Powerup Sale Announced: Save Big on Zwift Ride with KICKR CORE!
Today (March 7) kicks off a 10-day sale promotion on the Zwift Ride with KICKR CORE. It begins with $100/$100/€100 off, but affiliates (including Zwift Insider) can share an additional discount code for another 5% (-$60/£55/€60) discount.
That discount code is POWERUP. If you’ve been considering buying the full Zwift Ride package, this is the best price we’ve seen in a while. US, EU, and UK-based Zwifters can click below to order now!
Note: if you purchase Zwift Ride via the link above, Zwift Insider will be paid an affiliate commission by Zwift to help support this site. Thanks!
Zwift Ride Usage Stats
Zwift hasn’t revealed sales numbers since releasing the Ride back in in June of 2024, so I reached out to see what they’d be willing to share in terms of user stats. While they declined to share precise sales numbers for obvious reasons, they did offer up two fun stats:
Zwift Ride owners have already logged over 41 million kilometers on Zwift
Zwift Ride owners find it easier to navigate the platform and as a result award 82% more Ride Ons than the average Zwifter
Zwift Ride Reviews
You can find lots of customer reviews on the Zwift Ride homepage (4.9 stars out of 5), but I wanted to look elsewhere, so I dug through the Zwift subreddit. Here are just a few of those…
“I love mine, it’s been a real game changer for my fitness, just so easy to use.”
“If you’re lazy and want a permanent available option, it’s awesome. If you have multiple riders with different sizes, it’s also great. But the always available is enough for me.”
“Is it worth it? In my case, every single penny. I love it.”
“I only own a heavy mountain bike and it’s a pain to move around if I want to train. With the Zwift ride I can just hop on.”
“I’m a beginner cyclist (started in August). I got the Zwift Ride for winter training since I have zero knowledge on bike maintenance and thought a Zwift Ride would be the best easy option. And it is. It’s quiet enough, easy to assemble or change seats/pedals or your “settings” how far the reach is etc. Would definitely recommend, as you can skip all the hassle a normal bike would require. I absolutely love riding on mine.”
Lastly, I found a helpful review titled “Zwift Ride 500 mile update”. Here’s how it starts:
“I’ve ridden the full Zwift ride set up 500 miles. I’ve used it for free rides, structured workouts on both ERG and Zwift protocol shifting, as well as some racing. May get some hate for this, but this set up is significantly better than my Tacx Neo 2T with carbon road bike frame and Ultegra group.”Read the full post >
Virtual Shifting: flawless, instant, silent shifting via the handlebar controllers includes in-game gearing and shifting customization
Easy Adjustability: use the integrated Zwift Key to easily adjust saddle tilt, height and fore/aft as well as bar height and fore/aft
Real Feel: resistance changes to match in-game gradients, and Erg mode capability helps ensure you hit the right power numbers for your customized workouts
Always Ready: with its small footprint and easy one-time setup, you don’t need to bother with moving your bike on and off the trainer
Specifications:
Power Accuracy: +/-2%
Max Power: 1800W
Max Grade: 16%
Rider Fit Range: 5’-6’6” (152–198cm)
Max Rider Weight: 265 lbs/120 kg
Product Weight: 78 lbs (frame + trainer)
Wrapping It Up
Click the button below to shop for the Zwift Ride with KICKR CORE over at Zwift.com. And don’t forget to use the POWERUP discount code for an extra 5% off!
Quite a mix of events this weekend, from a long ride celebrating a teammate who left us too soon to a popular chase race for International Women’s Day to some marquee Zwift events… there’s something for everyone. Ride on!
BMTR’s popular weekly imperial is a regular feature in our notable events posts, but this Saturday’s ride is particularly poignant as the team celebrates the life of Michael Lander, a “BMTR Sweep Leader and friend to all” who passed away recently.
Four pace options available, and each option has its own route selection. The ride will be livestreamed so Michael’s family and friends can join the celebration.
Jump into the biggest women’s peloton of the weekend and celebrate International Women’s Day! This is a chase race on Douce France (24.2km, 137), so slower groups will be released ahead of faster groups, with time gaps set so all the groups come together near the end of the race for an all-out finish!
