Kevin Bouchard Hall is a top Zwift racer with TeamX and a top dad. He recently sat in with retired pro rider Ted King (newbie Zwift racer and neo Dad) to share tips on how to perform best in Zwift races.
Kevin is a former US national team stand-out, but he decided that unless he was making it to the Pro Tour, he’d rely on his intelligence to move forward in life. So he stepped away from cycling for a while. Now he’s back on the scene, but storming Zwift at all odd hours of the day because he’s married with two sons, and the Bouchard Hall family is busy as it gets!
As the duo participate in a 1-lap race of the Richmond 2015 UCI course, Kevin shares spot-on tips to help Ted stay with the front pack and in contention as long as possible. Their banter is entertaining to watch, but also educational for newer Zwift racers. Check it out!
Zwift has just announced an unprecedented second Watopia Run Festival for 2020. While February’s festival was only 2 days long, April’s will be a full week!
Make it a fun run, or push yourself to the limit. It’s up to you! While there’s no podium at the end of the Watopia Run Festival, each event will show a finishing order once completed.
Events
There are four different event lengths to choose from throughout the week, with a fifth (full marathon) length available on the last day of the festival. Zwift says, “We know that lots of you trained unbelievably hard for a spring marathon and are looking to put that hard work to the test. Here’s your chance.”
Today, Zwift released an update for the Companion mobile app which expands Meetup capabilities in two key ways.
Available now for iOS and Android, Companion version 3.13 allows us to choose any open Zwift map for our Meetups, and expands the invite limit from 50 to 100.Two bits of happy news for Zwift Meetup organizers!
6 Different Worlds
We can now schedule Meetups on any of the 6 “open” maps at any day/time. That means all open routes on Watopia, London, New York, Richmond, Innsbruck, or Yorkshire are available for our Meetups! (Crit City and Bologna are only used for official Zwift events at this time.)
This will be very welcome news to Zwifters for at least two reasons:
Complete control over route choice: With 67 different routes available on the 6 open maps, you’ll always be able to find a route that suits your fancy! Meetup map options are no longer restricted by the guest map schedule, and that’s a very good thing.
Less crowding: if a guest map isn’t on the guest map schedule, there will be very few riders using it. Surely savvy schedulers will look at the guest map schedule and select “off-schedule” maps where there will be fewer riders on course, allowing their Meetup to feel more like a “group-only” event. This is an especially big deal for Meetups which don’t enable the “Keep Everyone Together” option because it’s easy for riders to get spread out and lost on a busy road.
World Hacking Through Meetups!
Zwifters have been “world hacking” (finding ways to ride in off-schedule maps) for years. One side benefit of this Meetups change is it gives you the ability to “world hack” without needing to edit your prefs.xml file. Just schedule a Meetup… for yourself… on whatever route you want to ride! Then join it and ride it.
If you’re looking to grab a particular route badge, or ride on a less-populated world, Meetups may be your ticket – especially if you’re on AppleTV, where world hacking is next to impossible!
Note: you have to invite at least one person to create a Meetup. Easy! Invite a friend or spouse who follows you, and put a note in the event so they know it’s not a real invite.They don’t have to accept the invite for you to ride the Meetup. 😋
Double the Invites, Double the Fun
We used to be restricted to inviting 50 followers to our Meetups, but that has been doubled to 100. This is certainly due to community feedback as more and more clubs are using the Meetup feature to create group events, and some were bumping into that invite limit.
Doubling it to 100 should satisfy the needs of the vast majority of Meetups, but if you’re finding you need even more, let your voice be heard by in this thread.
Too Many Invites?
One possible negative side effect of this change is we may all begin receiving more Meetup invites that we aren’t interested in, as riders organize Meetups and select more riders from their list of followers. Pro tip: if you don’t want to get these Meetup invites, the easiest thing to do is simply unfollow the person who keeps sending you invites!
Other Changes
The Companion update also included unspecified “Meetup invite improvements.” We aren’t sure what these are, but hopefully part of the improvement is to make the invites pop up more reliably. (A recent game change made Meetup invites pop up earlier in game, which is also a welcome change.)
