How To Find High-Quality Zwift Races Using ZwiftPower Rankings

If you’re a Zwift racer concerned with your overall ranking, you’ve probably already done some research to learn how ZwiftPower rankings work. (If you haven’t, click here for a full rundown of how the points are calculated.)

ZwiftPower’s individual point rankings drive other rankings on the site, including team rankings. But did you know ZwiftPower uses the rankings of signed-up riders to calculate the “quality” of upcoming races, and you can use this to help boost your ranking faster?

Why Quality Matters

To understand why race quality is important, let’s start with a comment I received from one Zwift racer:

…I have recently been focusing on improving my race ranking and have read the ZP system for ranking a couple times. I think I have a good understanding of it but still trying to figure out when choosing a B race, how do I know the “quality ” of racers signed up? I did a ______ race and came in 3rd which I was incredibly happy with but my points weren’t as good as other races. There were over 24 B riders in the race. Is there a tip on choosing the best race other than by course & number of riders?

If you’re concerned with improving your ranking as a Zwift racer, then the quality of your competition is an important consideration. Because as the Zwifter above learned, winning against a field of poorly-ranked riders may not improve your ranking one bit. On the other hand, finishing off the podium against a field of high-ranked riders can give you a major ranking boost!

To put it another way, there are two basic ways to boost your ZwiftPower points results in any particular race:

1. Improve your finishing position (for example, finish 4th instead of 12th)
2. Race against stronger competition (for example, race against someone with a ranking of 200 instead of 300)

We’re not concerned with #1 in this particular post, because we’ve already got lots of articles with tips on improving your race results.

And lucky for us, when it comes to #2, ZwiftPower can display the quality of upcoming events so we can easily find the toughest competition. Let’s dig in!

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ZwiftPower Event Rankings

Log into zwiftpower.com and click the “Rankings” button to enable the event rankings charts. You will see the quality stats next to each event – a different number for each category in the event:

The lower the number, the higher the race quality. (This is because event ranking scores are based on the individual rankings of riders in the signup list, and the lower a rider’s score, the higher their ZwiftPower rank.)

So if you want to find a high-quality race, just scan the ranking number for your category, and find the lowest one on the list. You may also want to click “Filter” so you can shorten the list of events – to only display races, for example. Here are the results of a filter showing the rankings of upcoming races under 30km long with staggered category starts:

Based on this list, a B racer should enter the ZHQ Beta Crit City Race if looking for the most competitive B race.

Gotchas

ZwiftPower’s event rankings aren’t a perfect system, of course. Nothing is! One reason is last-minute signups – the ranking charts are based on current signups, and a good percentage of racers don’t sign up until minutes before the event.

And if you mouse over one of the ranking numbers, it will display something like “Estimated Race Quality – 48% of upcoming events”. Here’s the thing: that percentage, as well as the actual ranking number… nobody seems to know how those are calculated. The percentage isn’t terribly helpful (we would go so far as to say it’s not even accurate, on many occasions). And the actual ranking number doesn’t tell you something useful, such as the points result earned for taking first place.

So don’t take the numbers too seriously; instead, simply use them as a relative judgment of the comparative quality of upcoming races.

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One Giant Leap

The numbers clearly show something Rick Wenger wrote about in his popular “How to Become a Top 20 Category B Racer” post. If you’re consistently performing well in your category, then the way to really boost your ranking is to race up a category. This is because you stand to improve your ranking more when competing against higher-ranked riders than those in your current category.

Looking to boost your ZwiftPower rankings?
Read our tips in “How to Boost Your ZwiftPower Ranking“

Conclusion

Whether you’re looking for a more competitive race experience or want to boost your overall rider ranking, ZwiftPower’s race ranking charts can help you choose the best race. Good luck!

Questions or Comments?

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