My 6-Year Zwiftversary

(Pictured above: my first Zwift ride, then a ride at Zwift’s 2019 Eurobike booth almost 4 years later.)

Six years ago today I went for my first ride on Zwift.

It was my first winter after seriously returning to road cycling, and I was already dreading the roller sessions. At the time, none of my local riding buddies were using Zwift – I’m not sure any had even heard of it. But I saw it somewhere on Facebook, downloaded the game, ran it in “just watch” mode, and immediately knew I had to give it a try.

After a little research, I found a website in Germany selling Tacx Vortex Smart trainers for ~$290 to my door, and I pulled the trigger.

The night my Vortex arrived I put it together, hooked my bike in, and went for my first Zwift ride from the middle of my living room. The trainer wasn’t calibrated, and I wasn’t dressed for a real ride… so that effort didn’t last long.

But two days later I went for my first “real” Zwift ride – two laps of Watopia’s Hilly Route (which was the only route on Watopia at the time). Uploading it to Strava certainly confused local friends. “Are you in the Solomon Islands right now?”

And that’s how it all began for me. I jumped in with both feet! Less than a month later I launched ZwiftBlog.com, which became Zwift Insider two years later.

I wish I had been on Zwift from the beginning, but when Zwift beta launched in 2014 I was just returning to riding after an 18-year hiatus. So I never got to ride Jarvis. But what I have been a part of is special. So each year, I look back and deliver my perspective as a Zwifter and the editor of the web’s most popular Zwift fansite.

Covid Booster

Our all-time Peak Zwift of 49,114 came early this year, on January 19th to be exact. Much of the world was still in some form of Covid lockdown mode, and that coupled with the standard mid-January traffic highs resulted in a crazy peak.

With Covid lockdowns easing somewhat, it seems like traffic is down just a bit this November compared to 2020. But this isn’t unexpected. The good news for Zwift (and Zwifters, really) is that subscriber numbers are still quite high. Covid forced many cyclists who had never considered Zwift to buy a setup and start using it – and many of those riders got hooked.

It’s what I’ve said from the start – if you can get a rider on a decent Zwifting setup (smart trainer, big screen, etc) they’ll probably be hooked. It’s just too handy, and so much more engaging than other forms of indoor training.

Zwift Is Mainstream

I visited Sacramento recently and jumped into the weekly River Ride so I could pedal on some new roads. I saw one rider with a Zwift water bottle, so I asked, “Are you a Zwifter?” His answer was, “Yeah, but isn’t everybody nowadays?”

Huh. He’s not wrong. Zwift has been around now for over 7 years. It’s not a new thing. And it’s one of the biggest things that has happened to cycling in recent years. Perhaps the biggest thing (although the e-bike revolution might win that argument.)

Seasonal, Not Seasonal

While Zwift numbers still increase by 3x or more during the northern hemisphere’s winter months, the platform is increasingly seen as a year-round training tool.

It’s not just a bad weather antidote: it’s avoiding traffic. It’s confidence for elderly riders. It’s inspiration for anyone recuperating from injury. It is a supportive community you can access from wherever, whenever. And that’s powerful stuff.

Trainers: Stalled Progress

If 2020 was the year nobody could find a smart trainer to buy, 2021 was the year nobody could find a reason to upgrade their trainer.

Availability today isn’t nearly the issue it was a year ago, but trainer tech just hasn’t advanced in the past year, either. Have we reached the place where trainers are as good as they’re going to get? I think in many ways we have – there isn’t much that needs upgrading on the Tacx Neo 2T or Wahoo KICKR v5, both very reliable trainers who both boast super-accurate power which needs no calibration.

Of course Saris, Elite, and Kinetic still have improvements that could be made to their top-tier trainers. Hopefully we’ll see those hit the market soon.

And even though the trainer market seems fairly stable and well-supplied, Zwift is working on their own hardware – probably a smart bike and smart trainer. (Progress has been admittedly slow on this front, to nobody’s surprise.) When will Zwift hardware be released? And will it be amazing enough in terms of features and/or affordable enough in terms of price to compete with what’s already on the market?

Smart Bikes Have Arrived

We’re seeing more and more Zwifters on smart bikes as time goes on. My guess is, people are looking to upgrade their Zwift bike and/or trainer after one or more seasons of wear and tear, and they decide it makes sense to just purchase a dedicated setup.

It’s not a bad option for many. Smart bikes are easily adjustable for multiple riders, and having one in place means you don’t have to pop your bike on and off the trainer if you’re a single-bike owner. Once you’ve got an always-available Zwift setup, it’s really hard to go back.

