Zwift has just announced the details of its next major event series, and it’s a crowd favorite: the Tour of Watopia (ToW) featuring double XP! This year includes two stages with brand-new routes from the upcoming Watopia expansion.
The 5-stage tour runs from October 5 to November 15. With double XP on tap, fresh kit unlocks, and a Watopia expansion, you can bet Zwifters will turn out. Because everyone wants to level up and ride new roads!
Double XP + Rewards
Tour of Watopia is Zwift’s only series featuring double XP. Typically riders are awarded 20 XP per kilometer or 32 XP per mile, but for ToW stages, riders will receive 40 XP per kilometer/64 XP per mile. Learn all about cycling XP and unlocks >
Runners typically receive 10 XP per .25km or 15 XP per .25 mile. You will receive 20 XP per .25km or 30 XP per .25 mile in ToW stages. Learn all about running XP and unlocks >
Stage Completion Rewards
Various rewards are configured for stage completion, for riders only:
- Stage 1 – Socks
- Stage 2 – 500 XP
- Stage 3 – Cap
- Stage 4 – 500 XP
- Stage 5 – Finisher’s Kit
Ultimate Challenge Rewards
Go big and complete every cycling route in the challenge! You’ll earn extra XP as you progress towards completion, which requires a total of 405.5km of riding with 3759 meters of elevation gain:
- 7 Routes – 500 XP
- 9 Routes – 1000 XP
- 11 Routes – 2000 XP
- 13 Routes – 3000 XP
- 15 Routes – 4000 XP and Ultimate Challenge Finisher’s Kit
Stage Details
Group ride events for ToW use the following category/group setup:
- Group A: Longer Ride
- Group B: Standard Ride
- Group C: Shorter Ride
- Group D: Women Only (same route as Group B)
Late join will be enabled for all rides, but Zwift encourages everyone to get into the pens before the event begins to maximize the fun. Events will be scheduled hourly.
Remember, any route below can also be free-ridden (or completed in a workout, meetup, or even a non-ToW event) for stage credit once the stage begins.
Stage 1: October 5-11
- Long Ride: Watts of the Wild (42.2km, 309m)
- Standard Ride & Race: Sand and Sequoias (22.4km, 181m)
- Short Ride: Beach Island Loop (13.3km, 44m)
- Run: That’s Amore (6.7km)
Stage 2: October 12-18
- Long Ride: Out and Back Again (42.5km, 335m)
- Standard Ride & Race: Downtown Eruption (19.9km, 276m)
- Short Ride: Tick Tock (19.1km, 59m)
- Run: Splash and Dash (6.2km)
Stage 3: October 19-25
- Long Ride: Climber’s Gambit (27.9km, 670m)
- Standard Ride & Race: Coastal Crown Loop (23.6km, 266m)
- Short Ride: Jarvis Seaside Sprint (15.3km, 131m)
- Run Ride: Titan’s Run (5.9km)
Stage 4: October 26-November 1
- Long Ride: Pacific Pursuit (54km, 380m)*
- Standard Ride: California Roll (33.2km, 168m)*
- Short Ride & Race: California Dreamin’ (19.1km, 153m)*
- Run Ride: Lava Legs (4km)*
Stage 5: November 2-8
- Long Ride: One Ride to Rule Them All (38.7km, 506m)*
- Standard Ride & Race: Molten Momentum (20.8km, 245m)*
- Short Ride: Crit Cross (13.5km, 36m)*
- Run: Lightning Lap (5km)*
* denotes new routes arriving in the upcoming Watopia expansion
Sign up at zwift.com/events/tag/tourofwatopia2026 >
Make-Up Stages
Missed a stage or two? Or maybe you just want more of that sweet double XP? Make-up stages will be held from November 9-15. During those 7 days, Zwift will host events every 30 minutes covering all 5 stages.
Racing GC
Since the ToW races are replacing Zwift’s regular ZRacing series, there’s also a GC competition being held across the 5 stages. Track your standings at zwift.com/racing/leagues/tourofwatopia2026.
