“Rebel Routes” are Zwift rides which are not available on Zwift’s routes list, thus requiring manual navigation.
The reward for your rebel ride? Exploring a new route, knowing you’ve gone where few Zwifters have gone before. And a Strava segment rank in the tens or hundreds instead of the thousands!
Route Description
This is a long flat route which ends in a climb up the Volcano. It is most comparable to the Volcano Climb After Party event-only route, except Spiral Into the Volcano has an extra 10 miles of flat before the volcano climb.
If you follow this route on a map you’ll see how it was named: an ever-tightening counter-clockwise spiral which culminates in the spiral climb up the volcano.
We begin at the downtown start/finish in the reverse direction. Ride around the Volcano Flat to Ocean Blvd then Fuego Flats for a nice flat run through the desert which includes the longest timed “sprint” on Zwift.
Ride through downtown Watopia and around Volcano Flat a second time, but this time when we get on Ocean Blvd we’ll take that all the way back through downtown Watopia. The spiral begins!
Once more through downtown and around Volcano Flat, then hang a left at the Italian Villas to go over The Esses and back to the Volcano. We’ll loop once around the volcano (one lap of Volcano Circuit CCW), then hang a left for the Volcano Climb finish. The route ends at the top of the Volcano as you cross under the KOM banner.
Profile
This route is quite flat, with nothing more than short pitches or rollers until the final Volcano KOM finish which is 2.3 miles (3.6km) long at an average gradient of 3%.
Route details:
Distance: 55.6km (34.6 miles)
Elevation Gain: 324m (1,064′)
Getting Started
When freeriding, select the “Volcano Flat” route to begin–this reduces your number of manual turns required to just 6. You will spawn just before the downtown start banner.
IMPORTANT: you must ride down through the banner then flip a u-turn and ride through the banner in the reverse direction to begin the route!
Turn by Turn
There are many intersections of this route, but typically only 6 manual turns are required. All other intersections should be routed correctly by default, but sometimes Zwift changes the default turns when you’re deep into a randonneuring rebel route, so stay vigilant.
Here is the complete list of turns:
- Right to Volcano Circuit
- Right to Volcano Circuit CCW
- Right to Volcano Circuit
- Right (Straight) to Italian Villas
- Right to 360 Bridge
- Right to Sequoia Circle
- Left (Straight) to Sequoia Circle
- Right to Epic KOM
- Left to Desert Flats
- Right (Straight) to Desert Flats
- Left to Downtown
- Straight (Right) to Ocean Blvd
- Right to Downtown
- Right to Downtown
- Right to Volcano Circuit
- Right to Volcano Circuit CCW
- Right to Volcano Circuit
- Right (Straight) to Italian Villas
- Right to 360 Bridge
- Right to Sequoia Circle
- Left (Straight) to Sequoia Circle
- Left (Straight) to Downtown
- Left (Straight) to Downtown
- Right to Downtown
- Right to Volcano Circuit
- Right to Volcano Circuit CCW
- Right to Volcano Circuit
- Right (Straight) to Italian Villas
- Left to Sprint
- Left (Straight) to Sprint
- Left to Volcano Circuit
- Right to Volcano Circuit CCW
- Right to Volcano Circuit
- Left to Volcano Circuit CCW
- Left (Straight) to Volcano
- Left (Straight) to Volcano KOM
Strava Segment and Maps
Rebel Route Suggestions
Got an idea for a great rebel route? Share it below and maybe we’ll publish a post about it!
Just rode this today (24th Dec 2020).
Turn #13 was manual.
There is a new turn between 29 & 30, presumably due to the 4 new roads; sorry, I can’t remember the name of the turn or whether it needed manual intervention (I switched between the options at the time but can’t remember the default)
I did this route today. ALS said Turn #13 was manual, but it was automatic for me.
The additional turn is there, between 29 & 30;
29.1 Left (Straight) to Sprint
This was an automatic turn for me (the alternative is Right to Bridge/Islands).
Other than that all turns are as per the route above.
The list of turns needs a new one between 29 and 30 to account for the addition of the connecting section added between the two bridges. The default direction appears to be straight, which is the direction you want to go for this route.
I updated the turn list today to account for current roads.
Rode it today, made a mistake at the beginning, so needed to do the first spiral again. But Strava didn’t recognize. Or dit I do sth other wrong? https://www.strava.com/activities/6287894506
The segment is showing on your activity.
Yes, I talked with Strava. But the Timing is stil wrong
shouldn’t this route now be modified to add a new 2nd “spiral” down Titan’s Grove, so the spiral down Ocean Blvd would be spiral #3 now instead of #2.
It also omits the Hilly KOM. Including either it or Titan’s grove would change it from being a long flat ride to something else entirely. There’s definitely potential for a similar route including the two hills though.
I must be unlucky. I’ve just ridden this and there was only 5 or 6 automatic turns, every other one I had to adjust the direction. I missed a couple but thankfully noticed quickly enough to U-turn and still get the Strava segment
Rode this on 24/09/2023, don’t be put off by the number of turns, it’s easier than it looks! Great course. A couple of things to note: There is now a Climb Portal off the volcano island. Just ignore these altogether. You will pass it several times, so following Eric’s turns they would be 2a, 16a, 26a, 32a, 35a I think I had 7 manual turns, I tried to keep notes of them and approx distance: #8 9.9km #9 11.1km #10 12.5km #12 23.8km #29 43.6km #31 46km #34 49km (Also, iirc, I think step #35 is Left (Straight) to Volcano… Read more »