Zwift Spring Hammerfest registration closes tomorrow
The Zwift Spring Hammerfest runs from May 1st, 2016 – May 6th, 2016. This is a three stage hammerfest held over six days. Riders have 48 hours to complete each stage and upload a result to Strava.
This Hammerfest event will have you riding as fast as possible! The highlight of the race is stage 2’s dramatic down hill race from tower to ocean. Queue up the TT bike and your fastest virtual wheels and leave it all on the road.
Stage Details
Stage 1 – Watopia Ocean Crush – May 1st & 2nd
The Hammerfest kicks off with a 6.4 mile (10.3 km) loop under the ocean, through the cobbled village, and over the hill back to the beach. This stage is banner to banner as fast as your bicycle can carry you. At only 177 feet (54 meters) of elevation change, this will be a drag race!
Stage 2 – Watopia Downhill Madness – May 3rd & 4th
You have to earn this downhill. Slowly climb to the top of the Watopia World. Round the tower and then hit it with everything you’ve got all the way to the ocean down the steep side of the mountain. Don’t stop until you get to the sea-plane at the bridge. This is a downhill TT that only Zwift can make possible. Pick up that 100 km/h achievement if you haven’t already!
Stage 3 – Richmond Every Jersey Counts – May 5th & 6th
On the UCI Worlds lap of Richmond you will hit four important jerseys: Green Sprint banner, Broad Street Sprint, Libby Hill, 23rd Street climb. String all of these together for a big Hammerfest finish on the “Every Jersey Counts” stage.
Zwift HQ has just released news that a new course is in development, to be released this summer. Like Zwift’s Richmond UCI course, this new course will somehow mirror (or contain elements of) the Prudential RideLondon event’s course, which covers roads in London and Surrey.
Here is the official press release:
Zwift, the social fitness entertainment platform for cyclists, is collaborating with Prudential RideLondon, the festival of cycling, to create an all new virtual 3D rendering of the famous event.
Scheduled for release this summer, the route design is currently in development and will include the landmarks and roads of London and Surrey familiar to cyclists from across the world.
“Our new partnership with Zwift means that thousands more riders from all around the globe can be part of the world’s greatest festival of cycling,” said Hugh Brasher, event director, Prudential RideLondon. “There will be a week of festival activities hosted on the Zwift platform in July including virtual versions of the women’s Classique and our two famous sportives: the Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 46 and 100.”
“London is the world’s leading city for cyclists and we’re proud to partner with its most celebrated event,” said Eric Min, Zwift CEO and co-founder. “Our Prudential RideLondon course will be a smash hit with Zwift users across the world and I’m looking forward to riding with them on the virtual roads of London and Surrey!
Zwift has also announced the launch of a Prudential RideLondon Training Club. Open to all Zwift users, the Training Club will focus on preparing sportive riders for Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 46 and 100 – and other events they are training for in 2016.
“We work hard to help our riders prepare for the challenge of the sportives,” said Brasher. “Taking on 100 miles can seem very daunting. We’re committed to inspiring more and more new cyclists take part which is why we’ve added the new 46mile event this year. Our work with Zwift demonstrates the forward thinking we’re bringing to mass participation cycling.”
UPDATE: Steve Beckett at Zwift HQ posted this on Facebook: Hi Everyone. There’s been some misreporting in the media about Zwift recreating the entire RideLondon 100 route. This isn’t the case and we’ll be working on something a bit more fun and imaginative than asking the community to ride a 100 mile loop!
Important Update (January 29, 2020): Zwift is not taking new event requests at this time. As an alternative, you might consider organizing a Meetup.
Group rides take your Zwift experience to a whole new level. Just like riding in real life, when you join a group riding on Zwift you can expect to build camaraderie, learn from others and (depending on the ride) get pushed to ride beyond the limits of your typical solo effort.
Anyone can organize and lead a group ride on Zwift, but there are certain “best practices” to follow if you want to maximize the experience for everyone involved. These may change once Zwift HQ rolls out a more specific system for scheduling group rides, but for now here is a three-step process for organizing and leading your first group ride on Zwift.
Step 1: Establish the Details
Every group ride on Zwift has its own unique attributes, and you will need to decide what those are for your ride. What you decide here will determine, in a large part, the level of participation your ride receives.
Required stuff:
Date and time: check zwift.com/events to make sure your planned ride time doesn’t conflict with another group ride.
