“Shisa Shakedown” Route Details (Makuri Islands)
Announced July 2024 as a route for the inaugural Zwift World Series, Shisa Shakedown is basically a flat route with six VO2-length climbs thrown in. It started life as an event-only route, but became an open route in January 2025.
This is an attritional race course, and most riders will want to recover on the flats and descents so they can push hard on the climbs, all while saving a little for the finishing climb up to Shisa Sprint!
Announced July 2024 as a route for the inaugural Zwift World Series, Shisa Shakedown is basically a flat route with six VO2-length climbs thrown in. It started life as an event-only route, but became an open route in January 2025.
This is an attritional race course, and most riders will want to recover on the flats and descents so they can push hard on the climbs, all while saving a little for the finishing climb up to Shisa Sprint!
Route Basics
Length: 49.3 km (30.6 miles)
Elevation: 495m (1,624‘)
+4km (2.5 miles) lead-in with 62m (203‘) elevation
Map: Makuri Islands
ZIMetricsBETA
Rating: 28.2/100 🛈
Time Estimates 🛈
lead-in + first lap
2 W/kg: 112 minutes
3 W/kg: 90 minutes
4 W/kg: 81 minutes
Start & Finish
Begins from Mech Isle pens, ends at Shisa Sprint.
Restriction:
Achievement Badge: 985 XP
Strava Segments
Route Description
Route profile by ZwiftHub – the place to plan and track your route achievements!
Beginning from the Mech Isle start pens, we head toward Festival Harbor but stay right to take the high road up to the Shisa Sprint. Pay close attention, because this looping climb and and the drag to the sprint finish is how this route ends!
Descend from the Shisa Sprint and head through the Mangrove Maze before climbing up through Pain Cavern toward Neokyo’s urban perma-night.
You’ll wind your way through the city, hitting the long Alley Sprint then climbing up to hit the even longer Railway Sprint. Then it’s a twisty climb up the reverse Rooftop KOM, which isn’t an official in-game segment although it may hurt like one.
Descend from the rooftops and head out of Neokyo through the tunnel and into Yumezi’s idyllic countryside. Enjoy a bit of flat road, then watch as you pass the Castle KOM start line and the road begins to tilt upward. You’ll cross a bridge and really begin this two-part climb, which flattens out once more before the second key climbing section. Hold on!
Next we head out of the Castle complex and up the dirty Temple KOM. This is the longest climb of the day because of pure elevation but also because most of it is dirt, which rolls slower in Zwift! Once you ride through the giant mystical tree at the top of this climb, descend back to through the castle complex and down to the flat countryside once more. Only 10km to go.
Let your legs recover as you enjoy the scenic descent through the slot canyon, because you’ve got two crucial climbs just up the road! First it’s the Mech Isle climb: a punchy little dirt corkscrew. Then you’ve got the final climb up to the Shisa Sprint, which you rode at the start of this route. Legs will be knackered by the time you hit that final sprint line. Remember: everyone else is suffering, too. Allez allez!
Eric, Zwift calls it “Shisha” not “Shisa” 😉
Yeah, that’s a typo on their part. The in-game sprints this route is named after are called “Shisa Sprint”.
It’ll be fixed in game before the route is raced.
Actually “Shisha” in Japanese means “dead person” 😉
This route showed up on my Zwift dash this morning, but interestingly was not available when I looked at the routes list for Makuri on the app. Weird! Anyways, I absolutely hammered it thinking like “man I’m definitely gonna get a route trophy today” and woe was me when I noticed the existing Strava segment doesn’t reflect the non-event version (which was basically Shisa Sprint banner to Shisa Sprint banner). I was a little upset but I’m laughing about this in retrospect – it’s a silly thing to have been irked about at all 🙂 Fun route though! I’m so… Read more »
Is there an in-game route badge awarded for finishing this?
Correct link to ZH (shisha) https://zwifthacks.com/app/events/?key=66ff9ac037550
I too noticed this on my “For you” recommendations as a Free Ride – not an event. Will let you know if I get the badge and xp when I finish – doing it now
Just noticed that “Shisa” Event only is 53.3 km. The route I’m doing is “Shisha” is 49.4 in so there’s probably going to be no badge or xp
You should still get it. Free ride just doesn’t have as long of a lead-in as the event, but either will get you the badge. (That’s how other routes work at least. Unless there’s a bug.)
Got the badge and xp!
how were you able to free ride this route?
On the home screen, there is sometimes an option to free-ride it, scroll through and look through all the options it presents you. It’s somewhat random though, so you might not get it. I would guess this route will be opened up to free-ride soon, maybe in the next update. They’ve been opening up routes pretty regularly like that.
Hi Eric, what is the best bike to use on this course please?
Thanks
David
I’m not Eric. But obviously, the choice of bike depends not only on the route, but also on your parameters. Use this service to choose. zwifterbikes.web.app/
It doesn’t list this as a route because it’s Event Only. You have to guess based on what’s in your garage. P
To bad The Strava segment for route dosent show on free ride
This has also started showing up on my home screen to free ride, but I’m putting it off until a new segment that will match free rides is created.
Zwift hub profile looks wrong to me?
The profile from ZwiftHub doesn’t match the profile elsewhere, incl. ZwiftPower, Strava etc 😉
Wrong reference for the activity. It has an “h” in Shisa in the search (Shisha in the search reference) 🙂
It is like the “Uber Pretzel” of the Makuri Island. It basically goes everywhere. Will try this on Sunday! just completed all available in 2024, so I am on a streak to keep my 100% badge completion status and 5 more to go.
By far this is not a flat route. Just saying…
A flat route with 6 climbs…
🤣🤣