In our Top 5 Zwift Videos this week, we have a feast of Rapha Festive 500 logs! For the first time, virtual rides counted in this challenge to ride 500 kilometers in the 8 days between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. Videos also include a beginner’s analysis of one of his first races and a breakdown of a Zwift race finish.
RAPHA FESTIVE 500 I Riding 500 km on Zwift in 6 days
Starting a bit late, Dan Nelson set out to ride all 500 kilometers of the Rapha Festive 500 in 6 days instead of 8. Dan is training for the Dragon Ride Gran Fondo to raise money for MacMillan Cancer Support and documenting it on his YouTube channel, “Dan vs the Dragon.” He had a plan, but how well did he stick to it?
Riding the Rapha Festive 500 Completely Indoors on Zwift
Tim Fitzwater didn’t expect to do all 500 kilometers indoors, but weather and other circumstances kept him on the trainer instead of on a bike outside. See how he divided up his Rapha Festive 500 rides in this vlog.
Ralpha Festive 500 / How I Cycled 500km in 7 Days on Zwift! // Strava Challenge
This all-indoor Rapha Festive 500 includes some workouts from Zwift’s Build Me Up training plan. On his YouTube channel “Don’t Get Dropped Cycling,” Erik Lee shares how each day went and how those workouts affected his riding.
My 2nd Zwift Race Ever! – ZHQ FutureWorks Crit City Cat C
Patrick Lino tries out his second Zwift race ever and walks us through what he’s learning. He’s asking for help, so more experienced Zwift racers can give him some pointers and encouragement!
Breaking Down A Zwift Race Finale. Let’s Learn From My Mistakes!
Two of the most important parts of Zwift race finishes are timing and positioning. Jonathan Crain breaks down the finale of one of his races to show the difference they can make.
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“Peak Zwift” is one of many metrics used to track how active and large the Zwift community is, and traditionally it happens each year around mid-January. Usually on a Tuesday, around 11am Pacific time.
But 2020 threw us all a curve, and we set a new peak on April 5th of 34,940. That record has stood for almost 9 months, but was finally toppled today thanks to the first Tour de Zwift event!
The kickoff stage 1 event (9am Pacific time) had over 15,000 riders signed up, and at 9:36 Pacific one astute Zwifter (Sandra Thibault) snapped a Companion app screenshot showing the highest number we’ve seen since April: 37,569!
This is also the first time we’ve hit a new Peak Zwift on a Monday, as far as we can recall.
Zwift hasn’t confirmed peak numbers yet for today, so we don’t know the precise number. It’s quite possible we hit an even higher point today, and our money says it will go even higher in the coming weeks.
What will 2021’s Peak Zwift number be, and when will it happen? Comment below with your guess!
Riding in a bunch on Zwift – as in real life – is faster than riding by yourself. This is because you’re getting a benefit from the draft. When you’re tucked into the slipstreams of riders ahead, you aren’t fighting as much air resistance and you can roll along at a higher speed for the same effort.
But how much of a difference does it make? Shane Miller decided to find out. He completed one lap of Watopia’s flat Tempus Fugit route with a group surrounding a Pace Partner. Then he rode another lap alone at the same average power, disconnecting from the Internet so that no other riders would appear on the course. Finally, he tried a lap on a Zwift time trial bike.
Zwift Cycling Speed: How Much Faster are Bunch Rides?
As expected, the lap with the group was the fastest, followed by the TT bike lap, and then the solo lap with a road bike. The bunch ride was 5.6 kph (about 3.5 mph) faster on the pan-flat route than a solo lap on the same road bike. And while the time trial bike helped, it still didn’t get close to the speed of the group.
To see how Shane did the test and a breakdown of the times and speeds, take a look at the video.
The lesson here? Close that gap! If you want to cover as much distance as possible as quickly as possible, find and stay with a group.
Since March I have become obsessed with the weekly WTRL Team Time Trial… so I asked Eric if I could share my obsession with you all, in weekly doses.
Each week I will give you a profile of the upcoming route, guidance on bike choice, and some target times if you want to aim for the Premiere League (top-10 in each coffee class get to be in a special race televised on YouTube).
If you can’t ride (or even if you can ride, but want more action) tune in to the live TV show on Zwift Community Live’s YouTube Channel at 6:15 (UK time)
One Lap of Casse-Pattes
Off to belles-France this week. The route is a single short lap of Casse-Pattes. At 23km with a 900M lead-in I believe it might be the shortest TTT we have done for a long time. This is one of those “flat except where it isn’t” courses. Casse-Pattes takes a clockwise loop around France, up and over the aqueduct then at the t-junction takes a left turn up and over the Petit-KOM before a downhill finish into town.