Event Schedule
- Group Rides are scheduled hourly
- Races are scheduled hourly, with events every 30 minutes during make up week
- Runs are scheduled every two hours
Routes may also be ridden or run via any other method for full stage credit, once the stage begins.
So Much XP!
How much XP could you earn by riding all the ToW routes? Well, that depends on which routes you’ve already completed, if you repeat some of the stages, how long you ride during the cooldown (where you still get double XP), whether you’re on an accelerated leveling plan, etc.
Here’s a table showing how much XP you will earn if you’re at level 100+ with plenty of banked XP, and you’ve already ridden all the existing routes (so no route badge), and you ride every route in every stage of this year’s Tour. The total? 55,525 XP!
| Stage/Route | 20 XP/km | Doubled | Banked XP Added | Bonus XP | Route XP |
| 1: Watts of the Wild (42.2km) | 840 | 840 | 2520 | ||
| 1: Sand and Sequoias (22.4km) | 440 | 440 | 1320 | ||
| 1: Beach Island Loop (13.3km) | 260 | 260 | 780 | ||
| 2: Long Ride: Out and Back Again (42.5km, 335m) | 840 | 840 | 2520 | 500 | |
| 2: Downtown Eruption (19.9km) | 400 | 400 | 1200 | ||
| 2: Tick Tock (19.1km) | 380 | 380 | 1140 | 2502 | |
| 3: Climber’s Gambit (27.9km) | 560 | 560 | 1680 | 500 | |
| 3: Coastal Crown Loop (23.6km) | 460 | 460 | 1380 | ||
| 3: Jarvis Seaside Sprint (15.3km) | 300 | 300 | 900 | 1000 | |
| 4: Pacific Pursuit (54km) | 1080 | 1080 | 3240 | 500 | 1080 |
| 4: California Roll (33.2km) | 660 | 660 | 1980 | 2000 | 660 |
| 4: California Dreamin’ (19.1km) | 380 | 380 | 1140 | 380 | |
| 5: One Ride to Rule Them All (38.7km)* | 760 | 760 | 2280 | 3000 | 770 |
| 5: Molten Momentum (20.8km)* | 420 | 420 | 1260 | 415 | |
| 5: Crit Cross (13.5km) | 260 | 260 | 780 | 4000 | 270 |
* denotes new Watopia routes
2 Tick Tock is the Route of the Week for October 12-18
Questions or Comments?
We’ve shared everything we know above, and will update this post with new info as it becomes available.
Still got questions? Post below and we’ll try to get them answered.
How much XP per km/miles is awarded when on the level 100+ accelerated points scheme
It’s usually 4×, isn’t it? So with double XP that’d be 160 per km or 256 per mile. Kerching.
Lol at optimistic me from yesterday 🤣
Not exactly. The bonus points are not multiplied. So It is 100 XP per km not 160
I refer you to the post directly above yours, the point of which was to make people aware that, yes, I was aware of my calamitous error and, no, there was no need to correct me further.
Ah well.
😉
With accelerated leveling for levels 100+, Zwift takes the 20 XP you earn per km and combines it with 60 XP from your “bank” for a total of 80 XP applied toward your level up per km ridden.
In Double XP events like ToW, another 20 XP is added (it doubles your original distance XP, but doesn’t change the bank withdrawal) for a total of 100 XP applied toward your level up per km ridden.
More info on accelerated leveling: https://zwiftinsider.com/accelerated-leveling-101/
Thanks for the explanation. I literally came looking just for this to see how likely it would be that I’d reach level 150 by Christmas by riding the ToW daily.
To add to Eric S. reply below regarding the double XP plus accelerated leveling over L100 in metric system distance, for those using the English system that’s 64+(3*32) = 160 XP per mile. Since you only need 5000 XP to level up during 4X acceleration, you’ll only need to ride 5000/160 = ~31 miles or 50km before reaching the next level.
I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of Zwifters, myself included, who will be leveling up multiple times during a session, especially if riding long distances! Also, don’t forget that if you ride a fully upgraded entry level or mid-range frame, you get a 5% XP bonus. Juice it up and $$cash in$$ on the easy XP!!