The Zwift Games also kicked off this week, and racers everywhere are taking part thanks to various categorization options, free routes, and big competition.
Here’s a popular long ride with two pace options: B group at 3-3.3 W/kg, or C at 2.5-2.9 W/kg. Both groups will be riding 100km on Watopia’s Navig8 route. Choose your desired pace, listen to the ride leader, and get that endurance work done!
(Both categories have a leader (yellow beacon) and sweepers.)
We choose each weekend’s Notable Events based on a variety of factors including:
Is the event unique/innovative in some way?
Are celebrities (pro riders, etc) attending/leading?
Are signup counts already high, meaning the event is extra-popular?
Does the ride include desirable unlocks or prizes?
Does the event appeal to ladies on Zwift? (We like to support this under-represented group!)
Is it for a good cause?
Is it just plain crazy (extra long races, world record attempts, etc)?
Is it a long-running, popular weekly event with a dedicated leader who deserves a shout out?
In the end, we want to call attention to events that are extra-special and therefore extra-appealing to Zwifters. If you think your event qualifies, comment below with a link/details and we may just include it in an upcoming post!
Ever wondered what it’s like using Zwift on a VR headset? In this week’s top video, one Zwifter tries using Zwift on the Apple Vision Pro and shares his thoughts.
We’ve also selected videos about Zwift Academy Finals, race wins, and climbing Alpe du Zwift.
Zwift on Apple Vision Pro – Does It Even Work? Is It Worth It? Check Out My Demo
The Apple Vision Pro was released a few years ago, yet no official Zwift VR experience exists. The ModernTriDad gives Zwift on the Apple Vision Pro a go and shares his experience with it.
Have The Finalists Got The Skills To Cut It As A Pro? | Zwift Academy 2025 Ep. 2
Join the GCN and the Zwift Academy Finalists as they tackle some technical skills to see who has the skills to race on the road.
Insane Watts for My First Zwift Win in 3 Years! (Unreal Finish!)
Paul from ViveLeVelo hasn’t won a race in his three years on Zwift. However, he is determined to change this. Watch as he provides commentary over his first win!
Will team tactics help me finally win a Zwift race?
Top e-sports cyclist Oliver Dowd hops into a Zwift race and finds himself in a breakaway. Can he work together with these riders to pull off a win?
Give Me 9 Minutes, And You Will Climb Alpe du Zwift Under an Hour
Climbing Alpe du Zwift in under an hour might be one of the most popular goals amongst Zwifters. Adam from Road to A shares tips and tricks on how to achieve this feat.
Got a Great Zwift Video?
Share the link below and we may feature it in an upcoming post!
How the Race Was Lost: Zwift Games Stage 1 on Makuri Madness
It’s been a while since I’ve regaled you, dear readers, with a thrilling tale of Zwift race loss. But the Zwift Games are upon us, and with them big race packs on fresh routes. A Zwift racer’s dream! So today I’m unpacking my story of racing stage 1…
It was the middle of my workday, and I was two espressos to the wind as the lunch hour approached. First I gave myself a front-row call-up, then I spun for around 20 minutes with RoboPacer Coco until my legs were warm and my heartrate was up. While I spun, I thought through the upcoming race…
The Makuri Madness route is new in Zwift, and I hadn’t ridden it yet. So I did a bit of online recon, ironically reminding myself of the route’s details by looking at the page I’d built weeks ago.
The route lays out quite simply: it’s 10km of flat, a 2km descent through Pain Cavern (which could be named “Recovery Cavern” in this direction), 2km more of flat road… and then the action begins. You hit the one climb in the whole race, a counterclockwise dusty corkscrew on Mech Isle, then descend the other side onto a flat run-in to the finish on the Boardwalk Sprint.
Or to simplify it even more, for “overmuscled” riders like myself: the first 14 kilometers are easy, and the last 2 are hard work.
Along with new routes, there are three things worth noting about Zwift Games races that make them different from a typical Zwift race:
Equipment is neutralized: use any bike and wheelset you’d like. They all roll the same.
Everyone gets one powerup, in the pens. And that’s all you get.
Steering is disabled: I don’t know why this is, but I think it’s a bummer. Steering makes racing more fun!
