saw each winter pre-COVID.
That said, I’m seeing a lot of brand-new riders on the platform in the past year or so. Zwift’s big moves in the hardware space certainly have something to do with this, with tens of thousands of Zwift Rides being sold since the product launched.
Hardware: Simpler, Cheaper, and More Powerful
The Zwift Ride was released in June 2024, and it immediately disrupted the smart bike market. Priced at just $1299USD, it was half the price of the cheapest competitor (Wattbike) and a third the price of the premium options (Wahoo KICKR Bike Pro, Tacx NEO Bike Plus).
But was it a smart bike? Or just a simple frame attached to a standard trainer? What exactly is a smart bike?
Turns out, the answer to those questions isn’t all that important. Because the truth is, the Zwift Ride became the overnight default smart bike recommendation for most Zwifters. It’s just really difficult to justify spending 2-3x more.
A year and a half after its launch, Zwift Ride is even more refined and capable thanks to a quieter Zwift Cog, an adjustable crank arms option, and an upgraded KICKR CORE 2 with WiFi, race mode, and more.
I don’t think prices can drop much more. But Zwift has done an amazing job of strategically lowering the bar when it comes to price, and that is opening up Zwift to a new audience while consolidating the trainer market.
A Virtual Shift
Speaking of hardware, we’ve seen lots of trainers come online with support for Zwift’s virtual shifting in recent months, including Tacx and Elite. It seems crazy, but Zwift only released virtual shifting two years ago (October 2023), and then only on the Zwift Hub. Today, that list has expanded to the following:
Zwift discontinued their Play Controllers this summer, and started shipping the Click v2 in September. The Click v2 is a simpler, more affordable controller that offers much the same capability, in a form factor that is more broadly compatible with various handlebars and setups.
We could argue about whether Zwift should have created a more “open” standard for virtual shifting that could be used on any trainer without a firmware upgrade, and perhaps even operated via a keyboard or the Companion app. But at the end of the day, the truth is this: Zwift’s virtual shifting is an innovation they brought to the market that helps enable a quality experience on the platform, and most riders shopping for a new trainer will heavily consider virtual shifting capabilities in their decision.
Training Partner Expansion
Zwift has had its own library of structured workouts since early days, and they work great for a lot of people. But some Zwifters want more or different workouts, or an easy way to execute workouts in Zwift that come from another provider/coach. So Zwift rolled out their Training API 15 months ago, allowing partners to sync workouts and session data to and from Zwift automatically.
It’s wild (but not inaccurate) to think how these new Training API integrations have infinitely expanded the library of workouts available on Zwift while also customizing that library to your specific needs. It may sound cliché, but we really are seeing training tools today that are exponentially more powerful than what we’ve had in the past. It’s fun to watch!
Here’s the full list of Training API partners currently syncing to Zwift:
Two years ago when I wrote this post, I listed Zwift’s three competitors. That list hasn’t changed:
MyWhoosh: they won the UCI Esports Worlds contract, and in fact are hosting the 2025 edition in just a few days. With no subscription cost, budget-minded riders are attracted to the platform. Additionally, big prize money is always attractive to racers! Still, it feels like people use the platform for monetary reasons, not because it’s particularly good.
Rouvy: a popular platform for riders who want to ride “real” roads. They’ve been doing a fair amount of expensive marketing in the past year or two and certainly have a following.
TrainingPeaks Virtual: the most compelling entry on the list for me, due to the intriguing combination of a popular training platform (TrainingPeaks) and a fast-moving, race-focused game developer (George Gilbert). I love how quickly they’ve built out lots of powerful features, but I don’t love the UI or gameplay appearance.
Zwift raised their price in May 2024, which made some Zwifters look at the alternatives. Then they removed their monthly 25km free trial last July, which was sort of a mystifying move that seemed destined only to drive people toward the competition.
Even so, Zwift is more profitable than ever, with a solid subscriber base and a strong influx of new riders on Zwift hardware. And internal sources tell me they’re investing that available cash in making big, long-term investments that will continue to drive innovation in the space. (Which innovations exactly? Zwift isn’t sharing, but my guess is it involves, at a minimum, AI-driven workout recommendations and new hardware development.)
