The latest Zwift update is now available, with new bikes, workouts, sandbagger controls, and experimental event modes! There’s a lot to love here. Let’s dig into the details…
Not sure if your Zwift install is up-to-date? Here’s how to check >
New Bike Frames
New bike day is always a good day! Zwift has added two new frames to the Drop Shop: Factor’s One and Ridley’s Noah Fast Disc.
Factor One (level 8 locked) 
(no description provided by Zwift)
“The Noah Fast Disc is Ridley’s top-level aero model and was built from scratch with every feature reimagined and redesigned. This powerhouse has no rival in cutting through wind thanks to component integrations, where every part fits together perfectly.”
We are currently testing these frames for speed performance on flat/hilly routes as well as climbs. Test results will be published as soon as we’ve got them!
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New Workouts
Zwift has added 24 new under 60-minute workouts. These workouts were all created by coach Shayne Gaffney, a super-knowledgeable fellow who has contributed articles in the past here on Zwift Insider. 16 new workouts for runners, 8 for cyclists. Some of the run workouts include 30-minute variations.
These workouts add a great deal of variety to the existing “Under an hour” category, giving us access to a new bunch of quality workouts! Learn all the details of these new workouts on Zwift’s blog post.
Boost Mode
This new FutureWorks event type will allow you to choose a boost type before the event. Think of it like a battery which you charge yourself. Here are the three boost types, with details (to the best of our knowledge) about how they currently work:
- Efficient: 50 watt boost for up to 90 seconds. Charging subtracts 50 watts from your current wattage. Choosing this boost type adds 5 kg to your weight for the duration of the event.
- Balanced: 200 watt boost for up to 17 seconds. Charging subtracts 100 watts from your current wattage. Choosing this boost type adds 7.5 kg to your weight for the duration of the event.
- Power Burst: 500 watt boost for up to 5 seconds. Charging subtracts 150 watts from your current wattage. Choosing this boost type adds 10 kg to your weight for the duration of the event.
Sounds like a fun way to make races more strategic and animated! You’re able to put out some extra watts when the group isn’t pushing hard, then somehow “activate” those watts for a boost in the final sprint.
We aren’t entirely sure how this will work, but it will be fun to test it out.
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New Missions and Programs for May
- The Tour for All (May 4th-30th): Join the Tour For All and come together with the Zwift Community to support Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in their response to COVID-19. Learn more here >
- CeramicSpeed Cycling Mission (May 1st-31st): Unlock the CeramicSpeed cycling kit and a chance to win a CeramicSpeed OSPW derailleur by riding the target distance on OSPW enhanced Road, MTB and Tri/TT bikes. (More info coming soon)
- Goodr I.P.A. Running Mission (May 1st-31st): This mission challenges Zwifters to run 3 different workout types: one interval workout session, one pace group run, and one “altitude” or hill workout session to complete the mission. Completing all three workouts unlocks some sweet Goodr shades and a contest entry to win the real thing. (More info coming soon)
Bib Numbers
Zwift has “Added support for unique bib numbers for riders and runners in specific events.” We saw bib numbers in the recent INEOS race up the Alpe. Will they be useful in races, perhaps helping us to more easily identify certain riders or runners?
More Changes
Wes’ notes also include the additional items in this update. Here they are, with some notes from us:
- Added a new experimental event mode that lets you experience the sights and sounds of Zwift in its most pure form. This event mode will be exclusively tested within FutureWorks Club Jarvis events: super curious what this entails. Will it be more detailed imagery? Crazy surround sound? We’ll find out!
- Fixed a bug related to events that could cause some lone riders to achieve ludicrous speeds: this was a fun bug to witness. A little sad to see it go.
- Improvements to Apple TV pairing
- Upgrades to the anti-sandbagging logic used for some races: the iOS update notes say these upgrades include removing sandbaggers from race results. Hurray! Continued refinement of this vital feature is super important to the future of Zwift racing. Want to see how it functions now? Hop into a ZHQ Beta Race on Crit City!
- Added the GeForce GTX 1650 GPUs to the ULTRA graphics profile group: Zwift has some hard-coded logic to detect GPUs and set graphics quality. For whatever reason, these higher-end GeForce cards weren’t allowing ultra-level graphics. But now they are! (And all the PC users rejoiced.)
