“Hilltop Hustle” Route Details (Watopia)
Released in April 2025, this route is the first to let Zwifters do hill repeats on The Grade. (It may not a hugely popular feature request on Zwift, but you could turn this into a solid route-based workout for sweet spot or threshold intervals!)
Route Basics
Length: 13.6 km (8.5 miles)
Elevation: 336m (1,102′)
+2.7km (1.7 miles) lead-in with 10m (33′) elevation
Map: Watopia
ZIMetrics
Rating: 10.6/100 🛈
Time Estimates 🛈
4 W/kg: 29 minutes
3 W/kg: 32 minutes
2 W/kg: 42 minutes
Start & Finish
Begins with a lead-in from the southern coast start pens to Sasquatch Sprint. Ends at Sasquatch Sprint banner.
Format: Point-to-Point
Ride Achievement Badge: 275 XP
Run Achievement Badge: none
Leaderboard Segments |
| Sasquatch Sprint (0.35km, 0.2%) |
| The Grade KOM (3.52km, 8.6%) |
| Sasquatch Sprint (0.35km, 0.2%) |
Strava Segments
Route Description
Route profile by ZwiftHub – the place to plan and track your route achievements!
You’ll begin near the coastal start pens with a lead-in to the Sasquatch Sprint. The route begins and ends at the Sasquatch Sprint banner.
Ride through the banner, and the game will route you onto the loop road to quickly turn you around so you’re heading back toward The Grade. Take on that climb (treat it like an FTP test if you’d like), then the game will route you onto a second loop at the top to turn you around so you descend The Grade and head back to the Sasquatch Sprint to finish.
That’s one lap. How many more will you do?
Is there an XP bonus for this route?
Yes, because there’s a badge. We just aren’t sure what it is yet.
The XP bonus for Hilltop Hustle appears to be 275 points
Very observant, sir!
Oh joy, another route up the Grade.
Yep, just did the LEQP Provence P’tit Chasseur Group Ride & confirm it’s 275 XP
Not only does it have a badge, it’s a looping route. There’s a lead-in on the first lap which makes that one 16.3km. The subsequent repeat laps are 13.6km. It has a nice warm-up for The Grade and also would nice for multiple laps on, for Zwift Racing. It contributed 346M toward upgrading my mountain bike. It’s a lot of up with nice reprieves.
This looks like it is way better than “Oh Hill No”. I was kind of annoyed that I basically started The Grade KOM from a standstill and lead in when I did that route.
Read somewhere that Zwift introduced this Route for FREE Rides, soon… But it’s still Events ONLY! Maybe in April 🤔⁉️
It is right now
Is the Grade metre for metre steeper than ADZ? Thinking of repeats for upgrading the Aethos? Climb, descend for rest, repeat!!
It would be quite efficient,but only if you U-turn after the descent (or go round the roundabout), def not for the full route with the flat sections. I plan to upgrade my Aethos on the Alpe, but mostly because I like it 10000x better than the Grade than for pure efficiency alone. ps climb, descend, repeat sounds like Everesting to me =) ds
The strava segment doesn’t populate.
Yeah, I’m seeing that too. No idea what the problem is, as the segment appears to be correct. I’m wondering if Strava is struggling to match up Zwift segments for multiple reasons these days, and they just aren’t telling me…
Doubling back on itself so much might confuse the segment matching algorithm.
That’s my hunch too. That Strava isn’t handling loops or double backs on Zwift segments… time to reach out again to internal contacts to see if they can get their system working again.
Apart from a little lead-in there doesn’t seem to be much difference from The Oh Hill No route?
Maybe Oh Hill No doesn’t loop you back automatically, for another attempt up The Grade?
I believe it loops you for another attempt.
Not according to the route description. I’m not about to test it, though. 😉
Idiotic route
Beginning to hate The Grade almost as much as The Radio Tower.
This route is included in the Makuri section of the veloviewer leaderboards?? First of all, this is in watopia, not makuri, second of all, no one can match the strava segment.