Nathan Guerra is back with another Zwift Community Live weekly wind up, joined by eRacing mad scientist Greg Leo and Nicola Cranmer, GM of the Sho-Air Twenty20 women’s pro team.
The hosts discuss the latest Zwift official Android release, The Sufferfest releasing eSports training plans, The Rivet (new Zwift competitor… with steering?), Zwift’s racing schedule, the ride leader fence, GPLama’s missing TT gates, Zwift Classics, and more.
In this special release, a short interview with Mary Wilkinson, winner of the Zwift Classics London International.
Learn how she quickly adapted, using the new “cloak” powerup to secure her victory.
Visit inthepens.com to access the podcast archives.
Today Zwift took a new mission live, dubbed the L’Etape du Tour de France Mission. It’s another fun “carrot” to help motivate us to log some solid training in the coming weeks!
To complete this mission, you must ride the same distance and elevation of the real-life L’Etape du Tour de France over the course of 23 days between July 6th and July 28th.
That means riding 135 kilometers (83.8 miles) and climbing 4,563 meters (14,970′).
Any ride on Zwift counts. If you’re having a hard time logging those miles, join one of Zwift’s many group events to help you rack up the kilometers or elevation.
Riders who complete the mission will unlock the in-game Rapha x Étape du Tour cap.
Note: finish the 2019 Zwift L’Etape du Tour event and get the full Rapha kit to match!
Everyone who completes the mission will be entered into a drawing to win one of three 2019 Rapha x Étape du Tour kits.
Just log into Zwift like you’re beginning a ride/run. The mission will appear at the top-left of the start screen. Click “Join Mission”. That’s it!
You’ll be notified in-game and by email when you have completed the mission.
Read mission details and official rules on Zwift.com >
Back in October 2018, Zwift was announced as the official training partner of L’Etape du Tour. This meant Zwifters had access to a variety of workouts, events, and other fun stuff leading up to this year’s L’Etape.
And now the time has come! L’Etape du Tour de France is happening July 21st. Amateur riders will take part in the sportive which covers the same route (stage 20) the pros will ride in the TdF on July 27th.
If you aren’t fortunate enough to be riding the outdoor event, Zwift has organized a slate of in-game rides covering nearly the same distance (and about half the climbing) as the IRL route.
Not officially, but many riders will treat it as one, and it will certainly be tracked over on ZwiftPower.
Much like an outdoor fondo, some riders will race it while others will be happy just to finish. Just be sure to ride your own ride, use the group draft, and save some power for the climbs. You’re gonna need it!
Zwifters will be riding Zwift’s toughest route, the Über Pretzel. At 128.3km (79.7 miles) long with 2,335 meters (7,661′) of elevation gain, plan on riding for at least 4-1/2 hours (and probably closer to 5 or 6) to complete it.
Learn all about the Über Pretzel route >
All riders completing the event will unlock the 2019 Rapha x L’Etape du Tour kit in-game.
Zwift has set up 5 identical events to accomodate the schedules of Zwifters worldwide.
(Note: this schedule could change before the big weekend, so be sure to visit the event details page for a current schedule.)
See event details and sign up to ride >
Zwift released a minor game update last Tuesday. Here’s a quick explanation of what changed…
We’ve got a new mission launching tomorrow! This one is L’Etape-related and involves riding a certain combined distance over a certain number of days. We’ll have a dedicated post on it once it launches.
Two new bike frames were added to the Drop Shop, from New Zealand maker Chapter2. Chapter2 isn’t very well-known (yet), but they make some beautiful bikes and sponsor the Bigla Women’s World Tour Team–a team which has ridden in some high-profile Zwift races. Our guess is these bikes were added so Bigla could ride their sponsor’s frame in-game for upcoming Zwift Classics.
We did our standard Volcano Climb speed test for the new frames, and they aren’t exceptionally fast or light, sitting just between the stock Zwift Carbon and Zwift Aero frames on our mixed test course. See the test results >
This bring us up to 58 frames available in-game.
On the PC, this latest Zwift version is 1.0.37506. On June 25th, they released version 1.0.37294. That means they’ve iterated through 212 sub-versions since June 25th. That’s a lot of code changes!
While we tend to focus on the big game upgrades (new worlds, features, etc), looking at the version numbers is a good reminder that Zwift developers are fixing various bugs and making lots of small changes daily to continually improve the Zwifting experience. Kudos to them.
This particular release includes these fixes (and certainly some others):
See the release notes from Jon Mayfield >
In this episode, Greg Leo and Adam Zimmerman catch up after a long hiatus and discuss recent changes to powerups and the newly-launched Zwift Classics.
Visit inthepens.com to access the podcast archives.
Originally created as a “rebel route”, Watopia’s Waistband is now available as an event-only route.
This perimeter route covers portions of Watopia’s three “flat” routes, (Tick Tock, Volcano Flat, Watopia Flat). It’s called “Watopia’s Waistband” because it nicely encircles key landmarks in Watopia proper including downtown Watopia, Fuego Flats, the Italian Villas, the Volcano, and the Fishing Village.
We begin on Fuego Flats at the spawn point, moving clockwise around the desert loop until it drops us off on Ocean Blvd. Take Ocean Blvd toward the Fishing Village (away from Downtown), turn left toward the Italian Village, then another left at the fountain to head toward the Volcano.
Ride around the Volcano clockwise, make our way through the downtown start/finish line and onto Ocean Boulevard before a quick left back to Fuego Flats.
