Zwift Insider Tiny Race Series Announced

UPDATE: for the latest details on Tiny Race routes and results, see the Tiny Race homepage at zwiftinsider.com/tiny

This Saturday we’re spinning up the first in a set of weekly races dubbed the “Tiny Race Series”. Each week will feature four short events raced back-to-back in under an hour. It’s a great way to earn ZwiftPower ranking points, get a solid VO2 workout, and just have fun going all-out in a different sort of Zwift race!

The idea is to race all four events, earning points in each event based on your finishing position. The overall winners (available on ZwiftPower) are the riders with the most points across all four races.

With three timezones and four categories, we’ll be crowning twelve winners each week.

Just One Powerup

Each tiny race will feature just one powerup, given each time riders go through an arch. That way, everyone knows what everyone has, and there’s no “luck of the draw”! (See powerup details under “Route Details” below).

Schedule

Each race is on a different route, all around 5km long, so they’ll each take 6-10 minutes to complete. Races are scheduled 15 minutes apart, so you can sign up and race all four in under an hour.

There are three timezones/leagues set up so Zwifters can find a time slot that suits them well.

These may shift in coming weeks, but for the kickoff races this Saturday, here are the start times for each timezone:

  • Saturday, July 30 starting at 8am UTC (6pm AEST/4am EDT/1am PDT)
  • Saturday, July 30 starting at 2pm UTC (midnight AEST/10am EDT/7am PDT)
  • Saturday, July 30 starting at 8pm UTC (6am Sunday AEST/4pm EDT/1pm PDT)

Sign up at zwift.com/events/tag/tinyraces

Categories

  • Category Enforcement is being applied to enforce a minimum category for each rider
  • Each category starts 1 minute apart, with faster categories going first
  • All riders will be visible on course

Route Details

Each week will feature a different mix of routes and powerups. Here are the route details for our first week:

Sign up at zwift.com/events/tag/tinyraces

ZwiftPower Results + League

As usual, Zwift will display preliminary results when you cross the line, but final race results will be on ZwiftPower.

Riders will earn points based on finish position in each of the 4 Tiny Races. The category winner of each week’s series is the rider with the most points across their timezone’s 4 races. Here are the links for each timezone’s results on ZwiftPower:

Note: HR monitors are required if you want to show up in the final results.

Zwift Insider Kit Unlock

Complete any of the race events and unlock the Zwift Insider “Ride smarter, ride harder” kit!

Questions or Comments?

Post below!

Eric Schlange
Eric Schlangehttp://www.zwiftinsider.com
Eric runs Zwift Insider in his spare time when he isn't on the bike or managing various business interests. He lives in Northern California with his beautiful wife, two kids and dog. Follow on Strava

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Carsten Re. from Germany
Carsten Re. from Germany
1 year ago

Thinking about 4 short hard races, my legs are already crying 🙅‍♂️🥵 … but I ignore them during signing in 🙈🤣

Rick wenger
Rick wenger(@rwenger)
1 year ago

Is there a way to disable auto join? Don’t want to get pulled to another race accidentally.

Steve Fish
Steve Fish(@stephen-fischer)
1 year ago
Reply to  Eric Schlange

Eric, in a similar 4x 15min short race format earlier this week, we had issues with auto-join causing some riders to be teleported to the next race before finishing the race they were on (because they didn’t click to cancel auto-join).
Zwift HQ has now configured a 1min auto-join delay for our short races next week, you might want to request the same. Unfortunately, there’s no way to disable auto-join altogether.

I look forward to doing this tiny race series on Sat. Thanks for organizing!

Steve Fish
Steve Fish(@stephen-fischer)
1 year ago
Reply to  Eric Schlange

We had some riders go beyond 10mins for the race, and then the auto-join kicked in at 5min (default I think) before the next race. I think they were too focused on punching the climb, that they missed the cancel popup.

Darrick Bissell
Darrick Bissell
1 year ago

What is the point system?

Road Kill (DGDC)
1 year ago

Okay, I’m all signed up and I’m going to be chasing the points title! What kind of title do I get if I come in dead last in every stage?

Adam Dawson
Trusted Member
Adam Dawson(@adawson)
1 year ago

You would have to cleverly manage that so that you don’t miss the start of the next event. It could be a funny challenge actually.

Adam Dawson
Trusted Member
Adam Dawson(@adawson)
1 year ago

So you’re actively trying to kill us now

Carsten Re. from Germany
Carsten Re. from Germany
1 year ago
Reply to  Eric Schlange

if surviving is possible has to be verified at Saturday 🤷🏻‍♂️ … I think I will better quit Time Zone 1 to check this out first 🤣

Carsten Re. from Germany
Carsten Re. from Germany
1 year ago
Reply to  Adam Dawson

Hahaha … that’s Eric’s smart strategy for his future posts “How the race was won” … 😉

Its.Yozza
Its.Yozza(@andrew-hughes)
1 year ago
Reply to  Adam Dawson

Charlie, Richard Vale, the DIRT Admins, and now Eric, on a not so clandestine mission to bean most racers of Zwift.

Christian Kjaer
Christian Kjaer
1 year ago

Nice kit!

Fabian
1 year ago

Nice one!

