Reminder: Zwift Insider Rebel Race/Ride Series Begins this Week
This week we’re kicking off the first-ever Zwift Insider Race/Ride Series with Thursday recon rides and Saturday races!
Each event is held on a former Rebel Route – routes originally created by the community and published here on Zwift Insider before they were officially added to the game. The series begins with Downtown Titans – a fairly short route with two punchy climbs to keep things spicy.
Zwift Insider Kit Unlock
Complete any recon ride or race and unlock the new Zwift Insider “Ride smarter, ride harder” kit:
These are leaderless group rides at no stated pace. Ride them as a recon for Saturday, or just because you want to earn a route badge, grab the Zwift Insider kit, or ride with friends!
The races happen in three timeslots each Saturday:
While these aren’t team-based points races like ZRL, there will be teams participating including DIRT, SISU Racing, and others. Bring teammates, implement tactics, work together to support your GC rider(s), and make the races interesting!
Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month Events Announced
To celebrate Zwift’s Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community, the company has announced a series of events featuring Zwift employees in the month of May. Join group rides with Zwift CEO Eric Min and Zwift employees Eric Chon and Alyssa Aoki, plus there are special podcast rides and runs featuring Zwift Chief Product Officer YuChiang Cheng (YC)!
YCEric MinEric ChonAlyssa Aoki
Event Schedule
Events take place (mostly) each Saturday during the month of May:
May 7: YC Podcast Runs and Rides (rides on Chasing the Sun, runs on Sleepless City) – 60 minutes long YuChiang Cheng, known to all as YC, is Zwift’s Chief Product Officer and is in charge of… just about everything. From game design and art, engineering, research and development through content programming and live operations, YC does it all. His background includes the development of the 28 million-player World Tour Golf game, pioneering the free-to-play business model in the western world and merging real-world professional events with the virtual world. Sound familiar?
May 14: Ride with Eric Min (Castle to Castle) – 45 minutes long Eric was born in Seoul, South Korea. He was just seven years old when he rode his first bicycle. When he was fifteen, his family relocated to New York City and his passion for cycling took off. He joined a local racing club and found that he didn’t just enjoy the sport, he was good at it, too. But to Eric, it was the community that kept bringing him back week after week. Eric still rides, and if you see his avatar on Zwift Island, you’ll also find his name at the top of the leaderboards. Don’t be afraid to challenge him to a sprint—he’s still a racer at heart.
May 21: Ride with Eric Chon (Wandering Flats) – 45 minutes long Eric is the original Community Support team member and has been at Zwift for over seven years. As the son of Chinese immigrants, he developed a passion for cycling by commuting on the streets of Boston. He is excited to lead the Zwift AAPI community on group rides.
May 27: Ride with Alyssa Aoki (Neon Flats) – 45 minutes long Born to a Japanese American father and Mexican American mother, Alyssa currently resides in Long Beach and enjoys the short bike ride into Zwift’s offices for work. When she’s not working, you’ll find Alyssa rock climbing, mountain biking, or camping with friends.
Complete any AAPI event and unlock special AAPI socks you can wear on your Zwift runs or rides.
What is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month?
For those who are not familiar, Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month is observed annually in May in the United States to celebrate the contributions that generations of AAPIs have made to American history, society, and culture. Originally this was a week but in 1992 it got extended to a month, with May being officially designated as Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month.
Investing in Structural Change
It is also important to note that Zwift are going further than just hosting events. For the second year they are donating to Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAAJ), whose mission is to “advocate for civil rights, provide legal services and education, and build coalitions to positively influence and impact Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders and to create a more equitable and harmonious society.”
In this special run of weekly episodes, 18 pro riders will be taking on the Turbo 200 Challenge, where they have 2 minutes to answer as many of the 200 random, quick-fire questions as possible. In this week’s episode: Movistar rider Emma Norsgaard!
About the Podcast
The Zwift PowerUp Cycling Podcast features training tips from host Matt Rowe (Rowe & King), with regular co-hosts Greg Henderson, Rahsaan Bahati, Dani Rowe, and Kristin Armstrong.
How the Race Was Won/Lost: Libby Hill After Party Crashing (ZRL Week 4)
The fourth race of Zwift Racing League 2021/22 Season 3 was held last Tuesday, and it featured a fun mix of six sprints followed by an all-out punchy climb on Richmond’s Libby Hill After Party route. The course suited my team (the DIRT Roosters) well because we’re good sprinters, plus we’ve got a couple of guys who can punch their way up a climb.
