UPDATE: ZwiftHQ has published the route details for this expansion here. It appears there will be two new routes added to Watopia’s list:
- Volcano Flat
Distance: 12.4 km (7.7 mi)
Elevation gain: 50.9 m (167 ft) - Volcano Criterium
Distance (per lap): 4.3 km (2.7 mi)
Elevation (per lap): 20.4 m (67 ft)
Early this morning Zwift CEO Eric Min posted a ride to Strava which includes the much-anticipated “Volcano Route” expansion of Watopia.
Route Details
Since this the first Strava post showing the new extension, we can extract quite a few details with some basic analysis:
- It connects to the existing Watopia roads in two places: the middle of the Italian Village, and 1.5 miles later at the end of the Esses, before the tunnel which leads to the downhill and the start/finish banner.
- The course is very flat, alternating between 1-49′ above sea level.
- The main portion of the course can be ridden as a loop approximately 2.5 miles (4km) long.
- The loop has its own start/finish banner (see it in the background of Eric Min’s snapshot), so it can be used for lap races. With its short, flat loops it looks to be just right for criterium racing–perhaps a “Sulfur Series” of crit races is in order?
- Part of the loop is inside of the volcano (see Eric’s screenshot, which I believe is taken where the loop narrows in the map below).
- This doesn’t appear to be the entire new route, based on a screenshot from the GCN Zwift tour video (see below). My guess is the new route will include a climb to the top of the volcano–if it does not, then that is a planned route for the future.
Hopefully the new route release will also include the ability to go in reverse direction from the starting pier, so we can quickly get to the volcano loop.
This map shows the new route (red) and where it connects to existing routes (black).
When Can I Ride It?
ZwiftHQ never gives hard dates for new route releases, but my guess would be by the 17th of January. It may even arrive this week! They almost released it at the end of December, but had some fine-tuning to do and decided to push it off a bit.
More
You can see a short glimpse of the new route in the GCN video below (the whole video is fun if you want to look around Zwift’s headquarters, but check around the 5:00 mark to see the new route).
Based on the screenshot below it appears there is a climb up the volcano which is not included in Eric Min’s Strava ride. Exciting stuff!
Here is the intersection from the Italian Village to the new route:
Here’s a screenshot from Zwift’s VP of Partnerships, Mike McCarthy… running inside the volcano.
Thanks Zwiftblog, i wondered where it connects to main course and you solve my doub.
One year ago, i remember only 98 riders on Watopia, and rightnow there are peaks of 3.000 “masocyclists”. Obviously, the growth has been overwhelming and there just simply too much riders on course. This is a real problem, specialy for C cat riders when they are racing and a lot of people gets competitive and bother then with the draft.
We really needed a longer watopia, and this is a great work. They even though about laps for races, thank you!!!
If we cant get longer London, Richmont or Watopia, we are going to need a course selection in main Zwift screen.
Some days ago i was watching a livestream on youtube and decided to join the group, i looked at the mobillink app and saw one of the riders 3 km away and started sprinting. Once i caught up , to my surprise not all riders that i was seeing on stream was present ,two were missing. Maybe zwift already removes some zwifters to make it less crowded. I logged on an hour after the streaming group.
I hope there is also a route to the top. From the picture it looks like there is something of a route as it clearly spirals up. Hopefully Eric just rode the bottom part of it 🙂
That’s not a climb up the Volcano, thats LAVA running down the side of the mountain! I don’t think we’ll be riding up there 🙂
Jim, it’s not about the Lava. There is a spiral around the volcano that is set out from the normal slope, just the way streets are set out on steep mountain roads. Could be fun if it was turned into a gravel track, with a Zwift CX bike having performance advantages on that section of the course.
I agree that Zwift might get too crowded. Forming groups is messy and the current communication to all seems very untargeted. Also, I feel that there are too few events at the moment for D level riders, while I do see quite a number of them on the island. In the long-term, I hope that Zwift’s world gets an Alpine extension (maybe absorbing Road Grand Tours for that purpose), or continues to build the course on Naunonga (the island of the big radio tower climb) towards the West, where the real island goes up to an elevation of 923m at Mount Banie.
In the mean-time, excitedly looking forward to the Volcano.
This. More “fantasy” courses, please. London & Richmond are nice & well-rendered, but I look forward to Watopia days.
course details have been updated: https://support.zwift.com/hc/en-us/articles/213336506-Zwift-Courses-and-Routes
so now we know that there will be definitely a criterium 🙂
I agree that the new route will be god but also hope they add a climbing segment up the volcano. More variety means more ways to get thorough the winter doldrums !
Thats good not god lmao .. hate when my fingers don’t work
Looking forward to your new Volcano Route which ,I hope will be on site the 17th.
Good afternoon from Conn. Have been waiting for your new Volcano route to start today. I know the hours between the East coast and West coast. Maybe later today it will be online. Keep up the good work.
Thank you for getting back to me about your new Volcano route . Looking forward to my ride later today. Keep up the great work.
Afternoon , I just tried to log on ZWIFT it I’m getting a Error saying can not log in with this account. Do we have a problem . My account is payed for is it the update causing the problem ?
Something is going on, I got a Bad Gateway error trying to login but it’s cleared up now. Update?
CEO of ZWIFT took a ride on the new Volcano route. Had we download the new route ? I did not see it when ,I just took my 15 mile ride on Watopia.
Hey Ray ,I got the same Error message to then it was gone. Still no download for the new Volcano route yet..Will it load on it’s self.
In the past, each time there was a new section/area to ride there was an update to the program. After you install the update the new riding areas will be there.
Hey Ray have you seen the new Volcano route on yet ? Still no word on it.
All I have seen is what is above. There was talk of the update by the 17th but that date has come and gone.
https://www.strava.com/activities/840030209
More important for me would be an extension for London. It´s getting more and more boring. If you want to ride really flat, there ist just a round with 5 km. So you have to climb the Foxhill.
London estension is next on ZwiftHQ’s list, from what I hear. I would expect something in the next month!