Gemma Wilks and her 10-year-old son Tom tell us about their Zwift Academy journey, Dan and Stephen are back to let you know all about workout six, Leah shows off some impressive ZA Halloween costumes, and Matt Stephens is back to talk about the road to the finals.
Find the Zwift Academy Roadshow archives at zwift.com/video/za-roadshow
Your riding speed in Zwift’s virtual world is determined by several factors:
You can’t exactly alter Zwift’s physics or your height, but here’s the fun part: you have control over the other factors listed above!
Are you overweight? You’ve come to the right place. Cycling is an incredibly effective low-impact exercise that lets you burn calories without beating up your body. Couple daily rides with a smart diet and you can shed weight safely and quickly while gaining fitness. (Ride Your Way Lean is a good read covering the fundamentals of weight loss for cyclists.)
Want the fastest virtual bike setup possible? We’ve got all the info you need, and then some.
The biggest speed factor, of course, is power. What kind of wattage can you put out, and for how long? Every body is unique, and we’re not going to dig into training plans and philosophies here. What we will do, though, is recommend the “Build Me Up” training plan in Zwift for anyone looking to gain fitness via a proven training program designed by an experienced coach.
And we’ll recommend these two books – the very best resources available for cyclists looking to train smart with power:
Zwift speed doesn’t match your Garmin speed? Since Zwift uses a variety of factors to mirror real-world physics, pairing your bike computer to your power meter or smart trainer will return a very different distance number than Zwift’s – and that’s as it should be.
Zwift speed doesn’t match your outdoor speed? Zwift simulates outdoor cycling quite well, but no system can factor in every single outdoor riding variable (think potholes, rider posture, and group dynamics for starters). Because of this, some riders have observed that their speed on Zwift doesn’t match their outdoor speed. But there are plenty of sensible explanations for this!
“Keep Everyone Together” feeling slow? The physics of group workouts on Zwift are modified in order to keep all riders together. For most riders, this results in a Zwift ride that feels slower than normal. Similarly, the “Keep Everyone Together” option in Meetups uses some black magic to keep your group together, often resulting in some riders moving faster than normal, while others move slower.
Share below!
A new multi-day event series starts next week on Zwift! The Garmin Never Stop Cycling Tour is a “celebration of all cyclists, no matter your discipline.”
Four stages will be held from November 9-20, and you’ll have three days to complete each one. They represent four different types of cycling experiences – road cycling, time trialing, gravel riding, and mountain biking. Each route is a “signature course” for its category, with terrain that different types of riders will love! These Zwift events will be led by expert-level ride leaders.
The Garmin Never Stop Cycling events are listed as group rides, but they do not use the ride fence and you will get results at the end. Some people might choose to race them, while others will cruise around for a social ride.
There’s an open category (A), where both men and women are welcome to participate, and a category for women only (B). Both ride the same routes for the same distance, and both are listed at “1-5 w/kg.” This usually means that riders are free to go at their own pace. When there is a ride leader, that person may announce a specific pace at the start, or she or he might just ride with the general flow of the group.
When you complete any stage, you’ll unlock a new Garmin kit to wear in-game.
As Zwift racing’s popularity grows, more and more people are interested in watching their favorite Zwifters race. But how can that be done?
Here are your options for Zwift spectating, with notes on each.
If you are currently signed into Zwift and ready to ride/run (that is, your avatar is actually on a particular map) you can use the Companion app to look up other Zwifters and “fan view” them.
This will change your Zwifting view from watching yourself to watching the Zwifter you’re fan viewing. Here’s the 3-step sequence:
This seems simple enough – but there are a few caveats which can throw a hitch in your fan viewing:
Fan view is a workable option if you’re wanting to watch another rider who is in the same world as you, but it needs a few key improvements in order to be really useful.
This trick has been used by race teams for years because it provides a better view of the actual event than the fan view option above. The idea is quite simple: just sign up for event you want to spectate. Join the start pens as if you’re taking part. But when the event begins, don’t go anywhere! Instead, just click on the rider list to “fan view” the rider you want to watch.
This method requires you to sign up for the event before it begins, and you’re not able to jump in late. But if you manage to get signed up and in the pens before start time, you’ll have the ability to watch the race and see the same view as the other riders, complete with current placing, distance to go, and non-event riders being hidden from view.
This is the best option for virtual team cars who generally plan ahead and need current event information to properly support their riders.