Our strategy could be summarized in two points:
Grab as many sprint points as possible. This would be a combination of FAL and FTS points depending on how each rider was feeling, and which powerups they were holding.
Attack the Libby Hill Climb for maximum FAL, FTS, and finish points. Especially Thomas and Antoine, who are well-suited for that finish.
Of course, race plans rarely survive the real world. In my case, my plans exploded in one astonishing instant! But it wasn’t all bad… here’s the story of our race.
Race Prep
I did what I could to be fresh and prepared for the race, following my normal routine:
Easy effort the day before
Plenty of sleep the night before
A clean, carby oatmeal breakfast
Beet juice two hours before the race
Caffeine gum – three pieces (300mg), one hour before the race
PR lotion on my legs about 45 minutes before the race. More bicarb=less burning.
Pick my bike setup (S-Works Venge + DT Swiss Disc for maximum sprint speeds) and join the start pens with 30 minutes to go to save my spot in front.
A nice 30-minute warmup with the C. Cadence crew
My legs felt fresh, and I knew the course well. My personal plan was this:
Attack the Monument Ave sprint for FTS points at least once, when I have an aero powerup
Go for Monument Ave sprint FAL points once or twice, especially if I get a second aero powerup or my legs are feeling good
Go for Broad Street FTS (and maybe FAL) points regardless of powerup, since they will be more attainable than the 5x stacked Monument Ave points
Go hard up Libby Hill to maximize my finishing points (not expecting more than a mid-pack finish)
An Easy Start
The race began rather tamely, which is something we’re getting used to in ZRL at this point. (Racers have learned that hard starts don’t do much more than sap the legs, so you might as well go easier and save your legs for the intermediates and finish.)
A couple of riders went long on the first sprint, but we didn’t chase. This wasn’t the time to go long – with the pack as large as it would be, and legs fairly fresh, speeds would be high, making the early sprints the toughest ones to stay away off the front.
I just sat in with my van powerup and went as easily as possible while keeping a good pack position. And I did the same for sprint #2.
Then I got an aero powerup. Go time!
Let’s Go… Or Not.
As we made our around the flat loop, I had my FTS-grabbing plan in place. Start my sprint near the back of the pack, with my aero powerup active before the sprint line, so I hit the start at high speed. Then try to sprint through the group for the quickest segment time possible.
Then just as we passed the Sagan statue, my Windows 11 PC crashed. Blue screen of death. win23k.sys error.
My race was over.
Playing DS
Watching the pack, out of the race
After rebooting my computer and starting up Zwift and Discord, all I could do now was pop back in and watch my teammates finish the race. When I told them all what had happened they were understandably disappointed – losing just one rider from your team of six, even if it’s one of the weaker riders on the team, has a big impact on points!
It’s possible that my PC crash had just lost the race for us. And that was a big bummer.
Regardless, I settled into DS mode, doing my best to help by talking our team through the rest of the race. We had four riders in the front group: Thomas, Antoine, Sean, and Arjen. (Clem had been dropped from the front after three sprints, but was still planning to chase FTS points.) Four riders was good, but with me out, and our sprint success so far being “good” but not “great”, we knew it would take a strong 5-man effort to pull off a points win.
After grabbing a few more team points at the Broad Street sprint, it was time for the Roosters to recover and prepare for the finale up Libby Hill.
Libby Hill Finish
On paper, we had two riders who looked good for the finish atop Libby Hill: Captain Antoine and Thomas. Antoine has solid w/kg for climbing, while Thomas is one of those strong diesel engines who can go off the front and stay away. (This steady power also works well on longish climbs, but to be honest, I had picked Antoine for the strongest finish.)
The peloton hit the start of Libby all together (no early attacks), then Thomas upped the watts and went to the front. He quickly got a small gap (2-3 seconds), and was holding orange numbers (8 w/kg+). Could he keep the power up?
Thomas on the attack!
I was cheering him on in Discord. “Keep pushing, Thomas! You’ve got the gap! Two riders just behind. There’s the finish line, you’re almost there!”
He crossed the line in first, 1.4s ahead of the next rider. His 1-minute power at the end of the race was a flat 8 w/kg… 600 watts! Impressive.
Thanks to solid performances from my five teammates, the DIRT Roosters managed to finish second in the race. Congrats to TBR 48T on taking first:
Of course, I immediately began crunching the numbers in my head, wondering about the “what if”. If I had finished the race, could my additional points have let us take the win?
