When you’re grinding out those final three minutes of Emily’s Short Mix at 115% FTP, every second feels like a lifetime, but the 10 years Zwift has been in our cycling lives feels like no time at all. And reaching double figures is only a tiny fraction of the story: Zwift has some stats that are arguably much more impressive. Since the online platform launched in 2014, users have ridden or run a total of 8.72 billion kilometres and climbed 81.56 billion metres. Over four million community events have been organised, 15 pro cyclists have been discovered through Zwift Academy, three Grand Tour stages have been won by those Zwift graduates (Jay Vine and Neve Bradbury) and another – Luca Vergallito – is riding the Vuelta a España for Alpecin-Deceuninck along with Vine, who as we write is leading the mountains classification.
Zwift has always been focused on building a community and making itself accessible to all, from the hobbyist to the pro, so let’s look first of all at the deliberately least accessible element of its programme of enhancements, additions and upgrades that it’s unveiling on its 10th anniversary. As Tom Simpson memorably said, it’s something to aim at. We’re talking about getting hold of Miguel Indurain’s legendary Pinarello Espada, which he rode to the Hour Record in 1994. Zwift already teased this in May with a one-off challenge in which everyone rode an Espada for an hour around Tempus Fugit – the flattest route on Zwift – and chased a Big Mig bot, who was doing 510 watts or 6.3w/kg. The idea was to set your own 60-minute power PB while trying to match Indurain’s Hour Record pace. But this time you have to earn the Espada in Drops – Zwift’s virtual currency, which is amassed basically by sweating a lot.
As a ‘halo’ bike, like the Concept bike, the Espada can be purchased from the Drop Shop only after certain conditions have been met, and in this case, users have to upgrade three other frames in their garage to the highest level before they can get hold of the Espada. According to Craig Jones, Zwift’s lead UX designer, bike upgrades are “a chance to take all of that sweat equity they’ve built up and invest it in their favourite frame.” Improvements will range from reducing weight, improving power, to reducing rolling resistance. “But there’s a catch,” says Jones. “Users have to complete upgrade challenges depending on what bike they ride.” At launch, each frame will have five stages of upgrade available and potentially more in the future.
Incidentally, if you want to find out more about the real Pinarello Espada as opposed to the virtual one, Pinarello has just launched a documentary series on its YouTube channel called Fausto Talks and the first episode is all about the history and development of the iconic machine.
What’s under the HUD?
More broadly, and something that all users will benefit from, is Zwift’s overhaul of certain aspects of what it calls the HUD (Heads Up Display). Zwifters can now customise the fields of the head unit-like panel in the top left with the metrics they want to see, choosing from seven options including heart rate, cadence, watts per kilo and average watts, with more to come in the future. By popular request, calories have gone from one of the mandatory display fields. There’s a power zone distribution bar above it which, Zwift says, can help you to stay, for example, in zone two if that’s your plan, discouraging you from chasing randoms. Or it’s an easy, visual way of keeping you from dropping out of a higher zone if that’s your workout.
There’s also a dynamic elevation display – think Garmin ClimbPro or Wahoo’s Summit – with a graphic representing the gradient of an upcoming climb and with colours for the grades and the numbers pertaining to the climb – gradient, distance to go and so on.
In summary, with this particular update, we’re seeing Zwift adopting the sort of displays we’re used to seeing on the road with modern head units, which all users will welcome.
GOODBYE CATEGORIES, HELLO RACING SCORE
The next update that doesn’t exactly reflect real-life road racing, but will definitely improve racing on Zwift, is the scrapping of the old categories from A to D. According to Sean Parry, the head of Zwift’s racing content, the new Racing Score, which gives racers a score between one and 1,000, will be a gamechanger. Clearly aimed at ensuring everyone is in the right category all the time and hopefully for Zwift solving ‘category enforcement’ issues, users’ score dynamically adjusts according to current fitness and performance in races.
Parry says: “For new racers it will result in better initial categorisation based on power which will lead to better experiences. After your first race, the score will change according to how you performed. It will reward racecraft and strategy a lot more than just pure watts, which will lead to more dynamic racing. Racing Score offers more mobility between categories, so no matter where you are in your season or how you feel, you’ll feel like you’re in the right place. It’s also about who you beat. It rewards you for pushing yourself harder in a bigger field or against stronger opposition.”
The roll-out of Racing Score in October will be supplemented by advanced metrics and race results, according to Zwift, which will allow Zwifters to delve deeper into post-race analysis.
