For the casual Zwifter, Zwift offers many things—group rides, workouts, challenges, and even racing! Zwift Clubs are an additional component, and many of these clubs organize racing teams for series options such as the Zwift Racing League, WTRL Team Time Trials, Iceni Women’s Racing Series, Zwift Women’s Racing Series, and Ladder League. Racing with a team is fun and can help make the long winter months pass quickly!
With that in mind, here’s some basic advice on how to choose a Zwift Club. Your first contact might be through a club-hosted group ride, or maybe a club member has approached you and asked if you might like to join, or you may have noticed that some riders have a club name in brackets behind their name (such as Betty Ryder [Power Pedals]). Regardless of how you noticed them, if you’re interested in joining, now’s the time to dig into what makes this club special! Some considerations might include:
Language
For organization and during races, team members often communicate via audio or text. A great first question is “What languages do your teams use for communication?” Then decide if you would be comfortable communicating with them given their response.
Time Zones
A racing series may offer many time zones, so be sure to discover which time zones the club has teams racing in and look for overlap with your preferred time zone.
Category Placement
Not every club fields teams in every category, and of those who field teams in your category, not all will field teams at your level within your category. Find out if the club you’re considering fields teams of riders similar to you.
Category Advancement
Category advancement is natural as riders progress. It may be worth inquiring about room on teams above your riding level in case you are fortunate enough to cat up.
Women’s-Only Racing
Not every race series offers women-only options, but many do. If you want to race within women’s fields you should find out if the club you are joining offers women’s team racing.
A Few Extras
If you already know what kind of racing you like, ask if the club participates in that type of racing (e.g., team time trials, points racing, distance events). If you are interested in outside racing and want to use the same team for that, find out if they also do outside racing. If you are a rider looking to advance your skills, inquire about clinics within their club or mentorship programs.
Finally, is this club friendly? Are they helpful? Would you enjoy being a part of this group?
In Summary
Finding a Zwift Club that you can belong to and race with might take some time, but with careful planning, you too can find a great group of people to spend your indoor riding with!
For women, a great place to begin your search is our extensive list of women’s teams.
Easy decision, join ZSUN we have teams for everyone and support and encourage everyone of all categories all around the world ! 🙂
I’ve been zwifting three to four times a week for well over EIGHT years now (yes, eight) and so far I haven’t been tempted to join a club. What am I missing out on?
After eight years of solo Zwifting, I can see why you’d wonder if joining a team is worth it. Well, racing with a team brings a whole new level of accountability. Suddenly, it’s not just you out there pushing watts; you’ve got a team relying on you, especially in those TTTs. The pressure to perform doesn’t just make you stronger—it makes the whole experience more fun and rewarding.
If you’re already spending a fair chunk of time on Zwift, why not level up your experience? Being part of a team gets you into the most competitive, well-organized races and series. Plus, you’ll connect with others who share the same interests as yourself. It’s a game-changer.
As a fellow solo rider (I’m technically in a couple of “family & friends” clubs for the purposes of enhanced meetup rides) I have to say that a lot of that stuff is actually making it less appealing to join a club.
I already have a lot of other commitments that have to be at specific times, so I tend to slot my Zwifting in “as and when” and when I do occasionally race, I’m at a low enough level that there’s very limited “team tactics” or things like that, so I never feel like I’m at a major disadvantage as a privateer.
Not to knock it in general, you do you, but it’s more that it’s not for me (I’ve also been part of enough IRL clubs across various sports to know that I’d rather keep plodding along informally, as cycling’s my “alone time” rather than “social time”.)
I’m the same, I was an early beta tester and honestly don’t see the point in teams in Zwift.
Like Mosso said TTT is great fun and organised through clubs. I’m in Team Valhalla and lots of organising happens on discord. You don’t need all that though, just finding the right TTT team of 8 people and coordinating before each week’s race is all. Racing TTT is just awesome.
You’ll never know, until you try it. Mosso’s comment is spot on. It’s very individual. There is so many angles.
