Hundreds of Zwifters have arrived here in Mallorca for a few days of quality riding and IRL hangouts at Zwift Community Live 2025. With so many people to meet and new roads to ride, each person’s daily experience at this event will be unique and personal…. but here’s mine.
The Warmup
Before diving into Day 1, let me give you a few highlights from the days leading up to it:
- My wife Monica and I spent two lovely nights at the home of Simon Schofield (creator of the Zwiftcast), just south of Girona. Simon and his wife Jennie were, of course, incredible hosts, and I even got a ride in with Simon in which he put me to work chasing his ebike’s wheel up the local climb! See it on Strava >
- We arrived in Mallorca a few days before the official first day of ZCL, because Zwift had invited members of the media out for a “This Season on Zwift” presentation (read the details of what was announced here.) New roads, Zwift Ride crank length options, more HUD data, fitness metrics and outdoor rides giving us XP… it was a lot of good news!
- I rode out to Cap de Formentor (the lighthouse!) along with Nathan Guerra, Shane Miller, DC Rainmaker, DesFit, Eric Min, and other media and Zwift HQ folks. It was a great ride with incredible views and just enough climbing, wind, and goats to make it interesting. See it on Strava >
- The day before Day 1 (Thursday), Zwift held a meeting with key Club leaders to discuss upcoming features and here from leaders about how Zwift could help them build their communities even more. It was a really fun conversation, and the chattiness in the room made it easy to see why all these folks were good at building communities on Zwift.
- The night of Day 0 featured the first of our fireside chats, hosted by Matt Stephens. It was a sort of kickoff chat that featured Zwift CEO Eric Min plus the VP of Product at Zwift, Mark Cote. They spoke of the importance of community at Zwift, some goals for ZCL, and generally set the tone for the event.
Pride Goes Before a Fall
On the flight into Mallorca, I had joked with Monica, “How long into this event will we go before the first Zwift crashes their bike?” (Because the joke is, of course, that Zwifters can’t handle their bikes outside.)
It turns out, not long at all.
Before the epic Cap de Formentor outing on Wednesday afternoon, I was 20 minutes into my first ride in Mallorca, testing the rental bike and shaking out my legs with Nathan Guerra.
It started to rain just a bit… then a bit more… and soon enough, it was a full-on downpour. As we went through a roundabout I felt my rear wheel lose traction, and I quickly hit the deck, body and bike sliding across the entire lane.
So I got the honor of being Zwift’s first “incident report” for the event. Happily, a few scrapes and some soreness weren’t enough to hamper any ride plans. The bibs weren’t even torn through. Ride on!
Breakfast
Now, let’s get into Day 1.
It began with breakfast. Without giving a full review of all the food we eat at ZCL, let me just say that the folks at Iberostar Playa de Muro Village do it right! The food is amazing. A huge variety of high-quality, tasty options are served for breakfast and dinner in a massive buffet style aided by attentive and courteous waitstaff.
I made a granola bowl with fruit and yogurt, and also had a beet-based smoothie, two small pastries, and a cappuccino. Fuel for the fight.
In the dining room everyone was chatting about their ride plans for the day: are you doing the Uber? The Mega? The Pretzel? Which pace group? (Each of ZCL’s three days centers on a bike ride, and attendees have the option of three different ride lengths, aptly named the Uber Pretzel, Mega Pretzel, and The Pretzel. Each ride also has three pace options, and all the groups are led by qualified ride leaders.)
The Mega Pretzel
I went with the Mega Pretzel – the medium-length ride – for two reasons:
- It went out to the Cap de Formentor lighthouse again, and I had really enjoyed the ride two days earlier. I wanted to tackle it again now that I had knowledge of how the roads (climbs) layed out.
- My left wrist was sore and swollen from the crash, and I wasn’t sure how it would hold up on the longer Uber Pretzel.
Here’s the route we had planned:
The Uber riders had left an hour earlier, and the Mega riders (the largest group) were slated to leave at 9:30am. We started by breaking into groups of ~12 riders, each with a leader. Dave Towle was on hand to send each group out, and soon enough we were off!
The Lead-In
The ride begins with a flat lead-in to the pitchy road that takes you out to the lighthouse. We rode two abreast, keeping an easy speed of ~30kph, then turned onto the first climb of the day: Coll De Sa Creueta. This is the biggest climb on the route, and I had already decided I wanted to hammer it a bit and beat my time from two days prior. And I did! 325W for 11:18 got me to the top, the “first lookout”, around 70 seconds faster than before.
A Star-Studded Cast
As we continued to make our way toward the lighthouse, I spotted various recognizeable Zwifters: Tim “Bacon” Searle, Shane Miller, Florence Nakagwa from Canyon/SRAM Generation, Tim Perkin (Mountain Massif organizer), and others.
I was pushing fairly hard up one climb, passing lots of riders on my right, when a big guy flew past me on my left. He was in the saddle, undoubtedly churning out big watts, but looked beautiful doing it with ease and perfect form. “Who is this cycling Adonis?” I said to myself. I hammered a bit to catch his wheel, and soon discovered it was Sir Chris Hoy himself, here to deliver a fireside chat later in the week.
Near the end of the ride, we made our scheduled coffee stop at a cafe along with a few other 12-member ZCL groups. As I stood in line, I looked around and marveled at everyone in the room: Matt Stephens, Leah Thorvilson, two Canyon/SRAM riders, Rick Zabel, Sir Chris… and lots of “ordinary” Zwifters too. What a crowd!
The Long and Windy Road
The road out to the lighthouse is twisty, with epic views around every corner, and (at least in my experience) stiff winds as you near the turnaround point at the lighthouse. Once you’re on the more exposed final few kilometers of tarmac leading up to the point, the views are wild, the winds are high, and all the senses are firing. Amazing. Highly recommended.
Wrapping Up the Ride
Once we came back from the lighthouse on the same road we’d gone out, it was time to finish up with ~30k of rolling/flat roads back to our base in Platja de Muro. Easy peasy.
We heard that Chris Hoy was behind our group along with Zwift’s Chris Snook, as Sir Chris had suffered a bit of a mechanical. We were getting close to home and our group didn’t want to wait around for the Chrises to close the 10-minute gap, but I decided I did.
It turned out to be a good call. Riding and chatting with those two was more interesting than sitting in the larger group and cruising home. Sir Chris shared stories of his early years, riding in Mallorca as an 18-year-old. And before we knew it, were were back at the hotel. 84km with 1028 meters of elevation done and dusted! See it on Strava >
Finishing the Day: Recovery, Race Meeting, Dinner, and a Fireside Chat
I arrived back at the hotel around 3 in the afternoon, meeting Monica who had finished her ride a bit earlier.
The day ended with:
- Kickstarting our recovery with powerup cookies and Normatec boots
- A brainstorming session with ~15 of the top race organizers on Zwift and members of Zwift HQ
- An amazing dinner
- Everyone gathering for a hilarious and inspiring fireside chat with Kristin Armstrong (3x Olympic gold medalist and level 51 Zwifter) hosted by Dave Towle and Matt Stephens. Kristin talked about coming to Mallorca where everyone trains, and how now… we’re everyone.
Coming Up Tomorrow
Today’s ride was lovely, and it was great to sit in and chat with lots of Zwift community members. My wrist felt good, too, so I’m looking for something a bit more challenging tomorrow. It’s time to jump into the Uber Pretzel group! Here’s the planned route:
Watch this space to learn how it goes…
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