Update: Zwift announced on September 12 that they’re taking Zwift Racing Score offline while they work on improvements. Read the forum post >
Zwift just announced the public launch of their “Racing Score” metric – a single number meant to rank racers based on their finishing position in Zwift race events. How does it work, and why is it important? Read below to find out!
What Is It?
Simply put: Zwift’s new Racing Score metric is a single number meant to rank racers based on their best performances in recent race events. A 0-1000 scale is used, with higher scores being better.
In the future, this number will be used to group racers into categories. But for now, it’s just a number on your profile.
How Is It Calculated?
If you’re familiar with how ZwiftPower calculates rider rankings, Racing Score will be easy to grasp since it’s based on the same inputs. The only difference is that Racing Score uses a 0-1000 scale (with a higher score being better) while ZwiftPower uses a 0-600 scale (with a lower score being better).
Without getting too deep in the math weeds (you can do that here), each time you finish a Zwift race where scoring is enabled, you will receive a result/score for that event. This score is computed based on three factors:
- Race Quality: determined by the five highest-ranked finishers in the first ten places of the race
- Points Per Place: determined by field size
- Your Finishing Position: the higher your finish, the higher your result
Your overall Racing Score is the average of your 5 best race results in the past 90 days, but it’s important to note that not all races on Zwift will be “scored” events (more on that below).
Finding Your Racing Score
Your Racing Score is displayed in the Companion app, in game, on your Zwift.com profile (click “My Profile” on zwift.com/feed), and under your ZwiftPower profile:
Your score is private (only visible to you) in Companion, in game, and at My Profile at Zwift.com. If you are signed up for ZwiftPower, your score is visible to any ZwiftPower user.
Scored Events
Zwift has been calculating race results in the background for months, so your Racing Score today is based on your best race results in the last 90 days. Through June 29, 2023, all race events will be used to compute your Racing Score. But from June 30 onward, only specific races will have their results scored. Specifically, beginning June 30, only Zwift’s ZRacing monthly races will be scored events.
Why is Zwift only scoring certain races for now? Two reasons:
- Racing Score is only based on Zwift results and not ZwiftPower results, so any race that uses custom rules like points would have a disparity between Zwift results and final ZwiftPower results, resulting in a Racing Score that isn’t accurate.
- Zwift doesn’t have the UI to indicate which races are being scored, so they wanted to pick a very obvious set of races as scored events.
Zwift says, “…we will gradually make more races scored as time progresses. We will communicate which other races will be included in the score calculation.”
Provisional Race Score
Zwift is also calculating a “provisional race score” based on your best 5-minute power in the last 90 days. This provisional score isn’t visible, but is used in the background if you haven’t finished 5+ races in the last 90 days.
If you haven’t done any races in the last 90 days, your Racing Score will show up as — or 0. In this case, if you were to sign up for a race that uses Racing Score for categories (none currently exist), your provisional score would be used to determine your category.
If you’ve finished 1-4 races in the last 90 days your Racing Score will be visible, but Zwift will “fill in” any missing races with your provisional race score. This prevents your actual race results from being weighted higher than they should be.
Results-Based Categorization
The real reason Zwift is calculating Racing Score is to enable results-based categorization. This is a very big deal, and something Zwifters have been wanting for years!
Race categories on Zwift have generally been based on power numbers. But that’s not how bike racing works, as it would remove the element of skill from categorization.
In the future, races on Zwift will have their categories based on Racing Score, not power. So you might see something like this (note that these are example numbers I made up – I’m doubt these would be used for actual implementation):
- A: 749-1000
- B: 500-749
- C: 250-499
- D: Below 250
For now, though, race categorization will not change, with most races using categories based on Category Enforcement pace groups.
Coming Next
Our contacts at Zwift have been quick to stress that this is not the final product. In keeping with the fresh “ready-fire-aim” approach we’ve been seeing from Zwift lately, they shipped Racing Score knowing it would evolve in the next few months before Zwift’s big racing season begins.
What will be changed in the coming months? Only time will tell, but here are some ways Racing Score may be built out so it’s more useful and effective:
- In-game results: show your race result score at the end of each race you finish
- Score details: which 5 races are being used to calculate my current Racing Score? A quick link to each event from my Zwift.com profile would be welcome.
- Rider rankings: Zwifters will want to see global rider rankings, perhaps similar to what ZwiftPower does. This could be expanded to rank riders by country, age group, gender, etc. Team rankings could also be calculated.
- Email congrats: finish a race that boosts your Racing Score? Get a pat on the back from Zwift, with an email that includes your new score.