Despite the decent-sized KOM, for the most part this is a flat route. Eric and I chatted about this – and both of us agree in the Venge/Super 9 vs Tron battle, Tron probably wins… with luck he will get a chance to run some performance tests, in which case I will update this. In the meantime my decision will be Tron – because my hill game isn’t where it needs to be so I don’t want to get dropped by the team at the end of the ride.
That gives some insight into how you might want to think of this ride – do you want to accentuate your positives or combat your weaknesses? Are you strong on the flat or on the hills? Choose your bike and wheels accordingly.
Here are some recommendations on equipment at various levels:
Level 45 get those 858/Super 9 wheels and pair them with the S-Works Venge
I know I say it every week but it is doubly important this week. Get the Tron!
Route Recon Rides
This is quite a popular route for group rides and races so you shouldn’t have any trouble finding a recce. Check out the event listing on zwifthacks.com to see for yourself. Of course, you can always set up a Meetup using the Companion App to have a private ride around the course.
Race Recon
I break this ride into two parts… the flat before the Petit KOM, and the Petit KOM.
Before the KOM things are pretty much flat. You will build up great speed as you roll through the marina and flatlands. There are a few false flats up and down as you progress here, but essentially nothing of note except the view until 12.9km when you start the bump up and over the aqueduct. As always – by the time you get to the KOM marker for the aqueduct you are basically at the top. This is a 900 meter “climb” rising 21 meters progressively. Descend and then it’s flat until you hit the Petit KOM at 17.6km.
The Petit KOM is a lovely 2.7km climb at 4% in a series of switchbacks. Once you descend there is only a small sprint to the end.
Wrap up
The make or break here is the flat before the Petit KOM. How well can you get into formation and drive the team hard? Then once you get to the KOM it’s just about surviving at speed up the hill with your fastest 4.
Fresh from a mid Festive 500 rest day, I was looking for a hard effort in the middle of a 50-60 kilometer day. And I found just the right event: KISS Race Series Pacific AM, on Watopia’s new Two Bridges Loop route.
At 43km (6 laps) the race was decently long, and I was excited about racing a new route that I knew would be a bit challenging.
The Warmup
The race was set to kick off at 6am, so I woke up at 5am to get ready. Prep began with two pieces of caffeine gum (I’m not a coffee guy) and some PR lotion on the legs, then it was time to kit up and warm up.
While warming up I checked out Zwift Insider’s page on the Two Bridges Loop, rehearsing the route in my head to figure out where the “pinch points” might be. While the Esses and Italian Villas had a few ramps and rollers to deal with, I figured they could be handled with attentive riding. The portion that worried me, though, was the start of the Hilly Reverse KOM, which would be an all-out effort until we turned onto the slight descent of the new bypass road.
Next, I pulled up the event on ZwiftPower to look at the competition. It was a strong list, with over 120 signed up in Zwift including a few A riders (what were they doing?) and several B’s ranked significantly higher than myself. I steeled myself for a hard effort.
After spinning the legs up and making a few hard efforts to get my heart rate up over 160, I was ready to head to the pens with 5 minutes to go. Let’s race!
The Start
The start wasn’t easy, but it was very doable. 329W for the first 3:15 got me through the Esses and onto the downramp to the bridge, where the pace eased a bit. We zipped over the waterfall rollers after the Italian Villas, and I moved toward the front of our group as we crossed the 360 bridge before the start of the reverse KOM climb, briefly finding myself in first position.
Starting our first climb
Clearly the riders were a bit tentative, having never raced this new route. The first effort up the climb was hard, but not all-out. I just tried to sit within a few wheels of the front, and 418W (5.1 w/kg) for 1 minute kept me near the front nicely. I kept the power up over the crest of the hill as we turned left onto the new bypass, then surfed the wheels until I could supertuck down the forward KOM for a few seconds.
Grabbing a quick supertuck
The Middle
As the race continued, it became clear that we had a few sandbaggers and zPower Rangers in the front group. First one zPowered “F. Roll” attacked off the front. A few laps later, “M Gozzer” (an A according to ZwiftPower) attacked. In both cases I messaged the group to call out the rider, mostly just so they knew someone was watching. I didn’t expect them to change their behavior – and they didn’t.
