Zwift just released their latest “This Season on Zwift” announcement detailing map expansions, new app features, hardware updates, and events coming in the next few months. We’ve posted the complete press release below, and in the coming days, we’ll dive into some of the announcements in more detail.
This Season On Zwift Brings New Roads To Watopia, Zwift Ride v2, and Much More
The latest edition of this season on Zwift aims to make training simpler, more fun, and more effective for every rider
Zwift, the global online fitness platform, today announced highlights from its expansive roadmap coming This Season On Zwift. Designed to make the platform easier to use, more personalised, more effective, and highly rewarding, the upcoming updates cater to the full breadth of Zwift’s global community of active riders, from WorldTour professionals to beginner and recreational cyclists.
Zwift Ride v2 – Available Now
The best way to Zwift just got better. Available from today, Zwift Ride V2 brings more adjustability to Zwift’s much-loved smart bike while retaining the same great price ($1299.99 / €1199.99 / £1099.99). The updated Zwift Ride offers more adjustability, with a more compact frame that now accommodates riders from 4’10” to 6’6″ (146 to 198 cm). Additionally, Zwift Ride will come with adjustable cranks as standard, offering five different crank lengths (160 mm, 165 mm, 170 mm, 172.5 mm, 175 mm). An updated seatpost design also offers more fore-and-aft adjustability, helping Zwifters achieve a more forward saddle position than previously possible. For existing owners of Zwift Ride, the adjustable cranks and updated seatpost will be available to purchase as an accessory from Zwift.com.
Zwift Companion Home Screen Refresh – Coming October
This October, Zwift Companion app will get a fresh new look. Major updates to the home screen will simplify the experience, bringing more of what you need front and centre. Zwift Companion will do more to celebrate what you’ve achieved and highlight progress. The weekly activity graph will be broken into two screens, making it easier to view your week and track your fitness.
WHOOP Integration – Live in Zwift
Available to Zwifters from today is a new partner integration with WHOOP. This first wearables connection helps Zwifters get a fuller picture of their training, providing insights based on their WHOOP Recovery Score. On red days, Zwift will automatically adjust your Personal Recommendations, so athletes can still get a meaningful session without overreaching.
The WHOOP connection is available within Zwift today. Later this fall, Zwifters with a WHOOP connection will also benefit from an enriched experience within the WHOOP app, where your Zwift rides and runs will be visible.
Zwift Game Home Screen Update – Roll Out Starts Sept 22
It’s not just Zwift Companion that is due a makeover this coming season. Rolling out from September 22, the Zwift game home screen will undergo a refresh, bringing planning and progress front and centre. Scheduled content is elevated within the new home screen design, meaning your next activity is just a click away. Additionally, day tags assigned to planned activities help you visualise your week by what’s coming up.
Zwifters will also notice a new Progress Widget, helping them track their progress towards their weekly goals, alongside career progression stats, a much-requested update.
Watopia Expansion – Coming October 26
Zwift is set to further expand Watopia, the most popular destination in indoor cycling. Inspired by the West Coast of California and Catalina Island, this expansion adds roughly 18 kilometres of new roads connecting Jarvis to the Jungle. The new environment features a flat bypass option around the Epic KOM, and two crit-style circuits designed specifically for racing.
Tour of Watopia – Oct 5 – Nov 22
Zwifters can explore the new archipelago island chain from October 26th, when it launches in time for Stage 4 of the Tour of Watopia. The Tour of Watopia returns this year from Oct 5th – Nov 22nd with Double-XP and a new ultimate challenge.
Watt Lock – Coming October
Launching this October, “Watt Lock,” will give Zwifters more power to control their efforts. Watt Lock is an ERG mode toggle accessible via the Zwift Action Bar during freerides that lets Zwifters lock into a target power with a simple click. Now Zone 2 days, stay Zone 2. Those using Zwift Game controllers (Zwift Ride, Zwift Click or Zwift Play) can use the controllers to make simple adjustments to the target power on the fly.
