The winner of Zwift’s Canyon Ultimate giveaway is David Phillips from the UK. Congrats, David!
Watch Hannah Barnes of the Canyon//SRAM Racing Team make the announcement here. According to Hannah 2,690 Zwifters completed the challenge, with an average ride time of 2:50.
Team dZi is one of the most active, global teams on Zwift in terms of riding, racing, and organizing events for other Zwifters. You likely have seen them riding in their distinctive Nepalese Red, Le Col sponsored kit with “dZi Riding for Nepal” written on it.
I recently chatted with founder Kevin Connors about dZi’s slate of popular group rides–here are the details of each ride:
Less than 60 minutes long at a moderate pace (2.5 w/kg on flats, 3.0 w/kg on hills) with efforts made to keep dropped riders to a minimum. Usually led by Frederic Jacquemin or Bruno Fernandez-Ruiz. Each day features some different sprints or other efforts which are always voluntary and announced by the Ride Leader. The group comes back together after all efforts.
Start Times:
This is dZi’s most inclusive weekend ride, with a pace of 2.5 w/kg. Every effort is made to keep the group together, so there are no sprint sections or raced sections. Ride length is just 3 laps of the Watopia’s flat route (~30km).
This is a great event for someone trying their first group ride and keen to learn how to draft efficiently. Team dZi’s Cassie Baldi is the regular leader, but other Team dZi members will lead at times too.
Start times:
Both of dZi’s pro-style events below are uniquely set up to help you train like a pro. These rides have “tempo” riding at 3-3.5W/KG to get rider hearts and muscles pumping. They then add 1-2 sprint intervals per lap. Finally each event closes with a full gas race of the fifth and final lap. This combo of high tempo, interval, and full effort riding/racing for approximately 50km is very similar to how pro teams train to drive improvement.
The results of the raced sections are displayed via ZwiftPower technology on that and Team dZi’s website. Race results will be part of the JZRA rankings too.
These rides are usually led by Frederic Jacquemin, Bruno Fernandez-Ruiz, Kevin Connors, or Hugo Vegter and take place on Watopia’s flat route.
Start Times:
Start Times:
The very popular Nepalese Summit Race happens on the second Monday of each month. This is an all-inclusive multi-category race (9 different categories!) with a staggered start so riders come together on the final climb.
The race features a significant amount of climbing since it ends at the very peak of the Radio Tower climb. It is named the “Nepalese Summit Race” because of the race’s long and steep finishing climb, but also because of Team dZi’s link to its eponymous foundation supporting mountainous Nepal. This race is a true dZi team effort, with all of dZi’s almost 30 team members contributing in different ways to make the event happen.
Team dZi is obviously putting a lot of effort into these events for us Zwifters. They are doing this to help the Zwift community, but also to create exposure for their title charity sponsor, dZi Foundation, who helps some of the world’s most remote communities with agricultural assistance, sanitation improvements, transport efficiency, and education in Nepal. All help for Nepal and dZi Foundation from the Zwift community is very welcome!
You can sign up for all of these events beforehand or even while Zwifting up until just before they start on the Zwift Mobile App under the brand new Events tab. Learn more about joining group rides >
These dZi events are hosting between 300-500 riders each week, so it seems the Zwift community understands that daily, pro-style, and race training in combination is a great way to improve fitness while having some fun in a group. Thanks to the Zwift platform and organizers like Team dZi this training is now available even to time-crunched or weather-bound riders.
Feedback on the events or those with interest in Team dZi can get in touch via www.teamdzi.org.
Last night Zwift pushed out a release which updates the game to version 1.0.12372. This isn’t a major update, but fixes a few bugs to improve accuracy and reliability.
The most exciting thing about this update is the teaser shot included of the soon-to-be-released London course… it’s beautiful!
See the official notice from on Zwift’s support portal >
After taking a bit of a break, we’ve released the latest Zwiftcast episode–here are the notes on what it contains:
Welcome to Episode Six of the Zwiftcast – and a new format.
I’ve been joined by Nathan Guerra from the US and Shane Miller from Australia. Together we’re chewing the fat over all the latest news and developments from Zwift as the focus shifts towards the Southern Hemisphere’s indoor season.
The episode features an interview with Zwift’s creative genius and co-founder of the company, Jon Mayfield. Jon has some really interesting things to say about a division between Z Power users and those with Smart Trainers/Power Meters. He also talks about how the draft in Zwift is still at an early stage and raises the prospect of introducing steering into the game.
There’s a great interview with Australian hand cyclist Alex Welsh and myself, Shane and Nathan discuss the issues he raises about avatar customisation.
The KISS races have now launched all over the world and are attracting huge fields in the Southern Hemisphere. I talk to Glen Knight, one of the originators of the wildly popular series and afterwards we discuss the genius of the zwiftpower.com tool.
Matt Hayman’s coach, Kevin Poulton, still buzzing from his rider’s amazing victory in Paris-Roubaix, talks about how Matt used Zwift in his training – and gives his views on the value of indoor riding for training for the rest of us.
There’s also a lively review of the indoor season so far in Australia with Shane and I discussing the massive popularity of the Aussie HDR group ride.
I hope you like the new format – let me know on the Zwiftcast Listeners Facebook page.
