WTRL’s Zwift Racing League page with tons of details about all things ZRL, and we couldn’t be more pleased with their obvious attention to detail. There’s so much that goes into planning a multi-division, team-based racing league that really works, but WTRL is really on top of things.
Here are the details on event times, dates, and routes for the first season of the Zwift Racing League.
Race Times
The Premier League teams (an invitational league) will race on Mondays, a day before the Open (community) Division’s Tuesday races. Premier League has just one time slot.
Open Divisions have four time slots, as shown below. When a team signs up, they must select which time slot they will race for the duration of the season. Larger, more established Zwift teams are having riders sign up by time slot, then combining those riders onto 6+ person teams. These larger teams are anticipating have (for example) at least one B squad racing in each time slot.
Smaller teams, of course, may need to pick just one time slot and field just one team.
WTRL notes, “Note times shown are for INDICATIVE purposes at this time. ACTUAL race times may vary depending on broadcast requirements around screening both women’s and men’s divisions.”
Note, too, that for TTT races, each TTT team will have its own start time, like a typical TTT. With up to 20 teams per time slot and division, your team’s start will probably be delayed from the start time above.
Race Routes and Dates
Note: “Intermediates” are points on the course where riders will compete mid-race for additional points. Only the first five riders through each intermediate will score points.
October 12/13: Watopia’s Big Foot Hills Race
We kick off the season with the longest race of the series, and it’s not flat, either! (While none of the climbs are very long, they’ll definitely split up the field and reveal the top riders/teams for the season. Can you hang in there?) This route includes the Volcano KOM, along with other (shorter) timed KOMs.
- Premier, A, and B Divisions: 50km (custom distance) finish at Titans Grove Q/KOM Reverse
- C & D Divisions: 35km (custom distance) finish at Volcano Q/KOM arch
- Intermediates:
- Titan’s Grove Q/KOM
- Hilly Q/KOM
- Volcano Q/KOM
October 19/20: France’s R.G.V. Team Time Trial
The shortest of the TTT events for season 1, this race will be fast and flat.
- 1 Lap – 24.1km
October 26/27: Richmond’s 2015 UCI Worlds Course Race
Our second race is held on Zwift’s first-ever worlds course, and it’s a brilliant one with its mix of flat sections and punchy climbs. The clear breakdown of sections on this route may give teams a chance to execute a more straightforward plan, such as heading to the front to make everyone work hard on the flats. Lots of intermediate points available here with 4 intermediates on each lap for a total of 8 for the top divisions.
- Premier, A, and B Divisions: 2 Laps – 32.4km
- C & D Divisions: 1 Lap – 16.2km
- Intermediates:
- Monument Ave
- Broad Street
- Libby Hill
- 23rd St
November 2/3: Watopia’s The Magnificent 8 Team Time Trial
This “mostly flat” route includes the reverse Hilly KOM, making it the climbiest TTT of the series.
- 1 lap – 28.6km
November 9/10: New York’s Everything Bagel Race
Hitting the steeper pitches of the NYC KOM in both directions is going to prove decisive for these races. Hope your VO2 max power is strong!
- 1 Lap – 34.2km
- Intermediates:
- NY Q/KOM Rev
- NY Sprint Rev
- NY Q/KOM
- NY Sprint
November 16/17: London’s Greatest London Flat Team Time Trial
A fairly straightforward and flattish route this week. Just watch out for those rises out in the park area, and keep your team together!
- 1 Lap – 31.1km
November 23/24: France’s Petit Boucle Race
The second-longest race on the calendar, we’re skipping the final zig-zag climb up the Petit KOM, making this a fairly flat stage. The only substantial climb being the straighter road up to the top of the Petit KOM.
- Premier, A, and B Divisions: 45km (custom distance) finish at Marina Sprint
- C & D Divisions: 30km (custom distance) finish at Pavé Sprint
- Intermediates:
- Pavé Sprint rev
- Aqueduc Q/KOM rev
- Ballon Sprint rev
- Pavé Sprint (Premier/A/B only)
November 30/December 1: Watopia’s Waistband Team Time Trial
Another flat, short TTT route. This is gonna be fast!
- 1 Lap – 25.5km
December 8: Yorkshire’s 2019 UCI Worlds Harrogate Circuit Race
The Harrogate Circuit is a the lumpiest route on the schedule. The climbs here are never long, but the roads are rarely flat, leading to constant surges of power and small opportunities for micro-recoveries. The long slightly uphill finish is always exciting and painful.
- 2 Laps – 27.6km
- Intermediates:
- Yorkshire Q/KOM
- Yorkshire Sprint
December 15: Watopia’s Tick Tock Team Time Trial
Wrapping up our series with a TT on Fuego Flats just feels right. Tick Tock has no steep climbs, but enough rises to keep things interesting in terms of managing your power for maximum speed in a TTT.
- 2 Laps – 36.3km
Questions or comments?
We recommend checking out WTRL’s page for all things Zwift Racing League. Feel free to share questions or comments below!
Still dont know how to join team to partecipate.
