“Four Horsemen” Route Details (Watopia)
When it was released in March 2018, the “Four Horsemen” covered all of Watopia’s timed climbs: the original Hilly KOM, Volcano KOM, Epic KOM, and Alpe du Zwift. Along the way it also covered (nearly) every bit of Watopian road.
The Fuego Flats and Titans Grove extensions were released after this route launched, so Four Horsemen is no longer a nearly complete tour of Watopia.
Route Basics
Length: 88.7 km (55.1 miles)
Elevation: 2113m (6,932′)
+0.5km (0.3 miles) lead-in with 1m (3′) elevation
Map: Watopia
ZIMetrics
Rating: 60.4/100 🛈
Time Estimates 🛈
lead-in + first lap
4 W/kg: 162 minutes
3 W/kg: 183 minutes
2 W/kg: 240 minutes
Start & Finish
Starts and ends in downtown Watopia.
Format: Loop
Restriction: Level 6+, Ride Only
Ride Achievement Badge: 1780 XP
Run Achievement Badge: none
Strava Segments
Four Horsemen
Four Horsemen from Start Gate
Four Horsemen from Banner
BestBikeSplit Model
Estimate ride time, IF and TSS, plan your power, and more!
Route Description
Route profile by ZwiftHub – the place to plan and track your route achievements!
Interesting bit of trivia – this is the only Watopia route which includes a descent of Alpe du Zwift!
Want to hit both sides of every KOM in one ride? Check out our KOMonster Rebel Route!
This is no leisure tour: be ready to work as you climb over 2000 meters in just under 90 kilometers! And be warned: hitting the Alpe after working your way over the previous climbs proves to be both a mental and physical challenge. Prepare yourself!
I was prepared for the climbing, i wasn’t expecting the hardest part of the route to be the 15km of gravel AFTER descending the alp. This surface “feature” makes the jungle loop unbearable for me, which makes the alpe inaccessible. I can’t see why anyone would think this feature is a good idea, I mean fine for short sections but the jungle loop is not a short section, and having to put out 200watts to maintain a speed below 30kmh on a downhill is just a farce. Swapping bikes mid route is a joke and I don’t want to climb the alpe on a mountain bike. Tempted to look into other trainer apps.
Yeah, I wanted to turn Überpretzel into my first vCentury, but I cut the ride at 93 miles after descending the Alpe and realizing I didn’t know how to avoid the gravel. I’m absolutely going to pause the ride and switch over to a MTB for this route, because I agree that the gravel feature is not for me in virtual riding (although, strangely, I like it when riding with my kids IRL).
Cry more.
Or maybe pedal harder?
If you are not racing, have found it to be less of a pain to change over to my mountain bike for the gravel sections.
Come on work on your power
Should note that this includes the bonus climb
Well, another lost badge, last week no luck with uber pretzel and some others had the same issue, today finished four horsemen and no, no badge, rode even up the zwift Kom just in case and no luck there, went down again and no, definitely no badge. Another bug? A total of 95km and no badge and no xp.
I’m the same. Did it today…no badge. Soooo frustrating.
i did this course and got no badge, this is the reply i got from zwift support.
Thanks for reaching out to us!
I’m sorry to hear that you aren’t seeing the badge that you were expecting, but I’m happy to provide more information.
Many of the courses in Zwift have lead-ins that aren’t part of the main route, and this portion doesn’t count toward the badge achievement. To earn a particular route badge, you’ll have to complete the lead-in to get to the route and then ride the full distance on the route.
While I’d like to credit your account for the missing progress, I won’t be able to do so due to technical limitations. I know this isn’t what you were hoping to hear, and understand the frustration.
To prevent this in the future, you can see which routes have lead-ins by selecting ‘Routes’ from the ‘World Choice’ screen in the Zwift app. Next, select a particular route, and you’ll see the path quickly traced out on the map. The lead-in portion will be traced in blue, while the portion of the route that counts toward the badge will appear in white. For some routes, the badge distance goes back over the lead-in, and the blue line will be traced back over in white, so watch closely. If you’d like to see the animation again, just click the route name a second time.
Once you’re in a ride, keep an eye on the mini-map and you’ll see a colored arch that marks the start of the route. Pass through this arch a second time and you’ve completed one lap. It’s important to note that this needs to be done without any manual turn selections, so ignore any prompts to turn and stay on the main route. When you’ve earned the route badge, you should see an on-screen notification pop up, so don’t stop riding until you see that!
When you’ve finished riding, you’ll want to make sure to save and exit Zwift properly so that your progress isn’t lost.