Category Choice
With a racing score of 532, I decided to join the 450-570 group. I knew that meant I wouldn’t get a great GC time (read more about Zwift Games GC strategies here), but I also wanted to see if I could get on the podium in what should, in theory, be the easiest possible group for me, on a route that suits me nicely.
For most riders participating in the Zwift Games, that’s the choice you have to make: do you pick the event/category where you have a shot at the podium (so, competing against a smaller number of riders, with lower scores)? Or do you pick the event/category that will give me the fastest GC time (a larger number of riders, with higher scores)?
Having chosen my category, it was time to race. Let’s go!
The Easy Bit
We blasted out of the start pens with 72 riders, but that quickly dropped to 57. Based on the number of aero powerups I saw flying in the first minutes of the race, clearly some riders hadn’t gotten the powerup memo:
The group settled into a tempo pace as we spun around the perma-night urban flats of Neokyo. With 57 riders in the group, it seemed everyone knew they couldn’t get off the front and stay away… so nobody even tried. That meant the pace stayed steady, with my heart rate comfortably staying in a zone 3 range of 145-160 all the way to the final 2 kilometers.
It was fun to chat with some of the riders in the pack, a few of whom were definite Zwift Insider fans. We joked about the impossibility of starting the race at sea level, then riding downhill and still being… at sea level. And we made good-natured fun of riders burning their aero powerups early.
Soon enough we were approaching the 14km mark as we crossed the land bridge onto Mech Isle. Everyone knew it would soon be on like Donkey Kong. Deep breath…
The Finish
As we neared the corkscrew climb, I positioned myself a few bike lengths from the front. This would give me the benefit of the draft, while allowing me to sag and stay in touch even if the front was too fast for me to hold.
I revved the power up, knowing the effort would only last for a minute. And as we flew up the climb and came over the top, I was pleasantly surprised to find myself comfortably near the front!
65 seconds at 477W got me a Strava segment PR over the climb and left me well-positioned near the front of the pack.
One rider “H. INOX” attacked off the front as we descended the other side, and the pack began to stretch as the front gave chase. Soon the elastic snapped, and our strung-out group of 53 became a compact group of 33 as we began to reel in Mr. INOX.
This is where riders who didn’t fancy a short pack sprint began to show their cards. One rider in green, “B. Amin (JOIN.cc)”, executed a masterful jump, bridging up to INOX quickly by going all-in with his aero powerup as he accelerated away from our group and through the draft of INOX.
But the day wouldn’t be his. No, the win would go to the next rider, one Marc Visser, who jumped with 500 meters to go. Visser (despite only having 14 races to his name in ZwiftPower) executed a perfect bridge up to INOX before powering past Amin, never to be seen again.
For my part, I jumped a bit too hard, too early. My aero powerup timing was solid, but I overcooked it and quickly went off the front of the pack! I looked up at the screen after sprinting for a bit, and the finish arch seemed so far away. 160 meters to go. I figured I would get swamped by the chasers, but nobody was coming around…
I flew past Amin and into 2nd place with 133 meters to go, but with 50 meters left, “G Mraz (OTR)” slingshotted around me with a well-timed effort to grab silver.
I would finish 3rd, just barely grabbing a podium slot. But out of 72 starters, I won’t complain!
This was a fun race, on a course that is just about perfectly suited for me. Too bad stage 1 only lasts three days!
Visser got the well-deserved victory, risking it all in a long attack. I could have possibly finished higher if I’d done the same, but I’ve always struggled with committing to an all-or-nothing attack. Chapeau, Visser.
Looking ahead, my chance at good stage results will be dropping as we progress through the Zwift Games and the climbing intensifies. But that’s alright. It’s all training!
My 3rd place finish earned me a racing score upgrade from 532 to 543, and a finishing time for the Zwift Games GC of 22:17. That time is not even close to the top times among riders with a racing score of 500-600. No, all of the top times are from riders who jumped into the advanced races to sit in the draft of the big dogs! Smart. Their lap times are in the 20 minutes range, with a few even sub 20.
I also earned a nice 2025 power curve bump in the 2-5 minute range, which basically covered the final 2 kilometers of the race. Yup… those final 2 kilometers are hard work.
Your Thoughts
Did you race Zwift Games stage 1? How did it go? Share your experience below!
