The World Indoor Cycling Rankings Series is coming to determine THE best virtual racer! With Prizes!
Zwift Power rankings have long been the gold standard for determining the “best” indoor cyclists. Not anymore! Now there’s an exciting and innovative race option, the World Indoor Cycling Rankings series, and the goal is to find the finest virtual cyclists and have a blast at the same time.
There’s something for everyone with A+, B+, and C+ categories and various courses, lengths, and intermediate formats. The season runs from November 2022 to February 2023 and promises to be an exciting, fair, and inclusive series. And there are prizes!
World Indoor Cycling Rankings vs. Zwift Power
This new ranking system has a variety of differences from the current Zwift Power rankings, which ultimately will prove to make it a more fair assessment.
- Potential ranking points are known before you enter the start pen. It is not a matter of luck based on who shows up and when you can race.
- The series schedule and points are clearly publicized before the start of the entire series, leaving you plenty of time to plan and stay connected.
- You can choose to race as an individual or a team, so you don’t need to stress about getting a full roster of 6 together each week (or whatever the series may dictate).
- Courses are chosen to challenge a range of different types of riders. There are some long and short races, some sprinter and climber-friendly parcours, and everything in between!
- Split category racing with the addition of B+ and C+ should decrease the gap and make racing more fun and exciting for a larger majority.
- Everyone in the race will receive the same powerup, decreasing the amount of luck involved!
How Does World ICR Work?
You may register as an individual or a team. Points will be awarded for the finish line position and pre-set fastest through segments. Categories are similar to those established on Zwift Power.
Individual Racing
There is a set schedule for each month of racing. The length and difficulty of each course determine the points awarded for each race. You may enter as many races as you want, but only your top 3 scores will count toward your monthly ranking.
Also Read: Zwift Grand Prix: The Dawn of a New Era for Esports Racing
Organizers will add up points for November, December, and January to determine your ranking for the entire season. The top 100 of each category compete in the invitation-only series finale for a chance to win prizes!
Also Read: How Esports Great James Joseph Barnes’ Coach Got Him Ready for the Indoor Season
Team Racing
Teams must have a minimum of 3 but no maximum number of riders. Each team’s top 10 individual point scores determine team scores, regardless of time zone, gender, or category. Team members who earn the top 10 scores for their team will win prizes at the end of the series. .
The World Indoor Cycling Ranking Series Races
Courses will vary and suit different rider types giving every racer a chance to do well. There will be courses available for sprinters, punchers, and climbers. Some races will be 15-20 min, while others will be 60-70 min. Points will vary accordingly in terms of depth and number of points available.
The races take place on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays in 3 different time zones each day.
10:30 am, 7:30 pm & 12:00 am GMT.
Verification steps will be taken, especially for prize eligibility. For a full list of the rules, you can visit the website.
What are you waiting for?! Indoor racing season is here NOW. Get your team together or make the commitment yourself. Sign up today! Register here.
Fun, fair racing, and Prizes! Are you in?
Let us know what you think. Comment below! Your fellow virtual cyclists want to know.
Semi-retired as owner and director of his private Orthopedic Physical Therapy practice after over 20 years, Chris is blessed with the freedom to pursue his passion for virtual cycling and writing. On a continual quest to give back to his bike for all the rewarding experiences and relationships it has provided him, he created a non-profit. Chris is committed to helping others with his bike through its work and the pages of his site.
In the summer of 2022, he rode 3,900 miles from San Francisco to New York to support the charity he founded, TheDIRTDadFund. His “Gain Cave” resides on the North Fork of Long Island, where he lives with his beautiful wife and is proud of his two independent children.
You will read him promoting his passion on the pages of Cycling Weekly, Cycling News, road.cc, Zwift Insider, Endurance.biz, and Bicycling. Chris is co-host of The Virtual Velo Podcast, too!
Liz is a member of the new breed of dedicated Esports athletes, choosing to train and race almost exclusively on the virtual platform, and has risen to become the top-ranked Zwift eracer in the world and finished fifth in the UCI 2022 Cycling Esports World Championships. When she is not busy being a mom to two young children in beautiful Adel, IA, she splits her time between being a USA Cycling Certified Coach, ACSM Personal Trainer, and Esports racer. Liz has raced road, mountain bike, cyclocross, and track, but you’ll mostly find her on the virtual roads these days. Although she never passes up the opportunity to get out in the real world mountain biking with her husband!
Connect with Liz!
Zwift at Liz Van Houweling
Zwift Power: https://zwiftpower.com/profile.php?z=3205020
Strava: https://www.strava.com/athletes/742801
Instagram: @liz.vanh and @saris.nopinz
Facebook: @coachLVH
Just wondering why the differences for Men and Women on categories? Why not make it the same? Flamme Rouge series does a similar categorization and they make it the same for all people. My team (women’s team) looked at this series and then it was a hard “no” when we found that there were only 3 cats for the women and then the men are different.
Great question, Amy! I passed it along to the promoter. Watch this space. Thank you for your comment.
Hello, thanks for your message, the categories were put in place before we knew how popular the series would be and we were very worried about small numbers in races. Now we have lots more interest, we have added an extra category and if the first series is a success, we can definitely add more categories for the second. If you have any suggestions on how to make it better, then please get in touch at admin@worldicr.com as we are still trying to learn and improve the series. Thanks
Thank you 🙏 Lee!