Community Racing Development
Last year, I wrote, “it feels like Zwift has shifted the weight of its racing focus off of the elite side and onto the community side in the past 6 months.” This continues to be the case, with Zwift announcing last July that they would not be hosting an elite race series this fall/winter like they’ve done in years past.
While Zwift is dialing back their involvement in elite racing, they clearly see the value of community racing. Zwift Racing Score is still evolving, community organizers are being supported, and lots of racing is happening on the platform.
The problem is, innovating in the racing space just isn’t something Zwift has ever done well. It’s always been a grassroots effort, with the community suggesting and even building out the tools needed for racing to work well. Will that ever change? I’m not sure.
Perhaps Zwift has made the right call in throwing their weight behind the development of features that impact the subscriber base broadly, and not just racers. But if they’re going to focus on those “all-platform” features, I’d really love to see them deliver a rich toolset to community organizers, so we can create innovative race events and group rides on the platform. That way, everyone wins.
Zwift Camp vs Zwift Academy
This year, for the first time since 2016, Zwift isn’t hosting a Zwift Academy. That’s a big move! I get the sense that Zwift Academy has a bit of an identity crisis. Is it a community workout program, or a global talent ID program? Perhaps it can’t be both.
I think everyone loves the idea of Zwift hosting a global talent ID program that places deserving riders on top-tier teams. That’s just a cool concept, and one that shakes up the world of bike racing.
Last year’s academy pivoted heavily towards the talent ID side of things. Personally, I think that’s the way to go. Let Zwift Academy identify top riders around the world, and create another workout program that can be embraced by the everyman. In fact, proposed this approach back in August of 2024 in this post: Pondering the Possibilities: Zwift Academy and Zwift Community College.
Zwift has spun up a “Zwift Camp” program this season, with Zwift Camp: Build beginning this week. The Zwift Camp idea appears to be moving toward my year-round, progressive training “Zwift Community College” idea (admittedly, “Zwift Camp” is a cooler name). We’ll see where this all leads in the next year as Zwift’s personalized recommendations engine comes online in the next few months.
Clubs: What Now?
Things haven’t changed much with Clubs in the past few years, apart from Zwift raising limits so Clubs can get bigger and Zwifters can join more of them.
Here’s what irks me, though: even with one of the largest Clubs on Zwift (39.2k members, click here to join) I still struggle to put it to good use. The Club chat tool is very limited (no tagging members, no clickable URLs) which means most members just turn off notifications and never check the chat. And apart from chat, the club really just becomes a container for Club events.
Which is fine, I suppose. But having built and interacted with online communities for 20+ years, I can’t help but believe Zwift Clubs could be so much more. I’d love to see:
Club kit designs
Voice chat in game with Club members
Team racing where Club members are automatically linked together
More powerful Club chat/discussion tools
Club leaderboards, to promote competition between Clubs
and more!
So Many Rides, So Little Time
There was no in-game event calendar ten years ago – instead, the community put one together using Teamup (see it here). Today, there are ~385+ events per day on Zwift’s public calendar. Amazing! And that doesn’t even include private Meetups and Club Events.
Maintaining the perfect event calendar is no easy task, though. There is a tension that exists between Zwift-organized events like the currently underway Zwift Unlocked and community-organized events. Big Zwift events get lots of marketing and calendar space and, consequently, attract a lot of overall participation. But this reduces numbers for community-organized events.
Is that a bad thing? Not necessarily. I would argue that the end-user experience is what’s most important, so if riders are enjoying Zwift’s big events, that’s a good thing.
But Zwift’s community is also a massive asset for the platform, and volunteer organizers in the community have pushed the platform forward in terms of event innovation since day one. (This is still happening: witness today’s kickoff of a well-planned winter TT series from Cycling Time Trials, the national governing body for time trials in England, Scotland, and Wales. They’ve got over 1000 riders signed up to race the first week.) Zwift needs to be careful to cultivate and inspire event organizers, not battle with them for riders.