- Fixed an issue where Meetup riders would not receive a powerup when passing through a sprint, KOM or lap arch
Read/discuss Wes Salmon’s full release notes >
Questions or Comments?
Post below!
Awesome!!
I’m glad to see more under 60 minute work outs.
Stoked for the new running workouts, especially the hill ones!
Why do they do this, at least on PCs? It’s super annoying and adds unnecessary development overhead on their end. If they’re worried about people making their game run unnecessarily slow they can provide a “I know what I’m doing” button.
What AAA games don’t let you manually choose graphics settings? It’s idiotic.
But some GPUs support features that others don’t. So I’m going to assume that by doing this, they are able to tap into some newer graphics features (not sure if they use DirectX or something else) that other GPUs can’t
I wish that were true! It’s just because they like to keep it simpler for the end user. Personally I think it’s frustrating but most people don’t care about the graphics so they’re probably justified in doing it. All they’ve done with this latest update is allow the newer 1650 series of graphics cards maximum details, in line with much older and less powerful cards. Unfortunately this requires a manual change at the Zwift end that they’ve just done now.
They can do both ! Adjust at the first run the graphic options based on detection and anyway give you control. Like all AAA games.
nVidia then could also add Zwift to their Experience profiling.
Well… you can change it, if you know what you’re doing.
196 mph! I think the best I ever did was 70mph coming down from the radio tower.
How about 350 mph (563 kmh)? That was mentioned on reddit a while ago. I managed to follow someone doing over 300 kmh once and it was an awesome experience.
I think the Tron bike should be the best, since it’s so hard to get !!
What level where you when you got the tron bike? I’d say the level 45 858/super 9 wheels are harder to get than the tron bike.
Looking forward to the anti-sandbagging measures. Race tonight had 30 racers out of category, helped my ZP results, but ruins the ride. Had a half dozen cat A riders in cat C.
I have run into the same thing a lot. I rode a class C race for the first time in months just last week, and I actually was barely disqualified and had to move up to B myself (apparently I got faster since my last one months ago)
The point of the story, I came in 9th and still got disqualified on zwift power. A couple of solo riders smoked my pack of riders all by themselves. It’s a little frustrating
Similar thing happened to me recently. Disheartening to ride what ZwiftPower tells you is your correct category and then get DQ’d as a result. I wouldn’t have won my event, either.
They don’t just DQ you to be jerks, they DQ you for putting out too much power for the category. It’s just one race, you can sign up for the right category next time. At least it means you are getting stronger!
Glorious, they add the 1650 just as my 1660 arrived in the post. I wonder when they’ll be within a year of the latest cards or, as another poster said, they just let you pick your own graphics level and damn the consequences.
There is a way to set your graphics level manually. There is a detailed explanation on this very site: look for ZWIFT CONFIG FILE GRAPHICS TWEAKS
Not the same thing I’m afraid. You can beef up a few visual aspects, but it’s not the same as just getting Ultra profile in the first place.
Is the CeramicSpeed OSPW derailleur going to be available in-game? 😉
Yep, they could just say it is, without changing a thing, and it would be just like the real life performance gains. This is one challenge I’m going to boycott, snake oil salesmen that ceramicspeed is.
This made me laugh! I’d believe that all their gains have a small effect for someone capable of >400 W FTP. I highly doubt it would make the slightest difference for me with my much lower FTP and cyclocross bike. That said, if I won a free overpriced derailleur, you better believe it’s going on to my bike!
It looks like it *is* available in-game, at least for the mission!
Just need to point out, it isn’t a derailleur, they are pulley wheels.
I think it actually IS a derailleur that is being offered. CS has to retrofit a standard one with a different cage in order to fit their pulley wheels.
Only during the month of May. Watch for a ZI post tomorrow about it!
Make Samsung tablet tab A compatible please.
Is this the big update zwiftcast alluded to? (laugh in klingon)
And what about the fence? Is it still broken?