Also: Zwift is working hard on the Clubs feature! This update included unspecified but “numerous” Zwift Clubs fixes and improvements. We know many clubs out there are looking forward to being able to use these features soon, so it’s good to see continued progress being made.
What’s Next?
There are several Meetup features which Zwifters ask for regularly, including:
Late Join: this is by far the most requested Meetups feature, because we’re cyclists, and there’s always that late guy.
Culled Meetups: hiding all non-Meetup riders would allow you to truly track the location of other participants without the distraction of other riders on the road. Especially important in competitive rides!
Easier Invites: being able to simply post a link for people to click and join the Meetup, instead of requiring someone to follow you before the invite. This hasn’t been implemented due to concerns about spamming, but it’s still a common request because the current invite system is a hassle!
Group Workouts in Meetups: selecting a workout for all Meetup participants to do together. This can be done currently as a hack, but it would be nice if this could be incorporated into the Meetup system.
Ranking in Meetups: show your placing during the Meetup and once it finishes. This would allow you to hold simple races. Combine this with the culling feature explained above and you’ll have groups holding simple races all over the place!
Zwift is asking for our feedback on what Meetup features we most want, so be sure to visit this forum thread and chime in with your thoughts!
Your Thoughts
What do you think of these changes? And what would you like to see next? Share below, but more importantly, chime in on Wes’ forum thread and let your voice be heard!
We’re growing pretty used to seeing Zwift records smashed in these peculiar times. Peak Zwift. The most Zwifters in an event. New Zwifter surge. All these are hitting previously unseen levels.
But have we just seen yet another record tumble? When Owen Newbury posted a picture on Zwift Riders of his scheme to project Zwift onto the side of his house, it rapidly garnered 2,000 likes. And last time we checked it was over 2,400 likes.
We’re not sure, we think that might be yet another record. Owen talked to the Zwiftcast about the plan.
“I just thought why not?” said Owen. “I mentioned it to my dad and he agreed it was worth a try, so we got on with it.” Owen was quick to add: ”But it was my idea though!”
Owen’s family had invested in a projector a little while ago, a model from the Sony Data range but it hadn’t seen much use… until Owen and his Dad set it up in the garden, hooked up a laptop via HDMI and focused Zwift on the side of their – happily white-painted – house.
“We had to try a number of angles, but I was pretty happy with the one we ended up with,” says Owen, an experienced Zwifter.
The project, in Owen’s family home in the North East of England, quickly drew a crowd of neighbours keen for a break from the routine of Lockdown. “People seemed to enjoy watching,” says Owen. “I felt like I was in the Tour de France”.
I asked Owen, who Zwifted on several pleasant, dry evenings in the garden, whether a crowd put him under pressure to put the hammer down but he told me he explained to his neighbours that he was on a strict training plan and that he’d be concentrating on his intervals.
A few who posted comments on Owen’s brilliant project commented that the light was shining in on what looked like a bedroom window. “It’s OK”, said Owen, “it’s my bedroom.”
You can hear from Owen and a special guest appearance from Zwift Insider Editor Eric Schlange on this week’s Zwiftcast.
With more big events than ever happening in our virtual cycling paradise, it’s easy to miss some really cool rides! Here are 5+ events this weekend that you won’t want to miss.
See you on course!
Israel Start-Up Nation Medical Aid Ride
The primary purpose of this ride is to raise funds to secure N95 masks for hospitals in need. One Zwifter counts for one mask! The more people who join, the bigger the donation will be. Tell your friends, and ride for a good cause.
Pro cyclists Alex Dowsett, Dan Martin, and Andre Greipel will each lead separate groups at different paces, so everyone can find a group for their fitness level.
Movistar Team Innsbruck UCI Worlds Ride with Alejandro Valverde
Join legendary pro cyclist Alejandro Valverde of the Movistar Team and relive his 2018 UCI Road World Championship win in Innsbruck!
This is a social ride with a climbing challenge at the end. All riders should cruise at a social pace for 30km allowing time for Q&A with Alejandro. At the base of the Innsbruck KOM climb, the group will be let loose to climb to the finish 7.5km away.
