We’ve also selected a video with a recap of the latest Zwifty news, a rider’s journey to climb the Alpe du Zwift at 6 w/kg, a review of the FTP Builder plan, and of course… more Zwift racing!

Got a Great Zwift Video?

Share the link below and we may feature it in an upcoming post!

Depending on your Companion device and Zwifting setup, though, the app’s connection to your active Zwift session may not be stable. This is annoying at the best of times, and race-ending if you’re pairing your devices through Companion!

Several months ago, we published How to Ensure Reliable Companion App Connection when Zwifting. (If you’re having troubles maintaining a steady connection between the game and your Companion app, I highly recommend reading this post.)

Then just a couple of weeks ago, our friend Mike Hanney at Zwiftalizer posted a helpful video with a few more tips that are definitely worth sharing. Watch it below, or scroll down for a summary:

Router Settings

• Turn off 2.4 GHz
• Set up media prioritization (aka “Quality of Service” or “Packing Shaping”)
• Get all your neighbors to turn of 2.4 GHZ as well

Phone Settings

• Turn off Cellular Data for Companion App and/or disable Wi-Fi Assist on your phone overall
• Turn on Device Connection in Companion Settings

Using Zwiftalizer To Troubleshoot Connections

Mike explains how to use Zwiftalizer‘s Connection Attempts chart to determine where in the signal chain your Companion app connection is getting dropped.

Pairing Devices In the Right Order

Zwift’s pairing screen behaves a bit oddly if you’re pairing multiple power sources (for example, a smart trainer and power meter pedals). Mike explains how to pair things up in this situation.

Companion App’s Bluetooth Dropout Device Indicator

If you’re connecting via Companion and have a dropout, the Companion app can tell you which device has dropped out. This information isn’t available anywhere else in Zwift, oddly enough, so Mike explains how to find it.

He also points you to the Trackit app, which can be used to get your signal strength from all your devices.

Questions or Comments?

Share below!

I “own” one of the largest Clubs on Zwift, but I’m not sure what to do with it.

Zwift Insider’s Club has 33,012 members. But what can I do with all of them? I host Club events, but those see limited attendance unless they’re included in Zwift’s public calendar and/or I invest a lot of resources into hyping them up. I participate in the Club chat, but it’s so limited that conversation is hindered.

Zwift’s special sauce is its social side, its community. The heart of Clubs is to enable and build this community, to make what’s good about Zwift even better. But the limited feature set means even large Clubs have mostly become simple containers for events.

It wouldn’t take much to move the needle. Some polishing of existing features, some building out of capabilities, and Clubs could make a huge impact on the Zwift landscape.

I certainly don’t have all the answers. But as a Club owner, I know what I’d use! So today, I’m publishing my top 10 Zwift Clubs feature requests. Enjoy!

Events

Races

Right now, Club owners can only create group ride and group workout events. No races. I’m not sure why races still aren’t allowed, but this seems like a quick add that would excite certain Club owners. Let us hold races, including time trials!

In a related ask: Club events aren’t currently “seen” by ZwiftPower, since they’re considered “private” events. Part of allowing Club owners to hold races should include making those race results visible on ZwiftPower, including ranking points.

Automatic “Public Upgrade”

It’s a well-known fact among Zwift Club owners that Club events get very limited signups unless they’re placed on the public Zwift calendar. There’s no clear system for getting your event onto the public calendar, but Zwift could make it happen so easily, while at the same time encouraging Club owners to advertise their events.

Simple signup requirements could be defined which, when met, automatically upgraded the event to public visibility. Something like this:

• 5 signups 7 days prior to event
• 10 signups 4 days prior to event
• 20 signups 2 days prior to event

These numbers could even automatically “flex” based on Zwift signup traffic, requiring more signups during the winter months than in the summer months.

Of course, if a Club owner wanted an event to remain private to the Club, they could toggle that option.

Improved Club Event Visibility

Right now, events from your Club(s) are mixed into the overall events feed in Zwift Companion and not shown at all on zwift.com/events, even if you’re signed in. Additionally, Club events look just like normal public calendar events in your Companion feed. As far as I can tell, there is no indication anywhere that it belongs to a Club, even if you click to see the event’s details.

