Zwift has just rolled out an in-game mission for the month of March: its first MTB mission ever! This mission is centered on the Absa Cape Epic, a race held on South Africa’s western cape that covers 600+km and over 50,000′ of climbing in 8 back-to-back daily stages.
Here are all the mission details…
Completing the Mission
Begin by joining the mission – click “Let’s do this!” from the startup screen, then agree to the terms.
This is important: only rides done on the Scott Spark RC bike count toward the mission.
You can “Auto equip Scott Spark RC”, which puts you on that bike for your ride. Or uncheck that option to use a different bike.
This option is confusing a lot of Zwifters already – we’ve received several emails from people saying “Why am I on a mountain bike?” Just uncheck that box and you’ll be good to go!
As long as you’re riding the Scott Spark RC bike, your climbing will count toward the mission. Ride a total of 2,850 meters/9,350′ (you can do it in one epic ride, or across multiple rides) and you will unlock the extra Drops and Absa-inspired paint scheme (see below).
Why 2,850m? Because that’s how much climbing riders will be doing for the 85km (53 mile) long stage 5 of the Absa Cape Epic race. Wow!
The mission ends at 11:59pm PT March 31st, so make sure you get your MTB climbing in by then!
Forced (Accidental) Bike Swaps
Zwifters are reporting a bug wherein the game is placing them on the Scott Spark when the Zwifter hasn’t yet signed up for the mission.
The quick fix: sign up for the mission! Then you can turn off the “auto equip Scott Spark RC” option and it will stay off.
Important: if you’re joining an event, especially a race, make sure you’re on the right bike beforehand! You won’t win a road race on this (or any) mountain bike, since it rolls much slower on tarmac.
Mission Unlock
When you complete the mission you will receive a bonus of 100,000 Drops, while also unlocking the zebra-inspired paint scheme for the Scott Spark RC bike.
Note: you will need to own the Scott Spark RC in order to ride it outside of the mission. It’s one of the best mountain bikes in game currently, so it’s worth picking up!
Grand Prize
Everyone who completes the mission will earn an entry into the grand prize drawing for a custom-painted Scott Spark RC bike.
**Note from Zwift: the image is a representation of what the bike will look like with paint applied. The components shown will differ from the prize bike. The prize bike will have Sram XO1 or XT level components and alloy wheels.
For more details on the mission, see the Zwift’s official mission page.
I wish they’d introduced a few dirt climbs before running this promotion/event. Right now it’s pretty much just the Jungle Loop that’s not going to penalize our RR on the MTB, yeah? 38 Loops? Not sure I want to be doing AdZ or Radio Tower repeats on the MTB!
Agree 100%. I ran the math if you did a route that has the CRR of dirt or ice/snow. Currently there are only three options, Repack Ridge, Jungle Circuit and Radio Tower Bonus Climb. My math below is based on the Zwift Insider segments for each. Say you wanted to do the entire challenge in one big ride. how long would that take and how many miles would you do? Repack Ridge = 233′, 1.85 miles and my avg time is 10 minutes per climb. So it would be 41 laps, roughly 85 miles and would take around 7 hours.… Read more »
yo, stupid question, but how do u unlock/access the “repack ridge” or “radio tower bonus climb” courses? i can only see jungle circuit on watopia QQ
@ShakeNBakeUK see https://zwiftinsider.com/find-zwifts-new-mountain-bike-steering-course/
you need to level up
Dirt is the only surface where a MTB has an advantage over a road bike, but a MTB on pavement is still faster than a MTB on dirt, right?
Correct, @guest_34711. See https://zwiftinsider.com/crr/
The Spark is “only” 6 minutes slower up the ADZ than the fastest road bikes, assuming you’re putting out 4w/kg (https://zwiftinsider.com/mountain-bike-results/). I figured that the fastest way to complete the mission was to climb ADZ 3 times using the Jungle Circuit route. I split these climbs into 3 workouts.
This is the route I’m going to. One down, two to go!
Why does Zwift put you on a MTB when you log on? They should never change your selection! Ugh!
I agree.
If you signed up for this mission and you left auto select on….that’s why. Just click it off.
If you’re not signed up for the mission…. the fix was pointed out in the article.
I didn’t sign up for the lame mission.
because you need that mt bike for absa cape epic mission
Forced bike swap happened to me today on a windows pc.
Any suggestion for a nice mtb route with some climbs?
Just done rides on the mission and no height gain showing!!
Were you riding the Scott Spark RC?
I rode through the Alpe du Zwift
you need to be in the Scott mt bike thats part of the absa cape epic mission
Not seeing an ability to opt out of the MTB unless you opt in to the challeng? So much wrong here..
Yep. Gotta opt in to opt out. It’s whack!
in prefs.xml
xCONFIGx
xUSEMISSIONITEMx1x/USEMISSIONITEMx
change 1 to 0!
here
xCONFIGx
xUSEMISSIONITEMx1x/USEMISSIONITEMx
I didn’t yet opt in but my bike was changed to the Spark each time I logged in and selected a NYC route ride this morning. I could switch bikes though. No big deal, just odd behaviour.
