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Zwift Route Hunter Leaderboards, p/b VeloViewer

Eric Schlange
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159
Zwift Route Hunter Leaderboards, p/b VeloViewer

The VeloViewer-powered Route Hunter leaderboards were first rolled out in October 2019. They were an immediate hit in the Zwift community because they gave people a tool to track which routes they’ve completed, as well as a competitive leaderboard for anyone wanting to see how they rank against the universe of Zwifters.

Since then, new routes and maps have been added to Zwift, and we’ve created new Rebel Routes as well. All these new routes are added to the Route Hunter Leaderboards soon after their release.

Additionally, in May 2020 Strava made major changes to their services in an attempt to drive subscriber growth. This didn’t change anything if you’re a paying Strava Premium subscriber, but for free users, the Route Hunter Leaderboards no longer show segment times for yourself or others. Instead, they act more as a checklist of which routes you’ve completed.

About the Leaderboards

There are 15 different leaderboards, each containing their own Zwift routes:

Leaderboard rankings are based on points. You receive points for

  1. Completing a particular route/segment (20 points for each), and
  2. How quickly you completed the route

These two numbers are then added together for your total points count for each leaderboard.

Getting Started

Getting your data into the leaderboards is easy! It’s probably easier on a large screen than a smartphone, but it can be done with either.

Start by visiting the Zwift Insider Route Hunter homepage on VeloViewer.

  1. Click “Connect with Strava”. (If you’re already signed into your Strava account in your browser, skip to step 3.)
  2. Log into your Strava account. You will be redirected back to the leaderboards homepage.
  3. Click “View” beneath one of the leaderboard titles.
  4. If you are not yet a member of the Zwift club on Strava, click the link to join the club, click “Join Club”, then return to the leaderboard page and click “Recheck Club Membership”. (If you are already a member of the Zwift club on Strava, skip to step 5.)
  5. Click “Update Your Times” to import your Strava rides into whatever leaderboard you are currently viewing. You may only click this link once per day for each leaderboard.

Using the Leaderboards

Here are a few tips for using the leaderboards:

  • While they will work just fine on a smartphone, the leaderboards are much easier to browse on a large screen.
  • Click any column title in a leaderboard to sort by that column.
  • Click “View” next to the route title to view that segment’s details in VeloViewer. It’s not always clear where particular segments may stop and start, so looking at the actual Strava info is helpful if you’re chasing segment times.
  • Filter by gender using the buttons at the top-right.
  • Clicking a rider’s time for a particular route will take you to their Strava activity, where you can look for reasons to rationalize them beating your segment time 😄

Can You Ride Them All?

Very few Zwifters have ridden every segment in the leaderboards (over 200 routes+KOMs at this point). Can you do it?

A Note About Group Ride Efforts

Due to the location of start pens in relation to spawn points and lap start/finish banners, we had to make a choice with some routes when selecting which segment would be used for the leaderboards:

  1. Start from the start/finish banner (eliminating group event traffic) or
  2. Start from the start pens (eliminating free ride traffic) or
  3. Start well after the start pens and start/finish banner, creating a rather wacky segment with an arbitrary start point which isn’t accurate when riders do multiple laps.

We chose to go with #1, because we didn’t want this to be restricted to “event-only” efforts, and we don’t want segments with a weird start point.

This means many of your group ride efforts will not be included in the leaderboard times. This is especially apparent on Watopia routes which begin downtown, since the start pen is located after the start/finish banner. You may also notice it with New York routes, and some other routes in other worlds.

Shout Out to VeloViewer

Ben over at VeloViewer is giving us this functionality free of charge. But if you find it useful, please consider upgrading your VeloViewer account to a Pro or Pro+ account. Cost is only £10-£20 per year, and you get lots of premium features–read more about those here.

Changelog

Suggestions or Questions?

Post them below! Thanks for joining in the fun, and Ride On!

All About Zwift’s Updated Feather and Burrito Powerups

Eric Schlange
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40
All About Zwift’s Updated Feather and Burrito Powerups

Important: powerup details below are now outdated. See our main Powerups post for current details on how each powerup works.

Zwift’s latest update included important changes to two of the game’s key powerups: the feather and burrito. Here are all the details!