I’d love to see a “My Clubs” option added to the Companion app event filters, so I could check it and see only upcoming events from Clubs I’m a part of. Additionally, there needs to be some sort of visual indicator telling me that an event belongs to a Club, and which Club it’s a part of. Lastly, these same filters and visibility improvements should be in effect at zwift.com/events for logged-in users.

Recurring Events

Many Clubs hold similar events every week, but there’s no way to mark an event as recurring so it automatically gets created each week and you don’t have to set it up again and again.

Yes, Zwift’s events team can set this up, and that setting is in place, I’m sure, for hundreds of events every week. But this should be a setting that all Club admins have access to, as it would make the creation of repeated events much simpler.

More Configuration Options

I still have to email Zwift’s events team weekly to ask for custom powerup configurations for Zwift Insider’s Tiny Races. (God bless you, James Bailey and Leah Thorvilson!)

The problem is, there are lots of event configuration options that Zwift’s events team can access, but Club owners cannot. I’m not proposing we should have access to all of them, but just being able to use some key ones would let us create more interesting and engaging events, especially once Club owners are allowed to create races.

Configuration options I’d love to access:

• Toggle which Club kit is unlocked when finishing an event
• Choose from one or more pre-approved branded event banner images
• Choose which kit should be used for the event
• Race rules: category enforcement, hardware enforcement
• Custom powerups
• Assigned bikes/wheelsets
• Category pen timing and visibility (important for races)

Club Chat

Clickable Member Profiles and URLs

I’m not gonna lie: this one drives me batty. Probably because members names are blue in the chat, which is the universal color for a hyperlink. But tapping on a member’s name or profile pic does nothing!

In a similar vein, URLs aren’t clickable when pasted into messages. I would love to share helpful zwiftinsider.com links when people ask questions in the chat, but I cannot.

Member Tagging

Right now, you can either allow notifications for all messages in a Club’s chat, or turn off all notifications for that Club. But shouldn’t there be something in between those two? Member tagging. Let us tag a member, and by default let people be notified only if they’re tagged. (Maybe even give the Club owners the ability to tag @everyone, although that may be playing with fire…)

More

These last three features are, admittedly, bigger asks than the requests above. But they would also take Zwift Clubs to the next level!

Custom Club Workouts

Zwifters can already design custom workouts in game. And we can host Club group workouts based on a limited library of in-game workouts. What if we could hold Club events using custom workouts?

My guess is this would require a big rework of how Zwift handles custom workouts today. But I think we’d see a lot of IRL clubs and coaches using this feature.

Custom Kit Designer (Or At Least a Pathway)

If I had a nickel for every time someone has asked, “How do I get my club’s kit into Zwift?” I’d be a millionaire. Everyone wants it. Very few get it.

How awesome would it be if Zwift built an online kit designer (like many custom kit makers have today) which allowed you to design a club kit for use in the game?

Barring that, would if Zwift could offer a clear pathway to getting your kit into the game? Something like this:

• Your Club must have at least 250 members
• You must supply the digital artwork in a format that makes it easy for Zwift to transfer it into the game
• Approximate wait time is 1 week

You’d have Club owners clambering to meet the requirements and get their kit into the game.

Club Leaderboards

This is an idea I’ve heard knocked around Zwift HQ for years, so I know it’s on their radar. Leaderboard stats would include metrics like total distance, total climbing, average climb/distance (so smaller clubs could compete with larger ones), active hours, leaders jerseys grabbed, segment PRs set, and much, much more.

Club Leaderboards would be super fun and build Club camaraderie. There are actually two types of leaderboards Zwift could roll out:

• Intra-Club Leaderboards: just for members of one Club
• Inter-Club Leaderboards: all Clubs together in one place, competing using their combined stats

I’d love to see them both.

Your Thoughts

What do you think? Are my feature requests sensible? Do you have other ideas for important Club features? Or maybe you don’t see a need for more Club features? Share your thoughts below!

What’s it all about, and how does it work? You’ve come to the right place…

What is Coffee Stop?

Taking a “coffee stop” in Zwift doesn’t inject caffeine into your veins, but it does let your avatar keep pace with your current group while you take a short break! Here’s a quick demo:

Why take a Coffee Stop?

