Matt Lieto and Sarah True sit down with Chelsea Sodaro to discuss how pregnancy and motherhood have changed the way she trains. They also chat about her new home in Reno!
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.
Here we are again – days 8 through 14 of racing every day for 30 days. (If you missed the last article you can check it out here.) Last week Zwift Insider’s editor Eric asked that I get some better pictures for this week’s post. So this week I learned that F10 screenshots in Zwift. Who knew?. I did my best.
I would like to note that screenshotting like Eric does while racing is a lot harder than it looks. Apparently writing good articles require “forethought” and “planning”. Agree to disagree.
Editor’s note: just for you, Rick…here’s a post on How to Snap and Share Killer Zwift Photos
Thanks to everyone who has commented on Strava, the last article, and in-game. I cannot tell you how nice it is when someone says hi before or during a race.
You can follow my progress on Strava here. I will link to the races in the title of the day.
This was basically the worst idea of my whole life.
I’m on team DRAFT and they were pulling together a team for the World Bicycle Relief TTT, Frappe Division. Well, we ended up with too many A’s so we were Expresso.
Friends… let me tell you, my main Zwift skill is drafting. My worst Zwift skill, and the thing I like least, are iTT efforts. But when you race a TTT with a bunch of A’s, and you have to ride at 4.2 w/kg to sit in, I’m just not the guy for the job. In my infinite hubris I even told the team before the race I would help fill gaps in our line. I’m so dumb.
At two minutes, yes TWO, I sputtered, “Guys – I’m not gonna be able to fill gaps, I’m just gonna try to sit in.”
I got dropped after 7 minutes.
I didn’t want to do another race so I rode the rest as hard as I could. So a 60-minute iTT after being completely blown out in the first 7. Ack. According to my Whoop Strap this was the hardest race I have done so far.
Finishing Place: I’m not sure and I don’t care and I definitely wasn’t crying 6 minutes into the race and please don’t watch the race video.
Felt horrible today, and I only joined this in hopes that my 1000th place finish would still get ranking points. The front pack was at least 150 people, but I couldn’t really tell. Eric did a good write-up on how this race goes (I was in a different race but it sure felt like the same one).
Honestly this was really boring. I just sat in the pack and then sprinted. The only thing of note was that I had NO sprint at the end. My legs just wouldn’t turn over after yesterday. I could only manage 5.4 w/kg for the sprint, and honestly, it felt like if I downshifted I would have just stopped pedaling.
I had two takeaways from today:
Finishing Place: 72nd out of 263
I just wanted something flat, so two laps of Greater London Flat was the order of the day. I actually couldn’t remember if I had ever raced this course, and a few teammates joined me for this one which always makes a race better.
There was one small part with a hill but that was no problem (author’s note: this is a lie) and I made it up with the top pack without much worry (author’s note: there was significant worry).
I had an aero helmet the whole race, but I didn’t think I was gonna have much of a sprint after yesterday, so I wasn’t sure what to do. In theory I would want to attack long, but it is just so hard to do and I never feel like I have enough to really make it work. We did a small attack as a team on lap two which was fun, but it got pulled back pretty quickly.
Got to the end of the lead pack and just got hammered in the sprint. It was better than yesterday, but not where I needed it.
Finishing Place: 10th out of 27
This race was on the Sleepless City course, which I hadn’t done before so thought it would be fun. It was also really short, and I needed a bit of a down day after a couple days of hard racing where I felt pretty blown out.
Enjoyed the course and had a very good sprint, one of my best 15 seconds ever (9.5 w/kg) and best of 2021. Legs felt good! Timing was a bit off, but it seems to be getting better.
Finishing Place: 10th out of 26
Loyal Reader,
I had prepared a song for you on this, the 12th day of racing (to the tune of The 12 Days of Christmas). It took me about 3 hours, it was rhyming and it started with a number on each line. I was very proud of it.
So I showed it to my wife. While she was reading it I was on my phone trying to decide if I should wear a suit or a tux to the GRAMMYs next year, and who I should thank in my speech.
