UPDATE: Zwift’s route of the week program has continued, so we created a Route of the Week schedule…
Yesterday, Zwift quietly rolled out a new “Route of the Week” Challenge card on the homescreen:
What’s the big idea? Simple, really: ride the Route of the Week and earn 500XP:
Note: “accidentally” riding the Route of the Week won’t earn you the XP bonus. You have to click the challenge card, which brings you to the blue screen shown above, in order to “register” for the Route of the Week challenge for that week. Then you can ride the featured route in any way you choose, in order to get the XP bonus.
Tip: If you’re new to Zwift and don’t understand how the XP (experience points) system works, read All About Zwift XP, Levels, and Unlocks for Cyclists.
About This Week’s Route: Triple Flat Loops
Triple Flat Loops is a Watopia route that began life as Zwift Insider’s first-ever Rebel Route back in April of 2019. It does what it says on the tin, covering three connected loops of Watopia’s flattest roads, including the Tempus desert, Ocean Boulevard, the base of the Volcano, and the Esses.
Learn more about Triple Flat Loops >
XP Express Events
Want even more XP? Zwift has also scheduled “XP Express” events on Tuesdays and Thursdays through May 22 where you earn double XP (so 40XP per kilometer/64XP per mile, vs 20XP per kilometer/32XP per mile).
These rides are 50 minutes long, open-paced, and held on a different route each day. Events are scheduled every three hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
See upcoming XP Express events at zwift.com/events/tag/xpexpress >
What’s Next?
Zwift tells me we’ll see a new Route of the Week featured each of the four weeks of May. This looks to be just the initial launch of a “weekly quest” concept that could include other small weekly goals that deliver an XP bonus. Being a big fan of carrots, I support this initiative!
As for the XP Express events, it sounds like these will continue to be added to the calendar strategically, and community events may also strategically get set up as double XP events in order to give them a boost. My guess is you won’t see XP Express events when other bonus XP series are happening (like Tour of Watopia), but you may see them more regularly otherwise.
(The XP Express idea is clearly popular. There are 193 riders signed up for the next event on the calendar, which is over 2 hours away as I write this!)
Your Thoughts
What do you think of this “Route of the Week” idea, and what sort of weekly quests (apart from route completion) would you like to see Zwift set up? Will you be riding in the XP Express events? Share your thoughts below…
any idea if you need to launch the route from the challenge page or if you can select it on regular route selector and still get the XP bonus. I’ll take any extra XP right now as I slog from L92-100
I did a workout yesterday and selected triple flat loops and received the bonus XP and it now shows I completed the route of the week. I did initially click on the challenge card as I wasn’t sure if you needed to “enroll” in it.
You need to click the challenge card first in order to “register”. Then you can back out of that and ride the featured route in whatever way you choose, and you’ll still get the XP bonus.
Thx !!! I’ll take any other tips on how to get from L92-100 as fast as possible ! Ran out of routes lol
Any of the short Portal Climbs will give you 10 chances of a 250 XP bonus, usually it works out around 1 or 2 per total climb. The very short Cauberg was a good candidate for repeats especially at 50% elevation but you need to be quick to bin the feather power ups in between the arches so another PU can be awarded at the next arch.
From what I have read the Cauberg has been removed from the Portal Climbs.
The Oude Kwaremont is available all May and is another good short climb to use. since the last update, I noticed a lot more 10 XP PUs being awarded.
do i understand this correctly: i click the challenge card – i go back to the main menu – i click workout – i choose the route of week for a structured workout – i get the 500 bonus?
Yeah, that should work! (Let us know if it doesn’t.)
Confirming this does indeed still work
Can we talk about how, with the culling of the race calendar, there is essentially *maybe* one race per hour with participation sufficient to make it interesting? The number entering races was better five years ago than today. What a shame.
I don’t understand it at all. Membership is a lot higher than 5 years ago. Smaller number of races should drive more people into each event but that’s not what’s happened at all. It’s sad.
The amount of people racing who clearly don’t have their correct weight entered is what drove me away. It’s also tough making a specific start time.
Agree, it might not be the Olympics or Tour de France we are riding. But if we are limited to certain groups and can gain benefits of buying better frames and wheels it matters what people put in as their weight or as my frustration have the same weight for weeks and only changes it when the get punished for it. I will say, if it was important for zwift, they would probably put the ability to change it out in the as sensor screen or easier to access in the companion app.
If I am putting everything in the pedals it should at least be in as a fair race as possible, everyone should suffer on the hills and the flats the same otherwise why even bother. It’s enough there is a disadvantage to be at a lower level already.
Maybe it’s time for “one-weight”/weightless races. Then us truthful Clydesdales (not saying you are, but there are dozens of us) might stand a chance. 😉
My experience with racing is only the mass participation races: Zwift Games, etc. I’m not interested in winning, so people who enter incorrect biometrics don’t bother me. I race against myself, or the small bunch I end up with. Ninety-eight percent of my Zwift time is for training or general fitness. Races are “for fun” or to replace a hard workout. I would suspect there are a large percentage of users who are not interested in racing at all, or like me, casual racers.
I think there is some truth (from another comment on this article) that it’s possible more frequent Zwift-sponsored events (XP Express, etc) may be taking casual racers away from the racing pool. A balance here may be necessary to not totally kill the community driven (club) race offerings.
on your point of fitness, perhaps Zwift should stagger start times a little more instead of 10 after the hour for every zracing series. I doubt I’m the only person 10 after will never work for.
yeah. they want to funnel more people into events by cutting out all those extra races – but the selection is quite drab. i dont want to do the same event 4-6 times a week because there’s nothing else available!!!.
