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ZWIFT RACING

Racing on-line can add spice to a rider's indoor experience. While you can always do difficult workouts, there's nothing more intense than battling "wheel to wheel" with a pack of aggressive riders -- yes, even on-line! While you can race independently, it can be even more fun as part of a team. There are many on-line teams, and some of them race in real life (IRL), too.
Zwift has a robust schedule of races for riders of ANY ability level. Some races are stand-alone events, but many are part of a series. In some cases, the races involve teams of 4 or more riders. Races come in all distances, and can include mass-start races, individual time trials, and team time trials.
No matter how you decide to race, there are several things you s9hould do and know to make your racing experience more enjoyable.

First Steps

While you can just log on to Zwift and enter a race, there's a few things you should do first to maximize your experiernce:

Use a Heart Monitor

Most race series require (or at least strongly encourage) the use of a heart monitor. This helps the series administrators

Use Reliable Power Equipment

Most races require that you use either a "smart trainer" or a power meter. In the highest-level competitions, both are required (dual recording). Keep your equipment well-calibrated to make sure your power data is accurate.

Enter Accurate Metrics

Mzke sure your height and weight are accurately entered. They are extrermely important to fair racing

Join Zwift Power

Zwift Power maintains race results and racing category information. You can access your results (and the results of others) and power information over a varirty of time periods. Official race results include ONLY riders registered with Zwift Power. You will receive a Zwift Power number that is the key to your records on a variety of ranking services (center column).

Race Categories

Most races are broken up into categories. Your category may be determined by your weight vs power (watts per kilogram), your race results, or both, depending on the category system used by the race organizer. Normally, youy may only enter races of your category or higher, referred to as "category enforcement".

Letter Categories (A-B-C-D)

The original category system uses letters A through D. It is based on your watts per kilogram for several time periods, and does NOT consider race results. Letter A+ (a subset of A) is the highest category, while letter D is the lowest. There are separate rating scales for males/mixed and females. Some races will use subsets of the letter categories (such as C+, C-). Your category (also called a "pace group") is noted on your Zwift Power page.

Zwift Racing Score

Zwift Racing Score is a new method of categorizing racers. It uses power data to initially rank racwers, but gradually includes race results as data becomes available. There are five categories, as descibed in this article.

vELO Score

ZwiftRacing, a racing app independent of Zwift, uses a vELO Score to categorize racers. This system is used in Ladder Racing. There are 10 categories, based on power data and results. You can find your vELO score at "https://www.zwiftracing.app/riders/XXX", where the "XXX" is your Zwift Power number.