Power Play – November 23-December 27
An all-new campaign is coming to Zwift this November. Power Play aims to give Zwifters a fresh and fun new way to get a quality workout, making use of Power Segments in New York, the Montmartre and The Grade climbs, and new Power Segments that will launch in the new Watopia Expansion. As always, rewards are on offer, from kits to Drops.
Drop Shop Updates – Season Long
If you’ve earned bonus Drops by participating in Power Play, there will be even more to spend them on this season, in the Drop Shop. Drops are Zwift’s in-game currency and can only be earned by riding. Zwifters can spend their hard-earned Drops in Zwift’s Drop Shop, the ultimate store front in cycling. This year, Zwift has overhauled the Drop Shop, and there are no plans to stop. Coming in October will be a Kona-themed drop, bringing the latest triathlon bikes and wheels to Zwift. Following that, will be a drop many have been requesting. Factor Bikes will be coming to the Drop Shop, along with Black Inc wheels. In addition, the iconic Zwift x Pinarello paint scheme will be made available for Zwifters to purchase.
Two New Halo Bikes – Late 2026
Halo Bikes are the ultimate buy to show off your hard work in Zwift. Zwift currently has three Halo Bikes available from Specialized, Cannondale and Pinarello. To earn the chance to purchase a Halo Bike, Zwifters must fully upgrade three bikes from the respective brand – no mean feat! Zwift will be expanding the Halo Bike range for the first time since launch, bringing new flagship bikes from Cervélo and Canyon. Fans of these brands should start levelling up their bikes now! Zwifters will need to stay tuned for the bike unveil this season, but can you guess one of the bikes?
Zwift Racing – New Series Starts September with Zwift Racing p/b DURA-ACE
Zwift’s always-on racing content is expanding this season with ‘Zwift Racing’. Zwift Racing will deliver “always-on” racing across TT, Crit, and Epic formats. The first series is powered by DURA-ACE and begins this September.
Zwift Racing League – Returns September
Also starting in September is Zwift’s team-racing event series, Zwift Racing League. This year, Zwift aims to make the series more accessible with ‘Road to Zwift Racing League’ introductory rides that aim to introduce new racers to the formats and how to find a new team. Additionally, a new ‘Race of Truth’ format will be introduced in Season One, a mass-start, draftless points race that will introduce a new tactical challenge.
Share Your Thoughts!
What do you think of Zwift’s roadmap for the next few months of new features? Comment below!
I have been waiting for more than a year for the Canyon Halo Bike !!!! Hurray !!!
Me too! 🙂
Yeah, I just finished 3 Canyon bikes but now what if I like the cervelo better? I saw a picture of it on another web site.
Can you explain to me what a halo bike is? Thanks so much!
Halo Bike is just a retro, futuristic or proto type zwift bike. The 4 that are currently out arent the fastest frames avaliable they normally just to show off how many drops you have lol….. link with more info: https://zwiftinsider.com/halo-bikes/
The Specialized 74 is the fastest road bike, not the best climber though. For those that race and it is a flattish course, if fully upgraded, one would use it.
Watopia expansion makes me a happy boy!
I guess then the Cervelo Barachi will be “Halo” 🙂
Watt Lock! Finally. I’ve been asking for this for eons. It’s my favorite way to do free rides. I currently achieve it by external trainer control independently of Zwift.
Can you explain how you are currently doing this please.
Iv wanted to do it for ages but didnt know there was a way.
On iPad with Wahoo trainer: do not connect resistance control in Zwift, launch Wahoo app, connect to trainer and set target power.
DC Rainmaker has a post – I found that WiFi is a less fussy connection than adding an Ant+ USB dongle. So Core 2 or a trainer with several WiFi connections. Also easier to use two devices – Zwift on one, Trainer Road – TR on the second. Unless your device has a large screen – then you can do Android split screen.
https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2022/02/trainerroad-zwift-same.html
Similar to when Zwift is in ERG mode and displaying a route so hills aren’t really hills.
