Zwift version 1.125 begins its phased rollout today. The update includes two Watt Lock improvements and a simple crash recovery feature. Read on for details!
Watt Lock Upgrades
Watt Lock arrived in version 1.124 two weeks ago, allowing riders to lock in a target wattage while free riding or in group rides. It’s essentially an Erg mode toggle switch, making it easy to do specific zone work without loading a full structured workout.
Today’s release includes two improvements to the already-popular feature:
Watt Lock can now be assigned to the customizable drop bar buttons on the Zwift Ride: assign the left or right button as a Watt Lock toggle, making it even easier to engage and disengage.
Watt Lock now restores your previous gear when disengaged: previously it was returning us to gear 8, which is a much lower gear than most riders need to be in. Now, it just returns you to the gear you were in before Watt Lock was engaged. (Hopefully this same memory feature comes to Erg workouts soon as well.)
Crash Recovery
Since Zwift’s early days, if a power outage, computer reboot, game crash, etc., interrupted your session, you ended up with a corrupted .fit file that had to be repaired before you could manually upload it to Strava or other platforms. It was such a confusing hassle that I wrote a post about it years ago.
Today’s update includes a recovery feature, so if the game crashes mid-activity, it now shows a recovery prompt. Click “Recover & Sync” to publish your interrupted activity to all connected third-party platforms:
Note: Zwift says this feature is currently in effect for rides greater than 2km and at least 10 minutes in length.
Release Notes
Zwift supplied these additional release notes:
Locked campaign stages now show their start time within the campaign screen. Know the hour you can begin riding the next stage to ensure your rides count towards your progress.
Zwift just launched what may be the biggest set of changes in the platform’s history, under the moniker of Zwift Plus. So naturally, we’re dropping our first-ever emergency episode.
It’s a new premium subscription tier. It’s a new adaptive training tool. It’s… video routes?
But first, a quick follow-up from our Coffee Stop hot takes in Episode 7. Check out the mug Zwifter Tim Humbert (@rusticlogic) sent Eric:
Dave, Shane, and Eric kick things off by unpacking how Zwift Plus was announced. It was a messy rollout that could have gone much smoother, but all Zwifters ended up with access to Zwift Plus for a week. Or was it 10 days?
Then it’s on to Zwift Coach, the new adaptive training tool grounded in peer-reviewed sports science and trained on power and heart rate data from millions of Zwifters. Who is Coach for, and how does it compare to a human coach or the increasingly popular self-service ChatGPT approach?
The other new feature in Zwift Plus is Zwift Video. This is big, because it means Zwift is no longer just our avatars in animated 3D worlds. Zwift Video puts our avatars, Zwifty augmented reality elements, and Zwift’s HUD into high-quality videos of real-life roads. It’s like Rouvy, but it’s not Rouvy. But is it Zwift?
After a broader discussion of what a tiered subscription model could mean for Zwift and its community, we find out whether Eric and Shane (or more accurately, their wives) will be upgrading to Zwift Plus. And Shane offers a tech tip for anyone struggling to load Zwift Video routes on what should be a fast enough internet connection.
Thanks for listening! Leave a review if the show is landing for you, and share us with your cycling friends. Word of mouth is how independent podcasts grow.
Listen On:
Meet the Team
Dave Towle: The voice of American cycling, having called some of the biggest races in the country for decades. Find him @davetowleannouncer.
Shane Miller (GPLama): Based in Australia, Shane is one of the most followed and trusted cycling tech reviewers in the world. Find him at @gplama.
Eric Schlange: Founder of Zwift Insider, the internet’s most comprehensive and reliable resource for Zwift routes, updates, and platform intelligence. Find him @zwiftinsider.
Share Your Thoughts!
This is just an early episode of what we hope is a long-running and useful community Zwift podcast. Share your thoughts below. We’re listening!
Zwift’s latest sales promotion just went live, offering just over 20% off the standard price of the Wahoo KICKR CORE 2 + Zwift Training Mat bundle. This discount is only available via Zwift’s affiliates… see details and shopping links below.
Discount Details
The sale went live today and lasts until 23:59pm PST, Monday November 16.
Here’s how the pricing on the Wahoo KICKR CORE + Training Mat Bundle shakes out during this promotion:
The updated KICKR CORE from Wahoo builds on the strong reputation of the original CORE by adding WiFi connectivity, Race Mode, Bluetooth Bridging, and more. All of this is backed by Wahoo and Zwift’s industry-leading service and support.