Course/route/direction/ride length: there are many different options when it comes to where your group will be riding. You need to decide which course (Watopia, Richmond, or London), which route (Figure 8, Flat, Hilly, etc), which direction (forward or reverse) and how many laps the group will be riding. Keep in mind that Zwift HQ sets the monthly course schedule at this time, so unless you want to make your participants use the <world> tag hack you should plan on riding whatever course is in store for the day.
Pace: how fast is your ride? Most group rides keep a set pace for the duration of the ride (often communicated in w/kg) while other rides change the pace on each lap, or for specific sections like the KOM.
Ride name: give your ride a distinctive yet short name. Ideally this would communicate something about what makes the ride unique–is it a slower ride, a faster one? Competitive or laid back? Get creative, but keep it simple.
Leader(s): decide who the ride leaders will be. It may just be you, but you may want others helping out, especially if this is going to be a recurring event.
Optional stuff
In-game ride identifier: this is the 3-4 letter abbreviation which Zwifters will add to their last name to show they are participating in your ride. Typically it’s just the abbreviation of the ride name.
Sweep(s) (optional): you may decide to have sweeps (stronger riders who stay in the back of the group and help folks get back into the draft then they are dropped.) Typically faster/more competitive group rides do not have sweeps, while slower rides often do.
Kit: Zwift’s event module lets you place everyone in the same kit if you’d like. There are many kit options on Zwift.
Discord: while getting your riders to use Discord can be a challenge, it really does make the group ride experience a lot more fun. If you’re using Discord you will need to let riders know which channel to join. Learn more about using Discord on Zwift >
Step 2: Advertise It
Now that you’ve decided on your ride details, it’s time to get the word out! Here’s how and where to post your ride details.
Secondly, post the ride as an event under the Zwift Riders Facebook group. To do this, first join the group, then click “Events” at the top and click “Create Event.” If you can create some real eye-catching graphics for your event, that’s even better!
Share your group ride on Zwift Riders. If your ride happens weekly I wouldn’t share it every week–but at least share it the first time it happens.
Share your group ride with others. If you’ve got friends on Zwift, invite them to join you! The more participants you have, the more you’ll attract.
Post a follow-up to the Zwift Riders Facebook group if the ride was exceptional for some reason. Perhaps you had a lot of participants, or the group worked especially hard. If there’s something newsworthy, take a screenshot or two and post it to the group. This will keep your ride in people’s minds so they’ll consider joining you next time.
When you post your ride on zwift.com/events or Facebook you will want to share all the particulars you decided on in step 1. I typically just save my ride information and copy/paste it into the forms to keep things fast and simple.
Step 3: Lead It
You’ve decided how your ride will function, and you’ve advertised it. Now the big day is here–time to lead the group ride! Here are a few pointers for leading it effectively:
Be prepared to send messages in game. This is the only reliable way to communicate with your entire group, and you’ll be doing plenty of it as the leader. Typically you will need to remind participants of the ride’s pace and route more than once. Plan on sending messages when:
Your ride is just a few minutes from beginning
Your ride begins
A change of pace is needed (slower in the front, doing a faster lap, etc)
Your ride ends
If you’re using Discord or Teamspeak, assume most participants won’t be on it. These tools are great, but for whatever reason many folks don’t use them.
Give participants a Ride On! This lets them know you appreciate them being a part of your ride. As the leader, be prepared for a pocket full of Ride Ons yourself!
Ride with Jens Voigt on Zwift as he leads the latest Amgen Tour of California Virtual Group Ride
David interviews Jens during the 2012 Amgen Tour of CA
Zwift HQ is live streaming today’s Amgen Tour of California Ride with Jens Voigt. Jensie will be riding on Zwift from Zwift Headquarters in Long Beach, California and chatting it up with legendary cycling announcer (known as the voice of the Amgen Tour of California).
They will discuss racing, the Amgen Tour of California and will also take questions from users. Jensie always has great stories to tell!
As we’ve already reported, Zwift HQ has partnered with CANYON//SRAM Racing to create a program called “Zwift Academy” to turn one lucky female Zwifter into a pro cyclist.
A dedicated page for the Academy is now available at zwift.com/academy and includes more details about the Academy’s 2016 schedule and requirements.
Pre-registration is now open (for non-professional female cyclist at least 18 years old). Sign up here >
The Watopia “Flat Route” was added when Watopia’s Ocean Boulevard came online in late December 2015. It includes the undersea tunnel and marina sections, plus the back half of the original Hilly Route.
While not the longest-running race series on Zwift, KISS has taken Zwift by storm in the past few months, quickly becoming the most popular series in rider numbers. And it’s easy to see why–the team of organizers has worked hard to keep things consistently simple and fair.
