Based on the response to yesterday’s post about my Zwift Academy (ZA) Baseline Ride experience, lots of Zwifters are asking similar questions about how these rides work.
So here’s a list of Baseline and Finish Line Ride frequently asked questions, with (hopefully) helpful answers.
What is the purpose of Zwift Academy Baseline and Finish Line Rides?
These events were created to measure how you perform within the three different energy systems:
- Sprint (tested over a short segment)
- Anaerobic (tested over a medium-length segment)
- Aerobic (tested over a longer segment)
By the end of Zwift Academy, you’ll have completed both a Baseline and Finish Line ride. You should then be able to determine what type of cyclist you are based on what energy system you excel in.
How do the rides work?
The rides function like any other Zwift group ride – everyone starts from the pens, then rides the prescribed route at their own pace. The category you select at signup determines which of two routes you ride. Each route has three target segments which you want to hit at maximum effort in order to measure how you perform in the three energy systems.
There are three things that set these rides apart from a typical group ride:
- Drafting is turned off. This is done so your segment timings aren’t affected by drafting other riders.
- The entire goal of the ride is to hit the three segments at maximum effort. In between those segments you should be riding at a very easy pace and recovering, so you’re as fresh as possible for the next segment.
- Your three segment times are saved and viewable in the Companion app to track progress.
What routes do the Baseline and Finish Line Rides use?
If you choose the Advanced Baseline Ride (category A for men, B for women) you will ride Watopia’s new Climber’s Gambit route.
If you choose the Standard Baseline Ride (category C for men, D for women) you will ride Watopia’s new Legends and Lava route.
Should I sign up for the Advanced ride, or the Standard one?
The big difference between the two is the length of the segment used for the final aerobic effort. The Advanced Ride climbs the Epic KOM Reverse, while the Standard Ride climbs the Volcano KOM.
Most riders will finish the Volcano KOM in 8-14 minutes. The Epic KOM takes approximately three times longer to complete.
If you are a pro contract contender, you are required to complete the Advanced Baseline Ride. Additionally, if you are a very experienced/fit rider, the Advanced ride may provide a better test of aerobic endurance than the shorter Standard ride.
Just remember: whatever option you choose for the Baseline Ride, will need to be chosen again for the Finish Line Ride so you can track your progress!
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Where do the timed segments start/end?
Experienced Zwifters may know the maps well enough to know where the segments begin. But what about the rest of us?
If you are riding the Advanced Baseline ride, you will arrive at the segments at this point during the ride (click segment name for Strava segment details):
- Short Segment (Watopia Sprint Reverse) @ 2.6 km/1.6 mi
- Medium Segment (Titans Grove Reverse KOM) @ 11.9 km/7.4 mi
- Long Segment (Epic KOM Reverse) @ 21.7 km/13.5 mi
If you are riding the Standard Baseline ride, you will arrive at the segments at this point during the ride (click segment name for Strava segment details):
- Medium Segment (Titans Grove Reverse KOM) @ 4.1 km/2.5 mi
- Short Segment (Watopia Sprint Forward) @ 16.5 km/10.2 mi
- Long Segment (Volcano KOM) @ 20.9 km/13 mi
How do I know where a segment starts or ends?
Along with noting the starting distances above, it’s also helpful to recognize the visual indicators used to show that a segment is beginning.
Here’s what segment start and finish lines look like:
Start line has a stanchion with lights across the road 
Finish line has a big purple arch
Does the ride end at an arch? How do I know when I’m done?
The ride will continue just a bit after the finish arch of the final segment. Just spin those pedals and catch your breath – you’ll see the finish line soon enough! It looks like this:
Which bike should I use? Is there an assigned bike?
There is no assigned bike or wheels for these events. Since you want to be able to compare your segment times between your Baseline Ride (at the start of ZA) and Finish Line Ride (at the end of ZA), you should simply plan to use the same bike frame and wheelset for both events.
Doing this means your times won’t be impacted by the virtual equipment you use, since different wheelsets and frames can be more or less aero and weigh more or less than others.
How can I tell what my strengths or weaknesses are based on my Baseline Ride results?
Strengths and weaknesses (we like to call them “opportunities for improvement”) cannot be determined by Baseline Rides alone. Zwift will be sharing a blog post, probably near the end of ZA, which will go into greater detail about what to do next based on your Baseline + Finish Line results.