Not sure how Zwift’s powerups work? Read “Your Guide to PowerUps in Zwift” >

Feather PowerUp: Helping the Heavies

The Feather powerup used to make you 9.5kg lighter, so you could climb a bit easier or sprint a bit faster. Heavier riders have complained that giving every rider the same weight advantage means the feather has a greater effect on lightweight riders than heavier riders – and they weren’t wrong!

For a 60kg rider, the old feather’s 9.5kg advantage meant a 15.8% reduction in body weight. For a 90kg rider, the same feather gave them a 10.6% reduction in weight. Since heavier riders already struggle on climbs, the mismatch seemed especially unfair.

The updated feather now reduces everyone’s body weight by a flat percentage: 10%, by our calculations. Here are some numbers we saw in our tests:

  • 75kg rider @ 300 watts (4 w/kg): goes to 4.4 w/kg with feather activated
  • 60kg rider @ 180 watts (3 w/kg): goes to 3.3 w/kg with feather activated
  • 60kg rider @ 360 watts (6 w/kg): goes to 6.7 w/kg with feather activated

Due to the way Zwift sizes our avatars, this 10% weight reduction will typically result in a visible change in size for your avatar.

Our 75k avatar before the feather powerup (left) and during (right)

A 95kg rider won’t notice any change with the new feather powerup, since it will reduce their weight by 10% (or 9.5kg, the same as the old feather). Riders lighter than 95kg may notice the feather has less effect, especially very light riders (60kg or below). Riders over 95kg may notice an increased effect.

Burrito PowerUp: Bringing the Pain

The old Burrito powerup simply turned off your avatar’s slipstream for 10 seconds, so no other riders could benefit by sitting in your draft. The problem with this setup was, the burrito is an event-only powerup, used for races. And most racing is done in a pack setting. And if you’re in a pack and activate the burrito, riders behind you are still benefiting from the slipstream effect of other riders ahead of them, even if they aren’t benefiting from you.

Basically, in a group of any significant size, activating the burrito did nothing.

It was useful if you were attacking off the front – but that’s such a rare occurrence in races that riders would often “burn their burritos” – using them immediately, or clicking the link to throw them away.

The new burrito is much more… er… powerful. It now disables the draft effect for all riders within 2.5m of yourself. Here’s a visual comparing normal pack dynamics to the old burrito effect to the new burrito effect:

Note: the draft “trail” show above is for illustrative purposes only and not indicative of Zwift’s actual draft “shape” or strength.

This change makes the burrito especially effective when used in the peloton, because it makes every rider within 2.5 meters work harder! The rider who activates the burrito still receives the same draft benefits as before, but riders within 2.5 meters are receiving zero draft benefit for 10 seconds.

Strategic Burrito Usage:

  • Watch for friendly fire: if you are riding next to a teammate, keep in mind that activating your burrito will adversely affect them. Consider moving away from your teammate or warning them via Discord to move away before activating.
  • Don’t double burrito: if a nearby rider already has a burrito activated, activating your burrito powerup will have a negligible effect since nearby riders will already have their draft disabled by the first burrito. Wait until the first burrito expires (it only lasts for 10 seconds) or move elsewhere in the pack.
  • Burrito-powered teamwork: to facilitate a team breakaway, move within 1 rider of the front of the pack (but still within the draft of the front rider(s), then activate your burrito as teammate(s) attack. This will let the teammates get away, while making it difficult for anyone to bridge across the draftless space to grab their wheel.
  • Mind the gap: when you see a nearby rider activate a burrito, increase your wattage so you don’t drop away from the pack. Keep in mind that riders just ahead of you may also have their draft disabled by the burrito, which means they may let a gap open up to riders ahead. Keep your eyes open, and bridge that gap before it becomes a problem!

Questions or Comments?

Share below!

A Virtual World of Real Opportunity: Women and eRacing

Jasmin Welter
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7
A Virtual World of Real Opportunity: Women and eRacing
Jasmin Welter atop the Intelligentsia podium

As a female cyclist, commuting, riding for pleasure, training, and racing, I’ve often wondered: where are all the other women? After some research on the topic, the main concerns that prevent women from getting on bikes are safety concerns and socio-cultural limitations. As a bike commuter in the city of Chicago, I can relate to and understand the safety concerns. In training, I have gotten used to being the only or one of very few women on group rides. In contrast, I’ve frequently heard statements like “My wife is at home with the kids”, “My wife is scared of traffic” and such during coffee stops. As a bike racer, I see the small size of women’s fields in bike racing. Oftentimes I’ve asked myself: “Do I belong here?” or “Is it worth it?”