You know that thing that your spouse sometimes does when they look at something, and you are expecting them to be excited but there is no expression on their face? She did that. Here is our conversation:
Wife: Oh…is this what you are planning to send to Eric?
Me: Yeah! I’m so excited.
Wife: …
Me: What?
Wife: Well, I mean, I can tell you put a lot of work into this
Me (incredulous): THAT’S WHAT YOU SAY WHEN SOMETHING IS TERRIBLE
Wife: …
You would think that when you are married for almost 11 years that you wouldn’t get embarrassed around someone.
I deleted it, but here are two of the most excellent rhymes:
So anyway, this was another mixed cat race (sigh). There were only three A’s, but that’s three too many. My teammate Chris Carvahlo was one of them, and he decided that the leg snapper at 9 w/kg would be super fun. Ended up dropped lap one, which came back together, and lap two I got dropped for good.
I rode with two other guys for the rest of the race, one of whom yelled at us to do some work. Me and the other guy continued to do no work and then dropped him on the third and final snapper. Probably a low class move, but to quote Ricky Bobby’s Dad, “You’re either first or you’re last.”
The other guy and I then played chicken like a Match Sprint with about 1k to go. My 9-year old son had come into the room, and I said to him, “Watch this Buddy, at the corner I am gonna make a move and drop him.” The guy immediately started sprinting and I was left in the dust.
My son hasn’t looked me in the eye since.
Finishing Place: 5th out of 12
One lap of Wandering Flats, so I was going to get a route badge and hopefully lower (raise?) my ZwiftPower ranking with a quality mid-day European field. I also wanted a pretty flat course, and this fit the bill – lots of flat, one challenging hill, and then a glorious downhill finish. I feel like the WTRL races are always on good courses, with large fields.
This was a pretty good race for me. I wasn’t sure how I would react after the hard effort yesterday, but this was better than I expected. The flat part was pretty tame. Felt strong-ish up the hill and ended up with a little group at the top. My sprint wasn’t great, but that was to be expected after the effort yesterday. I like these 80-100 person fields, as you are always with someone and there are some fun tactics bridging to groups.
Finishing Place: 33rd out of 77
I’m not gonna bury the lede – this was the highest-ranking race finish I have ever had and probably my best overall race. I was jacked at the finish!
Was a good group of B’s working together and we caught the C’s with about 4 km to go. From there I was working the group trying to get position. Ended up in a really nice spot close to the front. I caught some wheels and got a nice “double sprint” where I ramped up, caught a good wheel and relaxed for a second, then launched again as others started coming up. It was as good a position as I have ever had in a sprint.
Finishing Place: 6th out of 47
What a great week. I absolutely love racing every day. It is giving me focus and even though I am tired every day there is a reason to get on the bike – the question of “Should I ride?” is gone.
The biggest change has been my ability to better position myself at the end of races. If you only race a couple of times a week it is hard to remember what you messed up, but with this you just try to fix what you did wrong the day before. I think this is important for those of us without huge power sprints. 14 w/kg can make up for a lot of sins, but those of us in the middle need to use position to make up for it.
Thanks for reading and see you next week!
Share your thoughts below!
Matt Rowe, Greg Henderson, and Kristin Armstrong take a look at the full week of challenges set out for the Zwift Academy finalists to show you why the teams chose these workouts and what you can take away for yourself.
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.
From the editor:
This week Bryn Griffith, director of the Wahoo Le Col eSports team, reached out to me with some big news. One of their riders, Hywel Davies, finished his one-thousandth Zwift race this week (he finished third in the A’s). And he’s only been on Zwift since January 2019!
Hywel is currently ranked #20 in the world of Zwift racing. He’s an indoor rowing world record holder, sub 9-hour Ironman, and an early adopter of indoor training. Definitely a racer worthy of an interview… I hope you enjoy.
~Eric
How long have you been on Zwift?