If you’re looking for an affordable first smart trainer, or looking to update your aging trainer, the KICKR CORE should be a serious consideration.
Key Specs
Max Wattage: 1800W
Max Incline: 16%
Max Decline: -10%
Power Accuracy: +/-2%
Connectivity: WiFi, ANT+ FEC, ANT+ Power, Bluetooth FTMS, and Zwift Protocol
Yeah, training mats aren’t very glamorous – but they’re an important piece of most indoor training setups. Your body drips sweat and your bottles drip various liquids as you ride. Cleanup is much easier if it falls onto a portable mat instead of your floor.
Zwift’s training mat is essentially the same as Wahoo’s popular mat – it just has different branding (including Zwift’s “CLOSE THE GAP” message just ahead of your front wheel):
Both are high-quality, durable mats. They are made from the same material (6mm PVC), which is a good thickness for absorbing noise/vibration without being too heavy. Both are 36″ wide, but Zwift’s is 2″ longer (80″ vs Wahoo’s 78″).
About These “Affiliate Only” Promos
Just to share a bit of an “inside look” into what’s going on with Zwift’s hardware marketing these days…
This is the second “affiliate only” promotion Zwift has held in recent weeks (here’s the first one). These promos work by applying a unique affiliate discount code to your purchase, so you only get the discount if you go through an affiliate. (Click one of the links below, and it will take you to Zwift’s site. You’ll see the discounted price show up a few seconds later.)
Zwift Insider is an affiliate, as are most cycling media outlets and the various “Zwinfluencers” you’ll find on YouTube and Instagram talking about these deals. This is one new promotional method Zwift is using, and I for one am happy they’re doing it. It translates to income for Zwift’s affiliates instead of more money in the pockets of big marketing networks like Google, and it’s this sort of affiliate income that allows cycling media to keep creating the content we love.
So thanks, in advance, for shopping through us. It really helps.
Breakfast Club World Tour Begins Sunday: 16 Weeks of Group Rides In Every Zwift World, and a Bike to Win
Team Evolve is a cycling club that’s open to riders 16+ worldwide, riding outdoors and on Zwift in the winter. We ride together throughout the week, but Sunday morning’s “The Breakfast Club” is the one most of us try not to miss.
It started years ago under the BRT club banner, but as we moved from club to club this ride stayed with us. This winter we are doing something bigger with it! The World Tour runs for 16 Sundays, taking us through every world on Zwift, with a two-week break over Christmas.
What Makes It Special
Breakfast themes: Every stage has a breakfast theme based on where we are riding. Halloween Ramen in Neokyo to start, a Full English in London, Yorkshire Tea, Burns Night in Scotland, then we finish in Paris with a double espresso.
Group rides, not races: Cat D rides at 1-2 W/kg and Cat C at 2-2.5 W/kg. Pick the one that suits your legs on the day. We do not drop anyone. If the group stretches out, we ease off and bring it back together.
Route voting: Stages 8 and 12 are not fixed yet. We are leaving those open, and riders will vote on the route nearer the time.
Stage 1 kickoff: Our first stage, this Sunday, is fancy dress. It is Halloween weekend after all.
Prizes: see below!
The Prize Giveaway
Ride any 8 of the 16 stages = 1 entry. 12 stages = 2 entries. All 16 = 3 entries.
1st: Zwift Ride with KICKR CORE 2 (£1,099). 2nd to 4th: a year of Zwift each. 5th: Zwift Cog and Click.
Drawn live the week after the Paris finale, once every result is confirmed.
Rule: riders must be on ZwiftPower, otherwise we can’t see their name in the results and their stages won’t count!
The prizes have been provided by Zwift after our club reached Level 2. Rather than keep them within the club, we wanted to open them up so anyone who rides the World Tour has a chance to win!
Route and Schedule Details
We meet at 09:30 on Sunday mornings, UK time. The first stage is 1 November and the last one is 28 February. We are taking 27 December and 3 January off, so 16 stages in total.
Take on the Zwift Cup of Doom: Fellowship Championships Starts Today
I am so excited to announce The Fitness Fellowship’s first official tournament. The Fellowship Championship. We’ve got five brutal stages ahead, but don’t worry! Many of us are heading into the season carrying a few extra kgs, and this is the perfect opportunity to dust off the old cobwebs.
