Not the first time I have raised this but lets hope someone in Zwift HQ is listening…
Given the amount of route options that exist within Zwift I am staggered at the messiness of the schedule. Its common to find races over the same course and distance starting within 20 mins of each other. Then to find in a day there are only 5 courses appearing in the schedule. This is really frustrating as generally means that your options are limited if you have a certain window you want to ride in. We have so many options with courses now lets use them!
I know the cause of this issue is that Zwift allows individual groups to dictate their choice of course etc which is great however surely someone centrally needs to check that the overall schedule makes sense and is balanced. Sometimes this might mean going back to an event organiser and asking to choose an alternative course if someone else has already selected it at similar time.
Would it be too much to ask that the day is divided into 3 hour blocks and within each block we have
NO duplicates courses
At least;
1 TT
1 sprint / crit race
1 climb race
1 race at around 15km, 30km and 45km.
Obviously during “series” seasons the above could be flexed but I dont see this as a massive job and would really improve the user experience.
Better would be for Zwift HQ to work out why organisers like these courses so much, then design some new courses (with the involvement of some organisers) to provide more options.
It doesn’t have to cause conflict all zwift needs to do is create the conversation. I bet as an event organiser when you see you’re adjacent to another on the schedule on the same course your heart sinks as it dilutes the field in the race. Duplicate races serve no one.
I value the free input of event organisers but there comes a time when you have to ask who owns the schedule? Sooner or later zwift will need to tidy things up and this is better in collaboration with all parties than for everyone to work in isolation.
Here’s another couple. Would it have hurt to contact the race organiser and let them know there is another race within 30 mins in same course and maybe suggest the race over one of the many other short courses suitable for crit lap style race. Zwifters get choice / variety and both races have a point of difference.
I don’t think that’s the issue organisers have no idea what each other are doing. The only time it’s apparent is when zwift pull the schedule together. That’s why the onus is on zwift to apply some common sense to the organisation.
Why should Zwift take control? I am no friend of “taking control” at all, Zwift or IRL.
Each organiser has his own schedule, who is going to be preferred?
Whenever I log into zwift I would like a choice of different events to ride. Short / long races, hilly / flat races, mass start / TT.
Zwift has lots of great courses and capability to run a different race starting every 10-15 minutes each with a different character from those in immediate vicinity in the schedule.
I don’t believe race organisers would be happy to see their event being identical to another starting at similar time. All this does is reduce the field size.
Zwift is the only party who can see and manage this situation. It doesn’t take much to check for duplicate races / courses within an hour of each other. This would improve the experience for everybody, riders and organisers would benefit. PLUS the added benefit that it would encourage organisers to be a bit more creative on course choices instead of using the more common routes.
Stop moaning. These organisers are voluntary and put a lot of work into organising. If you don’t like whats happening then you are always free to organise races that are different from the usual ones yourself.
Easier said than done, there is no clear way for anyone to get on the events page. Best case scenario is start a meetup, gain popularity (100 plus attendees per week, even though meetups are capped at 100), somehow show that you are a cool kid and popular enough to get on the official events section.
Has anyone been able to pull that off in recent history?
I agree with this I did set up an event on zwift when first started (it still features) and had to justify it heavily even though it was significantly different to anything else out there. If the same process was followed for all existing events I find it hard to understand how some were allowed on the schedule.
I wonder how for example Thursday evenings Alsace drifted into being TT night? Surely when the various race organisers pitched their plans someone could have said hang on we’ve now got 12 TT races in a 90 minute period maybe that’s a bit too many. Riders who want to ride a TT have too much choice and therefore field sizes are small. Riders who don’t have 1/2 races to choose from too little choice.
Because the organisers don’t have ability to communicate with each other and this can lead to saturation in some parts of schedule and gaps in others.
Do you really think race organisers are happy when they see a different event within 15 mins of theirs as same format and course? If it were me I would want to know that to tweak my format and offer a usp.
@xflintx as you’ve been super helpful in other topics I want to bring this one to your attention. It’s something that drives me mad!
Plenty about to read as examples but in essence I would like more thought to go into the ordering of events. It annoys me when
There are 5/6 events going off within a 5 min gap and then nothing for 20mins +. (This is usually because organisers cluster start times around hour / half hour).
There are no events in an hour window or only specific events (80km climbing races).
There are multiple events on same course distance in close proximity in the schedule.
Put simply I think zwift should apply some rules in the schedule
A min 5 min gap between every event.
No duplicate course / distance events in an hour period
Full in the dead spots in the schedule so that there is a variety 24/7.
All above are in the interests of race organisers, racers and zwift. All that is required is a little more thought in the schedule by the events team.
That’s great feedback, and I’ll give it personally to the team that is responsible for that. I appreciate the detail and the thoughts!
The events calendar is definitely something that is tough to navigate at times, and usually for those reasons. Thankfully ZP gives a robust filtering system, but that doesn’t necessarily solve what you’re pointing out.
Heard loud and clear. My newly formed team of Content Programming is in charge of this and are working to formalize the calendar based on time slot popularity, event type (who does it cater to), and also duration. A key reason why so much is at the top of the hour is so much can finish within the hour (it’s lunch time somewhere!).
Your specific points here are definitely on our consideration list now. I’ve been meeting with club and event organizers weekly and taking in their feedback to create this structure multiple times per week.
All ears to any additional specific feedback you have.