Lots of jungle laps coming soon I guess.
Same here and same as the recent calorie challenge. First ride didn’t count. Was on the Scott bike. Not as motivating when only some rides count towards the total.
This is really wrong that you force onto MTB. Shrieks arrogance or incompetence
Help! How do I get rid of MTB and back to my train. The garage has frame greyed out.
It’s tvOS. I assume it’ll work, since Zwift didn’t mention it not working!
Seems like a good excuse to give Repack Ridge another go!
Repack Ridge = 233′, 1.85 miles and my avg time is 10 minutes per climb. So it would be 41 laps, roughly 85 miles and would take around 7 hours.
I don’t see the option to check or uncheck auto-use bike … so I ended up doing this in the prefs file:
well it is not letting me put tags in this post … so the tag is usemissionitem and i had to set it to 0 instead of 1
not ideal … but at least i am back on my tron 🙂
Can you bike swap and ride flats on road bike and just use Scott for climbing sections, or do you need to use MTB for full ride?
Worked fine on Apple TV for me. No issues
you may be able to join, but as per official T&C you wont be eligible for the prize even you complete it. “To be eligible for prizes, you must opt-in for this Mission via a Windows, Android or Mac device. You may complete the Mission via an iOS device, however, opt-ins to participate for the prize via iOS are not permitted.”
Apple TV worked fine
I am now during Climb Mt. Everest” challenge. Can I start also this mission without losing my Climb Mt. Everest” challenge status?
I have exactly the same question – I thought you “lost” the Everest climbing points (with the prize of the Tron bike of course) if you signed out of it. I hope I am wrong and I’m asking ZwiftHQ although out of fear I am just swapping bike in the garage at the start of each ride…
Yes, you can do both concurrently. They’re two separate things (one is a mission, the other a challenge).
I can’t see the challenge on my screen on iOS, I know you can’t opt-in for the prize draw, but I can’t even sign up for the challenge. Help!
Make sure your Zwift install is up to date.
Update of Zwift app fixed it for me, thanks Eric.
Climbed 625m on the right bike tonight and no credit for the climb. Don’t appreciate when the challenges have bugs. Second challenge that this has happened to me.
Same thing happened to me today. I got credit yesterday, but not today. And I have it set to automatically put me on the correct mountain bike. Might abandon this mission….riding mtn bike on pavement is so boring.
I did the jungle and a bit of the ADZ for during a workout ride (~270m). And the two following nights, I did the ADZ (1072m, 1053m). I swapped back to a TT bike on decents. Somehow, it showed me as completed the mission after the last decent when I swap back to the mountain bike before exiting.
So if I’m understanding things correctly, after you complete the climbing requirements for the Mission, you still have to “buy” the bike, if you want to have it permanently ??? It’s not free upon completion ???
Correct. All you’re unlocking is the paint scheme.
The last post answered the question I had. Even though I like Specialized, I am looking forward to getting the Scott Spark RC after completing this mission. Its gonna be a sweet looking machine! Thanks for all your work Eric.
I have finished two times Road to Sky (up and down) with the bike and totaled 2,541 m elevation in March. Still i got the reward yestarday after the descent of Alpe du Zwift.
Not complaining for finishing early for once, but has this happened to anyone else?
Road Tour of Tewit Well on the Scott Spark but the elevation didn’t count against the mission. However, my short Tempus Fugit ride did. A little frustrating but there is still plenty of time to complete the mission. This was my first ride outside of Watopia but I didn’t see anything stating only Watopia rides count. But I plan to stay there until the mission is completed, just in case there is some glitch.
I have recently completed the Absa Cape Epic mission but did not receive the 100,000 drops as expected. I then discovered the following on the associated Zwift page:
…Log in to Zwift. To be eligible for prizes, you must opt-in for this Mission via a Windows, Android or Mac device. You may complete the Mission via an iOS device, however, opt-ins to participate for the prize via iOS are not permitted.
Frustrating to say the least grrrrrrr
Man, that’s bogus!
How to earn that absa cape epic kit
I think if you do one of the Cape Epic workouts you get it: https://zwifthacks.com/app/events/?key=5e67b8f80eb79
Completing “Cape Epic Zwift Prologue – Tempus Fugit” doesn’t unlock “the zebra-inspired Cape Epic kit”? https://zwift.com/events/view/364777
I unlock the kit, completing another event. I love zebra. Thanks!
I running the tour de watopia on this guy … I know I won’t win but I bet I won’t be last… will make dropping people all that much more satisfying ….MWAHAH…..ahahhaha…. AHHH….HAHAHAHAHA!….
=)
When is the winner announced for the Scott bike?
Is there a promo code for the epic jersey?
Not that I know of.