The first race of Zwift Racing League 2025/26 Round 3 happens Tuesday, January 6, and it’s a team time trial on a new Makuri Islands route.
This is the flattest race of round 3, so enjoy it while you can, pure-power riders… the climbs are coming!
Let’s dig into this new course and look at bike selection and more!
Looking at the Route: Neon Shore Loop
Neon Shore Loop is a brand-new route in Makuri Islands… so new, in fact, that none of us have raced it yet! It was created just for ZRL, and unless you take advantage of one of the recons held the weekend before the race, the first time you see this route will be during your TTT.
Of course, that doesn’t mean everything about this route is new. It’s made up of roads most of us have already raced, after all. They’re just arranged in a slightly different fashion than we’ve ridden them in the past.
At 34.1 kilometers in length, with 258 meters of climbing, this is the flattest race of Round 3. Like most routes in the Neokyo/Urukazi areas of the Makuri Islands map, this route is quite flat, apart from a couple of key climbs of similar length. Here’s the route profile, not including the 1.1-km lead-in:
Let’s break this route into key sections:
- Flat Start (first 9.2 km): Settle into your team rotation and keep those watts high.
- Ramp Up to 2nd Level @9.2 km (200 meters long): This quick ramp up to the elevated road is short enough that you can hit it hard, keep your speed up, then recover a bit on the short flat before the Rooftop KOM begins.
- Rooftop KOM @10.5 km (1.9km, 2.7%): This climb isn’t particularly long or steep, and it is certainly very draftable. The first 2/3 of this climb is a series of stair-steps which pitch up then flatten out continually, keeping pack speeds high. Then there’s one final ~700m steady climb to the line before the road flattens in the final 50m.
- Descents and Flats @12.5-24.8 km: Heavier riders, settle in and enjoy the longest section of the race without any climbing! This takes you out of Neokyo and down the Slot Canyon to the base of the Mech Isle Corkscrew.
- Mech Isle Corkscrew @24.8 km (500 meters, 3.6%): This dirt climb isn’t long or steep, but since it’s dirt, it’ll be slow due to increased Crr. The harder you can push, the better. Remember, in a time trial, you want go harder when you’re going slower!
- Descents and Flats @25.3-29.8 km: Several more minutes of descent or flats will let your legs recover a bit for the final Pain Cavern climb back to Neokyo level.
- Pain Cavern @29.8 km (2.1 km, 3%): This will be the toughest climb of the day, since you’re near the end of the race and legs are tired. Again, you’ll want to push hard here, as speeds will be slow.
- Finishing Flats @31.9 km to finish: Once you’re out of the Cavern, it’s a flat run-in to the finish at the Alley Sprint arch. Get back into formation and empty those tanks!
Read more about the Neon Shore Loop route >
Bike Frame + Wheel Choice
Bike choice here is simple: go aero. On a route like this, where the roads is mostly flat or downhill, and the only climbs are short and slack, weight simply doesn’t matter enough to trade it for aero performance. Aero is everything! The best setup by far is the CADEX Tri frame paired with the DT Swiss Disc wheels, but you’ll need to be at level 40+ to access this sweet rig:
If you don’t have access to this setup, check out “Fastest TT Bike Frames and Wheels at Each Zwift Level” and use the fastest TT frame and wheelset available at your level.
One more note on bike choice: upgrading your frame makes a big difference. A fully upgraded frame saves around 13 watts, or ~48 seconds per hour of riding. Read all about the performance improvements you receive from upgrades here.
More Route Recons
Many recon rides are planned each week on the upcoming ZRL route. If you’re unfamiliar with this course, jump into an event and familiarize yourself with the route! Find a list of upcoming ZRL recon rides at zwift.com/events/tag/zrlrecon.
Additionally, riders in the Zwift community do a great job every week creating recon videos that preview the courses and offer tips to help you perform your best on the day. I’ll add recons below as I find them, but please comment if you find a useful one that isn’t yet listed!
TTTips
Successful team time trialing on Zwift requires a challenging combination of physical strength, proper pacing, and Zwift minutiae like picking a fast bike, understanding drafting in a TTT context, and getting your frame fully upgraded.
Flatter courses like this week give valuable seconds to teams with big pure-power riders who can keep their power high on the front while staying in single-file formation to conserve in the draft behind. Extra seconds can also be gained by pacing smartly, ramping up the effort on short climbs and recovering a bit once you’re up to speed on the short descents.
On a course like this week’s, I recommend all team members set their Trainer Difficulty to the same value so you’re all feeling the gradient changes similarly. (When one rider has it set to 100% and another 25%, the first rider may ramp up power much more than the second when a climb hits, which can make a mess of your team formation.)
Your goal in a ZRL TTT is to get four riders across the line in the shortest time possible. That means every team’s pace plan will differ based on each rider’s abilities. I highly recommend having an experienced DS on Discord directing your team, especially if your team contains some inexperienced TTT riders.
Lastly, if you want to go further down the TTT rabbit hole, I highly recommend Dave Edmond’s Zwift TTT Calculator tool.
Questions or Comments?
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