Matt catches up with Kristin to talk about juggling life as a cycling coach, an entrepreneur, a mom and a school teacher! Plus, Matt and Kristin chat about the latest Zwift feature—Clubs!
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).
Fast cars and TT bikes are life for Brazilian IndyCar driver Tony Kanaan. We learn why the Indy 500 Champ leans on Zwift to support his racing career – the answer will surprise you.
Plus, how coronavirus is affecting the season, and more insight into the onion that is Jordan Rapp.
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.
Anyone who’s been paying attention to cycling lately knows that riders worldwide are joining Zwift in droves. This mass indoor migration includes pro riders in the upper echelons of the sport on WorldTour teams like Mitchelton-Scott, Bahrain McLaren, Trek-Segafredo, Ineos, Jumbo-Visma, Cofidis, EF Pro Cycling, Israel Start-Up Nation, NTT, and Team INEOS. As a huge cycling fan, it puts a smile on my face whenever I spot one of my favorite pros spinning around Watopia!
While you pros have historically stayed away from Zwift races, we’re seeing you jumping into these competitive events in increasing numbers. This is fun to see! But here’s the weird part: you’re not winning! (Well, not very often at least.)
I’ve been thinking about writing this “letter to the pros” for a while, then a recent race made me decide to pull the trigger. Mathieu Van der Poel and his Alpecin-Fenix team raced the Richmond UCI route against some top community teams in a one-off race titled “Ronde van Zwift”. And even though Alpecin-Fenix brought 18 team riders to the event (the community teams each brought 7), they still neglected to place a single rider in the top 10, with only a couple of riders holding onto the main pack through to the finish!
Watch Lionel Sanders’ view of the race:
This isn’t an edge case, either. Pro teams have historically performed poorly in Zwift races against top community teams. What’s happening here, pros? Why are the world’s top road racers being beaten by amateurs?
Here are the reasons, as I see them. With a few tips along the way.
You wouldn’t go into an outdoor race without a course recce, and this is also true on Zwift! But when I’ve spoken with pros before races, it’s clear they have very little knowledge of the route they’re about to take on. It’s not a difficult job – most race routes are quite short, the route details are readily available online, and you can hop into Zwift at any time to pre-ride your race route.
When you research your route, start by paying attention to just a few key things:
I laugh every time I see a pro rider trying to race on Zwift while squinting at an underpowered laptop screen set on a table off to one side. (I only laugh to keep from crying… it’s a sad situation indeed). The vast majority of top Zwift racers do so with a large monitor or TV so they can clearly see what’s going on.
Worse yet, recently I’ve seen many pros riding outdoors with no fans. My guess is they will only make this mistake once, because pros know that overheating results in reduced power. Unless the winds are high outside, you will need a fan! Outside air doesn’t move enough to dissipate the superheated pocket surrounding your body. And of course, if you’re indoors a fan is even more essential.
Mastering the draft on Zwift is not difficult, but it does take a little practice since it doesn’t “feel” anything like drafting IRL. Drafting out on the road is intuitive because when you’re not drafting you feel the wind and the increased effort. Plus, you can steer yourself back to an ideal drafting position whenever you’d like, unless there are teams working some wicked echelons in the crosswinds.
On Zwift, being in the draft saves you 30% or more. But you don’t feel the draft – that is, resistance doesn’t drop when you enter the draft, or increase when you leave it. So you have to pay attention to your location in the pack on screen. Again and again I’ve seen pro riders killing themselves on the front of the pack, only to get shelled off the back on the first climb. (This may be a team tactic, but I doubt it.)
Smart racers on Zwift know to shelter themselves in the pack and conserve energy so they have it when it matters. Yes, at times you may have some domestiques whose only job is to keep the pace high by pinning it at the front of the pack – but pros new to Zwift should probably work on just hanging with the front pack first!
Zwift races are nothing like the 5+ hour road races enjoyed by pros during a typical season. In terms of effort level, Zwift races are most comparable to cyclocross or short TT races. Here are a few key things that characterize most Zwift races:
As a top pro accustomed to racing and training outdoors, you may think Zwift racing is a bit silly. And that’s understandable. But here’s what you need to know: the community teams you’re competing against take it very seriously. Not only are they stacked with super-strong athletes, but they’ve also been racing on Zwift 2, 3, 4 times a week… for years!
They know the routes like the back of their hand, and they’ve got big screens, strong fans, and high framerates. If you think you can just pop open your laptop, log into Zwift, and beat these teams – you’re probably in for a rude awakening.