Have you ever been riding with a great group on Zwift, but do you need to hop off the bike to grab a towel, refill a water bottle, or take a nature break?

Coffee Stop lets you hop off your bike and do what you need to do without getting dropped from the group you’re in. Camaraderie often develops in packs of Zwift riders, and the Coffee Stop is Zwift’s method of preserving that special social aspect even when nature calls.

How To Take Coffee Stop

Need a coffee break? Simply tap the Coffee Stop icon (coffee mug) from the action bar or within the Companion app:

What? No Coffee?!

If the Coffee Stop button is greyed out, it may be that you recently used a Coffee Stop, or you’re in the awkward first 5-30 minutes window where no Coffee Stop are allowed. In either case, the screen will tell you how long you have to wait before it will be enabled again:

If no riders are nearby, you aren’t moving, or you’re near the end of a group ride event (see usage limits below), Coffee Stop will automatically be disabled:

If the Coffee Stop button isn’t visible, that means you’re in a race event, group workout, or individual workout. None of these allow Coffee Stops.

Coffee Stop Usage Limits

• You can take one 30-second Coffee Stop in the first 5 minutes of your ride, and a maximum of one 3-minute Coffee Stop every 33 minutes during the rest of your ride.
• Once you end a 3-minute Coffee Stop, a 30-minute timer begins. Only after these 30 minutes elapse can you trigger another Coffee Stop.
• Coffee Stop is available on all routes in Zwift, but is automatically disabled in race events, group workouts, and individual workouts. Tip: during individual workouts you can just hit the “Pause” button in Companion or the Action Bar if you need to take a break for any reason.
• Coffee Stop is available in group rides, except in the last 5km of distance-based group rides and the last 15 minutes of time-based group rides.
• Coffee Stop is disabled if you aren’t moving, or are riding alone (no nearby riders moving in the same direction).

Zwift Coffee Stop Minutiae

A few more bits for the Coffee-curious:

• It Keeps Adding Up: yes, you will continue to accrue distance (and XP) during your Coffee Stop.
• Segments Count: you can complete all or part of a timed Zwift or Strava segment while taking a Coffee Stop.
• Strava Visibility: your power, heart rate, and cadence continue to record during a Coffee Stop. So while your Coffee Stop won’t be super-obvious when looking at your ride on Strava or Zwift, it will simply show as a time block where you had zero power and zero cadence.
• Cutting It Short: if you want to end your coffee break early, just click “Done” on screen or in the Companion app.
• Riders Only: Coffee Stop is only available for cyclists on Zwift. No coffee for runners!

There are also a few Coffee Stop behaviors that are “gotchas” worth knowing about (some we might label as bugs):

• That Awkward Early Window: regardless of whether or not you activate your Coffee Stop in the first 5 minutes of the ride, there’s a 25-minute time span (5:00-29:59 into your ride) when you cannot take a Coffee Stop. This is odd, and Zwift should fix it.
• Hitting the 5km/15-Minute Limitation: if you activate your Coffee Stop in a group ride just before the 5km or 15 minutes to go limitation kicks in (see usage limits above), your Coffee Stop assistance will end as soon as you hit the 5km or 15 minute mark. Here’s the buggy part: even though your rider begins slowing to a stop, the Coffee Stop UI is still on screen and acting like your Coffee Stop is still active.
• Ending Early by Pedaling: once your watts hit 0 after starting your Coffee Stop, if you begin pedaling again so your watts go to 40W+ for 5+ seconds the Coffee Stop will automatically end. So make sure you’re ready to get going once you start pedaling!

Coffee Controversy

You may see some Zwifters complain about other riders “abusing” Coffee Stops. This is especially prevalent in group rides because yes, more coffee mugs tend to pop up on climbs than on flats or descents.

While we’re not here to tell you how to think, keep in mind that Coffee Stop is disabled in races. So while Coffee Stop users get a free ride for a few minutes, it’s a free ride in a social event where there are no winners.

Questions or Comments?

What do you think of Zwift’s Coffee Stop feature? Got questions about how it works? Share below!