So once again, as the organizer of various Zwift events, including the Tiny Race Series and Pizza Burner 100km, I’ll sound my clarion call for more event options and better event management tools. Based on my experience over the years organizing hundreds of events, I know that improving these systems would reduce event configuration errors, streamline organizer workflows, and allow the community to innovate in the space, all of which logically leads to higher-quality event experiences for end users.
100km at 5am
Speaking of community-led rides, I should discuss a major addition to my training calendar this year: the Thursday Pizza Burner 100km! I launched this with ZHQ’s James Bailey on January 9th, 2025, and it’s been held every week since.
It’s a bit crazy to think I’ve been getting up at 4:15am every Thursday to start this ride in the dark. But it’s also become a part of my weekly routine in the past 11 months, and I intend to keep it going, because I can feel the difference this ride has made in my fitness. I’ve definitely built endurance, specifically an increased ability to hold high zone 2 and tempo power for durations of 2.5 hours or more.
Now I need to start building power in the 3-10 minute range. More on that in future posts!
The Future Is Bright
It’s not hyperbole to say my involvement with the Zwift community has been life-changing. It’s changed my fitness, it’s changed my work life – it’s even changed my vacation plans (Mallorca was amazing). Heck, in less than 48 hours, I’m heading to the Death Valley Century, where I’ll be riding with Zwift’s Jon Mayfield and two buddies whom I’ve spent hours riding with virtually, but have never met IRL!
This Zwift journey of mine has taken me many places, and I love being a part of it all. Every day, I’m reminded that I am truly blessed to serve the community through my work here at Zwift Insider. It’s something I hope to do for many years to come.
Ride on!
What about You?
What’s your Zwift story? How long have you been on Zwift, and do you feel the platform is moving in a good direction? What features are at the top of your wishlist? Share below!
The third race of Zwift Racing League 2025/26 Round 2 happens Tuesday, November 18, and we’re back in London for a scratch race on London Loop Reverse. Hopefully your climbing legs have recovered from the previous Tuesday, because this is a pitchy one as well, with Fox Hill featured on each lap!
There’s much to discuss, including crucial course segments, powerups, bike decisions, and strategic options. Let’s dive in!
Looking at the Route
London Loop Reverse is a 14.9km long circuit with 231m of elevation per lap. A and B teams will be racing three laps for a total of 44.6km with 694m of elevation, while C and D teams will be racing two laps for a total of 29.8km with 463m of elevation.
Clearly, Fox Hill is the big feature of this route. While this is a designated KOM segment, it’s a scratch race, so segments don’t matter. And in the case of the Fox Hill KOM, paying attention to the timed segment just confuses things, since it begins 600 meters after the climbing actually starts, and keeps going up and over the climb to end after a fair amount of flat and even downhill riding!
What you need to know about the actual climb is that it’s 2.3km long, averages 6.4%, and this is where the big selections will happen. If you’re struggling on Fox Hill, the only good news is there’s a long descent just up the road. Do what you can to hold on to those wheels!
The Box Hill descent begins 5.4km into the first lap. This is a 2.8km downhill averaging -5%, so if you’re a larger rider who is tired from the Fox Hill climb, you should be able to sit in and recover nicely for a few minutes.
From here, it’s mostly flat/rolling riding to the end of the lap. Just watch out for that upramp out of the subway, as this isn’t New York City with its fancy futuristic escalators!
Wash/rinse/repeat one time for C and D teams… twice for A and B teams.
The finish here is an interesting one, as it’s in a direction that isn’t commonly raced in London.
With 1.4km to go, the road tilts up, making this a great place to launch a long attack. Then with 500 meters left the road tilts downward, giving us a very fast run-in to the finish line. You’ll want to be well-positioned by this point, because if you’re too far back when the pack speed lifts, you’ll have to work extra-hard to move forward in the group. Keep calm, carry on, and good luck to all!