Since Jan 2019, but was a long resistor to Zwift having had many years with an Imagic, indoor rower and a Wattbike, just didn’t think I needed it in my life.
Do you remember your first race?
Yes, on the Jungle Circuit in the Tour of Watopia. I was proper crap and Adam Zimmerman won. Now a good rival and team mate but I came no where. Not a clue.
How many teams have you raced for?
Only 2: BRT and WLC.
Whats the best tactic you could give to someone starting out on Zwift?
Try to be the most efficient rider in the room.
What do you enjoy most about the Zwift platform?
The switch that turns on that allows you to go to that dark place, where you get into the hurtbox, close the lid and an elephant sits on the top. You get that with indoor rowing racing, but it is always there on Zwift.
Is being on ZwiftPower important for the average Zwifter?
Vital. It’s a way of checking validity. Unfortunately, compared to racing on a standardised Concept 2, there are many on zwift without any knowledge of what power is, whether a wheel on turbo is accurate or not. The ZwiftPower community kind of self polices races.
Where do you see top end Zwift racing in 5 years time?
A standardised piece of equipment and a way of integrating streaming. The courses should expand but there will be no change in categorisation or a way of sorting the TTT start out.
I doubt I will be there, age has caught up with my running and non weight bearing sports won’t be far behind.
Who’s the hardest competitor you have raced against over the years?
Lennert Teugels. You watch him like a hawk, try to follow a break, sit on his wheel and he still rides away from you. Insane power and endurance.
How quickly did it take you to get to level 50?
Can’t remember getting to 50. I did a lot of the double XP races, did the challenges on the Volcano to get there, but the Tour of Watopia Figure 8 when they offered 250 xp for every banner was done about 20 times.
What’s your top 5 races that you have raced on Zwift and why?
Every Premier League race. Racing is fair and fast and it’s great if you can get points. I loved the Innsbruck KOM After Party and Surrey Hills as they are just attritional and you hang on as long as you can.
SZR Wednesday series. This is where I learned to sprint with the prime races, especially 15 primes on Crit City. The whole series set up by Martin is great. Small enough for tactics to work and always good fields.
BZR series: They encourage dual recording with time penalties and always tough courses with lots of Belgian riders to test and push you.
Specific races are hard to remember but good to look back on when you stream. My favourites are when I attack 1k out and hold on, but often get caught before the line. I can’t say I really enjoy the big Oh Crit races as they always come down to a massive bunch sprint, but when you can get a race with 5 or 6 riders, tactics come into play.
My worst races have been on anything with the Epic KOM descent or NYC KOM descent as more often than not, I’ll push to win the climb but then get dropped on the descent.
Ride on, Hywel. We hope your next 1000 races are as fun and successful as the first!
It all started with a simple tweet from SRAM:
RED eTap AXS drivetrains look good in person, but how about in a virtual world? @GoZwift now offers select frames featuring the groupset you know and love. Who’s on their way to upgrade their avatar’s ride? 🙋♀️ #eTapAXS pic.twitter.com/pQfJtf85VB
— SRAM Road (@SRAMroad) December 17, 2021
SRAM RED eTap AXS in Zwift, you say? This was the first I’d heard of it. Cool – a shiny new groupset in Zwift!
But then I remembered what happened the last time a new groupset was introduced to Zwift. That would be Shimano’s Dura-Ace 9200, which showed up in game in September’s update, slowing every frame that had it installed.
(Putting the new Dura-Ace on Zwift framesets, it seemed, added a bit of extra weight to your setup, which slowed frames by 1.5 seconds over our ~50 minute flat test, and 19 seconds on our Alpe du Zwift climb test.)
Would the new SRAM RED eTap AXS have the same problem?
I scrolled through all the frames on Zwift, and only the Cervelo S5 2020 was using the new groupset. I sure hope they didn’t nerf the Cervelo… that’s a favorite of so many racers...