What Teleporting Does

Teleport lets you seamlessly move between RoboPacers or active friends currently riding or running in the same world as you. Crucially, Zwift doesn’t start a new activity when you teleport. This allows you to bounce around between RoboPacers or friends while keeping your workout in one single file.

How To Teleport

It’s easy! Access teleporting via the in-game action bar or via the Companion app. Here’s a quick video showing how it works using the action bar:

Why Teleport?

Teleporting lets you do fun things in a single activity that weren’t previously possible, like:

• Gentler Warmups: spin your legs up with a slower RoboPacer before popping over to a faster pace group for the main part of your workout
• Tour de Amigos: feeling social on a day with no set workout plan? Bounce around the map to ride or run with friends who are currently online. Pop into each of their activities to say hello and wish them well.
• TeleSweeper: if you drop off the back of a RoboPacer group for any reason, it’s easy to teleport back in whenever you’d like.

There are also more “advanced” use cases we’ve seen from some community members:

• RoboPacer Intervals: replace a structured workout by bouncing between RoboPacers holding particular w/kg. (for example, a B rider might bounce between Jaques and Constance for an Over-Under workout.)
• RoboPacer Ladder Challenge: start with an easy RoboPacer, then move to the next hardest after 5 minutes. Keep going until you can’t keep up! (Stronger riders may need to increase the interval to 10 minutes or more.)
• Post-Race Cooldown: racing in Watopia or Makuri Islands? Once your race ends, you don’t need to end your activity and start a new one to cooldown with a group. Just teleport to a RoboPacer to spin out your legs and cool down.
• Endless Everesting: turn any climb into endless elevation by parking a friend at the bottom so you can Teleport down to them once you reach the top. (Note: we don’t see anything in the official vEveresting rules prohibiting this, but it could lead to faster vEveresting times, so we may see those rules get updated.)
• Get Bigger Than Jensie: still haven’t earned your achievement badge for getting 100 Ride Ons in a single ride? Teleport to a busy RoboPacer, ride in the pack for 15 minutes… then teleport to a different busy pacer. Keep doing this until you’ve got all 100.

Activity Maps

What do your activity maps look like after teleporting? Zwift has done a very nice job when viewing the activity on Zwift.com:

In the Companion app, teleportation just shows as a solid white line, like the rest of your activity.

Strava (shown here using the ZwiftMap for Strava Chrome extension) charts all the lines the same way (like Zwift Companion, but not as pretty as Zwift.com).

It’s important to note that the teleporting portions aren’t figured into your overall activity distance, speed, etc on Strava or in Zwift.

Rules of Teleportation

Zwift’s teleportation feature includes some necessary rules/limitations:

• You don’t get distance credit or XP for the distance covered while teleporting.
• You will get credit for any routes or segments completed during your activity, as long as you don’t teleport in or out during that route or segment.
• You cannot teleport into or out of events.
• You cannot teleport during a workout.
• You can only teleport to Zwifters you follow who also follow you back.
• The Drops multiplier game restarts whenever you teleport to a RoboPacer… even if it’s the RoboPacer you were already with.

Questions or Comments?

What do you think of Zwift’s teleport feature? Any uses you’ve found that we didn’t cover above? Any questions? Share below!

Well, usually.

I’m hearing from more and more Zwifters who have struggled to get their ANT+ dongles working on Windows 11. Windows 10 handled ANT+ dongles quite nicely, but Windows 11 sometimes struggles to identify ANT+ sticks as such and automagically install the ANT+ driver.

It varies based on which ANT+ stick you buy, and I don’t have a list of which sticks play nicely with Windows 11 and which do not. Instead, I can only provide simple instructions for getting your ANT+ stick set up on Windows 11 if it’s not automatically happening. Let’s go!

Method One: Windows Update

You can use Windows 11’s advanced update option to install the ANT+ driver. Here’s how:

1. From your PC’s search bar, search for and Check for updates. 
2. Click Advanced Options, then click Optional updates under Additional options.
3. Expand the list of driver updates, locate the ANT+ driver (it shows up as Dynastream Innovations), select it and press Download and install to complete the process.

If for any reason you can’t find the optional update, follow the next method to install it manually.