If you can’t wait until then, or just love digging into your data, there are third-party apps available to give you more insight into your performance numbers and even rank you against others. The Breakaway app we recently reviewed just received a Zwift integration update and gives you fancy charts ranking you based on power numbers. ZwiftPower also profiles your power to help you understand your strengths and weaknesses.
Is this a race?
No. The entire goal is to put in your best effort over the three segments. Recover at whatever pace you’d like in between those segments, so you can put everything you’ve got into the timed sections.
Is Late Join turned on?
No. Most group rides on Zwift have Late Join enabled so you can join the group up to 30 minutes late. But if you did that on a Baseline Ride, you may join the group after they’ve already completed a segment or two! So you have to show up on time to make it work.
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Should I do the Baseline Ride in Erg mode?
No. These aren’t workouts – they’re free rides.
I can do better. Can I do my Baseline Ride over again?
Absolutely! Just sign up for another one and give it a go! They’re scheduled through September 27.
Is drafting turned on for Baseline Rides?
No. Drafting is turned off so you have consistent environmental factors for both the Baseline and Finish Line rides in order to get more accurate results.
Do I need to stay with the group? What if I get dropped?
There’s no need at all to stay with the group. In fact, with drafting turned off, saying bunched up is next to impossible! Just ride at your pace.
Where can I see the results of my Baseline Ride?
In the Zwift Companion app (available for iOS or Android). Just click the Zwift Academy Road section near the center of the home screen:
Progress! 
Does the Baseline Ride function as an FTP test, or do I need to do one of those first?
The Baseline Rides does not function as an FTP test. If you’ve never done an FTP test, we recommend doing one so your FTP is accurately set before you jump into a ZA Workout, since the power levels of the workouts are based on your FTP.
The quickest/easiest way to do an FTP test is to take a ramp test.
How does the Baseline Ride impact the rest of my ZA Workouts?
Short answer: it doesn’t. The goal of Baseline Rides is to gauge your current fitness level at the start of ZA so you have a comparison point for your Finish Line ride at the end of ZA.
Watch me complete a Baseline Ride
Curious what the actual ride experience is like? Here’s a full video of me completing the Standard Baseline Ride:
Still got questions?
Feel free to share them below. We highly recommend checking out the very thorough ZA Road FAQ forum post from Zwift, since it appears to address nearly all questions related to ZA Road 2021.
Yesterday I did the baseline ride completely and the results in Zwift companion don’t show the long segment. I don’t understand why.
Lots of server problems: many people (myself included) are not seeing all or some of their segments for their baseline rides from yesterday (I’m missing the medium segment).
Yeah, AWS (Amazon Web Services) which Zwift uses was acting up yesterday… people couldn’t log in, and there were other issues too.
I would reach out to Zwift support and see if they can help you.
I didn’t get given a sprint time on the standard baseline ride.
The baseline ride is a mess, no clear instructions as to what was expected,how you were meant to ride it. Unless you dug deep into the q&a. Unless you know watopia it isn’t clear when segments start. Who knew there were orientation rides? Endless comments in the chat about lack of info. Everyone is going to perform better just because they know what they are meant to be doing, How difficult would it have been to give clear instructions, maps, elevation and but banners at start and finish. Might have been useful then.
If you read the event description text when you sign up, the instructions are pretty clear. But at the same time… Zwift should know that many people don’t read that text. 😀
The instructions within the Zwift companion app have been enhanced over the last couple days to include additional information and much of the information you included in your article here. Much of this was missing a couple days ago when I first attempted the ride. Good news is Zwift is listening to the feedback and those that ride the baseline going forward will benefit from the better guidance.
when I rode the baseline ride 2 days ago, I understood the overall goal from the Zwift description, but that doesnt help. You need to know where the segments start. Especially the first one as you want to be on topspeed at the start of the sprint segment. Was so frustrating that I completely missed the section, but I wasnt the only one. THe other sections I also didnt know where they started exactly but at least you can catch up during the segment…
Glad I wasnt the only 1!
Im a long time swifter – was one of the beta testers – and I still found the baseline test to be vague and lacking instructions. And I did read the Q&A. I expected clearer start points for each segment, and text on screen outlining what to do, like what happens in workouts. I also had no idea how hard to ride between segments. Did the baseline test evaluate the entire session? Who knew? On the upside, the workouts are very simple to follow.
