My girlfriend recently started Zwifting too. She just did her first race.
I was with her on the first race and I had a feeling she was riding vs men judging by the w/kg and for the cat she was in. And yes the winners of her cat were indeed men. I thought women had their own cat to race?
Is there a way she can only race in women cat D races? She was really disappointed because she got dropped quite fast to the back while she was giving her all. It’s not like she expects to win but at least go along with the last group to draft but no …
We also try to not put too much worth of online racing due to weight/height/gender doping but then again, with such big pool of riders one would simply expect at least fair categories …
Any tips for an EU/Belgian girl to race women races on CET timezone after work or weekends?
Hi Oliver firstly great to hear that your girlfriend has joined Zwift & is looking at getting into racing!
I am female & have raced properly on Zwift for the first time this year. I quite understand the preference to race just with other women & I would suggest the following:
She could think about joining a team which will give her access to Zwift Racing League D cat women only races on a Tuesday evening & women only D cat Team Time Trials on a Thursday evening. I joined The Coalition this year & racing with their D Cat women has been brilliant fun. The other women and the team captains have been super friendly & encouraging. Also we have a very cool kit! We would love to have your girlfriend join us! There is a new round of ZRL starting in January so this would be perfect timing! Let me know if that would be of interest & she would like a link for more info.
For something a little less structured but also great fun look for the FemmeCycle Collab Club in the Clubs section of the Companion App. If she joins this she can easily see their women only category enforced events through each week. Tomorrow there is a set of 3 Mini Races starting at 10.30 with 5km round the Castle Crit. They will go again at 3.30pm when it’s a bit busier as our American women often join then. FCC also have women’s beginner races at 18.30 CET on Mondays and Wednesdays. Monday is Loch Loop.
The FemmeCycle Collab has become a hub of engagement for women’s community level racing on Zwift. It is a collaborative effort by many different clubs so represents a great opportunity to connect with all sorts of women from beginners to seasoned vets all across the world. As Sarah mentioned above they have a “club” on the Companion App (The at Home Cycling & Running Virtual Training App) but the best way to connect with them is via Discord. On Discord they connect people looking for clubs/teams to race with, provide info on upcoming women only special events like the Tour de Boudicca (coming up in January — there’s still some D teams looking for riders), and provide support and advice. Please DM if you’d like a Discord invitation link you can pass along to your girlfriend. I hope to see her on the server, it’s a great group.
PS Both the clubs mentioned in the posts before mine are involved with FemmeCycle Collab. A couple of folks from Coalition were instrumental in starting it.