Anvil powerups will be awarded at the KOM arch atop Fox Hill, while feathers will be awarded at the start/finish arch at the end of each lap.
Update: WTRL also tells me all riders will receive a feather at the start of the race, which will be handy on that first Fox Hill ascent!
Lightweight (feather) (given at start/finish banner): reduces your weight by 10% for 30 seconds. Use on Fox Hill climb, when weight matters most.
Anvil (given at Fox Hill KOM banner): makes you heavier for up to 15 seconds, so you can descend faster. The amount of weight added is based on a percentage of your body weight, and that percentage increases as riders get lighter. It won’t hurt you, as it only adds weight when the road is at a -1.5% decline or greater. Use it on descents, including Box Hill and the run-in to the finish line.
Bike Recommendations
This race’s key climb is long and steep enough that we’d definitely steer away from pure aero setups and look at climbing bikes and all-arounders instead. Our recommendation is to use the new ENVE SES 4.5 PRO or DT Swiss 65 wheels paired with one of these bikes:
Of course, your frame’s upgrade status should impact your decision. A fully upgraded Aethos will outclimb the other four frames, but that’s not the case when comparing un-upgraded versions.
Lots of recon events are scheduled on upcoming ZRL routes, led by various teams. See upcoming ZRL recons for this race at zwift.com/events/tag/zrlrecon.
Additionally, riders in the Zwift community do a great job every week creating recon videos that preview the courses and offer tips to help you perform your best on the day. Here are the recons I’ve found (comment if you find another!)
J Dirom
John Rice
Nathan Krake
Strategic Options
How will the race unfold, and what strategies will riders employ on London Loop Reverse? Here’s what we predict:
Saved anvils: expect riders to save their last anvil, using it in the finish instead of the Box Hill descent.
Major selections on Fox Hill: expect the field to be reduced by 50-60% the first time up Fox Hill, then further reduced each successive lap. Your 5-8 minute w/kg will be crucial.
A wild finish: with all the points waiting at the finish line, riders will be putting extra thought into how to finish strong. Expect long attacks from 1.4km out, and a very fast final 500 meters thanks to saved anvils.
Chasing on the flats: riders who lack the W/kg may find themselves dropped on Fox Hill, but able to chase back on during the Box Hill descent or the flats that follow. But climbers will want to work on that final lap to stay away from chasing sprinters! Who will win the game of tug-o-war?
Your Thoughts
Any insights or further thoughts on this race? Share below!
Indoor cycling season is the perfect time for you to sharpen your fitness for next year. In this week’s top video, learn about the Zwift Camp training series and watch as one rider tackles the first of the series: “Zwift Camp: Baseline.”
Other topics in this week’s picks include converting a garage into a home gym, beginners’ experiences on Zwift, and bike fitting on the Zwift Ride.
How Much Faster in 3 Months of Cycling? – Zwift Camp: Baseline
Benji Naesen tackles four benchmark workouts to get a baseline for his next 3 months of training with the Zwift Camp training series.
I Got Dropped in My First Zwift Race
After recently getting his Zwift set up, Luke Goldstone decided it was time to put himself to the test with his first Zwift race. Watch as he pushes himself to the limit on the virtual roads of Crit City.
Converting My Garage Into a Home Gym
Considering upgrading your home gym setup? Ryan Condon breaks down the logistics of turning his garage into a home gym.
I Started Indoor Cycling For 30 Days, And This Is What Happened
GCN guides two beginner cyclists through their first 30 days on Zwift. Watch as they tackle workouts, FTP tests, and races.
Zwift Bike Set up with Velo Tom – Bike Fit Advice
Struggling to stay comfortable on the Zwift Ride? Bike fitter Dougie Shaw shares tips for improving fit and comfort on the Zwift Ride.
Got a Great Zwift Video?
Share the link below and we may feature it in an upcoming post!
Cycling Time Trials Winter Series Begins November 12, 1000+ Riders Signed Up
Tomorrow, Cycling Time Trials (CTT) – the national governing body for time trials in England, Scotland, and Wales – launches their Winter Time Trial Series on Zwift. And they’ve clearly done a great job marketing the series, with over 1,000 riders already signed up for race 1!