Theory is: Zwift does only the route display, so disconnect Zwift from the trainer – uncheck Resistance Device. Then the Resistance is controlled through TR, Wahoo, etc.
“Watt Lock” seems like a great function that could have been released ages ago. Better late than never!
Would be nice to be able to set out to a zone rather than a specific power.
Still no family subscription, what a shame 🙁
Canyon Halo FTW, one day, maybe.. see you in a few years
Damn, I lose my Pinarello exclusivity. BUT if it available as a paint job, does that mean Canyon variations will now be available as paint jobs too? That would be ace.
One of the screenshots in the Whoop section shows Oura readiness instead. Is that coming too?
I bet they’re working on it. But Zwift also sent out a request this morning to the media to remove that image since it wasn’t accurate!
Really sad to see 0 real platform development. Like everything are either bikes or events but no new modes, dynamics or racing features. Are there any future things coming apart from this events and bikes? @Eric Schlange?
Well, there are new roads mentioned above… and several things that aren’t just new bikes or events.
But also, there are definitely are more things in development which Zwift doesn’t mention in this press release. Including race modes… 😉
Race modes. That sounds interesting 👍
Replacing OpenGL with a more modern technology would be helpful…but I guess that would obsolete a bunch of older Windows PCs.
Would it help though? They are still gonna target very low spec to include as many devices as possible even if they move past opengl.
Would help the graphics and the cpu cycles/fps in crowded scenarios. Now you to get reliable fps a 12th gen cpu needed. Older works, and I use, but fps goes down frequently. Modern engine will load the gpu more. I do not know how far back they can go though. Quite a few 9xx gpus being used. iOS got a modern engine in Metal…why not Windows?
I feel like the Zwift Ride is missing 2 important feature that would make it much more complete.
First, I would like to see an option for a TT handlebar. They could put the controllers logic in the stem with some sort of connector to plug the buttons to it. That way we could swap handlebar easily and the second handlebar could be an option for say 100 or 150$.
Second, there should be an option to use the frame with a riser similar to the Elite Square. This would be quite easy to do and make the frame appealing to more people.
And bonus, the frame and cog could use a belt instead of a chain to lower the noise and maintenance.
Gravel world is so dead 🙁
It shall rise again, very soon!
Very zoon you say?
James from Zwift has just announced that the Gravel route is being used in the Friday Fun races.
Friday is on the schedule!
If that preview image is what’s coming, it looks like the Cervelo Halo will be their Baracchi concept TT bike. Just hope the Canyon isn’t their new gravel bike!
Solid guess!
Extra Arrow… Only One Hand up Front! The other behind Your Back I guess 🤔 😂
As new bikes are launched it would be great to be able to get rid of bikes I am no longer going to ride. I just need about 5 – not 25.
That cervelo is not particularly well disguised 😏
I really hope Canyon’s halo is a recolor of Aeroad 🙃
You would like that wouldn’t you, Mr “Aeroad”. You would also like a 2 million drop price tag I bet too.
May be there’ll be GREEN Aeroad in “Abell” colour? Noone knows!
“the iconic Zwift x Pinarello paint scheme will be made available for Zwifters to purchase.”
Is that, the paint job will be for sale, or a redundant bike with a different livery will be available to purchase?
I sure hope it’s the former, and not the latter.
My assumption is that it will be a new purchase (the Paris color scheme of the Wilier was also introduced as a separate purchase in the last weeks; assume they will stick with this approach). Which is not very attractive when you have a fully upgraded Dogma already in your garage. I really hope they will rethink this. Especially the Canyon drop show is a mess: The MyCanyon color ways are all different bikes to purchase and even worse it not clearly written that they are Aeroads 2024. Eric, please do some magic with you Zwift influence :)For
Its a bit disappointing to be honest. Would have loved to see work on past things that they havent finished, like the HUD, ZRS, Fanview to name a few.
But that wont be new news so prabably why.
Out of all these new things only the Tour of Watopia is something I kinda like, but that was expected to come.
Please can you add an option to sell the bikes in your garage that you’ll never use again?
