Zwift Insider

ZwiftPower Transitioning to Zwift: Part 1

News

Eric Schlange

-

July 20, 2020

ZwiftPower Transitioning to Zwift: Part 1

The Zwift racing community has been abuzz since last Wednesday (July 15th) when James Hodges, the programmer behind ZwiftPower, posted a message on the ZwiftPower Facebook Group to let people know the service was back up and running… and to wave goodbye.

Live is back online*.
*Server may not be up to the task and crash a few times during busy periods. Time will tell (pending a server transfer).
And with that good news, thanks for all the fish.

(For those who don’t get the reference… “Thanks for all the fish” comes from The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. It’s a way of signaling that you’re leaving just before something blows up.)

At the same time, he posted that he left his job at ZwiftPower.com as “Sole Developer”, and he changed the group’s ZwiftPower logo to a grey, “powered off” version.

A ZwiftPower Primer

If you’re a Zwift racer, you’re familiar with ZwiftPower. It’s where the “real results” of Zwift races live, because it allows race organizers to DQ riders who “cheat” in various ways – for example, those who ride above their category’s allowed w/kg thresholds. ZwiftPower is much more than just a results tool, though – it includes a powerful event search, rankings for individual riders and teams, a dual-recording analysis tool, rider power profiles, and more.

ZwiftPower is the most important third-party tool in the Zwift universe, and James stepping away from the project with no announcement of a successor is big news. (On a personal note, I should mention that I’ve interacted with James numerous times over the years – he’s a strong Zwift A racer, a programming whiz, and a super-helpful guy when it come to answering my questions or constantly making site upgrades inspired by the community’s suggestions.)

Glen Knight is the other principal behind ZwiftPower. It was he and James who collaborated to develop ZwiftPower years ago, when the KISS racing series (which Glen spearheaded) spun up, and better race management tools were needed. Glen has been more of the infrastructure guy (servers, etc) and also helped with setting up events through the site, while James has been the programmer. Both have poured countless hours into the site.

Zwift’s Statement

With rumors flying around that Zwift had taken over ZwiftPower in a way that left Glen and James rather nonplussed, I reached out to get Zwift HQ’s perspective. Here’s what Zwift told me (I’ve broken their statement up into sections, with my comments in between):

Zwift has been providing financial support to ZwiftPower for some time, as part of our commitment to investing in tools that support community racing on the platform. Created as a not-for-profit tool by James Hodges and Glen Knight, ZwiftPower has helped to empower our community to pioneer new event formats and racing on the platform.

It’s worth noting here that Zwift has been a financial supporter of key community projects for years. Zwift Community Live, ZwiftCast, and ZwiftInsider also receive financial support from Zwift, and have done so since early days.

With significant support from Dave Ranson, James and Glen have continued to work on ZwiftPower to this date, helping with the transition over to Zwift. During the last 2 months, we have been preparing to migrate ZwiftPower to our own AWS servers to help provide more product stability, especially for larger events such as the Virtual L’Etape du Tour de France taking place now. We expect to cutover to these new servers during the next month.

Migrating ZwiftPower over to their AWS servers in order to provide more stability for large events makes sense – AWS servers make it easy to scale server resources to keep up with demand.

A fun little bit of Zwift history: Glen Knight was originally running the ZwiftPower servers out of his garage. It consisted of many computers, and the overall monthly cost of hardware, bandwidth, and power was quite significant. I believe it was when these costs got high enough that an agreement was reached for Zwift to fund the infrastructure of the site, which was a good thing!

Crucially, moving ZwiftPower under Zwift’s ownership and into Zwift’s cloud setup also allows for a much more simplified view of GDPR and related privacy issues, since personal data isn’t being shipped out to a third party.

The future vision is to create a more seamless experience between ZwiftPower and Zwift as we continue our focus on becoming the definitive racing experience for cyclists around the world. This includes a focus on the connection of the Zwift and ZwiftPower accounts as well as supporting teams, leagues, and categorization with the framework that James and Glen have worked so hard to build and maintain for the community.

This vision for the future is a welcome one. Zwifters are quite unanimous in stating that the Zwift racing experience should be more seamless. After all, running results through a third-party website wasn’t the ideal solution, it was simply the only workable solution when it was created. Essentially, the community stepped up to develop racing tools when Zwift was unwilling/unable to do so.

If Zwift could smoothly fold essential ZwiftPower functionality into its own website and the Companion app, that would be a huge step forward. Along the way, the hassles of creating a separate account and opting into third-party sharing would also go away, making it so every Zwifter has access to ZwiftPower’s core features, baked into Zwift’s products.

This is the hope, at least. But there are two very clear concerns from the racing community:

Will Zwift be able to manage ZwiftPower moving forward?
This is the immediate question. With James and Glen out of the picture, what happens if the site goes down? What level of support can racers expect?

Stepping back, it’s important to acknowledge that managing ZwiftPower is more than just making sure the server doesn’t crash. It’s supporting event organizers who have questions, riders who need support, fixing site bugs, etc. With over 200k registered users, simply managing the site day-to-day is a significant job.
Will Zwift dedicate the necessary resources to transition ZwiftPower’s functionality into Zwift’s products?
Assuming Zwift is able to manage ZwiftPower effectively – the next step is making the major changes necessary to transition the site so it’s integrated into Zwift’s suite of services.

Preserving essential functionality while opening up ZwiftPower’s powerful tools to the entire Zwift community is no small thing – it’s going to take a clear vision, a dedicated team, and lots of testing. The community is understandably dubious about the prospects of this happening any time soon, given Zwift’s self-confessed history of rather slow development on key projects.

