Zwift has been steadily building a calendar of Zwift-owned events that ensure riders have a consistent set of race events to choose from each day. First the ZRacing monthly series began in September 2022, then the TT Club Series was spun up in December 2022. The Crit Club arrived in May, and this week Zwift has announced their new “Hill Climb Racing Club”.
Join the Hill Climb Racing Club here >
(For those unaware: the Hill Climb is an eccentric, lung-busting, very British genre of IRL bike racing. GCN did a nice bit on it a few years back if you’d like to know more.)
Hill Climb Event Details
The Hill Climb Racing Club is hosting daily Hill Climb race events beginning June 5. The selected climbs get progressively harder each week, and there are two crucial things to understand:
- Riders are ranked on ZwiftPower based on their KOM time only. Your finishing time on the route is of no consequence – you will be scored based on your time on the climb.
- Drafting is disabled, so there’s no need to hang with the pack for a slight advantage on the climbs. Ride at your pace, treating the start like a warmup and the finish like a cooldown if you’d like.
Here’s the schedule of climbs and overall routes for the next 5 weeks:
- June 5-11: Hilly KOM (Watopia Hilly Route, 1 lap)
- June 12-18: Sgurr Summit North (City and the Sgurr, 3.7km)
- June 19-25: Volcano KOM (Volcano Climb, 1 lap)
- June 26-July 2: Epic KOM (Big Loop, 18km)
- July 3-9: Alpe du Zwift (Road to Sky, 1 lap)
See upcoming events at zwift.com/events/tag/hillclimb
While events are only scheduled for the next 5 weeks, our hunch is this is an experimental launch of a new Hill Climb series, and if interest is high enough the series will continue.
Need a Climbing Rig?
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Questions or Comments?
Post below!
I’ve just done 5 Hill climbs herd. Gambit.
After the 5th one. I’d done that well for 5mins on the climb. I was upgraded to C. Yet my ftp was only 172 watts. I was upgraded on the strength of my 5 min power. It just means I can’t completel the last 2 events. And I’m leading in the overall of D cat. Yes I want to move up to C.
But it’s frustrating when your in the middle of a league.
If I’ve read the briefing correctly, I’m wondering why are we expected to meanlessly ride so far after the KOM banner for races 1-4, in order for our KOM times to be valid for the General Classification?
Race 4 is a custom finish, presumably at the KOM banner
https://zwiftinsider.com/route/big-loop/ suggests to me that with the 0.5Km lead-in, race 4 finish is ~4Km downhill of the KOM banner.
I’ve not read the briefing correctly, there is no series one GC, each event is standalone… James Bailey doesn’t need to replicate himself just yet for all the ZwiftHQ event admin! 😆
And James has now created a GC page for series one! 👍 https://zwiftpower.com/league.php?id=1760
Do you think the hill climb races will be moved to the new “climb portal” when it’s released? They could then be setup to more closely replicate the British Hill Climb scene, ITT start etc.
Makes no sense drafting is disabled. Might as well be a TT club race
Er, it’s supposed to be an individual no draft event per the write up. So the reason it makes sense to disable drafting is because it’s supposed to be an individual no draft event. The most realistic way to do it would be to have staggered bottom of hill start times like a TT (and, still, like for TTs where drafting is supposed to be illegal, disable draft). This would potentially involve a lot of sitting around waiting though. If you’re going to take any issue (though I don’t think it’s necessary) with the Zwift format, I guess one of… Read more »
Hilly KoM is a 2-minute smashfest. There won’t be any pacing for that one.
that’s exactly what hill climbs are IRL – everyone hangs around at the bottom of the hill waiting for their turn and then you are sent off at staggered times just like a flat TT. This format just avoids the need to wait around.
would a climbing TT bike make more sense for the faster, shorter climbs?
probably – you could TT them all except Alpe
Don’t think so, I would say they’re too heavy but I would go with deeper wheels like the DT Swiss 62 or the Enve 3.4
Do we need to finnish all route to get the result?
I believe so.
Well … i did firts race with only other zwifter. Without a Segment GC on zwiftpower maybe this series have all to die! 🙁
I doubt that climbing rigs are the correct choice for the shorter climbs where you can reach a lot more than the 4W/kg the frame test is executed with.
This just begs for a whole bunch of new frame/wheel tests.
But surely higher w/kg just increases the advantage that a climbing frame has over a non-climbing frame.
One factor might be if a climb is short but has a fast run in, then a more aero bike might allow you to carry more speed into the hill. But you would need to weigh up how quickly the use of a non-climbing frame turns to a disadvantage on the hill itself.
The Second stage has me a tad confused. The race length is the lead in and 1 lap for the listed course. That means TWO ascents of the Sguur North. First in the lead in and second as the final climb of the course for a hilltop finish.
So are both ascents timed for the event? Effectively giving me two opportunities, if I don’t explode on the first?
That would be my guess, yes.
Looks as if James has reduced stage 2 to 4Km, so we only get one stab at the KOM in each event, going on the 1030 BST event as an example https://zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=3705871
Good catch, Steve! I updated the post accordingly.
Anyone have any idea why my time would have been changed in the rankings?
I did 2 efforts on stage 2 and the second has been increased to match my first (its an 8 second increase). I verified the time on Strava, Zwift, I have HR and power data (and I also have a video of me doing the climb complete with agonised groaning and gasping. These first 2 are the only ones I stood a chance at getting really good times in as 3 mins of pain is my wheelhouse and I am feeling a jipped at the moment.
https://www.strava.com/activities/9256311026
Strava matched Zwift at time of ride.
And even the KOM data on Zpower says I did the lower time……
Adam, the very same thing happened to me and I think I fixed it by clicking “request a faster update” on the results page at Zwiftpower for my much faster second attempt, rather than James Bailey doing any magic behind the scenes.
Anyone now how long time I can use on the warm-up / lead-in? Could I let my avatar stand at the start line for 30min and effectively postpone my event start time?
Yes, you could do that.