Newbury Velo’s weekend TT events have become popular quite quickly. It’s a short TT (around 10 miles), so you can do it as part of a longer Saturday if you’d like. No marshalls, no signup fee. Just sign up and show up before your start time (which you get when you sign up, in Zwift Companion). Drafting is disabled, and TT bikes aren’t required – but they are recommended!
Note: the event is currently limited to 500 riders, so sign up quick! (Race organizers tell me this is a Zwift event setting issue which will hopefully be changed starting next weekend.)
Weekends are traditional times for long rides, and it’s no different on Zwift! Why not hop into a big group ride this weekend? Here are several which vary in length from a metric century to an imperial. Be sure to click and read pace details and other info – you don’t want to join a long ride that doesn’t meet your needs/abilities!
Doing a long ride is one thing. But what about pushing max effort during a long ride – doing a long race? Here are four long races scheduled for the weekend:
Got other events that stand out this weekend? Share below in the comments! And if you participate in any of these events, let us know how your ride went.
While the “riding on a trainer will damage your carbon frame” myth has been officially busted, indoor riding can still pose a threat to your bike in two ways: wheel strain and sweat corrosion.
We’ve put together an exhaustive list of common trouble spots reported by riders who train regularly on Zwift. Also included are “indoor only” maintenance tips so you can enjoy every Zwift session without being interrupted by a mechanical!
Your rear skewer handles more stress in a stationary setup than it will on the road. This can lead to a bent or flexing quick-release axle if you use an aluminum or titanium quick-release rear skewer, which can lead to your frame disconnecting from the trainer – which can severely damage your frame. This is why trainers typically ship with a sturdy steel skewer you can easily swap out. (Obviously, this isn’t an issue with thru-axle bikes.)
Solution: always use a steel skewer on your rear wheel when using a trainer.
A note on sprinting: keep in mind that, without a rocker plate, your indoor out of the saddle sprint technique will have to be different from your outdoor. Outdoor sprinting typically involves keeping your body fairly upright while the top of the bike moves side to side. Indoor sprinting requires the bike to stay fairly stationary, so your pedal and body motion will be more “up and down.” Here’s a video from Shane Miller discussing this topic >
Back Tires
“Wheel-on” trainers allow you to keep your rear tire on your bike and provide resistance by pressing a roller against your rear tire. These are the most common trainers used today due to their low cost and ease of use, but they will wear out your rear tire much more quickly than outdoor riding.
Solutions:
Use a trainer tire: these tires are made to be used only on indoor trainers, so the rubber is grippier and the tread is smooth. They are usually brightly-colored so you don’t accidentally use them outside.
Use a spare wheel: many cyclists have a spare wheel lying around–use it as a dedicated trainer wheel (with a trainer tire or an old tire you don’t mind wearing down).
Don’t change anything: this was my approach in my first indoor season, and I was happy with it. My Gatorskin tire was rather worn at the end of the outdoor season anyway, so I kept it on all winter and put a new tire on when I started riding outside again.
Another thing to keep in mind with your tires is that it’s not good for them to have constant pressure in one small area, which is exactly what the resistance roller does when your back tire isn’t spinning.
Solution: disengage the resistance roller to prevent the creation of flat spots on your tire if you leave your bike on the trainer between rides.
Front Wheel Spokes
Out of the saddle riding (even if not sprinting) is going to put significant load through a handful of spokes, leading to uneven fatigue.
Solution: Rotating your front wheel 1/4 turn before each workout or once a week will even the fatigue.
Sweat Corrosion
No serious cyclist can avoid sweating on their bike, but we must understand that sweat eats metal. Of course, it’s important to have a good fan or two to reduce sweating and encourage drying as much as possible. But even then, you will sweat, and this can cause major damage to your bike. Here are the key problem areas to keep in mind:
Handlebars
Aluminum handlebar corrosion
We’ve heard many stories of cyclists snapping their aluminum handlebars because they were corroded from sweat. Aluminum handlebars are typically anodized to prevent this corrosion, but scratches or flaws in the anodized surface can lead to bar-weakening corrosion.
The challenge is that you can’t see handlebar corrosion since it is covered by your bar tape. And the danger, obviously, is that a handlebar failure outdoors may be catastrophic.
Solutions:
Ride with gloves and/or a towel over your handlebars. Both of these will soak up much of the sweat that would otherwise make its way onto your bars.