To do that:
1. Select ‘Menu’ from the lower-left corner of your screen.
2. Select ‘End Ride’ on the next screen.
3. Finally, choose ‘Save & Exit.’ If you don’t save your ride, your progress will be lost.
Please let us know if you have any other questions or concerns, as we’re happy to help in any way we can!
Ride On.
Lukas D.
I received the same answer for the Uber Pretzel, it is a predetermined answer, I wrote them again with proof that I finished it all and they haven’t said anything yet. I hate when they say about the lead in, that is beyond obvious and is a lead in, it comes first so you either do it or do it.
have you contacted blue Peter? heard they have a pretty cool badge? maby if you send them a message they take pity and send you one? or perhaps you could just jump back on your bike and send it like a man 😥
Same situation but I’ve found out what happened. I use Zwift on a iPad, if I change the app during the route (just for a while) I can come back to Zwift and complete the route but I dont’t get the badge. Só my tip is: don’t ever change the Zwift app while riding on Zwift.
It is rubbish and I’ve been burned by this before so now I don’t stop riding until I see the route completed banner pop up on the screen.
smart
It definitely seems like there’s a bug with this route currently because I rode it for the first time this afternoon and also didn’t get the badge or XP. Like Julián above I also went back up the Zwift KOM a second time just in case and stretched the ride well past the 90 km (route + lead in), so it’s not an “oops you forgot the lead in” issue. I liked the ride (well, except for the jungle…) but am bummed about the badge.
That lead in excuse from swift is beyond lame to me, it comes firts on the route, there is no way you can just forget it and we all now that the end of every route is crossing some banner so we just don’t ride X amount of km and that is it, we ride and we make sure to cross a banner and besides the lead in for this route, or the uber which I had the same problem, are short, is not like we have lead ins of more than 10k like in Innsbruck. And yes, the route is awesome but the jungles sucks big time, today in my IRL ride there was a segment of messed up tarmmac that reminded me of that annoying jungle.
This was supposed to be my last badge. I stretched it even to 109km.
In Strava I could see that I had completed the “Four Horsemen (Zwift Insider Verified)” segment.
After the “missed” (also not given badge) Uber Pretzel last weekend it is a shame that Zwift hasn’t fixed it yet.
I was entertaining though to see myself in the live Vlog of GPLama (who did Quatch Quest) on Youtube!
You get the badge when the message displays on the screen that you finished. NOT when you complete the Zwift Verified Route.
I did it 2 times and no badge is there a limit of time to be completed?
There is no time limit, zwift is just not giving the badge, same situation with the uber pretzel and if you write to them they write you back with a lame excuse related to the lead in and in theory you can write to them again sending proof that you did the whole route and guess what, they just don’t write back again.
Same situation but I’ve found out what happened. I use Zwift on a iPad, if I change the app during the route (just for a while) I can come back to Zwift and complete the route but I dont’t get the badge.
Aero bike for this route, or Tarmac Pro?
Tarmac or Emonda all the way
I also completed at weekend and got badge no problem. Jungle is annoying but easily achievable, didn’t slow me down that much.
Did it today, got the badge 🙂 I used the Hunter’s Challenge ‘the mega’ workout with my ftp set to 90% of its normal value. This brought me halfway back down the Alpe. Last 16km from the bottom of the Alpe were the hardest. Jungle killed me, I should have changed to MTB for that. All in all, it took exactly 4 hours
I completed today and earned badge. Zone 3 effort and took 4 hrs. Yes, gravel climb out of jungle is the killer as by that time you’ve climbed the big ones and just want to get on with it.
Yeah. I did it the other day and got the badge.😀 On the jungle route I always switch to the canyon grail (saw this bike swap at GP Lamas vids first) I think its a bit easier on a gravel bike.
Overall it was hard but my 20+ dropouts on the climb Alps the Zwift drove me crazy..
Dropout from the turbo trainer are like chain drop IRL,
Thanks for the great route details.
Terrific route – has a bit of everything. The last section in the jungle felt okay – changed to a mountain bike at the foot of the alpe and then back to the road bike when I hit the tarmac. Completed in 3hr 23m which I was real happy with!
Today I chose ‘Surprise me’ and seemed to be offered petit KOM which was fine. I thought I would do it plus another ride. However, just after starting a sign told me I was doing Ven Top. I’d a couple of hours to use so I went for it. However, nearing the summit none of the usual timing stuff appeared and when I summited I was a few metres short of a mountain.
That surprised me all right! Luckily I have the badge so no big deal..