I’m not sure your math is right here. I think you’re applying the acceleration twice!
100 XP per km, but you need 20,000 XP to level up. That would be 200km per level, right? Or am I misunderstanding what you’re saying, Ray?
Which frame is the most aero of the +5% frames?
If my calculations are right that’s 10,880 xp for the first three stages doing all routes and ~20,100 xp for stage 4 and 5 taking bonus xp for new routes into the equation. About 31,000 xp in total. Not bad, not bad at all!
Hmmm… maybe I’ll add a table above. The math is a bit complex, but if you add in level acceleration, I see I would get a total 54,775 XP if I do all the routes! That’s almost 3 full levels…
Table added above!
54k is if you are above lvl 100 and you had lots of banked XPs.
normal ppl will get to around 30k
So, in as much as I am at level 96 right now 30K for doing all of the routes in each stage? I haven’t tried to figure out the level 100+ stuff because I am not there.
Is there a badge for completing? My garage is fully stocked with kit…
Not that I know of.
I can’t remember but will workouts just pay double XP on this routs.?
And also if I ride the same route more then ones.?
I think only distance XP is doubled, not workout XP. But I could be wrong…
I’ve done workouts during ToW before and earned double XP
Noted!
if this is true, we go from 40XP x km, to 24XP per minute, and brings back into XP efficiency the workout vs ride. Distance-based at double XP is more efficient than workout at 18km/h, but if also workouts are doubled, the limit goes back to 36km/h, so workous will be more efficient almost all the time. needs to be tested.
sorry, can you explain this a bit more?
My feeling is that regular rides are always much more efficient which is always not so cool as I do a lot of workouts 🙂
The page here on how XP for workouts is calculated is excellent. Hopefully my calculations are correct. Basically for a 60 minute workout if you complete the blocks you normally get about 60X(10 or 11) depending on block size or intervals, i got about 108per 5 minute block today so double the normal of around 650/hour. So normally at 20 points per km you need to average somewhere under 33km/hour to do better in a workout..With intervals I got around 1700XP for 75 minutes.
https://zwiftinsider.com/xp-for-cycling-workouts/
I am getting around 240xp each 10 minutes doing workouts on Tour of Watopia routes.
From what I understand, that would make sense if you are doing intervals.
Does this mean that yes workout XP is doubled?
Yes, Tim.
With all the stage bonuses, streak bonuses, and other sundry xp. Just gotta ride about 1700km to reach 100! I think I might move my work desk to the pain cavern. Shut up legs!
would be nice to get some bonus drops but oh well ride on
Once a rider gets past level 40 (?) drops and miles becomes much more valuable. I’m with you a 5x drop series or something would be worth it. Or instead of 250 xp 50000 drops.
Ride with a pacer on an event route. Bonus XP AND bonus drops! Genie is on Sand and Sequoias and Bernie is on Beach Island Loop right now
… and if you didn’t lose the drops multiplier when teleporting that combo would be the basis of a nice interval workout 😊
Will they unlock all at the same time (except the 4/5 stages) or week by week (ie, can I do for example Jarvis Seaside sprint on week one and counts for double XPs and route completion)
Zwift says they’ll unlock week by week.
Would be nice if Zwift gave all club rides double XP during the Tour period. Even playing field and all that.
@Eric Schlange could be more xp looks like the tick tick stage is also route of the week the same week
Oooh, nice catch! I didn’t look at ROTW. Will need to update the table. 💪
👍🏽 👍🏽
Don’t forget that riding a fully-upgraded Entry-Level frame nets an additional 5% XP, so if you are willing to go a little slower, you can earn even more points.
Zwift Aero don’t fail me now!
Can you also just switch at the of the event, and still get the points? or needs to be the same bike for all the duration?
You earn points each km based on whatever bike you’re currently riding.
I meant for the bonus at the end for the stage or route completion
My experience has been that the 5% bikes:
Do not earn the bonus on double XP promos (they earn 41/km boosted not 42)
Do not earn the bonus on the 10xp powerup
Do earn the bonus on the 250xp powerup
Do earn route/challenge bonuses if they are equipped anytime before line cross
Will it be triple XP on the new routes, or just double?