I would like them to implement track races. It’s just an oval shape course and then implement a battle Royale scheme. You enter the lot, wait a few seconds and are assigned to ride against some other rider. Given the huge availability of zwift riders this would be fairly easy to find matches to race with.
Zwift should also have a team looking in how to improve the game’s algorithm. Everyone knows that irl you pedal, don’t pedal pedal, don’t pedal. Especially when descending. In zwift if you stop pedaling for some seconds bye bye group.
The fact that avatars go over one another creates a drafting system which is not a realistic experience.
They’ve talked about a Velodrome, but the basically implied that since track racing is mostly about positioning and bike control (think climbing up the bank and diving back down), it’s not really something that would feature well in Zwift. The races would just turn into a very small crit race, with everyone going all out from the start.
I used to race on the track a lot, and used to think it would be fun to have in Zwift, but thinking about it, I’m not so sure it wouldn’t just get really boring really fast. Fun for nostalgia I think, but not much else.
If they roll out the steering from the MTB test track it could work?
When are you going to show riders weight to try and stop weight doping
I got an amazing idea…..instead of your efforts going into stupid power ups,use the £120 million cash injection To create more worlds/virtual climbs.because in the years this has been running it has not expanded with any real speed whatsoever
120 million for programmers and now we all go slow in the jungle -_-
Does anyone know if this update has taken place in the UK ?
I cannot not see the factor bikes and my ipad is up to date.
iPad/iPhone will come normally are “delayed”. It takes a few days for Apple to check the update…
You need to update the app. Go to the app store, search zwift and select update. I can confirm that the update is available on android devices and apple tv in UK.
Boost mode… My honest opinion… Ridiculous, stupid, over engineered, worthless, complicated, crap, .. Zwiftcould spend their time better in controlling honesty in cat behaviour!!!
Absolutely, hope this is trashed very quickly. How about just finishing the MTB section that’s been under construction forever for instance?
How will this work alongside zwiftpower if your weight has increased 5kg per race. It is going to affect all metrics as well
I like the idea of some more arcade style (optional) game modes. I think this is a good move to add variety and hold on to a wider range of customers. I also think using the Jarvis club to trial new functionality is a sensible approach, and long term it should allow Zwift to be more agile and ultimately get new functionality out quicker. The trouble is, neither clubs nor these two new game modes are available to everyone, which means it is now 5 months since we have had anything new of note (Crit City). And that was not really a big one. The last 6 months has been incredibly disappointing in terms new functionality or maps. I cannot really tell where the ZHQ focus is at all. Is there more on the near horizon, or is the ‘big release’ really trialling a couple of new event modes in a beta only environment?
Don’t forget about updated Richmond. Which was basically a complete map re-do.
Zwift really need to stop the gamification and concentrate on what the existing user base want- more routes on Watopia, a better UI , improved club experience (yes it’s coming but needs to be rolled out faster). They’re running the risk of losing experienced riders to other apps
Boost mode, dear god, what nonsense, has Zwift no idea about its core members requirements? We are not children or idiots!
Agree. This is like in Formula one car racing. There are other games covering that. Who is waiting for people saving energy at the back of a group and then win the sprint with 1200 Watts output. I have not seen any user asking for this, Zwift better spend time and money on things the users are asking for.
So disappointed with you Zwift ! Where’s the new tarmac ? Come on !
Will you test also Parlee RZ?
Already have, and it’s nothing special. But I DO need to publish those results.
Speed bug is still there. Went to do a B cat race this morning. Gave a hard effort on the start like always. Got to the front of the group and just kept going. For a split second I was happy until I realised I was going 65km/h on the flat, eased off the power but didn’t slow down. Stopped pedalling and didn’t slow down. Someone went past me doing double lol. First time it’s happened to me. Using a Wahoo kickr and iPad 🤷🏻♂️
Be sure to report it to Zwift support!
What’s the best way to report Eric?
Yes… me too! This is the first time it has ever happened to me as well.