Though Zwift has taken ownership of Zwift Power, it will always remain a legacy of James and Glen. For that Zwift and the Zwift community will always be grateful.

Zwift concludes with a clear statement, in case there was any confusion: Zwift has taken ownership of ZwiftPower. They also include a well-deserved note of thanks to James and Glen, and I would echo the same.

Key Assets

While James and Glen are staying quiet about it, reading between the lines it’s clear this transition to Zwift hasn’t been a smooth one. That said, James and Glen did sign a contract with Zwift in October 2018 which assigned all ZwiftPower-related intellectual property to Zwift. Since that time, they have been paid an undisclosed amount to maintain the site and improve the scalability/security/reliability in keeping with GDPR and other standards.

The contract did not include specifics about transitioning ZwiftPower over to Zwift’s servers and team, and this is probably what led to some confusion and perhaps hurt feelings for some parties involved.

My opinion: it seems a shame that James and Glen aren’t being kept on the team to continue helping with ZwiftPower in some capacity. At this point in time, I don’t know where James and Glen stand when it comes to further involvement with ZwiftPower. But even as very part-time subcontractor consultants, their vast experience with ZwiftPower’s architecture and the overall structure of Zwift racing as we know it would seem to be an extremely valuable asset.

Up Next

As Zwift racers, we all want continued access to ZwiftPower’s functionality – it provides many core features which make racing on Zwift really “work.” And we certainly see the value in integrating those features into Zwift’s overall web, game, and Companion products.

I’m in touch with Zwift and we’re talking through their plans to support/manage ZwiftPower moving forward, as well as how they’re going to be transitioning it into Zwift’s overall product. So watch for another post in the next week or two with more on this topic!

I’ve also reached out to James and Glen to get their perspectives, so we may hear more from them as well.

Questions or Comments?

Share Below!

Final Standings – Men’s Team Classifications – Virtual Tour de France

Events

Eric Schlange

-

July 19, 2020

10

Final Standings – Men’s Team Classifications – Virtual Tour de France

Below are the final team standings for each classification of the men’s Virtual Tour de France 2020.

Notes:

Since this was a team competition, Zwift did not provide complete finishing lists of riders beyond the top 10 shown in each broadcast.
Teams holding a jersey selected 1 rider from their team of 4 riders to wear it

General Time Classification

First 25 riders score points at the finish. Points are awarded as follows:

Finish: 50 / 40 / 35 / 30 / 27 / 25 / 23 / 21 / 19 / 17 / 15 / 14 / 13 / 12 / 11 / 10 / 9 / 8 / 7 / 6 / 5 / 4 / 3 / 2 / 1

The team with the most combined points earns the yellow jersey.

YELLOW JERSEY		St 1	St 2	St 3	St 4	St 5	St 6	Total
1	NTT PRO CYCLING TEAM	80	50	63	70	128	109	500
2	RALLY CYCLING	79	13	64	32	31	48	267
3	TREK – SEGAFREDO	2	85	40	35	9	61	232
4	EF PRO CYCLING	0	53	22	34	66	36	211
5	TEAM INEOS	17	19	30	14	55	40	175
6	ISRAEL START – UP NATION	27	50	11	73	0	0	161
7	MITCHELTON – SCOTT	35	0	35	40	5	24	139
8	ALPECIN – FENIX	72	22	5	0	17	22	138
9	GROUPAMA – FDJ	0	0	40	35	27	10	112
10	AG2R LA MONDIALE	10	22	29	23	21	0	105
11	CCC TEAM	31	30	0	13	12	17	103
12	COFIDIS	1	50	0	12	15	6	84
13	CIRCUS – WANTY GOBERT	11	0	18	3	13	5	50
14	TOTAL DIRECT ENERGIE	4	0	21	15	0	7	47
15	LOTTO SOUDAL	21	13	10	0	0	0	44
16	TEAM ARKEA – SAMSIC	8	0	11	0	0	0	19
17	B&B HOTELS – VITAL CONCEPT P / B KTM	0	0	0	1	0	14	15
17	BAHRAIN – MCLAREN	0	0	8	0	0	7	15
17	TEAM SUNWEB	0	0	0	7	8	0	15
20	DECEUNINCK – QUICK – STEP	6	0	0	0	0	0	6
21	ASTANA PRO TEAM	3	0	0	0	0	0	3
22	TEAM JUMBO – VISMA	0	0	0	0	0	1	1

Sprint Classification

Sprint points are awarded at intermediate locations and at the finish of each stage.

Intermediate: 10 / 9 / 8 / 7 / 6 / 5 / 4 / 3 / 2 / 1
Finish: 10 / 9 / 8 / 7 / 6 / 5 / 4 / 3 / 2 / 1

The team with the most combined sprint points earns the green jersey.