Method Two: Manual Driver Install

You can always install the ANT+ driver manually. It’s just a bit more hassle than doing it via Windows update. Here’s how:

1. Download the driver directly from us here. (Ideally you would be able to download this driver from an official source like the thisisant.com website, but they hide it behind a login, so we’re providing easy access to it instead.)
2. Unzip the newly downloaded .zip file and place the content into a new empty folder on your PC. 
3. Plug in your ANT USB-m stick into a USB port.
4. Open Device Manager (Start Menu > Device Manager).
5. Locate your ANT stick under Other devices or perhaps libusb-win32 devices.
6. Right-click the stick and select Update driver.
7. Select Browse my computer for drivers.
8. Browse to the folder you extracted in step 2, click OK, then Next.

Further Reference

If the instructions above aren’t working for you, here’s a page from Garmin describing how to install the ANT+ adapter driver in Windows 11, and here’s one from Wahoo with the same. (Both pages link to their respective hosted versions of the same zip file as we’ve linked above.)

Are you having other ANT+ connection issues? See our post on How to Fix ANT+ Dropouts and Other Connection Problems in Zwift.

Questions or Comments?

Post below!

There’s a lot to talk about, so let’s dive in.

Summary of Changes

Here’s a simple list of what Zwift changed in this week’s update:

• New Cycling Levels: riders can now go all the way to level 100!
• Easier Level Progression: less XP is now required to achieve each level.
• Neverending Level 100: once a rider hits level 100, they can continue to earn 50,000 Drops bonuses by filling up the level 100 progress bar again… and again… and again.
• More Drops Rewards: receive a big Drops bonus for each level achievement.
• More XP Rewards: earn XP for extending your weekly streak.
• Updated Drop Shop Unlock Levels and Pricing: many frames and wheels in the Drop Shop have been repriced and/or set to unlock at different levels.

Level 100 and Progression Changes

Previously capped at level 60, riders can now ascend all the way to level 100 thanks to this week’s update! That means 40 fresh unlocks (see the full list here).

In the previous leveling scheme, higher levels required as much as 30,000 XP to achieve. Additionally, the amount of XP required wasn’t always consistent or even steadily increasing (for example: the old level 42 took 10,000 XP to achieve, while 41 took 20,000 XP).

Zwift has radically revamped the level requirements, reducing the XP required to hit each level while steadily increasing those XP requirements as the levels get higher. Here’s a breakdown of the old and new leveling schemes:

Zwift has also made a small change for riders who hit the new level 100 cap. Instead of feeling “stuck” at the max level with an unmoving progress bar, riders will see the level 100 progress bar filling up. Once it’s filled, they will earn a 50,000 Drops bonus, and then the bar will be reset to be filled again.

Accelerated Leveling

Between level 50+ riders having “banked” extra XP, plus the new XP requirements for levels (see above), Zwift had a real project on their hands in figuring out how riders would transition from the old leveling scheme to the new one. It’s not an easy thing to get right, either: Zwift wants to give everyone the fun of leveling up, but they also know most riders will have earned enough XP to be at a higher level than the game currently shows.

The good news is, Zwift’s solution is simple. You don’t need to set any options, and the Pause screen tells you plainly how much XP you need to reach the next level:

The screen also indicates if you are on an accelerated leveling program (the black rider icon will be riding a wheelie) and how long your acceleration will remain (that’s the LV60 >>> LV96 indicator).

So the Pause screen is easy to understand. But what’s actually going on behind the scenes? If you want the nitty-gritty, read on…

Nearly all Zwifters will get some amount of “accelerated leveling” to transition from the old level scheme to the new. The game calculates each rider’s “level curve” based on their current level and XP.

There are actually two forms of acceleration going on. First, we have what we’ll call “Level Discounts.” This applies to nearly all Zwifters, and discounts the XP needed to level up by 20%. You can see this above, where the screen tells me I need 5600 XP to go from level 60 to 61 (which normally takes 7000 XP – so I’m getting a 20% discount). That 20% “discount” comes from my XP.

Example: a level 20 Zwifter has accumulated 70,000 XP, but you only need 33,500 XP to reach level 20 in the new scheme. That “extra” XP (70,000-33,500 = 36,500 XP) will be used to cover 20% of the XP needed to reach each new level, which means that extra XP will stretch all the way through to level 59. Level 59 requires 183,500 XP more than level 20 in the new scheme, and 20% of 183,500=36,700 XP.