In a typical year, at this point in the season, a pro could be excused for not giving Zwift races any serious thought. But this isn’t a typical year. Zwift racing is (arguably) the only serious indoor platform in town, and cycling is only indoors for the foreseeable future. In an industry where camera time leads to sponsor money and fan engagement is paramount, pro teams would be well-advised to avoid “doing a Cofidis“.
We all want to see you pros competing in Zwift races, but it’s going to take some practice and homework if you want to perform well.
And we hope you do, because it’ll be fun to watch.
See you on course!
If you look around the Zwift Riders Facebook group it won’t take long to find several posts from people announcing their latest accomplishments: FTP increases, long rides completed, Tron bike procurement and so on. But not everyone likes to fly their own flag, so we’re here joining a growing number of Zwifters to fly the flag of a certain lady Zwifter who was going to silently hit a pretty big milestone in a matter of days!
Sharron Yaxley, affectionately known as “The Mink” is about to hit the 100,000km mark on Zwift! The first woman to ever hit it, with only 8 men getting the milestone before her.
Born and raised in Tasmania, the island state of Australia, 57-year-old Sharron was not what you’d call athletic or a cyclist. Between being raised without encouragement to be athletic, her full-time job as an accountant, and raising 4 children all very close in age there wasn’t much time to take care of herself.
Three of her kids all accomplished national level athletic status, and the fourth got himself a PhD. It seems they were well on their way to successful lives when Sharron found more time to take care of her own health. Sharron started road riding but found the climate on her island to be fickle. A friend told her to Google “Zwift” four years ago, and the rest is history!
On a typical day you’ll find Sharron popping out of bed at 4:45am, grabbing a cup of much-needed coffee and heading to Zwift in her garage. She rides her oldest and first touring bike, a BMC GFC01 set up on a Wahoo Kickr until it’s time to get ready for work, usually around 8am. That’s a ~3-hour ride every morning, riding up to 100km every day!
After work she does a stretching program, except on Wednesdays when she hops back on in the evening to lead the Crikey Down Under ride. This event is a bit of a fun cat-and-mouse sort of ride, be sure to join her on it! Saturdays are her endurance days where she’ll ride around 150-200km, up to 12 hours or more. Because of the circumstances of COVID-19 she’s careful not to deplete her immune system these days, adding that ride-recovery takes longer the older you get.
Sharron laughingly said that when she first started on Zwift she couldn’t keep up with anyone. Her first event was ZWOZ (out of Western Australia) where she kept getting dropped, after which the ride leader gave her some tips on drafting. She intentionally practiced the tips by jumping into the drafts of groups that would ride by. She got better and was able to hold on in the events longer and longer.
As Sharron continued on Zwift she has found it a great place to push herself without fear of cars, dogs, intersections, and weather. She mostly prefers riding in Watopia. Her favorite rides are endurance or interval-based. Zwift has also been a great tool for her to train for IRL cycling tours, a new passion of hers.
Last year Sharron took a trip where she rode with others across 8 countries in Europe, for a distance of 3300km. She’s also done Lands End to John O’Groats (~1700km), London to Venice (2200km), and Bordeaux to Barcelona, to name a few.
One of her more epic rides was 1150km she did solo over 10 days. It was a round-trip from Aukland to Cape Reinga, New Zealand. She had mapped it out meticulously, had a tracker beacon and booked accommodations. The night before she left a Kiwi friend sent her a message, “You can’t go that way — too dangerous.” That threw her, but apparently not enough. She still went. On Day 2 Cyclone Hola swept through her mapped-out ride, winds expected at 150 km/h. She had no plan B so pressed on. The winds weren’t as bad as anticipated, but the rain was almost too much. She made it to the end of the route and found that she had far more tenacity and depth of strength than she could have ever guessed.
A few years ago Sharron competed in a 24-hour team challenge on Zwift, and quit 17 hours in, physically and mentally drained. She was determined to one day do the entire challenge and found the timing was right this last August 19th. It was a day when her husband Tony was going to be away and she’d just finished leading the 100km Mink Centurion (now called Endurance 101). She was feeling fit and strong and thought, “Well, it’s now or never.”
As she rode, without telling anyone her goal, she found she was almost never alone. She likens it to the scene in Forrest Gump where he runs across America and people just kind of appear and run with him for portions of it. She ended up riding a total of 836km (only 15 of which she guesstimates she rode alone)!