GREEN JERSEY		St 1	St 2	St 3	St 4	St 5	St 6	Total
1	NTT PRO CYCLING TEAM	70	24	67	27	34	71	293
2	ALPECIN – FENIX	13	10	30	0	10	80	143
3	MITCHELTON – SCOTT	52	0	33	11	4	40	140
4	CCC TEAM	39	6	20	16	0	30	111
5	TREK – SEGAFREDO	13	14	9	7	7	42	92
6	RALLY CYCLING	20	1	16	11	6	33	87
7	EF PRO CYCLING	0	15	27	10	10	21	83
8	GROUPAMA – FDJ	0	0	12	16	0	32	60
9	ISRAEL START – UP NATION	9	13	7	30	0	0	59
10	COFIDIS	4	17	10	14	6	6	57
11	AG2R LA MONDIALE	4	0	13	13	13	0	43
12	LOTTO SOUDAL	23	0	10	0	3	0	36
13	TEAM INEOS	1	10	7	0	7	9	34
14	DECEUNINCK – QUICK – STEP	14	0	0	0	0	0	14
14	TEAM ARKEA – SAMSIC	0	0	6	0	8	0	14
16	B&B HOTELS – VITAL CONCEPT P / B KTM	0	0	0	0	2	11	13
16	TOTAL DIRECT ENERGIE	2	0	5	0	0	6	13
18	CIRCUS – WANTY GOBERT	0	0	2	10	0	0	12
19	TEAM JUMBO – VISMA	10	0	0	0	0	0	10
20	BAHRAIN – MCLAREN	0	0	1	0	0	4	5
21	BORA – HANSGROHE	1	0	0	0	0	0	1

Best Climber Classification

Points are awarded based on the difficulty of the climb:

Category 1 (Chalet-Reynard Finish / Stage 5): 20 / 18 / 16 / 14 / 12 / 10 / 8 / 6 / 4 / 2
Category 2 (Epic KOM / Stage 2): 10 / 8 / 6 / 4 / 2 / 1
Category 3 (Remaning K/QOM / Stages 1,3,4,5): 3 / 2 / 1

The team with the most combined points earns the polka dot jersey.

POLKA DOT JERSEY		St 1	St 2	St 3	St 4	St 5	St 6	Total
1	NTT PRO CYCLING TEAM	2	0	2	2	56	0	62
2	EF PRO CYCLING	0	6	4	0	20	0	30
3	ISRAEL START – UP NATION	3	14	0	11	0	0	28
4	ALPECIN – FENIX	10	0	6	1	6	0	23
5	TEAM INEOS	0	2	0	0	14	0	16
6	RALLY CYCLING	1	0	0	0	12	0	13
7	COFIDIS	0	8	0	2	0	0	10
8	AG2R LA MONDIALE	1	0	0	2	6	0	9
9	GROUPAMA – FDJ	0	0	0	5	0	0	5
10	MITCHELTON – SCOTT	3	0	0	1	0	0	4
11	B&B HOTELS – VITAL CONCEPT P / B KTM	0	0	0	0	2	0	2
11	BAHRAIN – MCLAREN	2	0	0	0	0	0	2
11	LOTTO SOUDAL	1	1	0	0	0	0	2
14	TEAM ARKEA – SAMSIC	1	0	0	0	0	0	1

Best Young Rider Classification

First 10 riders born after January 1st, 1995 score points at the finish. Points are awarded as follows:

Finish: 10 / 9 / 8 / 7 / 6 / 5 / 4 / 3 / 2 / 1

Team points are not combined. Each team should align at least one young rider in the roster for each stage to compete for this classification.

WHITE JERSEY		St 1	St 2	St 3	St 4	St 5	St 6	Total
1	NTT PRO CYCLING TEAM	7	10	7	8	10	9	51
2	TEAM INEOS	4	9	8	7	9	10	47
3	GROUPAMA – FDJ	3	0	10	10	8	7	38
4	RALLY CYCLING	10	4	0	9	0	8	31
5	TREK – SEGAFREDO	6	8	5	2	7	2	30
6	LOTTO SOUDAL	8	7	1	3	5	3	27
7	COFIDIS	5	0	2	5	6	4	22
8	MITCHELTON – SCOTT	0	0	9	4	0	6	19
9	ALPECIN – FENIX	9	0	0	0	4	5	18
10	EF PRO CYCLING	0	5	6	6	–	0	17
11	AG2R LA MONDIALE	1	6	3	0	–	–	10
12	TEAM JUMBO – VISMA	0	2	4	0	3	0	9
13	BORA – HANSGROHE	2	1	–	0	–	–	3
13	ISRAEL START – UP NATION	0	3	–	0	–	–	3

Most Combative

A Twitter poll conducted during the race will choose the 3 most combative riders of the stage.

Points are awarded as follows: 5 / 3 / 1

MOST COMBATIVE		St 1	St 2	St 3	St 4	St 5	St 6	Total
1	NTT PRO CYCLING TEAM	5	0	5	3	3	1	17
2	EF PRO CYCLING	0	3	0	0	5	0	8
2	MITCHELTON – SCOTT	3	0	0	0	0	5	8
2	TREK – SEGAFREDO	0	0	3	5	0	0	8
5	TEAM INEOS	0	5	0	0	1	0	6
6	ALPECIN – FENIX	1	0	0	0	0	3	4
7	AG2R LA MONDIALE	0	1	1	0	0	0	2
8	ISRAEL START – UP NATION	0	0	0	1	0	0	1

Team Overall General Classication

The team with the most combined points across all competitions (GC, K/QOM, Sprint, Young Rider, and Most Combative) will have yellow markers on the back of the jerseys. The marker will only be visible in the broadcast of the race. Riders in the race will not see the markers.