The second form of level acceleration we’ll call “Double XP”, and it applies to riders at level 50+ who have accumulated additional XP. Instead of simply applying all that banked XP and zooming you through all the levels the first time you log in, Zwift doubles any XP you earn, so you level up twice as fast until you use up your banked XP.

Example: since I’m receiving Double XP (40 XP per km), riding 140km will earn me the 5600 XP needed to level up.

Current level 60 (and some level 50+) riders will experience both forms (Level Discounts and Double XP) of accelerated leveling. Hidden in Zwift’s Pause screen UI is a small indicator of which types of accelerated leveling you’re experiencing. On the screenshot above, the black LV60 >>> LV96 text tells me I’m receiving both types of acceleration. Two chevrons (>>) means I’m only receiving Level Discounts, while three means I’m receiving both Double XP and Level Discounts.

How Far to Level 100?

How long will it take current level 60 riders to get to level 100?

Well, assuming you have enough XP banked to get double XP all the way through level 100, we can calculate this easily enough:

• 360,500 to get from level 60-100
• Discounted by 20% = 288,400
• With a typical rider earning 500-700 XP per hour (let’s say 600 XP), that means 1200 XP at the doubled rate.
• That works out to 288,400/1200 = 240 hours of riding. That’s 34 weeks, or 8 months, of daily 1-hour rides.

More Drops

Riders previously received a Drops bonus for certain level achievements:

• If your new level ended with a 5 (15, 25, etc) you received 25,000 Drops
• If your new level ended with a 0 (10, 20, 30, etc) you received 100,000 Drops

This week’s change simplifies things while increasing the total number of Drops given as level-up bonuses. Now, riders will receive a 50,000 Drops bonus each time they level up.

XP Rewards for Streaks

If new levels weren’t enough, this week Zwift added a streaks feature. The idea is simple: ride on Zwift at least once a week for 2+ kilometers to keep your streak going.

You’ll earn a tidy XP bonus for your first two rides each week as your streak progresses: 300 XP for your first two rides in week 1, 400 XP for the first two rides of week 2, then 500 XP for your first two rides each week after that, as long as your streak continues.

Updated Drop Shop Unlock Levels and Pricing

Prices and level requirements have been adjusted throughout the Drop Shop. Where pricing was formerly based on real-world pricing and level requirements were (often) based on performance, Zwift says the Drop Shop is now priced based loosely on performance, with level requirements related to the desirability of the item and its price in relation to how many Drops a Zwifter should have at a given level.

Here are the old and new level requirements and prices for frames and wheels in Zwift’s Drop Shop:

Frames

* Specialized Venge (2015) is now the new Ride California Challenge Reward, and the Zwift Steel frame is the new default bike frame.

Wheels

* new default wheels

A Note About New Unlocks

Zwift has made some small changes to unlocks, including:

• New accounts will now start with the Zwift Steel frame and Zwift Classic wheels by default, and unlock the Carbon, Gravel, and Mountain Bike frames within the first three levels to help introduce riders to the Drop Shop.
• The Specialized Venge (2015) is now the new Ride California Challenge reward

Zwift says riders won’t have any bikes removed from their garage – but you might have one or two added, thanks to this new setup!

What’s Next?

Whew. That was a lot! New levels, a Drop Shop shakeup, more opportunities for more Drops and XP… what’s next?

Three things I’d love to see:

• More stuff in the Drop Shop: earning more Drops is fun, I suppose… but I’ve already got almost 50 million Drops, with nothing in the Shop I want to buy! I’d love to have the chance to purchase some funky bikes, cool hardware, tattoos, fancy cycling kit… you get the idea. Or (and this is still my favorite idea) let me cash in my Drops for a donation to one of several pre-chosen charities!
• Garage maintenance/organization tools: we need the ability to “favorite” items in our garage, as well as remove items we no longer want. Two simple bits of functionality that would make the garage experience much better.
• Compelling new unlocks: Zwift hit it out of the park with the level 50 Fire Socks. Could they do it again with some unlocks for levels 61-100? We’ll know soon enough, I guess.

Questions or Comments?