We’ve got a bit of everything from a pan flat sprinters map to a mass start epic to an iTT. And of course we love climbing, so we put a bit of elevation in here and there.
Winners of each rank will be decided using e_gap to win the Zwift Cup of Doom!
While we will all start together, there will be a women’s filter in the results page.
General Classification (e_Gap vs GC) & Scoring
Cumulative Time: The overall GC is decided by your cumulative aggregate chip time across all five stages.
The “e_gap” System: Stages are scored on the time gap behind the stage winner. Every single second you gain, lose, or sprint for at the line counts directly toward your standing on the GC leaderboard.
Single Stages Welcome: If you can’t commit to all five stages, you are still more than welcome to drop in and race any individual stage for glory.
Rules & More Info
Bike Choice: Neutralized road bikes and bike upgrades. TT bikes are only on Stage 4.
Multiple Timeslots: If you ride the same stage more than once to chase a better split, your fastest time will automatically count toward your GC/e_gap standing.
Fair Play: Heart rate monitors are mandatory to be eligible for GC category podiums. Riders on zPower or missing cadence/HR data will be excluded from final GC standings.
Live Leaderboard: Our custom community leaderboard updates twice daily (approx. 8:00 AM and 10:00 PM Pacific Time) so you can track your position between stages.
While Tour of Watopia is well underway and ever-popular, especially with new Watopia routes featured this week, I’m not featuring it in this post because so many great community events are happening, too! See below for my picks, including two rides on Zwift’s most ridiculous route ever, which I just rode today with a few hundred Zwifty friends.
Note: clocks change in the US this weekend, so it’s possible some of these times may shift by an hour. Be sure to check the Companion app to confirm event times!
🤝THE FAST LANE
✅ A Category ✅ Drafting TT✅ Popular✅ Route Badge
We featured this new fast ride last week, and this weekend it’s got more signups than any other event! This is sort of a stripped down and fast version of the popular Sunday WOW ride we often feature, which means fast TT bikes and disc wheels, with drafting enabled.
There’s only one category for this ride, though, and the stated pace is 3.5-4.2 W/kg. Spicy! This week’s ride is on the epic new The Watopia 150 route (152.2km, 0m).
If The Fast Lane is too spicy for you, here’s a ride on the same route – The Watopia 150 (152.2km, 0m) – but with easier pacing options. If you’ve never earned this route badge (3000 XP bonus!), or just want a solid long ride with friends, join the fun! Choose between C (2.6-3.2 w/kg) and D (2.2-2.5 w/kg) paces.
The Bikealicious crew is always friendly, and this is a “keep together” ride, so as long as you keep pedaling, you’ll stay with the group. It’s a good chance to grab this route badge if you haven’t done so yet, which comes with a whopping 3460 XP!
Team Vegan is holding two special rides to celebrate the biggest day of their year, World Vegan Day. And lots of riders are already signed up for this “day to raise awareness and celebrate the vegan lifestyle and how it can benefit you, the animals, and the environment.”
These are open-paced group rides on Watopia’s Coast Crusher (42.8km, 211m). Finishers will unlock the Team Vegan kit.
This is the first event of Team Evolve’s new tour, which runs for 16 Sundays, November 1 through February 28. These are group rides with two pace options: D at 1-2 W/kg and C at 2-2.5 W/kg. This kickoff event is on Makuri Islands’ Chasing the Sun (35.1km, 315m).
There’s a prize draw with some great prizes, including a Zwift Ride + KICKR Core 2! See event description for clarity, and visit teamevolve.cc/breakfast-club for full details.
We choose each weekend’s Notable Events based on a variety of factors including:
Is the event unique/innovative in some way?
Are celebrities (pro riders, etc) attending/leading?
Are signup counts already high, meaning the event is extra-popular?
Does the ride include desirable unlocks or prizes?
Does the event appeal to ladies on Zwift? (We like to support this under-represented group!)
Is it for a good cause?
Is it just plain crazy (extra long races, world record attempts, etc)?
Is it a long-running, popular weekly event with a dedicated leader who deserves a shout out?
In the end, we want to call attention to events that are extra-special and therefore extra-appealing to Zwifters. If you think your event qualifies, comment below with a link/details and we may just include it in an upcoming post!