OVERALL TEAM GC		St 1	St 2	St 3	St 4	St 5	St 6	Total
1	NTT PRO CYCLING TEAM	164	84	144	110	231	190	923
2	RALLY CYCLING	110	18	80	52	49	89	398
3	TREK – SEGAFREDO	21	107	57	49	23	105	362
4	EF PRO CYCLING	0	82	59	50	101	57	349
5	ALPECIN – FENIX	105	32	41	1	37	110	326
6	MITCHELTON – SCOTT	93	0	77	56	9	75	310
7	TEAM INEOS	22	45	45	21	86	59	278
8	ISRAEL START – UP NATION	39	80	18	115	0	0	252
9	GROUPAMA – FDJ	3	0	62	66	35	49	215
10	CCC TEAM	70	36	20	29	12	47	214
11	COFIDIS	10	75	12	33	27	16	173
12	AG2R LA MONDIALE	16	29	46	38	40	0	169
13	LOTTO SOUDAL	53	21	21	3	8	3	109
14	CIRCUS – WANTY GOBERT	11	0	20	13	13	5	62
15	TOTAL DIRECT ENERGIE	6	0	26	15	0	13	60
16	TEAM ARKEA – SAMSIC	9	0	17	0	8	0	34
17	B&B HOTELS – VITAL CONCEPT P / B KTM	0	0	0	1	4	25	30
18	BAHRAIN – MCLAREN	2	0	9	0	0	11	22
19	DECEUNINCK – QUICK – STEP	20	0	0	0	0	0	20
19	TEAM JUMBO – VISMA	10	2	4	0	3	1	20
21	TEAM SUNWEB	0	0	0	7	8	0	15
22	BORA – HANSGROHE	3	1	0	0	0	0	4
23	ASTANA PRO TEAM	3	0	0	0	0	0	3

Final Standings – Women’s Team Classifications – Virtual Tour de France

Events

-

July 19, 2020

14

Final Standings – Women’s Team Classifications – Virtual Tour de France

Below are the final team standings for each classification of the women’s Virtual Tour de France 2020.

Notes:

Since this was a team competition, Zwift did not provide complete finishing lists of riders beyond the top 10 shown in each broadcast.
Teams holding a jersey selected 1 rider from their team of 4 riders to wear it

General Time Classification

First 25 riders score points at the finish. Points are awarded as follows:

Finish: 50 / 40 / 35 / 30 / 27 / 25 / 23 / 21 / 19 / 17 / 15 / 14 / 13 / 12 / 11 / 10 / 9 / 8 / 7 / 6 / 5 / 4 / 3 / 2 / 1

The team with the most combined points earns the yellow jersey.

YELLOW JERSEY		St 1	St 2	St 3	St 4	St 5	St 6	Total
1	TEAM TIBCO – SILICON VALLEY BANK	70	100	27	80	132	90	499
2	TEAM TWENTY20	42	28	69	50	26	91	306
3	DROPS	69	40	41	69	33	40	292
4	CANYON / /SRAM RACING	66	25	83	32	41	25	272
5	CCC – LIV	30	33	81	4	67	1	216
6	TEAM SUNWEB	5	32	12	72	35	31	187
7	FDJ NOUVELLE – AQUITAINE FUTUROSCOPE	13	30	27	12	20	27	129
7	CERATIZIT – WNT PRO CYCLING TEAM	31	35	21	23	0	19	129
9	RALLY CYCLING	26	39	12	0	20	12	109
10	BOELS DOLMANS CYCLING TEAM	47	22	12	1	0	15	97
11	LOTTO SOUDAL LADIES	0	0	17	0	25	28	70
12	TREK – SEGAFREDO	8	17	0	14	0	23	62
13	ALE’ BTC LJUBLJANA	0	0	0	25	8	0	33
14	PARKHOTEL VALKENBURG	0	0	0	25	0	0	25
15	TEAM ARKEA	0	0	5	0	0	5	10
16	VALCAR – TRAVEL & SERVICE	0	6	0	0	0	0	6

Sprint Classification

Sprint points are awarded at intermediate locations and at the finish of each stage.

Intermediate: 10 / 9 / 8 / 7 / 6 / 5 / 4 / 3 / 2 / 1
Finish: 10 / 9 / 8 / 7 / 6 / 5 / 4 / 3 / 2 / 1

The team with the most combined sprint points earns the green jersey.

GREEN JERSEY		St 1	St 2	St 3	St 4	St 5	St 6	Total
1	TEAM TIBCO – SILICON VALLEY BANK	58	35	27	34	43	153	350
2	CANYON / /SRAM RACING	81	6	95	21	11	40	254
3	DROPS	22	18	49	32	13	41	175
4	CCC – LIV	6	12	56	9	11		94
5	TEAM TWENTY20	6	1	13	13	0	37	70
6	LOTTO SOUDAL LADIES	0	0	1	0	5	58	64
7	TREK – SEGAFREDO	28	3	21	11	0	0	63
8	CERATIZIT – WNT PRO CYCLING TEAM	20	16	12	4	10		62
9	BOELS DOLMANS CYCLING TEAM	41	0	0	5	0	14	60
10	FDJ NOUVELLE – AQUITAINE FUTUROSCOPE	3	17	0	6	6	15	47
11	TEAM SUNWEB	6	2	0	12	2	6	28
12	RALLY CYCLING	4	0	0	0	9	14	27
13	PARKHOTEL VALKENBURG	0	0	0	17	0		17
14	VALCAR – TRAVEL & SERVICE	0	0	0	0	0	7	7
15	ALE’ BTC LJUBLJANA	0	0	1	1	0		2

Best Climber Classification

Points are awarded based on the difficulty of the climb:

Category 1 (Chalet-Reynard Finish / Stage 5): 20 / 18 / 16 / 14 / 12 / 10 / 8 / 6 / 4 / 2
Category 2 (Epic KOM / Stage 2): 10 / 8 / 6 / 4 / 2 / 1
Category 3 (Remaning K/QOM / Stages 1,3,4,5): 3 / 2 / 1

The team with the most combined points earns the polka dot jersey.

