“Castle Crit” Route Details (Makuri Islands)
Originally created as a Rebel Route in November of 2021, Castle Crit is the brainchild of Zwifter Anders Fougner. It’s the pitchy, country counterpoint to the flatter, urban Neokyo Crit Course.
We used Anders’ idea but changed the direction of the circuit so it would end with a short flat section after the key climb and give riders a short descent after the sprint segment.
This route was added to the Zwift canon in January 2024 to host the final stage of Tour de Zwift 2024.
Route Basics
Length: 3.5 km (2.2 miles)
Elevation: 44m (144′)
+1.5km (0.9 miles) lead-in with 47m (154′) elevation
Map: Makuri Islands
ZIMetrics
Rating: 3.4/100 🛈
Time Estimates 🛈
lead-in + first lap
4 W/kg: 8.9 minutes
3 W/kg: 10 minutes
2 W/kg: 13 minutes
Start & Finish
Starts in the Yumezi pens with a lead-in to the lap start/finish banner, which is the Castle KOM arch.
Format: Loop
Ride Achievement Badge: 69 XP
Run Achievement Badge: 70 XP
Leaderboard Segments |
| Village Sprint (0.14km, 0%) |
Route Description
Route profile by ZwiftHub – the place to plan and track your route achievements!
Events on this course begin with a tough uphill lead-in from the main Yumezi start pens. (Don’t blame us: the original Rebel Route started from the pens near Village Onsen for a flatter lead-in, but route designers at Zwift are evil, evil people.)
The lap begins once you cross the Castle KOM banner. You’ll climb a bit on the road that takes you outside the castle complex, hopping onto the main road for a bit before turning right to re-enter the complex.
A hard left turn delivers you to the Village Sprint start line, which you can choose to ignore or embrace depending on how your event is set up. Then once again we’ll leave the castle complex, descending to the main road, which we’ll ride for a few moments before turning right and taking on the loop’s biggest climb back into the complex and across the KOM banner.
That’s one lap. How many more do you have?
for the big power guys 😉
Why create a new segment for the lap? We already have https://www.strava.com/segments/30326079 that looks to be the same?
Ha! Fixed.
It’s a bit of a shame the start of the castle climb is outside the course, though I can see an extended version of this where you go left out of the start pens, right through the dirt, right towards the castle climb, do the rest of the route as normal. This could either be an alternative lead in for races, or you can turn left on the descent instead of right for a longer loop.
I kind of expected the lead-in to include the whole Castle KOM, possibly from the start pens near the Fishing village and then through Onsen Vollage. But this lead-in “works” as well.
Will these, I guess former rebel routes, be selectable routes once the TdZ is over?
Zwift hasn’t said!
I don’t do many races, so maybe this is already a thing… But what if they could implement a rubber band “keep together” for the lead-in and release it at the start/finish banner? That way the group will at least be together for the start instead of already strung out before the official start. Any thoughts on this?
I just don’t understand why this comes up all the time. The official start is when the clock goes to 0:00 in the pen. The lead-in is part of the race and most often just a short stretch to get you on to the main part of the course for a lap or laps. Why would you want to rubber band the race after sitting in the pens?
Fair enough. It just seems a “lead in” should be just that and a rolling start would be closer to what we see in the ceremonial roll out in the pro peloton. On the other hand, for those who log in early, a rolling start would not guarantee your place at the front when the flag drops. Also didn’t realize this topic has come up, so apparently I’m not alone. All good, carry on 😁
Can’t wait to start racing this one! Tired of the pancake flat crit courses. That climb each lap will be a test and split the group for sure. Also, a good one for climber to have a shot in
The Rhino Racing Short Crits will use this route on Tuesday, Feb 6
Is there a running route acheivement badge for running also?
It’s not a run-only route, so the achievement badge would be under the “Cycling Achievements” section of the badges, like any of the other routes that allow both riding and running.
There is a badge „Castle Crit“ under the running section of the badges as well, called „Castle Crit“ running, but for some reason it is not unlocking during Stage 8 of Tour de Zwift Running, even when doing an extra lap.
The total number of possible badges has increased to 213 + the extra power ones
Interestingly the Companion App is not showing the achievement markers (green or grey) for all 3 new rebel routes (event only) from TdZ 2024 and shows Castle Crit twice (normal route and run)
Ah, I hadn’t noticed that Tim! Weird.
I just complete the Castle Crit cycling route, but did not get a badge. I was in an event, so I’m confused what I’m missing. Any ideas?
Not really. I did it in an event and it unlocked the badge. Maybe reach out to Zwift support?
Anyone else run into segment matching issues with this one? Strava seemed to want to start me ~1min early when I was nearing the start point from the other direction. Made a support ticket for it so hopefully the big effort I put in won’t go to waste.