What do you think of the swath of changes Zwift made? Share below!

The toggle is on the event settings screen when creating/editing a Club event.

Important Note: you can’t enable “Keep Everyone Together” when “Event Results” is enabled. Because it doesn’t make sense to show event results if everyone is being forced to stay together!

Why Banded?

Zwift says the “Keep Everyone Together” option “makes it easier to spend time with friends and socialize while you pedal, even if your group has a wide span of fitness levels.” And they’re not wrong. If you want your group to stay together at whatever pace each rider desires, without a lot of messaging and hassle, this option makes it happen.

A Bit of History

Zwift has had “Keep Everyone Together” (aka “rubberbanding”) capabilities for years. (In a rubberbanded ride, all participants stay together, regardless of their power output, as long as they pedal.)

Rubberbanding was first used in group workouts, then expanded to Meetups and made available as a custom, by-request setting for group rides.

Zwift’s code for keeping riders together hasn’t always worked optimally, though. First, group workouts were super slow for stronger riders. Secondly, and perhaps a bigger issue, a longtime bug led to Meetups sometimes getting stuck at unrealistically high speeds, which is why you see Strava climb segments topped by riders holding over 45kph doing very low power (see Box Hill, for example).

The great news is, Zwift put in a lot of work to improve their algorithm for keeping riders together, and rolled that out months ago. Feedback from Zwifters indicates that it has greatly improved the experience for group workouts, Meetups, and banded group rides.

Questions or Comments?

Share below!

Annual Pricing

Zwift’s new annual membership pricing gives you 12 months for the price of 10, which works out to a 17% discount. Annual pricing in popular currencies:

• UK – 129.99
• EUR – 149.99
• CAD – 189.99 per year plus tax
• US – 149.99 per year plus tax
• JPY – 15,000.00 per year plus tax
• AUS – 199.99 per year plus tax

Switching from Monthly to Annual Membership

To switch your monthly membership to annual, sign into your account zwift.com/sign-in and visit Account>Membership. Click “Switch Membership” beneath your Monthly Membership badge:

Confirm your choice on the next few screens, and you’re all done:

Your annual membership will begin at the end of your current billing cycle. Example: if your monthly membership is paid through November 23rd, 2023 like mine and you switch to annual membership today, your annual membership payment will begin on November 24th, 2023 and be billed that same day.

iOS Subscribers: How to Switch

You cannot change to annual billing via your Apple subscription, so if you are currently subscribed through your iOS device and want to move from monthly to annual membership, you’ll need to cancel your Apple subscription and sign up for your annual membership via Zwift.com (see instructions above).

Canceling your Apple subscription will keep your membership alive through the end of your current billing cycle. It’s unclear whether Zwift’s system will let you subscribe today for an annual membership that should only kick in once your Apple subscription ends, so we recommend waiting to set up your annual membership on Zwift.com until your Apple subscription expires.

$99 Annual Memberships from Wahoo Trainer Purchases

Want an even better discount on one year of Zwift? If you purchased an eligible Wahoo KICKR smart trainer or smart bike from an authorized Wahoo retailer on or after September 13, 2023, you can contact Wahoo support to purchase an annual Zwift membership for just $99. That’s a big discount on Zwift’s new annual membership pricing!

Learn how it works on this support page from Wahoo >

While all trainers sold through Zwift.com and some trainers sold via Wahoo.com now include a bundled annual Zwift membership, most Wahoo trainers are sold through retailers. So Wahoo and Zwift have worked out a deal to get those dealer customers the same $99 deal.

New Subscribers, Cancellations, and Refunds

First-time subscribers who join using the annual membership option will receive a 30-day money-back guarantee. If you cancel before the end of 30 days you will receive a full refund.

Existing subscribers who pay for an annual membership are not eligible for a refund. Whether you are a monthly or annual member, when you cancel your Zwift account it will stay active until the end of your billing cycle.

Questions or Comments?

What do you think of Zwift’s annual membership option? Are you going to switch? Share below!

I was chugging along in zone 2, doing a recon of a new Rebel Route on Zwift’s new southern coast. Halfway through the ride I made the turnaround in the Jungle, then decided I would try to grab a green sprint jersey on one of the four upcoming sprints. (Earlier, I narrowly missed grabbing green on the Acropolis Sprint Reverse, and I needed to prove myself.)