Luckily, their attacks didn’t massively lift the effort required to stay in the front group. They did impact the race somewhat, but that’s a hard thing to quantify. For my part, I concentrated on riding efficiently and making it over the key kicker climb each lap.
The tried and true “start climbs at the front of the group” strategy was very helpful here. Over the 360 bridge I would bump up the watts to move forward, so that even when a few riders passed me near the top, I was still mid-pack as we began the descent.
The Finish
Our starting group of 127 had been reduced to less than 20, and my legs were definitely feeling the past several days of longer Festive 500 efforts. Going into the key climb on the final lap, I expected the hardest attacks thus far. And my expectations were met.
First, the group accelerated as we crossed the 360 bridge, with everyone jostling for that forward position before the climb. Then my zPowered friend F. Roll powered off the front, but nobody chased, knowing he wouldn’t be in the final results. As we hit the official start of the climb I was perfectly positioned but already hurting as legit B’s started pouring on the power.
P. Fischerking put in a masterfully hard attack from the back of the group, and M. Harris followed. The group began to stretch out, but I was still mid-pack. As we crested the hill I was in 15th, near the tail end of a strung-out front pack.
This is such a dangerous place to be in a bike race, because a gap can easily open ahead, and you’ll have to jump across if you want to stay in contention.
And that’s what happened. The rider I was drafting got gapped, so I accelerated past him to grab the wheel of the group just ahead. By the time I had made it to that next wheel, he too had been gapped, and I didn’t have the legs left to jump up to the group.
The race rides away from me
And that was it. I was just one wheel too far back to make the front selection. My legs were spent, and though the front group was only 2 seconds ahead, they were accelerating away. My goose was cooked. I sat up and spun my way to the finish, crossing in 18th place (12th on ZwiftPower).
Two Bridges Loop was a fun race route, as the constantly turning and rolling roads keep things interesting and the abbreviated Hilly Reverse KOM provided a key attack point on every lap. The route rewards riders who pay attention and modulate their power for maximum efficiency, and if you’re feeling spicy there are plenty of short climbs which make perfect launchpads for attacks.
This route compares most closely to NYC’s Park Perimeter Loop and Innsbruck’s Innsbruckring, in my opinion. Both of these routes are around 3 minutes longer per lap than Two Bridges Loop, but all three routes share a key climb around 1 minute in length. The Park Perimeter’s roads are more rolling like the Two Bridges Loops, while Innsbruckring’s roads are fairly flat.
Takeaways
I wasn’t expecting an amazing result in this race, given the fatigue I’d built up. Between the sandbaggers and strong B’s, I was happy to be able to hang in there until the final big effort.
Still, this race reminds me that 1-5 minute w/kg is my biggest weakness as a B racer. I need to continue training that interval, and racing routes like Two Bridges Loop is a great way to do it.
Start strong, finish stronger. That’s what Zwift races require. The first lap’s climb section required 1 minute at 418W (5.1 w/kg) for me to stay with the front group. But on that same section on the last lap I did 470W for 1 minute and got dropped! So having good 1-minute power isn’t enough – you also have to have the ability to repeat the effort several times over the length of the race.
On a related note: UCI Esports World Champ Jason Osborne can reportedly hold 480W for 20 minutes… and he weighs 10 kilos less than me. How’s that for a slice of humble pie?
Finally, like I’ve said in many other race writeups: Zwift really needs to get rid of the sandbagging and zPowered silliness. Overpowered riders change the fundamentals of the race, which is discouraging and unfair to the legit contenders. It’s usually not much of an issue in B races (this was the worst I’ve seen in a while) but it’s a massive problem for D and C events. Maybe a little ZwiftPower matchmaking would do the trick?
Your Thoughts
Have you raced Two Bridges Loop yet? What did you think? Share your comments below!
Having taken part in Zwift races regularly during lockdown, I found myself frustrated by the need to take my hands off the shifters every time I wanted to activate a powerup. I was also having issues with sweaty hands not being particularly effective at interacting with phone touchscreens, so started looking for a solution. After a few failed attempts with various Bluetooth devices, I came across this article.
It seemed a good starting point, and after a couple of helpful emails began working on my own code and way of attaching it to the bars to put the controller within easy reach. Having found myself with a controller that had five buttons, rather than the initially planned one, I started thinking what else could be done.
The controller in action (below my right thumb)
I had been riding the WTRL Team Time Trial Series for several months at this point, and the Bluetooth controller offered a number of applications to improve our team’s performance by changing camera angles to help me and my team stay in the wheels, as well as communicate more effectively via elbow flicks and Discord‘s Push to Talk voice chat function. The videos below show you how to make and set up the controller.