Mike Ede is one of the KISS organizers, the other two being Glen Knight and Wayne Elvin. Here’s what Mike had to say…
Tell me a little about yourself–how long you’ve been riding, what sort of riding you do, when you discovered Zwift, where you live, etc.
I am Mike Ede, 41 year old designer of medical devices. I also run my own business (online dog food) when not doing my day job. Father of one 6 year old who loves Zwift and owned by three Weimaraner dogs.
Raced a little BMX as a child and rode MTB up until my early thirties. Got fat and needed something low impact on my knees and back. Do a bit of 24 hour MTB racing and prefer to be off road rather than on it but quite happy doing either. Have been back riding for about 3 years. Came to Zwift via Trainer road and Sufferfest.
How would you describe your philosophy as a race organizer? What is most important to you when organizing Zwift races?
KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) is how we try to organize the races, it isn’t necessarily how the discussions go or how the experience is for the racer! Things got a bit out of hand when we got to around 80 racers and we were generating the results manually, it literally took 2 or 3 of us about 4 hours to pull everything together and that really wasn’t sustainable or simple!
What race(s) are you currently organizing on Zwift, and how long have you been doing them? What makes these races different than other Zwift races?
The others have covered what we do well. As far as I know we are the only race that deploys the full game experience and I think that the way we have grown shows that the audience has an appetite for racing with game elements. As long as they were switchable I would really like to see more game / strategy elements available for the riders.
What suggestions would you give to someone interested in joining your races for the first time?
Read the event description and you will already be in an elite minority! There is nothing to be afraid of and you will find people of a similar level. If you go too hard the first time keep trying until you find the pace that works for you.
If the folks at Zwift HQ could add one feature to Zwift to make your job easier, what would it be and why?
Timestamp all the .FIT files centrally, relative to Zwift time, rather than using the local PC’s time. Because local PC time is used there is uncertainty about when people actually started and finished with the results on Zwift Nation. If everyone’s .FIT file was relative to a central time we would know with some certainty when they started and when they finished. This would save a huge amount of time!
While not the longest-running race series on Zwift, KISS has taken Zwift by storm in the past few months, quickly becoming the most popular series in rider numbers. And it’s easy to see why–the team of organizers has worked hard to keep things consistently simple and fair.
Wayne Elvin is one of the KISS organizers, the other two being Michael Ede and Glen Knight. Here’s what Wayne had to say…
Tell me a little about yourself–how long you’ve been riding, what sort of riding you do, when you discovered Zwift, where you live, etc.
Hello, my name is Wayne Elvin, I’m 37 and from South East Kent in the UK. I started riding in 2012 after 7 years of not going anywhere near a bike. I’d stopped playing football due to injuries and cycling was my aim as it’s low impact and would hopefully keep me fit and healthy.
As I had just started my own family around that time indoor cycling was my best choice so I started with the ‘Spinervals’ videos and then found the ‘Sufferfest’ videos which I loved and did them quite a lot including the 2015 tour. Then came along Zwift, my first time on Jarvis Island and I was lucky enough to ride with Jens Voigt for 30mins (he was taking it easy!)… this got me hooked.
How would you describe your philosophy as a race organizer? What is most important to you when organizing Zwift races?
I’m lucky enough to have two other race organizers (Glen Knight and Michael Ede) so we discuss (a lot) about what we can do to make things easier or to add to the enjoyment of our race. As a team we seem to work very well.
My aim is to keep everyone happy and to make sure everyone enjoys themselves when racing, listening to the group on any comments they have and trying to answer any questions they have.
What race(s) are you currently organizing on Zwift, and how long have you been doing them? What makes these races different than other Zwift races?
I help run the Monday and Thursday Night KISS races. I had done a few races on Zwift and really enjoyed the experience; unfortunately most of the races were a bit too early for me (kids’ bath time and bedtime got in the way) then in October a race was organized by Timmy Pinder (ARCC) for 8pm UK time which fit in perfectly with me. After a few weeks Timmy had technical issues so couldn’t race anymore, as I wanted to carry on with these I started posting on the Facebook forum about the race and helping people with the rules and race info. Then at the end November Glen Knight and Michael Ede both contacted me and asked if they could help in anyway, and that’s where it all started.
The differences between our race and the others are – we allow Power Ups to be used at anytime on any lap, Standing start (no rolling neutral) we allow any bike to be used, Zwift put all these features into their game so we like to use them. It also gives people more variety on the races that they can participate in.