- Formula tweaks: the Racing Score forum topic has already lit up with negative feedback from racers wanting Zwift to use a different formula for computing Racing Score. Would it be better to use a formula like ZwiftRacing.app? We won’t get into that here, but we’ll say different ranking models have different strengths and weaknesses and accomplish different goals. Zwift may need to tweak the Racing Score formula before it feels like a major improvement to power-based categorization.
- Results-Based Race Categories: if Racing Score accurately represents your abilities, then using it to determine your event category should lead to better racing. We’re looking forward to this!
- Data for Race Organizers: before organizers can decide which Racing Score “windows” to use for their races, they’ll need to see stats nicely summarizing the Racing Scores of active Zwift users. A chart or two would suffice…
Questions or Comments?
Check out Zwift’s FAQ Support Page on this topic if you have questions. You can also share questions and thoughts below!
Imagine this, I am a 68 year.old D rider at my max but I score 251 points wich means I have to race cat C only to carry the red lantern….my fun for racing will dissapear quickly. My idea would be more categories split in 200s
Pretty much anyone who races regularly will be in this position, unfortunately. They must be aiming this to give new and returning customers only the more welcoming race experience.
You’re assuming everyone who currently races C will remain in C and not move up to B. If people continue wing in the new system in your current category, then this system should have them move up allowing you to be more competitive.
“Winning”
There will be always be people at the ‘back’ of categories. If someone is truly in the ‘wrong’ category, then their score should drop when their best 5 races reflect this. The trick will be to allow organisers to alter the category boundaries.
Not necessarily with this system, if you race a lot, where say 3 good results within 50 bad ones in 90 days will count as 3 good results. It’s a fine system if everyone is only doing a limited number of races, like most people do, but not those who race a lot.
Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. I suspect cases like you describe will be rare. And how different will people’s best vs their normal races actually be?
I’m not saying that it’s not better, but given there’s an excellent system been developed which they could’ve taken, going with a rather crap one seems odd.
As I say, I agree, the hardcore racer base is very small. They’re obviously mainly concerned about new and returning users, which is understandable.
This feels like the scene from Hitchhikers Guide where after thousands of years Deep Thought announces the answer to everything is 42.
After years of talk and work we’ve got…the same ranking system they’ve had but on a different scale.
I’ve written many articles on this subject on ZI over the last couple of years. This is as explanation as to why they’ve got this all wrong:
https://forums.zwift.com/t/zwift-racing-score-july-2023/608136/51?u=gloscherrybomb
A very strange and unexpected approach to ranking. It still doesn’t reward regular results, is subject to distortion (deliberate or newbie ignorance) and has no goal in mind. And is hitched to zhq races. That’s a big middle finger to community racing from zhq.
I like this! Tons of sandbaggers out there manipulate their power numbers to stay at the top of their category without promotion and win every race. Thank you Zwift!
exactly- i see the same faces who i know can smash it, yet they soft pedal most of the way as not to harm their ave wpk.
I do that because it’s usually the best way to win, not to protect any hidden power
Exactly lol these guys must want a time trial, not a road race
Everyone races to maximize their strengths. You’ll often sit “bigger” riders sitting in and then unleashing 1200W from 300m out. You can see their NP is usually a lot of red meaning they expend little energy to sit in. This new system will help with this and it will move them up if they win that way against larger quality fields.
It would be great to have this for next seasons ZRL! It would shake things up a lot 🙂
i think its a good idea and interested to see how it plays
This has the same problem that the Zwift Power race rankings have. Doing well at a lower level helps your score more than doing poorly at a higher level. For example, before I got Covid in early March, I had an FTP of ~3.4 so I was a low B with a ZP ranking of something like 290-300. After recovering from Covid, all of my numbers (15s, 1 min, 5, min, 20 min) are still about 10% down from what they were pre-Covid. That puts me as a high C. As a result, I’m suddenly getting a lot of top… Read more »
its NOT about power; its about WHO you are beating. if you are winning more races; if you are beating certain people, then you will inevitably move up to a ranking in line with outer who are also beating people of similar ranking. it will result in who you race against will be much closer to you, than previous. where it will still open up is the ranking points are pretty wide spread – so if you happen to be at the bottom end of the ranking points, you are going to find it hard… naturally you will end up… Read more »
I also moved up massively by losing a race. Due to strange pen rules, I, a C, got forced into a pen with a bunch of A riders. Got last place out of 6 riders in the race (10 minutes behind 5th place in a 57 for them 67 for me minute race). Because of the race quality score, my score improved significantly. Getting dropped 5 minutes into a race in which I was never competitive shouldn’t cause my race ranking to get 10% better (197 to 180 in ZP race rankings). This was the day before Zwift Race Rankings… Read more »
I would like the option for organisers to even out categories based on numbers. Let’s say entries close 1 min out and the system divides the total by 4 and groups the top quarter into A then the next to B etc.
