How to join rides that have already started?

Some events allow “late join” but when I attempt to join, they do not appear on the group rides. In fact, other than the current rides, I can only see a few rides that have already started. Does “late join” cease to work after a certain number of minutes? If so, that doesn’t make much sense since it’s not a race. If I want to join a 90 minute ride 20 minutes late, why would that not be permitted?

You should be able to late join enabled events anything up to 30 minutes late.

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@James_Zwift can correct me if I am wrong, but I think that for the late join to work after the start time of the event you have to have signed up for the event PRIOR to the actual start time. Once the start time has passed the event no longer shows up in the events list, so you can’t sign up. (There are some events that have staggered starts for different categories that might show up past the start time of the first group, but you would still only be able to sign up for categories that have not yet started.)

So, if you want too late join, be sure to sign up prior to the event start time. Then, when you spawn into Zwift, you should get a ‘Join Event’ pop-up during the first 30 minutes.

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You are probably right. I have late joined an event once in 5 years and that was one I was already signed up for.

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@James_Zwift I didn’t think of that so just did some testing to see. You are correct, you can only join any ride 30 minutes late. There is no requirement to be signed up prior. But maybe you can join more than 30 minutes late if you have signed up prior. I’ll check that next.

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No 30 minutes are the max.

Once a ride started it disappear from the companion app and sometimes from the in-game menu.

So, how it appears to work.
Events that allow late join, will NOT show up on your Zwift homescreen page in the Events row.

However, those events that are still within the half-hour join limit, will show up if you go to the dedicated Events page.
Comparison… homescreen Events row vs. Events Page


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Just did a test. If you sign up for an event and are waiting to join, the “Join” icon goes away after 30 minutes and is replaced by:
image

If you are within the 30 minute late join period and want to join an event you’re not signed up for, you can click the “Started” button at the top of the ZwiftHacks events search results, find it in the list, go to the event page for it on zwift.com, and add yourself to the event. Then I think you’ll be able to join in the app. I have not tested that last bit.