At 3.25 meters of climb per kilometer of travel, Watopia’s Waistband is flatter than all official routes except Tempus Fugit and Tick Tock. The only noticeable uphills are the rise outside of Saddle Springs, the ramp out of Ocean Boulevard and the climb to the Italian Villas which follows, the volcano kicker and the shallow climb back into the desert.
Route details:
Distance: 25.5km (15.8 miles)
Elevation Gain: 83m (273′)
Strava Forward Segment
Almost half-a-century old, the sport of triathlon has seen its fair share of progress. A pillar of the sport for decades, tri legend Mike Reilly is a staunch advocate of its positive effects. He stops by in Episode 10 to talk all about it. How it’s evolved. What the scene looks like now versus then. His experiences, and recently published book, Finding My Voice.
The crew also goes over a few recent races, and checks in on some interesting tech from E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo.
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.
Enrollment is now open for Zwift Academy 2019!
This is the fourth year of Zwift’s groundbreaking mass training/global talent ID program. Last year 35,000 men and women took part, and this year Zwift expects over 100,000 participants.
For some, this is a unique opportunity to earn a professional cycling contract, but for many more, it’s a unique community-based program that encourages its members to get fitter and faster while having fun along the way.
Zwift Academy provides a way for talented riders to get noticed by pro teams. Last year’s women’s winner Ellsa Harris says, “I grew up in New Zealand where it’s incredibly hard to get noticed as we are so far removed from the professional scene–especially that in Europe. Typically I would have to travel long distances to races. However, Zwift allowed me to prove my ability on a global stage from the convenience of my home.”
Just like 2018, this year two professional cycling contracts are up for grabs: one with Women’s World Tour team, CANYON//SRAM Racing, and one with the U23 Men’s Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka Continental Team.
This year, all semi-finalists will receive a Tacx Neo 2 Smart Trainer for use in the next phase of testing in the competition. Zwift Academy semi-finalists will be announced in early October.
Zwift Academy will begin August 5th and run through September 29th.
To graduate, Zwifters must complete a series of 8 workouts and 4 races or social rides. This is a slight change from previous years, to allow Zwifters to tailor the program to their own personal preferences or goals.
Those enrolled in the Zwift Academy are incentivized to continue to progress with special in-game unlocks for completing each quarter of the program.
For those who continue to complete an additional 4 social rides or races, extra credit will be awarded: a unique Zwift Academy paint job applicable to the BMC SLR01 for the men, and to the Canyon Ultimate for the women.
Again this year, Zwift has pledged to donate one Qhubeka bike for every 10 graduates of the Men’s Zwift Academy, with the ambition of seeing at least 10,000 men graduate the program this year. That’s a lotta bikes!
“Zwift has been incredibly supportive of the Qhubeka cause,” says Doug Ryder, Team Principal for Team Dimension Data. “Every year, we travel to Cape Town for our end of season camp and get to hand over the bikes to the community, and it’s incredible to see how much of a difference basic transport can make to the lives of those people.”
All those enrolled in Zwift Academy will be offered free premium access to the online training platform Today’s Plan for the duration of the Zwift Academy.
In addition to getting the full suite of tools and analytics of Today’s Plan, Zwifters will be able to see how they stack up against their age group and the overall competition.
Note: all those in the hunt for the pro cycling contracts must sign up to Today’s Plan.
Enrollment for the 2019 Zwift Academy is now open. To register, head to www.zwift.com/academy and choose your academy, or sign up in game.
Sign up for Women’s Zwift Academy >
Sign up for Men’s Zwift Academy >
Last month’s training was all about rebuilding following a long, lazy vacation. This month was about going beyond my previous levels and starting to reach new heights.
Month four (May) finished with a CTL of 81, up from 74 prior to my vacation.
My VO2 max and mFTP were right where March’s numbers had been as well, so the post-vacation rebuild was definitely complete:
TTE remained at about 45 minutes, but at 292w as opposed to 275w in March. (For a discussion of TTE, see my month one post.)
My FRC is continuing to creep up as well (the red dashed line below), which I’m happy to see since this is one of the key areas I’m working to improve. (For an introduction to FRC see my month two post.)
I’m now at 22.6 kj, having begun my first month at ~15 kj. That’s a big improvement (nearly 50%)! According to one chart from TrainingPeaks, an FRC greater than 22.9 kj is considered high, while 13.5-22.9 kg is considered “medium”. So I’m just on the cusp of FRC greatness… maybe.
But FRC is probably best measured in proportion to body weight instead of straight kilojoules, since a larger rider will logically have more capacity in their larger muscles. I can’t find a chart showing a breakdown of kj/kg looks like, but my guess is since I’m a larger cyclist (84kg/185lbs) my FRC isn’t actually that impressive.
Here’s an example of what FRC looks like, applied to cycling performance:
If my FTP is 300 watts, and I have an FRC of 15 kj, what is the highest average wattage I can hold for 10 minutes?
What does boosted FRC translate to in my actual cycling performance? I’ve noticed I can follow multiple attacks without blowing up. I don’t get dropped as often on short climbs. And if the race isn’t too crazy I can launch my own attacks while still having something in the tank for the final sprint. In short–FRC is a game changer for races!
Here are two workouts coach Shayne gave me multiple times in this training block. Both are good examples of V02 max and SST work:
The VO2 work, in particular, has been so helpful to me–even though it’s painful to do. Doing those intervals above threshold trains my body so I can handle race attacks, and even dish some out myself. This has helped my Zwift B racing go from “hang onto the pack until I get dropped by an attack halfway through” to “stay with the front the whole race, launch a few attacks of my own, and still have a finishing sprint.”
Watch for my next post as I tackle another month’s training block, including putting in some big miles on a cycling trip to Girona!