POLKA DOT JERSEY		St 1	St 2	St 3	St 4	St 5	St 6	Total
1	TEAM TIBCO – SILICON VALLEY BANK	0	2	1	6	60		69
2	DROPS	12	8	6	14	11	0	51
3	CCC – LIV	0	1	0	0	22	0	23
4	CERATIZIT – WNT PRO CYCLING TEAM	7	10	5	0	0	0	22
5	CANYON / /SRAM RACING	4	4	0	0	6	0	14
6	LOTTO SOUDAL LADIES	0	0	0	0	10	0	10
7	FDJ NOUVELLE – AQUITAINE FUTUROSCOPE	0	6	0	0	3	0	9
8	TEAM SUNWEB	0	0	0	1	4	0	5
9	PARKHOTEL VALKENBURG	0	0	0	3	0	0	3
10	BOELS DOLMANS CYCLING TEAM	1	0	0	0	0	0	1

Best Young Rider Classification

First 10 riders born after January 1st, 1995 score points at the finish. Points are awarded as follows:

Finish: 10 / 9 / 8 / 7 / 6 / 5 / 4 / 3 / 2 / 1

Team points are not combined. Each team should align at least one young rider in the roster for each stage to compete for this classification.

WHITE JERSEY		St 1	St 2	St 3	St 4	St 5	St 6	Total
1	CANYON / /SRAM RACING	8	10	8	7	10	8	51
2	DROPS	10	4	9	10	7	10	50
3	TEAM TWENTY20	9	5	10	8	8	9	49
4	TEAM SUNWEB	6	9	5	9	9	5	43
5	CCC – LIV	7	7	7	5	4	3	33
6	LOTTO SOUDAL LADIES	4	3	6	2	1	7	23
7	RALLY CYCLING	0	8	0	3	5	6	22
8	TEAM ARKEA	5	0	4	4	0	4	17
9	ALE’ BTC LJUBLJANA	1	2	0	6	6	1	16
10	VALCAR – TRAVEL & SERVICE	2	6	2	1	3	0	14
11	PARKHOTEL VALKENBURG	3	1	3	0	2	2	11

Most Combative

A Twitter poll conducted during the race will choose the 3 most combative riders of the stage.

Points are awarded as follows: 5 / 3 / 1

MOST COMBATIVE		St 1	St 2	St 3	St 4	St 5	St 6	Total
1	CERATIZIT – WNT PRO CYCLING TEAM	3	3	0	5	0	0	11
2	LOTTO SOUDAL LADIES	0	0	1	0	5	3	9
3	FDJ NOUVELLE – AQUITAINE FUTUROSCOPE	0	5	3	0	0	0	8
4	TEAM TIBCO – SILICON VALLEY BANK	0	0	0	3	3	1	7
5	CCC – LIV	0	0	0	0	1	5	6
6	TREK – SEGAFREDO	5	0	0	0	0	0	5
6	TWENTY20	0	0	5	0	0	0	5
8	DROPS	1	0	0	1	0	0	2
9	CANYON / /SRAM RACING	0	1	0	0	0	0	1

Team Overall General Classification

The team with the most combined points across all competitions (GC, K/QOM, Sprint, Young Rider, and Most Combative) will have yellow markers on the back of the jerseys. The marker will only be visible in the broadcast of the race. Riders in the race will not see the markers.

OVERALL TEAM GC		St 1	St 2	St 3	St 4	St 5	St 6	Total
1	TEAM TIBCO – SILICON VALLEY BANK	128	137	55	123	238	244	925
2	CANYON / /SRAM RACING	159	46	186	60	68	73	592
3	DROPS	114	70	105	126	64	91	570
4	TEAM TWENTY20	57	34	97	71	34	137	430
5	CCC – LIV	43	53	144	18	105	9	372
6	TEAM SUNWEB	17	43	17	94	50	42	263
7	CERATIZIT – WNT PRO CYCLING TEAM	61	64	38	32	10	19	224
8	FDJ NOUVELLE – AQUITAINE FUTUROSCOPE	16	58	30	18	29	42	193
9	LOTTO SOUDAL LADIES	4	3	25	2	46	96	176
10	RALLY CYCLING	30	47	12	3	34	32	158
10	BOELS DOLMANS CYCLING TEAM	89	22	12	6	0	29	158
12	TREK – SEGAFREDO	41	20	21	25	0	23	130
13	PARKHOTEL VALKENBURG	3	1	3	45	2	2	56
14	ALE’ BTC LJUBLJANA	1	2	1	32	14	1	51
15	TEAM ARKEA	5	0	9	4	0	9	27
15	VALCAR – TRAVEL & SERVICE	2	12	2	1	3	7	27

Holden Comeau & Matt Gardiner on eRacing – Never Going Pro Podcast S2 E8

Shayne Gaffney

-

July 19, 2020

0

Holden Comeau & Matt Gardiner on eRacing – Never Going Pro Podcast S2 E8

In this episode, we chat with Holden Comeau and Matt Gardiner of Team Saris + The Pro’s Closet about all things eRacing including; where they think it’s headed; differences in training, strategy, psychology, and nutrition compared to IRL racing; and what it’s like to set a Guinness World Record. Enjoy!

The Never Going Pro Podcast · S2 Episode 8: Talking with Holden Comeau & Matt Gardiner about eRacing

About the Podcast

Never Going Pro is a new podcast about riding bikes, being parents… and trying super hard at both. Hosted by Shayne Gaffney, Ken Nowell, and Chris Gorney. See all episodes on Soundcloud. Also available on Stitcher, iTunes, and other major podcast providers.