So out to Tempus Fugit and up the Alpe went the Cervelo S5 2020 frame with its shiny new groupset. And the numbers came back. The Cervelo S5 2020 had indeed been slowed – by 2.5 seconds on our flat test, and 21 seconds up the Alpe. Ouch!
You read it right, racers. The fastest frame has fallen.
I reached out to Zwift, and they said the groupset was upgraded at the specific request of Cervelo.
Do you suppose Cervelo realized that the “upgrade’s” unintended consequence would be hundreds (thousands?) of racers placing the S5 2020 back in their virtual garages? Doubtful.
One of the many fun ideas rattling around in the heads of Zwift’s game developers is this: give Zwifters the ability to customize more of their bikes in-game. Right now all you can do is choose your frame (and sometimes its color) and wheels. But what if you could change your tires, groupset, pedals(!), brakes, seat, handlebars, even your bar tape?
Some of it would just be cosmetic, while other parts might actually affect your speed, like the oversized CeramicSpeed pulley wheel featured in a mission some time ago.
With that in mind, Zwift has (I’ve been told) coded the game so your bike’s total weight and CdA is based on the sum of its parts. We can’t customize those parts yet, but if the customizer is ever built, the physics are in place.
Without a customizer in the game, frames come with their associated parts already attached. So each frame has a groupset associated with it. Here are the groupsets currently in game:
All this is good news. Further bike customization is a fun idea that many Zwifters would enjoy. Zwift hasn’t built it out completely yet, but some essential parts are there, with the rest to be built sometime zoon.
Until Dura-Ace 9200 arrived in September, all the frames that had been released on Zwift had kept their original release groupsets (as far as I know). That is: groupsets were never upgraded.
But when Dura-Ace 9200 came out, Zwift put that new groupset on a few frames which had previously been released with different groupsets. We had tested them with the old groupsets. Then we tested them with the new. And this revealed a bug or misconfiguration on Zwift’s side, because the “upgraded” frames were now slower. Heavier.
What’s actually going on here? Clearly Zwift didn’t set up Shimano and SRAM’s newest flagship groupsets to be heavier than the old ones. The only logical explanation is that, for some frames in game, some portion of the groupset weight isn’t being taken into account.
So it’s not that Dura-Ace 9200 (and now, SRAM Red eTap AXS) are overweight in Zwift. It’s that some older groupsets are underweight, or their weights aren’t being calculated correctly.
If I’m right about the bug above, a fix would involve, at a minimum:
Once Zwift made this change, all hell would break loose here at the Zwift Insider lab. Because we would need to re-test each and every frame to determine its performance, since we wouldn’t know if that frame’s old data was valid anymore.
It’s quite possible that we’ll see a major shakeup in frame rankings once this is fixed, because there could be many frames out there currently using “weightless” groupsets. Only time (and fixes)(and testing) will tell. Until then, all we can do as racers is ride whatever performs best in game, based on tests.
After the Dura-Ace bug was revealed back in September, I had hoped Zwift would fix things quickly. But here we are three months later, with the much-loved Cervelo S5 2020 being nerfed thanks to a groupset upgrade.
So today I updated the Frame Performance Charts and Tron vs Top Performers chart. I’ll be updating other pages/lists on the site soon, but for now I would recommend using those two pages if you’re looking for current frame performance data.
Post below!
We’ve just received word that the Pace Partner schedule has been specially modified to help Zwifters rack up the kilometers with friends during the Rapha Festive 500. That’s right: ZwiftHQ has given us an early Christmas present, placing two popular Pace Partners on nicely flat routes!
Through January 1, 2022 at 4pm PST, Pace Partners will be on the following routes:
*Please note that Makuri Islands is only available on 12/24 and 12/28-12/31. See guest world schedule.
This change was partially put into place to support the WBR500 event on December 30th. Be sure to read all about this huge fundraiser, and participate in any way you can!
Riding with Pace Partners will help you accumulate lots of Drops and Ride Ons, as well as distance toward you Festive 500 goal. But if you want this year’s Festive 500 in-game kit, you’ll need to join an official event! Learn more >
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The latest episode of WoZ is out, covering all things great and beautiful in our favorite virtual world.
