Today, we’ll focus on a race format that exists in some form in IRL track cycling: the relay race. Let’s go!
Relay Race Basics
The big idea behind a relay race is that it allows teams of riders (just a pair of riders is probably ideal) to trade off efforts while resting in between. In track cycling we have the Madison race, where a team (usually two) riders are taking turns, with one rider racing while the other rider makes their way around the track at an easier pace. When they’re ready to trade off, the racing rider grabs the resting rider hand-slings them up to speed.
How would this work on Zwift? Well, in the world of track running, relay events are very entertaining to watch, with runners handing off a baton. This is more the style of relay race “handoff” I’m envisioning on Zwift, except that riders would hand the race off to their teammate each lap. Let’s dive deeper into this idea…
Relay Racing on Zwift
There are lots of ways a relay race could be structured on Zwift, but here’s one approach using teams of two.
I envision relay races happening on a short loop course: perhaps Crit City, Makuri Islands’ Neokyo Crit Course, NYC’s LaGuardia Loop, or even Watopia’s Volcano Circuit. These routes vary from 2-6 minutes in length, so it’s just a question of how long the race organizer wants each rider’s efforts to last.
Riders would all begin at the start pens, but only the designated Rider #1 would be racing the first lap. When the lap line is first reached, Rider #2 would automatically stop. (They could still pedal, but their rider would be on a virtual trainer, like you see in the start pens before an event begins.)
Rider #1 would complete the first lap, then automatically stop as soon as they cross the lap line, with rider #2 automatically released to begin traveling forward.
Races could be done with or without drafting enabled, although I generally prefer draft-enabled events because of the added strategic component.
The first team to complete the assigned number of laps would win.
[adinserter block=”1″]
Fun For All
How can these events be made more fun for everyone? This is an important question to answer when it comes to any ride format in Zwift, because Zwift needs to remain an inclusive platform where everyone can find motivation and fun, regardless of fitness level.
Ideally, it would be super simple for riders of any fitness level to sign up for the relay race. That means Zwift would need to build a system to automatically match riders together to maximize fairness and competition. The system would also need to let riders do their own matchmaking if they have a friend they’d like to race with.
Zwift could automatically categorize teams based on rider metrics. And to ensure competition among riders, perhaps the strongest rider would always be in the #1 slot, so you don’t have one team’s strongest rider going head-to-head with another team’s weakest rider – unless a team gets lapped, of course.
Having dedicated races for mixed teams (1 woman and 1 man) would be fun, too.
Existing lap leaderboards could be used to add a competitive element of which team is fastest. You could even give a time bonus to the team with the fastest lap, encouraging riders to try and top the leaderboard.
Why Relay Race?
Relay Races would be fun for several reasons:
- Teamwork: you can’t do a relay race by yourself. Working with others is good for us!
- Interval workout: relay races would make excellent interval workouts. For example, a 10-lap race of LaGuardia Loop would have each rider completing 5 laps (3-5 minutes per lap) with a break in between. That’s a solid VO2 workout!
- Fresh strategic options: do you go hard at the start and try to get into a breakaway? Do you save your efforts for the end of the race? Does it depend on lap count?
- A special “virtual-only” format: this is a format that doesn’t really have an outdoor equivalent, and there’s something extra fun about that.
Required Game Changes
What would Zwift need to implement in order to make relay races work well as a native race format? With the disclaimer that I’m not a game developer or platform engineer, here are a few things I can think of:
- Team builder UI: Zwift would need to build the menus and functionality to create a relay race team, or at least sign up for a race to be automatically placed onto a team.
- Orientation UI: riders need to know what they’re signing up for, and how the event will work. On-screen messaging should explain this clearly and succinctly.
- Teammate tracking UI: you would want to see where your actively racing teammate is located and ideally also see metrics like their power numbers and heart rate.
- Handoff Functionality: fresh game functionality would need to be coded, stopping a rider as they hit the lap line while simultaneously releasing their teammate to jump into the action.
- Results Screens: the standard race results screen would need to be modified to display team results instead of individual results.
