“Three Little Sisters” Route Details (Watopia)
Originally published as a Rebel Route by Zwift Insider in February 2020, “Three Little Sisters” was suggested by Zwifter Gene Kruger. He named it in homage to Zwift’s official “Three Sisters” route which takes us over the Hilly, Volcano, and Epic KOMs. Three Little Sisters, in contrast, takes us over the Hilly, Titans Grove, and Volcano KOMs – in that order. Each new climb is longer than the one before, and we take the shortest possible route to get from climb to climb. Zwift’s February 2022 update included this route as an event-only route that awards an achievement badge. The April 2022 update then made this route free ridable.
Originally published as a Rebel Route by Zwift Insider in February 2020, “Three Little Sisters” was suggested by Zwifter Gene Kruger. He named it in homage to Zwift’s official “Three Sisters” route which takes us over the Hilly, Volcano, and Epic KOMs. Three Little Sisters, in contrast, takes us over the Hilly, Titans Grove, and Volcano KOMs – in that order. Each new climb is longer than the one before, and we take the shortest possible route to get from climb to climb. Zwift’s February 2022 update included this route as an event-only route that awards an achievement badge. The April 2022 update then made this route free ridable.
Route Basics
Length: 37.8 km (23.5 miles)
Elevation: 434m (1,424′)
Map: Watopia
ZIMetrics
Rating: 20.2/100 🛈
Time Estimates 🛈
lead-in + first lap
4 W/kg: 58 minutes
3 W/kg: 64 minutes
2 W/kg: 80 minutes
Start & Finish
Begins and ends at downtown Watopia start/finish banner.
Format: Loop
Ride Achievement Badge: 755 XP
Run Achievement Badge: none
Leaderboard Segments |
| Hilly KOM (0.9km, 5.5%) |
| Titans Grove KOM (2.6km, 2.2%) |
| Volcano KOM (3.8km, 3.2%) |
Strava Segments
Bike Selection
Go as aero as possible. While this route has three key climbs, they’re all short and slack enough that an aero bike will match a climbing bike’s performance on the uphills, and be faster on the flats and descents.
Route Description
Route profile by ZwiftHub – the place to plan and track your route achievements!
This medium-length route begins at the downtown Watopia start/finish banner when free riding, but from the start pen on the Watopia Pier in an event. You’ll quickly hit the first climb of the ride – the very first timed KOM to exist on Watopia! The Hilly KOM is the steepest climb on today’s route, but also the shortest. Hit it hard to finish in a couple of minutes, or take it easy. The choice is yours!
After the first climb you’ll descend down through the statues and past Hank’s Gas Station, then turn left onto Ocean Boulevard. A right turn at Sequoia Circle takes us toward the Epic KOM, but don’t worry – we’re not tackling that climb today! Instead, we’ll turn left toward the desert and Titans Grove, then another left to get into the Grove. Up the road a bit (just past the dinosaurs) is the start of our second KOM of the day. The Titans Grove KOM is really two sections of climbing with a small downhill in between. It’s not a steep climb, but it’s long enough to hurt if you’re trying to grab that KOM jersey! Once you crest the Titans Grove KOM you’ll ride the rollercoaster roads down and out of Titans Grove then turn left to head back to Ocean Boulevard and downtown Watopia. Head through Watopia to the Volcano, riding around the mountain’s north side to the entrance of the Volcano KOM – our third and final climb of the day. This is our longest climb. It’s not particularly steep, so use the draft of other riders for a little added advantage if you’re trying to make good time. Finish the Volcano climb with a hard final kick, then circle around the top and descend back to sea level. Finish the Volcano Circuit CCW and head back to downtown Watopia where the route ends at the start/finish banner. Well done!
The Hour Challenge
The length and difficulty of this route make it perfect for a “1-hour challenge.” Who can complete this route in under an hour? Let’s see what you’ve got!
Are you going to create a “from start pier” or “segment starts just after start pier” segment for this so people doing it in the tour of watopia match a segment? Since this is an event only route it seems that unless one uses a hack like zwiftpref there is no way to match this segment other than using manual turns.
I support this.
Edit: The segment is already there, segment ID 31205450 (“Three Little Sisters (from Start Pen)” and now it’s also listed above 🙂
Sub 60 minutes, wow! I’ll definitely need the double draft train to pull me along (are they releasing a triple draft yet? Just joking…). If this is an event only, assuming equip with a road bike and DT Swiss wheel sets?
In an event sub 60 should be doable for somewhat decent cyclists. Solo I cannot imagine getting close
I have a solo ride on this route just over 62 minutes, was 3.14w/kg. 3.2w/kg is usually the dividing line between C and B, so should be quite do-able for a decent B cyclist. Not that crazy.
That sounds doable, might try it then
i was easily able to it in sub 55min.
the course isnt hard. (i finished on 3.1wpk)
It’s much easier now that you have the draft of a large official zwift event!
Hi all just completed the route for the third time but received no badge whilst I have to be honest first two times I took the wrong route lol 😂 but third time no issues any ideas?
Article states in an event only route (Tour of Watopia) which doesn’t start until the 9th March (tomorrow).
