The final race of each round of the 2024/25 Zwift Racing League season features a new community-designed route, and it’s time to vote on the route for Round 3!
31 route ideas were submitted, and a panel of judges (including myself) narrowed the field to just three. Now the Zwift community gets to decide which one we’ll race on February 18, 2025!
Zwiftcast Episode 206: a new cast, and interviews with Eric Min and Matt Stephens
After a brief hiatus, the Zwiftcast is back with British broadcaster, Zwifter, and life-long cyclist Rebecca Charlton joining American cycling favorite, commentator, and announcer Dave Towle as your new co-hosts.
In this episode, they chat with Zwift’s CEO and Co-Founder, Eric Min, to discuss Zwift’s 10th anniversary, Eric Schlange of Zwift Insider joins to bring the team up to speed on what they may have missed over the past couple of months, and finally, Rebecca catches up with a friend of Zwift, ex-pro and all-round cycling legend, Matt Stephens.
Join the new cast to hear how they’ll be dropping in from the slipstream of the brilliant Zwiftcast creator Simon Schofield, find out why Matt is in a bathrobe for his interview, and discover why there’s a shared love of the pizza slice!
Virtual Shifting with the Elite Direto XR and Direto XR-T
After Elite’s announcement of the “Zwift Ready” Direto XR with Zwift Cog and Click in September, it’s not surprising that they’re rolling out a firmware update (version FW86) for existing Direto XR customers. In fact, it’s only surprising that it took this long!
But let’s not look a gift horse in the mouth. If you own an Elite Direto XR or XR-T (essentially the same trainer, but the XR-T was sold without a cassette pre-installed) you can install the latest firmware update via Elite’s Upgrado app to instantly get virtual shifting capabilities on your trainer.
It sounds like Elite will be rolling out virtual shifting capabilities to additional trainers soon, which is great news! Elite says, “After introducing the Cog and Click integration with Direto XR, we’re thrilled to extend this to all standard models. Firmware updates for Justo, Justo 2, and Avanti are expected in early 2025, with updates for Suito(-T), Direto, Direto X, and Direto XR Team coming this spring.”
Virtual Shifting with the JetBlack Volt V2
JetBlack’s Victory has been getting all the press lately (and for good reason), but JetBlack did their customers right by rolling out virtual shifting for their older Volt V2 this week via firmware version 3.1.84.
If you’ve got the Volt V1, unfortunately that won’t be getting a virtual shifting upgrade. JetBlack says “The VOLT 1.0 is old technology and unfortunately unable to support the firmware update needed to be compatible with Zwift Cog & Click.”
Not sure which version you have? You can figure it out by looking at the drive side of the trainer. VOLT 1.0 has a flat cap, VOLT 2.0 has a sloped cap.
Virtual Shifting the with VAN RYSEL D100
Available only in the UK and EU, the VAN RYSEL D100 is perhaps the most budget-priced direct-drive smart trainer on the market. This week’s firmware update (version 0.104) brings virtual shifting to anyone who bought the non Zwift-Ready version.
Firmware updates are accomplished via the OneLap Fit app.
Requirements for Virtual Shifting
Once you’ve got a trainer that supports virtual shifting, there are two additional requirements you’ll need to meet before you can start shifting virtually:
Virtual Shifting Controller: you need a device to do the shifting. There are currently three virtual shifting devices: Zwift Play controllers, Zwift Click, and the Zwift Play controllers built into the Zwift Ride smart frame.
Bluetooth Connectivity: your smart trainer and virtual shifting controllers must be connected via Bluetooth. Virtual shifting is not supported via ANT+.
If you want to buy the Zwift Cog as well (especially handy if you’re swapping various bikes between one trainer), Elite’s firmware announcement included a discount code for the Zwift Cog and Click Upgrade Pack! Get a $20/ÂŁ20/€20 discount using this discount code: ELITEZCOG2024 (only available in EU, UK, and US).
Zwift Ride Compatibility
Lastly, it’s worth noting that all the trainers referenced above are fully compatible with the Zwift Ride smart frame once they’ve received firmware updates. So if you already own the trainer, you can purchase the standalone frame and have a smooth new Zwift Ride setup!
As you may or may not know, each of these sections consists of two activities: first a workout, then a test. I cover the attacking workout and test below.
Attack the Bunch Workout
The Attack the Bunch workout has you tackle multiple high-intensity intervals ranging from 45 seconds to 3 minutes in length. The full workout is 53 minutes long with 8 hard intervals, while the lite version is 34 minutes long with 6 intervals. Here’s what the workouts look like with my FTP set at 310W:
I went with the full 53-minute workout, and did it as a group workout event. (You can do these as on-demand workouts by yourself as well, but I wanted to try the group workout experience.)