Hayley Simmonds, a TT medal winner at both the European and Commonwealth Games and a former National Road TT Champion, is heading up the team running the winter series. She says, “I envisage the Winter Series on Zwift as being a great way for experienced testers to maintain and even improve their race readiness over the winter period. For anyone who is new to Time Trialing, then what better way to give it a go?”
Learn all about the series below…
Routes and Schedule
The series is 14 weeks long and begins this week, with races on Wednesdays at 7pm UTC (2pm EST/11am PST) repeating on Saturdays at 9am UTC (4am EST/1am PST).
Overall series rankings are points-based, with lower points being better. Points are earned in two different ways:
Finishing Points: 1st place gets 1 point, 2nd place gets 2 points, etc
Segment Points: fastest 5 through each course’s designated segment will get -5 points for 1st, -4 points for 2nd, -3 points for 3rd, -2 points for 4th, and -1 point for 5th
Course PB Points: each course (except mountain stages) is repeated twice in the schedule, plus there are two race events each week (one on Wednesday, one on Saturday). Riders who set a new series PB on a course will receive a -1 point deduction.
Championship Criteria
At the conclusion of the 14-week series, riders will be crowned as champions in their respective categories based on their best results in 7 races*. There will be both an open championship and a women-only championship.
* The 7 races must include at least 4 flat races, 2 rolling races, and 1 mountain race, as classified in the table above.
Key Rules
Entry Requirements
You must have a heart rate monitor paired to join these events, along with either a smart trainer or power meter connected as your power source.
If you want your results to count toward the Championships, you must be registered at ZwiftPower.
Riders are categorized based on FTP in watts per kilo:
A: 4-6 W/kg
B: 3.2-3.99 W/kg
C: 2.5-3.19 W/kg
D: below 2.5 W/kg
These are mixed races, but CTT says, “We’ll be producing an open leaderboard and female leaderboard for each category.”
Neutralized Equipment
Bike frames and wheels are neutralized for these events, so you can ride any setup from your Zwift garage that you’d like. Maybe it’s time to race that new Brompton P Line?
Questions or Comments?
It’s always fun to see an organization step into Zwift and use the platform effectively, hosting events that reinforce the organization’s mission and connect riders from around the globe. It’s also good to see a thoughtfully designed series structure. Nice work, CTT!
Got questions or comments about the series? Share below!
This round saw 9.5k racers compete across 216 separate divisions from every corner of the globe – in and of itself a massive coordination effort. Big thanks to the WTRL team for pulling this off season after season.
Given that this was a TTT where the times can be compared across zones, and now that all the results are in, I thought it would be worth taking a step back and looking at the ZRL landscape as a whole. Where are the teams concentrated? Which zones are more competitive? Who are the best of the best?
To answer this, I looked at the top team finishing time in each division across all 88 ZRL round 2 events that occurred last Tuesday. In the chart below, each bubble represents a division, plotted by the time of the fastest team in that division (lower on the chart is faster), with the size of the bubble corresponding to the total number of riders competing in that division:
Source: ZwiftPower, time based on 4th rider to finish event
Interestingly:
Clearly some zones are significantly more populated than others, with the Shamrock Open B Regular category having 6 distinct divisions while other zones have just a single division
While the overall riders are relatively concentrated in the Shamrock through Indigo zones, the fastest open times largely came from less-populated zones
This was not the case for the women’s field, where the Mint zone is both the most populated and also fielded the fastest times
There should be some re-shuffling of teams within divisions, with 3 out of the 8 fastest times coming from a team outside of division 1 in their zone. (Editor’s note: WTRL did some reshuffling after the race.)
