Ep 206: A new cast for the ZwiftCast and interview with Eric Min and Matt Stephens

A Christmas edition of the ZwiftCast with Olympic Gold Medallist Dani Rowe MBE…plus Shane, Nathan & Eric are back! The ZwiftCast is back for a festive Christmas Eve special with its new regular hosts, British cycling broadcaster Rebecca Charlton and American cycling announcer Dave Towle.  The duo dive into Zwift’s recent decision to pause the Zwift World Series with returning experts Shane Miller, Eric Schlange and Nathan Guerra, as well as Zwift’s changes to the event calendar - removing a large number of events - and why this might be a good thing. Olympic Gold medallist Dani Rowe MBE joins Rebecca to chat all things pregnancy and riding, her recent move onto the Discovery+ broadcast team for the Tour de France, and about designing workouts for Zwift at different points of life. Stay tuned for her hilarious Zwift fail! It wouldn’t be Christmas without a bit of festive Zwifting - we look at what’s happening to keep you motivated, including the famous Rapha Festive 500. Grab a mince pie and enjoy!

After a brief hiatus, the Zwiftcast is back with British broadcaster, Zwifter and life-long cyclist Rebecca Charlton joining American cycling favourite, commentator and announcer Dave Towle as your new co-hosts. In this episode, they chat with Zwift's CEO and Co-Founder, Eric Min, to discuss Zwift's 10th anniversary, Eric Schlange of Zwift Insider joins to bring the team up to speed on what they may have missed over the past couple of months, and finally, Rebecca catches up with a friend of Zwift, ex-pro and all-round cycling legend, Matt Stephens. Join the new cast to hear how they’ll be dropping in from the slipstream of the brilliant Zwiftcast creator Simon Schofield, find out why Matt is in a bathrobe for his interview and discover why there's a shared love of the pizza slice!   

In what has now become a tradition, Zwift HQ today revealed a bagful of new features, both in hardware and software, coming down the track as the Northern Hemisphere Peak Season ramps up.   The Zwiftcasters run through the shiny new things - some of which are being implemented immediately and some which will be scattered before Zwifters hopefully before there’s snow on the ground.   There are a number of real crowd-pleasers, including a revamped HUD and new roads in Watopia, but there’s more - it’s quite a packed programme. Hear what we think of what’s coming!  

After the most thrilling finish to a Grand Tour for many years, perhaps ever, Simon and the Zwiftcasters assess the effect Le Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift is likely to have on the sport in the future. In one of their favourite metrics - bums on saddles - already huge progress is being made. But what more needs to be done? The Zwiftcast’s man on the ground Dave Towle files a personal report and we discuss the Tour and its aftermath. One of the longest running inside gags on the podcast - Simon’s non-ownership of a certain virtual bike - looks like it could be coming to an end (Simon thinks) as Zwift implement an auto-enrol function for the Everest Challenge. Is it a Simon Switch or an Idiot Switch? The Zwiftcasters discuss. Zwift is finally opening up its API to selected partners with a service aimed at tri-athletes the first to benefit. While the whole API thing sounds a bit nerdy, in fact the implications for everyday Zwifters are extremely significant. Simon, Shane, Nathan and Eric speculate on how fast changes may happen and what the possible nature of enhancements to the user experience may be. The Zwiftcast ranges across the latest Zwifty news with coverage of UCI certification of trainers; enhancements to the women’s racing calendar and even a small bone HQ has thrown to runners. In Correction Corner, the Zwiftcasters chew over the revised figures HQ delivered on the proportions of Zwifters at certain levels. There was amazement at the first version of these stats, which didn’t pass the Zwiftcast sniff test. The new version makes much more sense. And how do you get to be a Zwift club with 1,000 members in 60 countries? Be more SISU seems to be the answer. Dave chats to one of the founders of one of the most successful clubs on the platform. We hope you enjoy listening.  

This episode kicks of with a sequence looking at the community reaction to HQ’s latest changes to the XP system and, in turn, Zwifters’ levels. It’s fair to say the latest changes were not universally welcomed, and Simon, Shane and Eric pick apart the reasons. HQ acknowledged that the changes were not well signalled and HQ’s head of product Mark Cote explains what happened. Even the most casual cycling fan must be aware that Women’s Cycling is on the up - fresh, exciting and growing fast. Simon talks to HQ’s Kate Veronneau about the absolutely pivotal part Zwift has played in this, much of it down to the company’s critically important sponsorship of the re-born Tour de Frances Femmes, avec Zwift. Kate discloses that she’s been known to message journalists and broadcasters who forget to mention the “avec Zwift” part! When a listener asked Simon to chase down some stats on how many Zwifters sit at each Level, he thought it might make an interesting feature. In fact, the data that came back from Zwift was absolutely gob-smacking. The Level 100 Club is uber-exclusive, with only 0.06% of Zwifters getting past the velvet ropes to the inner sanctum of achievement. At the other end, the percentage of Zwifters just starting their journey, and on Levels 1-10, is, if anything, even more staggering. Listen to the Ep to find out more. Zwift staffer James Bailey provides a shedload of interesting insight into the new Zwift Racing Score system which should, before too long, replace the crude A, B, C and D racing categories. And Kate returns at the end of the episode to give a preview of the exciting events on the platform to mark the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. We hope you enjoy listening.    