Your Thoughts
What did you think – does the relay race concept have any merit? Share below!
Make it more like a madison – the live rider designation switches each time the riders pass each other. That way a stronger rider and a weaker rider could share the ride *time* evenly, rather than the distance.
Great idea and article Eric! Our SNOW Sprint Series event on Saturdays did 2 ‘rapid relay races’ where we had multiple 4 man teams from different clubs on crit city with the team waiting in the pen and only going once the previous rider had completed and overall team time was how winning team was decided. It had a great reception but only issue is we had to have 2 Marshalls – one in the pen and one at finish line recording their screens in case of any disputes or riders leaving the pen early, etc – would be a really cool format if they built in the TT conveyor belt for it!
That worked really well. I remember it being a lot of fun. Would be great if they have such features in game.
Definitely love the idea no matter the teams. Like a 2 person (Same Cat) or 2 Peson (mixed Cat). I’d like to see something along the lines of “The Little 500” ie “Breaking Away” fame Team of A,B,C,D all ride, all have to ride a certain number laps of the loop any any order and any amount at a time as long as each ride the number required.
May be tough to set up? ✌️
Repack ridge relay races would be fun
Yes!
How about this: you and your team mate are on the same tandem bike in zwift, but only one rider’s power is actually moving the bike forward. That rider alternates after either certain distances or at certain points on the course? You can then both see exactly the same thing but you’re still effectively relaying the race.
I like that idea. Then there doesn’t need to be a separate teammate tracker UI.
Could even have it so that the rider who doesn’t currently have control of the power is the only one who can activate the power ups.
Imagine stretching this idea further than just a tandem and you could have an entire team on a ‘beer bike’ style thing, which could expand the relay idea above.
Or it could be used to improve that ‘group FTP test’ idea- two beer bikes are racing with everyone on an FTP test, and the longer participants can hang on in their FTP test, the further the beer bike moves along. Beer bike that does the furthest distance wins. That idea strays away from relay but could be a motivating way of doing an FTP test!
How about this idea: Let all team members connect to the same bot Rider. The bot rider is then driven by the team. You could have different options/formats:
1) Add all power or watt/kg values as the bots power.
2) Whoever puts in the highest power or watt/kg takes over the bot
3) The controller of the bot is switched each lap
This could be the base for a lot of interesting formats.
This is a great idea. I’ve raised it with WTRL (the race organisers of ZRL) before. It would be more simple to do in a ZRL or team-based race series as the people are already in a team and are of similar grading. But the possibilities are endless. Imagine human teams vs bot teams!
The concepts of relay could open also the possibility of doing races over long period of times like 6/12/24 hours or 1000 km, something similar to car races like 24 hours of Le Mans or Sebring. They only need to open the possibility of using teleportation inside races for example. That could also lead to races in which you have riders with different characteristic to do some parts of the race, strong light climbers doing uphill, powerful rider doing the flat sections, etc.
Interesting idea. Do you need everything you identify, not to get started. The simple way would be to establish it like a track relay; team of size X, with laps for the event being X or 2X. Watch for your teammate and take off (preferably out of the pen) when they crossed the finish line. Now could Zwift improve that, oh yeah. Demand is the best way to get that. But then I’d also like to see Zwift model some of the gravel courses out there with good modeling of how the gravel is.
Besides Madison(you need a velodrome first), 24 hours race and a tag team alp Everest would be good, especially if I could team up with Illi.😎 with Everest , your partner can start at bottom as soon as team mate crosses line at top.
You could leverage the existing Coffee Stop code and do a time-swap relay on whatever course you like.
Rider A works for, say, 3 minutes while Rider B spins easy alongside, and then it switches. Repeat ad nauseam (very probably!)
Depending on the course length the number of efforts could be anywhere from a small handful to 10 or more. A fun pacing exercise.
Give us a Velodrome and then Madison!
Cool idea. I bet if you proposed this idea to indieVelo the feature would be introduced in less than 1 month. But on Zwift we can only dream.