A Safe Space

Jasmin in Canyon/SRAM kit after completing the women’s Zwift Academy

The emergence of eRacing and virtual training opportunities brings forward a safe environment for women — both in terms of physical safety but also as a safe and convenient space to be a female athlete in a supportive community. Initiatives like large women-only group rides or the Zwift Academy have been empowering experiences for women who don’t have the luxury to enjoy those environments in real life (IRL).

As a bike racer in Chicagoland, women’s fields have been fought for hard, but numbers are still low across the categories. Weekend travel to races across the Midwest is the norm to encounter larger, more competitive fields. The time and financial investments are a large boundary to women specifically, and here is where eRacing makes all the difference.

The Power of Accessibility

This ease of accessibility is a tremendous help for female riders of all ages, for mothers, for time-crunched professionals. The number of opportunities for riding and racing for beginners to pro cyclists is encouraging and motivating, and likely provides an environment few women have experienced on the road before.

Jenn Real at the end of a rainbow in Hawaii

The first thing I was positively shocked by when joining Zwift was the sheer number of women riding. Instead of a handful, the rides had hundreds of participants. Team manager Jenn Real knows the advantage of eRacing’s accessibility and opportunity for women all too well: “As someone living on the Big Island of Hawaii, where we have exactly one road race a year, Zwift is my competitive outlet. Zwift enables me to race at a very high level, while living off the grid on a farm in the mountains of Hawaii. It’s at least a six-hour flight to find a big women’s road race IRL. Without Zwift, I doubt I would still be racing bikes.”

I entered the world of eRacing as a wildcard for Team Fearless in their annual Women’s Team Championship 2019. Ultimately joining the powerhouse of Team Saris + The Pro’s Closet was a true game-changer: all of a sudden, I’m racing a field stacked with up to 100 women, many of them pros from all corners of the globe — a level that I would very likely never have experienced in real life as someone who picked up cycling in their late 20s.

Anna Russell with her husband Hayden and kiddos.

The eRacing community is large and competitive but also cordial and inclusive. Our team itself counts racers of all ages and backgrounds, and from more than 5 countries. I truly enjoy the community the team provides as much as the motivation to support my team and compete with the best. Many of my teammates are mothers or retired professional athletes, and eRacing gives them the unique opportunity to keep competing at a high level without many of the downsides that professional racing comes with.

Teammate Anna Russell, a former professional triathlete, sees Zwift as a lifeline in both a social and competitive way: “Zwifting through pregnancy and the newborn days was an amazing way to keep active but also have social interaction. Now I am able to regularly race while the kids are sleeping, something I never thought would be possible.”

Teammate Caroline Murray adds: “Even though fielding a homework question on Pythagoras’ Theorem isn’t ideal at the best of times let alone when you’re seconds away from the final sprint of your race, having such an accessible platform for training and racing whilst juggling working life and being a mum (mom) is an absolute godsend. Having a community of amazing people who totally get it when you’ve had to cut your ride short because your kid couldn’t find the blue bowl for their cereal solidifies my love for Zwift even more!”

Caroline Murray throwing down the watts

The Growth of eRacing: Strength in Numbers

The sport of eRacing has been growing for years, and platforms like Zwift have broadened their cooperation with national cycling associations to establish national (and ultimately world) championships as an additional discipline of bike racing. The support of Saris, The Pro’s Closet and our fellow sponsors has been instrumental for setting our team up for success in this movement as we compete against the world’s cycling elite.

ERacing has certainly experienced another boom due to the recent coronavirus pandemic. The opportunities emerging from this rapid growth are endless-for the individual and the sport of cycling as a whole: when the numbers of female Zwifters are rising, why wouldn’t organizations and companies support women on bikes IRL? When equity is possible virtually, then why wouldn’t the real world follow suit?

I’m hoping our actions in eRacing will complement and strengthen the work that’s been done by advocates for parity in cycling. We are very thankful for our sponsors Saris and The Pro’s Closet who believe in our athletes and support us on this next level of eRacing. Follow Team Saris + The Pro’s Closet on Instagram and Facebook and make sure to connect with us on Zwift too.