Let’s dive into how these leaderboards work, along with some tips for moving up the rankings and (of course) ideas for how future leaderboards could be improved.
Leaderboard Basics
It may be helpful to start by understanding that the Zwift Games leaderboards are simply showing your best finishing time for each of the 5 Zwift Games stages, and ranking it against other riders’ times.
The leaderboards do not take into account which category or timeslot you raced, whether you’ve got a heartrate monitor, whether you’re on ZwiftPower, how old you are, what team you’re on, whether you cheated and lowered your weight just before the event, how accurate your dual power recordings may be, etc.
Your Zwift Games dashboard shows which stages you’ve completed, and your global ranking (based on your best finishing time) in each stage:
Click one of the 5 “Stages” cards on the homepage and you’ll be taken to the leaderboard for that stage. Click one of the “Classification” tabs on top and you’ll be taken to those respective leaderboards:
Sprint combines stage 1 and 2
Climb combines stage 3 and 4
Epic is for stage 5
Overall combines all 5 stages
Whether you’re viewing a Classification or a Stage leaderboard, your filter options are the same. You can filter by any combination of Gender (view all or female only), Country, and Racing Score (in bands of 100 points):
Want more detail? Clicking a rider’s name or profile pic takes you to their main profile page, while clicking the stage time takes you to the results page for the particular event they raced.
Some Notes About Racing Scores Shown
There’s been a bit of confusion about the racing scores shown for each rider in these leaderboards. First, to be clear, the racing score shown is the rider’s score, apart from any seed score changes due to new power PRs, at the completion of the most recent race shown in the leaderboard. That means:
The score shown is not necessarily the rider’s current racing score. If a rider finished another scored race after the one shown, their score will probably be different than what’s shown.
If a rider raced the same stage multiple times, the leaderboard uses the rider’s fastest finishing time. The score resulting from that particular effort is what you’ll see on the leaderboard.
If you’re looking at a Classification leaderboard that uses two different stages, such as the Sprint Classification, the score shown will be the rider’s result from his fastest completion of the most recent stage. (So it only shows stage 1 in the Sprint Classification as of today, March 5, since nobody has raced stage 2 yet. But once riders have finished stage 2, the racing score shown will be from their best result on stage 2.)
One big gotcha here is that the score shown in the leaderboards does not show score increases due to new power PRs, since those are computed when your activity is saved, while the race result score is saved for the leaderboards as soon as you finish the race. So you may see riders with a result of (here’s a real example) 193, but an actual score after the event of 364 due to a big new power PR that bumped up their seed score. The race result is shown in the leaderboard, but if you click the time and see the racing score on the event results page, it will include any seed score increases.
The Racing Score filter in the leaderboards filters the results based on the rider’s racing score result for the races in question. It doesn’t look at which category (score band) the rider raced for the event. So if you filter based on a racing score of, say, 500-600, you may see riders who raced in any number of pen groupings. There are 16 different ways riders are grouped together for Zwift Games events, and riders are free to race any group at or above their current racing score:
We’re only a couple of days into the Zwift Games, but riders are already starting to figure out what it will take to be a leader in the GC. It’s all about joining a fast group.
A simple illustration: if I filter Stage 1 results by Racing Score to show riders between 500-600 (my range), the top 10 all raced in an Advanced event which supposedly is for riders at 650+. (I didn’t click past the top 10, but my guess is most or all of the top-ranked riders did the same).
Topping a time-based GC that takes into account hourly events requires a primary focus on finding and hanging with the front of the fastest group. Whether you finish on the podium or not doesn’t really matter, unless you’re one of the very highest-ranked riders. What you need is a fast pack, so your overall course time is low.
My first stage 1 race (watch it here) was with the 450-570 group, and I turned in a time of 22:17 with a 3rd place finish. It basically felt like a tempo ride, with a hard effort in the final 2km. If I want a faster time, I need to join a faster group (say, 510-650, or a 650+ race) and suffer hard to hopefully hang with the front all the way to the finish. That’s how the current leaders in the 500-600 band with sub-20 minute times did it.
