Women’s racing on Zwift isn’t new – Karla Williams at Aeonian has been racing since the end of 2017 in women’s-only races. A look back on ZwiftPower at that race shows some of the major players are still on the platform six years later, including Jenn Real.
While the fields started out very small, women-only racing has always attracted women who want something a little different than the average testosterone-filled mixed race. Since 2017, many of the great Zwift teams have organized women’s series, including Fearless, Herd, Rocacorba, Team Swedish Zwifters, and SRAM. Many of these races are amazing and include a bit of… je ne sais quoi. Great racing, great camaraderie, great courses for women, and just a feeling like you are racing on a level playing field – like if you try to jump off the front you have a chance to get away, or if you fall from the front group you might not be doomed to iTT (solo ride) your way through the rest of the race.
As fabulous as the race organization is, the field sizes in the women’s races have always struggled to match their mixed-division counterparts. In short, women’s racing needs you, Zwifter woman, to make it better.
this is amazing Beccah!!! 🤩
😍
I have been racing in Zwift since 2017 and helped organize one of the very first women-only races (it might even have been the first?): the ODivaZ race on January 21, 2017. There were no categories back then… So many of the women from that race are still on Zwift and still racing today! Fast forward to 2024, and we had our first USA Cycling National Championships with women-only categories on Zwift!
That is amazing Theia – thank you for your work then and now! I have been blown away by what women do to support other women racing. If you have the inclination, would love for you to join us on the discord server to talk about how to support womens-only categories!
The ODivaZ race was and probably would still be the best women’s race out there. (Haskill, I think that is right?? and Jason were great announcers. Wish it was still here.
I concur that in mixed races, women struggle too much to keep pace with men, especially on downhill sections in lower categories (where men are double weight). Unfortunately, in such races, there aren’t enough women for each of us to find our own group. That’s why women-only races are invaluable for us. There should be more 😉