@Eric Schlange, interesting conversation here; what is the balance between Zwift sponsored events and community/club-driven events/racing? I wonder if Zwift would be open to balancing incentives (ex. double XP days) between Zwift-sponsored & community-sponsored events/races. Something like “Community Racing Weekend” once a month, where entrants double XP or 3x drops. Just a brainstorm. I don’t have the answers to the right balance. I can’t see the data. 🙂
I’m getting more opposed to all the incentives Zwift keeps adding to specific events.
Adding carrots is great, if they motivate us to ride more. I do however believe that they should not lead to some events getting massive participation numbers and making the other (community led) events struggle.
TdZ already is a mass participation event without any bonus XP and the community organised events already have a hard enough time to get decent starting fields when that tour is running. But when also double XP or unlocks are added, like in ToW and the Big Spin, people get incentivized to repeat every stage multiple times, really sucking the life out of all other events.
We’ve all seen the hundreds of late joiners for the big spin events, and although I enjoyed their presence for those 5 minutes, they otherwise could have populated multiple other events.
And getting 250XP powerups 4 times in the final Big spin stage was a reason for many to keep repeating that stage. Also I did, but not just for the XP, also because during that time, it was very hard to find a race or other group ride with decent participation numbers.
To me it seems that without doubleXP and 250XP powerups, there would be a much better range of events on offer, actually motivating us to ride more.
(or if you insist, just give every event double XP, that would also solve it, even though that would just cause inflation and us running out of levels sooner, but anyway..)
Hey Eric any idea when we are going to see levels above 100, my points keep adding up but no increase in levels numbers.
Please! This is the closest I’ve been to the top level yet. ;-). They can wait a bit to add levels. 😀
Not yet please! I need a few hundred xp to get to level100. I don’t want to live again what happened the last time when Zwift expanded the levels. I was at level 57… 🤬
+1 please dear lord.
I was at level 60 for about 3 months before the extra 40 levels were added. For when 10 levels got added to get to 60, I experienced a situation quite similar to the one you described…,
Sounds like a fun idea. Another option they could go for is to give a large XP boost for a monthly challenge like completing all 4-5 routes which are linked in some fashion (like all in the same World, or all crit circuits, or all figure 8s etc) rather than XP for each individual event
you mean like the “hell of a route chaser” challenge?
I haven’t seen that one, so umm, maybe, lol
See https://zwiftinsider.com/hello-of-a-route-chaser/
I clicked on ‘Triple Flat Loops’ on the blue screen, started the ride, teleported to a robopacer (to also earn more drops), which did that route, completed one and a half loops with the pacer to make sure the full route is captured, but did not get the extra 500 XP. Any suggestion what went wrong?
You skip the lead-in part
I don’t think so since I did more than 1.5 times the full loop. So I definitely covered the lead in and a one full loop.
That method does work, but you need to cross the start/finish line twice. If your 1.5 laps didn’t involve going through the Tempus banner twice then it won’t recognise that you’ve completed the route.
Shoud read this before ((( just done the same mistake
It would be nice if events that aren’t every hour would rotate through time slots each day instead of having the same 8 events that I can’t make any day.
I’d love to do both these rides, but mining Oude Kwaremont this month is too lucrative
For the XP Express, what happens after 50 minutes? Do you just go back to regular XP scoring (32 / mile?)
Yes.
Hi Eric
When I have clicked on the headline to registre, can I then ride the route of the week “Triple Flat Route” with the RoboPacer, one of them is riding the same route this weekend.?
Best regards
Per, DK
I would think so, but one person in the comments above did that, and said it didn’t work. So no promises!
With the 5% xp increase riding a basic bike upgraded to level 5, do you get 42 xp per kilometer on the XP express?
Also, do you get 5% increase through gates? Thanks!!
I see the Route of the week has changed to week 2. It’s still 5/12, and I was going to ride week 1 after work. Will I still get credit or is that opportunity gone? I rode it yesterday before realizing I had to register so I didn’t get credit.
Doubt you’ll get credit once it switches to a new route. My guess is the route changes on Monday each week… not sure what time though.
The XP Express event listing at https://www.zwift.com/events/tag/xpexpress lists four rides, each three hours apart, on Tue, Wed, Thu & Fri.
I went to ride todays (Wed) event and there is none listed on Zwift. While the events web page still has the rides for next Thu, Fri, and the following week on Tue, Wed, Thu & Fri.
Are the XP Express events now over?
Are they planning on maintaining this route of the week thing? If so, I wonder if there are plans for publishing a schedule for future routes of the week.
Yes I agree it would be good if Zwift could do this.
Hi, Can you explain to me why in companion (time objective) the running events are not displayed but only the bike races?
Because you’re only searching for rides? Check your filters at the top of the app… or reboot the app.
Sorry I didn’t explain myself well.
I practice cycling and running and here it only updates me about cycling and not running, why?
Can’t you attach files?
I think the Route of the Week is good. It will encourage people to ride more of the routes they have already paid for access to. It’s seems a big waste (pun intended) if one just hangs out on Tempus Fugit all of the time. Plus, this is just one ride, so it won’t significantly drain attendance from community events.
XP Express seems self limited too with the 2 hour 10 minute hour gap between rides. hope these are doled out to community rides. I tried out community group rides to check off event only routes. Until then I had no idea what I had been missing out on.
Are the routes of the week published anywhere or do I have to load up Zwift to see what this week route is?
Gotta load up Zwift, for now. If Zwift keeps doing a route of the week I’ll probably try to publish a schedule somewhere…
I’d definitely use a ‘RoboPacer Calendar’ style page for looking up the ‘Route of the Week’.
Side note: could you encourage Zwift to pick a little more variety? Big Flat 8 and Triple Flat Loops are way too similar to both be featured in the first three weeks of the feature!