I would just join an overall Zwift team right now, if it was me. Then you can work with your team to get on a particular ZRL squad. Info on joining a Zwift team can be found here: https://zwiftinsider.com/teams-guide/
WTRL will also let you sign up and say you’re looking for a team. My guess is that signup will be available on Oct 1 when team signups go live.
There are many teams on zwift. check the posts in WTRL or zwift racers facebook page or check through the team lists on ZP. i tend to find best looking at the events when you usually ride and see what teams do similar events. My own team Rhino Racing (https://www.facebook.com/groups/ZwiftRhinoRacing/) will be looking to enter teams most likely in EMEA and America East zones in cats D & C, possibly B
Mirco – head over to the Zwift Racing League Facebook page (mass recruiting already in session by lots of teams) or drop us an email at [email protected] and we will get you hooked up
Martin I sent an email about being placed on a team, have no team currently but am on ZP, Strava, and Zwift Companion App, received a email back that someone will get back to me. That’s awesome and I look forward to this race series, thanks to WTRL for the huge effort this must be!
Thank you mate,
mail sent
Love the course selection. As a spectator I am beyond over watching volcano flat, volcano circuit, and watopia flat repeats over and over so I am excited for new courses. Will steering be allowed at the highest level races ?
I highly doubt steering will be allowed for any ZRL races. It gives too much of a competitive advantage, and it’s still in FutureWorks…
It’s a bit of a shame that all of the races are lumpy with VO2-type climbs, and all the TTTs are basically flat. Would have been nice to see some true flat races and mountains, hopefully a feature of future seasons.
I would like to see an iTT in there as well, but I think it’s a good first stab. They have avoided the flat races because they are pretty dull with the current draft dynamics.
Seems like each race might have upwards of 120 participants. It seems a bit low to only award prime points to first three across line.
I have a question, I live in the UK but if I wanted to race at 9pm I would need to enter the Moscow or Saudi Arabia league ?
Also will that stay as 9pm or change to 8pm when the clocks change in the UK?
I’m trying to work out the best time to race for our team as some need to know in advance when we will be racing (work, child care etc)
The leagues are per zone, EMEA, APAC, America E and America W not per country
The country is just to make it easier to see what that converts to depending on where you you are in the world.
Being in the UK the EMEA zone is 7pm, or you could race APAC at 9am. Americas zones would be midnight and 3am for anyone in the uk
Thanks for the clarification, most of the people I ride with can’t make 7pm as it’s too early (putting kids to bed etc)
Just as a follow up, so that 7pm time will change to 6pm when the clocks go back, or is it always 7pm ?
It will stay at 7pm local for the city listed, meaning e.g. the EMEA will move from 1800 UTC to 1900 UTC after October 25 (and the Americases will make a similar move a week later).
Great courses, horrible times. Once the time changes there won’t be anything between 7pm and 7am Sydney time as the Sydney time will remain while the other times will change. Can’t please everyone though.
Dad, there is always a Sydney time event between 7pm and 8pm in the APAC League. We don’t forget Australia. The TTT even has its own 7:15pm Sydney-time fixed WTRL TTT now.
Maybe I’m mis-reading here but the league points would be specific per race category?? so if you had a team of 3 in the A race and 3 in the B race the total scores wouldn’t be combined for the team event they would be applicable to A and B leagues seperately? Cheers and looking forward to this!
i know you can’t find times that work for everyone, but 7pm for west coast USA is not possible for me with kids bedtimes being right then. Sucks for me this season. Of course I get it that that means if it were 8 for me, then it’s 9 and too late for mountain time people.
I was looking forward to this. Oh well.
Looking at this, I’m surprised there aren’t more times. Take Auckland for example.
9pm is late to start a race. Surely you’re not sleeping until 11pm after that?
then 7am means you will be late for work, and noon and 3pm too.
I really would have thought they’d have numbers to do 6 or 10 time slots.
As as a general question, is the teams requirement going to keep people out of this? Just seems to make it more complex. Maybe do race league for a season, and then once people get that dialed in, do teams.
Will the races have the double draft?
Might be a silly question, and apologies if so, but does every team member need a WTRL account or just the captain/manager? Our nascent team are all registered in Zwiftpower, but not all in WTRL … (yet).
Ah, looks like the answer is n the WTRL site:
Are the pics of TT bikes not meant to be representative of the actual bikes used in TTT’s, or have I missed the news that Zwift gave in and started allowing event organizers to enable drafting on TT bikes?
The first one. TTTs are ridden on normal road bikes.
Is it my imagination or have some of the races been changed from shorter or custom lengths for Cat C&D to be the same as other Cats, such as Everything Bagel I thought originally it was a custom 27km? Or am I imagining things?
You are correct. The Everything Bagel routes were changed on WTRL’s site yesterday, so we updated them here. Not sure why they were changed!
At least I’m not imagining things (this time! lol)
Possible it was just causing too much work for the App or ZP site to deal with custom route lengths with so many riders and rides going on – either that or WTRL is getting their revenge on everyone for all the complaints about the minor niggles and issues that have occurred, haha