The leaderboard popped up well before the first of four sprints began:

And there it was. A player with no name, running on virtual power (aka a “ZPower Ranger”), had absolutely destroyed everyone else on this sprint. There was no way I’d touch that superhuman time.

And the trend continued… “Dot” had taken the #1 slot on all four sprints, turning in times around 40% faster than the next-best rider.

So I sat up and hung in zone 2. Which, in hindsight, was probably a good thing, it being a ZRL recovery day. But it made me think: why does Zwift still allow riders without smart trainers or a power meter to top the leaderboards?

Virtual Power Basics

“Virtual Power” is Zwift’s solution for riders who don’t use a smart trainer or power meter. Instead, they’re on “dumb” trainers – trainers that don’t plug into electricity, don’t change resistance on virtual hills, and don’t compute power numbers. A dumb or “classic” trainer simply puts resistance on your back tire.

Read all about virtual power on Zwift >

Pair a speed sensor on your back wheel with Zwift, tell Zwift which classic trainer you’re using, and Zwift will use a pre-computed “power curve” for that trainer to estimate your power in game. Wheel spinning at 30kph? You’re doing 190W. Spinning at 40kph? 215W. You get the idea.

There’s just one problem: if you don’t have your classic trainer and back wheel set up properly, or you choose the wrong trainer on the Zwift pairing screen, your numbers can be off. Way off.

Safeguards Against Inaccurate Power

To Zwift’s credit, they’ve built in some safeguards to detect when power readings are too high. Ride too long at too high a power level and you may receive a popup like this:

I assume Zwift has set some power curve limits that basically say “If you hold X W/kg for X minutes, you’re above World Tour pro levels and need to get a warning.” (The above popup occurred exactly 1 hour into a ride where my bot held 7.5 W/kg steady the entire hour.)

However it works, based on my simple test above we can conclude the system isn’t perfect. Too many riders on virtual power are allowed to hold artificially high power for days, with no notice popping up.

Getting It Fixed

So how do we fix this? I have a few ideas.

First, it may make sense to adjust the virtual power limits:

• Currently, if you have selected a particular classic trainer model from Zwift’s list, your power is capped at 1200W. Perhaps this cap should be reduced to, say, 600 watts. (The 1200W limit made sense back in 2014 when fewer riders had smart trainers. Nowadays, if you can sprint at 1200W, you’re probably an experienced rider with a smart trainer or power meter.)
• If you choose an “unsupported” trainer, your power is capped at 400W. This is fine, as long as Zwift has something built in to make sure the rider isn’t flying around at 400W for more than a minute or two. 400W should be the limit, not the cruising altitude.

In fact, it may make sense to adjust all the power limits. As stated above, I had my bot hold 7.5 W/kg (565W) steady to see how long it would take for Zwift to pop up a warning. Nothing popped up until the 1 hour mark! (For reference, Coggan’s chart says 7.6 W/kg for 5 minutes is the top of world-class.)

Secondly, the leaderboards could be changed. Two options here:

• Quick and Dirty: Simply don’t include virtual power users on the leaderboards. (But Zwift is an inclusive place, so I doubt they’ll agree to simply boot ZPower Rangers from the leaderboards. So my second option is…)
• Playing Nice: Hide virtual power users on leaderboards for anyone on a smart trainer/power meter, while the virtual power user simply sees their name as an entry on the leaderboard, inserted into the proper place, but without a ranking number next to it. No green jerseys for virtual power users, but they can see where they rank.

Wrapping It Up

Zwift’s virtual power setup made sense when the beta launched in 2014, but nine years later the indoor cycling space has evolved greatly. Smart trainers are much more affordable and available now, and I would guess that less than 5% of Zwifters are on classic trainers with a speed sensor.

My ideas above may not be the best possible solutions, but they’re a good starting point for discussion. If nothing else, they show that Zwift can make a few changes that will improve the leaderboard experience for smart trainer/power meter users, without major impacts on classic trainer users.

I hope it happens!

Your Thoughts

Whether you’re a smart trainer user or a virtual power holdout, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Share below!