It would be motivating to have Tour de Zwift as a racing league or at least have a single-race alternative. @James_Zwift Do you have any details to share regarding this?
Hi @OleKristian
Not yet. I’m sure they’ll be out soon.
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Thx! Can’t wait 
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The advert says registration opens tomorrow – probably the details shared then.
I wanna know if it’s a ride event, if Zwift will take the leap of faith in their own tech and this time allow steering in the events.
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Having a TdZ race is good in theory but I feel it could cause a world of pain for James and the Zwift team unless we have either:
1) Category enforcement
When Zwift promotes races (like the Giant Crit Crushers and L39ION races, where there’s no WTRL enforcement), history suggests we get higher proportions of people racing in the wrong categories. No matter how fun any of us think that is, there would be a lot of negative feedback about it. While Zwift enforcement may be coming, it’d be very bold to launch it with the biggest event of the year.
OR
2) No categories for racing, just like the rides
Because a league would mean most people would be fighting over xx,000th place, this could work better as a “single-race alternative” - encouraging people to try their competitive side, once they’ve done the rides. Zwift could also use this to guide people towards other races.
BUT
There’s a page on the Zwift website called “tour-de-zwift/ride”
There isn’t one called “tour-de-zwift/race”.
I think they’ll be steering clear of the racing, and focusing on these being “inclusive rides for everyone on Zwift”, which makes sense to me.
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Going by the headline of “LET’S GO EXPLORING!” for me does not suggest it will be setup as a race series/event.
Wait and see what tomorrow brings.
They have had races alongside rides on at least one occasion before (don’t remember if that was TDZ or some other tour). It will end up as a race either way, but if we get racing categories, it is a bit better IMO even if the categories can’t be enforced.
I’m not expecting there to be races honestly. It is just wishful thinking
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Yes I think it was 2019 we had rides and races and it went down to just rides last year. Much discusson on the forum at the time.
I am sure I remember it was mentioned that rides and races would be considered for this year. Also as zwiftpower had only just been taken in house this had some bearing on why no GC results were setup.
Of course people will still race the rides but it is much better to have them run as separate events.
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I can confirm they had races in the Tour de Zwift as recently as 2020 (when I rode them all as a Zwift newbie) but the event was ride-only in 2021.
I’ve always enjoyed racing the TdZ rides and because there’s such a wide range of people, I always end up riding with someone who’s going flat-out and someone who’s cruising, no matter how hard I push. And you never know which type of person will push you hardest for that finishing sprint.
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Yep my bad I wrote 2019 but it should have been 2020, it’s me thinking last year was 2019.
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hahaha love your sense of humour, as if anything on zwift that is not a race lol. Good idea though.
Tried to take a look at the details at the event page here: http://zwift.com/tour-de-zwift/ride
but I’m getting the below error… which I don’t understand.
As to whether it’s a ride or race, I think it’s a ride, but Zwift seems to want you to race with this language on the intro page:
*"PREPARE FOR TAKE-OFF
Give yourself at least 15 minutes to warm up before any stage. Since most rides go hard out of the gate, this is a great time to make sure all your connections—heart rate monitor, cadence tracker, and trainer—are calibrated and working properly. You will get an in-game notification when your event is about to start, so don’t worry about losing track of time during your warm-up.
Make sure you’ve got a towel nearby, your water bottles are full, and nutrition is within reach (at least for longer events). And don’t forget to start your fan!
FAST STARTS
Just like in real life, everyone is excited and fresh at the beginning of any ride. Be ready to push hard from the get-go. You may have to throw down watts above your category level for a bit as the pack settles in. This initial burst should only last for the first mile or less, as Zwifters begin to find riders at similar levels to stay with."*
There’s no official announcement yet so give them a while; it’s likely that information is being added bit-by-bit and that an official announcement will follow. THEN we can all go on and register.
As for those words, they look good to me. There will always be people pushing really hard at the start, so it’s good to warn people who are new to Zwift rides that the starts will be fast.
Remember, with an open ride where anyone can ride at any pace they like, one person’s race pace will be another person’s ride pace. So unless you’re an A rider, the start is ALWAYS going to seem fast!
Isn’t this an official announcement? > https://www.zwift.com/news/27600-the-2022-tour-de-zwift-is-here-lets-go-exploring?__znl=en-eu
It’s the TdZ Homepage linked in the above that wasn’t working for me.
Ah yes, sorry, you’re right, I hadn’t seen that announcement, and I’d visited that page on a device which wasn’t logged into Zwift, and saw no problems. Now I’ve just visited that page on a device which IS logged in, I see the same problem as you.
I have also reported the sign up error here Not able to sign up for Tour de Zwift - “Your profile is not eligible for registration…”
It seems like they are promoting the tour as a ride for everyone of all abilities. Much of the information is targeted towards users new to Zwift racing and mass start rides.
It would have been nice if there was an alternative in this tour for the more experienced Zwift racers. ZRL is probably their answer to this request. That is right, but there should be interest in a racing alternative to ZRL more geared towards the individual rider.
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Not sure if this qualifies, but maybe you want to post in the Bugs forum?
I’ll flag this with the team.
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