As she continually added distance people started noticing and would pop on to say hi, or would send her a note of encouragement on Facebook at 3am. It touched her heart. It was at that point that she found such encouragement and support from the TBR Club that she decided she must officially join them! When she finished the 24 hours she cried–both from physical and mental exhaustion, as well as being touched by the generosity of other Zwifters.
Sharron is yet another Zwifter who has found that Zwift isn’t just a great training platform but also a place to find real lifelong friends. She fondly speaks of Miroslav (Mirek) Horak, a Zwifter from the Czech Republic that she loves like a brother. She and Tony have stayed with Mirek and his family and plan to see them again in the coming years.
Sharron also mentions a cohort of Zwift friends in New Zealand and the UK, all of whom are on her bucket list to visit in real life.
The Zwift Community is also where Sharron got her nickname “The Mink.” When she first started on Zwift she was a part of the SAS Team. Having given animal nicknames to other Zwifters she nearly ended up being called “The Armadillo.” After googling other options she found the Mink: short, sharp and furry! The name stuck and since then she’s championed IRL minks who are sadly farmed for their fur and eyelashes (she adds: ladies, please do not purchase genuine mink eyelashes!)
Some have heard that Sharron is on a keto diet even as an endurance cyclist and there are a few outspoken ones who give her grief over it. Sharron has found that while it doesn’t work for everyone it works for her. She has severe knee issues that came on after a grass skiing accident years ago. More recently she was told she wouldn’t be able to ride more than 5km at a time due to her knee issues. She works really hard to keep inflammation down and a keto diet is one way of doing that. Her 100,000km on Zwift is pretty great proof of that!
As an example of her way of fueling, on her 24-hour ride she had: veggie soup, cheese and feta muffins, fat bombs, plenty of cheese, and a whole meal with Atlantic salmon and veggies. Her favorite meal on that ride was the soup as it was easy to digest and perfect for a warm middle of the night meal.
If you want to follow Sharron as she hits 100,000km follow her on Zwift, or check out the Facebook page set up in her honor: Mink Hits 100,000km.
She has graciously allowed us to follow this journey and plans to hit her mark on Friday, April 10 around 3:30pm AEST. A special Zwift event has been set up so we can all join Sharron as she hits this milestone!
Ride On, Sharron! As we know you will!
Whether by accident or design, Zwifters who “sandbag” in races cause the community a whole heap of angst. And whilst complaint posts about Zwifters racing in categories below their abilities have been a constant low hum since beta, the influx of new riders has seen a fresh peak in these kind of grouses.
Now, not before time according to some, we are going to see HQ act. Starting soon, there will be a four-pronged approach to persuading Zwifters to enter the race category, (A, B, C or D) which best matches their power in w/kg.
The initiative, revealed by senior game team member Jordan Rapp on Episode 81 of the Zwiftcast, will be rolled out gradually and will start with selected events.
It is important to note that not all sandbaggers are trying to cheat their fellow Zwifters in races. Many will enter the “wrong” category because they’re not clear on the detail of each category; because their set-ups are less than perfect or maybe even because English is not their first language.
But it’s also a reasonable assumption that, regrettably, some Zwifters get a kick out of “winning” a race unfairly.
In February Zwift CEO Eric Min, suggested that “ghosting” riders was the solution. This would have seen riders who exceeded some kind of power trigger point vanish and become invisible, although they would have finished the race.
Now that approach has changed.
Jordan is still going to devise a trigger point that will prompt action. It will be a secret blend of both 1-minute and 5-minute power. Each of the B, C, and D categories will obviously have a different trigger point. Zwift holds this data on each racer and that’s what will be used a source.
The trigger point will be biased more toward 5-minute power as Jordan explains: ”5-minute power is a really good proxy for FTP. It’s pretty clear from 5-minute power the difference between an A or a B or a C and a D.” And the trigger point will stay secret so that racers don’t manipulate their performances to remain in a lower category. “People staying nought point zero zero one under the limit is not really what it’s meant for.”
When riders select a race category at signup, their 1-minute and 5-minute power will be used to decide if Zwift pops up a warning indicating that they risk being flagged. At least initially, Zwift will not prevent the actual signup. But they will present a warning.
If the trigger is hit during the race three things will happen:
Racers will, however, stay in the race and they will remain in the results.
The trigger points will remain under constant review and Jordan expects them to change as he gets feedback from the racing community – feedback he really wants to hear.
The approach is described as “light touch” with Jordan adding: ”I don’t want to whack these people with a huge hammer for something that might have been truly accidental.”