Watch me ride this workout:
I went into the workout with a bit more fear and trepidation than I had with the Sprint Workout because I’d heard others say it was a tough one, and looking at its details confirmed this. My strengths are probably in efforts of 60 seconds or less, so I knew the later intervals in this workout would be the toughest.
After a warmup with three 30-second efforts to get your blood pumping, riders are tasked with completing 4 pairs of intervals. As the workout progresses, each pair of intervals gets longer, but the power target also drops. Here are my intervals:
2×45 seconds at 512W (165% FTP)
2×1 minute at 434W (140% of FTP)
2×2 minutes at 388W (125% of FTP)
2×3 minutes at 357W (115% of FTP)
There were 60 riders in my group, and after the first hard interval, one rider asked about how to avoid the situation where your cadence slows, forcing the trainer to ramp up resistance, which just causes your cadence to slow more, which causes resistance to increase… the ERG spiral of death.
It’s always worth mentioning, for workouts that include high-intensity work, that it’s helpful to spin up your cadence going into the hard interval so your legs don’t grind to a halt when the resistance hits. Zwift’s prompts in the workout help get this idea across nicely.
Cadence is a personal thing, on some levels, but I find for myself that a cadence of 100+ is helpful on hard intervals. I perform better when my cadence is high enough that it doesn’t feel like I’m mashing the pedals.
Each pair of intervals felt harder than the one before, but just barely. And my heart rate peaked slightly higher at each and every interval. Check out this progression:
165 bpm
169 bpm
170 bpm
172 bpm
179 bpm
182 bpm
183 bpm
185 bpm
I thought I might end up standing for part of the longer intervals toward the end of the workout, but once I got to 60 seconds left on the final interval, I decided I would do it seated because standing felt like a bit of a cop-out.
The group workout used the Turf N Surf route, which was another great choice for the event because many of the key intervals were done on climb sections where we would be attacking in races.
Takeaways from the Attack the Bunch Workout
I received an email from Zwift immediately after finishing the sprint workout, telling me I’d unlocked the Oakley Katos and inviting me to visit zwift.com/zwift-camp and sign up for more events.
My only takeaway from this workout was that I would benefit from doing more workouts featuring intervals in the 1-5 minute range. As we age, in fact, doing this sort of high-intensity work becomes even more important, because if we don’t use it… we’ll lose it.
Attacking Test
The Attacking Test has you complete two all-out 60-second efforts. Your goal is to get your best possible 60-second power in these segments so Zwift can accurately assess your attacking abilities. Here’s what it looks like with my FTP set at 310W (the power requirements will change depending on your personal FTP):
Two days after my Attack the Bunch workout, I started my Saturday morning with the Attacking Test.
This a simple workout in terms of layout: a standard warmup followed by two 60-second all-out efforts. The efforts are separated by 9 minutes of easy spinning to give your legs time to recharge.
Watch me complete the Attack Test:
My first attack started pretty strong, but I really faded in the last 20 seconds. (Part of the challenge in these sorts of tests is proper pacing. It’s something you get better at the more you do it, unsurprisingly…)
My screen said I averaged 598W for the interval as I crossed the line. But Strava and Zwift said my 60-second best for the workout was 605W. How does that work? Well, what showed on my screen was my average wattage for the interval, while Zwift is actually taking your 60-second best across the entire workout, wherever it occurs. I hit my power a bit early, before the workout began, so there’s a bit of disparity between the numbers. No big deal.
Peak heart rate, hit just after this first segment ended: 181 bpm.
I could still feel the first 1-minute effort in my legs when I began the second one, even though I’d had 9 minutes of easy riding in between. For the second interval, I tried to start a bit lighter so I wouldn’t blow up early. My power chart was indeed a bit more consistent, but still, those final 10 seconds felt like an eternity, with the legs burning and feeling heavy and about to burst! I averaged 589W average for the interval.
Peak heart rate, hit just after this second segment ended: 186 bpm.
Virtual Shifting + ERG Mode Tip
If you use Zwift’s virtual shifting and ERG mode in this workout, here’s an important tip which I also shared for the Sprint Test: be sure to turn off ERG mode well before you hit each of the 1-minute efforts, so you can get your gearing correct before the effort begins!
With virtual shifting, Zwift will place you in the default gear (8) as soon as you enter a free-ride segment of an ERG workout. That’s not a big deal if the free ride section is a longer one and/or you’re not going for max power during the segment. But if you’re supposed to be holding maximal power for a short free-ride segment, this is a big problem because you’ll end up spending the first several seconds of the interval shifting from 8th gear to whatever gear works best for your target effort.