Big Zwift events are often live streamed by Zwift Community Live or Zwift themselves, on Facebook and YouTube. This can be a really fun way for friends and family to watch your race!
There are a couple of downsides to this approach – one is that the live stream won’t be following you specifically, so your spectators may not enjoy it much since they won’t know where you’re at in the pack. Also, it’s usually just the A races which are featured in streams, so if you’re a B or lower you’re out of luck.
This is a good option for high-level racers who want to let non-Zwifters (Hi mom!) easily watch their event.
One option more and more Zwifters are turning to is hosting your own live stream. If you run Zwift on Windows or Mac and have a decently beefy system you can run free OBS software to live-stream your Zwifting to the world. Add a decent webcam and mic and you can even overlay an image of yourself on the stream so people can see and hear your IRL pain!
This is still my favorite live stream ever – Justin Wagner of Team ODZ taking the win in the 2017 Team Worlds race, with lots of teammates on Discord:
This is a smart option for tech-savvy racers with more powerful systems.
There are several ways to view other riders in Zwift events, but each comes with its own niggles. Someday I hope we’ll see the Companion Fan View feature improved, allowing us to view any active Zwifter on any map, and to see their actual event view. Wouldn’t it be great if we could look up a rider on Companion, tap to view them, and be popped over to the Zwift app on our phone, live-viewing that rider in their event?
But I’m not holding my breath. ZwiftHQ has told me in the past that there just isn’t enough demand for this feature, so they haven’t invested additional resources into it. And I suppose they’re right – Zwift racers are a small part of the overall Zwift community, and those wanting to spectate Zwift races constitute an even smaller group. So at least in the near future, I don’t expect any changes or improvements to our ability to view others in races.
Share below!
Hey Zwifters! With the success of the last video I asked Matt Gardiner from Saris + The Pro’s Closet to come back and give us his next-level TTT tips.
There are some great ones in here including:
Stay tuned to the channel for more content coming soon. We have some really cool stuff planned. Leave a comment on what you would like to see next!
Every Thursday we are also releasing WTRL Course Previews for the following week.
Good Luck everyone and Ride On!
This week in the best of Zwift videos, professional cyclist Jack Haig speaks his mind on Zwift racing, and two vEveresters document their efforts to climb the height of Mount Everest in a single ride. We also share two videos from expert Zwifters who break down a ZRL race and take us through the ins and outs of ZwiftPower.
Jack Haig, of the Mitchelton-Scott team, shares his thoughts on Zwift racing with Lanterne Rouge.
Ben from This Messy Happy explains vEveresting, talks about the importance of planning, hydration, and nutrition, and records himself throughout his own grueling attempt.
MonstrMinion, a new YouTuber, also just completed a vEveresting attempt on Alpe du Zwift! See how it went for him.
Jonathan Crain plays back key moments of his first week in the Zwift Racing League in this race breakdown video, giving commentary and advice so that others can learn from his experience.
Confused about what you’re seeing on ZwiftPower.com? Crit Whit is here to help! He’ll walk you through virtually all of the menus, tabs, pages, and icons and explains what they mean.
Share the link below and we may feature it in an upcoming post!
You may have plenty of available CPU and GPU power in your Windows computer and still experience problems with dropping FPS (frames per second), stuttering, and rubber banding because of the way Zwift is written.
What can be done about that? Read on to find out more (some of the nerdier stuff is in the footnotes).
A simple and easy fix for many of these problems is to increase the process priority for the ZwiftApp.exe process.2 By doing that Zwift simply gets higher priority for its data processing than most other processes on your computer. It is all it takes to make Zwift run visibly smoother!3
I’ve tested this repeatedly.4 A simple thing such as launching a browser or just switching to a browser with some animated SVG graphics would cause visible stuttering in Zwift at the normal process priority. Raising the process priority to ‘Above normal’ made Zwift run smoothly through the same scenarios, even when launching other applications in rapid succession.5 6
You can do it manually every time you have launched Zwift via the Windows Task Manager, but I’m going to explain how to set it up to be the standard whenever you launch Zwift.
It’s a three-step procedure:
Let’s do it!
You have to download and install a free, open source program called ‘Process Hacker’. It’s a replacement for the normal Windows Task Manager with a lot of extra functionality.
One of the many features is that it lets you save which priority a process (think ZwiftApp.exe) should run with whenever it runs. When ‘Process Hacker’ itself is running it monitors the other processes on your computer and can make your saved changes to process priority.
