Smash your club’s Zwift goals – 5 tips from the first National Esports winners

When lockdowns stifled outdoor riding during the COVID-19 pandemic, more and more cyclists began turning online to fill the bike-shaped hole in their lives.

Clubs added virtual events to their calendar, and, in doing so, created a new way for their members to ride together.

One such club was Waratah Masters Cycling Club in Sydney, whose spin-off group WMZau (formerly “Waratah Masters Zwifters”) has blossomed into a thriving community. After launching in April 2020, WMZ’s Facebook group now boasts over 600 members.

WMZ runs a weekly schedule of Zwift events and enters teams into global competitions. As a testament to its success, WMZ won the inaugural AusCycling National Club Esports Series in June.

Recently, AusCycling spoke to founder Brett McMurtrie about how his club established its presence in cycling esports. And while he didn’t phrase it that way, McMurtrie gave us what we’re calling five tips to smashing your club’s Zwift goals.

Tip #1: Jump in

Virtual cycling is hardly a novelty anymore. Zwift was launched back in 2015, when Chris Froome had only just won his second Tour de France.

McMurtrie says that while some clubs have been reluctant to branch into esports, more are starting to dip their toes in the water.

“Last series, I reached out to presidents of Sydney cycling clubs and asked, ‘OK everybody, who’s up for this?’” McMurtrie said. “The response I got was, ‘Not me, I’m not into it.’ A lot of people had their heads buried in the sand; they hadn’t taken up the online platform within their club.”

As a result, riders whose primary clubs weren’t interested in virtual cycling — Zwift orphans, if you will — flocked to WMZ. The sheer number of WMZ riders contributed towards its success in the first AusCycling club series.

However, McMurtrie notes that clubs are now beginning to make the virtual leap.

“What some clubs did, they said, ‘Yes, we are going to doing it.’

“For example, Randwick formed eRANDWICK, and I worked very closely with eRANDWICK to help them get their team up and running,” McMurtrie said. “I said to all these WMZ riders that had a Randwick licence, or were associated with Randwick: ‘go, race with Randwick.’

“I also approached and helped Southern Cross Cycle Club, Sutherland, places like that.”

Riders are now looking to – even expecting – their clubs to have an esports presence. Those clubs that engage now will establish a strong presence as the discipline continues to grow.

Tip #2: Be inclusive

Building a virtual community is not too different to a real-life one: it should be uplifting and encouraging, not critical and divisive.

“Our inclusive culture and our supportive culture is what kicks our goals for us,” McMurtrie said. “Winning the [national club] competition, receiving the certificate, having that acknowledgment is actually nice – but it’s not why we do it.”

McMurtrie emphasised club and gender as two key dimensions of inclusion.

“I don’t see Parramatta as our competitor. We don’t see Randwick as our competitor, Southern Cross or Camden or Marconi – we don’t see other in-real-life clubs as our competitors,” McMurtrie said.

“Basically, they’re all part of our family. That’s carried over from in-real-life; we all go racing on Sunday mornings. It doesn’t matter what club, we’re all mates,” he said.

However, there’s still a place for club rivalry, as long as it’s in the right spirit.

“What helps us is … we had that friendly competition and banter between mates representing different clubs. There’s no animosity in there, there’s no snide comments – it’s all mates having fun, regardless of whether you’re Waratah Masters, regardless if you’re Parramatta, you’re part of us.”

Women’s participation has been a particular focus for the club. McMurtrie identified it as a major factor in WMZ’s competitive success.

“We’re building a female culture as well as an overall culture, and a female inclusiveness. We’ve actually set up a separate female Facebook page, and we’ve got women helping each other participate.

“A lot of clubs in the AusCycling series, they either performed really well in the men’s section or performed really well in the women’s section. They didn’t perform well in both sections,” McMurtrie said.

“We were very mindful to try to get as much participation from the women, more so than the men, and that showed in our results. We didn’t have one lady getting all the points, we had several getting a few points, which placed us well in the overall standings. It was the volume, and the environment, and again, safety in numbers.”

Tip #3: Ease in newcomers

Inclusiveness means you need to help new riders find their feet.

For the experienced rider, virtual cycling is intuitive: you just hop on and ride. But for the newcomer, the process of setting up your indoor trainer, linking your devices and accounts, and finding the right event can be daunting.

It’s not surprising that some riders are scared off – especially when it comes to competitive racing.

WMZ introduces new riders gradually to Zwift instead of throwing them into the deep end. They host beginner-friendly events such as structured group workouts and easy group rides to bridge the gap between beginner and esports racer.

“A lot of people have a fear of the unknown,” said McMurtrie. “A lot of people haven’t raced before, so they don’t want to race because they’re scared of it.

“That’s where other activities come in. For us – forming the women’s-only group, focusing a lot on team time trials, doing weekly workouts, Monday morning recovery ride, Friday Sugar & Spice – what that’s doing is building up a familiarity with members and riding,” said McMurtrie.

“For example, the Sugar & Spice, it’s no coincidence that the first two laps out of three are cruisy. Then the last lap is an optional race, so if you don’t want to race, you don’t have to race.

“Some people start racing and they become comfortable with it. When they become more comfortable with it, they keep doing it more often. Then when things like this [AusCycling] series come up, they’ve already dipped their toes into the pond, and they will participate.”

Tip #4: Ride together

Just because you’re on the limit in a Zwift race doesn’t mean community spirit goes out the window.

McMurtrie says that when WMZ riders compete, they’re looking to help each other out.

“Some people don’t even care about their result in the series: they enter it, and they stay bunched together. They say, ‘even though I’m stronger than you,’ or ‘even though I’m weaker than you – let’s all cross the finish line together,’” McMurtrie said. “They almost treat it like a team time trial within the race. If you have a look at the results, you will see a lot of Waratah Masters entrants cross the finish line in blocks.”

McMurtrie recommends using a messaging app or voice chat to discuss tactics within a race.

“We were using communication during the races, and if someone got dropped from the front pack, they will say, ‘I’m already dropped, I’m 20 seconds behind you, why don’t you just soft-pedal for a while, let me catch up, and we’ll ride together,’ he said.

“And we start passing individual riders, group up together, ride as a team – so to speak – and pick up dregs that were dropped off the pack in front of us. We’d beat a lot of people.”

Tip #5: Stay in it for the long haul

Your club’s virtual cycling success won’t happen overnight. Building an online community is more like an endurance ride than a criterium. McMurtrie says clubs should invest consistently and allow time for growth.

“You need to stay active. If you’re going to just spring up out of nowhere when a series is about to start, it’s a recipe for failure,” McMurtrie said. “I think a recipe for success is to stay active in the low seasons.

“If you keep engaged with your members all the time, it just becomes part of BAU when these things [like the AusCycling races] come up. You’re going to get, in my opinion, a lot better participation if you keep that engagement consistent.”

But, why do it? Just how does a strong cycling esports community benefit your members?

We’ll let McMurtrie have the last word: “Keeping fit, mentally healthy, the community support: it’s not just turning your legs over.”

AusCycling’s first virtual stage race is happening this weekend: race the AusCycling Esports Tour on 29–31 October. To learn more about WMZau, join their Facebook group.