More details on Zwift academy have just been released. Here is an overview of the event. I am not going to give every little detail, just the basics. One major thing that is new this year is that Zwift Academy Men and Women will be combined. There will be women only categories and open categories. They will receive the same unlocks but will be competing for different pro contracts. Today Zwift released details for all three event series and they all feature different unlocks. Articles for each will be released shortly. Zwift Academy road begins on the 30th of August and ends on the 25th of October. Zwift academy finalists will be announced on the 12th of November. To compete in the event you must register before September 26th. Zwift makes sure to give plenty of time for those who are not super serious about the event(I am just here for the sweet unlocks 😏).

Zwift has also added a few new events that you have to complete in order to receive all of the unlocks. The requirements for getting the unlocks are very simple, complete at least 75% of each of the 6 workouts, complete four events, two recovery rides, one baseline ride, and one finish line ride.

The riders that are shooting for a pro contract with either Canyon/Sram or Alpecin Fenix will have to do these additional things:

• The longer and harder distance of the Baseline and Finish Line rides
• A pro Contender TT, which is a scheduled race event on the Zwift calendar
• Pro Contender Workout that that is also in the new Zwift Academy Workout folder that will be added in update 1.16. Check back soon for more on that update…

As usual, Zwift recommends that you take an FTP test(Any of the four offered on the Zwift workotus folder, to ensure that you have the most accurate and effective results from the academy. If the workout is too hard or too easy, you can always increase the Bias, which is displayed under the list of things upcoming on a workout when in workout mode.

Zwift has also updated their UI for the Zwift Academies so that it will display your progress in the academies, your Baseline test vs Finish line test to measure how much you have improved through the academy, a link where you can find FAQ, events, and more! I assume Zwift will also add a Zwift academy event filter once Off the MAAP is finished. An update went out earlier today for the Zwift academy app that likely gave the app the ability to display all that cool stuff(8/17/21).Here is a screenshot of what it looks like.

There will be four rewards in the Zwift academy road event, the unlocks consist of a cap, a pair of socks, a kit, and bike paint job for the Canyon Aeroad 2021.

20% – Cap

50% – Socks

70% – Kit

100% – Paint Job

There will be orientational rides where you can learn more about ZA road, these don’t count towards the unlocks. They have also added two new rides, Baseline Rides and Finish Line rides. These are to help determine how much you have improved over the time in the academy. You should do the Baseline ride first, and the Finish line ride last to make sure your results are accurate. It is almost like an FTP test but testing you on segments. There will be short segments, mid distance segments, and long segments to help determine what kind of rider you are. There is no drafting on these rides. Note: It is required to do the advanced version of these rides in order to have a chance at a pro contract. You do not have to do the group workouts in a group ride, you can do them whenever you want while Zwift academy lasts and it will count.

Thanks for reading and I highly recommend this event series. For FAQ head over to the forums post: https://forums.zwift.com/t/zwift-academy-road-2021-faq/554234. It is good motivation and there are loads of great rides and events to choose from. The events have just been added to the calendar. To find a list of the events, head over to this page: https://www.zwift.com/academy/zaroad#event-calendar. You can also see your Zwift Academy dashboard online using this link: https://www.zwift.com/academy/zaroad. The workouts are designed by Dan Fleeman and Stephen Gallagher. Here is Zwift’s promo video for the event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddqFbPk35Jo. If you enjoyed this article or found it useful, subscribe to email notifications for more news,tips, and more about Zwift!