So, download Process Hacker (version 2.3.9) here: https://processhacker.sourceforge.io/
Run the setup program you downloaded. Just make a full installation, but if you want to customize the installation definitely remember to include the ‘User notes’ plugin in your installation.
I recommend you also choose the following options during install:
Start Process Hacker on system startup (otherwise you will have to start ‘Process Hacker’ manually)Minimized on system tray
You can let ‘Process Hacker’ run all the time. To keep it hidden in the Taskbar tray when it is not used and to prevent you accidentally exiting it, the following options are very useful (set them via the ‘Options’ menu in the ‘Process Hacker’ program after installation):
Hide when closedHide when minimized
Now, launch Zwift. When the main game window opens after login and pressing ‘Lets go’, it’s time to make the configuration in ‘Process Hacker’ which we want.
Launch ‘Process Hacker’ if it’s not already opened.
In ‘Process Hacker’, search for ‘ZwiftApp’ in the search field top right.
Right click the line with ZwiftApp.exe, choose ‘Priority’, then ‘Above normal’.
Now comes the most important part: Right click the line with ZwiftApp.exe, choose ‘Priority’, then ‘Save for ZwiftApp.exe’ option at the bottom of the right click menu.
That’s it!
Well, just ride on.
As long as ‘Process Hacker’ is running (remember that you set it up to launch with Windows and to hide itself in the taskbar tray) it will set the process priority to ‘Above normal’ every time you launch Zwift.
This is definitely not the solution to all problems with stuttering, FPS drops, and rubber banding. It won’t make a slow computer more powerful, and it won’t dramatically increase the performance of Zwift. It just can help a bit in making Zwift run more smoothly. The effect you see can vary a lot, depending on your computer configuration, Zwift version etc.
Note: this post was originally published on ZwiftHacks
Welcome to episode three of World of Zwift, the weekly show bringing you all that is great and good in Zwift Racing.
In this episode, host OJ Borg delivers:
Official Zwift fondo events are always a blast, with hundreds of riders taking part. Like an outdoor fondo, they feature challenging routes with varying length options. Riders can race the event, or just push to do their best and finish a challenging effort.
The first events of a Zwift’s new monthly series have just been posted, and it all kicks off next weekend, November 8th!
Looking for Zwift fondo event times? Click here for a schedule from ZwiftHacks
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 refer to route length.
For November the routes are (click for details):
Side note: we would really like to see Zwift expand the fondo routes to something that hasn’t been used in past fondos. Maybe it’s time for an Uber Pretzel fondo option?
This is a 5-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 November’s kit:
This monthly series runs through March. Here are the upcoming fondo dates:
Officially, no. But thousands of riders will turn out for these popular “fun race” events, and the front of each category will certainly be filled with strong riders going all out. And that’s perfectly fine!
As Zwift says, in the end “It’s all about doing your best and trying to finish the toughest routes in Watopia.”
Share below!
Since March I have become obsessed with the weekly Team Time Trial… so I asked Eric if I could share my obsession with you all, in weekly doses.
Each week on a Friday 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! Don’t forget to tune in to the live TV show on Zwift Community Live’s YouTube Channel at 6:15 (UK time).
After a week in Austria we headed back to Watopia for a single lap of Watopia’s Waistband, a flat, fast 30km. I thought we had a flying lap in the Hyenas, but turns out we didn’t do as well in-class as I would hope. Never mind… there’s always next week. Anyway…
| Category | #35 | #46 | My prediction | #80 PL | My position |
| Vienna | 44:44 | 49:10 | 44:20 | 39:44 | 36th |
| Espresso | 37:07 | 38:57 | 34:30 | 35:31 | 4th |
| Frappe | 39:34 | 39:01 | 38:15 | 37:08 | 50th |
| Latte | 43:07 | 41:44 | 39:30 | 40:03 | 7th |
| Mocha | 52:13 | 52:45 | 50:00 | 44:28 | 49th |
I am hanging my head in shame… my virtual teams were awful… I have no words here.
Richmond has seen a lot of action lately. Not least, the ZRL #3 scratch race was there last. As I’m sure everyone knows by now, this is the route Sagan immortalized in his 2015 rainbow jersey win… but that was an individual break that would have netted nothing were it a TTT!
The route for the TTT isthe UCI circuit, which was last raced in the TTT format in WTRL TTT #47 in March. The course is two laps of 16.2km – if you include the lead-in that’s 32.9km total. The route is split into two segments… the first half is flat, and the second half has three very challenging bumps. It’s like Innsbruckring if there were three legbreakers!