The Jarvis to Jungle ‘bypass’ was an obvious addition which I am glad to see. Now let’s find out how creative the Zwift HQ artists can be with letting us ride through a section of the Mayan pyramid!
The Baracchi seems pretty obvious for the Cervélo but curious about the Canyon. The Projekt 3.7 would be an interesting addition as the undisputed king of climbing even though it’s very plain looking. The Ecospeed would be a really fun, radical looking bike but being an alternative fuel “e-bike” might rule it out.
Perhaps the Canyon Predict, unveiled this year at Eurobike
It seems they are serious about not integrating with Rouvy. Not a single word about it
I’m going to wildly speculate that the spring TSOZ will feature Mochi/Rouvy integration/something along those lines. Fall TSOZ = get people excited to get back on the platform. Spring TSOZ = try to keep people hooked over the summer.
There’s a bit of Rouvy news. Which they left out of the press release. You’ll hear about it soon!
Interesting that Rouvy was mentioned in the Bike Rumour version of TSOZ. Maybe they didn’t get a memo to pull it from the release?
We’re allowed to talk about it. Zwift just didn’t include it in this press release. But they DID talk about it in the TSOZ Zoom call.
I can’t wait to ride the 11 miles of new roads. Amazing. I guess they are trying to push more riders onto Rouvy.
I agree 11 miles is not ‘amazing’, but the Watts-lock concept seems like a nice addition. Also – they can ‘push’ their current clients on to Rouvy all they want, but Rouvy simply does not work well. I tried it for 5 months only to give up. Their Pace Partner algorithms are so far off true w/kg as to be worthless. My guess is (for the most part) the only people that will stay with Rouvy are those like enjoy blurry 2K video scenery.
One thing I tried on Rouvy was using a .gps file to ride a preview of a gran fondo event that I couldn’t do ahead of time. It wasn’t bad. I was just moving a dot around a Google Map, but it helped get a feel for the course. A climb portal treatment with a map inset could be even better, and could be procedurally generated. This would have value, even if it isn’t a social experience. You could throw some bots on there, even set up a bot peloton with some different groups at different paces that you could try and latch onto.
The Watopia expansion makes it 13% bigger. That’s not bad.
But 20 new routes on 18km … That sounds a lot like the Prospect Park laps we did taking a slightly different turn to make as much routes as possible on a poststamp.
It is 18km so thats 2 routes and it has 2 crits, so thats 4 more if we count normal and reserve. So that kinda means that 14 new routes are over the same roads but slightly different or starting at ‘old’ roads and crossing or finishing on the new 18km piece. Thats hardly anything to get excited about…
I agree that all the different variations of the new roads in Paris seemed to get old fast. “Let’s do the whole thing, but do this part first and before doing 2 laps of Montmartre, now do the same thing but with going toward the Louvre in an opposite direction than usual and call it a different route.”
At least with Watopia, there are a lot more routes for them to sample parts of. On the other hand, some of them are going to be this plus the Uber Pretzel or something, and I’m just going to skip those.
A flatter route that bypasses most of the dirt and climb of the jungle opens up a lot of possibilities. I felt that the southern coast has been underused because any loopable route that uses it has to go through the jungle which no one likes (or do a u turn at the roundabout on the southern coast).
Will the whoop connection finally bring back automatic sync of weight measurements?
Doesn’t look like it. It didn’t update my weight when I connected it.
Auto sync returned for Withings a few months back…
Really? Not working for me.
maybe I need to re-pair my account
Boy Zwift have been busy…. Exciting times
Slightly confused about the “flat bypass option around the Epic KOM” on the new roads. Aren’t the Jungle, the Epic KOM Bypass, and Southern Coast already flat bypasses around the Epic KOM?
Doing a quick takeoff 18km seems like a reasonable distance for an Alpe de Zwift bypass that connects to the Southern Coast roads and avoids the Jungle. Is this what they meant?
I think the idea for the expansion is not having to go through the Jungle if you’re looping around the island.
