What is Zwift?

Ultimately, Zwift is for all types of cyclist, from newbies looking to improve their fitness, to professionals winning Paris-Roubaix, via sportive riders training for mountainous events and amateur racers. According to Zwift, the platform helps users reach their fitness goal, whatever it may be, and that means it could do a job for everyone.

How it helps athletes achieve this is by adding entertainment through the power of gaming. We’ve all been there, where an indoor workout turns into a long hard sweaty slog with a seemingly interminable end. Most of the time, it’s not interesting or entertaining, and at worst can put people off training entirely.

That’s where Zwift comes in. Fundamentally, the platform adds a layer of interactivity that can help alleviate that boredom when riding on a turbo trainer. It does this by translating your efforts on the turbo trainer into a virtual world, complete with maps, roads, landscapes and full of other riders to interact with. You can also follow dedicated training programmes. In Zwift’s own words, it taps into the “power of technology, the fun of gaming and the sense of community to fitness”.

The stats are certainly impressive, because since the platform first launched online in September 2014, it now boasts riders hailing from more than 150 countries, who had collectively logged 218,128,291km (135,239,541 miles) as of October 2017. That’s just over 5,449 times around the Earth’s equator.

“Whatever it is, Zwift is for everybody – and by that, we mean everybody. It doesn’t matter who you are, there’s something for everyone whether you’re a social rider, looking to improve fitness, or a racer,” he says.

On top of that, one of the benefits of Zwift is that it’s a virtual platform – which means a lot of the issues that stop people getting on their bikes (e.g. busy roads, time constraints, poor weather, and so on) are almost completely removed.

What can you do on Zwift?

It’s clear that Zwift is setup for all-comers, because once you’re signed in, you’re able to take part in a vast array of training programmes, events, races, or simply be dropped onto the map and ride.  

“At its most basic, you can simply sign on and ride around a chosen course for an experience that’s certainly more engaging than staring at a wall or stem, but you can also be dropped in to ride with a friend if they’re signed in too,” says Snook.

Zwift’s online world is constantly expanding, with the platform currently based around three maps: Zwift’s own Watopia Island, and virtual recreations of London and the 2015 UCI Road World Championships course in Richmond, Virginia. Each offers a variety of terrain and scenery.

Additionally, the menus allow you to select pre-set workouts and programmes that you can choose from to help you add structure to your training. “You may be targeting a build up to a 100-mile ride, or want an FTP booster programme to follow,” Snook explains.

Key to all of this is power – the speed of your online avatar is based on your power output, whether that’s measured by a smart trainer/power meter, or estimated by a conventional trainer and speed sensor. We’ll come on to what you need to get setup on Zwift later.

“Fundamentally, like any training schedule it breaks the work down into manageable chunks, but it also makes it visual. For example, in an interval programme it’ll take you through a virtual banner on the road, like the red kite at a pro race, and give you another at the finish, along with a countdown timer all the while showing your wattage output and whether you’re hitting your target. It adds that extra layer of interest.”

If you’re keen on being competitive or riding in large groups, then you can try dedicated events too. “You can join group rides and group workouts, the latter keeps everyone grouped together regardless of ability,” says Snook. “For the competitive, there are races you can compete in. These are organised and categorised in categories based on FTP, which means you’ll be in with a selection of riders of a similar ability to you.”

With this simple setup, Zwift uses an algorithm to translate your wheel speed and cadence into a representative power output, and match this against the weight you’ve entered on your account. This allows it to estimate and simulate your virtual road speed with the Zwift world.

“Of course, the best experience can be had on a smart trainer, which will automatically adjust its resistance to terrain [when climbing, for example], your target wattage in an interval training sessions, and other factors such as drafting behind another rider,” says Snook. If using a conventional trainer, you have to physically change the resistance (whether on the turbo or by shifting gear) to adjust your effort level.

“A dedicated power meter will also make it more accurate too, but neither are necessary to be able to follow training plans and use Zwift effectively,” adds Snook.

This means that, although Zwift’s virtual world is ever expanding and becoming more intelligent with greater integration with smart trainers and technology, the reality is that it can be just as usable and useful if you’re starting out with a basic setup. So, with the cost outlay less that you might expect, and all the potential benefits you can glean from riding in the virtual world thrown in, why not give it a try?