In this episode, host OJ Borg brings us:
The Christmas weekend is dominated by events linked to the Rapha 500, so we went with the “long ride” theme (although we couldn’t resist throwing in one extra event for a good cause).
You can finish the Rapha Festive 500 in a series of rides, do it all in one go, or do it all via a series of races! See some options below.
The Rapha Festive 500 ride series is proving popular this weekend, with thousands of riders already signed up.
Each ride is led by a Rapha Ambassador, typically a current or former pro rider. Rides are 60 minutes long and finishing one ride will unlock this year’s Festive 500 kit. But it won’t complete the Strava challenge! To do that, you must log at least 500km of riding on Strava between Dec 24-31 (read more).
Multiple events and start times
See zwift.com/events/tag/f500 for upcoming events
This is one long ride: 500km to be exact! It is expected to take 15 hours and is hosted on the Watopia Waistband route. As the event description says, “We are taking on the Festive 500 in one single ride (you can join and do as much as you want) at a pace of 2-2.5 w/kg…”
Saturday, December 25 @ 7am GMT/2am EST/11pm PST Friday
Sign up at zwift.com/events/view/2538075
Here’s a twist: what about completing the Rapha Festive 500 challenge by competing in a series of daily races?
The RuhrRiders team has organized just such an event, friendly to European timezones. The series begins on Sunday, December 26th, with daily events until December 30th which total up to over 500km.
Daily, beginning Sunday, December 26 @ 8:30am GMT
See all upcoming events on ZwiftHacks
BMTR’s Saturday Fundos have grown increasingly popular as riders embrace the format: 4 different distances to choose from (40-160km this week), but everyone rides the same route and starts together, so the group begins very large and dwindles as times goes on.
Double drafting is enabled, which is great since this week’s ride is on the very flat Douce France route.
These aren’t official races, but many riders treat them as such. Ride your pace!
Saturday, December 25 @ 1:10pm GMT/8:10am EST/5:10am PST
Sign up at zwift.com/events/view/2548812
A great cause to cycle for. This longer event is hosted on Watopia’s “The Pretzel” route – the original Zwift pretzel.
As the description notes, “In this group ride, we are cycling for everyone that needs it the most. By participating you are helping us spread the word that children and cancer don’t belong together.” #imoveforcancer
Sunday, December 26 @ 6:55am GMT
Sign up at zwift.com/events/view/2549563
Got other events that stand out this weekend? Share below in the comments!
On Thursday, December 30th, riders from around the world will be converging on Watopia for the second annual WBR500: a 500km ride in support of World Bicycle Relief.
Last year’s event raised over $110,000, providing 762 Buffalo bikes to those in need. This year’s goal is to raise $165,000 – enough to purchase 1000 Buffalo bikes!
Some Zwifters will attempt the full 500km. Others will be on relay teams working together to cover the full distance. And others will simply be joining for a portion of the ride to lend a draft in support of those going the distance.
WBR’s mission of providing bicycles that change lives is a worthy cause in itself. This event may also appeal to those looking to top off their Festive 500 miles, or perhaps do the whole challenge in one epic go. Read on for details!
There is no official WBR500 event on the Zwift calendar – rather, several different “ride leaders” will be starting their 500km efforts at different times (all on Tempus Fugit), and Zwifters can join any leader or the C. Cadence Pace Partner (who will also be on Tempus Fugit) whenever they’d like.
All leaders will be riding Watopia’s Tempus Fugit route, the flattest route in game, to keep the pace steady and help riders stay grouped.
To join a ride leader, simply follow them via Zwift Companion, then start Zwift and find their name so you can click to “Ride with”. Here are the leaders’ Zwift names and their start times:
This is a worldwide event based on riders’ local time, so riders will already be on course by the time December 30th begins in the USA.
Riders from team L39ION will be joining at 9am PST, including Justin Williams who will be on for at least an hour. Surprise guests from previous Tours de France are also expected. It’s going to be a party!