Requirements
You are running Zwift and Discord on a Windows PC with Bluetooth capabilities
Any sort of headset and microphone connected to the PC
Once you have paired the button (you should only need to do this once), pressing the play pause button before loading the software each time will wake up the device and connect it to your PC. The controller is more reliable if you are paired before launching Zwift.
The software is set to automatically load Zwift and will automatically close itself when you quit Zwift.
The button works by mimicking pressing buttons on the keyboard. You can test if it is working properly by opening a word processor and pressing the controller button. It should start typing numbers and spaces (depending on which button you have pressed).
If it is not working, first check it is connected to your PC and that Zwift is the active window.
Occasionally, restarting your PC and removing and repairing your controller may be required if problems persist.
About This Project
Like many cyclists, I’ve found a lot more of my training and racing has been indoors this year. I’ve really enjoyed Zwift and have benefited a lot from the collaborative work of members of the indoor training community. It felt only fair to make a contribution myself, and maybe at the same time raise some money for charity.
Chess on wheels. That’s how I would describe a Gran Fondo.
The length and complexity of the race/event (depending on how you are treating it) means that every move needs to be planned and calculated, otherwise you could pay for it later. Every action has a consequence and it’s your job to manage these consequences so there are more positives than negatives.
It is this continuous balancing act over the course of several hours that makes riding a Gran Fondo so different than other rides on Zwift.
The longer routes, large number of riders, and mountaintop finishes mean this is the closest many of us ever get to racing a stage similar in style and stature to that of the Tour de France or other Grand Tours.
Having raced the Gran Fondo – Bambino in November, I decided to try the middle distance event, called the Medio, measured at 72.6km in length. Unlike last time, I wouldn’t be racing this event alone – this time I would be racing alongside Michael, the experienced Dutch rider who I met in my previous Fondo. It seemed natural to invite him along for this ride.
Unlike the previous Gran Fondo, all of the different routes had staggered start times. This small change made a huge difference as instantly you were able to identify who you were racing. The start was not as manic as previous races and it felt more measured. There could be two reasons for this. Firstly, it could be that due to the length of the race, there was not a big panic for road position given we had 72km to race. Secondly, it could be that I have become accustomed to the starts on Zwift and my experience with other races such as the TTR Mini race has changed my perception of what constitutes a “fast start.”
The Game Begins
Following a “steady start”, we hit our first challenge, the Zwift KOM. With the experience of my previous Fondo fresh in my mind, I was conscious of not getting split from the front group so I made sure I was at the front. My early bit of aggressive riding ensured that I secured a new PB of 3 mins 42 seconds, up the Zwift KOM. This climb had split the front group into two and I was desperately searching for Michael. It would have been disastrous if he hadn’t made it. There were frantic messages between us via the Companion App as we tried to establish where each other was r, fortunately, his avatar appeared alongside mine. “Game-on!”
Having made light work of the Zwift KOM, we quickly approached our second challenge, the Volcano Climb. I feared this climb, knowing full well that this favoured riders with a very strong 5 minute power output. I feared that they could be up and over the climb before most of us had even reached the summit. If enough riders escaped, then the race would be over.
The First Move
My prediction was correct, the climb up the Volcano was fast – so fast I obtained a new PB, 6 minutes and 43 seconds! Again, like the previous climb, I was ready for the increase in pace and I went straight to the wheels of the early escapees. Despite this, they simply had too much power for me and I struggled to stay with them, all the while marveling at how their explosive acceleration left us trailing behind.
Prior to the start of the climb, Michael mentioned that “he didn’t have good legs” and instructed me not to wait for him. (The reason Michael wasn’t feeling special was later revealed and he’d actually had a big crash on the road the previous evening and landed heavily on his hip, making efforts like the Volcano climb more challenging.) I got detached from the lead riders as they crested the climb and Michael chastised me for waiting for him, to which I replied “I didn’t, they were just too strong, I did a PB up the climb!”
Over the top of the climb and fearing that I was missing the main move of the race I went into “time trial mode” and pedaled frantically downhill, attempting to generate as much power as I could and close the gap to the top 9 riders. It was impossible. I was gaining no ground and I felt deflated.
Then within seconds, the race changed again as help arrived in the form of a mini bunch of riders, led by Michael! He gave me a quick message warming me about his approaching group, so I sped-up and got successfully swallowed by the bunch.
