How the Race Was Lost: Zwift Games Stage 5 on ZG25 Queen

March 21, 2025

LAST UPDATED March 20, 2025

With the Zwift Games wrapping up, I found myself with just one stage left to finish. But it was a big one! With a name like “ZG25 Queen” I knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but then again, I’m always up for a longer race effort. So I entered the 450-570 group once again…

The Warmup

It was Tuesday, and the biggest Zwift update in months had just dropped. I was about two weeks into the busiest week of my life at Zwift Insider, buried in speed tests and putting together posts to help folks wrap their minds around Bike Upgrades.

But that wasn’t going to stop me. I’d raced the first four stages of Zwift Games. Now I needed to race the final stage. And it was a tough one! Held on the new ZG25 Queen route, this race would take me up the Jarvis KOM Reverse, into the Jungle, up the Mayan+Itza KOMs, up the upper half of The Grade, and finally, up the Epic KOM Reverse.

With 44.8km to cover and nearly 900 meters to climb, I knew it would be a sufferfest for my “overmuscled” body. But suffering is good for the soul. So here we go!

The Easy First Half

Looking at the route profile, you can see that the first half of this route is quite tame:

We started the race with 51 riders, and the first real effort for me came as we hit the base of the Epic KOM Reverse 14km into the route. I’ve been dropped here on many a race, but today I was able to hang with the front pack up the twisty climb, across False Flat Bridge (I just made that name up), and onto the continued climb up to the Jungle Pens.

From there it was smooth sailing. Just a dusty descent through the Jungle before hanging a left to make our way out to the Mayan Mountainside KOM, where the real work would begin.

The Tough Second Half

The second half of the route begins with the Mayan Mountainside KOM. I was able to hang with the group to the top of this climb, setting a Strava segment PR in the process. But by the time we went through the arch, I was dangling off the back.

I pulled the plug and stopped chasing the front group’s wheels before we even began the Itza KOM, just a few hundred meters up the road.

Now sitting 25th out of 51, I rode easy until a small group of 5 caught me from behind. We rode together up the Itza at a perfect “tough but doable” pace, then we turned left and began the upper half of The Grade.

This climb is steep – the steepest climb on the route, in fact. It was every man for himself as we negotiated The Grade’s snaking road. There was no hiding in the wheels here! Over the top the rider list now showed me in 25th out of… 35 riders? Did we really lose that many?

Supertucking down the Epic KOM descent, I caught a couple of riders up the road. And soon enough, it was time to begin the final climb: the upper portion of the Epic KOM Reverse. This climb takes me around 20 minutes to complete, so I just tried to pace myself evenly while making good use of the flat spots and short descents on this side of the mountain.

I began the climb in 25th… and finished in 25th. How’s that for consistency? ZG Queen route badge earned, in just under 90 minutes.

See my ride on Zwift.com >
See my ride on Strava >

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Takeaways

I did this one in the middle of a busy workday, and to be honest, my mind was struggling to find the fortitude to push hard. And it showed.

That said, in the end, I was happy I did it. (Isn’t that always how it goes?) I finished all 5 Zwift Games stages, and the fancy new leaderboards show me at 926 out of 59178 overall. Hey, that’s the top 2%! #winning

My final results (as of 2:30pm PDT on March 20, 2025):

Sprint Classification: 1456 of 44597
Climb Classification: 2527 of 35395
Epic Classification: 3832 of 12225
Overall Classification: 926 of 59178

Overall, I enjoyed racing this year’s Zwift Games, and would certainly do it again. I liked how routes were broken into flatter “sprint” routes, punchy “climb” routes, and a longer “epic” route. I like the new leaderboards and the GC component.

One thing I would change, though, is I’d allow steering in these races. I think it adds a fun dimension to the events, and it feels silly to have it disabled when Zwift is selling Play Controllers.