DT Swiss Reborn Faster Festival Announced

Eric Schlange
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14
DT Swiss Reborn Faster Festival Announced

Zwift has just rolled out a weeklong event series in partnership with DT Swiss. Centered around the newly-launched revamped ARC 1100 62mm wheelset from DT Swiss, the “DT Swiss Reborn Faster Festival” features races and group rides led by pro riders. All rides will auto-assign the new DT Swiss ARC 62 wheelset to riders.

About the Events

This series includes group rides, races, and group workouts across a variety of routes, with several events scheduled each day. Many of the group rides will be led by DT Swiss-sponsored pro riders (just look for their name in the event title).

Events begin with a group ride on Sunday August 16 at 10pm Pacific, and end Sunday at 11:30am Pacific.

See upcoming events and sign up at zwift.com/events/series/dt-swiss >

Unlocks and Prizes

Finish one event in the series and you’ll get the new DT Swiss ARC 62 wheelset added to your Zwift garage.

There’s also a prize drawing: a set of real-life ARC 1100 DICUT 62mm wheels! Each event you finish in the series gets you one more entry into the giveaway, and one man and one woman will each win a set.

See upcoming events and sign up at zwift.com/events/series/dt-swiss >

Off the MAAP 2020 Tour Announced

Eric Schlange
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17
Off the MAAP 2020 Tour Announced

Zwift has just rolled out their next major tour event, dubbed “Off the MAAP” since it’s in partnership with Melbourne-based cycling clothing maker MAAP. Here are all the details of this popular event!

Stage Details and Schedule

This is a 4-stage tour which lasts 2 weeks (Aug 15-30). Make-up days are included (Aug 27-30) in case you miss a particular stage.

Each stage includes women’s-only race events as well as an open race (men and women) and a group ride. Group rides include a short and long route option, while race categories are based on FTP w/kg, and all race categories ride the same route.

Stage 1 (Aug 15-17)

Stage 2 (Aug 18-20)

Stage 3 (Aug 21-23)

Stage 4 (Aug 24-26)

See details and sign up for events at zwift.com/otm2020 >

Unlocks and Prizes

Finish every stage to unlock the exclusive Off the MAAP in-game kit. You’ll also unlock the ability to purchase a real-life version from MAAP once the tour ends!

Event types can be mixed, so you can race one stage and group ride another in order to complete the tour.

Pro-Am Invitational

Before each stage kicks off, watch top pros and amateurs will battle it out! Racing kicks off at 7pm AEST/10am BST/5am EDT/2am PDT on Aug 14, 17, 20, and 24. Watch each live stream below:

Questions or Comments?

Post below and we’ll try to help!

Zwift Events Not To Miss This Weekend

Eric Schlange
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12
Zwift Events Not To Miss This Weekend

This weekend has a lot of high-attendance events, which is always fun! Raise funds for Buffalo bikes, join a big ride series… or try steering in a race for the first time. It’s all good!

Special thanks to Jesper at ZwiftHacks with his Events app which provides powerful event filtering tools that help us create this list each week.

Ride Like King 12

This weekend the popular Ride Like King celebration is back in Zwift-land, and it includes pro rides, Buffalo Bike donations through WBR, a kit unlock, and prize giveaways! Read all the details here >

This is a 4-stage event. The more stages Zwifters ride, the more Buffalo bikes will be donated!

  • Stage 1 – Friday at 11am BST/6am EDT/3am PDT: 2 laps of the Tick Tock route.
  • Stage 2 – Friday at 11pm BST/6pm EDT/3pm PDT: 2 laps of the Tempus Fugit route.
  • Stage 3 – Saturday at 9am BST/4am EDT/1am PDT: 3 laps of the Greater London Flat route.
  • Stage 4 – Sunday at 5pm BST/12pm EDT/9am PDT: 4 laps of the Gotham Grind route.

Sign up at zwift.com/events/series/ride-like-king-12

Steering Races!

Last week’s Zwift update included the ability to steer on all Zwift roads, if you have an Elite Sterzo Smart steering block. Those Sterzos are now arriving at Zwifters’ doorsteps, so it’s time to try steering in a race! Zwift automatically disabled steering in all scheduled races, since it provides an advantage. But they’ve created two special events where steering will be allowed (they are currently set to “no steering” as we write this, but certainly that will be fixed by race day).