A Chat with the Z Pro Tri June Invitational Winners (Zwift PowerUp Tri Podcast)

Interviews

Eric Schlange

-

July 18, 2020

0

A Chat with the Z Pro Tri June Invitational Winners (Zwift PowerUp Tri Podcast)

After the Z Pro Tri invitational series, Matt sits down with the two winners, Teresa Adam and Lionel Sanders, to talk about their big wins. We talk series tactics, what surprised them with the racing, and how fun it was to get their competitive juices flowing with their peers during this downtime. Includes some great stuff from both athletes about how they are managing this summer and what they are doing to stay motivated!

About the Podcast:

The Zwift PowerUp Tri Podcast is hosted by former pro triathletes Matt Lieto and Jordan Rapp, lending their in-depth knowledge of the multisport to the Zwift Tri audience.

4 Zwift Events Not To Miss This Weekend

Events

Eric Schlange

-

July 17, 2020

1

This weekend concludes the Virtual Tour de France along with the massively popular L’Etape du Tour series. You’ll want to participate in those, but there are a couple of other standout events as well – here are our picks!

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

L’Etape du Tour, Stage 3

This weekend is the final stage of L’Etape du Tour, and it’s a tough one! Come take on the Ven-Top route, which takes you up Zwift’s newest and longest climb – Mont Ventoux! The timed climb section is 19km long, with 1480 meters of elevation gain.

Tens of thousands of Zwifters will be there suffering together so we’ll have solidarity if nothing else…

Multiple event times, visit the event homepage for schedule and signup

Watch the Virtual Tour de France, Stages 5 & 6

Tomorrow is our final weekend of Virtual Tour de France action, and you don’t want to miss it, as the two race routes are the most iconic yet – Mont Ventoux and Champs-Élysées!

The pro teams are bringing some big guns to these final stages, too. Start lists include Chris Froome, Julian Alaphilippe, Rigoberto Urán, Romain Bardet, Adam Yates, Rohan Dennis, Warren Barguil, and Dan Martin for the men, while the women include Lizzie Deignan, Marianne Vos, Chloé Dygert, Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio, Anna van der Breggen, Kasia Niewiadoma, Katie Hall, and Cecilie Uttrup-Ludwig.

Watch the racing on Zwift’s Youtube channel >

Stage 3: Saturday at 1:53pm BST/8:53am EDT/5:53am PDT
Stage 4: Sunday at 1:50pm BST/8:50am EDT/5:50am PDT

Sport for Good Peloton (Nelson Mandela Day)

Founded under the patronage of the great Nelson Mandela, Laureus Sport for Good uses sport as a powerful and cost-effective tool to help children and young people overcome violence, discrimination, and disadvantage in their lives.

South Africa’s team NTT Cycling, collectively Laureus Ambassadors, have traditionally celebrated Mandela Day on July 18, while taking part in the Tour de France. July 18, 2020 marks the 20th Nelson Mandela International Day. In honor of this, Zwift is hosting two group rides supported by South Africa’s NTT pro cyclists as well as other Laureus Ambassadors.

Nelson Mandela spent 67 years of his life fighting for social justice, so we’ll be riding for 67 minutes. Groups are categorized by pace.

Want to contribute? Head to the donation page.

Multiple times, see schedule for details and signup

ZHR Audax

Ready to go long? You won’t find many group rides on Zwift that go for 300km! The ZHR Audax rides aren’t a race, but a personal challenge. An Audax is a cycling event in which participants attempt to cycle the distance within a pre-defined time limit. It is a non-competitive sport: success in an event is measured by its completion within the specified time limits, and receive equal recognition regardless of their finishing order.

The category you select determines your length:

Group A – 300km
Group B – 200km
Group C – 161km
Group D – 100km
Group E – 50km

Three events this weekend:
Saturday at 9:15am BST/4:15am EDT/1:15am PDT
Sunday at 9:15am BST/4:15am EDT/1:15am PDT
Sunday at 4pm BST/11am EDT/8am PDT

Your Thoughts

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

Virtual Tour de France Special: Mont Ventoux, the Champs-Élysées, and PowerUp Timing (Zwift PowerUp Cycling Podcast)

Events

Eric Schlange

-

July 17, 2020

0

Virtual Tour de France Special: Mont Ventoux, the Champs-Élysées, and PowerUp Timing (Zwift PowerUp Cycling Podcast)

The final stages of the Virtual Tour de France are looming and there is so much to get excited about as the pros take on Mont Ventoux and the Champs-Élysées this weekend – two legendary routes which will soon be available in Zwift.

It’s a full house as Matt Rowe, Dani Rowe, Kristen Armstrong, and Greg Henderson also take a look at last weekend’s action to debate the age-old topic, when do you use your PowerUps in races? And just when you think we couldn’t pack more into this episode, Dani and Kristin talk about their new training program which launched last week!

Catch post-race interviews every Monday and mid-week updates every Thursday until the end of the Virtual Tour de France.

About the Podcast

The Zwift PowerUp Cycling Podcast features training tips from host Matt Rowe (Rowe & King), with regular co-hosts Greg Henderson (Coach Hendy) and Kev Poulton (Powerhouse Cycling).