Today’s short list of smart bikes seems to perform quite nicely. The Wahoo KICKR Bike is the undisputed king of the jungle, but the StagesBike SB20 is a rock-solid performer and the Tacx Neo Bike also gets high reviews.

Rocker Plates Are Normalized

This year has seen rocker plates go mainstream, and that puts a smile on my face. I’m a big fan of rocker plates, having used various models since my second year on Zwift.

Today you can find affordable rocker plates on Amazon, and full-motion models are becoming the standard as designs are tested and dialed in. The UK has Omnirocker, while here in the US we have lots of options including the SBR Rockr, Velocity Rocker, InsideRide’s EFlex, Axxion Rocker Plate, KOM Cycling plate, and more.

Rock on, I say. A properly set up rocker plate makes Zwifting much more comfortable, and provides for more realistic out of the saddle movement as well. Here’s a quick demo video I made for a recent review published of the Velocity Rocker plate:

Racing Matures (But Still Needs to Grow Up)

The Zwift Racing League managed by WTRL has continued to grow, pulling in over 10,000 riders in the current 4th season compared to 6,000 in last year’s first season. Race by race, week by week, WTRL has firmed up rulesets, improved backend systems, and made the overall experience better for racers. If you’re only going to participate in one Zwift race each week, ZRL is it.

On top of this, you have the ZRL Premier Division hosting weekly races of the world’s top esports teams. This is managed by Zwift , broadcast on GCN, and governed by its esports ruleset which continues to be fine-tuned. And once again, the UCI is working with Zwift to host the ESports World Championships in February 2022.

That said, it feels as though Zwift has essentially outsourced all things community racing to WTRL. We aren’t seeing ZwiftPower improvements, nor are we seeing further evolution of the early anti-sandbagging controls. Community race organizers who lack the backend power, funding, and API access of WTRL are still stuck dealing with the same challenge they’ve had for years: that any rider can sign up for any category and blow apart any race, with zero consequence.

It’s really not a hard problem to fix, and I think Zwift owes it to community organizers to get it done.

Stronger Competitors

Zwift had very few direct competitors in its early years, but the crush of riders seeking indoor fitness options has definitely led to both growth and consolidation in this niche market.

This year Wahoo purchased and rebranded Sufferfest, and Ironman purchased FulGaz to create their own virtual platform. TrainerRoad has continued to evolve their offering, still considered best-in-class by many for its huge library of quality training programs.

RGT, though, is the platform competing most directly with Zwift in terms of racing and group rides. Their smaller team can be more nimble than Zwift, and they have the advantage of being able to see Zwift’s missteps and offer solutions like updated physics and in-game jerseys that make disgruntled Zwifters happy. Will RGT take a meaningful chunk of Zwift’s business? Time will tell. But on the community side, we can be sure of one thing: competition is good, since it helps keep Zwift on their toes.

So Many Rides, So Little Time

There was no in-game event calendar six years ago, and today there are literally several hundred events per day on Zwift’s calendar. Amazing!

After looking at usage data, Zwift evolved the way they schedule events this year, running popular events like Zwift Academy workouts every hour instead of more intermittently. According to Zwift this leads to more overall participation, and that’s great! But it also led to an even more crowded calendar. I’d really like to see Zwift improve its event filtering tools so I can easily find what I’m looking for.

Hopefully the soon-to-be-released new homescreen design will do just that, but until then, I’m using ZwiftHacks’ events page multiple times a day.

Zwift also knows they need to start doing some culling of unpopular events. Many riders are using Pace Partners instead of joining group rides, and it seems silly to have so many events on the calendar when some only get 10-20 participants. This may not be much of an issue in the next few months, but when traffic begins to dip again around April, I think we’ll see some events removed from the calendar.

Virtual + Meatspace

When I joined Zwift six years ago, I never would have guessed that I would fly halfway around the world to hang out with people I only knew through a virtual cycling platform.

And yet, that’s what I’ve done. Several times!

Because of Zwift I’ve taken trips to Germany (Eurobike!), the UK, Spain, Southern California, and New York City. And once covid craziness settles down a bit, Monica and I are looking forward to heading across the pond once again.

It may have begun with a virtual spin session, but the relationships I’ve built through Zwift have become real, personal, and valuable. And I know many Zwifters who would say the same.

The Future Is Bright

It’s not hyperbole to say my involvement with the Zwift community has been life-changing. It’s changed my fitness, it’s changed my work life – it’s even changed my vacation plans! And I’m loving every minute of it.

This winter is going to be a busy one for sure, but I’m looking forward to it. Zwift has some big feature rollouts planned in the coming months, and I can’t wait to watch as the platform continues to evolve.

Ride on!