Based on my points so far this season (16 in race 1, 24 in race 3) it would seem that even me on a good day wouldn’t have been enough to earn the 35 points needed to take first. Which, strangely, makes me a feel a little better about the DNF.
We’re still holding onto first overall in the division, but TBR gained a point on us with this win, keeping it a close competition for the overall division with two races left in the season:
Takeaways
There’s not much to stay from my standpoint, except that a DNF from a PC crash is super disappointing. It bummed me out for most of the day, in fact – I was so desperate that I went outside and did yardwork to get over it. Yardwork!
Moving forward, I plan to reboot my PC before each ZRL race. I can’t say for sure that’ll do anything, but it does seem to make things more stable.
Your Thoughts
How was your Richmond race? Ever lost a race due to a computer crash? Share below!
This week in our Top 5 Zwift Videos, get some team time trial tips from a pair of experienced Zwift racers. Also celebrate with two Zwifters as they climb their way to the Tron bike and watch two more Zwifters analyze their races.
Zwift Racing League Team Time Trial Tips // BACKPEDAL CHAT
On the Backpedal YouTube channel, Scott of KOM Hunt TV and Ed Laverack discuss tips for team time trials. The two streamers also chat a little about what it’s like to race for an audience on a livestream.
UNLOCKING THE TRON BIKE ON ZWIFT… After 7 Years!
On his own channel, KOM Hunt TV celebrates finally unlocking the Zwift Concept Z1 “Tron” bike while riding Alpe du Zwift.
Got my ZWIFT Concept (aka TRON) Bike
In another “Tron” bike celebration video, Andrew Pinlac unlocks the Zwift Concept Z1 bike and gives a few tips for riders who are going after this climbing challenge.
My FIRST EVER Zwift Cat A Race // The hardest race I’ve EVER done??
Racing gets harder when you’re upgraded to a higher category, but you might do better than you expect! Josh Weight (The Vegan Triathlete) gives his first Zwift A race a try.
Zwift Race Analysis – What Went Wrong? // Crit City (B)
ZRace Central has learned a few lessons from analyzing his Zwift races. He shares a few of those lessons in this video while commenting on another Crit City race.
Got a Great Zwift Video?
Share the link below and we may feature it in an upcoming post!
Matt Lieto and Sarah True are joined by Thorsten Radde, founder of the TriRating website, to discuss how data analysis can help predict race winners for some of this year’s biggest Tri races. And of course how to tell if an upset was truly an upset!
About the Podcast
The Zwift PowerUp Tri Podcast is hosted by former pro triathlete Matt Lieto and Zwift Academy Tri mentor Sarah True. Both are passionate about lending their in-depth knowledge of the multisport to the Zwift Tri audience.
The Zwiftcasters consider several aspects of the deal… will it spur the big Zee to greater urgency in its development of new features? What might it mean for the rumoured TrainerRoad deal? Could Wahoo’s undoubted power and expertise pose a serious threat to Zwift’s growth?
And does Zwift have the bandwidth to handle its first serious rival AND the launch of its own hardware? There is certainly plenty for the Zwiftcast Trinity to consider.
Elsewhere Simon talks to a host of Zwift OGs… the Zwifters who were around right at the beginning, helping to build the community, establish racing, and pioneer online coaching using the platform.
Simon does “Where Are They Now?” spots with David Lipscombe, Julynn Washington, James Gill, and Christian Wiedemann. All are still Zwifting and many have strong thoughts on what they’d like Zwift to be doing – and their words are given greater topicality and relevance by the Wahoo deal.
Elsewhere, after the old Mining Town got nuked, then re-instated, Simon asks Shane and Nathan what else in Zwift they’d like to see nuked.
Simon would like to thank each and every single Listener over the years and the scores of episodes, especially for the many private and public messages received after he announced that the Zwiftcast was riding up over the hill and into a slowly setting Spanish sun. Thanks for listening!
Editor’s note: we at Zwift Insider want to thank Simon for his top-notch work in producing the Zwiftcast since November 2015. The consistent quality of each episode set the standard for Zwifty podcasts and helped inform and engage tens of thousands of Zwifters since early days… including us!
We’ll miss you, but we’re happy you’ll have time to pursue other interests, including (we’re sure) finally earning that Tron bike. Ride on!
The Olympic Park, London. The 2012 Olympic spirit still resonates from the stadiums and venues 10 years on from that magical summer.