Me too…in the Bernie Eise social rise
I would just email [email protected]
Because zwift races don’t encourage enough sprinting or have enough sprint finishes? I hope it impeoves the experience, but more and more I am convinced HQ lacks situational awareness of current racing and racecraft in their own game.
its screwed, had to do 2wkg to stay with a 1.5W beginers ride on a tacx genius using laptop but most seemed ok
Yes, I am impatient, find sandbagging super annoying and check daily for news and updates, too. But I do not understand the negativity of some comments. Given the current situation and increasing usage it is a sensible decision to delay more complex updates and rather use an incremental approach to innovation. I would love to qualify for the Jarvis club bases on cycling achievements, or get a Tron Legacy type update to the Concept bike e.g. for additional 200k hm.
I still don’t get the sandbagging updates. As many people has suggested, why not have it so when you sign up for a race it looks at your FTP and Zwiftpower and says sorry, you need to choose A (or whatever). It should also be possible to stop a rider actually starting if no heart rate monitor is detected for instance.
I agree. Zwift is overthinking the issue and making their solution complicated and more difficult to engineer. They have spent a ton of time with green cones of shame and alerts when all they needed to do was restrict entry based on past performance to race categories a rider wouldn’t be qualified for.
The heart rate monitor is a fly in my ointment, though. I consistently have Zwift lose connection to Companion, so my Apple Watch gets dropped, leaving me with no HRM.
Agreed, what does hr add anyway? I think people who constantly call for mandatory hr simply don’t understand hr.
I’m hoping the new experimental mode will be “No HUD”, or something along those lines, where you can have a clean page with no clutter as an option.
Give the option for the individual TT HUD So much cleaner and far better experience in my opinion.
I suspect this is what it is, totally clean screen
Yes, the “Sights and Sounds of Watopia” is a clean HUD. No numbers, no lists, no text. The only thing you see are the rider’s name tags.
Here’s a snapshot https://a.cl.ly/d5uv6A6W
I’m glad to see them adding the boost mode options, as long as they are optional and indicated on the event listing. No one should be forced to use them. There are plenty of serious cycling apps out there. Zwift is trying to focus on accessibility and social engagement. In a couple of years, the new boost mode will be thought of in the same way current boosts are. Just part of the game.
I would like to see it possible for race organizers to choose no boosts, no power ups etc. Oh and a no cheats option where your FTP is checked and it also insists on a smart trainer, cadence sensor and heart rate monitor. Then lets see who enters which races, no risk to Zwift worrying about loosing customers who want the these options. If they continue adding child’s game options i’ll be leaving that’s for sure.
FYI – this morning as a ride leader, I wasn’t able to draft after this update. When I quit the ride, I could draft again. Joined a race and I could draft. A couple others reported drafting issues. Not everyone, but some people.
I entered a race today (Team Italy & Bardiani CSF Faizane Race – 500 participants) and had no draft. I dropped like a rock through several groups after a full gaz start. Extremely frustrating not to be able to hang on to groups where I could see several others drafting at much lower watt/kg.
It seemed like I was not the only one with bad luck. Hope to see that fixed asap.
Hey Eric, I got version 1.0.49751 ! 😎🚴♂️👍🏼
On which platform?
Same here. PC.
Windows 10 on a HP-Envy I7 desktop – actually I tried to get a screenshot, but I can’t get one. However, it just updated this morning (Canada) to 1.0.49821.
And launcher 1.0.50. And I found a way to screenshot it!
I don’t get the point with boost mode. Several reasons:
1 – The community has been complaining of weigth doping, I guess is not a smart idea to play with players weigth. Some people will take this like a direct invitation to subtract exactly the same weigth that boost mode is adding.
2 – It will be fun to look what will happen with all those strava segments when the boost mode starts to work.
3 – Miss the point. This is nothing that was asked for no one. I don’t know how many developer hours have been invested for this feature, but I guess that all we’ll agree there are other features were theses hours would have been invested better.
4 – Ans some questions should be answered: People we’ll see when someone is using boost mode? There we’ll be information on which kind of it? Just for the entire ride? Only when using it? Depending on these and other details all this boost mode can be even worse.