Now sat comfortably in the group, the leading few riders realised that there wasn’t enough of them to escape, so they relented and their breakaway was pulled in. I was back in the race! But their explosive acceleration and my failed chase had done damage. I was exhausted and the temporary ceasefire that ensued was much needed.
Regrouping on the Volcano descent
Break in Play
It was during this lull that I was desperately trying to recover by drinking a combination of water and Energy drinks, interspersed with sweets to give me a much-needed sugar boost. It was clear that everyone was doing the same because riders in the group kept “yo-yoing” from the group as people’s concentration waned.
Round Two
This break in the race was short-lived. As we approached the Reverse Epic KOM, a group of 4 riders put in a massive attack of 6-7 watts per kilo just before the start of the climb and before the right turn to the Jungle. I still hadn’t recovered from the previous big effort and could not get close to them. They were up the road before the majority of other riders could react. It was a well-timed attack and clearly pre-planned. By the time the second group had formed, the lead riders had built a 10-second advantage over our group. This was the definitive move of the race and I had missed it.
As my chase group turned right at the T-junction and headed towards the Jungle, the lead had grown to 20 seconds. The front group were clearly organised and working well together. Fortunately, Michael had made my group and noted he was the last rider that did. Our group spanned positions 14-26 out of 652.
No one likes this part of the game
Three things of note happened in the Jungle:
The front group extended their lead to 1 minute 20 seconds
It was universally agreed in our group that we all hated the Jungle
Bizarrely, one rider from the front group thought it would be a good idea to stop and change their bike
When I saw the message about changing bikes I thought it was a joke. But moments later, our group flew by a stationary rider! Indeed, one rider decided it would be preferable to change bikes. By their own admission, that was a mistake. I learnt “never change your bike in the Jungle mid race!” (The rider decided to change their bike due to the surface being dirt. This is also why our group universally agreed we did not like the Jungle. Nothing wrong with the route, more an issue with the slow road surface.)
Out of the Jungle and back on terra firma our group started closing the gap to the front. We were approaching the end game, the Epic KOM. I tried to sit in the group whilst I refueled but again found myself surging as I was distracted. It was during this moment that I nearly missed the fact the several riders from the front group had become detached and the gap was now down to 1 minute. I figured, if we could get the gap down smaller, I might be able to make some gains on the climb.
I pushed to the front of the group and started to try and drive the pace, messaging all that would listen that we needed to chase. Michael and I exchanged messages and I explained that I was going to attack at the very start of the climb. He warned against this and advised to attack at the Castle halfway up, but I was undeterred. I was going from the start of the climb. Better to attack and fail, then to be cautious and wonder what might have been. This was my big move.
The Final Move
The blue line indicating the start of the climb approached, and I went, taking 3 riders with me. I didn’t look at the gaps behind, I just focussed on getting into my rhythm. To me, this was now just another ZWC Hill Climb Battle and I led our group up the climb, through the village, on through the Castle and up to where the snow started to line the side of the route.
It was just before the underpass that the tempo was too much for one rider, who dropped back. I was still leading this select few riders, with the main group losing time as we pushed on. Just after the underpass and before the road descended over the bridge, one of the riders attacked! I had to increase my effort and struggled to catch, but I used the momentum of the descent to gain speed and soon I was back on their wheel. The gap to the riders ahead had been halved and now stood at 27 seconds, but I was running out of road and lnew I was now racing for position, with the last kilometre to go.
The last kilometre before the Epic KOM banner is always longer than you think. As the road descended, I pushed the pace and gave it everything. I now sat 10th on the road. The finish line came into sight. I used the “Feather” powerup that I had saved all race exactly for this moment, and started sprinting.
But I wasn’t the only one with this idea. The rider who attacked earlier pulled alongside and we were sprinting it out for 10th position. My mammoth effort earlier in the race had left me with nothing for the sprint finish and I rolled in 11th on the road, 10th on Zwift Power in a time of 1:56:51.
I climbed the Epic KOM in 20 minutes, 50 seconds. Michael finished a few minutes behind which was impressive, given his accident.
The winning time was 1:53:35 by Yuki Tanaka, who rides for Team ZWC and had a blistering time of 18:40 up the Epic KOM. That in itself deserved the victory.
Personally speaking, it was a fine result and one where I know where I got outmanoeuvred. But I’m already looking forward to this weekend’s zFondo challenge.
What About You?
Do you treat fondos like a race, or a personal challenge? Got any tips to share? Post below!
While making my Zwifting goals for 2021 I realized some of them come from not doing my 2020 goals well. Mainly, my Couch to Route Hero challenge could have been so much better!
