The Zwift Games 2026 series began this week, with popular races on new routes! So I decided to join in the fun. This week’s stage is in Makuri Islands on the new Kaze Kicker route, which has just enough climbing to make the race hard and interesting without it feeling impossible for an “overmuscled cyclist” like me:
The “standard” race events alternate hourly between two different racing score range schemes:
- Range 1: 0-159 | 160-269 | 270-389 | 390-509 | 510-650
- Range 2: 0-209 | 210-329 | 330-449 | 450-569 | 570-725
With my racing score of 555, range 2 gives me the better chance at a win (since I’m only competing with riders up to a score of 569), while range 1 will probably give me a bigger challenge and a faster overall race time, since I’m competing with riders who have scores up to 650.
As it turned out, my schedule for the day meant I had to race range 1, like it or not. So I jumped in, warmed up, then joined the pens on my virtual Pinerallo Dogma F 2024 with DT Swiss 65 wheels. Let’s roll!
A Hard Start (Pain Cavern)
We rolled out of the Mech Isle start pens, the pack of 38 quickly dropping to 32 as we hammered up to speed.
The route begins with a short (3km) flat section which (a bit of Zwift nerd trivia here) includes the Tidepool Sprint Reverse segment. It’s the only route in-game that traverses this segment, in fact, but this doesn’t really matter much, as nobody is going to attack a sprint segment on a scratch race, especially with a hard effort just up the road.
One thing worth noting, since some riders in my race clearly didn’t realize it: you only get one powerup for this entire race. Everyone is given a feather at the start, and you get to choose where to use it! Save it for the Pain Cavern climb, or even better, if you know you’ll survive Pain Cavern, save it for the Mech Isle corkscrew near the end, or even use it on your final sprint. (I must say, I do prefer the single powerup approach to the default random powerup approach that randomly gives some riders an advantage over others.)
The longest, hardest effort of the race begins in Pain Cavern at the 3.3km mark, when the road tilts up to 5%. The climb is 2.16km long, averaging 3%, and will take most riders 3.5-4.5 minutes to complete:
I’ve been dropped on this climb more times than I haven’t, and it usually happens somewhere in the figure 8 section midway through. So I saved my feather as long as possible, waiting until I was fully in the figure 8 before activating it. Several riders around me had the same idea!
The pack often stretches out as the climb slackens yet continues after the figure 8. Finding a strong wheel can be helpful as speeds increase and drafting becomes more of a factor, and that’s exactly what I did. We had two riders on a breakaway 5 seconds up the road, but I was sitting in the pack of 21, near the limit, as we finished the climb.
I had survived! I was still in the peloton, and discovered after the race that I had shattered my Strava Pain Cavern PR with a time of 3:45 (my previous best was 4:02). Let’s goooo!
The Easy Middle
From 5.5km to 15.3km you’re essentially on flat or downhill roads. This doesn’t mean your race will be easy, since riders may choose to push the pace on the front. But chances are, this bit will be the easiest part of the race.
As we exited Pain Cavern, I just tried to sit efficiently in the draft to grab a bit of recovery time. My heart rate dropped from 172 to 154 over the next 5 minutes, and the burning in my legs went away as I spun a higher cadence at tempo power. Around the northern part of Neokyo we went, the two riders off the front staying away but not increasing their gap in a meaningful way.
(Zwift’s HUD doesn’t do a great job of showing gaps to riders up the road, since you don’t see them in the rider list if you’re sitting in a group of any size. But I was running Sauce for Zwift, so I could see the gap. Gotta love that rider groups feature!)
Exiting Neokyo, we caught the two attackers off the front, then turned into the Slot Canyon for a long descent. Zwifter “MC Hammertime” was providing plenty of color commentary from the peloton, and announced that he was going to take a hard pull on the front. It’s always nice when riders announce their intentions, since it gives everyone time to grab their wheel, which helps the group’s pace stay high and improves our GC rankings (more on that below).
Mech Isle Kicker
At the 15.3km mark we crossed the wooden bridge and hit the final obstacle of the day: the Mech Isle corkscrew! This little bugger is short enough that I can typically survive it in the peloton, but stronger riders often attack and get a gap. And that’s exactly what happened! I steered to the inside of the turn to shave off precious meters, then one rider, two riders, three riders attacked hard.
I found myself sinking backward, dropping from 3rd to 5th to 7th, with a gap building up the road. I was on the limit in a strung-out group, my legs heavy and burning as we crossed the bridge at the top. And all I could do was watch the race ride away, despite attempting to give chase.
The Finish
After the short descent, there were several riders around me, but everyone had given up on chasing the six riders ahead:
Maybe I’m a nicer guy when I’m glycogen-depleted. Or maybe I’m just dumber? Certainly the latter. I decided to put in a hard pull on the front to try to reel in some riders.
Unfortunately, 40 seconds of hard work did nothing but make my legs hurt. I eased up when it was clear we wouldn’t catch anyone, and a few seconds later, it was time to sprint! I pushed hard for ~10 seconds, crossing the line in 8th.