If you’re participating in the WBR500 in any way, organizers are asking that you add “WBR500” or “1000Bikes” to your in-game name, so participants can be easily seen, and so word of the event can be spread within Zwift.
Additionally, use social media tags #WBR500 and #1000Bikes.
Long rides on Zwift are much more fun with voice chat! A Discord server has been set up for the WBR500 event – join at discord.gg/7qftywkfGP.
This server is set to work like Lance Armstrong’s WEDU Wednesday ride, where people can listen to the host talk with special guest riders, and listeners can share their questions and get involved in Q&A.
The Buffalo Bike is available in game for level 40+ Zwifters. Why not ride this beautiful beast during your WBR500 effort? It’s a bit heavy and less aero than other frames (around 30 seconds per hour slower on flat ground at 4 w/kg).
But that won’t matter much when you’re drafting in a huge group at a social pace.
The WBR500 team has set a goal of raising $165,000 in this event – enough to purchase 1000 Buffalo bikes ($165). You can donate directly to the WBR500 fundraiser via WBR’s site.
If you do some fundraising yourself (get started here), there are prizes for hitting certain fundraising goals. Earn a custom Rapha IRL jersey for hitting $2500 and the full jersey + bibs at $5000!
In addition, sponsors Trek, SRAM, and Saris have donated items to be auctioned off, with proceeds going toward the fundraiser:
Access the auction at https://tinyurl.com/wbr500auction
Everyone who finishes a full 500km ride within 24 hours on December 30th and posts it to Strava will get a special event t-shirt.
Enter promo code “GOWBR” in game to unlock the WBR kit.
There are many sponsors involved in this event, some of whom are providing chunks of sponsorship money which will be used as matching funds to double the fundraising efforts of riders.
Sponsors include Saris, Airstream Northwest, Accent Hotels, EndurElite, Trek, and more.
EndurElite has set up a custom WBR500 nutrition plan which you can read about here. Use discount code WBR500 for 20%, and a portion of all proceeds will go to support the WBR500.
Dave Garguilo will be livestreaming the entire event on Twitch – you can access it at https://www.twitch.tv/davegarge, where you will also be able to hear the Discord “Radio Show”.
For more info on the event, join the WBR 500km Strava Club, check out the event on Team3R’s Facebook page, and visit the WBR Fundraising page.
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Zwift’s monthly fondos have become a popular annual tradition, and they’ve just announced this season’s series which kicks off next weekend… on three new Watopian fondo routes!
Join thousands of Zwifters working together to put in big efforts. Along the way you’ll unlock an exclusive jersey and build your fitness in ways only long rides can. Allez allez!
The first series kicks off at midnight December 31st GMT, which is 7pm EST/4pm PST December 30th.
Events repeat every 5 hours until January 2nd at 10pm GMT/5pm EST/2pm PST. There are a total of 15 events currently scheduled.
This is a 3-month series, and each month’s fondo has its own unique kit unlock. These kits are exclusive, meaning they will never be available anywhere else in game. A true badge of honor! Here’s a shot of all three kits:
Zwift Fondo events have three categories (A, B, and C) which are open to all riders. These categories don’t refer to rider strength or speed – they determine which route you will ride.
And this year Zwift has created a fresh set of fondo routes! Here they are (click for route details):
Officially, no. But hundreds (possibly thousands) of riders will turn out for each of these popular “fun race” events, and the front of each category will certainly be filled with strong riders going all out.
As Zwift says, in the end “This is not a race, but some will choose to ride it like one. Do what’s comfortable, and go at your own pace.”
These events have double draft mode enabled, so be sure to work with others when possible, since this conserves energy.
Here are the dates for February and March Zwift Fondos:
Want to take on a Zwift Fondo, but you’ve never done such a long ride? Check out the Fondo Training Plan in Zwift. It’s 3-4 weeks long, 3 hours/week of work, and will get you prepped to take on your first fondo:
Post below!