The rollout will be gradual, starting with selected events and even Jordan is not certain exactly when it will begin. The code has already been included in the game. The betting is that rollout will start once HQ has got ahead of dealing with the increased workload of the huge influx of new Zwifters and once all events have been synchronised as time-zones have changed across the
world.
I think this stands a chance of working well. Nobody likes getting slowed down and this makes the power throttling a powerful tool. Combined with an element of mild public approbation with a new green cone of shame, Zwifters racing in the “wrong” category will not be left in any doubt.
You can hear the full interview with Jordan in Episode 81 of the Zwiftcast.
What do you think of HQ’s plans to reduce sandbagging in races? Share below!
Another week – another Zwiftcast. Simon, Shane, and Nathan unite to discuss the boom times on Zwift as the platform provides welcome relief from the burden of the virus.
The headline feature on this episode is the long-awaited Solution to Sandbagging. This is a short term fix which Zwift hopes to implement within days (for testing) and weeks (for a full roll-out).
The approach sees four types of warnings/sanctions applied to Sandbaggers… listen to a full explanation of the system from senior game guy Jordan Rapp.
The Zwiftcasters move on to discuss the measures Zwift is putting in place to prioritise the stability of the platform as truly enormous numbers flood the events as Zwifters look for a challenge to distract them from the concerns caused by the pandemic.
One of the biggest rides has been with Mark Cavendish – and Simon talks to a Zwifter who got picked out of 3,500 riders for a live Insta chat with the Manx Missile himself.
Later the podcasters speculate about the cryptic clues on a new feature outlined in the latest update and wonder whether some interesting development work on enhanced PowerUps described by Jordan may offer further hints.
Simon also gets behind the story of one particular Event on the Zwift schedule. The Bike Breaks Shop Ride is an IRL institution. Now transferred to Zwift, this ride is proving a source of much needed comfort and support for a bike business which has been hammered by the travel ban across Europe.
And finally, the Zwiftcasters talk about the implications of other platforms muscling into the online eSports arena and whether they’re making a good job of it.
We hope you enjoy listening.
For many of us in these crazy times, Zwift is our only cycling option and video chatting is our only social connection to the outside world. So our local weekend warrior cycling group decided to combine the two using the Zwift Meetup function and Zoom meetings! While not perfect, these “Zoom Meetups” are easy to set up and a fun new Zwift experience that has tremendous potential.
Creating a Zwift Meetup is easy. Using the Zwift Companion app, click the EVENTS tab on the bottom, then the “People” icon near the top and then the CREATE MEETUP button near the top. Enter the time you want to meet, the course and route you want to go, the distance or duration of the ride, whether you want to “keep everyone together” and an optional message. Finally, invite people who follow you on Zwift to join the Meetup.
Shane Miller has a great video that goes into a lot more depth:
Despite its simplicity, there are a few things to know about creating a Zwift Meetup. First, you can only invite people who follow you so you’ll likely have to notify some people to follow you and then wait for them to do so. Second, while you can select the distance of the Meetup, you can’t select the number of laps so your ride may not end at the precise finish of a route.
Creating a Zoom meeting is also straight forward. Download the Zoom app to your computer/phone/tablet, sign up, click the Schedule button then enter your meeting details. Once scheduled, click the Copy Invitation button and send the invitation to whoever you want to attend the Meeting. It’s that easy.
Keep in mind, for meetings of more than two people, Zoom is only free for up to 40 minutes. If your Zwift Meetup is longer than that and has more than two participants you may need to upgrade to the $15/month Zoom Pro plan.
As the Zwift Meetup and Zoom Meeting Organizer, make sure you are familiar with both platforms, that all of your hardware is working correctly and you have time to field myriad questions from your invitees. For your first Zoom Meetup, I suggest doing a dry run the day before. For all rides, be ready at least 20 minutes before the start time. Remember, people are counting on you to make this happen so be prepared.
It’s important for Organizers to email/text invitees a couple of times before the Meetup.
The first group email/text should:
The second email/text should contain more details such as:
Despite your best efforts, your first Zoom Meetup may not go according to plan.
About 15 minutes before the Meetup start time, things may get a bit frenzied. Once people join the Zoom Meeting there may be cross conversations, cut off heads, inaudible audio, annoying noises, technical issues and lots of questions. Be ready.