The last topic to look at was teams that performed particularly well across zones and categories. While the underlying data is approximate at best, there are clearly a few organizations fielding top teams across multiple zones and categories:
Source: Team of the 4th-place rider in each event as defined by their ZwiftPower profile
DIRT continues to be by far the largest racing organization within Zwift, though the actual teams are organized by the many sub-teams within DIRT
Aeonian Racing Team appears to have fielded an impressive number of winning teams in the women’s leagues
Followed by some of the more popular event organizers on Zwift fielding 5 or more winning ZRL teams (Coalition, Rhino, SISU, OTR, and eSRT)
Overall, ZRL continues to be an impressive collection of racing teams coming together season after season, round after round. I would highly encourage anyone who has not given it a try to give it a go (many teams are always recruiting and quite welcoming).
For the ~10,000 of you racing this round all around the world, best of luck out there!
Virtual Brompton World Championship Arrives on Zwift
Today, Brompton + Zwift rolled out a slate of race events for the week of November 17-23, dubbed the Virtual Brompton World Championship (VBWC). This is the virtual version of the real-world BWC, which has been held in various venues and formats since 2008. And while the press release calls the VBWC the “world’s most stylish race” (debatable), we can all agree this will at least be a sight to behold!
Everyone will be on the new Brompton P Line bike (added to Zwift this week) for a race of “small wheels and big fun.” Show up, speed through London’s streets, and you’ll unlock the exclusive Brompton kit.
This series, like Zwift Unlocked, which ends the week before, replaces the regular ZRacing events as Zwift’s key races.
VBWC events are scheduled hourly for riders with a racing score of 700 and below, and a bit more intermittently for advanced racers at 650+ in order to assure large enough race fields. This is the same alternating category schedule Zwift uses for ZRacing events, and you can read more about it at zwiftinsider.com/zracing.
Everyone will be racing on Greater London Flat, for a total race length of 17.3km with 97m of elevation. Powerups will be given at each arch, with an equal chance of receiving a Draft Boost or an Aero Boost.
Before the virtual action begins, Zwift and Brompton will debut their collaboration at Rouleur Live (13–15 November). Attendees will get a first look at the ultra-limited Brompton P Line for Zwift, and a chance to test their sprint legs on a custom Zwift setup featuring Brompton bikes on modified Wahoo Kickr trainers.
One lucky individual will win a bespoke Brompton P Line for Zwift — the ultimate collector’s piece for fans of both worlds! (Winner will be drawn at random from all competition entrants who have a go on the Brompton at Zwift’s booth at Rouleur Live.)
Zwift Camp: Build begins this Monday, November 10. This is a 5-stage route-based workout series, with each stage lasting one week and focusing on developing power over a specific time interval.
My plan is to do each of the five workouts before their weeks begin, so I can write a post unpacking the workout and delivering some tips along the way. This post covers Stage 1’s workout on Glasgow Crit Six, but before we get there, let’s talk a bit about what Zwift Camp: Build is… and isn’t.
Setting Expectations
Zwift Camp: Build is the second in a series of three Camps planned for the 2025/26 season. We began with Zwift Camp: Baseline, which featured four workouts that pushed us to set maximal power numbers for 5 seconds, 1 minute, 5 minutes, and 20 minutes.
Now we have Zwift Camp: Build, which features workouts where we repeatedly go hard across approximately the same intervals as Baseline used, to build fitness in those systems. (Important note: “approximately” is the keyword here, because the workouts aren’t precisely targeting 5-second, 1-minute, 5-minute, and 20-minute power intervals. Route-based workouts use distance instead of time-based efforts, so Zwift has chosen segments that come close to the target intervals.)
Lastly, in the spring of 2026, we’ll have Zwift Camp: Breakthrough. This Camp will feature some competition and analysis of our power performances.
Who Is It For?
These Zwift Camps are designed as an accessible entry into structured training and analysis. The workouts are fairly short, so the vast majority of riders will be able to complete them. And you only need to do one workout per week to complete the program, meaning most riders can fit Zwift Camp into their current training load.
If you’re a newer cyclist who hasn’t done much structured training, or if you’re a more experienced rider looking to bring a bit of focus and specificity to your training, Zwift Camps may be helpful.