  • Race 2: Bell Lap
  • 2 laps, 4km total
  • Powerup: Ghost”

I have an idea where we would loose sight of Eric ^^ Unfortunately, I won’t make it in the first two weeks.

Emilio
Emilio
1 year ago

This sounds interesting, for short races in an hour. My doubts as a Low D rider (1.7 w/kg) is if I will have enogh time to finish the first three before the next one started. Because even there is 15 min between races, I know forn the Giant Gravel last June, that the op up for the next race appears on screen from 3:30 to 3 min before the start, so taht leaves less than 12 min to complet each of the 3 courses. But I’ll trya anyway.

Philip
Philip
1 year ago
Reply to  Emilio

Won’t even let me sign up for cat D, and my FTP is about 1.8 w/kg !

Don't DQ me bro!!
Don't DQ me bro!!
1 year ago

Are the points for each week stand alone, or do the points accumulate over the following weeks?

Joe Randall
Joe Randall
1 year ago

Sounds fun!! Getting ready for Zwift season.

Henrik Abild
Henrik Abild
1 year ago

Hi Eric

I did all four Tiny Races today, 30/7-2022 but it didn’t unlock the Zwift Insider Kit so what to do?

By the way, great races, hard but great.

Br
Henrik Abild (DZR DK)

Henrik Abild
Henrik Abild
1 year ago
Reply to  Henrik Abild

Hi Eric
Is there by any chance an explanation to this?
Br
Henrik

Derek
Derek(@dpr4473)
1 year ago

So how many weeks does this race series last?

Philip
Philip
1 year ago
Reply to  Eric Schlange

I raced it this week and used each race as a “qualifier” for the next race, the quicker I finish (if I can finish) the more rest I get.
A bit of feedback for you, make sure all routes are on the same world to save on loading times, also as I’m close to time limits can I enter different categories of race by trying plan my best way of beating the cutoff?

Kevin
Kevin
1 year ago

Just finished and I had a blast – thanks for organising it and a great idea btw. 👍👌

Paul Preijer
Paul Preijer
1 year ago

Hi Eric, great idea! Gave me the motivation to get up earlier than usual and start the day well 👍

One tiny note, I think that in timezone 1 the third race dropped out of the results. Saw only people with 3 events in the standings, and I’m pretty sure most guys raced 4 events 😉

But great racing with a nice big field (around a 100 racers each stage in C categorie). Will certainly try to race again next week!

Paul Preijer
Paul Preijer
1 year ago
Reply to  Eric Schlange

Thanks!

Darrick Bissell
Darrick Bissell
1 year ago

Is it best 3 out of 4? Only seeing 3 races on Zwift power for Z1 so far. Thanks

Darrick Bissell
Darrick Bissell
1 year ago

Just saw one of your replies on this. Yeah, hope it gets fixed.

Tim Sunderland
Tim Sunderland
1 year ago

Brilliant Eric….. loved the format…. let’s have more

David White (NZ)
David White (NZ)
1 year ago

That was fun! (Thanks, Eric.) What is the plan for next week? And how many weeks (so that I can see if I need to extend my life insurance policy)?

Its.Yozza
Its.Yozza(@andrew-hughes)
1 year ago

That was tough work. Especially between 2 & 3, it was a rough recovery.

Suggestion: I would have something that rounded it out a bit for the lighter riders, as for the big hitters, it was rinse & repeat – maybe Hilly Route or something, Start Downtown pens to the bottom of that little KOM next to Downtown. An alternative might be one of the NYC routes that goes straight into a climb. Or maybe that is a hillclimb series 😉

https://veloviewer.com/segment/12109030

David White (NZ)
David White (NZ)
1 year ago
Reply to  Eric Schlange

“Hillier routes” – oh no. Actually, for something completely different, I’d love a race from the top of AdZ on MTBs!?

Steve Fish
Steve Fish(@stephen-fischer)
1 year ago
Reply to  Eric Schlange

Cool!

Eric, we have had some good experience with short punchy routes in recent Snap Crackle Pop events, also with 4x 15min format. Would love to chat more with you about this (see my email).

BTW, I had a blast doing the tiny races yesterday! Thanks for organizing, and I will be back again next week!!

Derek
Derek(@dpr4473)
1 year ago
Reply to  Its.Yozza

What would be great is if they’d let you incorporate some Rebel Routes — I really like the Hilly KOM Bypass one. Great for a snappy crit race.

Akihiro
Akihiro
1 year ago

It was an interesting project. I have completed 4 races, but the kit is not unlocked. Do you need any application?

Akihiro
Akihiro
1 year ago
Reply to  Eric Schlange

Thank you Eric.I am looking forward to receiving the kit.

Scott Mossop
Scott Mossop
1 year ago

Really enjoyed the races. Came first in Zone 1 with a couple of wins, a 3rd and a 5th. Cheers Eric

Mickael Vachon
Mickael Vachon
1 year ago

It was amazing ! We want that at least 4 times a year 🙂

Peters Tony
Peters Tony
1 year ago

I love this concept. Could we please have some of these races during the week?
Many thanks.

Julie
Julie
1 year ago

I tried to sign up but it only allowed the option of Category A which I definitely am not. I am a D. Any reason you are aware of?

Matt
Matt
1 year ago

How do you sign up? I’m normally a cat C but when I try to sign up all categories are frozen except E. what do I do to take part?

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