Here’s the fantastic VeloViewer segment view along with a map. If you haven’t used VeloViewer I highly recommend it. It shows you all the obvious stats for the segment, and it also connects to your Strava account so you can look at how you performed.
Bike recommendations are “riders choice” to an extent. The route is split 50% flattish and 50% sharp, steep hills (up and down). On the flat aero rules the day, but the hilly segments are steep enough that all the weight costs dearly. The lap times for Tron versus Venge/Super-9 are identical – but for me, Tron wins the day because while it is a touch slower on the flat, it is much faster on the hills. For me, Tron will allow me to keep up with my lighter team-members when the road pitches up.
The recent changes to the performance of the Canyon Aeroad do make a difference in Richmond, but its still an excellent all-around bike here. Here are my recommendations:
I know I say it every week but it is doubly important this week. Get the Tron! Someone on one of the Zwift Facebook groups asked “what is the one thing you wish you’d known at level 1.” The answer is I wish I’d know how important Tron was! So, I cannot stress highly enough that if you are racing you need to be working on Tron. It’ll take a while, but just set the Everest Challenge and forget about it for nine months… like having a baby. On this course, no bike beats the Tron.
A few places to go for information – a race-focused recce from Zwift can be found here. If you want to read about how a certain Mr. Sagan handled things, here is a great profile piece.
There are races galore in the next week on Richmond UCI – one lap, two lap, Clydesdale laps, and more! As always, Zwifthacks has the up-to-date events listing – all you need to do is click here!.
For a gentle recce I like the look of ZHCC’s Sub-2 on Saturday which would be a perfect little spin!
If your team wants to do some paceline practice remember you can always set up a private group Meetup in Companion!
Here’s how the ride breaks down for me:
Not quite flat – but nothing over a percent or two. Get into your groove and go! It’s not flat like the desert of Watopia, but for an experienced TTT team you will just truck on.
The second half of the route starts with a decent downhill. Just over a kilometer straight down E Main St. It averages 3.3%, but ignoring the false flat at the top and the bump in the middle it’s more like 5%. There is a possibility of supertuck, but watch where it flattens ⅔ of the way down. The downtown downhill Strava segment gives a nice view of this, and here is the Veloviewer profile view of the descent. The first time around it’ll be a nice respite from the flat-out flatness of the first 8 ½ km… second time around you will need a break before the trials of the last three hills!
The terrain flattens again as you head straight down Dock Street, do a U-turn and then you’re back on E Main Street going the other way. The first big climb starts 12.5km into the lap – 630 meters averaging 6% as it winds its way up Libby Hill.
Libby Hill is a grind, especially the second time around. It’s far enough from the finish that you’d rather not leave riders behind – but it is long enough (630 meters) to split your team, particularly when they have tired legs on the second time around. At the top, at least you have a little time to recover before 23rd Street.
From the top of Libby Hill the road flattens, giving you time to regroup. But those 400 meters will be gone in a flash, and then you head downward first on Franklin, then on 25th Street. The descent is 400 meters at around 5% – just enough to supertuck for a few seconds. Take care to stay together on the descent – you will need teamwork for the 23rd Street ascent.
23rd Street is short but it is steep – this is where Sagan made his move in 2015, and it will be decisive for you as well. Averaging 10% over its 250M, it pitches up over 12% in places. After Libby Hill this is a most unwelcome bump and heavier riders will really struggle here. Many teams will lose a member the first time around – but by the time you hit this on the second lap your decisions will be much easier. You’re near enough to the end that jettisoning slower members might make sense. Here is an interactive view of the KOM
Richmond UCI only has 2 KOMs but it has three significant climbs… which makes 6 climbs for you guys. The last climb of the lap is another long drag. After the 23rd Street KOM you head into a short descent before hitting the Governor Street climb which actually starts on East Main before turning on to Governor. It runs 500M at an average of 6%.
The hill proper ends as you turn onto East Broad St, but in reality it just softens to a false flat averaging 1.3% for 500M. A false flat like this wouldn’t matter in the grand scheme of things but after the tough hills don’t underestimate what this will feel like.
This race will be won or lost on how many riders you get through the first lap. If you can get your heavier riders through to the long flat on lap 2 you can gather momentum and speed for 8 ½ km of flat.
Do you have the team discipline to hold your lighter riders back? We will see in a few days.