Zwift Racing League Info for New Racers

ZWIFT COMMUNITY | on December 27, 2021 by Zwift
Zwift Racing League Info for New Racers

 

If you’re looking to join the Zwift racing action, there’s no better place than the Zwift Racing League (ZRL). Managed by our partners at WTRL, this weekly series involves several thousand riders and nearly two thousand teams!

And everyone is invited. Entry-level through pro riders can all find a home in this team-based, multi-race points competition.

Key Details

  • Race Dates: first race of the current season is Tuesday, January 11, 2022, with weekly races through Tuesday, March 1, 2022.
  • Team Registration Deadline: Friday, January 7, 2022
  • Race Formats: current season features 6 points races (see scoring structure) and 2 team time trials.
  • Race Duration: generally 30-60 minutes long. See schedule for details of each course.
  • League Structure: current season features 12 men’s/mixed and 5 women’s leagues. Each league has a separate start time to accommodate all time zones.
  • Divisions: each league contains multiple divisions of 5-20 teams so riders can compete with others of similar abilities. Example: last season the EMEA West men’s mixed league had A1 and A2 divisions as well as B1-B5, C1-C3, and D1 divisions.

ZwiftPower Registration Required

ZwiftPower is where the final results are posted for most Zwift races. The site provides a wealth of useful information for racers including the ability to filter upcoming race events in various ways, look at fastest times for key Zwift segments, and browse rider and team rankings.

Ranking points on ZwiftPower are computed after every race and used to compute your ranking in the overall universe of Zwift racers.

You must create and connect a ZwiftPower account in order to participate in ZRL. See Connecting to ZwiftPower for details on how to do so.

WTRL Registration Required

You must create a profile at WTRL.racing in order to participate in ZRL. Registration is simple – go here to get started.

Joining a Team

Want to race, but don’t have a team? Post your info on the WTRL Zwift Racing League Facebook group. Use tag “#zrlteamhunt” so your post can easily be found by others.

You can view a list of teams and see what teams are recruiting new members by visiting the All Teams list at the WTRL website.

If you’re still having trouble finding a team, you may email racecontrol@wtrl.racing to request placement on a team.

ZRL teams must have 4-12 members. Up to 6 riders can participate in each week’s race.

Practice Races Recommended

If you haven’t raced on Zwift in the past few months, it’s important to finish a few races before ZRL begins. Why? Two reasons:

  1. Accurate categorization: your recent race stats are used to compute your rider category for ZRL, which helps determine your team’s division (B category riders can’t race in a C division team, for example). Without current stats you may be placed in too low of a category, then be forced to find a new team after one or two ZRL races.
  2. Practice makes perfect: if you haven’t yet raced on Zwift, a few practice races under your belt can only help.

Not sure which races to try? Here are some popular weekly events:

  • OH MY CRIT!! – The Double Race (Thursdays)
  • Chase Race with AutoCat // powered by WTRL (Wednesdays)
  • TFC Mad Monday

You will find many races held each day in addition to the events listed above. To find a race that fits your schedule, open Zwift Companion and use the event filters to show only races. Easy!

Dig Deeper

Here are a few more links if you’re looking to learn more about ZRL, or racing on Zwift overall: