Yesterday, Zwift shared a fresh “This Season on Zwift” presentation with media partners, detailing what’s coming in the next few months. We’ll dig into the contents of that presentation in another post, but first let’s talk about the big news: the new Scotland map!
Zwift says, “The Scotland map is inspired by the bucolic Scottish landscape, the city of Glasgow’s distinctive architecture, and the surrounding areas. As you ride through the world, you’ll see famous landmarks and attractions from the country, including castles, mountains and cityscapes.”
For those who may not know: Scotland is hosting the 2023 UCI Cycling championships in August. It’s a unique event this year, since all cycling disciplines are being hosted in Scotland during an 11-day span in August.
Well, almost all disciplines. Cyclocross worlds are on February 4-5 in Hoogerheide (The Netherlands), and Esports worlds are on Zwift February 18.
In past years, Zwift built virtual versions of world courses for Richmond (2015), Innsbruck (2018), and Yorkshire (2019). But these courses were never used for actual UCI Esports Worlds events! So this year is a first: Zwift building a map inspired by the Worlds location, and the UCI holding their Cycling Esports World Championships on that very map. This makes Glasglow both the IRL and virtual host of this year’s UCI World Championships!
This week’s media release includes the details of the 2023 UCI Cycling Esports World Championships as well: a 3-race elimination event completely different from the single scratch races done in past Esports World Championships.
Sources within Zwift tell us that the Glasgow map has been specifically designed for hosting an incredible Esports Worlds event. This is a first as well, since past UCI Esports Worlds were held on courses designed as part of Zwift’s overall map offering.
What will be different about a map specifically designed for incredible esports events? Hard to know at this stage, but Zwift says the Scotland map includes features not seen anywhere else in game, including “a loopable hill and a dedicated time trial course that will make racing at every level fun.”
One thing we do know: the new Scotland map includes 5 routes/courses.
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Release Date
Zwift is planning a specific set of events beginning late January 2023 where riders can reconnoiter the new roads of Scotland before the big race. (It is unclear whether community teams will be able to organize events in Scotland prior to Worlds, or if Zwift will wait to open the map up until the big race is finished.)
Zwifters will be able to free-ride in Scotland starting mid-March.
Concluding Thoughts
It’s always fun when Zwift releases a new map, because Zwift riders love exploring new virtual tarmac just like outdoor riders love exploring it IRL. New sights, new challenges, new racecourses where we can test ourselves. What’s not to love about a new map?
Zwift’s Scotland appears to be a small map, and our guess is it won’t see be expanded once it is released since Richmond, Innsbruck, and Yorkshire weren’t expanded after their releases. That’s not a bad thing: if the map contains a small set of courses that make for great racing, it will become popular with race organizers and get worked into the overall mix of Zwift worlds, simply adding to the list of event and free-ride options available to all.
We’re looking forward to late January. Bring on Scotland!
Your Thoughts
Share below!
They should make it an extension of Yorkshire. Have a tunnel or something to connect the two. In Zwift world’s they’re practically right next to each other.
A1 tunnel
Surrey too (a bit of a stretch, I know, but it’s a short subway ride from downtown London to Surrey in the game, so the distances are a bit Wonky. Then a Chunnel over to the France/Paris courses? A different connector from France to Innsbruck?
I’m not a fan of how they’ve done Richmond Park. It would be a great candidate for a GPS-accurate makeover. On the other hand – I appreciate that I don’t have to navigate through Croydon to get to Box Hill. (irl comparisons from a Yankee that spent a year living in London).
And finally a toll tunnel to rouvy or rgt
So very CLEVVah…
both give me motion sickness tbh…
While I’m happy to have more roads to ride on Zwift (something we desperately need) I’m a little annoyed this will be another “stand alone” route, although I’m not surprised given it being a UCI Worlds course. We’ve got SO MANY stand-alone courses: Crit City, Bologna TT, Champs Elysee, Richmond, Yorkshire, Innsbruck, New York. We’d really benefit from either connecting some of these up, like Yorkshire + Scotland as Kristian suggests, or expanding some of the worlds we already have. Makuri Islands & Watopia are the only worlds that feel the right size to me at this point. They should be aiming to reach that size with several more of their existing worlds, imho.
Am I the only one craving a world with seemingly endless “boring, familiar roads”, a la GTA5 or Forza-esque worlds with stretches of 150-200 miles that have more realism? As fun as the Zwift fantasy lands are, they lack an immersiveness that I crave on the indoor trainer. I appreciate that this. We course is modeled after the UCI Worlds course, but it’s still too surreal for me to get super excited about it 🤷♂️
You’re not alone for sure. I think there’s room for both. Short tight circuits with laps are good for short races. But it would be good to have open worlds for longer rides like you would do in real life.
Are they fun? They just make me want to vomit.
Have you tried the gtv5 mod yet?
The What?
Interestingly, there is a bike mod for GTA5, where you can use your smart-trainer to ride the map with all the features required for immersion (slope simulation, power, location to export to strava, race, etc If you have GTA5, not my case :'(, enjoy !
its stupid, & yes ive tried the mod.
Just solve the backwards and obsolete 3 map only selection panel for free rides.
100%. It’s crazy we can only a select a ‘world’ when it comes around on rotation. I know there are workarounds but they should just open up access now to all worlds.
There is not much solving needed. You can ride at any map, at any time by simply choosing a workout. So, world selection menu including all the maps is already in game.
As a paying customer, I’m not interested in selecting a workout. I want to do a free ride, so I can be on a course with other riders who are making the same choice. Therefore your answer is negated as a solution.
So select a workout, choose your world, then end the workout. There you go.
Its simply to consentrate riders to a map so you are not riding around an empty map. Thats why everything is not opened up.
That’s why I mentioned it was “backwards and obsolete”. While this was a valid reason back in the start-up days, there is no need for this anymore with the rider counts any given moment. I’d even argue there are too many riders on a course map during certain periods of time, evident because the graphic model can only have so many riders appear in view at one time so you get riders pop up in thin air which is annoying and distracting. Let’s face the real reason it’s stuck around — too complacent with the status quo and too cheap to make the necessary code changes.
Create a club. You can create private events in your club on any route on any world any time you want to. You ride all by yourself during the event. When the event expires (defined by time duration, mileage, or number of laps on a circuit) you can continue riding with all the other riders who are in that world at that time.
Instead of creating another world, I’d much rather see Zwift expand the existing ones. What happened to the promises of more roads in France for example?
Who promised more roads in France?
From DC Rainmaker: Zwift’s Chris Snook did make one final comment about the France map specifically, staying that “For launch, there will be eight routes, but there’s a heap of expansion room in France.”
More of a classic Zwift tease than a promise. But don’t get me wrong: we all want more roads!
Something that I’ld love to see, but I’m sure won’t happen – Move Alpe Du Zwift to France. Getting to it in Watopia involves going through some very out-of-context places.
wait, you mean there’s no jungle route to AdH IRL?
I’m confused with Zwift’s obsession w England.
I’m hoping this comment is a joke…
You’re definitely confused, given that Scotland… isn’t in England.
Hahaha 😂 You made me laugh !! Thanks
We’re not even wankers. We were colonised by wankers. Can’t find a decent civilization to by colonised by.
Thanks for the update. « it will become popular with race organizers » unfortunately very unsure. Each of the past 4 winter, I have always been amazed how the same course are chosen. Diversity would be great but many courses are never raced.
So as Urukazi got revealed I was a bit upset how little roads we got for a year long wait. Now we get another world just a month or so later. I don’t think this has ever happened before.
It’s speculation but maybe, juuust maybe: could it be that they have two teams developing new roads/worlds simultaneously?
Or just keep adding roads as they go. No need to make it a big expansion. A few kms here and there could do wonders – e.g. an extra road or two in NYC or London is easily doable in small chunks every few weeks.
I,m getting bored with new Maps/roads we need more stand alone long Climbs. Only alpe du zwift always available is dramatic. We need like 5 big climbs in wattopia. With The 5 big climbs you can build a Nice zwift trainingprogam/ events and contests.
Looking at the bus stop on the Makuri map you see a bus stop map on the sides of the waiting bench. With what others have said about connection points: tunnels, wood covered rails, etc. The upcoming Scotland map to London, Yorkshire, France, Paris, Innsbruck, Bolgna would look like that shape of the bus stop map in Makuri. One massive map. Esentially it would make three maps then, Europe, Watopia, Makuri. New York and Richmond is still by themsleves or connected via the glass road going off from in NYC close to top the climb to connecting around the start pens of Richmond. Watopia is basically California with a jungle/alp attached in a far part. Its solves the issue of having most or to all routes available to free ride without doing a meetup or event. Then changing out bewteen Europe or NYC/Richmond for the guest map.
This is a neat concept, but think how much time and effort it would take to navigate a world that expansive. That concept would only really work if there were a way to precisely select your spawn point in that massive world. Otherwise there would be riders who never even got to ride some of the newer releases as they simply don’t put in that much mileage.
Huh, I was sure (based on nothing other than seeing it in the distance) that a Mt. Fuji climb was going to be next…
Not to mention that when clibing the canyon bak to Yumezi, there is a fully bouild bridge to the left, towards were the left. Maybe we will be seing an expansion on Makauri next fall with Fuji.
Thanks for the info Eric 🙂
Excellent news – I hope they manage to model the wind, rain and awful road surfaces (potholes and chuckles) we have up here to make it as realistic as possible.
Despire the geographic challenges a tunnel to Yorkshire would be great as well.
What’s a “chuckle”?
Probably an autocorrect from “chuckies” – local vernacular for the small stones used in chipseal type surfaces!
You must regularly cycle in either Angus or P&K. The only places I know where perfectly decent “Cycle friendly” routes are needlessly cakes in chuckies. Clown car stuff.
As a Scot, I am seriously more than delighted to hear this!!!! Hope they can add all the lovely “delicate” words used in Glasgow as you ride by lol
So rather than a ride on you get told some scottish explicites….
Then how a real route with our avatar superimposed?
Would love to see more of the Scotland area being covered. mountain roads and country area around lochs and not cities. the whole idea of riding is to get out of horrible cities full on concrete and brick. Possble north coast 500 , Applecross climb. I would love to see more trees mountains and lakes if possible. Only my thoughts those
^^ This
But always riding in the rain becomes depressing after a while. 😉
And bitten by midges around the lochs…
It would be nice to offer the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina and Virginia as a route in Watopia, or as a separate world. 469 miles of big climbs, big descents, and rolling hills. Riders could complete the 469 miles in a week, or do shorter sections by day, like the Mountain Mitchell climb.
The Storming of Thunder Ridge was a fun ride for sure.
Hoping to compete in the Grand Fondo champs in Glasgow, so fingers crossed that they include part of the actual course.
Doubtful. My guess is that none of Zwift Scotland is modeled on Scotland GPS data. But I’d happily be proven wrong!
Really? Seems like a missed opportunity if the actual UCI course in real life is running side by side with Zwift events. You would think they would try to get a picture perfect replica of the key routes to use as a showcase for the platform.
I don’t think it’s a miss. They’ve done the UCI replica thing with past courses, but those are never used for Esports worlds.
The point of this course is to host great esports racing. Not to replicate an outdoor course, which wouldn’t make for a great esports event. (Nobody wants to watch a several hours long Zwift race!)
Fair enough; at some point it probably just gets gimmicky and doesn’t serve much use beyond the event itself. I guess if we’re going to get fantastical and away from real Glasgow then I’ll put in a vote for inclusion of Edinburgh castle and a “Royal Mile” KOM. Spit at the virtual Heart of Midlothian at your own risk!
Still, it’s nice for us mortals to be able to ride (parts of) the real UCI courses in Richmond and Yorkshire. Would be nice if Scotland could offer this as well, along with portions designed specifically for esports.
I’d love to see 1-2 run-only routes in every world. Doesn’t seem like a big ask. I realize this is unlikely tho since there are about 38 people who run on Zwift regularly (and I’m not even 1 of those 😜!
Can I just ride? I don’t race.
Thanks.
Thanks Eric! It’s great that they are bringing back the UCI routes! I was sad to see these go. I hope they are a staple for the future.
I think it would also be cool if they added le Tour Femmes routes or at least key features each year that Zwift sponsors. It’s fun to “ride” what the pros are riding.
I love the fantasy worlds but it’s great to pair them with similar IRL routes.
It would be nice if they add Tourmalet or Galibier to the France map.
Just commenting to share a story idea: major bug afflicting California and Everest challenges. Readers should avoid completing these challenges until the bug is sorted out: https://forums.zwift.com/t/completed-challenge-and-unlocked-reward-message-wont-go-away-december-2022-1-32/595721
This workaround fixed it for me:
(I don’t know, or care, about whether I was actually awarded the virual frame)
Insbruck,Yorkshire,NY and London should have been delayed long time ago !! totally waste of money from Zwift,zwifters only uee nowdays Watopia,Makuri and France even that has lost a lot of zwifters !!! myself after 25000km and level 50 i’m taking a break because I hate racing and group rides and don’t want to become a “Zwift Clown”…(those who dont ride outdoors!!)
well, your. Moment about those other worlds is patently incorrect. I frequently join group ride events in most of those worlds.
As for not wanting to be “Zwift Clown” no one else cares what you do. It is only your judgement which determines whether you are a clown or not.
*”your comment”
Tried to come up with a sensible response to this but not sure its worth wasting my energy. Just so wrong on so many levels.
Time to start a bingo card for what we might see at the side of the road. Bagpipe, anyone?
Unicorns.
Empty bottles of IRN BRU
Smashed buckfast bottles and teenage pregnancy
A street stall selling haggis!
Nessie!
Groundskeeper Willie
Great to hear they’re coming out with another new map! They really should ditch Richmond while they’re at it, pretty worthless.
Some of the best racing on Zwift in Richmond!
Would love to have some elimination races in Zwift instead of the old and boring Crit
If Zwift is going to release a new map, why release it when the winter is nearly over and people in North America will be heading back outside to ride?
For people in the southern hemisphere, summer is nearly over and winter is coming…
Pretty sure that’s covered in depth in the article. Because it’s tying in to the eSports world champs.
Also, North America =/= the world.
I don’t understand why Mt. Fuji is just used has just decoration on the island routes. Why not a route up it? The island routes lack a major climb.
Patience, patience… Mt. Zuji coming…
Do you know this or are you just hopeful?
I’m certainly happy to hear that they’ll be adding another world, but like some others have suggested, I hope they have plenty of ‘country side’ riding and not just a cityscape. NY and Paris for example could use a facelift or at least provide a means to connect to other worlds like we get with Makuri’s newest addition. Unfortunately for those of us who zwift year round, some of the existing and limited courses get old in a hurry.
I’m looking forward to the Scotland map – hopefully plenty of hills.
One thing I’d really like to see on Zwift & something that shouldn’t be too hard to create graphically, is a Velodrome. Many of us don’t get the chance to ride in one and Zwift would be the only opportunity many of us would have.
I agree with all the previous comments about connecting worlds. Now on the lighter side? Will Nessie appear too?
Still waiting for Belgium.. but this will be fun.
Got to level 50 many years ago, don’t race, don’t group ride often, like new routes, some I find dull, don’t enjoy the futuristic worlds, loved doing the challenges early on but none left now, why ? personally surprised Holland has never featured, the european country most used by cyclists? at least I’ve now got level 60 to aim for. I’ve always got the TV on when I cycle (not with zwift on). i.e. zwift is a nice tool to use for exercise ay any time of the day for any length of time. would still like to e.g. visit my garage without logging on as riding. I ride with realism? set to 0 so i don’t have to change gear on hills (unless I want to increase the watts) it just slows my speed accordingly, Like the suggestion of connecting the different worlds with tunnels. Enjoy the very large group rides that are for some cause where your pace can be as fast/slow as you want it.
Holland may be awesome for IRL events but for Zwift it’d be a bit flat!
I’m guessing Feugo Flats and Tick Tock are two very popular rides escpecially for trying out the Time trial bike and also allows people to level up faster as they complete more miles in their alloted exercise time.
I agree that it would be nice to visit garage without needing to log in to the app. Don’t know why such things can’t be done from the web browser or the companion.
It would be really something, and i know it won’t appeal to most outside uk, to have a complete Fred Whitton route in the lake district. Even completing a virtual Fred’ is a big achievement for many.
That would be something special.
I’m from Edinburgh so I’m really quite excited by this. I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again – Zwift needs more medium-length climbs! the Alpe and Ventoux are great, but they’re a little long for very regular sessions. My favourite climbs in Zwift are the Epic KOM and Innsbruck, but the latter is hardly ever available (and who wants to ride on empty roads?), and they’re both a little on the short side. A Zwift simulation of the Bealach-na-Ba in NW Scotand would be perfect!
The Scotland routes will almost certainly feature bystanders in kilts, random West Highland terriers and lots of disney-style castles. In other words, boring, short routes and patronising rendering. Meh.
I would like to see some rides like Amstal Gold in the Netherlands or the Belgium rides on Zwift, also the tour down under Australia.
Booo, I was looking forward to riding the virtual version of the real roads and routes.
I wish there were several more climbs in Zwift, both of the 400m Epic KOM/Innsbruck size as well as the massive >1000m AdZ/Ventoux size. I do like the Yorkshire/Richmond UCI courses as well, for me 1 UCI lap is a good distance for a hard, personal-best chasing effort. So I hope Scotland can serve up another UCI course in that vein.
Most of the rest of the roads in Zwift are gimmicky (jungles, volcanos, dinosaurs, gravel roads, etc) and I rarely bother with them anymore.
I would like Rowing on Zwift,I can do it now, but not in a boat 🚣🏿♀️
Is Rowing on Zwift coming soon?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kptp9SmM5Y&t=8s&ab_channel=SaturdayNightLive
Scotland – sounds cool, but would be fantastic if they could link Glasgow with Edinburgh – at lease in some fashion… riding the Royal Mile would be cool.
Second, I also remember the part of more roads in France, and it does make sense to move Alpe de Zwift to France now, if that is possible. The French country side is by far my favorite of all the courses.
But the one I really want is Belgium. That’s got to happen, and sooner rather than later. Du Muur, Koppenberg, etc.. even a Belgian Crit course would be fun.
BELGIUM IN 2023!!!
For France I would love to see them adding the Tourmalet, considering that this year is included in Women’s Tour the France, it would make sense.
Personally, super-excited about the Glasgow routes. Thank you Zwift 😁
Any news on when the Scotland map is released? I’m guessing that considering that TdZ Stage 8 in Scotland is next week from friday to sunday, next Thursday at the latest will become available. Unless they make it only rideble in TdZ events.
When will Scotland be released? How many routes? Flat, hilly, rolling?
Sounds like next week we’ll start seeing events on it. I would classify it as “pitchy” 🙂
I just saw that the new Scotland routes are already visible on ZwiftHacks:
https://zwifthacks.com/app/routes/
Noticed on zwifthacks events, the Duathlon League has the Scotland routes
Loch Loop https://zwifthacks.com/app/routes/?filter==Loch%20Loop
City and the Sgurr https://zwifthacks.com/app/routes/?filter==City%20and%20the%20Sgurr
Rolling Highlands https://zwifthacks.com/app/routes/?filter==Rolling%20Highlands
The Sgurr summit looks good 🙂
Mmmm, Scotland available from Mid-March ????
Unless my glasses need a clean I haven’t seen Scotland on the Course Calendar for this month ??
Empty promises again ZHQ ??
I think they’ll revise the calendar in the next week or so…