Racers without steering abilities are encouraged to attend as well, to see what it’s like to race against steering riders. Anti-sandbagging (the green cone of shame) is also enabled for these events. Let’s have some fun!

Saturday 4pm BST/11am EDT/8am PDT
Sign up at zwift.com/events/view/1010962

Sunday 8am BST/3am EDT/12am PDT
Sign up at zwift.com/events/view/1010967

7 Days of Tarmac SL7

We’re at the end of this three-stage series celebrating the new Specialized Tarmac S7 bike (read all about the series here). This weekend is stage 3, inspired by Julian Alaphilippe and held on the France map. Choose from the long ride which takes you up the challenging La Reine route to Mont Ven-Top’s Chalet Reynard, or do the shorter ride on the flatter Casse-Pattes route.

Multiple event times, see zwift.com/events/series/7-days-of-tarmac-sl7 for details

Off the MAAP Tour

This big 2-week tour kicks off this weekend with Stage 1 (there are 4 stages total). Each stage includes group rides, races, and a pro-am invitational event. Complete all stages to unlock the exclusive kit!

Multiple event times, see https://www.zwift.com/otm2020 for details

ZZRC Sunday Club Ride – 2.5 to 2.7 w/kg

Looking for a long group ride with friendly support and some hills? Try ZZRC’s weekly Sunday club ride. This week it’s a long one – 167.7km as you cover 3 laps of the London Pretzel route.

Sunday 9:30am BST/4:30am EDT/1:30am PDT
Sign up at zwift.com/events/view/1007535

Your Thoughts

Got other events that stand out this weekend? Share below in the comments!

Ride Like King 12 Announced

Eric Schlange
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3
Ride Like King 12 Announced

This weekend the popular Ride Like King celebration is back in Zwift-land, and it includes pro rides, Buffalo Bike donations through WBR, a kit unlock, and prize giveaways! Here are the details…

About King

In 2007, at age 73, Giant Group company founder King Liu completed a 15-day, 927km ride around Taiwan. That ride sparked a renewed interest in King’s own cycling lifestyle and the benefits that cycling can have on health and fitness. Ride Like King began in 2009 as a small event within the Giant Group family to celebrate company founder King Liu’s passion for cycling, and this is the 3rd year the event has partnered with Zwift.

The WBR Buffalo Bike

Bring On the Buffalos

For each 1,200km completed by Zwifters during these events, Giant Group will donate a Buffalo bike to a rider in need via World Bicycle Relief.

Here’s a little math: all 4 stages total just over 150km. So 8 Zwifters riding all four stages would result in one Buffalo bike donation.

You can also make a donation at give.worldbicyclerelief.org/fundraiser/2812908.

Event Schedule

There are four different events:

  • Stage 1 – Friday at 11am BST/6am EDT/3am PDT: 2 laps of the Tick Tock route.
  • Stage 2 – Friday at 11pm BST/6pm EDT/3pm PDT: 2 laps of the Tempus Fugit route.
  • Stage 3 – Saturday at 9am BST/4am EDT/1am PDT: 3 laps of the Greater London Flat route.
  • Stage 4 – Sunday at 5pm BST/12pm EDT/9am PDT: 4 laps of the Gotham Grind route.

See schedule and sign up at zwift.com/events/series/ride-like-king-12 >

Riders will be assigned the Giant TCR Advanced SL for the open ride and the Liv Langma Advanced SL for the women’s only events.

Kit Unlock

Finish any one of the four rides to unlock the regal Ride Like King 12 kit. It includes dozens of little bike-riding kings covering the front and back.

Prizes

Riders who finish any of the stages are eligible to win IRL prizes. Five randomly chosen riders from each event will win a limited-edition Ride Like King 12 jersey, signed by the man himself. 

How the Race was Lost: Hero to Zero

Eric Schlange
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18
How the Race was Lost: Hero to Zero

Last week at the last minute I decided to jump into midday race – the KISS at Race EU PM. I had missed my normal morning ride due to some scheduling snafus, and this particular race appealed to me because it was on a route I had never ridden before! (Sure, I had done a route recce for the route detail page I created a few weeks prior – but I had never actually ridden Paris’ Lutece Express myself.)