Once the ride begins, you may get a little disoriented and lose track of some group members… especially if there are a lot of other Zwifters on the road and your group is wearing different jerseys. Although riders in your group appear in green on the nearby riders list, it still may be hard to keep track of everyone since some may be too far ahead or behind to appear on the list. While this is going on, your Zoom chat may devolve into a cacophony of “Where are you?” But don’t worry… things will calm down, the group will eventually find each other, everyone will have a good time and your next Zoom Meetup will be even better.
Now you can avoid this chaos altogether by creating a Zwift Meetup using the “keep everyone together” option. This feature keeps the group together regardless of the different power outputs of the riders. Although this feature works great for group workouts where everyone is doing the same workout but at their own power levels, it has its drawbacks for group rides. Keeping people together eliminates group sprints, KOMs and mini-races and may demotivate some since you don’t need to work hard to keep up. That said, if your group is looking for a more social ride and chat, the “keep everyone together” option works well.
Ideally, I’d like Zwift Meetups to have similar functionality to Zwift group rides such as options to select any map/route, hide other riders, and wear group jerseys as well as the ability to message the group, late join a ride and even enable the fence. In the future, maybe Zwift can even incorporate group video chats right into the game like Trainer Road just did with their group workouts.
But that said, there is a lot that can be done with Zoom Meetups such as indoor rides with friends, trainer-hosted live workouts, birthday rides and much more. Perhaps some of this functionality will eventually be replaced by the new Clubs feature but for now, Meetups are the only game in town.
In summary, Zoom Meetups give us a new Zwifting experience… and that’s a good thing. They are fun, interactive and about as social as any of us will get these days.
If you’d like to see what a Zoom Meetup looks like, check out our ride at:
GCN Host Simon Richardson has taken up a new challenge: can he get fitter despite this new reality of working from home and social distancing? And will he come out ahead of the competition, as other GCN presenters are throwing down to see who makes the biggest quarantine leap?
Zwifters are invited to train with Si and other GCN hosts on group workouts for the next four weeks. Join in to build overall fitness, or target improving your Epic KOM time like the GCN hosts. Here’s Simon’s intro video:
The series was assembled by Zwift Performance Consultant Kev Poulton and involves a mix of workouts grabbed from various Zwift training plans, with a Wednesday race to test our limits and a free ride to get in some climbing.
Two different group workouts will be offered each week (Tuesdays and Fridays), and the rides will be led in different timezones by GCN presenters from the UK, Spain, Japan, Italy, Germany, and France.
Follow Simon’s progress by tuning into GCN on YouTube.
See schedule and other details at zwift.com/events/series/gcn-can-you-get-fitter-in-four-weeks-challenge >
Complete any of the GCN presenter-led workouts to score the in-game GCN kit!
Learn more at zwift.com/events/series/gcn-can-you-get-fitter-in-four-weeks-challenge >
Last Sunday we hit a new high of 28,305, then yesterday (Saturday) we broke the 30k mark for the first time in Zwift’s history.
But this morning (Sunday) we blew away our record again – hitting a peak of ~34,940 at precisely 2am California time, or 9am GMT.
Zwift isn’t confirming peak numbers during this time, so we don’t know the precise number. Astute Zwifter Kevin Wild sent us a screenshot showing 34,945, and one Garry Stevens posted a shot showing 34,954!
With today’s peak we’ve more than doubled the Peak Zwift we set back in January 2020. Wow!
Will it go higher? Yes. It jumped by nearly 6,500 in a week. It will go higher.
Stay healthy, take care of one another, and Ride On!
I woke up at 2am on March 26th with a Zwifty idea: what if I could easily filter the list of upcoming events based on how many people are signed up?
(Let’s not talk about me having too much Zwift on the brain. It’s been crazy in Zwiftlandia for the last few weeks!)
Big events are something cyclists rarely get to enjoy outdoors, but they happen regularly on Zwift. The problem is: there’s no easy way to find them! Sometimes Zwift announces the big events – other times (especially in the last few crazy weeks) no announcement is made, yet people still sign up in droves because they found it through some other channel.
When I got into the office that morning I sent a quick message to Jesper over at ZwiftHacks. He liked my idea.
The next day, it was live. That’s agility, folks. Three cheers for Jesper!
Visit the ZwiftHacks events page and you’ll immediately see the colored tags next to any event with 100+ signups:
To filter events by size, click “More filters and search” then select an option next to “Size”. Jesper set it up so you can filter for events with 100+, 200+, 300+, or 500+ signups.
Is this a useful tool for you? And how great is Jesper’s ZwiftHacks events tool? Share your thoughts below!