The problem with the southern coast roads is that in order to make any kind of loop involving them you have to tackle the jungle. The dirt isn’t so bad now, but combined with the climb it is not a route that group rides like. If the road from jarvis connects to the near the bottom of the jungle then I think that would open up a lot of relatively flat options that group rides love to use, allowing under-used roads to get more use.
It does involve some jungle though, I think the bypass bit is in avoiding the island climbs up to the bridges.
Some jungle yes, but I think it skips around three quarters of the total elevation and a bit less fraction of the dirt.
I know we have to go through the jungle to get back to downtown to do a loop but at least with this expansion now it’s only a bit of the loop as we turn off a bit after the Alpe instead of having to do the full climb out.
Something like this perhaps…
Yay! So excited! Especially for the new Watopia roads. So excited to see it expanding again. Can’t wait! And 11 miles as well. Cant wait to see more details on what it looks like on the map in game and what it looks like. Thanks Zwift (and Eric for the post as usual) and ride on 🚴♂️.
The announcement on Instagram includes a (very brief) map highlighting the new roads – https://www.instagram.com/reel/DdEVU-2BK_W/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&stkn=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Yeah, I saw that yesterday after seeing this post on Zwift Insider. Looks amazing.
Stoked! This fall is going to be fun.
Hopefully they update the groupsets soon too. 7 year old Red on a sl9 isn’t a good look, neither are shimano rotors on sram setups 😅
Perhaps the Canyon Halo is the new Predictor concept bike. That could be fun!
oh, it’s called Predict 😋
Looks too much like an actual bike 😀
I dedicated Halo TT bike and a dedicated Halo Climbing bike please. The halo bikes should have significantly better performance than other bikes in the game but of the current 4 there is only 1 that on a super flat non-tt bar course is worth considering.
Also, new world idea: big island of Hawaii! So many special courses and climbs there. Halo to Mauna Kea climb(tallest climb in the world), full lap around the island, or the Ironman 140.6 bike course?
And any current route less than 25km should be a badge you can earn for Zwift running. There is so little to chase after on that side of things. Could easily add 100 badges for those chasers out there without doing any big work.
I don’t think Halo bikes will ever be the best in the games for a few reasons:
Also, in the TDF they sometimes race up the back side of Alpe d’Huez and the route goes further into town than the current build on Zwift. Adding a back side to the Alpe as well as extending the segment to match the most historic climb in the world would be very special.
Definitely
Most of the back way up is already in the climb portal set up, so most of the profile is already sorted, just need to make it pretty and fill the gap between summits. Though a deducted alpine world with all of the climbs around the Alpe would be even more appealling
yes, I would love that. I was thinking it would be cool for it to have a backside eventually like say they extend the southern coast around the Alpe and have a climb up the Alpe du Zwift’s other side(s), either the backside and other climbs up could replicate other climbs (like go up the Alpe du Zwift side, and descend a Puy de Zwift (modeled after puy de dome) and they make the other sides basically what they did with Alpe d’Huez but for other climbs. Or they could make up their own thing like they did with The Grade.
For the races, will they finally have age group results, can’t believe they don’t have that, can’t be that hard to do.
Is Watt Lock just turning on a basic erg mode mid-ride (with a fixed wattage), or a more advanced wattage band (‘let me fluctuate within z2 but engage erg if my wattage approaches the top/bottom of the range)?
The first one.
Pity. EJM’s system sounds dope. 😎
I prepared for the Canyon Halo a while ago by upgrading three of them. I am guessing it’s going to be the Jan Frodeno Moonshot Speedmax CFR.
Watt Lock isn’t really that great of a feature.
I’ve always wondered why Zwift isn’t able to adjust the resistance based on predefined heart rate zones.
I ride Z2 based on heart rate and adjust the power accordingly in my custom workouts. For anything above Z2, I ride based on power.
Heart rate-controlled Z2 training on Zwift would be a real plus.
Agreed that HR-based control would be nice.
Heart rate responds way too slow to be useful as trainer control. It would be bouncing back and forth constantly trying to stay in the correct zone. Have you tried riding at your z2 power?