I did lead a Sprintapalooza ride going in the opposite direction, on the Champs-Élysées route – but riding a route in one direction does not fully prepare you to race it in the other. Today’s race would prove that point. But I’m getting ahead of myself!

The Warmup

I climbed on the bike about 30 minutes before the race, having chewed two pieces of caffeine gum and slapped some PR lotion on the legs. The warmup was uneventful as I raised my heart rate in a controlled fashion over a 25-minute effort out in Fuego Flats.

Satisfied that the legs and cardio system were ready, I clicked to join the race. Allez allez!

The Start

Our B pack contained 61 riders, and I had already taken a glance at ZwiftPower to see who the strongest were. There were a handful with a better ZP ranking than myself, so I tried to remember their names. The best-ranked rider had an easy name to remember – Poochiemoomoos! I’d keep an eye out for him…

The Lutece Express route is a hard push right out of the gate because you exit the start pens and immediately turn left onto the “Montée des Champs-Élysées” – the circuit’s toughest section. This little hill is only 1.1 kilometers long and climbs around 29 meters (meaning it averages around 3%). But it’s the most decisive part of the 6.6km circuit, as riders attack here every time!

It took us around 2-1/2 minutes to start the race, climb Montée, and settle in. In that time I averaged 349 watts: the cost of making the front group. Things settled down as we made our way around the Arc de Triomphe and descended toward the finish line to begin our first full lap.

We had 5 laps to go in this race, for a total distance of 37.4km (23.3 miles), and by the time we’d begun the first lap our starting pack had been whittled down to ~20 riders.

The Middle

We soon fell into a solid but sustainable rhythm – sort of an over-under workout with extended recovery between each hard interval. Each lap took around 9 minutes, and 2 of those minutes we were over threshold, climbing Montée des Champs-Élysées. Then we’d drop below threshold for the rest of the circuit.

Over-unders on Lutece Express

The rhythm was helped by an abundance of powerups, since we rode through two banners each lap. Unfortunately, I kept getting burritos, which are pretty useless unless you’re attempting a breakaway. (Worth noting: the burrito got updated just a few hours after my race thanks to Zwift’s latest update. Now it’s quite a *giggle* offensive weapon, disabling the draft effect for all riders within 2.5m!)

Poochiemoomoos put in a solid attack on the climb a couple laps in, but nobody went with him and he was reeled in during our “recovery” stretch easily enough.

Funny “Zwift meets IRL” story: one rider messaged the group on lap 4 and said something like “Eric in da house. Never forget you pulling me Winters RR!” It was Martin Michael, a guy who joined me when I attempted a breakaway from our group during the Winters Road Race a few years back. We stayed away, but unfortunately I had jumped thinking the finish line was just around the next bend, when it was actually a couple miles away. Oops. It worked out alright in the end, but it worked out better for Martin!

Chatting with Martin

The Finish

Going into the final climb on the final lap, I fully expected Poochiemoomoos would attack. So I stayed near the front and kept a wary eye on him and others. But no one made a big move, so our pack of 17 riders eased off a bit as we made our way around the Arc and down the cobbles to the finish.

I was hoping for an aero powerup through the sprint banner (I had used my feather on the climb), but got the blasted burrito yet again. So I decided I would attempt a long attack, using my burrito to (hopefully) gap the pack so I could stay away.

Judging where to begin a long attack is no easy thing, especially on an unfamiliar route. If you wait too long, everyone else will be keyed up and ready to sprint as well, and you’ll just be their lead-out man. If you go too early, you’ll blow up and get passed by all the riders you were trying to beat.

Sitting a few bike lengths back from the front of the pack, I waited until it felt like the right time to go. With around 700 meters to the line I hit the gas, accelerating through the pack and using their draft to slingshot me into open air as I activated my burrito powerup.

For a few seconds it appeared I was free from the pack, but then I saw Poochiemoomoos on my tail:

As my legs and lungs began to hit the wall I looked in vain for the finish line: why was it still so far away? My power was dropping…

The long downslope of my final sprint’s power numbers

And then it happened – Poochiemoomoos passed me with an aero powerup flashing above his head.

Then another. And another. And another… where were all these aero helmets coming from?

