Route Basics
Length: 107 km (66.5 miles)
Elevation: 1642 m (5,387‘)
Lead-In: 3.7 km (2.3 miles)
Map: Watopia
Restriction: Level 5+
Achievement Badge: 2140 XP
Banners and Leaderboards
(in order of appearance)
Epic KOM Reverse
Hilly KOM Forward
Volcano KOM
Sprint Forward
Epic KOM Forward
Hilly KOM Reverse
Strava Segments
Strava SegmentsRoute Description
Route profile by ZwiftHub – the place to plan and track your route achievements!
Watopia’s “Mega Pretzel” was released with Zwift’s February 1, 2018 update as the longest available route for Zwift’s iconic course. At the time of its release it covered every segment of the course except the radio tower climb, and in fact covered nearly all segments in both directions. The Alpe du Zwift climb is notably absent from this route since the Alpe was released after the route was created.
The Mega Pretzel begins and ends on the land bridge connecting the volcano to the Italian village. The segments covered, in order, are:
- Begin on Volcano land bridge to Italian Village
- Jungle Circuit reverse
- Epic KOM reverse
- Hilly forward
- Volcano climb
- Esses forward
- Ocean Blvd forward
- Epic KOM forward
- Jungle Circuit forward
- Hilly reverse
- Finish at start location
Why is this route soooooo much harder than every other route on Zwift? I’ve tried it five times this month and failed every time. This is the only route badge I’m missing, but the temperature inside here won’t get below 80 F (we live in a cheap house that we rent for $5000/month) for another 3 months as the nighttime low for June-September stays above 100 F. By the end of an hour in zone 2, my HR is already maxed out. I thought I’d get all the routes, but this is one I just don’t think is possible for… Read more »
The numbers above say the Mega Pretzel has a 2.3 mile lead in and a 66.5 mile course. That would make you need to ride 68.8 miles to get your badge. I was pleasantly surprised when I got my badge at 66.6 miles. I don’t know what part is off, but it’s not 68.8
I think they’ve adjusted the lead in since the article was written as I ha the same experience yesterday. I was expecting to have to do around 110k but then the achievement popped at 107k.
I suspect the lead-in caused unnecessary confusion, with riders assuming they had completed the route upon returning to the downtown finish banner: I rode it today and the start was in the road from the volcano, the route start. I suspect events would still start downtown, in the start pens.
Zwift routes tend to be very strange. Of course they could have started this downtown, and opened, rather than closing, with the volcano flat loop.
I suspect the lead-in caused unnecessary confusion, with riders assuming they had completed the route upon returning to the downtown finish banner: I rode it today and started in the road from the volcano, the route start. I suspect events would still start downtown, in the start pens.
Zwift routes tend to be very strange. Of course they could have started this downtown, and opened, rather than closing, with the volcano flat loop. I can’t imagine why they started where they did.
I’ve got to say, this is one boring ride, nobody rides that direction, jungle can be three or four minutes between riders, reverse kom is dead as well…I find it very hard to motivate myself when I’m on my own, I did sixty Kms today before boredom did for me, hopefully the last fifty is a bit busier, I’ll find out sometime this week, hopefully!…then I’ve got the joys of the Uber pretzel for my last badge…..