The fastest groups will be found in the Advanced races, and (assuming typical levels of rider cooperation) the larger those Advanced groups are, the faster they’ll be! Glancing at ZwiftPower results (which show rider counts, making research easy) the largest advanced groups are at these times:
10:15am UTC/5:15am ET/2:15am PT
5:15pm UTC/12:15pm ET/9:15am PT
6:15pm UTC/1:15pm ET/10:15am PT
7:15pm UTC/2:15pm ET/11:15am PT
Tuesday will probably see the highest race turnouts, but that remains to be seen, and the stages only last three days apiece.
Leaderboard Improvement Ideas
I love what Zwift is doing with these new leaderboards, but of course, it’s really just a first draft. How could they be improved? Here are a few simple upgrades.
My biggest wish would be for the leaderboards to indicate my rank when filters are applied. Currently, if I apply a filter (say, 500-600 Racing Score) to a leaderboard, I have no idea where I’m at, unless I scroll through the entire list, page after page, until I find my name. The filtered results should show my name at the top or bottom of every page, along with my filtered rank, sort of like Strava does with segment leaderboards.
It would also be helpful to have my leaderboard filters saved, so as I bounce between leaderboards, the same filters are always applied.
With multiple stages used for some of the classifications, a bit of explanatory text at the top of the Sprint and Climb classification leaderboards would be in order. Something like “The Sprint Classification is based on combined rider finishing times for Stage 1 (Makuri Madness) and Stage 2 (Scotland Smash).”
Lastly, I’d like to be able to save/send a URL of a particular filtered leaderboard. This would require passing the filters in the URL.
The End of ZwiftPower?
The Zwift racing community has been talking for years about how Zwift will probably move away from ZwiftPower as the source of final race results. But truth be told, we haven’t seen much movement, apart from Zwift beginning to show race results on event detail pages at zwift.com.
With that backdrop, it would seem that providing these Zwift Games leaderboards is a big step, removing ZwiftPower from the equation entirely, at least when it comes to Zwift Games results.
That said, Zwift has a long way to go before certain racers and race organizers can move away from ZwiftPower, so it’s unclear how or when that would ever happen. We need team functionality, the ability for race organizers to customize their events (including DQ criteria), series/league functionality for grouping races, global rider rankings, and much more.
So I don’t think ZwiftPower is going away anytime soon. For Zwift Games 2025, though, the final results live at Zwift.com… and that’s big news.
Questions or Comments?
What do you think of the new Zwift Games leaderboards? Are they a step forward for Zwift racing? A step back? Or something else? Share below!
Announcing ECRO: a Comprehensive Racing Platform for Virtual Cycling
The world of virtual cycling continues to evolve, and the new E-Cycling Race Organization (ECRO) may just represent the next significant leap forward for competitive Zwift racing. Building upon the foundation established by the Chasing Tour, ECRO aims to “create a more immersive and strategic virtual cycling experience that benefits riders and team managers alike.”
From Chasing Tour to ECRO
Founded in 2022 by Jonathan Morin, the Chasing Tour successfully established a year-long racing calendar that brought structure and continuity to the Zwift racing scene (read about Chasing Tour 2023 here). Jonathan built ECRO by expanding this foundation into a comprehensive platform that introduces elements previously unseen in virtual cycling competitions.
The ECRO World Tour 2025 will feature 75 races throughout the year, including single-day races, week-long tours, and three multi-week grand tours. This extensive calendar establishes a professional-level competition structure that mirrors real-world pro cycling, and it all kicks off on March 8, 2025, with Chasing Bianche!
New Dimensions: Rider Economics and Team Management
What sets ECRO apart is its introduction of economic elements to virtual cycling. The platform implements features like:
Rider Market Values: Riders have assigned virtual monetary values based on their performance and category
Team Contracts: Teams can sign riders to formal agreements
Rider Transfers: A transfer system allowing riders to move between teams
Team Financials: Teams manage a virtual budget, profiting from rider development and transfers
(It’s important to note that all financial aspects within ECRO—including rider values, team budgets, and prizes—are virtual and do not represent real-world currency. These virtual economics simply add an engaging layer of strategy and simulation to the competition.)
