Powerups in Zwift are usually something you want to use, because they give you an advantage. Whether it’s an aero boost in that final sprint, a feather on a fearsome climb, or a van to help you recover in the pack, powerups generally give you an advantage when used.
But there are situations where it would be smarter to just dump your powerup instead of using it. Typically these situations involve the burrito or anvil powerups.
For example:
- You’re racing France’s Casse-Pattes route. You get an anvil powerup at the first banner (Marina Sprint), and it’s all flat ground or slight uphills to the next powerup banner at the Pavé Sprint. Anywhere you use the anvil between these two banners will hurt you, because it just makes you heavier so you have to work harder.
- You’re racing Crit City and you get the burrito while in a 2-person breakaway with a teammate with a few laps to go. Using the burrito will hurt your teammate since they’ll lose your draft.
At times like these, it’s preferable to simply trash the powerup you’re holding, instead of activating it. And that functionality is built into Zwift! See it on the in-game action bar (click in the lower-middle portion of the screen on Mac/PC, or slide up on iOS/AppleTV/Android):
The Companion app includes the same button, so you can delete a powerup from your phone as well. Easy!
Here’s a quick video showing how it works:
Questions or Comments?
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Power Ups are asinine! Luck of the draw. Nothing worse then going eight laps of crit city with + points or draft cars each time through the banner and see everyone else popping off with those aero boosts in the final sprint.
I do wish they would make a keyboard shortcut for this. Make it as easy to do as activating a power up, like pressing Del and it bins it
I sort of wish there were a way to bin a powerup that you’re using. I know that it’s about race strategy and understanding your course so they won’t do it, but there have been way too many times when I’ve hit the feather powerup too late as I crest a climb and am still extra light going down the other side. And the number of times I mean to hit the key I’ve assigned for Discord push-to-talk and accidentally hit my spacebar and activate the power up instead…ugh.
Great tip but this video was 1:30 longer than it needed to be
Do you get xp for trashing it? If not, $1,000,000 idea right there!