Change your bar tape at least once a year, and be sure to check for corrosion each time you do so.
Apply Boeshield T-9 to your clean bars to prevent corrosion.
Use carbon instead of aluminum handlebars.It won’t corrode!
Headset/Top Tube
The headset and top tube are directly in your sweat “splash zone,” and these are two parts you definitely want to keep in tip-top shape. Sweat will corrode your headset bolts and any exposed aluminum, and can even damage your paint.
Thanks to gravity, sweat on your downtube will find its way to your bottle cage bolts and eventually your bottom bracket. Both of these are problem areas – the bottle cage bolts can corrode when sweat bridges the gap to your carbon frame (see “More on Sweat” below). Your bottom bracket’s metal parts (and the cables which may run beneath it) can also corrode from accumulated sweat.
Solution: a sweat net (see above) should keep sweat from your downtube as well, but check to make sure it is staying clean. If it isn’t be sure to wipe it down after each session.
Corroded seatpost
Seatpost
If sweat gets on your aluminum seatpost it will quickly move down to the seat tube and create corrosion/seizing problems at the top of your seat tube.
Solutions
Apply grease or anti-seize compound to your seat post and clean it regularly
Use a carbon seat post
ANT+ Dongle
We’ve heard more than one story from Zwifters who had their ANT+ dongle in a place where it was catching drips of sweat. This is a death sentence for anything electronic!
Solution: relocate the dongle, or place it inside a plastic bag or plastic wrap.
More on Sweat
Carbon and aluminum lie on opposite ends of the galvanic scale, which means connecting them with an electrolyte (such as your salty sweat) effectively creates a battery which will greatly speed up aluminum’s corrosion. So pay attention to where your sweat falls, and make sure you don’t let it stay on your bike for long.
Additionally, if you spot any corrosion, don’t wait for the part to fail. Replacing your handlebars now is much cheaper than fixing a broken collarbone later.
What About You?
Have you had any problems with indoor training damaging your bike? Got suggestions for other Zwifters? Share below!
Zwift’s Tron bike is the most coveted ride in game: it takes a lot of work to acquire, it’s fast, and it looks super future cool! Here’s everything you need to know about this special ride.
First: Get The Name Straight
The bike is called the “Zwift Concept Z1” in game, probably due to intellectual property concerns. But everyone calls it the Tron bike, so don’t call it anything else, n00b!
How To Get Yours
First, you have to sign up for the “Climb Mt. Everest” challenge in game. Here’s how to do that:
Once you’ve selected the challenge… start climbing. Every ride you do will add to your elevation total. Once you get to the top (8,850 meters), keep the Everest challenge selected. You need to climb another 41,150 meters to get the real prize waiting in the stratosphere!
That’s right: you have to climb 50,000 meters to get the Tron bike. For most riders, this is a months-long project.
On flat/rolling courses the Tron bike is one of the fastest bikes available, beating the stock Zwift setup (Zwift Carbon frame and 32mm wheels) by 53 seconds over our ~51 minute flat test. There are a few frames which are just a 1-3 seconds faster over this test course, but only when paired with a disc wheelset. See our fastest frames list for details >
It is not the fastest bike for climbing: that award currently goes to the Specialized Tarmac Pro with Lightweight wheels. And it’s not faster than a TT bike if you’re doing a solo effort (no drafting) on flat or rolling roads.
But since it drafts, and most races involve going down as well as up hills, you’ll want the combination of drafting, aerodynamics, and light weight the Tron bike provides. (There’s a good reason why the pointy ends of A and B races are full of Tron bikes, and why Zwift doesn’t allow the Tron bike or disc wheels in its top-level Pro-Am races.)
Idiosyncrasy #1: No Wheel Changes
The Tron bike is the only frame which doesn’t let you swap out your wheelset. Of course, why would you want to? Those light-up wheels are amazing!
Idiosyncrasy #2: Reduced Avatar Positions
On all other bike frames, your avatar stands up when you drop below 70rpm on a 3% or greater incline. And when you’re in the draft your rider sits up a bit to indicate that you are no longer “in the wind.”