I’ve done this route 8 times (even rode two loops of it for 110 miles), but it no longer shows up on the Veloviewer leaderboard anymore? It seems there are three versions now for the route, mine are listed as “From the Banner” and started by selecting route in Zwift before starting it. How in the world am I supposed to know which one counts and how do I make sure the I ride the right route?
I like the route and have plans to ride it again. I also lost my time in Veloviewer. I’ll check back in if it works now for me. I can’t imagine that selecting the route and riding it would not be good for covering whatever the current ZwiftInsider Verified route is.
This also true, now, of the Big Loop and Uber Pretzel. Strangely, the “from the Banner” versions of these routes are the Zwift official routes, and these are the one traversed by the vast majority of the riders in Zwift. I was enjoying keeping up with the Rebel Routes (and all the other routes), until Eric began tampering with the routes/segment dimensions recently. I should think the route that grants the achievement badge in Zwift would be the one that governs which route/segment is used for the Veloviewer Zwift Insider leaderboard. It doesn’t make sense. Crickets from Eric when making inquiries about this topic via DM on Strava, and via email. Wondering if this might elicit a reply…???
[wpd-tenor full=’8f0119acbcfafe988bdd11b02ac53eec/tenor.gif’ preview=’69995274bddf8d56f18c3bfc9138507a/tenor.png’ width=’268′ height=’268′]
Eric, you should make a Zwift Insider Strava Segment for the 7 Horsemen route. I’m riding it tomorrow as part of the Norseman series. After you go up the Alpe you descend and finish the race at the top of the EPIC KOM.
I just free rode Four Horsemen. Maybe a restatement of what James said below is that this is a really psychologically taxing route! You’re going up the Alpe after the Epic KOM + the Radio Tower, and I really have a love-hate relationship with the Radio Tower. Then after you go down the Alpe, you’ve got a gradual climb on gravel, and gravel does make the distance longer than it seems.
Instead of “pedal harder”, one good piece of advice might be to wait for one of the badge hunter events and do this in a group. Drafting helps you cover the flat sections faster. Also, you can always climb off and take a break. Stretch, eat, stuff like that. There’s the concept of chunking: mentally break the route down into segments. You’ve got each of the climbs. After the Alpe, you could take a break (and you should change bikes, even if all you have is the Zwift MTB!). Then you could split the finish into just climbing up to the pavement (and changing bikes), then the ride back into town (which does have a nice descent!).
Great advice, buy a nice MTB in preparation for the switch. I stopped three times because I didn’t feel I was in the most efficient bike, had to buy one, it’s still quite hard, that jungle
I’ve done this course twice during “The Norseman” and “L’Etape du Tour Sportive” events but still no badge. Hoping to make it real next week for a birthday solo ride 🤞🏾
Nice route for Z2 training. 3:45 in Z2 130bpm. ~2.6w/kg
I did it today with a WEDU group ride. It helps a lot.
Will do that for all long ride by checking on https://zwifthacks.com/ what are the Event coming for the route I want to ride.
Thanks for all the posts, which are very informative. I joined the WeDu Sunday C ride. The group does start out fast — no warm up, so if I were to do it again and wanted to stay with the C beacon I’d warm up for at least 10min before the start. Today I started cold turkey, and after a hard Saturday ride, so I rode zone 2 and was dropped on the volcano climb. Then we did form a little mini-group on the Watopia KOM climb, which was nice. The radio tower is a b*h, but we know that. And then a shorter descent and onto the jungle with Alpe du Zwift. I made it up just 1min before the 2:50 aim (to collect the WeDu jersey). Then start the descent and let your avatar go so you have 10-15’ break to get coffee, refuel, bathroom etc. Surely nice break! When I got back on the bike, I changed to gravel bike and just rode steady out of the jungle. Back on tarmac change back to road bike and finish to get the badge :). 3:38 in total. With all the posts here, expectations are set and I liked the challenge so would do it again! Good luck!
After spending 12 hours on this route Saturday, I am beginning to think that the 2 stage climb out of the jungle is the true Fourth Horseman, and if I never see the radio tower again I will be a very happy rider.
The actual passage from revelations has a good bit for the gravel climb.
“And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed him.”
The gravel climb is Hades.
ditto that on the Radio Tower.
Turning 53 on Tuesday, and will be making a go at this. It’s been on my list for a long time, but I’ve been a bit scared, being a bit middle aged, a good bit overweight, and with some titanium in my ankle that got me started on this whole journey. Did the ZG25 Epic today and scheduled for a Bologna group ride tomorrow. Let’s go.
3h 13m 33s. Skipped Bologna in favor of the route of the week and the #2 workout in the current series (meh).
Amazing! Well done mate