We’re all in this Zwift community together so I hope you find this list of mistakes will keep you from making the same ones. Here’s what I didn’t get right last year–
#1: Core workouts
I said it often, “I need to do more core strengthening exercises.” Even doing ONE would have been more than what I was doing. Strengthening my core would have meant better form while Zwifting and less of the pains that come with poor form and/or a weak core. This one is key! I know that now.
#2: Rolling Out My IT Band
I am now suffering from bursitis and tendonitis of the IT Band. Had I rolled it out regularly I don’t believe I would have these problems. (Keep in mind, I’m not a doctor or coach. Do what’s best for your body, get advice from an expert for your own situation.)
#3: Stretching
I did some stretching, but usually only after really long rides. I should have stretched much more often, and held those stretches for much longer.
#4: Extending Grace to Myself
Toward the end of my Route Challenge (when 11 weeks turned into 13!) I found some weeks took 10-15 hours of riding! I should have given myself more grace to extend the whole challenge out even longer. Fewer rides each week toward the end would have meant it took longer, but it would have been less difficult on my body.
My chiropractor knows what he’s talking about: “if you want to stay out of my office, don’t add more than 10% each week!” Just because I made a plan doesn’t mean I have to finish it out exactly how I started.
Fourl months after the KICKR v5’s initial release, Wahoo has finally released a firmware update to address low flywheel speed power inaccuracies.
This issue was mentioned in initial reviews by Shane Miller (GPLama) and DC Rainmaker, and although it’s a bit of an “edge case”, the power inaccuracies definitely caused concern, especially since the new KICKR was touted as being Wahoo’s most accurate KICKR yet.
What was the issue exactly? The KICKR, like most quality trainers, uses a flywheel to mimic IRL inertia. When that flywheel was moving very slowly, power would be overstated.
The majority of KICKR would probably never be affected by this inaccuracy, as it only occurred when flywheel speeds were very low – think riding in your small ring in front, and one of your easiest gears in back. (This is a rare thing on Zwift, given that most people ride around 50% or lower trainer difficulty and don’t do ERG workouts in super-easy gears.)
But if you were climbing a steep hill at 100% trainer difficulty, or doing ERG workouts in your small front ring and near the top of your cassette, your power was definitely overshooting on the old KICKR v5 firmware.
DC Rainmaker has put together a nice video comparing accuracy between the old and new firmware. See it below, and be sure to update your KICKR v5 firmware via the app!
UPDATE Jan 1, 2021: Looking to purchase the KICKR v5? They’re in stock right now at Wahoo, for the first time in weeks! Get it here >
Unprecedented. That’s a good word to describe this past year. It’s fitting not only in the world of Zwift, but in our world at large as we’ve witnessed rapid societal shifts in how we work, learn, and play.
Cooped up at home – some by choice, some by law – Zwifters found solace and community in our virtual fitness space. And masses of new Zwifters arrived, driven by healthy desires within and unhealthy threats without.
This is our look back at all things Zwift for 2020. It’s been quite a ride...
Major Events
When worldwide COVID lockdowns hit in March, Zwift HQ shifted noticeably from its typical development/marketing cycle into a sort of event-driven survival mode. And it’s hard to fault them for doing so – with all ZHQ employees working remotely and a massive influx of new users, it made sense to divert resources to onboarding new users and keeping everyone busy with a steady flow of exciting events.
Looking back with 20/20 hindsight, it appears this change of focus was successful, at least by some measurements. The subscriber base had grown by 270% as of late November, and Zwift managed to organize and/or host an unprecedentedly huge number of big events this year including:
It took a pandemic to make it happen, but in 2020 Zwift finally gained real credibility on the world cycling stage. While cries of “it’s too easy to cheat” and “my potato doesn’t run Zwift smoothly” may fill Facebook forums, the truth is, pro cyclists and the national cycling governing bodies really discovered Zwift in 2020.
Because they had no choice. Many pros lived in countries were they simply couldn’t ride outside, for weeks on end. Races were cancelled. Governing bodies scrambled to remain relevant. And Zwift found itself holding the keys to the kingdom.
The transition from IRL to virtual was far from smooth, but in a messy year this was not unexpected. In the end, we saw pro riders and their teams discovering Zwift and using it heavily. And they learned that Zwift provides an incredibly useful platform for interacting with a worldwide fanbase, with more than one pro team manager telling us that Zwift offers far more bang for the buck in terms of market reach than other traditional outreach activities.