Details for this Weekend’s Virtual Tour de France Stages 5 & 6

Events

Eric Schlange

-

July 17, 2020

6

Details for this Weekend’s Virtual Tour de France Stages 5 & 6

The final two stages of the Virtual Tour de France should be our most exciting yet, with two iconic race routes and a star-studded start list! The women’s peloton will include Lizzie Deignan, Marianne Vos, Chloé Dygert, Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio, Anna van der Breggen, Kasia Niewiadoma, Katie Hall, and Cecilie Uttrup-Ludwig. The men’s peloton will see the likes of Chris Froome, Julian Alaphilippe, Rigoberto Urán, Romain Bardet, Adam Yates, Rohan Dennis, Warren Barguil, and Dan Martin fight it out up Mount Ventoux and on Paris’ Champs-Élysées.

Saturday’s stage is the Queen stage where the world’s top climbers will take on the massive Mont Ventoux climb – the biggest climb in game! They’ll only be climbing to Chalet Reynard, which is located 6km before the finish line at the top of Mont Ventoux. But it’s still going to be a battle of w/kg to the finish!

Remember, this is a team-based points competition. For the women, Canyon//SRAM Racing is leading the Team Overall GC, but Team Tibco – Silicon Valley Bank and Drops are just behind. For the men, NTT Pro Cycling has a commanding lead in the Team Overall GC, but there’s a close battle for the next few spots. Competitions for the yellow, green, polka-dot, and white jerseys are also in play.

Current Standings: Women / Men

Here are more details for each of this weekend’s stages including start lists, race times, and more.

Stage 5: France’s La Reine

The La Reine route takes riders over the Ballon Sprint and Petit KOM segments before heading up Mont Ventoux. Expect a bit of action from teams looking to pick up green jersey and polka-dot jersey points on these early segments, but the real work will begin when the riders turn left after the Petit KOM and head up Mont Ventoux to Chalet Reynard.

Date: Saturday July 18

Timings:

Women’s 14:53 CET // 05:53 PDT // 22:53 AUS
Men’s 15:58 CET // 06:58 PDT // 23:58 AUS

Start Lists

Stage 5 Women
Stage 5 Men

Stage 6: Paris’ Champs-Élysées

Obviously there would be no other place for this Virtual Tour de France to finish than on the world’s most famous boulevard! After 5 stages the race will draw to a close on this sixth stage to a backdrop of the Arc de Triomphe on Zwift’s new Champs-Élysées route.

Expect this stage to be raced full-gas from start to finish, with 6 intermediate sprints as well as points on the line.

Date: Sunday July 19

Timings:

Women’s 14:50 CET // 05:50 PDT // 22:50 AUS
Men’s 15:55 CET // 06:55 PDT // 23:55 AU

Start Lists

Stage 6 Women
Stage 6 Men

Where to Watch

A full list of broadcasters is available on the Tour de France website.

The easiest way to watch it online is through Zwift’s YouTube channel, although the quality may be better on TV channels.

Speed Tests: PowerUps, Frames, and Wheels for Sprinting on Zwift

Speed Tests

Eric Schlange

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July 16, 2020

32

Speed Tests: PowerUps, Frames, and Wheels for Sprinting on Zwift

Most Zwift races come down to a pack sprint, and many of those sprints are won by a half-second or less. Because of this, smart racers would be well-served to understand how powerups and equipment selection influence their sprint times.

We’ve recently run a bevy of tests to learn how variations in rider weight, height, power, powerups, and frame/wheel choice affect sprint times. We’ve summarized the findings of these results below, but if you’d like to dig into the raw timing data you can do so on this Google sheet, under the “Sprints (Richmond)” tab.

Methodology

We ran a series of test sprints on Richmond’s Monument Avenue forward sprint segment. We selected this sprint because the road is quite flat, straight, and the sprint lasts approximately 15 seconds, so our powerups can run for the length of the sprint.

Our tests were run in isolation (no drafting other riders) at various rider weights, heights, and steady-state wattages. We also tested various frames and wheelsets. Unless stated, test results shown below are from a 75kg, 183cm male rider holding 750 watts.

Our rider held the set wattage for at least a few kilometers leading into the sprint to ensure that acceleration from wattage changes did not affect sprint times. When powerups were being tested, we activated them at the sprint start line so they would run for the entire length of the sprint. (While this may not be what happens in a race situation, it was the most repeatable methodology for the purpose of these tests.)

Aero Powerup Advantage

The aero powerup improves sprint times significantly, which explains why it’s the most coveted powerup for a race finish!

The amount of time saved by the aero powerup decreases slightly as wattage (and therefore speed) increases:

900 watts (12 w/kg): 0.56 seconds faster
750 watts (10 w/kg): 0.60 seconds faster
600 watts (8 w/kg): 0.63 seconds faster

The time saved by using the aero powerup in a sprint is quite consistent across different combinations of frames and wheelsets, varying 0.02 seconds or less between different frames/wheelsets.

Once we computed the time advantage of the aero powerup, we could attempt the sprints without an aero powerup, increasing the power to match the time delivered by the aero powerup. This tells us how much additional power you would need to hold to compete with a rider using the aero powerup. Or to put it another way, it tells us what the “wattage bonus” of the aero powerup is.

900 watts (12 w/kg): 115 watts
750 watts (10 w/kg): 100 watts
600 watts (8 w/kg): 80 watts

So the faster you’re going, the more of a wattage “bonus” the aero powerup offers.

