The inaugural Zwift World Series (ZWS) launched in August as a new flagship race series that encompassed both elite and community-level racers during peak Zwift season. The elite ZWS races were set to be the highest-profile, most competitive events on that platform during the 2024/25 season, with cash prizes and Zwift Games 2025 qualification on the line.
Related: Elite Community Racing Calendar Announced for Zwift’s 2024-25 Season >
But all of the planned elite racing went into limbo on December 3, when Zwift’s Director of Racing Sean Parry sent an email to all elite racers informing them of a pause to the Zwift World Series schedule.
The pause was due to concerns over the accuracy of smart trainer power readings, and it came just after elite riders had finished the qualification race for ZWS race #4.
For the full picture, including elite race schedule changes, I’ve included the original email from Sean below, as well as a follow-up he sent two days later:
Dear Zwift World Series Racers,
Following the conclusion of Open Qualifier 4, we have taken the extremely hard decision to pause the Zwift World Series and, as a consequence, Elite Race 4 will not go ahead on 5th December.
This decision has been made after a thorough review and it has been driven by our desire to uphold the reputation of our sport and protect the well-being of the athletes.
This season in the Zwift World Series we have seen, and we continue to see, a much higher volume of issues with hardware accuracy than we ever have in the past. Unfortunately, this has resulted in many annulments, race to race uncertainty for athletes, and created considerable challenges for our performance verification team and commissaire. We understand and empathise with the strain that this has put on riders throughout the series and this is not something we can allow to continue.
The issues we have seen are not specific to the Zwift platform and have been verified to happen in events on other platforms by Athlete Analytix using data proactively provided by riders.
Whilst the equipment on the ZWS whitelist works extremely well for 99+% of indoor cyclists, the extreme demands that some elite racers place on hardware mean that there are edge cases that have emerged. We firmly believe these edge cases can be remedied by hardware manufacturers developing firmware updates. By postponing the ZWS we will provide valuable time to allow riders and all the manufacturers to further understand, diagnose, quantify and remedy issues so that we can drive increased certainty for athletes.
We have engaged with all the relevant hardware manufacturers and they are motivated to work closely with athletes on any issues - an offer that we would urge you all to take up. Joint collaboration between Zwift, hardware manufacturers and riders during this time will ensure that we can all move fairness in the sport forward together. As part of this process, we will also take a close look at hardware on our white list going forward.
Given the events that have occurred, we will also take this opportunity to revisit and update our ruleset for elite racing. Our emphasis remains on maintaining the highest levels of fairness possible but we would like to explore sanctions and remedies that are less severe than the current rules when athletes encounter unintentional infractions outside of their reasonable control. This is also a process we intend to undertake in collaboration with riders during the next period.
It is anticipated that Elite Race 4, Open Qualifier 5 and Elite Race 5 will now all be held after Zwift Games (taking place in March 2025). This will give us all the time to collectively work through the next steps outlined above and reset for a great Zwift Games 2025.
We will follow up in a subsequent email with further information on topics like Zwift World Series re-scheduling, Zwift Games qualification and how riders can help to further shape the next steps.
I am excited for the next phase,
Best,
Sean Parry
Zwift, Director of Racing
Dear Zwift World Series Racers,
Following Tuesday’s announcement, as promised, this email outlines some further details regarding the next steps. We hope that these clarifications cover many of the open questions you have, but please do follow up with any other queries.
Zwift World Series Rescheduling
The final rounds of the Zwift World Series will be rescheduled for after the Zwift Games. The provisional dates mentioned below will be finalised in January.
- Elite Race 4
- The final results of Open Qualifier 4 will stand, and all qualifiers and Series Pass riders eligible to race in Elite Race 4.
- Provisional Date: Thursday, 10th April 2025
- Open Qualifier/ Elite Race 5
- Open Qualifier 5 will not go ahead.
- Elite Race 5 will become an Open Race open to all ZWS athletes, providing an opportunity for all riders to participate in this season ending finale on the Power to the Tower Course. Athletes will also have an opportunity to race this course in January (see below)
- Provisional Date: Thursday, 24th April 2025
Zwift World Series Prize Money
We will now pay out race-specific prize money, including finishing line and primes, for Elite Races 1,2 and 3. We will be reaching out to relevant athletes and teams shortly to begin this process, so if this is relevant to you, please look out for a request for information.
Zwift Games Qualification
The top 50 athletes in the Zwift World Series General Classification as it stands after Elite Race 3, will be automatically invited to Zwift Games 2025 (March 8th, 15th, 22nd). We will be reaching out to all of these riders shortly to request confirmation of interest in taking part in the events.
We will also introduce an additional Zwift Games qualification race for riders that have submitted PV for the Zwift World Series, but are currently outside of the top 50 places. This race will take place on Saturday, 22nd February, two weeks ahead of Zwift Games 2025. Further details about this race including qualification quotas will be included in the Zwift Games Racebook.
Further Zwift Games information
As previously communicated, The Zwift Games Racebook and Rules, will be released on or around 31st January 2025.
Hardware
Ultimately we paused the Zwift World Series because we want to get to a point where you, the riders, have increased confidence in your hardware going into any given race.
We have engaged with all of the relevant hardware manufacturers and they are motivated to work closely with athletes on any issues - an offer that we urge you all to take up.