Watch the Video
Final Results
ZwiftPower gave me a finishing place of 6th, thanks to two riders not being signed up. But does that even matter anymore? Not really, since Zwift Racing Score doesn’t care about ZwiftPower, and neither do the Zwift Games GC Rankings at zwift.com/racing/leagues/zwiftgames2026.
As I write this post (10am Tuesday, Feb 17), my ranking shows as 1646 out of 11298 riders for race 1, with a race time of 24:56. We’ll see how that changes as more riders participate.
This race bumped up my ZRS from 555 to 561, my first score change in two months, since I haven’t been racing scored races.
In terms of my actual performance, this was a decently challenging effort, giving me a new power curve PR for 2026 in the VO2max time window:
Could I have raced it smarter for a better result? I don’t think I had the legs to grab onto the riders who got away over the top of the Mech Isle corkscrew, so the only thing I could really change would be not taking that short pull near the end, to save my legs for the final sprint. This may have allowed me to outsprint the one rider in my group who finished ahead of me, improving my result by just one place.
What about you?
How did race 1 go for you? Share below!
Good effort! I tried the Kaze Kicker this morning in the 210-330 category (I’m 249), I stayed with the leading group until that small ascent 3-5k but stayed with the second group until the end.
I liked the Kicker at the end as I think that was the same ending to the stage 1 race last year.
Cycling racing seems more fun than running as well as due to the air resistance, on a short race like that we’re only a few minutes behind the top people (quite motivating)!
I was a racer who did realize it but knew it would do little for me in the long run. I was more interested in the xp at the banners.
Raced this morning in the 450-570 group. It went pretty much the same way. Survived the Pain Cavern with a feather at the end of the figure 8 and set a PR, then stayed in the pack until the Mech Isle corkscrew (ignoring a couple attacks in between that were eventually brought back). A few got away over the top, one single rider way in front that eventually ended up winning, and 2-3 others a few seconds behind. My small group of three was just behind that and eventually caught up. I rode the draft until about 280 meters left when I launched into the final sprint. Got pipped at the line and took 3rd by 0.06 seconds (2nd place on Zwift Power). Set a 3-minute power PR in the process as well. Surprising placing result for a larger cyclist at 84.4kg, but certainly no complaints!
Great race Eric! I was just happy to hang in bunch up pain cavern with you and had a similar PR to yours on that climb! When we started reeling in the front 2 leaving Neoyoko I decided to do a hard 20 second effort and towed Hammertime and pack to them, than stayed in his draft with that hard effort to shake free riders out of the bunch, knowing Mech Isle climb would put me on limit. When you started your sprint I followed but had nothing to come around and finished right behind you.
Definitely agree with the 1 chosen power up and not the random one.
Good work sir!
Always enjoy reading a race summary from higher category racers! I raced in this in the 210-330 category and my ZRS was 274 and saw +2 improvement after the race. I finished 42nd out of 67 per the race results in the Companion app with a time of 29:07. My race included former NFL QB Brett Favre which was pretty cool. Brett finished 32nd in case anyone cared. I was dropped on the Mech Isle Climb and rode with the chase group. I tried attacking on the uphill near the finish and while I opened up a 3 second gap the group caught me with ease and I had nothing left to sprint at the end. A sneaky hard course! Can’t wait for Stage 2.
I so lost it on the kicker. I don’t race that much so this might have been my first makuri race.
Anyhow I have a Neo 2 and I’ve noticed before that there is slippage when putting the power down on some none paved sections in Makuri (gravel) it feels pretty real but annoying. First climb was fine (not gravel, right?).
On the kicker I think I maxed out at 5.5W/kg and it really felt like I was spinning on gravel. I could probably have done better than I did but with the feather still unused, and no way to stay with the front, I lost it and pretty much stopped pedaling
I have now disabled “road feel” in the hope that it will stop the slippage. But apart from that I don enjoy road feel.
Was in middle category on the first event so 330 people strong field. Start was hard for quite a bit longer than usual so I had to spend the first 3 minutes near threshold (~5% under FTP) already in mid pack (so could not even see the front). After a minute of recovery I had to push 4 w/kg for 5 minutes to get one of the last tickets to the 90 strong first group (only 4:10 on Pain Cavern though but kept my feather).
After 10 minutes of recovery on the flat we got to the finale. Made it over Corkscrew with my feather somewhere front half (I think) and finished after a pathetic attempt of a sprint in 31st.
One might be able to see it unfold on Ryan Condon’s channel.
DQ on ZwiftPower because I could not be bothered to put my HR strap on and according to event description it should only be required for advanced cat.
Yesterday, I tried my luck in 510-650. Overall, the race went quite well. I had no problems keeping up with the group on the climbs and kickers, but my sprint still needs improvement (medium-weight athlete).
On the last kicker, everyone went crazy, so I had to start my “sprint” way too early, which meant I had hardly any power left for the final sprint. In the end, I finished 6th out of 83.
E group. I went from 35th to 41st in the last mile. So I finished in the middle again – my claim to fame.
What was your trainer difficulty set at? In hardware, were you on Sequential, All-Rounder, Flat, or Climbing?