Zwift has just pushed out update 1.0.10735, which includes the Watopia Mountain Route!
While the Richmond course was scheduled for Thursday and Friday, riders are currently being taken to Watopia automatically.
Climb on!
Courtesy of Zwift CEO Eric Min’s recent test ride posted to Strava. According to Eric the route is “Epic and nearly ready!”
The Tron bike (named the “Zwift Concept Z1” in game) is definitely the coolest ride in Zwift (and one of the fastest). How do you get it? Three simple (but not easy) steps:
That’s right: it takes a total of 50,000 meters (164,042′) of climbing to earn the Tron bike.
Once you’ve unlocked your Tron, see if you can dial in the multicolored light scheme >
Update: this hack is no longer needed, as Zwift has added “Hide the Display” mode in April 2021. Read all about how it works >
To run Zwift with minimal on-screen “heads up display” elements, add this line to the <config> section of your Zwift preferences file located at Documents/Zwift/prefs.xml:
<MINIMAL_UI>1</MINIMAL_UI>
This turns off the rider list, leaderboards, speed/rider timer, and more. Here’s a screenshot of the result:
Here is my prefs.xml file with the line added. If you’ve never edited an XML file before, it is as easy as opening the file in a text editor (Notepad works great on a PC), editing the file and saving your changes. Saving a backup copy of the original file is always a good idea!
<ZWIFT>
<DEVICES>
<LASTCADENCEDEVICE>720996</LASTCADENCEDEVICE>
<LASTPOWERDEVICE>720996</LASTPOWERDEVICE>
<CTF>12543</CTF>
<LASTHRMDEVICE>7891038</LASTHRMDEVICE>
<LASTSPEEDDEVICE>9716</LASTSPEEDDEVICE>
<LASTTRAINERDEVICE>2837993477</LASTTRAINERDEVICE>
</DEVICES>
<CONFIG>
<MINIMAL_UI>1</MINIMAL_UI>
<RICHMOND_BRANCH_PREFERENCE>0</RICHMOND_BRANCH_PREFERENCE>
<BRANCH_PREFERENCE>3</BRANCH_PREFERENCE>
<BATTPREFS>20</BATTPREFS>
<PREFERRED_MONITOR>2147516416</PREFERRED_MONITOR>
<TRAINER_EFFECT>0.5</TRAINER_EFFECT>
<IMGPREFS>0</IMGPREFS>
<USER_RESOLUTION_PREF>1920x1080</USER_RESOLUTION_PREF>
<AMBIENT_VOL>0</AMBIENT_VOL>
<SFX_VOL>0</SFX_VOL>
</CONFIG>
<WORKOUTS>
<LAST_WORKOUT>4035902721</LAST_WORKOUT>
<EDIT_IN_WATTS>1</EDIT_IN_WATTS>
<USE_ERG>1</USE_ERG>
</WORKOUTS>
</ZWIFT>
Just in time for International Women’s Day, Zwift HQ has released further info about the CANYON//SRAM Racing Zwift Academy, in which the Zwift platform will be used to select 3 female finalists to attend the CANYON//SRAM team winter camp. The final winner will be chosen after (presumably based on camp results) that and announced in December.
Exciting stuff, both for competitive female riders and the Zwift community!
A member of the Zwift team recently posted this screenshot of himself aero-tucking down the backside of the soon-to-be-released Watopia Mountain Route to Facebook.
In the screenshot you can see Watopia Island (where we currently ride) in the background, quite a distance away from the top of the new peak.
You can also note a new KOM banner in the course profile at the top-right.
Looking forward to the new route!
Racing on Zwift: you really won’t understand how great it is until you do it. Experience the effort and adrenaline of a real race, without the entry fees, long drives, and risk of bodily injury!
Zwift HQ released an updated to their iOS and Android mobile app today, and the big new feature is the long-awaited member search.
Zwifters can now easily search the entire database of Zwift accounts by name, and follow others with a single click.
Two more minor changes in the new app are the ability to connect your Strava and TrainingPeaks accounts, and the ability to order from the Zwift shop (kit, accessories, etc).
Zwift’s Jon Mayfield has posted a test ride of the new Watopia Mountain Route to Strava. See his ride on Strava >Â
Although the rest of us can’t ride the new route yet, we can learn some of the details from Jon’s test ride.
The new mountain route climbs ~1200 feet over ~6 miles (3.8% average grade), and the descent is steeper than the climb, dropping ~1200 feet in ~3.7 miles (6.1% average grade) with some hairy switchbacks that remind me of the TdF’s Montvernier climb.
You can see the “old” Watopia KOM to the far right of the ride profile above, which helps put the size of this new ascent into perspective. (Jon made the climb in ~30 minutes, and descended in ~6 minutes.)
Since Zwift is creating their own landscape on top of a real-world location, the actual physical map from Strava (on the right) doesn’t reflect what we see on Watopia. Therefore, we can’t figure out much more about the route until we actually ride it. Still, this is exciting stuff!
Here is an animation overlaying the existing Hilly and Flat routes with what I believe will be the new Mountain Route. This new route is 16.6 miles (26.7km) long.
Word on the street is it should be available within the next week or two, but we’ll just cross our fingers and wait. Jon Mayfield says “It definitely won’t be out this weekend, but after that it gets fuzzy.”
Thanks, Zwift HQ, for your continued great work!
Zwift announced that the latest update included some ride leader tools. Today during the Friday Criterium Series race we saw a preview of some of these features as Charlie Issendorf (Vice President of Events at Zwift) led the Zwift HQ ride. You can see a shield next to his name in the rider list, as well as a large shield/arrow over his avatar.
Additionally, when the leader sends a text message, the message shows up with a very obvious yellow background.
I’m happy to see this, because it will let us easily spot the ride leader, which means the groups will do a better job of following that leader. Nice work, Zwift!
Currently these features are only available to certain leaders of official Zwift rides, but we should see them released to “the masses” soon enough.