Zwift Racing League Week 3 Guide: Urumaze (C/D Points Race)

September 30, 2026

LAST UPDATED October 7, 2026

The third race of Zwift Racing League 2026/27 happens on Tuesday, October 6, and it’s a points race in Makuri Islands.

Don’t understand how ZRL points races work? Read our explainer >

If you’re on an C or D team, you’ll be racing one lap of Urumaze, a course ZRL hasn’t used before. This guide is for you. A and B teams will be on Makuri 40 (read that race guide here).

Most riders will be unfamiliar with the Urumaze route, since it only launched in game August 2026. Let’s look at crucial course segments, powerup usage, bike decisions, and strategic options!

Looking at the Route

The Urumaze route is 26.8km long, with 202 meters of elevation. It’s a figure 8 with two key climbs and a flat sprint finish:

This is a points race, and all 5 intermediates are flat sprints. Apart from those key intermediates, there are also two key climbs. Let’s talk about each key segment in order of appearance:

Tidepool Sprint Reverse @1.7km (0.31km, 0%): this pan-flat sprint signals the end of the route’s lead-in. It’s the first points segment of the race, and will be hit twice more!
Pain Cavern @3.2km (2.1km, 3%): although this isn’t an official points segment, it’s a crucial callout since riders will be dropped on this hard effort. This is our first and longest climb on the day, and it comes at us in three sections separated by short flat stretches. The pack typically stays together on the first section – it’s the second section (the longest and steepest!) through the figure 8 where things really break up. The final section is your last chance to close the gap to riders ahead (or keep pushing to drop riders struggling to hold on). See the Strava segment for details >
Tower Sprint @7.7km (0.32km, 0.4%): another flat sprint, although in this direction it has just a bit of an uphill to its start. If you want to top the FTS leaderboard, you’ll need to push extra watts up that false flat to begin the segment fast!
Tidepool Sprint Reverse @15km (0.31km, 0%): our second go at this sprint.
Festival Harbor Climb CW @18.5km (2.5 km, 2.1%): our second climb of the day, and another crucial non-points section where riders will be dropped. Expect stronger riders to attack this climb hard to grab FAL points on the Shisa Sprint Reverse and/or form a breakaway that may survive to the finish. See the Strava segment for details >
Shisa Sprint Reverse @20.2km (0.28km, 0%): this longish sprint comes just after the Festival Harbor Climb, so expect tired legs and a strung out pack.
Tidepool Sprint Reverse @26.4km (0.31km, 0%): one final sprint, but this one carries extra weight as your FAL points are effectively doubled, since you’re getting FIN points based on your position as well! All the more reason to go all-in in this final effort.

Powerups

Powerups for this race are… confusing. Don’t blame WTRL – it’s really an issue with how Zwift has set up visible and invisible arches in game. As it stands, WTRL has confirmed that certain powerups are assigned to certain arches, while other arches award random powerups, and still other arches are invisible and will award aero powerups!

Everyone will receive an aero boost powerup in the pens. Use it as quickly as you can, because another aero powerup awaits less than a minute down the road at an invisible arch. If you use your powerup before the Tidepool Sprint arch, you’ll get a 250 XP bonus there. Or save the aero for Pain Cavern or the Tower Sprint up the road!

In fact, you’ll get a 250 XP bonus each time through the Tidepool Sprint arch, as long as you aren’t holding a powerup when you go through the arch.

This is how the powerup situation should unfold, according to WTRL. (But don’t shoot the messenger if it turns out differently – there’s no way for me to test this on my end):

Aero Boost given in start pens
Mech Isle virtual start/finish: aero boost
Tidepool Sprint Reverse @1.7km: 250 XP bonus
Tower Sprint @7.7km: aero boost, draft boost, or feather (equal probability)
Virtual start/finish for Castle to Castle @9.3km: aero boost
Tidepool Sprint Reverse @15km: 250 XP bonus
Shisa Sprint Reverse @20.2km: aero boost, draft boost, or feather (equal probability)
Mech Isle virtual start/finish @22.5 (approximate): aero boost
Tidepool Sprint Reverse @26.4km (0.31km, 0%): 250 XP bonus

Every physical arch you ride through that is not the Tidepool Sprint Reverse will give you a lightweight (feather), draft boost (van), or aero boost (helmet) powerup. Probabilities are equal for each.

