ZwiftPower is an incredibly useful tool for Zwift racers. Not only does it show final race results (including crucial features like disqualification of those who don’t conform to race rules), it also ranks riders, lets you search upcoming events, and browse segment leaderboards for all timed laps, KOMs, and sprints in game.
This week, James Hodges (the programmer behind ZwiftPower) released a new feature: team rankings! Find it under Rankings>Teams.
The rankings are separated by gender as well as category, so while one team may be top-ranked in the A category, another team may be winning in C.
How Ranking Works
To understand how team rankings work, you first need to know that all riders on ZwiftPower have their own individual ranking score. The lower your score, the better.
(We won’t go into the details of how that ranking score is calculated, as it is rather complex and already explained thoroughly on ZwiftPower’s site. Go to Standings then click FAQ in the top-left to read how scoring works.)
To calculate team rankings, ZwiftPower chooses the 3 highest-ranked team members for each category then averages their ranking score to create an overall team score. Teams are ranked on this overall score.
Example: currently the highest-ranked women’s A team is DanishBikeRiders. The three highest-ranked riders on that team are:
- Cecilia Hansen (283.16 points)
- Louise Houbak (295.40 points)
- Vicki Whitelaw (323.17 points)
If you average their points, you get 300.58. This puts them in 1st place, ahead of Team TURBO whose score is 356.29.
More Competition, More Teamwork
This new team rankings feature adds some new levels of competition to Zwift racing:
- Team competition: entire teams, but especially the three highest-ranked riders in each team, now have an extra incentive to perform well, as their rankings affect the overall team score.
- Competition within teams: if you’re close to being one of your team’s top three riders, but haven’t quite made it, this may give you more motivation to improve your results.
It also sets up a situation where lower-ranked riders have an incentive to work for higher-ranked team members whose score is affecting the overall team score. And teamwork is always a good thing.
So kudos to James at ZwiftPower for rolling out yet another killer feature. Keep up the good work!
Your Thoughts
What do you think of ZwiftPower’s new team rankings? If you’re on a team, have you heard any talk about trying to boost your team’s ranking? Share below!
I think Zwift racing is great. But it’s hard for me to personally give it much credibility given the number of ways individuals can cheat.
True, maybe the watts per kilo should be enforced per the limits. Exceed the category, you are bumped to the next category
They ARE enforced, on ZwiftPower. Just not on Zwift’s own results visible in Companion.
I have to say as a casual racer, I will never care to register for zwift power or share all my rides on strava. I am happy to keep everything within zwift and think that this is where the power limits need to be enforced.
Agreed, it blows apart the field and makes it not fun when someone way above the class enters. Zwift has all the info to make these decisions, we shouldn’t have to go to a third-party and validate it. It seems very after the fact. The sandbaggers still get their nice little ego boost with win on Zwift. Zwift needs to fix it.
It doesn’t even matter if people cheat on zwift. Within reason of course. I usually just do my best and ride with whomever is at my level. Riding with a pro, can simulate riding with a cheater. I usually check my watts and heart rate to see how I’m improving, or not. Everyone else in the race is there to keep me motivated to dig deeper
Thanks for the post Eric … I enjoy spending time looking through Zwift Power – researching routes, sussing out the competition etc – so I think this is an interesting view and good to see more of a team element making its way into Zwift/Zwift Power.
Personally, I think using the top 3 riders to get the overall team ranking might be a bit ‘narrow’ though, maybe using the top 10 would give a better representation of the overall team?!
Perhaps, but some teams are quite small. Top 10 makes sense for a big team, but an elite squad with only 5 riders… hmmm….
How does one get recruited or join a team?
See https://zwiftinsider.com/cycling-teams-on-zwift/