As for the racing itself, it has come a long way since, in Parry’s words, “you got a handful of beta testers challenging each other to do laps of Jarvis island.” Zwift now has the biggest racing community with over 300,000 Zwifters racing last season and 27,000 Zwifters competing in more than 25 races and 100+ community race organisers. There will be zRacing Monthly, which is the entry point into Zwift racing, and its most popular race series, making up around 40% of all racing participation on Zwift. According Zwift this is accessible, always on, inclusive for individual racing, short, with new routes landing each month. It starts with a Pinarello collaboration in September.
The Zwift Racing League is the largest teams competition and saw more than 50% growth in the 23/24 season, with 2,610 teams participating. There will be three rounds consisting of six races each between September and February.
The Zwift World Series is new for this season, featuring new, never-raced-before routes and replacing Zwift Grand Prix last year. The first elite events are set for early September.
And finally, the finale of the season launching in March 2025, the Zwift Games are back for the second year. According to Zwift, 84,000 Zwifters took part in 2024, with 45 races with over 1,000 participants. Parry says we can expect enhancements since 2024 that will make the second edition “one to truly remember” with more to be revealed in the coming months.
ZWIFT CAMP FOLLOWS ZWIFT ACADEMY
Zwift Academy, launched in 2016, is of course the programme that identified those 15 riders who went on to secure pro contracts and is now an even bigger focus for Zwift. “We believe that the population of incredible athletes is much bigger than can easily be identified so how to democratise that,” says Mark Cote, Zwift’s VP of content programming. “It’s one of the things that as a platform we feel a responsibility for.”
The Zwift Academy workouts are really – as Cote admits – six tests and two timed races. This year there’s an expanded window so that athletes in both northern and southern hemispheres get a chance to hit with their best form. ”If you’re an elite athlete, we peak at different times so we want to allow you to do the tests when your legs are ready to go,” says Cote. “We’ve been working with Canyon//SRAM and Alpecin-Deceuninck [who would offer pro contracts as before] to ensure we can capture more athletes and we now have an even sharper focus on talent ID.”
In parallel with Zwift Academy and arriving in November is a whole new program called Zwift Camp, which Cote describes as “an opportunity for the community to come together… We might not all be looking for a pro contract but I want to understand how’s my sprint, how’s my base maybe this is the year my FTP is going to be better than ever… and tech from Zwift Academy comes across.” There are six workouts with long and short versions to suit all levels, and on completion Zwifters receive a report based on rider type. “Learn a bit more about ourselves and we’ll be recommending the next content for you to continue improving your strengths or to focus on weaknesses in months ahead. It’s communal like any camp,” says Cole.
WHAT’S THAT COMING OUT OF THE SEA?
And finally, Zwift is planning something special during the Tour of Watopia to mark its 10th anniversary. Taking place from 14 October to 24 November, Zwift promises “a trip back in time, starting with some of the first routes in Watopia.” It can be completed live or on demand, but Zwift says a surprise awaits on the fifth and final stage in November and advises users to have their cameras ready (or at least get ready to take a screenshot). Ancient structures will have been gradually emerging from the sea which, Zwift says, will remind longtime Zwifters of how the volcano appeared in Watopia years ago.
The big reveal is the next expansion of Watopia (though at this point Zwift won't give any more detail on it). Up to this point, each of the stages takes a retrospective trip back through Watopia, showing how it was built. Stage one will feature some of the original areas of the Watopia map (the pier, downtown etc) and stage four brings us up to date with the southern coast.
For more anniversary celebrations Zwift has September 27-30 as its Big Birthday Party Weekend, with “rides, races and events to celebrate the Zwift community and the iconic routes that have defined Zwift.”
What will Zwift look like in another 10 years? Zwift's co-founder Eric Min played safe and didn't make any predictions, but he did say this: "We started back in 2014 in the hope that we could build a business that would help make the world a slightly better place all round, creating healthy habits through training, competition and community. While we’ve done a lot over the first 10 years, we’ve certainly not pivoted from the original founding principles. We’re super excited about the things we still want to do for the community. We’re super stoked about all we’ve accomplished. What will Zwift look like in the next 10 years? You can be assured that the founding principles won’t change and we’ll continue to focus on what we can do for the community."
As for the hardware, Zwift has just launched its 'Zwift Ready' programme, making the Zwift Ride Smart Frame available separately in order for users to choose from a wider range of compatible trainers, which now as well as the Wahoo Kickr Core includes the JetBlack Victory, the Wahoo Kickr V6 and the Wahoo Kickr Move. All come with the Zwift Cog pre-installed and the Click controller in the box. In winter 2024 the Elite Direto XR and the Van Rysel D100 join the list.
Check out Zwift's website for all the latest information and pricing.