Clear Categorization
ECRO employs a straightforward categorization system based on the zwiftracing.app 90-day vELO ratings:
🔴 A Category: 1900+ rating 🟢 B Category: 1450-1899 rating 🔵 C Category: 1150-1449 rating 🟡 D Category: 850-1149 rating 🟣 E Category: 0-849 rating
This system ensures fair competition within all skill levels, and scheduled recategorization points throughout the season help maintain competitive balance.
Team Structure and Competition
Teams add another dynamic element to the ECRO World Tour:
Teams can consist of up to 12 riders across any of the 5 categories
The top 6 riders in each category earn points for their team
Teams accumulate points throughout the season for overall standings
Comprehensive Scoring and Competition Format
ECRO’s competition structure is multi-layered, offering riders and teams various ways to earn points:
Individual Race Events: Points awarded based on race tier and finishing position
Stage Races: Multi-race competitions using a global time-gap system pioneered by Chasing Tour to determine overall standings
Seasonal Series: Multiple races where cumulative points determine the winner
Season-Long Competition: All points contribute to the overall ECRO World Tour standings
This structure rewards consistent participation and performance throughout the season, encouraging engagement with the entire calendar of events.
Registration and Pricing
To participate officially in the ECRO World Tour, riders and teams must obtain licenses:
Rider License: $7.99 for the 2025 season
Team License: $12.99 for the 2025 season
(While anyone can participate in ECRO events on Zwift, only licensed riders will have their results counted toward the official ECRO World Tour standings. These fees support the ongoing development of the platform.)
Benefits for the Entire Zwift Racing Ecosystem
ECRO’s approach delivers benefits to riders and managers alike:
For Riders:
Verified ECRO rider accounts with clear categorization
Opportunities to join teams and develop virtual cycling careers
Points-based competition with virtual prizes
Professional racing structure
For Team Managers:
Team creation and management tools
Strategic rider recruitment and contract management
Virtual financial system with potential growth through smart team building
Season-long competition against other teams
Only on Zwift
According to Jonathan, “ECRO has chosen Zwift as its exclusive platform because Zwift provides the best in-game racing experience available in virtual cycling. The robust features, established community, and technical capabilities of Zwift create the perfect environment for ECRO’s vision. By building on Zwift’s foundation, ECRO is invested in seeing Zwift continue to be the home of elite e-cycling racing, furthering the platform’s position as the premier virtual cycling experience.”
Looking Ahead
The ECRO platform represents the most comprehensive attempt yet to create a professional-level virtual cycling ecosystem that mirrors the structure, strategy, and engagement of real-world professional cycling.
So whether you’re a casual Zwift racer looking to test yourself against others, a competitive rider seeking structured competition, or someone interested in the team management aspects of cycling, I’d recommend looking into what ECRO is doing today.
For more information or to register for the ECRO World Tour 2025, visit www.ecro.app.
Your Thoughts
What do you think of ECRO’s approach to Zwift racing? Share your thoughts below!
Zwiftcast Episode 212: Women’s History Month Special 1 of 2
In March, Zwiftcast is spotlighting incredible women’s stories with two special episodes celebrating of Women’s History Month! Also this month, complete any Zwiftcast ride to unlock the exclusive Watch the Femmes headphones and show your support.
In this episode, hosts Rebecca Charlton, Dave Towle, and Kate Veronneau bring you all the latest news, including the return of Zwift Games and a look forward to Paris Roubaix Femmes Avec Zwift and the Tour de France Femmes Avec Zwift 2025. Plus, Wheel Talk Podcast hosts Abby Mickey, Loren Rowney, and Gracie Elvin pop in to talk Zwift cycling and motherhood.
After years of Zwifters asking for a fourth in-game challenge, with Zwift Insider posting articles and the community offering heaps of challenge suggestions and even creating amazing concept art… it has arrived. Hurray!
Here’s a quick walkthrough:
Getting Started
You must be at level 40+ in order to take on the Factory Tour Challenge. Level 40+ riders probably already know how to sign up for Challenges but here’s a quick refresher anyway…
There are three ways to get signed up for the Factory Tour Challenge. The game actually prompted me to do it when I started my Zwift activity – that’s the first screen. It also showed up on my Challenges carousel on the homescreen (second screen). Lastly, you can always access the list of Challenges in the main menu, at the top-right:
What’s a “Power Unit”?