As for every badge, you have to select the route or ride an event on the ride to get the badge, just making all the turns you will _not_ get the badge. I know this route is confusing because it used to be a rebel route (ie no way to select the route) but now it is an official event route. Use https://zwifthacks.com/app/events/ to find some events on this route, the Tour of Watopia is the most common one, search for TOW.
Best bike for this?
Otherwise I’ll assume Tron is a good enough default
The most aero frame and wheels you have available, especially if joining the first TOW event at 1700 GMT… Nearly 4000 sign ups with ~40mins still to go!
49:06 🤩
Yep, that is correct. You get the “from start pier” segment and only the old “free ride” rebel route segment is on the veloviewer route hunter. Switching to the start pier segment penalizes those who did it as a free ride, leaving it as is means the vast majority of people who did the route don’t match the segment. Best of both worlds would have been to create a segment that starts after the start piers join the route, but it’s too late for that now, half of this stage of Tour of Watopia is over and those people won’t match any segment created now.
Riding the climbs hard from the gun, I managed to complete the route in under 58:00! Nothing particularly impressive about that to most people other then me but I was pumped. I also increased my FTP from 219 to 235! #ridepactimo
Looks like you didn’t create the segment until the second day of ToW and so it’s horsepuckey that those who completed it prior won’t have their efforts appear on Veloviewer.
Nah, it was there on the first day, you can see another comment on this very thread from somewhere pointing out it was created on mar 9, the first day of the tour. The problem you are likely seeing is that there are two segments, one that matches if you do the route as a free ride (and unless you use some hack to ride an event-only route you have to manually make all the turns), and the newer one that starts from the start pens. Anyone who did the segment back when it was only a rebel route and not in the game at all would match the first, and anyone who did the tour of watopia route one would match the second. Veloviewer has the first segment listed.
This is a little bit of an interesting conundrum (for uber nerds like me at least): no other event only routes are included in veloviewer yet (including the neokyo crit course which has a badge), so what segment should be included in veloviewer for three little sisters? The free ride segment only? Then the thousands of people who did the ToW event won’t get it. The event-only segment? Then all the people who did the route solo and have seen it counted will lose it from their velo viewer.
The ideal would have been to create a segment that started after the start pens that would match both free ride and event only. Now this means old rides that did it solo would not match the new segment, but there are ways to make an old activity match a new segment, and the hundreds of people who did that rebel route are pretty hard core so are more likely to actually do that.
No great solutions.
I appreciate the breakdown, Tim.
Eric rode the ToW event a few hours after I did on the first day, and I figure he generated the Veloviewer route thereafter. My ToW ride does not apply somehow (even though, as usual, I was in the start pens 30 minutes prior to go time).
It’s all good, I climbed into the top 100 overall on VV, which serves to temper my passions around nailing every fresh route.
You can likely use one of the methods listed in this article to get your TOW ride to match the new segment https://zwiftinsider.com/strava-match-old-activities/
Looked again the other day and, voila! It’s there and credit applied.
I missed this route’s event at the TOW, I assume there will be others or it will be added as a non-event route at some point?
Good question. I think there will probably be community events with it eventually? Maybe zwift was trying to keep it exclusive for the tour but now it is wide open? Pure speculation, I don’t know anything.
Great note about the hour challenge! Ride the route on the ToW and did it in 58:49.
Elevation is more like 1424 feet
This route is not selectable from the routes menu, so I’m not sure what “freely ridable” means. Do I have to manually select my turns and put the route together to get this ride in? Thanks.
It is right there in the list of routes. Have you made sure that you’ve selected Watopia first?
Stage 4 of the December ZRacing series uses this route, but ends at the top of the Volcano KOM. I finally reached level 33 and bought the Scott Addict RC. Is it worth sacrificing the aero of the Tron to have the better climbing setup? Or is the Volcano KOM not long/steep enough? If I do use the Scott, what wheel set would be best (through level 33)?
Roval Alpinist if you are going w/best climbing set-up. https://zwiftinsider.com/fastest-climbing-by-level/
Thanks, Anthony. That’s the wheel set I’m leaning towards. I just need to hope I don’t use too much energy getting to the bottom of the volcano…and that I’m still in the lead group to make it worthwhile!
With the climb portal added to Watopia, a simple rebel route could be to add the Portal climb after the Volcano climb before continuing to the finish, creating a mini Four Horsemen, with the added bonus that the end of the route changes every three days
Struggling with a name though, Four Pony Riders of the Gymkhana doesn’t have quite the same ring to it!
Bought the zwift ride super, but there is some slack in the steering
zwift please set this route Back with robopacer! Was so great to imprime
I’ve completed this multiple times (including as part of ToW), but veloviewer/strava aren’t matching it. I tried the “match to old activities” approach described in the links below, and that didn’t work either. Any other way to check that box?
@Eric Schlange Unfortunately, there are 2 segments w/ this name in Strava. This one is free ridable. But it’s the one labeled “From the Start Pens” that veloviewer is matched to, and even the latest events I’ve seen are using this one instead of that one. So TLS is the only route I’m not being able to complete from the (non Rebel Route) list at the moment. Halp!