I found this very hard going and now shattered!!! I think I may be able to do this after the academy has finished. Too may hills for the start. Can only get better 🙏
Thanks for the post… as always very helpful and clear. My question isn’t about the baseline ride but rather the results. The Zwift website says “Insights available on the companion app”. All I see are my times, not an analysis based on my age/weight etc. nor any kind of comparison like “Your anaerobic system is better than your endurance system… You need to work on your endurance” or whatever. Am I just expecting too much?
I’m with you. The ride was fine,the instructions and a quick read of the route on ZI and I was ready, but the results are no better than I already had from Strava. Hopefully after the Finish ride all will become clear…maybe.
Unfortunately you may be expecting to much, at least for this year’s ZA. I told ZHQ the same thing… that people will want more info than just their segment times.
Zwift has said they’ll be putting together a blog post that gives people guidance along the lines of figuring out where your strengths lie, and what to do next with that info. Probably toward the end of the ZA program.
The comparison information for average, best, and age groups is on Today’s Plan, which through Zwift is being offered for free for the duration of the Academy. Zwift certainly did not make clear that signing up for Today’s Plan is basically required to get the data context they have touted. I still haven’t seen an analysis of the energy systems in terms of rider profile, but there is a lot of data on the site so maybe it’s already there somewhere.
I see now there is an “Ability Graph” on Today’s Plan, for peak power, sprint, lactate tolerance, etc. for rider type.
Does anybody know whether it OS possible t9 Do both baseline rides, the standard and the advanced at the beginning of ZA? Will then the results of both rides be visible in companion App?
Don’t know for sure, but my guess is it would work just fine doing both.
The instructions on the event page were clear and Eric/ZI did a great job summarizing the routes in advance. I think the failure here is on Zwift not providing anything in-game – other workouts have instructions at key points, motivation, tips, etc. They could have knocked the experience out of the park and wow’d us… instead it felt like any other open ride. They’ve had months to prepare for this…
Yes! This… In game notes would have been awesome. Especially hints for when the segment started and progress while riding it. On a positive note, I really liked the Legends and Lava route!
Agree Eric/ZI did a great job, but only discovered this after having done the ride, wish I had seen it before. I did everything through companion app and really wasn’t clear. Thought it was just me but all the comments were the same. It just felt like any open ride as you say. I’m very used to riding structured workouts. No one on my ride seemed to follow any structure, neither did anyone on my wifes ride! shouldn’t have taken going to other websites to find out good details of the ride. As you say they had months to prepare and could have wow’d us but in reality did anything but
It was a fun route/ride and I knew the routes from prior riding experience in Watopia but clearly others did not. Eric Min has referenced reducing “barriers to entry” for new users – imagine if this was one of your first experiences with the game. How about some focus groups of riders prior to launching an event, series or update (for example, 10 riders of out 10 would have asked why there was no remaining mileage/km listed on the new route completion status bar). I think the product would be improved at very little cost to Zwift. Ride on!
Thanks for this. With your distance cues for when the segments start and having watched your video I can finally recognise the actual segment starts on screen. When I did my ride I totally missed the lines on the road and the stanchions as I was paying attention only to the segment leader board pop up and trying to infer some meaning or clue from its content. The leader board does appear before the start of the segment but is there any rule to how long before that would make it helpful for getting prepared?
Not sure how early leaderboards pop up before a segment. For me, it’s a question of knowing the route and where best to “hit the watts” so I enter the segment at the best speed.
No hard and fast rule, but I’d guess it means you start ramping up your watts 10-15 seconds before you reach the start line.
There are also purple “500m to go” markers just before the segments start (least there were in the Advanced one I did today)
welp, just watched your playback. There’s only one for the sprint point that’s clearly not 500m away from the start
The 500m markers are from the end of the segment, and so appears before the sprint segment even starts but well after the “medium” segment has begun. Not that is intuitive at all the first time.
Did you notice the 500m marker on the short climb into the Esses? No idea why it showed up on my ride, as it wasn’t marking any of the segments…
Eric, I think that’s the fundamental problem, you had to know the route to know when to “hit the watts”. This means second time around anyone who didn’t know the route will do better at the end just by the fact of now having prior knowledge of route. It null and voids the effect of the academy and knowing whether it was a useful training regime. Enjoyed your vid and wish I’d watched it first.
Rob, I absolutely agree! For someone like me, knowing where to hit the segments is second nature. But Zwift needs to make this much more obvious for newer riders.