I limped across the line, the next rider almost 2 minutes back. I had gone from the front of our lead pack to the very back. 1st to 17th. Hero to zero! And Poochiemoomoos, who had been favored to win, got baited into chasing my ill-fated move. He finished just ahead of me, and I bet he learned his lesson: don’t trust Schlange’s judgment!

See my activity on Zwift.com >
See my activity on Strava >
See race results on ZwiftPower.com >

Watch my recording of the race:

Takeaways

First takeaway: know the route. You’d think I would have learned my lesson with Martin Michael in the Winters Road Race, but here I am still misjudging long attacks. If possible, get on the route and free ride it before you race it. Figure out where to begin the final sprint based on landmarks and/or distance remaining. Find all the uphills and figure out how hard you can hit them and still have legs to hold on.

Second takeaway: 1 and 5-minute power are so crucial for strong Zwift race results, as Rick Wenger explained in his recent “How to Become a Zwift Top 20 Category B Racer” article. That’s especially true on this route. I averaged 378 watts over the final 4 minutes (from the start of the climb to the finish line). If you want to turn in a good result you’ve got to be able to hold high wattage in the final 3-4 minutes of the race, plus sprint hard for the last 15-20 seconds.

Despite my result, I really enjoyed racing Lutece Express. The over-under route style suits me as a racer, plus it’s a really great workout. I’ll be racing here more… and I won’t misjudge the finish line next time. Hopefully.

Your Thoughts

Have you ever gone long and fallen short? Share your tale below! Also, let me know what you think of Lutece Express as a race route.

Wheel and Frame Performance Scatter Plots for Zwifters

Eric Schlange
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90
Wheel and Frame Performance Scatter Plots for Zwifters

Important: this post contains performance data which was invalidated in Zwift’s mid-March 2025 update. Learn about those changes and get updated performance data >

Our performance test charts for wheels and frames have become a popular tool for Zwift racers, and today we’re releasing another way to view the data: scatter plots.

This style of chart lets you quickly see which wheels and frames are top performers on climbs, flats, or both. Just mouse over a plot point to find out which wheelset or frame it represents.

If you’re looking for the best performers, you want items that are lower on the chart (indicating a faster climb time) and further left (indicating a faster flat test time). This means we have a top performer “inner curve” running from the top-left to the bottom-right of each chart. We’ve enlarged the plot points for these frames and wheels so they’re easy to pick out.

These enlarged points are the fastest wheelsets and frames available, but they are top performers in different ways: those lower on the chart are better climbers and less aero, while those nearer the top are more aero, but slower climbers.

Wheel Performance Scatter Plot

There are four definite “performance bands” visible here, running diagonally from upper-left to lower-right. You have the top performers (the enlarged points, plus those nearby), a group close to those top performers, a middle group, and the slow wheels.

Frame Performance Scatter Plot

This chart doesn’t break into easy visual performance bands, but there are three noticeable vertical groupings of frames with the exact same flat performance time (at 3093, 3094, and 3095 seconds). These three groups comprise 22 different frames from the total universe of 50. Our guess is most of these grouped frames share the same CdA value in Zwift, but slightly varying weights.

To keep the chart user-friendly, the two slowest climbers have not been included. Here are their timings:

  • Zwift Buffalo (3106, 3065.5)
  • Zwift Safety (3097, 3006.5)

TT Frame Performance Scatter Plot

There are a few clear leaders here, with the ideal choice varying based on terrain.

About the Performance Tests

  • Flat tests run on 2 laps of Tempus Fugit at 300 watts steady with an isolated 75kg rider 183cm tall, using basic Zwift 32mm Carbon wheels.
  • Climb tests run on Alpe du Zwift using 300 watts steady with an isolated 75kg rider 183cm tall, using basic Zwift 32mm Carbon wheels.

Where the Tron?

This is a question we always get when we publish performance charts for wheels and frames. Unfortunately, the Tron bike comes as a unit – the frame and wheels cannot be separated for testing purposes. We could include it on the charts above, but it wouldn’t be very useful, since the charts above aren’t displaying top-performing wheel and frame combinations. Rather, they display top-performing wheels on one chart, and top-performing frames on the other.