The excitement I felt during those days returned as I exited the train at Stratford and walked towards the Olympic Park and the Aqua Centre, the site of the Arena Games Triathlon powered by Zwift.
What are the Arena Games?
The Arena Games is an indoor triathlon that was conceived two years ago during the global pandemic. It is a collaborative endeavour between Super League Triathlon and Zwift, and it is a unique concept that is truly special and a genuine test of a triathlete’s abilities. It brings the sport of triathlon to fans in an exciting new format with a real showbiz razzmatazz.
I liked it. The 1700 fans who snapped up all available tickets liked it. And most importantly, the athletes liked it, as Portuguese triathlete Riccardo Batista said, “it’s exciting!”
Event Format
The event takes place solely inside the venue. Athletes must swim four lengths of the indoor pool, totaling 200 meters, before transitioning to their bikes where they race in a non-draft Zwift cycling race for 4km, then transitioning and running for 1km on the treadmill, again hosted via Zwift.
It is a whole day event where athletes compete in the morning in a qualifying heat, with the top four from each heat going through to the final, along with the two fastest losers.
The qualifying heat sees the athletes undertake the swim-bike-run format twice. The second race is a pursuit, with the athlete with the fastest time from the first race starting first and each athlete following based on their time gap, as per their finishing results from Stage 1.
Each swim-bike-run iteration lasts roughly 12 minutes, but this is 12 minutes at max effort, and there are just several minutes of recovery between stages.
The final involves three stages. The first is swim-bike-run, which is followed by run-bike-swim. Stage 3 is a pursuit race, with time gaps determined from the previous two stages’ cumulative times. The key is to be consistent. This means that athletes who make the finals will complete five iterations, which is a considerable undertaking and a genuine test of not only speed endurance, but also your ability to recover.
This is a level of repeated intensity in live sport I have not witnessed before.
The Venue
For an event of this magnitude, London’s Aquatic Centre (as spectacular today as it was 10 years ago) provided the perfect setting and gave a new generation of athletes the opportunity to compete at this prestigious venue.
The Tech and Setup
The technical setup was simple. Super League had partnered with Garmin who supplied the Tacx Neo trainers which athletes attached their own bikes to.
Zwift supplied the platform to compete and provided the technical support to ensure the event ran as required, including the use of iPads, replicating the setup many of us have at home.
Curved running machines that operate on momentum were used with Runn Smart Treadmill Sensors from North Pole Engineering.
All equipment was arranged next to the swimming pool so once athletes left the pool there was a short run to where the bikes were situated, then a similar transition to the treadmills.
Due to the ambient temperature of the water, conditions could be described as hot and humid. The temperatures topped out at 25C, increasing the difficulty and making it necessary to have large fans strategically positioned in front of the athlete to help with cooling.
The Athletes
The field was packed with triathlon stars from around the world.
From Great Britain, double Olympic medallist Alex Yee was well-supported by the home crowd. He won silver in the Men’s triathlon and was a member of Great Britain’s gold medal mixed triathlon team at the Tokyo Summer Olympics. He is Super League’s reigning Championship Series winner.
Jess Learmonth, another member of Great Britain’s gold medal mixed triathlon team, was in attendance. Jess won the first-ever Arena Games title in Rotterdam in 2020. Also from Great Britain was Beth Potter, an athlete everyone was fearing, especially with her running abilities, having run a world record time of 14:41 on the road for 5km.
Germany’s 2020 Arena Games Champion Justus Nieschlag was back from injury and had finished third in the Munich Area Games several weeks earlier.
From Italy, Nicolò Strada, 2018 Italian Junior National Champion.
From France, Cassandre Beaugrand, another superstar having picked up a bronze medal in the Mixed Relay at the Tokyo Olympics.
In summary, the calibre of the participants indicated that this event is hugely popular amongst the athletes.
First Impressions
Upon entering the Arena, it was overwhelming to see the attention to detail that had been paid to ensure that the event had that level of polish that is usually only reserved for mainstream sports like football, with sponsorship branding strategically placed. It was hard not to spot the famous orange Zwift blimp; Zwift are experts at marketing.
Huge screens seamlessly formed part of the backdrop to the event, so once the racing started, you found yourself switching between watching the athletes as they pushed themselves to their limits on the bike, to seeing how their efforts and their matching-coloured avatars, translated into the world of Zwift.
As the qualifying heats started, insightful commentary was piped over the PA system to keep the casual watcher informed and a background of motivating tunes ensured all senses were engaged. This really was an energetic and exciting experience to be part of, and I felt privileged to have a front-row seat to this showbiz style sporting event that was being hosted by Markus Floth from MTV Austria and Olympic 2016 bronze medalist Vicky Holland.