Effectively triple, since you basically get a route badge bonus equal to the amount of distance XP you got while riding it.
No backwards cap or bucket hat??
Thank goodness, no bucket hat! 😅
Now now now, and here I was such a fan of you …….. 😢
So excited for this! Such an amazing event. Cant wait for it and especially the new expansion. Also I was wondering what some of the route names you’d come up with. (And there’s others that we don’t know yet as there’s a lot more than what the tour uses). Thanks Zwift.
Do you get double XP indefinitely after you finish the ride, or just during the 10 min cooldown?
Should keep getting it, since you get it for free riding the route on demand as well.
I was wondering about this. As a person working rides around two young children and a busy job in the fall this makes me happy.
What’s the total distance and elevation gain for the ultimate challenge? Real shame that hat isn’t backwards
By the back of my napkin, it’s 405km with 3760m of climbing.
LeChef is correct!
Is there zracing in Oct or no because the overlap with this?
ZRacing will be on one of the routes of TOW reach week, either medium or short.
I feel that ‘One Ride to Rule Them All’ should be a lot longer..
Hopefully they’ll bring out a Extended Edition
Sorry, just my inner LOTR nerd speaking!
I thought that same. They must be thinking quality, not quantity. 😜
I was able to create (trace) a route using the new (coming) roads without any duplication or doubling back that generated a 50+ mile loop, so I am not sure the ‘Pacific Pursuit’ let alone the shorter ‘One Ride to Rule Them All’ – are anywhere near the longest route that Zwift HQ could come up with… and if they don’t, then we can all just use the manual road selection tool to make are own on the fly.
Finally a kit unlock that isn’t pastel. Thank you, Zwift!
What the hell is bank withdrawal?
It’s how accelerated leveling works: https://zwiftinsider.com/accelerated-leveling-101/
I’ll try to come up with a better term… 😀
For people who got to level 100 long ago, any XP earned while at that level are just stored “in the bank” since there was nowhere to apply that XP. Once the new levels above 100 became available, Zwift started withdrawing XP from that “bank” to accelerate the level-up pace of those who were stuck at 100.
Hope that makes sense.
Shame they didn’t throw in a little something extra as a reward for anyone who does all 15 Cycling routes plus all 5 Running routes, which I imagine a few mad people will do
I did this in the past 2 years and would love to see something like you described. This could be a special hat or cap that you can wear for both, running and riding.
They need to find away to drastically increase the ability to gain more drops. Some of these events need drop bonuses along with xp bonuses. Halo bikes are extremely drop expensive.
In March they had an event where you could get a lot of drops. Many riders rode the Stoneway sprint. The event was highlighted here, it was the Zwift Big Spin. You could really pile up drops. I believe they had it the year before so hopefully they will do it again.
And the Ultimate isn’t just a backwards hat!
Addicts (like me) rejoice!
I think you’re missing the Stage 4 500XP bonus in the table
Truth! Fixed.
Safe to assume you can ride these routes multiple times then and get Double XP each time you ride it minus the badge xp, correct?
Correct.
For levels under 40 like me (28 atm) i get the same amount of exp that the board is showing? or that is only for level 100+
Nieos, you will not get the banked ‘XP Added’, but you will get the other columns.
Carole
Sorry if this has already been asked, but do all of the 15 stages have to be completed for the finisher kit, or could I theoretically ride stage 1 15 times? Also does it have to be in an event for the ride to count or does free ride count also?
You have to complete all 15 ROUTES to get the Ultimate Challenge finisher’s kit. Complete all 5 STAGES to get the ToW finisher’s kit.
Riding a particular route multiple times won’t earn you any extra credit.
Yes, you can free ride the route for it to count. But not until that route’s stage start date has arrived.
Can I free ride all the available routes in week 1 and get credit for them in the total (but not the double xp)?