The Tron would simply appear as a top-performing outlier on both charts, but that wouldn’t give you a full picture of Tron performance, since we know that combining a top-performing frame+wheelset will give you a setup which is competitive or even faster than the Tron bike. To graph the Tron in a useful way, the other graph points would need to consist of top-performing wheel+frame combinations.

So we’ve done just that. Check out our popular Tron vs Top Performers Scatter Plot!

Questions or Comments?

We’ll be adding these charts to our main chart pages soon. Got questions or comments? Share below!

All About Zwift’s DT Swiss ARC 1100 DiCut 62 Wheelset

Eric Schlange
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All About Zwift’s DT Swiss ARC 1100 DiCut 62 Wheelset

Last week’s Zwift update included a new wheelset: the first DT Swiss hoops in game! Called the “DT Swiss ARC 1100 DiCut 62”, these virtual wheels are based on the newly-released DT Swiss ARC 1100 DiCut 62 DB. DT Swiss describes these IRL wheels as “all-round aero”, and that summarizes their in-game performance quite nicely.

These new hoops cost 184,600 Drops and require level 6. Here’s how Zwift’s Drop Shop describes the wheelset:

“Built around the iconic 240 hubset with its ratchet system for rapid engagement and DT Swiss’s own aero comp spokes and hidden nipples, the ARC 1100 62 is a mid-depth wheelset that offers a windtunnel-proven aero advantage at a weight that won’t slow you down when heading uphill. The ARC 62 is a do-everything wheelset that features the latest in-house technology from this historical and history-making company.”

Stargazing

There are only two wheelsets in Zwift which have a 4-star aero rating coupled with a 3-star weight rating: these new hoops from DT Swiss, and the Zipp 454’s. Presumably, both sets would deliver strong performance at high speeds while climbing well.

But experienced Zwifters know that the star ratings don’t provide a precise view of wheel performance. So we’ve run our standard flat and climbing tests to learn precisely how the DT Swiss ARC 62’s stack up against the other wheelsets in our garage. Here are the results!

Flat (Aero) Performance

These wheels turn in solid performance on flat and rolling courses, but they just aren’t quite slippery enough to make our list of Zwift’s most aero wheelsets. Overall they are ranked in the 75th percentile on our wheel charts, meaning they performed better in our flat test than 75% of the available wheelsets.

On our ~50-minute flat test, the DT Swiss ARC 62’s are 18 seconds behind the very fastest wheels available (Zipp 858/Super9), and 8 seconds behind the Zipp 808’s which are commonly used by Zwift racers.

Climb (Lightweight) Performance

These wheels perform surprisingly well in our climbing tests. “Surprisingly” because they are deep-dish carbon wheels (62mm deep), and those don’t traditionally perform well on climbs outdoors due to their increased weight.

The DT Swiss ARC 62’s, though, perform well enough to tie for 4th place in our ~50-minute Alpe climb test. And that’s just 1 second behind tying for 3rd place! Given their strong performance in our flat tests, we’ve ranked them as the third best overall climbing wheelset.

Conclusions

The new DT Swiss ARC 1100 DiCut 62 wheelset on Zwift in an excellent performer if you’re looking for a wheel that climbs well without slowing you down too much on the flats. In fact, in our stacked percentile rankings, this wheelset comes in at the top, just edging out the Zipp 454s which are only available at a much higher level!

Don’t read too much into this wheelset being ranked above the 454’s – the two wheelsets are basically tied in terms of overall performance, with the DT Swiss climbing the Alpe 1 second faster, and the Zipps finishing our flat route 1 second faster. With GPS rounding errors of 1 second being commonplace, it’s safe to say both wheelsets perform in nearly identical fashion. They have the same star ratings, after all, so this makes good sense.

In fact, any of the wheelsets listed above will turn is solid all-around performance on flats and climbs. It’s just a question of where you want the advantage – want some help on the flats? Go with the 858’s. Want help on the climbs? Consider the ENVE 3.4’s. Want a balance? The DT Swiss or Zipp 454’s are a good choice.

Your Thoughts

Will you be rolling these new hoops on Zwift? Why or why not? Share below!

Important note: this post contains speed test results for Zwift frames or wheels. These results may change over time, and a bike's performance relative to others may also change. We don't always revise posts when performance rankings change, but we do keep current, master versions of our speed test results which are always available. See the frame charts, wheel charts, and Tron vs Top Performers for current performance data.
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