After months of solo Zwift riding, I found myself curious about some team-based events within the app. WTRL does Thursday night Team Time Trials, which piqued my interest. I’ve done time trials IRL, but never online. Small problem is that it’s very difficult to do team time trials when you’re not actually part of a team.
I had heard about Zwift team cycling, but was convinced I wasn’t ready for it. I figured I needed to be faster, more experienced, or at least know what I was doing. However, a casual comment during one of my streams changed that. One of my viewers, who happened to be part of The Coalition, invited me to the team’s Discord.
I figured I really had nothing to lose, so I went for it.
The Discord
From the moment I walked through the proverbial doors of the Discord server, I was met with an abundance of greetings and acceptance.
Now, I’m not going to lie, the Discord can be very overwhelming at first. Thankfully, they have set up the #welcome channel to be incredibly helpful and have provided a metric-ton of instructions and guidance on how to navigate around the server. In fact, there are dedicated #faq, #directory, and #help channels to provide information on commonly asked questions, what all the channels mean, and just a general place to ask questions, respectively.
I’m not the type to shy away from asking questions, and every single time I threw one down, someone responded with wholehearted enthusiasm and helpfulness. I was also provided the space to ask for guidance and direction in navigating the server and the process.
I will also add that it’s somewhat difficult to get access to all the channels all at once, which is a very good thing. A good portion of channels required me to purposefully navigate to an “I Want To ___” channel (ie. #i-want-to-race) (I call these IWTs). From here, I was able to manually perform a quick role selection, via emoji reactions, open up access to a myriad of new channels related to the respective IWT
The community
For me personally, this is one of the most accepting groups I’ve ever been a part of. There is a place for everyone here. If you’re the type to dive into everything, there’s a place for you. If you want to just sit quietly in the background, you’ve come to the right place. There aren’t any agendas or requirements besides just being a decent person.
At any given time, there are a myriad of different conversations going on, across a multitude of topics, but all of them happening slowly enough that keeping up is quite easy. There is also a general attitude that while everyone enjoys being part of The Coalition and Zwifting, we’re all on the same page that at the end of the day this is just a really fun way to stay fit and active.
I do want to be clear that this does not mean that no one in the group takes their virtual racing career seriously. I know there are a good number of team members that race in the higher categories and do so on a very routine basis. But, again, this doesn’t mean that they push a “better than you” attitude towards anyone else (at least not from what I’ve seen), nor require everyone to be on the same level.
Rather, there is a pervasive desire to keep the spirit of friendly and fair competition alive, with the goal of bringing together like-minded folks who simply want to be part of a community dedicated to cycling virtually and IRL.
So many options to race
I was specifically interested in racing and time trials. So, I began asking a lot of questions about the differences between the various racing formats (Ladder League, team time trials, Zwift Racing League, etc.). At first it was a lot to absorb, and it was acknowledged, on multiple occasions, that all of these facets of Zwift can definitely be overwhelming. Thankfully, after a few days, everything began to fit into place, and I began to gain a better understanding of how it all worked.
While I have yet to actually do a team time trial (my schedule just hasn’t lined up), one of the race-types that caught my interest were the Ladder races.
Ladder races turned out to be weekly, casual, self-scheduled team competitions . Getting started was surprisingly simple - fill out a form, do quick verification, get assigned to a team. Done.
On top of this, there’s a whole community around these races, and has been for some time now. Because of this, the races and their associated results are all organized by a volunteer race authority.
“I thought you said this was ‘casual’?”
And it very much is. However, these measures are necessary to ensure the races stay fair and approachable to all. Thankfully, the Coalition Discord channel contains all the information needed to navigate all of this, to say nothing of the help that all of the members provide.
With all of that being said, getting added to the ladder races was as simple as filling out a form. Some various stats are requested, so that you can be placed into the most appropriate team. After a few days, I got a DM from one of the captains and asked to do initial racer validation (simple as taking a few simple photos of height and weight for proof). I was added to one of the teams and then to the respective team’s Discord channel.
Simple as that. All told, it took maybe a week, if that.
All that’s really asked of anyone in the team is that we fill out a weekly availability sheet, besides showing up to the race.
My first Ladder race
My first ladder race was an absolute crazy experience. Like I stated above, I’m not a fast racer. I’m still working on increasing my strength and speed, but this is definitely a slower process. I let the team know this, and was immediately met with encouragement and reassurance that being “the best” was not required to participate. I can guarantee you that this was 100% true, as the race did not go anywhere near what I expected. My group told me to make sure I spun up a few hundred watts a little bit before the start timer hit zero, so I could have a good lead right out of the gate. What wasn’t expected was for the opposing team to be in an all-out sprint right as the race started. Unfortunately for me, this meant I was quickly dropped. However, my team encouraged me to not worry about that, that this was not a typical start, and to simply put in the effort that I was able to. So, put in the effort I did. I finished painfully last, but never once was I told to just give up. My teammates continued to offer encouragement and advice throughout the entire race, even when they were waiting an extra ten minutes (yes, like I said, painfully last) for me to finish. I realized that this was exactly the team I needed to be part of, and was extremely happy that I took the step forward to join.
If you’re new to The Coalition, the best thing I can suggest is to just dive in. Ask the questions, meet the people, do the things. It’s fine if you don’t think you’re good enough yet. That’s the whole point!
In full transparency, I did not expect this level of acceptance and assistance. I was very hesitant to join any Zwift teams, mainly because I’m not a strong cyclist at this moment. I’m still early in the process of getting stronger and fitter, so I naturally (wrongly) assumed that I either needed to be in a higher racing category or have a ton more experience in general.
Turns out, the only thing I needed was the desire to be part of the community and the willingness to abide by the rules.
The best advice I have if you’re wondering how to get started with this team? Just dive in and become part of the group!
Join us!
If you are interested in trying out some team racing,The Coalition is a welcoming environment for riders of all abilities. Head to How to Join to find out how to get signed up. We look forward to seeing you on our next ride.