While the other three challenges (Climb Mt. Everest, Ride California, and Tour Italy) are based on accumulated distance or elevation, the Factory Tour Challenge is power-based. (The concept is that you’re powering a RoboPacer factory as you pedal your bike, so the animation for the challenge moves through the factory as you progress.)
Cyclists move through this challenge based strictly on the power you’re putting into the pedals, and progress is tracked using a metric Zwift calls “Power Units”.
One power unit is one watt-hour per kilogram, or Wh/kg. If you hold 1 w/kg (say, you’re an 80kg rider holding 80 watts) for an hour, that’s 1 Wh/kg, or 1 power unit. If you average 2 w/kg across your Zwift rides, each hour of riding will earn you 2 power units.
Finishing the Challenge
The Factory Tour Challenge is a 2-part challenge, like Climb Mt. Everest. The first part requires 250 power units to complete and awards you with Lightning Socks:
Once you finish the first part of the challenge, your progress will revert to 29% and you’ll automatically begin the second part which requires a whopping 600 additional power units to complete, unlocking the Aero Lightning Socks, which will replace your boring ol’ Lightning Socks.
How long will it take to complete the entire challenge? For riders, the math is fairly easy. Take your average w/kg multiplied by your hours of Zwifting per week. That’s how many power units you’ll be earning each week.
Examples:
1 w/kg for 5 hours each week earns 5 power units each week, requiring 170 weeks to complete the challenge
2 w/kg for 6 hours each week earns 12 power units each week, requiring 71 weeks to complete the challenge
3 w/kg for 7 hours each week earns 21 power units each week, requiring 40 weeks to complete the challenge
As you can see, this is no short-term challenge. And I think that’s a good thing.
About the Socks
The new Lightning and Aero Lightning socks work sort of like Fire Socks in that they unlock cool animations above certain effort levels:
Power < FTP * 1.5: No Effect
Power >= FTP * 1.5: Sparks and Tire Halo (both Lightning & Aero Lightning Socks)
In addition to the visuals, the Aero Lightning Socks are particularly special because they are the first piece of performance apparel in Zwift. When you wear the socks, you receive a slight CdA reduction, making you faster in game. (Just how much faster is unclear, but I’ll definitely test the socks once I’ve got ’em.)
There are three limits built into the Factory Tour Challenge, presumably to discourage cheating:
You can earn up to 4 Power Units per hour. (This limit resets at the top of the hour, so in theory you could ride at 4 W/kg for one hour, then sprint at 10 W/kg for 24 minutes and earn a total of 8 power units in 84 minutes. Good luck!)
You can earn a total of 15 Power Units per activity. If you save your ride/run and start a new activity, this counter is reset.
If you get the Cone of Shame (read more about it here) your progress will not count towards the challenge.
Also, a note for Zwift runners: this challenge doesn’t apply to you. While in my tests the game was awarding Power Units while running, those Power Units weren’t actually saved to my account. Reaching out to Zwift, they confirmed that this challenge does not apply to running.
Questions or Comments?
What are your thoughts on this fourth challenge? Got questions, comments? Share below!
Zwift version 1.85 begins its phased rollout today. This release delivers “Factory Tour”, the long-awaited fourth challenge, giving experienced Zwifters something to work toward. Read on for details!
New “Factory Tour” Challenge
This one will put a smile on the face of veteran Zwifters! After years of just three major in-game Challenges (Climb Mt. Everest, Ride California, and Tour Italy), today Zwift is releasing a fourth, giving longtime riders something new to work toward.
Called the “Factory Tour”, this challenge has Zwifters powering a RoboPacer factory with our watts. The more watts you put out, the faster you’ll complete the challenge. But it’s no small challenge, and there’s a hidden extra part 2! Here’s a quick video walkthrough:
Zwift’s release notes say, “New badge alert: The Tair Dringfa Fechan route in Watopia is now available for free ride.” But that’s not entirely accurate, as the badge was actually added back in November, before races took on this route as the final race of ZRL Round 2 on December 17th.
Be that as it may, today the route changes from being event-only to being available for free rides in game. So all you badge hunters who didn’t race ZRL now have a chance to earn this route badge, and with it the 625XP bonus!