Neither of these avatar positions exists for the Tron bike, though. All you get is the standard riding position and the out of the saddle sprint.
Idiosyncrasy #3: No Pretend Drinking
On all other bike frames, your avatar takes a drink occasionally. The Tron bike doesn’t include a bidon, so your avatar won’t be taking any virtual sips. Just don’t forget to drink in the real world!
You Light Up My Life
Idiosyncrasies aside, there’s no other racing bike on Zwift that lets you change the color of your tires. You can dial in your bike color to match just about any kit quite nicely. Put the slider in the just the right spot and you’ll get a multi-color light show as you ride. Thanks, Tron bike!
There’s nothing I love more than relaxing with a good book, and thanks to these Shelter in Place days I seem to have a bit more book time than ever before. So here we are: the first in a series of posts sharing some of cycling’s greatest reads.
Each month will feature a variety of books, from dusty rider memoirs to the latest training manuals. My goal is for each post to have something for everyone, and I welcome your comments on my selections as well as any recommended reads you may offer. Enjoy!
Cycling’s cult classic. This memoir masquerading as novel was originally published in the Netherlands in 1978, then translated to English in 2002. It includes these famous words:
Meyrueis, Lozere, June 26, 29177. Hot and overcast. I take my gear out of the car and put my bike together. Tourists and locals are watching from sidewalk cafes. Non-racers. The emptiness of those lives shocks me.
One reviewer writes “What makes The Rider so great—beyond the immediate dramatic arc of its sporting narrative—is the way it captures, at such short length, the entirety of the cycling experience.”
Perhaps the most devastating chronicle yet of the recent history of pro bike racing. Daniel Coyle knows his way around pro bike racing – he wrote Lance Armstrong’s War prior to this book, and it shows.
“The holy grail for disillusioned cycling fans . . . The book’s power is in the collective details, all strung together in a story that is told with such clear-eyed conviction that you never doubt its veracity. . . . The Secret Race isn’t just a game changer for the Lance Armstrong myth. It’s the game ender.”—Outside
If you struggle to read a bike race, or don’t know which tactics you might employ to win, this is the book for you. Sure, a high FTP is nice – but bike racing is called a rolling chess game for a reason. To win, you need race smarts.
“Whether you’re a new racer, an aspiring pro, a team manager, or even a roadside fan, Reading the Race will elevate your cycling IQ for better racing.”
A comprehensive, physiology-based nutrition and training guide specifically designed for active women. This book teaches you everything you need to know to adapt your nutrition, hydration, and training to your unique physiology so you can work with, rather than against, your female physiology. Sims says, “Women are not small men. Stop eating and training like one.”
One reviewer says, “As a coach of female endurance cyclists: this is a constant go-to.”
This book follows Penn’s journey to build his dream bike, but it is more than the story of his hunt for two-wheel perfection. En route, Penn brilliantly explores the culture, science, and history of the bicycle.
From artisanal frame shops in the United Kingdom to California, where he finds the perfect wheels, via Portland, Milan, and points in between, his trek follows the serpentine path of our love affair with cycling. It explains why we ride.
Friel’s Training Bible is the bestselling and most comprehensive guide for aspiring and experienced cyclists. No matter your current ability level, it equips you with the information needed when planning a season, lining up a week of workouts, or preparing for race day.
The newest (5th) edition adds emphasis to personalizing training plans, incorporates new power meter techniques, improves on ways to develop technique, updates the strength training approach, speeds recovery for busy athletes, and cuts through the noisy volume of training data to focus athletes on the numbers that mean the most to better performance.
Double Olympic gold medallist. Multiple world champion. Tour de France winner. Geraint Thomas gives you a warts and all insight into the life of a pro cyclist.
A series of short essays on all aspects of cycling life, this is not your typical “greatest hits” pro cyclist book. Geraint doesn’t really talk much about himself, but more of the people in his life. And he does it with an entertaining, subtle sense of humor.
Funny, informative, diverting, and droll, this is a joyful celebration of the world of cycling.
Editor’s note: Monica undertook the “Couch to Route Hero” challenge of riding all 67 “free-ridable” Zwift routes (and getting all the badges) in 11 weeks. Each week she shared her story of the previous week’s struggles and accomplishments. Follow her journey, take the challenge yourself, and be sure to give her a Ride On if you see her on course!