Draft Boost (van): increases the draft effect you are experiencing for 40 seconds.
Use at higher speeds (flats and descents) when you are already drafting off another rider (since this powerup only helps when you are drafting).

Lightweight (feather): reduces your weight by 10% for 30 seconds. Use on climbs, when weight matters the most.

Aero Boost (helmet): makes you more aerodynamic (reduces your CdA by 25%) for 15 seconds.
Use at higher speeds (flats and descents), especially when no draft is available (although it is still useful when drafting). Deploy when contesting sprint points.

Bike Recommendations

Bike recommendations for this race are simple, thanks to how Zwift has set up the current crop of in-game road bikes. You’ll want to pick one of the top “aero all-arounders”, the best of which are:

Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL9 or SL8
Cannondale Supersix EVO Lab 71 (Team Edition is even faster)

Wheel choice feels a bit trickier here, because we have the option of the most aero wheels (disc wheelsets), better climbing wheels (to help you survive the twowo climbs), or something in between. Zwift has strong options in each of those categories, so I’d say take your pick, depending on whether you want a bit of an edge on the climbs, on the flat sprints, or strike a balance between the two:

Shimano DURA-ACE C99/Disc: the most aero wheels in game, but a bit heavy compared to non-disc wheels
Princeton CarbonWorks Wake 6560: very lightweight wheels which also feature strong aero performance
SwissSide HADRON Ultimate 650: a compromise between light weight and strong aero performance. A bit heavier than the Wake 6560, but also a bit more aero.

A cyclist in orange and black gear rides a red bike through a virtual city street at night, with mountains in the background and colorful banners along the roadside.

Of course, your frame’s upgrade status should impact your decision.

For more info on bike and wheelset performance in Zwift, check out:

Wheel Charts: For precise performance data on all wheelsets. and wheel performance.
Speed Tests: Tron Bike vs Top Performers for head-to-head comparisons of various frame and wheel combos.
Fastest Bike Frames and Wheels at Each Zwift Level: Determine the fastest setup available to you.
Bike Frame Charts: For precise performance data on all road frames.

More Route Recons

Lots of recon events are scheduled on upcoming ZRL routes, led by various teams. See upcoming ZRL recons for this race at zwift.com/events/tag/zrlrecon.

Additionally, riders in the Zwift community do a great job every week creating recon videos that preview the courses and offer tips to help you perform your best on the day. Here are the recons I’ve found (comment if you find another!)

J Dirom

Zwift Racing League - ZRL - Urumaze Race Recon

John Rice

ZRL 2026/27 Recon: Urumaze | Round 1 Race 3 Points Race || C/Ds

Nathan Krake

Strategic Options

Points Distribution: Urumaze, 1 Lap

Chart shows the maximum points a team of 5 could earn in a race with 60 participants. Note that we designed the final sprint’s FAL points as FIN points, since that’s what they effectively are. To learn how ZRL points races work, see this post.

How will the race unfold, and what strategies will riders employ in the first points race of the season? Here’s what I predict:

First Time Tidepool Sprint FTS: with most riders holding an aero powerup heading into the first tidepool sprint, and the pack at its largest and freshest, expect most or all top 10 FTS times to be set on the first go-around.
Pain Cavern Attack: got a team full of stronger climbers but weaker sprinters? It would make sense to push hard up the Pain Cavern climb to drop some sprinters so you stand a better chance of grabbing FAL points on the four sprints up the road.
Selective Sprints: almost 60% of the race’s points are from sprint FAL (even more if you include the finishing Tidepool Sprint), but the powerups we receive from some arches are (somewhat) random. Riders will approach each sprint differently based on which powerup they’re holding, but make no mistake: riders will be targeting those sprint points, because that’s how you’ll win this race.
Chasing It Back On the Flats: from the top of the Pain Cavern climb, you have ~5km of flat road followed by ~4.3km of descent. Expect riders dropped in Pain Cavern to work to rejoin during this section. Riders ahead will need to decide if it’s worth pushing the pace on what is otherwise a “recovery section” to hold onto higher FAL points.
Punch Into the Final Sprint: the last sprint segment (Shisa) offer punchy climbers opportunities to attack off the front and take high FAL points by keeping the power/speed high through the sprint arch. It also offers a chance for a reduced front group to stay away for the final 6km if they can work together.