So you’ll see in my video above that I simply toggled ERG mode off around 30-60 seconds before the maximal efforts began, giving me time I get into a better gear. Then I completed the efforts and re-enabled ERG mode for the recovery block.
(I’ve shared this feedback with Zwift, and they’ve acknowledged that it’s a problem. Sounds like they’re working on a fix…)
Takeaways from the Attack Test
A few minutes after finishing the Attack Test, I received an email from Zwift:
That 1-minute power number of 605 is 1 watt lower than my PR for 2024, so… at least I’m consistent. The previous best of 557 is my 90-day PR, which matches what my ZwiftPower phenotype chart shows. Always nice when data is consistent!
I don’t have any big takeaways from this test, as my performance was right in line with what I’d expected.
Questions or Comments?
Four down, two to go. How is your Zwift Camp: Baseline experience going? I see over 175k people are signed up as of today. Share your thoughts or questions below!
First launched in 2017, Tour de Zwift is the biggest annual tour on the platform – a celebration of discovery across all Zwift worlds!
This year’s tour has just been announced. Beginning January 6, it consists of six stages spread across all of Zwift’s maps. Each stage has three group ride options based on how far you want to ride, and there’s a run option for each stage as well.
So grab a friend and explore! Here’s everything riders need to know about this year’s TdZ.
Can you ride each of the three routes in all six stages? Zwift is throwing down the gauntlet this year, albeit in sort of a hidden fashion, but offering a tracking tool and additional unlocks for those looking to complete every route on every stage of Tour de Zwift 2025. More on that below!
Fresh Kit Unlocks
As ever, there’s xnew stuff to unlock in this year’s TdZ. You’ve got fresh socks, the game’s first-ever beanie, and potentially three different kits: the TdZ Ride kit, the TdZ Run kit, and The Ultimate Challenge kit! See below for details…
Stage Details
Group rides are scheduled every hour, except during the makeup week, when they’ll be scheduled every 30 minutes. Here are the route details for each stage:
If you miss any group ride stages, they will all be available to ride during the make-up week. During this week, make-up rides are scheduled every 30 minutes, with each stage following the next every half hour.
Riders and runners will unlock items progressively as they complete TdZ stages:
Socks: 1 stage
Beanie: 3 stages
Ride Kit: all 6 stages
Run Kit: all 6 stages
To complete a stage, simply finish one of the group rides (three lengths to choose from) or runs.
Ultimate Challenge
The reversed-color Ultimate Challenge kit
New this year, Zwift is featuring “The Ultimate Challenge.” This is for riders only, and completing the challenge requires you to complete all 18 routes featured in this year’s stages.
Note: Zwift estimates that it will take riders 21 hours to complete all 18 stages at 2 W/kg. This estimate is quite close to our ZIMetrics estimate of 20 hours and 41 minutes.
While completing the regular Tour de Zwift requires you to complete stages in group rides, you can select any of the routes and ride them on demand in order to get credit toward The Ultimate Challenge. Note, though, that your ride must be done after the first TdZ event kicks off on January 6, and before Tour de Zwift ends on February 23.
Completing The Ultimate Challenge earns you bragging rights and the exclusive TdZ Ultimate Challenge beanie (earned at 50% completion) and kit (earned at 100% completion):
The JetBlack Victory packs the features and specs of some of the top trainers into a $399 package. Too good to be true? In this week’s top video, hear from one of the top sports tech reviewers as he provides an in-depth review of the Victory.
We’ve also selected videos about tough Zwift races, the hardest Zwift workouts, Zwift racing tips for heavy riders, and Zwift Camp: Baseline.
JetBlack Victory In-Depth Review: What’s the catch?
DCRainmaker provides an in-depth review of the JetBlack Victory, testing the accuracy, ride feel, and more.
Brutal Zwift Race! // Zwift Racing League
In her latest video, Katie Kookaburra talks about her recent Zwift Racing League race, providing commentary and analysis on her performance.Â
Can I Survive The 4 Hardest Workouts On Zwift?
Si from GCN has selected 4 of the hardest workouts on Zwift to tackle. Watch as Si cranks through Emily’s Short Mix, The Gorby, The Wringer, and last but not least, The McCarthy Special.
Tips for Heavy Riders to Win Zwift Races
Oliver, aka Not Tadej Pogacar, reviews race footage with his coach and provides tips for heavier riders to perform well in Zwift races.