What suggestions would you give to someone interested in joining your races for the first time?
Just try it and see how you get on, look at all the races that are held and pick one that suits you, read the race info and rules, read through any posts on that race (there’s plenty on the forums!) ask any questions if you can’t find the answer, then turn up on time and enjoy yourself! We have 80+ racing most nights, most know they’re not going to win but it’s not about winning it’s about pushing yourself and having some fun, Type 2 Fun!! (Google it)
Nathan Guerra’s videos add so much more to the races as well, how someone can talk for over an hour about people he doesn’t know is amazing, and it doesn’t matter where you finish you’ll still skip to the end to find your sprint and then show (bore) your friends and family!
If the folks at Zwift HQ could add one feature to Zwift to make your job easier, what would it be and why?
A small feature called – Race Module!
People could select a race in the same way as they currently choose ‘Flat’ or ‘Hilly’ course in the drop down menu (race organizers would be able to create races with the correct details about power ups, bikes, type of course, how many laps, start time). Here you’d see the race rules / race info (laps etc) and you’d be given a race CAT (Zwift knows your FTP and weight) that would then be added to your surname.
Then you’d be taken to a closed course (only racers for that race would be on that course) where you’d be held behind the line but still able to pedal and warm up, you’d then see a countdown and when it hits zero everyone would be released (Zwift could keep everyone at a set speed for the warm up so no flyers at the start). You’d be the only ones on that course so you know exactly who you’re racing against, you’d be able to see the lap/KOM/sprint times for those only in that race.
Then when finished you’d have all these results instantly, breakdown of CAT results, breakdowns of KOM and Sprints. Easy!
While not the longest-running race series on Zwift, KISS has taken Zwift by storm in the past few months, quickly becoming the most popular series in rider numbers. And it’s easy to see why–the team of organizers has worked hard to keep things consistently simple and fair.
Glen Knight is one of the KISS organizers, the other two being Michael Ede and Wayne Elvin. Here’s what Glen had to say…
Tell me a little about yourself–how long you’ve been riding, what sort of riding you do, when you discovered Zwift, where you live, etc.
In my early years I raced BMX bikes with my brother, not seriously but we’d enter local competitions. Then mountain biking as a teenager, not competitively, more just for fun. We of course had the local moped challenge where we had to catch a scooter before the road ran out… that was always fun.
I rediscovered cycling around 6 years ago and participate in lots of social rides and sportives. I discovered Zwift around September 2015 and it’s had a huge impact on my fitness, strength and just my ability to get on the bike around work and life commitments.
How would you describe your philosophy as a race organizer? What is most important to you when organizing Zwift races?
The most important thing about our races is that the participants have fun and have a great workout.
What race(s) are you currently organizing on Zwift, and how long have you been doing them? What makes these races different than other Zwift races?
There are three of us. Michael Ede, Wayne Elvin and myself. We organize the Monday and Thursday Night Road Races at 8pm UTC and more recently KISS Americas and KISS Asia with KISS Starter coming very soon.
We try not to take it too seriously. KISS Races are different from the others in that we allow all the “game” features of Zwift. We allow the use of power-ups, TT bikes and even switching bikes mid-race. If it’s a function provided within the Zwift platform that everyone has access to we allow it. KISS stands for Keep It Simple Stupid. If we can’t police it and enforce it why have it as a rule?
We also have a standing start. First few race we did we tried a rolling start. We had nothing but complaints about the start. Now we get none… well maybe just one or two.
We do try to combat misconfiguration and deliberate cheating though. Just because we have a relaxed view on the gamey side doesn’t mean cheating is okay.
We also go in to great details about our results and push CAT upgrades on to our riders to encourage them to better themselves and to ride with similar performing riders.
What suggestions would you give to someone interested in joining your races for the first time?
Join our facebook group KISS Zwift Road Race to join the community. There are racers of every ability from national record holders to first timers. Come along. They are great fun and a really great workout.
If the folks at Zwift HQ could add one feature to Zwift to make your job easier, what would it be and why?
Closed circuit races. Where you could create a race and it was your very own version of the course that all your riders could then select the race from the menu.
Tell me a little about yourself–how long you’ve been riding, what sort of riding you do, when you discovered Zwift, where you live, etc.
In my early years I raced BMX bikes with my brother, not seriously but we’d enter local competitions. Then mountain biking as a teenager, not competitively, more just for fun. We of course had the local moped challenge where we had to catch a scooter before the road ran out… that was always fun.