While i think that boost mode can be a fun gimmick in zwift it is only just a gimmick. When you have so many problems with bugs, zpower riders and what not destroying the riding and racing experience, then maybe just maybe it would be more important to focus on actually developing the core features and actually listen to the community, Things like the boost mode is something that should looked into when the game core game is actually working properly
More foolishness! Can we just get rid or the power ups entirely and make things fair? Nothing worse than being in a race and all you get though the banners are + points, and then get beat on the line by riders with aero boosts. Where’s the realism in that???
Can you please create the option to cancel an event you’ve signed up for? Right now the options are join or not yet. Sometimes if I missed the start I sign up for another ride but Zwift only asks if I want to join the one I missed instead of allowing me to choose the second one. Would be helpful, thanks. Ride on
You can always go to the Activities screen in the companion app and ‘uncheck’ the event you no longer wish to attend.
Since April 15th I have been having problems, due to the impossibility of hiding the chat during group training.
The people at Zwift are not paying much attention to the topic, but other colleagues report the same problem.
I made a video about the error:
https://youtu.be/kMJappDsPFs
oh, are the anti-sandbagging features in the game already? green cone of shame and throttling etc.? :O
Still only in test events as far as we know.
Getting sick of this app now taking the piss with no new maps and these stupid babyish powerup updates….if this crap carries on and no new worlds appear (and i’m talking several ) i’m off and i bet alot of others will be gone as well.the people who joined this in the first place are being ignored to turn this into some sort of f****** Mario Kart…..
I WISH it were like Mario Kart!
For me, the thing I care most about is being able to edit the route lead in distance. I’m in the middle of couch to route hero and I’m forever doing over the required distance.
Jungle route was a particularly good (/bad) example where I did 6km before getting to the start line!
I also didn’t get the everything bagel badge as it started me on the wrong side of the start line.
Feels like a very simple fix with a large reward in real terms to riders.
I agree with numerous comments here. The boost feature seems ridiculous to me. It is a feature that might have a place in a game designed for kids, but not in a grown up fitness app. We have enough toys at our disposal already (Draft Boost, Aero Boost, etc). And that’s all right – it’s not totally OTT, and adds a bit of fun without being too distracting.
However, if someone comes out of nowhere pushing toward the finish line with a power output hundreds of Watts above the one they’re generating on their home trainer, what’s that all about?
Concentrate on sorting out the bugs, give us more routes, more environmental detail, offer cycling clubs to get on Zwift, give us our club jerseys and group rides, etc.
Still all relatively useless since I still have to exit to choose another event or route. What will we get next, an extra pebble on each flower?
Will the group fence ever return???
I think so! I know they’re working on it.
Hi guys, thanks for a great product x Please see what you can do about some smart trainers that only go up to 6% incline, they are flying up hills with inclines over 12% but their trainer only goes up to 6%, bit unfair towards the rest of us as they are really reaping loads of badges and easy kms. The tacx flow wheel on trainer is one of them.
that’s not how it works. From point a to b requires the same total amount of watts regardless of the trainer resistance. If they are going faster, it’s because they are putting out a higher w/kg than you.
A Fast is correct. Trainer resistance doesn’t determine in-game speed. Someone racing on a 6% max trainer has no advantage over someone on a 12% max trainer.
Talk about BOOST mode. I rode through Titans Grove between 80 and 128 kph… uphill!!! Crazy thing was I only got 2nd in the KOM! LOL
Definitely some wacky bugs flying around today in Zwift!
Don’t know if this is related to latest update or not, but during today’s ride on Watopia, I was going up the mountain at 3.4 – 3.7 W/KG when I got passed by a long string of French riders (doing a meet-up ride) doing 4+ W/KG. That was no problem but after awhile, I caught up with one of them who was then doing only 2 W/KG. Just as I passed him, he shot by me at a sustained 2.2 W/KG and quickly disappeared out of sight. As I caught up with him later, he did it again, flying by me at 2.2 W/KG compared to my 3.4-3.7 W/KG. This happened two more times and then I noticed a couple other French riders doing it too. They all were using Smart trainers.and the majority of the French riders seemed to be showing reasonable power numbers. Only a few had this “special” power. I don’t know if this was somehow connected to the new boost mode but, if it was, I hope they take it out of regular rides and only allow it on closed course special rides. Anybody else have this happen today?