I really wish these point systems would be based on the time you finish behind the winner, not the place. This system, just like ZwiftPower, benefits riders with a good sprint. As a smaller person racing in the C category, I just don’t have the raw sprint to compete on flat races for a podium, but I can usually finish in the lead group.
This initial release/announcement is very disappointing, it’s a slight re-hash of the old zwiftpower ranking score, complete with all its flaws.
It doesn’t come close to ranking racers by ability.
Agreed, seems odd to start right at the beginning when they could easily lean on all the progress made by ZwiftRacingApp.
Zwift has done some really good work lately, but this one has left a lot of us (see posts on the forum) scratching our heads. Hoping they don’t dig their feet in on this and reconsider leveraging the heavy lifting that’s already been done by ZwiftRacingApp.
If they don’t, it’s unlikely they’ll have a reliable system for Season 1 of the ZRL. 2 months for testing/iterating (especially in a slow period) won’t be enough time…unless they get some help!
Great move and direction, I hope they can make it more nuanced so a good sprinter isn’t confined to sprint races because he will get beaten up bad on climbing routes. Also some might specialize in mostly going for primes in most races, and doing 4 or fewer good sprint finishes during 90 days roll to sandback..
No system is perfect, but worth considering still..
I am C and currently I will be placed in A in the new system. There are some races where I can compete with A (e.g. SuperSprint in New York) and why I therefore already race in A. There are other races (mostly mountainous) where I don’t have a chance finishing at the top of C but should race in A in the future.
This new system for sure would end my racing career.
How do you know you’d be an A, when the racing score-based categories haven’t even been defined yet?
I admit I am totally confused.
Most of the forum is very negative.
So I have a number and that will determine what race I can enter?
But the number has nothing to do with being an A or B?
Long term your performance in recent races will determine which pen you enter. Short term it doesn’t do much, but likely gets turned on for a small number of zwift hq led races (Like the OG race series). People spent a year or more demanding results based categorization on the zwift forums. Zwift is starting to deliver it and now people are mad. It’s not perfect, neither is the input data. It’s what people asked for though. If you win a lot, you’ll probably get upgraded. If you do well in very tough (big field races) you probably get upgraded.… Read more »
Good step in the right direction. As with any change to the old cat limits those that are outliers or on the cut off points will be mad. Others will be happy. At least this time we have a system where progression is based on more than just raw w/kg.
“it’s just a number on your profile.”
whats yours?
So to all the people who have apparently enough time to complain non stop about video game rules, do you also throw the Xbox controller at the tv when you lose? Zwift never has and never will be real life. Way too many people coming and going and different levels of desire and endless cheat codes. Just remember that, calm down, and maybe spend some time with people in real life instead of complaining to a screen.
Eric, what do you think … which Cat-system will be taken for ZRL in September ? Cat-Enforcement or Race Score ?
Not sure, but I think either would be better than the old ZP-based cats used last season.
“Let’s tell the community a few days before the end of June that we will give them a provisional Racing Score from their best five results of the last 90 days, including the ~10min Tiny Races and any oddities like huge ranking boosts from coming last in a strong A pen when they aren’t A pen racers… And then tell them to try and improve their Racing Score only in the Zwift monthly series races, which we will make longer duration that recent month series races, taking a strong D pen race approx 45-65mins. And when they complain, pointing out… Read more »
No system is perfect and I’m sure they keep changing because of criticism of the current system. That will never end though as people prefer different things. My concern with this system is that being a natural sprinter that my category will be at a level where I can’t do climbing races without getting completely destroyed. I think they are more fun than waiting for a 15 second race that is much harder to judge when to go than in real life due to online delays.
Interesting. Looks like bigger fields in Zracing already which was fun.
This sounds good on paper, at the moment I’m hardly racing because I’m enforced to race Cat C and finish in the last few places, I was Cat C about 3 years ago but Cat D now, this might make racing more enjoyable
Nick, share your pain. I was put into Cat C and, like, you, tend to come in way down the order, I average around 2.3-2.6wkg so right on the C/D boundary. Last week I was dropped to Cat D (where I think I belong) and was far more competitive. But today note I’ve been ‘promoted’ to Cat C but with a racing score of < 100. I don't get it! Great idea on paper but needs work. I do get the argument that says keep racing and you'll improve but totally dispiriting when you're dropped out of the pens of,… Read more »
What happened to this score? I don’t see it anymore.
Nevermind. I see Zwift temporarily disabled.