Also, it kinda blows my mind that people seem unable to just ride at a steady endurance pace without some sort of outside intervention. You can even turn trainer difficulty to 0 so you don’t have to shift on hills.
Wish they would convert a few climb portal ascents into actual roads that fit into existing worlds (*cough* Mount Fuji *cough*)…
I thought I’d read a post previously, either here or on the Zwift Forums, that Watopia was close to being maxed out for future road expansions. I also agree with Eric that there’s some low hanging fruit WRT connector roads for a couple of worlds (I don’t remember the exact article).
I’ve just become jaded over the years due to the “wall of silence” regarding feature requests by the user base. It’s not helping either that I had to spend to entire summer on Zwift due to injury. Getting kind of burnt out.
It’s a shame that the Zwift fitness progress gets broken everytime I drop farm with lowered FTP setting. It would be interesting to see how useful it actually is if it could track better.
Why are you lowering your FTP when drop farming?
When you ride with a robo your drop rate is relative to your effort. In other words if you are Z1 u earn at the lowest rate, if you are z5 you earn at a higher rate. At 2.5x booster you earn drops at a very high rate which is great if your saving up for a halo bike.
[citation needed]
@Eric Schlange when are they going to release the Crux 5 in the Drop Shop?
Last I heard there were no plans underway for the Crux 5 🤷♂️
A customisable home screen would be a nice upgrade.
Wonder when the TREK BIKE Range are going to be updated?
The new Madone has been around for a while now. 😳
New ?
A lot of the mid range or low range bikes are no longer for sale, making it extra hard to unlock halo bikes. And kind of making the whole upgrade scheme kinda of pointless if pretty much every bike is high end.
So here is roughly the new addition
I wonder if the lightning bolt is a crit course.
Unknown. They only said 2 Crit-style courses, but looking at this layout, there appear to be 3 loops, so two of those will be crits I suppose…
My guess is because they did mention there’s power segments on this expansion, maybe one or a few are on this loop (lightning bolt loop having power segments sounds fitting and maybe like they probably gave us a hint).
The Canyon Halo has to be the EcoSpeed!
I want a VELODROME!!
I think Watt Lock is the thing I’m most interested in. I hope Garmin comes on board as Whoop are because all of the fitness numbers in the app are pointless when they only account for about 4% of my typical day. New roads always welcome.
What I’d really like to see is for Zwift to go back through the catalog of workouts and fix the many mistakes in them. I’m getting back to fitness via workouts and the QC is low. The mistakes range from the trivial (e.g. spelling mistakes, decent is not the correct word for a downhill), mistakes where the on screen text does not match the workout and worst are the ones where the workout segments are clearly in the wrong sequence or have fundamental mistakes like no cadence specified on a workout that is all about cadence!
I’m just hoping that the Watopia expansion gives us a 100 km+ route, long time since the last one, was it über Pretzel maybe?
Pics of the new roads have been posted in the comments here. I wonder what the total route length would be to do a “big loop” around the outside of watopia (minus the alpe). Downtown, volcano, jarvis, new roads, a bit of jungle, southern coast, the dessert, downtown. So Big Ring (which is 49km) plus the new connector road. So maybe 60 something km?
As long as I get my lovely zFondo series again, all will be right with the world. 🙂
Seems to be starting this weekend. @Eric Schlange is there any info on that? Upcoming events and routes maybe?
Working on it. Trying to get details about unlocks/rewards from Zwift can feel like pulling teeth…
Oh I know that feeling. Thanks for your effort! If you need another set of pliers, let me know. 😉
Claude (Sonnet 5) estimates that a new outer-loop course (let’s call it ‘Lord of the Rings’ 😉 would constitute a net addition over the Big Ring’s 30.4 mile course by approximately 8–15 more miles (once you subtract what’s not being ridden from the original ‘Big Ring’ course). A very rough ‘Lord of the Rings’ course traced in red to illustrate is attached….
Canyon MPACT