Between race sand-bagging, watching some riders somehow take short-cuts across course routes or take off and sustain high unrealistic speeds, dealing with unrealistic “dumb” trainer speed/power algorithms, and now “magical/stealth” W/KG climbing power boosts, it’s getting annoying when you’re trying to do some legitimate training or racing.
I had issues in a ride today where my speed
was too high for the power and terrain. First time it has happened to me, but was also happening to others as they were flying by! Have reported it to Zwift and they’re apparently fixing some bugs tonight 👍
I’ve seen that happen for the last several days. First time I noticed it was last Saturday when I got passed up the Epic KOM by multiple people doing 1-2w/kg while I was at 3.6 in workout mode. One of them then stayed right in front of me. The Companion app showed he was doing slightly under 100 watts.
Sounds like what you describe is the group ride, where the stay together option is enabled. Of one rider is doing 4w per kilo, and other rider is doing far less, they still stay together, it avgs out all the riders power I think.
Boost mode … really… Racing needs to be kept simple.
With something like 50 races happening every day, I think we have room for both simple races and more gamified ones. Different strokes for different folks.
Well yeah, that would be OK if Zwift did not have more serious issues to cover. But anyway I am happy with Zwift overall, but the focus is a bit off sometimes in my perspective. I would say first focus on the basics and then later on the nice to haves.
Yeah, boo boost…sorry. Would never use that. Workouts good. Sandbagging/doping controls good. More routes better. When I get tired of the zwift world currently I drop out and use Fulgaz for awhile, or maybe Rouvy, but I come back for the relatively big workout library and the racing, not more gamification and ghost powerups… And for Froomes sake resistance changes when drafting—in short more realism, not less.
I take it that you didn’t like my comment that all your doing to this platform is slowly turning it into Mario Kart and not focusing on the actual need for more worlds and more virtual climbs……if you really want people to e race on here which is no interest to me but you seem to be sponsoring alot of it then you need to sort drafting/weight doping etc not making babyish power ups
Just to make sure you understand where you are: This is website run by an avid Zwift user for other Zwift users. If you want to air your grief to the Zwift team, you should use their support forum.
Besides that, if you don’t want to have the gamification, you could join one of the other cycling apps that don’t market themselves as a “game”. Vote with your wallet and cancel your Zwift subscription if you’re so unhappy with it that you feel the need to post 5 comments here.
Bless you, Alex.
I do not know Simon Walker, however I will defend his point that some issues have been repeatedly mentioned without any action taken and should certainly still be addressed, such as the demand for more worlds and or climbs or problems with racing (weight doping), and maybe even some Club friendly services (jerseys, rides/training)
Are these not reasonable demands? Therefore when longstanding issues are not addressed and new features pop up, some frustration will become apparent.
Shutting him down by telling him that he should leave if he isn’t happy seems incredibly blind eyed.
To be clear, as a paying customer he has every right to be unhappy with the update. Personally, I don’t care about those boosts and also wait eagerly on new worlds or at least more routes.
But there’s a more suitable place to complain (the Zwift forums or customer service) and a better way to do it (one post, non-hostile tone). I’m pretty sure ZwiftInsider and the community would be very happy to see a new world and it’s not their fault there hasn’t been one yet.
Draft didn’t work on group ride today for some people at all.
Great, thanks !
On apple tv why cant i use 2 senors with the tv and 1 senser with the app you cant do that anymore
Huh? Since when could you use the companion app to pair devices, along with paring devices to Apple TV? It’s been one or the other for as long as I’ve known. Atleast now they’ve added the menu option to choose companion app or not, without having to try pair a bunch of devices so that zwift eventually gives you the option.
Until this morning it would prompt me to add the third sensor using Zwift companion. That option is now “broken” as Chli describes.
Yep chli is right. I used to connect my assioma pedals as a power source and cadence, direto as controllable, both thru apple tv. Then I’d connect my hrm thru companion app & it worked fine.
Now I only have the option to connect everything thru companion app, which would be fine except the direto won’t control resistance this way. I can use the direto for power source, cadence & controllable thru apple tv but I prefer to use the pedal based assioma for power because I feel they are more accurate.
Anyone have any ideas???