Governing bodies learned that it’s much easier (and cheaper) to organize events on Zwift than it is IRL. And so we see British Cycling, USA Cycling, and others holding regular events on the platform.
‘Event-driven survival mode” isn’t a good long-term proposition, of course. Certainly Zwift knows this. The generally-restless Zwift natives were willing to be patient in the early months of the pandemic, but calls for improved features and new tarmac are growing as we head into the new year. Hopefully, pandemic pressures will ease and we’ll see a pivot toward more investment in game development early in 2021.
New Roads and Maps
Zwifters love new roads, but 2020 was a bit hit and miss in this regard. Our guess is that Zwift had planned to release a new map for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, as well as a UCI Road World Championships map for the original Switzerland location. But the Olympics were canceled and Worlds were relocated at the last minute, so neither of those maps could be launched!
On the other hand, the first-ever virtual Tour de France led to the frenzied creation of the France and Paris maps, which were the largest new road releases we saw in 2020. These maps feature 10 new routes, including the iconic “Ven-Top” recreation of Mount Ventoux.
And early in 2020, before the pandemic changed everything, Zwift released a refreshed version of the Richmond map. For the first time, Zwifters could ride in both directions on Richmond’s roads, which opened up the map for the following new event-only routes:
Zwift launched its FutureWorks platform in 2019 and used it to roll out several “beta” features in 2020.
Clubs
Clubs are the most anticipated new feature on Zwift, with the capability to change the entire social landscape by empowering cyclists to group together and organize events on their own.
It started in late March with the rollout of Club Jarvis, the first club added to FutureWorks Clubs. This club was made up of longtime Zwifters only (those who signed up in the early beta period). Since its release in March, Clubs have been opened up to most of the established, larger teams on Zwift – the last we heard, over 80 teams had access.
Additional Clubs features have been rolled out over the year, but the features are still fairly limited. Thankfully, ride leaders can now modify key portions of their events, taking the load off of Zwift Events staff and allowing for quick, efficient edits.
Boost Mode
Boost mode is an event mode released in the April 29th update which adds a new strategic dimension to racing. While many Zwifters aren’t fans of boost mode, lots of racers enjoy hopping into quick Boost Mode races for a little change of pace.
Sights and Sounds mode was released in the April 29th update, along with Boost Mode. The idea with Sights and Sounds is simple: remove the HUD elements so you only see the environment and avatars. The goal is to reduce the number of distracts on the screen, so Zwifters can enjoy the scenery and concentrate on other riders/runners.
This event mode hasn’t seen much use since its release, which is a shame as it really changes the experience in a refreshing way. We would like to see some HUDless races on the calendar – perhaps in 20201?
Steering
Zwifters were a bit surprised when steering expanded to all roads in the August 6th update. This wasn’t on most people’s radar as something to top the Wish List, but for whatever reason Zwift prioritized it.
Rather than using the Companion app to steer like we’d done in the first version of steering released in 2019, the new FutureWorks steering only worked with the Elite Sterzo Smart steering block – which quickly sold out when steering was announced!
Since steering gives racers an advantage, it was automatically turned off for all events except some of ZHQ’s Crit City races. But steering can now be toggled on and off by event organizers, so we’re seeing more and more steering-enabled events these days.
In our opinion, for steering to really take off, it needs to be embraced by more race organizers, and more riders need to own Elite Sterzos. We’ll see what happens in 2021!
Pace Partners
Pace Partners for cycling was released in the August 6th update, and ZHQ immediately knew they had a hit on their hands. Zwifters flocked to these robo-riders, enjoying the chance to hop into a “group ride” at any hour of the day, at one of four paces.
Zwift went on to fine-tune the Pace Partner offering, then release Pace Partners for running in the December 17 update.
Zwift’s anti-sandbagging features aren’t technically under their FutureWorks banner as far as we know – but it seems like they should be, so that’s where we’re putting them.
These tools are meant to keep under-categorized racers from spoiling races for others. If you’ve got A power but you’re racing as a B or lower, these tools can (theoretically) automatically flag you, alert you, and slow you down so you can’t blow apart the B race.
We saw our first glimpses of anti-sandbagging in April, and since then this feature has been used regularly in ZHQ’s Crit City and Paris circuit races. (There are several anti-sandbagging races held each day – click here for a list.)
Will the tools become more widely adopted in 2021? That’s up to ZHQ, who thus far haven’t given race organizers the ability to use anti-sandbagging tools, or furnished a detailed explanation of how they work.