The Zwiftcast hosts discuss the really significant implications of what looks very much like a price war on trainers as Australian manufacturer Jet Black unveils a gob-smackingly good value - and fully featured - trainer at Eurobike. Simon chats to Shane and Eric about the consequences, with the Zwiftcasters pausing to take a humorous side-swipe or two at the extraordinary offering from Elite, bucking both pricing trends and design conventions. Simon also catches up with Dave and Nathan for an extended and joyful conversation about Mark Cavendish’s incredible win at Le Tour. Mark, a great friend of Zwift, finally took his record breaking win on Stage Four. Elsewhere Simon parses an interview Eric Min granted D C Rainmaker, the first time the Zwift CEO has spoken at length since resuming his top leadership role at the company. Simon provides commentary and analysis on a very interesting chat, with more analysis and reaction from Dave and Nathan. The chief designer of the Zwift Ride, Graham Stoney reveals some of its development secrets in an extended interview with Simon and Shane and Eric speculate on might be coming next from the Zwift hardware team. And finally, an in-depth chat with Mr Helpful, the Zwift staffer James Bailey, who volunteers his encyclopaedic knowledge of the more arcane bits of the Zwift platform to help questioners in the Zwift Riders FB group.

After a very long coffee stop, the Zwiftcast returns to resume the familiar mix of Zwifty chat and gossip. Simon, Shane and Nathan are joined by friend of the pod, Eric Schlange of Zwift Insider and special guest Dave Towle. Quite a lot happened in Watopia and the wider Zwift world over the last two years or so. Simon picks out the big stuff and we put those through the Zwiftcast grinder. There's a great chat with Olympian cyclist and now highly rated coach, Kristan Armstrong on how to get the best out of the new feature on Zwift, The Grade.  Simon spends a few minutes explaining why the pod went away, why it's come back and where it's going next. And we conclude with a look at the competitive scene on Zwift with the long called for retirement of Zee Power in Zwift-owned racing events as well as the curious appeal of a Beat The Bots ride. Welcome back Listeners!  

Simon, Shane and Nathan are together for the final time as the sun sets on the Zwiftcast. And they ask: Is Zwift’s Age of Dominance over? Wahoo surprised the whole indoor training sector with the bombshell announcement that it was buying RGT, for some time the only like-for-like competitor with Zwift. The Zwiftcasters consider several aspects of the deal . . . . will it spur the big Zee to greater urgency in its development of new features? What might it mean for the rumoured TrainerRoad deal? Could Wahoo’s undoubted power and expertise pose a serious threat to Zwift’s growth?  And does Zwift have the bandwidth to handle its first serious rival AND the launch of its own hardware? There is certainly plenty for the Zwiftcast Trinity to consider. Elsewhere Simon talks to a host of Zwift OGs . . . the Zwifters who were around right at the beginning, helping to build the community, establish racing and pioneer online coaching using the platform. Simon does “Where Are They Now?” spots with David Lipscombe, Julynn Washington, James Gill and Christian Wiedemann. All are still Zwifting and many have strong thoughts on what they’d like Zwift to be doing - and their words are given greater topicality and relevance by the Wahoo deal. Elsewhere, after the old Mining Town got nuked, then re-instated, Simon asks Shane and Nathan what else in Zwift they’d like to see nuked.  There’s also speculation around the new Gravel Mountain route and a final goodbye. Simon would like to thank each and every single Listener over the years and the scores of episodes, especially for the many private and public messages received after he announced that the Zwiftcast was riding up over the hill and into a slowly setting Spanish sun. Thanks for listening!

Well, that was a hot mess, wasn’t it? Simon, Shane and Nathan chew over the whole #freeLuciano debacle as a packed episode 104 hits your podcatchers. In the longest Zwiftcast ever, the trio also take assess the likely importance to the platform of Club Functionality, now it’s available to all Zwifters. Simon interviews Eddie from HQ, who we christen the King of Clubs. Zwift is coming under pressure on disabled and differently-abled athletes as Zwifter Andy Shuttleworth starts a campaign to highlight the lack of representation in game. There’s news from inside HQ of what they plan to do on what is acknowledged to be a hot topic. Is Zwift about to take over TrainerRoad? Only a very few people know for sure and it’s not Simon, or Shane or Nathan. That doesn’t stop them speculating on the likelihood and the wisdom of the move. Zwift is making its most serious attempt ever to stop sandbaggers in their tracks in the racing sphere. HQ’s Flint McGinnis explains why the approach of Category Enforcement has been taken and how the scheme is expected to develop. The Zwiftcasters look at the fairytale story of Academy Winner Jay Vine surging to victory in the e-sports World Champs while Simon goes off on one on the coverage.  And finally, there’s a dose of schadenfraude, as the chaps ask what went wrong at Peloton and whether there are lessons for Zwift to learn. We hope you enjoy listening.

In a packed and busy episode, the emphasis for the Zwiftcasters in the New Year is very much on new things. Will we hit a new Peak Zwift, beating last year’s over 49,000 concurrent riders? Simon, Shane and Nathan enter their guesses. The new Zwift Bike was announced, well leaked, by Zwift in a strange way over the holidays. The Zwiftcasters discuss this, but more importantly, the features we now know about. They are excited. There is a new Home Screen coming to Zwift, but contain your excitement because it’s a slow roll out. The Zwiftcasters have had a preview and they very much like what they’ve been playing with. There is brand new functionality coming to Clubs and the podcasters reckon it will be a huge development as the community gets new - and simple - ways to organise their own events. Elsewhere Simon talks to Mike Hanney about the new Zwiftaliser, the invaluable tool for diagnosing connection and other issues for Zwifters. And there is a new set of tests scheduled to start the long awaited clampdown on the sandbaggers. Along the way Simon, Shane and Nathan find more Zwiftiness to explore and debate. It’s a long one - you’re gonna need a bigger pot of chamois cream! We hope you enjoy listening.