Nope!
double xp also applying to group rides on the given weekly ToW routes? 🤔
Yeah, any distance on Group rides & Races etc are credited as double XP… even if they aren’t ToW ‘Official’ events. I believe that if you go to the 1.6wkg bot who is on Beach Island Loop for the next few days, all distance you cover with that bot will also be credited for double XP…
We’ll find out this morning, but Zwift says the double XP applies everywhere, based on the route.
This would be nice, Double XP + Drops.. Juicy
If i do 15 short routes only, do i get the ultimate challenge exp for the 15 routes? or do i have to do each “long, short and standard” for each week to get all the exp?
You have to do all the different routes.
Thanks boss!
If i free ride one of the week’ route multiple times, do i still get the XP bonus? or do i only get the bonus for these multiple rides on events?
What XP bonus are you asking about? Lots of XP bonuses in the mix here.
yes. was free riding all 3 routes of stage 1 twice & always earned double XP. riding multiple laps earning double XP continues unless you leave the route.
I expected the bonus XP to continue to the end of the cooldown phase, I did not expect it to continue beyond that – but it does so I’m getting my 100XP per km for as long as I stay on the route. Not sure if this is a bug that will be corrected, but while it lasts I’m soaking up the extra.
Not a bug – since you’re on the route, it’s like you’re free riding it (on demand) and thus getting the bonus Xp.
it was a good surprise – i tested it and as soon as you left course double xp stopped
100xp per KM?? are you on accelerated XP?
Good news, I did my workout on Sand and Sequoias and got doubled XP
Can we start adding bonus drops to these? No one cares about XP but everyone cares about drops now. It’s weird to me that they have all these bonus XP events. What good is XP past the first chunk of levels which are already easy to get?
I dont care much about the extra XP, I’d love to see 2x drops or something. If you race Its expensive to upgrade bikes/buy wheels and new “best” comes out just often enough I doubt I will ever save up enough to unlock a Halo bike.
Will you still be able to get credit for completion if you rode a stage 1 route whilst stage 2 was out for example? And also would you still get double XP or is that only whilst that particular stage is on?
Once the stage dates arrive, you can ride them for credit, Zwift tells me. Even if it’s a week or two or three later… until the make up week ends.
Are there any unlocks for running? I ran the “That’s Amore” route on my own yesterday but didn’t even get double XP. Do I have to participate in the event?
That’s odd, you should have gotten double XP according to Zwift. I’d report it to support.
No running unlocks this year.
If we do a workout we don’t normally get the XP per km/mile, is that the same on these ToW double XP routes?
If you do a ToW route as a freeride and choose to do a workout, then you will get double XP for each interval of the workout that you complete. I always choose the route from the ToW panel to make sure that it registers the route freeride properly and then choose the workout that I want to do.
Do you get more XP doing freeride + banner + more speed or doing Workout?
That depends on your power. Usually u get more XP freeriding.
Hi there, stage 2 is saying it’ll be unlocked 12.10.2026 but it’s still showing locked for me and Today’s the 12.10.2026 (I’m in the UK)
The events dont start until morning North America time, so might be the same for free rides.
First Race is 16:10 UK time, first Group Ride 17:00.
Not sure what’s going on here (please see attached screen shot).
3 activities completed on Stage 1, but the XP bonus is still locked.
Does it mean 2 Stages rather than 2 Activities?
Thanks for any help.
Yeah, it should say stages, not activities.
OK.
Thanks, Eric. 👍
Is the time of day for week start the same as the Route of the Week, so noon Eastern on Monday? Thanks.
Yes.
Is there a different link for the GC for those of us doing the Race events? When I look at the results, I can only see the times for the individual stages not the combined GC ranking.
Just got the link! https://www.zwift.com/racing/leagues/tourofwatopia2026
Sorry but I still just see the separate stage results and not the “Overall” ranking…
j’ai fait le stage 2, mais mon classement a disparu ??
et dans la page des classement, il y a une erreur sur le parcours du stage 2 il me semble ?
This is stage 2 week. I missed a route from stage 1. I know I can get credit for the route from a free ride. But do I also get a double XP bonus?
Yes, I believe you do. Give it a try and reply here with your findings! (You’ll know after the first km.)