ZwiftPower Transition
In July, James Hodges (the developer behind ZwiftPower) shared that the site was transitioning over to ZHQ’s control. This was all part of an agreement made many months earlier between ZwiftPower’s key players and Zwift – read more about it here.
The Zwift racing community was understandably less than thrilled with the news. Given Zwift’s slow pace of game development in the preceding months, it stood to reason that further development of ZwiftPower features would slow to a crawl under Zwift’s watch.
It appears those concerns were not misplaced. ZwiftPower was officially moved onto Zwift’s hardware several weeks ago, but this hasn’t resulted in an improved experience for users. Rather, high traffic has led to major delays in .fit file and metrics processing. Detailed race results used to show up within a few minutes of an event ending, and now they are taking 2-4 days to appear.
ZHQ’s plan for ZwiftPower is unclear. We would all love to see ZwiftPower’s features brought into the Zwift product in some official capacity (matchmaking, anyone?), but what that looks like, and when it might actually happen, is anyone’s guess. Until then, we hope ZHQ can at least divert some development resources to the site in order to get those metrics processing much more efficiently!
Game Updates
By our count, Zwift has released 13 “major” game updates this year. Here’s the list, if you’re curious what each update contained:
Without knowing what it actually contained, Zwifters were eagerly anticipating the release of a redesigned UI in early 2020. But the rollout kept getting delayed, and as lockdowns began and Zwift usage soared, ZHQ made the decision to shelve the UI project. Here’s what one Zwift employee shared in the support forums:
However – the new UI we’d planned on releasing in March is on hold. We’d been knitting that sweater for a really long time prior to COVID, but the operational changes we made to scale up to the huge spike in usage means we outgrew that sweater. Growing the core product team will help us knit a new one sooner.
From what we’re hearing, Zwift is taking a new approach to the UI revamp. Rather than launch an entirely redesigned UI, they plan to redesign it in sections so they can roll it out as it portion is completed. Sounds sensible.
Hardware
It’s usually educational to look back for a year at what’s happened in the hardware landscape for Zwifters – but 2020 provides the least-interesting retrospective in Zwift’s history. It’s hardly surprising, given the pressures COVID placed on smart trainer manufacturers who even today are still unable to meet demand for their trainers.
2020 did see the release of new Wahoo KICKR and Elite Direto direct-drive trainers, both simply iterations on previous models. And it’s probably safe to say that 2020 was the first year smart bikes really showed up on Zwift, with the Wahoo KICKR Bike, Tacx NEO Bike, StagesBike SB20, and next-generation Wattbike all finally shipping worldwide after years of development, testing, and certification challenges.
In late 2019 we got the news that Zwift was creating a hardware division based in the UK. We have yet to see the fruit of their labors, but this isn’t surprising – hardware like smart trainers can take years to develop. Based on interviews with Eric Min, Zwift is clearly working on some sort of smartbike offering – something that will make it easy to “buy Zwift.” Just pay the money, plug it in, and go. But when will we see this bike? That’s anyone’s guess!
On a related note, this year we launched the Zwift Insider Smart Trainer Index – a database of every smart trainer ever made, including reviews from Zwifters. If you’re researching your next trainer purchase, this is the place to start.
More Business News
We’ve already covered a lot of 2020 news in this post, but there are two bits of big business news worth mentioning.
First, in March various insiders caught wind of a round of layoffs at Zwift. (We didn’t publish a post about it at the time, but you can read DC Rainmaker’s take on it.) Some sources told us the goal was a 15% reduction in staffing, while others said it was an attempt to pivot/reorganize the business. Probably it was a combination of both, but in the end, long-time Zwift executives including Mike McCarthy and co-founder Scott Barger left the company, along with several key high-level employees including the Director of Global Business Development and VP of Digital Commerce.
Zwifters haven’t heard a thing from co-founder Jon Mayfield since the reorg, suggesting that he moved out of his role as head of game development. Our guess is he’s working on “skunkworks” Zwift projects that interest him the most, while leaving the project management and team leadership in the capable hands of guys like Wes Salmon.
Here’s the “what’s coming list” we published one year ago today:
Club functionality (allowing teams to organize events, etc)
UI Redesign
New world launch (Eric Min said, “we are heading east…”)
Better automatic race rules enforcement
None of these four items have been rolled out completely – and the UI Redesign and New world never saw the light of day! But this isn’t surprising; nothing went as expected in 2020.
We’re not sure what 2021 holds for Zwift, because we’re not sure what 2021 holds for anyone. But we hope it finds all of you healthy and happy, with friends and family nearby.
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