Just pulling up our sales history on trainers – since 1999 we have sold 377 trainers. I couldn’t even begin to search for a total number of carbon bikes we’ve sold in that time, but we’re talking WELL over 1000. We’ve never once had a frame failure attributed to a trainer.Given how many miles people are putting in on Zwift (5.8 million miles in January ’16 alone), the Zwift Riders Facebook group should be blowing up with stories of failed frames if this is an issue. But I’ve never seen such a post. If this was a common problem you would see stories and strong warnings everywhere online. Speaking of warnings…
I’ve received confirmation from Zwift HQ that the Canyon Ultimate Pretzel Mission deadline for entries has been extended to June 26th.
Entrants must join the mission and complete the full Pretzel Route before 23:59 (UTC) on that date to be entered to win a real life  Canyon Ultimate CF SLX 8.0 bike.
The original deadline in the game terms and conditions was June 21st. As of today the terms and conditions still show this old date, but Zwift HQ says this week’s upcoming minor update will include a change to that date.
Learn more about the Canyon Ultimate Pretzel Mission >
Early June game and mobile app updates have officially brought powerful group ride features to Zwift, and the Zwift community couldn’t be more excited!
These features represent a significant upgrade over various hacked-together solutions used by Zwifters up to this point, which means the user experience will be improved for everyone.
Upcoming rides using the new group features are listed in the mobile app, making it easy for Zwifters to see what’s coming up. This feature (and the in-game list of events) seems to have increased group ride participation significantly in the past couple weeks.
Ride leader now have a yellow beacon over their avatar and an indicator next to their name in the rider list. This makes it easy to spot the leader so you know if you’re too far ahead or behind.
During the ride the top of your dashboard includes a lap counter, progress meter, and total group ride length amount. Especially handy when you lose your lap count in the heat of racing!
Once you’ve joined an event, your messages will only be seen by others who have joined the event. This keeps things uncluttered for those not participating in the group ride while helping to keep the group ride focused.
Messages from the ride leader show up in large font, center screen, making it very easy to for leaders to effectively direct the group.
You only see riders in your group in the list on the right. This is especially useful for races since it lets you know if you are competing against particular riders on course.
Groups are now released en masse at a precise time, greatly simplifying race starts. This greatly improves race starts which used to be challenging due to neutral start speeders, clock sync issues and riders jumping the gun on standing starts.
You can warm up on course then click “Join Event” before the event starts, or you can click “Join Event” right away and spin on a trainer in the staging area. Either way, you’re able to easily warm up before the event without needing to restart the game.
If you do a warmup ride on course then join in a group ride, Zwift treats these as two separate rides so they can be uploaded to Strava individually. This is helpful for races, which typically need a warmup but also need a race-only Strava file for use on ZwiftNation.com and ZwiftPower.com.
The default name for your Strava upload now includes the event title (eg, “Zwift – Back to Work UK”) so you don’t have to type it in with shaking, sweaty fingers after a ride!
Zwift CEO From Eric Min has indicated that there are more group ride changes in the pipeline. It is clear that Zwift HQ sees the value of group rides, and is working to make the tools both and more powerful (not an easy task). Here are two recent quotes from Eric:
Groups rides and races turn your solo trainer time into a social experience. Just like real life, riding with others can help you push beyond perceived limits and pass the time in a more enjoyable fashion. Here’s how group rides work in Zwift.
Step 1:Â Register
Do this from the game screen or the mobile app. Just click which category you are signing up for (most rides only have one category, labeled “A”) and you’re done.
Events show up in game a few hours before they start. The calendar is being constantly updated by ZwiftHQ, so if you don’t see an event listed that is only a day or two away, you should check later. You may browse the next few days’ events via the mobile app or on the official Zwift events calendar.
Step 2: Join
After registering you may begin your ride on whatever route you’d like. While riding, click the “Join Event” button at the bottom-left to be transported to the staging area for your event.
By default the “Join Event” button shows up 15Â minutes before the event begins, although ZwiftHQ can modify this for particular events.
If you do not click “Join Event” but continue riding, the game will pop up a warning that your event is starting soon, and will automatically take you to the start area if you click nothing and continue to ride.
Step 3: Ride!
Have fun! Once your group ride is complete you will automatically revert to normal riding mode.
Team dZi has announced their third Nepalese Summit Race, to be held on June 15th at 1900 UK Time.
This popular race gets its name from the race’s long and steep finishing climb, but also because of Team dZi’s link to its eponymous foundation supporting mountainous Nepal. The race is relatively long at 36.1km with a significant amount of climbing.
The race starts with about 2.5 laps of Ocean Boulevard the concludes with an exciting finish where many racers will come together on the tough, long final climb to the Watopia Radio Tower.
The racers will come together due to the event’s unique staggered, reverse starting times releasing CAT D first and the fastest racers CAT A last.
ZwiftAcademy.com has launched with info on all the ladies taking part, enrollment tools, a news blog and more. Nice work, Zwift HQ!
Here’s what the site says:
CANYON//SRAM Racing and Zwift have teamed up to offer women cyclists from around the world an opportunity to develop their talents, grow their community and, for one lucky rider, win a pro contract with the CANYON//SRAM Racing team for the 2017 season.
The site shows qualification details/progress for each rider. In order to qualify, riders must join a total of at least 9 Zwift Academy training rides. They must also complete the Zwift Academy specific workout plan which has 27 workouts ending in an FTP test.
As of today the site shows 425 riders enrolled, 96 remaining group rides, and 83 days left to train.
Deadline for enrollment is July 31st, 2016.
Good luck to all the riders–as far as we’re concerned, you’re already winning just by participating!