Zwift Camp: Baseline Is Way More Important Than You Think
Adam from Road to A discusses why he thinks that the Zwift Camp: Baseline is an important program for Zwift’s algorithms.
Got a Great Zwift Video?
Share the link below and we may feature it in an upcoming post!
How did you get into cycling? I was previously a runner but gradually as injuries got the better of me I was advised to stop running and I needed to find something else to replace it. I got a mountain bike and started riding at trail centers. After a couple of years and several crashes later, I got a road bike and started riding a little bit on the road, joined a club and entered a few TTs. During Covid I was lent an indoor bike and discovered it connected to Zwift. This opened up a whole new world, and being a competitive person, I launched myself into Zwift racing.
How many years have you been racing on Zwift? About 4 years, after starting like many people during lockdown. It began with the occasional race, then using it for training and gradually becoming more and more immersed. I am part of a race team and I volunteer as a ride leader on the GTCC social rides, which is a great experience.
Are you part of a virtual team? Yes, I race the WTRL team time trials for a women’s team called Amicis. The support these women have for each other is phenomenal, and I have been lucky enough to meet some of them IRL. I always think it’s amazing firstly how Zwift allows you to ride and race with people all over the world, but even more amazing, how a group can race together from their kitchens, garages, and spare rooms from literally anywhere in the world whilst chatting on Discord.
What do you love the most about racing?  I love how racing pushes me beyond what I think I can do. I would never push myself to that level without others to chase. Trying to stay with a group of riders really shows you what your limits actually are, rather than what you think they are. It’s lots of fun and very rewarding.
What is your favourite style of race? Individual time trials. Yes they are tough, but they really are a great test of physical and mental fitness and I enjoy how it challenges me. I also like working as part of the team in the team time trials. This is a different skill set and different type of fitness, but I like working with my team to achieve something together, whilst being able to talk to them on Discord.
What is your favourite Zwift women’s race series? I enjoyed doing the old Sheries women’s races. It is from doing these races that I was first approached to join a race team, and this gave me a platform to really embrace everything Zwift had to offer in terms of community racing. I started to get to know the regular riders and learn how to race. The other women were so encouraging.
What is your most memorable racing experience, inside, outside or both? On Zwift it has to be the women’s chase race on International Women’s Day this year. This was an incredible experience, working with a team of women from all over the world, taking turns to pull on the front to protect other riders for the good of the team. This was the biggest group of women I have ever raced with in one race. Just phenomenal. My most memorable outdoor race was the Tour of Cambridge. This was my first proper road race and despite it being incredibly tough and having to dig deep, I was proud of what I achieved.
What is your favourite food to eat post race? Salted peanuts. I love them and they taste so good after working hard. Probably not on any nutritionist’s menu.
What advice would you give to women entering their first Zwift race? Just give it a go. What have you got to lose? If you find you don’t like it or you’ve had enough, you can stop and get off your bike and you’re in the safety of your own home. You don’t have to worry about riding back home, you are already there. Nobody knows who you are or where you are, so you can be completely anonymous if you want to be. But, I would say embrace the community, it is very supportive and I have got to know lots of riders who are now friends. Also: there is no traffic or potholes to worry about. Â
Any upcoming race you are looking forward to? I’m looking forward to my next in real life individual time trial because I really want to beat my previous time.
Team Fearless 8th Annual Women’s Team Championships – December 14
Team Fearless has announced the details of this year’s Annual Women’s Team Championships, held in partnership with Flamme Rouge Racing (FRR).
A Special Race
Now in its eighth year, this race can be called a true Zwift December classic! Over 300 women are already registered, but organizers expect that number to more than double by race day.
Meant to test resilience and endurance with a longer distance than the average Zwift race, the AWTC is one of a kind. Even better: each category gets to crown its own champions, so this race is for all ability levels.
An advanced points system is in place this year, where riders are assigned roles on their teams so everyone can contribute to the overall team win. See “Race Format and Categories” below for details…
Date and Time
The race happens Saturday, December 14 at 7:30 PM UTC/2:30pm ET/11:30am PT).
Race Format and Categories
This race uses FRR’s innovative Team Role Racing, where teams of 5 mixed ability (female only) riders will compete in each of the four racing divisions for points on sprints, climbs, and across the finish line.
Each member of the Team will be allocated a role by their Team Manager, and there are 3 role options:
GC Rider:1 rider per team whose finish points are doubled for the team score
Climber: 2 riders per team who can win climbing points plus finish points
Sprinter: 2 riders per team who can win sprinting points plus finish points
Riders are classified based on women’s 30-day vELO max value from ZwiftRacing.app.