When Eric first named this challenge “Couch to Route Hero” I was mildly embarrassed by the idea of being called a “Route Hero.” But now that it’s over you can call me what you want. It feels good to be done and to look back on my accomplishments!
My list of route badges… all filled in!
The Week Lined Up
I rode three routes this week, bringing my total to 67. That’s all of them! This week I rode 65.1 miles with 4,737 feet of climb in 4 hours 44 minutes on the bike.
I don’t understand why Out and Back Again has this name. While you DO end up where you started the name implies that you take the same road back as you did going out. This is not the case.
Lutscher CCW was hard. You go up the back side of the KOM… twice. My head wasn’t there. A real shocker! So I pushed myself up the first time and planned to take it easy the second time. Little did I know I’d have two friends from across the world join me to climb it the second time. They’re both very strong so I went my hardest so they wouldn’t fall asleep on the climb. Thank you to Karissa Minn [TFC] and Dafydd Williams [KRT]!
Papers taped to our wall used to track my progress
Challenge Results
Between January 5-April 10 I:
Rode 55 days, completing 67 routes.
Rode 1,365.59 miles (2,197.7km) . For perspective: In 2019 I rode 1,435 miles total.
Climbed 110,791 feet. That’s 3.8x up Everest.
Was on my bike for 112 hours, 11 minutes and 3 seconds. That’s 4.7 days.
My least favorite route: Watopia’s Uber Pretzel. Do it once so you can say you did. Then never ever do it again!
I went from level 31 to level 37. I got about 40,000XP from all the miles, and 39,600XP from all the routes. I got random XP here and there too, from things like reaching the top of Alpe du Zwift and having the prize spinner land on something I already had, or from going through a banner and getting points instead of a powerup.
I also gained about 2 million drops during the 3 months.
I lost 9 lbs during the challenge. I wish I had paid more attention to calories as I’m sure I could have lost a lot more. Sometimes I could only push myself to do just the bare minimum of this challenge as that was a lot for me. So weight loss wasn’t a priority.
Bike choice: I purchased the Specialized Tarmac Pro and Enve SES 3.4 wheels in the virtual garage. I used this setup for climbing, but mostly just rode my Tron bike, while always hopping off in the jungle to switch to a mountain bike.
I was reminded that I have great resolve (especially when people are looking!)
Recovery matters. Recovery rides and rest days. They make you stronger.
We’re stronger together. Knowing others were doing the same routes, sometimes doing them with me: that made me push myself more. We’re stronger together.
Fourth, don’t put a long ride between two scheduled real-world events.
My chiropractor knows what he’s talking about. If I want to stay out of his office I need to not add more than 10% each week. (Alternative way to stay out: have a global pandemic.)
My self-esteem is much higher when I do hard things. Even when no one knows about them. I just feel so much better about who I am.
Looking back on the “easier” weeks reminds me of just how much I progressed each week. What seems like an “easy” week now wasn’t back then so I still celebrate Monica of week 6 who nearly died on The PRL Half. It’s also a great reminder to celebrate those who have done hard things, without comparing my own accomplishments to theirs.
What’s Next
Next Saturday (April 25) we’ve invited others to join us as we do the 25 laps of the Volcano Circuit. Check it out, and please join us! Learn more here >
Will there be another challenge?
As of right now, no. Not for me. It was all I could do to complete this one, so I need a break from constant accountability. I may take the next month to work to lose some more weight. I thought it would be kind of fun to be much more fit when our Shelter-in-Place is over, so I figure I should start working on that even more now. I’ll likely write about it when it’s over.
Besides that, I’ll be managing two teen’s distance learning for the rest of the school year, finishing a book I’m working on about when I had depression, shipping Zwift Insider posters and Banjo shirts and attempting to finish a bathroom remodel.
Thank you
To each of you that gave me a Ride On, wrote to me in game, rode with me, commented on these posts, and joined the challenge as well: THANK YOU! I would have quit if it hadn’t been for you. You are all the best! Find yourself a community on Zwift that encourages you to accomplish your goals and offers support and advice. There are many to choose from and we’re stronger together!