Feather Powerup Advantage

The feather powerup improves sprint times consistently, regardless of which frame or wheelset you use:

Felt AR with Zipp 858/Super9 wheels at 750 watts (10 w/kg): 0.17 seconds faster
Specialized Venge S-Works with Zipp 858 wheels at 750 watts (10 w/kg): 0.18 seconds faster
Trek Madone with Zipp 858 wheels at 750 watts (10 w/kg): 0.16 seconds faster
Tron bike at 750 watts (10 w/kg): 0.16 seconds faster
Zwift Carbon with 32mm Carbon wheels at 750 watts (10 w/kg): 0.17 seconds faster

The amount of time saved by the feather powerup varies when wattage varies, but not in a consistent way we can explain. Here are the results of our tests (repeated to make sure they’re correct):

900 watts (12 w/kg): 0.16 seconds faster
750 watts (10 w/kg): 0.16 seconds faster
600 watts (8 w/kg): 0.10 seconds faster

Rider Height

We already know height significantly affects speed in Zwift, since it is used to compute your virtual CdA. Our tests showed that, all other things being equal, every 10cm of height added results in a sprint which is 0.16-0.21 seconds slower:

203cm at 750 watts (10 w/kg): 14.66 seconds
193cm at 750 watts (10 w/kg): 14.5 seconds (0.16 seconds faster)
183cm at 750 watts (10 w/kg): 14.32 seconds (0.18 seconds faster)
173cm at 750 watts (10 w/kg): 14.13 seconds (0.19 seconds faster)
163cm at 750 watts (10 w/kg): 13.97 seconds (0.16 seconds faster)
153cm at 750 watts (10 w/kg): 13.76 seconds (0.21 seconds faster)

Frame and Wheelset Choice

Your frame and wheel choice affect sprint times, in approximately the same ratio as they affect times at normal race speeds. Therefore, our lists of fastest frames and fastest wheels also holds true for sprinting.

Examples:

Upgrading from the 32mm carbon wheels to super-fast disc wheels will reduce your time in an hourlong flat race by approximately 1.71%. That same wheel swap will reduce your sprint time by 1.89%.
Upgrading from the Zwift Carbon to the fast Felt AR will reduce your time in an hourlong flat race by approximately 0.55%. That same frame swap will reduce your sprint time by 0.41%.

Note: without more timing accuracy in-game and on Strava, it is difficult to determine if the percentage variances above are due to in-game physics or rounding.

Presumably due to rounding (Zwift only tracks sprint times to two decimal places), all of the wheels on our short fastest wheels list turn in the same sprint times, except for the three disc wheelsets, which turn in times .05 seconds faster. Similarly, the first four frames in our fastest frames list turn in essentially the same sprint times.

Therefore, your fastest sprint setups on flat ground will be (from fastest to slowest):

Any of the first four frames in our fastest frames list, coupled with one of the disc wheelsets
Tron (Concept Z1) bike (0.01-0.03 seconds slower than #1)
Any of the first four frames in our fastest frames list, coupled one of the wheelsets on our fastest wheels list (0.01-0.02 seconds slower than #2)

By comparison, the base Zwift Carbon frame with 32mm wheels which every Zwifter begins with turns in a sprint time 0.33 seconds slower than #1 above.

Questions or Comments?

Post below!

Mont Ventoux Early Access: How to Ride the Big Climb Today

Zwift Hacks

Eric Schlange

-

July 15, 2020

48

Mont Ventoux Early Access: How to Ride the Big Climb Today

Many Zwifters are wanting to have a go at Mont Ventoux, the massive climb appearing in Zwift’s new France map which replicates the iconic IRL mountain. In fact, even though the France map is closed to free riding and no group rides have taken riders up the climb yet, 1471 Zwifters have summited Mont Ventoux since it was released 18 days ago!

Here’s the good news: getting onto the climb is now easy, thanks to regular events appearing on the calendar.

The bad news? While a handful of Zwifters have completed the massive climb in less than an hour, it will take even fairly fit riders 90+ minutes of hard work to complete! See the Strava segment >

How To Ride Mont Ventoux Today

Our favorite Aussie Lama Shane Miller has shared a trick to get onto Mont Ventoux. To summarize: join a Discovery ride (see list here), quit the event, then use the arrow keys to navigate to the climb (just turn right out of the start pens). Shane shows exactly how to do it here:

L’Etape this Weekend

Don’t forget, this weekend is the final stage of L’Etape du Tour, and we’re all racing the Ven-Top route to the top of Ventoux. This is our community’s first chance to get the Ven-Top route badge. It’s gonna hurt!

When Can We Free Ride It?

The France and Paris maps are currently event-only, meaning you can only access them by joining an event. But good news – word on the street is that France and Paris will be on the guest map schedule for August, probably starting around August 10th.

Group rides may be scheduled by the community before that, although that’s unclear at this point.

Questions or Comments?

Share below!

A ZwiftPower Primer

Zwift’s Statement

Key Assets

Up Next

Questions or Comments?

General Time Classification

Sprint Classification

Best Climber Classification

Best Young Rider Classification

Most Combative

Team Overall General Classication

General Time Classification

Sprint Classification

Best Climber Classification

Best Young Rider Classification

Most Combative

Team Overall General Classification

About the Podcast

About the Podcast:

L’Etape du Tour, Stage 3

Watch the Virtual Tour de France, Stages 5 & 6

Sport for Good Peloton (Nelson Mandela Day)

ZHR Audax

Your Thoughts

About the Podcast

Stage 5: France’s La Reine

Date: Saturday July 18

Timings:

Start Lists

Stage 6: Paris’ Champs-Élysées

Date: Sunday July 19

Timings:

Start Lists

Where to Watch

Methodology

Aero Powerup Advantage

Feather Powerup Advantage

Rider Height

Frame and Wheelset Choice

Questions or Comments?

How To Ride Mont Ventoux Today

L’Etape this Weekend

When Can We Free Ride It?

Questions or Comments?

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