But this isn’t a full-blown periodized training program like you get from a coach, TrainerRoad, or even Zwift’s own training program library. If you’re an intermediate to experienced rider who already trains with even a medium level of structure and specificity, you’ll probably find Zwift Camps don’t offer what you need. Yes, you can do the same Zwift Camp workout more than once to further train a particular system. But experienced riders will probably need to focus much more than one week and a couple of sessions on a particular energy system to see results.
With that said, let’s get into Stage 1’s workout!
Stage 1 Walkthrough: Neuromuscular (~5 Seconds)
The first stage of Zwift Camp: Build focuses on short-term sprint power. To do so, it puts you on the new Glasgow Crit Six route, which takes you on six laps of the Glasgow Crit Circuit for a total distance of 18.3km and 199m of elevation gain.
The key part of this route-based workout is the five maximal sprints on the Champion’s Sprint segment, which comes up at the end of each lap and takes most riders 12-15 seconds to complete. The route actually takes you through the Champion’s Sprint seven times, but if you follow the simple instructions on screen, you won’t sprint the first or last time through the segment.
I went into the workout with semi-tired legs, so I planned to just push hard for the final ~5 seconds of each sprint. (The on-screen instructions have you pushing hard throughout the sprint, but this is your workout, and you can do with it what you will.) I did do a longer sprint on the final effort, just to say I’d followed the rules somewhat!
You’ll notice some HUD changes in these route-based workouts. First, if you’re using virtual shifting, your current gear is shown top-center at all times.
Additionally, after your first sprint, the Splits and Ride Stats HUD elements automatically pop up. Ride Stats goes away after a few seconds, but Splits remains throughout the ride, automatically creating a new lap split at the start of each lap. (This auto-lapping is a handy feature some ride organizers might like to use!)
I actually found the Ride Stats HUD more useful for this particular workout, as I wasn’t chasing lap times. (The Splits HUD will be handy, though, in other workouts, including Stage 3, where we ride Volcano Circuit laps as a VO2 workout.) I liked the Ride Stats block because it showed my 5-second power best for the ride, giving me a target to beat.
The on-screen prompts make it clear that you are supposed to rest in between sprints. Even up the Clyde Kicker, your goal is to spin easy so the legs can recharge for another full-gas sprint effort.
I was riding this as a solo test event, so there was nobody else on screen for me to chase. That made it easy to go easy. Fair warning: if you execute this workout in a group event, it may be harder to dial it down and spin between sprints. (Because, as they say, if two cyclists show up, it’s a race…)
At the end of the workout, you’ll earn the Glasgow Crit Six achievement badge, along with a 360 XP bonus.
HoloReplay Tips
Zwift’s HoloReplay may be a very helpful feature in these route-based workouts, giving you a target to beat on each segment effort. Admittedly, I spent more time confused and slightly annoyed at HoloReplay during my workout than I did chasing the ghosts, but for future workouts I’ll try to be more intentional about chasing my previous self!
You’ll want to set up HoloReplay in a specific way so it enhances your experience without detracting from it. Here are the settings to use:
Note: if you set “HoloReplay Privacy” to “Public” instead of “Private”, you’ll get a second HoloReplay of yourself at each segment, which corresponds to your best effort currently listed on that segment’s leaderboard. This is the mistake I made when doing the Stage 1 workout, but really, it seems more like a bug, based on the description of what the setting does, and the fact I had “Leaderboard HoloReplay” set to “Hide”…
It powers maximal efforts lasting up to ~15 seconds
It’s like a high-powered battery in that it produces a lot of power quickly, depletes quickly, but can also recharge if you rest for a few minutes
It’s the least adaptable of your three energy systems
Sprint Training Tips
While this workout won’t lead to significant neuromuscular energy system adaptations – it is the least adaptable energy system, after all – it can help you improve your sprinting form and efficiency. And you can make big sprint gains by improving form and efficiency!
Whoever put together the script for this route-based workout seemed to know this, as there are several prompts which focus on form and efficiency, such as, “Think about your gear choice. Maybe try a quicker wind-up this time. Keep your body relaxed and ride efficiently.”