Even the Referees or “Technical Assistants” as they were called had the showbiz appearance and were hard to miss, decked in striped shirts like they had been plucked straight from the NFL.
The Races
The races were very fast and explosive, and you found yourself getting emotionally involved. It was hard not to get caught up in this high-energy event, and fortunately the onscreen graphics and Vicky Holland’s insightful commentary were able to translate what was going on.
The noise, heat, excitement of the crowd and full-on commitment of the athletes created an atmosphere I had never experienced. This was something different. This was exhilarating to watch and be part of. I enjoyed it.
The heats were competitive, where athletes had to tread the line between going too hard but trying to qualify with enough fuel in the tank for the final later in the day.
The Women’s race final was dominated by France’s Cassandre Beaugrand who led from the second stage and was untouchable in the pursuit.
Similarly, in the Men’s race, Justus Nieschlag dominated the second stage and was too strong in the pursuit, winning by some margin.
What’s Next?
As soon as the medals were handed out, the grand backdrop that I had spent the day enjoying was dismantled at speed as all the equipment needed to recreate the magic was shipping to Singapore for the Grand Finale on 6th-7th May, where the format will expand to include 40 athletes (double the number in Munich and London).
I for one will be tuning in to watch the event live. I can assure you it’s an entertaining watch; my only regret is that I won’t be there in person to do so.
Longer-term Vision
Is this the future? Is this the dawn of a new era in triathlon? I would certainly like to hope so, and all evidence appears to indicate this. World Triathlon is partnering with Super League Triathlon on the 2022 Arena Games Triathlon World Championship Series powered by Zwift and together, they are going to crown the first Esports World Champions in Triathlon.
Michael D’hulst, Super League Triathlon CEO and Co-Founder of the Arena Games, aims for this to be considered for inclusion in the Olympics as early as 2028. Ambitious, yes. Possible, yes. Especially with Eric Min and Zwift sharing a similar vision for indoor cycling.
Given the complexities of the undertaking, there were minor technical issues, which is a credit to those involved.
Having never taken part in a triathlon, always being put off by the swim legs which usually involved a cold lake, I certainly believe that if this concept could be scaled for participation at a local level, many people would participate and I would be one of the first to sign up. The next challenge is making this scalable to the masses, but the adoption of smart trainers and other Zwifty tech over the last few years as a consequence of the global pandemic leads me to think this is possible. I’m just delighted that I have been able to watch the start of this new spectacle from the front row.
In this Kiwi Crew Ride special episode, Greg Henderson takes the listener through what it’s like to take part in the group ride which turns into a 10-minute, all-out, sprint race.
In the newest iteration of the Kiwi Crew Ride, a podcast with a Kiwi guest automatically plays when the ride starts (for this episode, the special guest is Anna Russell). Then as the ride transitions into the sprint, Greg Henderson sticks around to DS riders while heart-pumping techno music blasts.
About the Podcast
The Zwift PowerUp Cycling Podcast features training tips from host Matt Rowe (Rowe & King), with regular co-hosts Greg Henderson, Rahsaan Bahati, Dani Rowe, and Kristin Armstrong.
A mixed bag of events to try, from races to group rides. There is something for all in this weekend’s picks!
Wahoo Le Col Racing Series Season 3
The Wahoo Le Col Racing Series is a popular event, used by people to hone their racing skills in preparation for the Zwift Racing League .These are highly competitive events each week, so if you fancy a race, you might want to consider this! This week’s event sees you tackle Watopia’s Figure 8 course and is a nice 30.2km in length.
Fancy a long ride? If the answer is “Yes” then this ride is for you, the 128.8km “The Über Pretzel”.
This course is daunting, with a finish up the Alpe du Zwift. But with a good few people already signed up, it will make for a nice group ride. There is even a “Women’s Only” category for those that prefer.
There was a time when I would religiously race this event, and it was always fun as people battled it out up the mountain for either the victory or new personal record. One thing you could guarantee, it would be a struggle!
Yes, I promoted this event last week… but I am keen support Zwift in their goal of developing women’s cycling. Zwift are encouraging people to watch the Women’s World Tour races live or recorded whilst you ride. This weekend’s event is the CERATIZIT Festival Elsy Jacobs.
This week’s podcast ride is 50 minutes in duration and hosted on the R.G.V course in France.