I like to cheer for teams in many sports. Joining a team, now I have a team to cheer for on Zwift! Not only I can cheer for it, I can also participate and hopefully help the team score some points. Following the progress of the team throughout the season of ZRL is amazing. We were far from the best, but we totally nailed one TTT race and one my team mates said “this was 100% the best team sport event I’ve ever participated in” To win as a team, is always better then to win as an individual.
Another cool point are fans. When you race for a team, your team mates become your fans. How cool it is, when you’re finishing up a race and have your team mates watching you and cheering up for you!!!
Very few people in my life are interested on Zwift (that might not be your case). Being part of the team can bring you friends who are genuinely interested in your rides and races.
But again. Might not be for everyone. But I can’t wait for the September to come so we can start another season of ZRL!
If I win a solo race in Zwift, my wife doesn’t care. My friends don’t care. My kids don’t care. I may as well have just taken a nap as been on the bike. Doesn’t matter to them.
But I win a Ladder race with four teammates and we’ll banter about it for the next hour in our team chat. It may not mean a thing to the outside world, but dissecting the race, cheering each other on, and celebrating our micro-victories (“Your vELO went up 15 points!” “Nice PB on the sprint!”) make it feel a lot more meaningful.
It’s like the difference between playing on a 5-a-side football team versus practicing dribbling skills by yourself in the backyard. Nothing wrong with the latter, but it’s a lot less engaging.
Come join us at EVO: https://www.facebook.com/groups/evocyclingclub – a global team with lots of rides, races (ZRL, TTT, FRR, etc) and fun for riders of all standards – whether you’re on zwift for a social ride, hard training, racing, whatever, we do it.
Srt field 20 plus teams all abilities all welcome
There are also clubs organised around specific topics.
E.g. Team Type 1 is a club which races across Zwift and has multiple social rides for anyone with Type 1 Diabetes or who is closely associated with it (family member, close friend).
A supportive environment to begin racing if you have T1 as everyone understands the additional struggles T1s face with racing and riding in general.
Of course, Zwift can also be quite a toxic place, imagine being the person who down votes a post about people with a disease supporting one another on the platform.
At least being supported by the good people on zwift make up for the trolls and toxic folk.
Fixed it 😊
You forgot one important thing :
What does the Kit they use look like 😉
+1000
I think the most important thing (beyond basic logistics) is ethos. What are this team (and more importantly the segment of the team you are considering as many teams are now huge) about? In TTT, will they all adapt their strategy to welcome you in to ensure they teach you and include you? Are they all out for the win, which will either drive you or break you? And in that team competitive environment, how do they react.
Teams in Zwift bring so much. They can bring support, understanding and positivity that extend way beyond logging in and logging off. They provide IRL meetups across the world and they can often give you a reason for jumping on the bike when solo motivation leaves you. For me it’s a two way thing. You can’t expect a team to provide all of that without giving some back and when that happens, it’s a fantastic extension to Zwift and beyond.
Good article. The one thing I would add is to audition clubs by joining their communication channel (eg, Discord, Facebook, whatever is the dominant forum for them) and check out the conversation. See how they treat newcomers and existing members at different levels of experience and fitness. As the rider, you should feel desired by the club and supported regardless of your level.
Is there a way to find teams that use Discord rather than Facebook? I don’t have Facebook which has always felt like a bizarre barrier to finding a team to race with!
Look up the club in the Companion app and there should be a Discord link there if they use it, or you can ask in the club chat. If you tap the three little dots in the upper right in Companion (when viewing the club page) there is an option for “CLUB DISCORD”. The team I ride with (Rhino Racing) mostly uses Discord. Most of our members ride weekday evenings in UK & EU timezones, some US as well. We have a Facebook presence but it’s completely optional.
You can try looking up the teams on zwiftpower and going to their “About Us” page. If you find a team that seems suitable and they host any events on zwift, I’d suggest joining their evenst and ask them in the chat about joining the team.
The teams I’m involved with use WhatsApp and/or Discord for communication, even if they only mention a Facebook page in their info.