Thank you so much for this article. Answers all my questions. Very well done sir!!!
Can anyone confirm that the bike you choose makes any difference? I’ve done the race on both a tron and tt bike, and I noticed that I wasn’t passing folks while going down hill, even when doing the same w/kg as them and my time up epic was nearly identical using the same power but with the two different bikes.
Ive ridden roughly 15K miles on zwift so I have a pretty good sense of the expect behavior and the TT bike just felt off to me.
I thought it was strange that they enabled power-ups, as those could distort comparisons to the Finish Line ride – especially the Aero helmet on the sprint or the Feather on the short climb. I burned mine on the long recoveries to avoid a bad comparison, but I bet a lot of people used theirs in the timed segments, which will make their comparisons worthless
thanks for all the info, I did the baseline ride tonight and to say I was confused was an understatement. Your visuals and explanations are awesome!
Just a small comment on the effort/performance that is “measured”. It seems that Zwift is considering the time you spend on the segment (not the raw effort you put in) as the baseline. Therefore starting the segments at high speed is important.
Its also worth pacing the segments optimally with regards to the incline. This is perhaps most important on the long segments. Steady watts is not the best pacing strategy, spend more watts on high gradients, less on lower.
Hello, could you put a link as to the best way to plan your program? I’ve done the baseline ride, and now need to do one of the workouts.
I guess I cannot find a training plan in all of the links to all of the information that lays out a basic calendar plan. Which days to ride hard, easy, rest.
Thank you for everything you contribute!!
I’m actually a bit confused about calling the long segment “aerobic”. Doing any segment at maximum intensity triggers the anaerobic systems I would think, especially on a longer ride? At least in my case, my heart rate was above my aerobic threshold for most of the volcano KOM.
You’re somewhat right, BUT the FTP testing protocol actually has you do some anaerobic work before the long aerobic section to deplete your anaerobic abilities so the FTP test section is mostly aerobic.
I think Zwift is doing the same with the baseline rides, having us sprint and do some VO2 work before the longer effort.
Ahhhhhh ok that actually makes sense because my power level was just over/under my FTP for most of the climb. Appreciate your response Eric!
Isn’t it all about the watts for each segment rather than the time, so is bike and wheel choice relevant? The intention of the academy training is to increase your W/kg, like all training blocks. Was chatting to a friend of mine about this. Of course if your W/kg increases your time will decrease.
It should be about power, in my opinion (and yours). But Zwift is only tracking time… so it’s sorta about time too. 😀
Yes, it is sorta about time too of course, increased W/kg = faster times. I see what you mean though about the importance of bike selection as I did the baseline ride yesterday and only the times come up. However I did see a kick up in my FTP at xert and intervals.icu following it. It would have been great to have that show up in Zwift, but at least there are other tools that do the job.
Should weight fluctuations be accounted for during ZA, should I update that in my Zwift profile or focus only on the power differences?
I did the advanced portion (accidently signed up for that one and didn’t figure it out until mid-ride) of the baseline ride in ZA. No issues. Today I went to do the standard version of the baseline ride and started in the pen with everyone else. When the time started, however, I wasn’t able to ride. Why?
I did not know to do the baseline ride first and have already done 3 of the 6 rides. Will that matter? I realize if affects my before and after information but will it affect my being able to complete the ZA 2021 program?
Nah, it doesn’t matter what order you do them in, in terms of completing the program.
Hi Eric,
Had read all the instructions but still screwed up twice on the Baseline Ride.
Can you share with me how long km for each of the 1st,2nd and 3rd segments. Without knowing that I’m not sure how to pace my efforts without blowing the pistons early on. And the instructions say there are laser markers on the Segment Start, the 3rd one I was looking for it but failed to notice it and therefore missed it entirely. Is it possible for the marker to apppear on the opposite side of the road. Zwift really let me down on this, so disappointed.
Segment details are linked above, in the section titled “WHERE DO THE TIMED SEGMENTS START/END?”
I read that. But it never says each segment is how long i.e. how many km/miles for each so that we know how to pace the efforts. I know the start markers but still missed it on-screen …Maybe with the new updates I heard Zwift have added start arches.
Segment details are LINKED above, as I said. Click the segment title to see Strava segment details which include length and gradient.
