Zwift Hill Climb Races Announced

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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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:

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?

Check out Fastest Climbing Bike Frames and Wheels at Each Zwift Level to learn which frame and wheels will get you to the top fastest!

Questions or Comments?

Post below!

Eric Schlange
Eric Schlangehttp://www.zwiftinsider.com
Eric runs Zwift Insider in his spare time when he isn't on the bike or managing various business interests. He lives in Northern California with his beautiful wife, two kids and dog. Follow on Strava

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Ringer
Ringer
5 months ago

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.

steve clowes
steve clowes
5 months ago

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?

David Galbraith
David Galbraith
5 months ago
Reply to  steve clowes

Race 4 is a custom finish, presumably at the KOM banner

steve clowes
steve clowes
5 months ago

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.

steve clowes
steve clowes
5 months ago
Reply to  steve clowes

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! 😆

steve clowes
steve clowes
5 months ago
Reply to  steve clowes

And James has now created a GC page for series one! 👍 https://zwiftpower.com/league.php?id=1760

Andrew.au
Andrew.au
5 months ago

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.

John
John
5 months ago

Makes no sense drafting is disabled. Might as well be a TT club race

Harry Legs
Harry Legs
5 months ago
Reply to  John

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 »

Alex Eames
Alex Eames
5 months ago
Reply to  Harry Legs

Hilly KoM is a 2-minute smashfest. There won’t be any pacing for that one.

Tony Lane
Tony Lane
5 months ago
Reply to  John

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.

Jack
Jack
5 months ago

would a climbing TT bike make more sense for the faster, shorter climbs?

dan
dan
5 months ago
Reply to  Jack

probably – you could TT them all except Alpe

LukWin
LukWin
5 months ago
Reply to  Jack

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

Diogo Velosa
Diogo Velosa
5 months ago

Do we need to finnish all route to get the result?

Diogo Velosa
Diogo Velosa
5 months ago

Well … i did firts race with only other zwifter. Without a Segment GC on zwiftpower maybe this series have all to die! 🙁

Robin
Robin
5 months ago

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.

Tony Lane
Tony Lane
5 months ago
Reply to  Robin

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.

Adam
Adam
5 months ago

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?

steve clowes
steve clowes
5 months ago
Reply to  Adam

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

Adam
Adam
5 months ago

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.

Adam
Adam
5 months ago
Reply to  Adam

https://www.strava.com/activities/9256311026
Strava matched Zwift at time of ride.

Adam
Adam
5 months ago
Reply to  Adam

And even the KOM data on Zpower says I did the lower time……

steve clowes
steve clowes
5 months ago
Reply to  Adam

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.

Peter Eggertsen
Peter Eggertsen
10 days ago

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?

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