I would have liked to see more prompts like this, though, because many riders could use a bit of coaching to maximize their sprints! I hosted a ride called Sprintapalooza for years, where we rode short circuit routes with sprint segments, going all-in to set segment PRs and compete for the green jersey while working on our sprint form. Through that, I learned a lot about sprinting.
Here are a few tips to maximize your sprint power:
Proper gearing is very important. Too easy a gear and you’ll spin out without enough resistance to push against. Too hard and you’ll be mashing and unable to maximize your power either. Experiment with different gearing in your maximal sprints, and you’ll come to learn which one or two gears work for you in most situations.
Check your form: I’m a big fan of rocker plates, partly because they let me rock the bike back and forth naturally when sprinting on Zwift. If you have one, make sure you aren’t riding it backwards, and be sure to take advantage of its movement. (If you don’t have a rocker plate, your form will differ greatly from good outdoor form.)
Work on cadence: power on the bike is computed using two values: torque (how hard you’re pushing the pedals) and cadence (how fast the pedals are moving). Increase either of these, and your power goes up. Work on high-cadence drills and you may just find you’ve unlocked more sprint power!
Suggestion Box
Overall, I’d say this first workout of Zwift Camp: Build went well. The script was on point, and the course was a good one for sprint repeats. That said, here are a few ways Zwift could improve the experience:
Average segment power history: As mentioned above, I would love to see a HUD element that shows my power average across the target segment every lap, so I can see how those numbers are changing as the workout unfolds.
Improve the event description: Zwift likes to set up these massive event series with a pile of identical text dumped into each and every event’s description. It appears that’s what they’re doing with Zwift Camp: Baseline, too. Why not customize the text for each stage, and make it more useful? Share specifics about what we’re trying to accomplish in that session, and why it matters. And get rid of every word that isn’t needed.
More technique tips: especially when it comes to maximal sprints, form and efficiency are huge factors. Talk about that more during the session. Zwift could even link to further resources in the event description.
Signup numbers are looking strong this weekend, so we picked some of the most popular rides and crazier events (12-hour group rides or banded PRL Full events, anyone?) See our five favorites below!
🤝DBR x Canyon x Cykelnerven Ultra Charity Ride
✅ Good Cause ✅ Endurance Challenge ✅ Popular
Are you ready for a mega endurance challenge? This event is 12 hours long and open-paced. DBR organized it on Watopia’s Flat Route Reverse (10.2km, 61m) so you’ll always have riders nearby and can even take a break if needed.
This is a charity ride, held to support Cykelnerve, raising awareness and funds for a world free of multiple sclerosis. Every donation helps in the fight against multiple sclerosis.
VirtuSlo’s popular 4Endurance League starts this weekend with a 49km, 502m race on France’s Gentil 8. With over 200 riders signed up when we put this post together, this is the most popular ride on our list!
The 4Endurance League is a 6-race series held over a 6-week period. This is race 1. You can find out about the other races and more league info in the event description.
Always a popular ride, this week’s Rubberband Joy Ride is a special one, since it’s on Zwift’s longest route: London’s PRL Full (173.5km, 2625m)!
The Bikealicious crew is always friendly, and this is a “keep together” ride, so as long as you keep pedaling you’ll stay with the group. It’s a good chance to grab this route badge if you haven’t done so yet, which comes with a whopping 3460 XP!
🥇 RiZZRL Veterans / Remembrance Day: Salute to Soldiers
✅ Unique Event ✅ Newish Route
The RiZZRL races are always epic showdowns, and this week race organizer Ben has fired up a Veterans/Remembrance Day Salute event on Watopia’s Southern Coast Cruise (26.3km, 147m).
Riders are grouped by Racing Score, but these are mass start events.
✅ Popular Race ✅ “Ladies Only” Option ✅ Unique Event
The Rocacorba Triple Dash combines three mini races into one fierce competition. There are two timeslots: 15:30 UTC/10:30 EST/7:30 PST for women’s only races, and 17:30 UTC/12:30 EST/9:30 PST for mixed. And there are prizes!
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!