Just finished my baseline ride… This has got to be the stupidest thing I’ve done in a long time. The companion app shows my time for each of the segments but that time is meaningless b/c it does not show my rank or normalized power. So how can I “measure how you perform within the three different energy systems”? As it stands it is just three random numbers. At the very least they should show your segment rank so you can understand your strengths and weaknesses relative to other riders of your age and weight.
I could not participate in ZA this year. But I would do the training at the beginning of the year 2022.
I find the baseline and finishline ride really interesting.
What road could I take to find 3 segments with the same efforts?
thank you so much
Arnaud
There are no routes that hit all the same segments, that I know of. You could manually navigate to each segment easily enough (especially if you have a Watopia map: https://zwiftinsider.com/map/). Or why not just join one of the Baseline or Finish Line rides while ZA is going?
Can I do the baseline ride at any time during the zwift academy ‘window’ until 25th October? I’ve just joined, and there’s still basically 4 weeks left before the end date which is plenty of time to do the 10 rides, but when looking today on the companion app I couldn’t see any baseline rides coming up??
Yeah, looks like no more baseline rides will be scheduled.
Basically at this point you would be packing all your training into a few weeks anyway, so the baseline and finish line rides don’t necessarily accomplish what they were intended to do. I would just do the rest of the Academy and enjoy the training benefits.
I’m in the same situation as you. Could not start Academy due to having Covid and now I want to give it a go I can’t do a baseline ride. Very frustrating. What I have done though is signed up to do a finish ride tomorrow. Same course as baseline ride so at least I can give it a go then and maybe another go just before it finishes. Not the same but better than just doing the workouts.
If I have missed the baseline event are there any repeats so can finish the academy?
Yes, during the makeup week at the end they’ll have baseline rides I hear.
iv missed the baseline test is there a way i can catch up so i can continue with academy?
I messed up and never did the baseline ride. Are there any remaining makeup dates?
Yea, during the last week when they schedule all the make up rides.
any idea why the base/finish rides aren’t part of the manual workouts? seems odd you’re constrained to do either the first month or last week (baseline) and can only select workouts. Personally, I couldn’t fit them in but was planning on starting them all now but the lack of a baseline option makes it less appealing.
Well, they’re not workouts at all, but rather are free ride events set up on event only routes.
They COULD have set them up as workouts with power tests, but I think Zwif figured we would prefer a more free ride experience. I know I do.
Baseline rides will be available during make up week.
I just tried to do the standard final ride and never saw the red dashed line at the beginning of the first segment around the 2.6 mi mark. There was an arch with a green dash. Was that the start? It should not be so confusing! I’ll try again tomorrow.
It seems the baseline ride for Academy Tri is the same as for Academy Road?!
Okay, I can answer this myself: No, the Baseline Ride for Academy Tri is a TT (20 km or 40 km).
I’m going to do the “Finish Line” work out this weekend and wanted to have a little more information. I did the “Baseline” as a regular ride without focusing on the segments. I intend to be more systematic on my approach to the FL.
I DO Love the Academy and Zwift in general.
Very satisfied with the overall experience.
Thanks😎!
Now the road academy has finished the Zwift Academy section on the companion app. is no longer displayed. Any idea how can I access my Finish Line stats. please?
Strava or TodaysPlan, if you created an account?
Is it safe to assume that this info from 2021 is applicable to the 2022 academy?
Well, the overall concept is the same, and this year’s rides are using the same route as the “Basic” ride last year. But this year’s rides will have an improved user experience with on-screen messaging, plus automatically switching us to TT bikes for the hard efforts. Last year was a bit challenging in some ways, this year should be easier, especially for newer riders unfamiliar with the route/segments.
i cannot see any baseline rides to join in the companion app – it goes from ‘orientation’ to ‘workout 1’?
They aren’t on the calendar yet, for some reason. I would assume they’ll show up in the next day or two!
I have not gotten my phenotype email after my baseline ride. When should I expect it?
By noon tomorrow (Wednesday) PST, and mentioned above…
In the email after the baseline ride I got a W/kg for each segment and a percentage against others. Is this w/kg based on my watts during the segment or derived from the time. I suppose I could put out more watts on the sprint from a near standing start and have a much slower time.
Hi, yesterday I did the finishline ride but I missed the short segment starting arch. As a result my “sprint” segment time is totally wrong. If I do the finishline again, will I receive a new email showing my real phenotype and suggested workouts?
Thx!