In the future, the accuracy of hardware on a race-by-race basis will remain the responsibility of the athletes, so it is important that during this period, and on an ongoing basis, you:
- Continue to actively test your equipment under race conditions using dual recordings
- Please report anything unusual you see to the relevant manufacturer using the special support email addresses we have established. For reference these are;
- Wahoo: [email protected]
- Elite: [email protected]
- When contacting the manufacturer, please include as much detail as possible, like your dual recorded data, your hardware serial number and what you have noticed.
This will enable manufacturers to provide direct support and troubleshooting as well as identify any fixes that can be developed through firmware updates.
Testing Events
In order to facilitate this process (and for fun!) Zwift will set up a series of testing events. Riders have no obligation to participate in these events, but they will provide a useful opportunity to test your equipment under race conditions. All elite riders will be added to these events by Monday, 9th December.
These events will be set up exactly as elite events would be. Some riders have expressed a desire to race the Zwift World Series courses regardless, therefore these will still be scheduled as part of the below, on an ‘unofficial’ basis, also allowing riders to further recce the courses ahead of the rest of the season.
Test Event Schedule:
- Thursday 12th December - Shisa Shakedown - 7pm UTC
- Friday 20th December - Surrey Hills - 7pm UTC
- Friday 3rd January - Muckle Yin, 2 laps - 6pm UTC
- Thursday 16th January - Power To The Tower - 4pm UTC
- Thursday 23rd January - Rising Empire, 2 laps - 6pm UTC
- Thursday 6th February - Achterbahn - 7pm UTC
- Thursday 13th February - Glyph Heights, 2 laps - 7pm UTC
Men’s and Women’s races will be scheduled at the same time at the times detailed above.
If there is anything specific during these events that we will be testing or monitoring, we will communicate this with riders ahead of the event.
Aside from these events, riders are encouraged to test their equipment in any and all ongoing racing events they take part in across platforms.
Rule updates
We will also take this opportunity to revisit the Zwift elite event rules as we feel there may be opportunities to introduce less severe penalties for riders impacted by equipment malfunctions that are beyond their reasonable control.
This also provides an additional opportunity for riders to provide any feedback on the existing ruleset for further consideration. Our independent commissaire, Isaac LeBlanc, will be leading this process, so If you have any thoughts on this topic, please email [email protected]
Many Thanks,
Sean Parry
Firmware Updates Incoming
First, it’s important that we put the pitchforks away. Or at least, don’t point them at the racers! While cheating in high-level cycling esports is always a concern, Zwift has been very clear in communicating that the hardware inaccuracies aren’t from riders intentionally trying to create an advantage by somehow miscalibrating or artificially increasing smart trainer power numbers. Rather, particular trainer models are reading high in specific “edge case” scenarios – particularly high-torque, low-cadence efforts found on steep climbs.
To ensure maximum fairness via reliable power data, the Zwift World Series Ruleset has a very short list of approved trainers:
- Tacx: Neo 2, Neo 2T, Neo 3M, Neo Bike
- Wahoo: Kickr v5, Kickr v6, Kickr Move, Kickr Bike v1, Kickr Bike v2, Kickr Bike Shift
- Elite: Justo, Justo 2
Based on Zwift’s emails and other sources, it seems that from the list above, only a few trainers from Wahoo and Elite are in question. Recent race annulments appear to be tied to Wahoo’s KICKR v6, KICKR Move, and KICKR v5 trainers as well as Elite’s Justo and Justo 2 trainers.
We haven’t heard anything from Elite on this topic, but Wahoo issued a statement detailing their firmware update plans, saying, “Zwift have been in communication with all the relevant hardware manufacturers and Wahoo is one of these. We have worked quickly on a fix for elite indoor riders competing in events over the coming month – this is now available for KICKR V6 and KICKR MOVE, we expect a fast follow for those KICKR V5. There will be a full rollout to all Wahoo users in early January 2025.”
Leading From the Front
The decision to pause the elite portion of their flagship race series was certainly not an easy one on Zwift’s part. But with so much on the line – athlete reputations, cash prizes, even the viability of indoor cycling as a high-level discipline – it feels like the responsible call. It may damage Zwift’s reputation in the eyes of some, but it helps ensure a bright future for a cycling discipline still in its infancy.
Apart from Zwift, perhaps it’s time for other organizations to step up and push accuracy standards forward as well. This includes trainer manufacturers primarily, but the industry also needs a neutral third party to test and certify trainers. (The UCI, incidentally, has been talking about doing just that in collaboration with Purdue University’s Engineering department for almost a year now. See their test rig mockup below.)
Trainer accuracy standards and specifications to date have been a bit of a “wild west” affair, with a lack of consistent testing and metrics across the industry. A trusted, neutral, third-party test/certification could go a long way toward ensuring accuracy and building trust in cycling esports race performances.
Until that happens, dual recording and subsequent performance verification will remain the standard in high-level indoor bike racing, and racers will need to shoulder the responsibility of ensuring their smart trainers and power meters are reading accurately in high-demand race situations.
Questions or Comments
Did Zwift make the right call in pausing their World Series? How concerned are you about trainer accuracy in Zwift racing? Share your thoughts below!
wpDiscuz
