The latest Zwift update is now available on PC, Mac, and Android. It will appear for iOS and AppleTV soon.
Not sure if your Zwift install is up-to-date? Here’s how to check >
This one is especially exciting because we’ve got new roads and routes! Let’s dig into the details…
Four New Watopia Routes!
Zwift has added less than 4km of new road to Watopia, but in doing so they’ve opened up a whole pile of route possibilities! These are the first new Watopia roads since August 2019’s Titans Grove expansion, so Watopians will certainly be rejoicing.
Zwift has added (mostly) short connections between existing roads:
- Mayan Bridge: crosses the Jungle water, thus bisecting the Jungle loop
- Bridge/Islands Bypass: Connecting the JWB and 360 bridges near downtown
- KOM Bypass: connects the road near the Hilly KOM reverse statues to the halfway mark of the Hilly KOM forward
- Epic KOM Bypass: connects the bottom of the Epic KOM forward to the bottom of the Epic KOM reverse
And yes: each route has a route badge you can earn:
IMPORTANT STRAVA SEGMENT NOTE: spawn points for these new routes aren’t quite right, currently. They all begin just in front of a start arch or pen, while they should be starting behind those objects, so the Strava segment can begin and end at the arch or pen exit. For our Strava segments, we used the downtown start/finish banner as the starting line, except for the Serpentine 8, which uses the Jungle Pens as the start. In order to finish the segment, you will need to do a u-turn at the start of your ride to go back to the starting line, until Zwift adjusts these start points.
Beach Island Loop
At 12.8km long with 48m elevation, this is a fairly flat loop is almost identical to the existing Volcano Flat Reverse route. The only difference is we take the Bridge/Islands Bypass which takes us north of the Italian Villas. Seems like a silly route to add with one so similar already in-game, but Volcano Flat Reverse is event-only, so this route should feel somewhat fresh.
Ocean Lava Cliffside Loop
19km long with 156m of climbing, this is the most exciting of the new routes, because it includes the longest stretch of new road! Zwift has the added the “Epic KOM Bypass”: ~2.7km of fresh road which connects the bottom of the Epic KOM Reverse (near the Jungle entrance) so the bottom of the Epic KOM Forward (after crossing the suspension bridge).
It’s a rolling, twisty road, and even includes a tiny dirt detour.
Serpentine 8
Probably the second-most exciting of the new routes, Serpentine 8 is a Jungle-based figure 8 route which uses the new twisting, rolling “Mayan Bridge” road that bisects the Jungle Circuit. This road is full of eye-popping sites like torches, temples, and tile (which we assume rolls faster than dirt).
Coming in at 19.3km with 206m of climbing, this is the longest of the new routes… especially when you consider it also has a 7.3km lead-in from the Jungle pens!
Two Bridges Loop
The shortest of the new routes, Two Bridges loops keeps you near downtown Watopia thanks to the new “KOM Bypass” road which connects the Hilly KOM Forward with the Hilly KOM Reverse, shortening the climbs. At 6.8km with 80m of elevation it’s actually the “climbiest” of the new routes. Visualize this as an abbreviated Hilly Route.
FutureWorks Run Pace Partners
On the heels of the very popular riding Pace Partners, Zwift is going to be releasing four Pace Partners for runners next week! We don’t have any screenshots since they’re not yet in-game, but here’s what the release notes say:
- Alton Able is an A category runner who will keep a spirited pace of 14.6kph/9.1mph (4:07/km, 6:36/mi) around the Dust in the Wind route.
- Billie Benoit is a B category runner and loves the Big Loop route, targeting a speed of 11.9kph/7.4mph (05:03/km, 08:06/mi).
- Cara Cadence is a C category runner holding a speed of 9kph/5.6mph (06:40/km, 10:43/mi) around the Sands & Sequoias route.
- Dax Diesel is a D category runner who feels most at home on Jon’s Route at a conversational 7.2kph/4.5mph (08:20/km, 13:24/mi).
Bug Fixes/Improvements
This release also includes a pile of minor fixes… here’s the list, with a few comments where appropriate:
- Numerous cycling and running assets (kits, shirts) have been added or updated.
- Made adjustments to how shadows are rendered in game to improve performance for high attendance events: this may fix the framerate issues Zwifters have seen when running the game in windowed mode on PC since the last update. Fingers crossed!
- ANT+ library updated to version 3.5 on MacOS.
- New telemetry added for MacOS bluetooth disconnect/reconnect events to help track down bugs.
- Improved Bluetooth pairing for the Elite Sterzo across all platforms.
- The Elite Sterzo Smart will now attempt to reconnect if the signal is lost without the user needing to enter the pairing screen.
- Added support for the Tacx Boost trainer.
- Fixed a bug that would sometimes cause the rider to appear to be flying when the rider came into view: #sad. This was a fun one!
- Fixed a crash caused at the end of a Meetup.
- Fixed a bug that would sometimes allow for users to do a u-turn in events.
- Fixed a bug that would cause the Elite Sterzo Smart to fail to pair.
- Fixed a bug that would cause the app to freeze on MacOS if the user went idle while in the pairing screen.
- Fixed a bug on Android which would cause pairing issues on the Wahoo Kickr Smart over ANT+.
- Fixed a crash for Apple Watch connected users running iOS 13.
Wrapping It Up
We’re stoked to see some new roads and routes added to Watopia, and runners will certainly be happy to have always-on Pace Partners to join.
While it’s hard to fault ZHQ for focusing their efforts toward onboarding new Zwifters and getting them plugged into the game, long-time Zwifters are looking for fresh stuff to help us stay engaged. Simple new routes and achievements seem like an easy win for Zwift in this regard. So our humble request is… more carrots, please!
See/discuss release notes on Zwift’s forum >
If you spotted any other changes in today’s update, please comment below!
I dont see the update on IOS yet…
The updates for iOS tend to lag a day or two behind the others due to approval processes.
Anyone see an iOS update yet? I am not seeing anything on Apple TV.
I’ve already updated it manually, through the AppStore on AppleTV
Great to see new roads. People keep on talking about this onboarding experience.. But apart from the new launcher nothing has changed. What exactly are Zwift doing that is devoting all their time into the new user experience?
Their one programmer must have been on holiday.
A ton of it is event programming, as well as setting up automated stuff like emails, etc to walk users through their initial experience.
I agree that I don’t see it as a huge investment. But… it’s what ZHQ is saying. The other thing I hear them saying a lot is they’re paying off “tech debt” – that is, improving backend systems that weren’t initial built robustly enough. So they can more easily expand and add features in the future.
In the event module of clubs, you can now edit the time in seconds for the fence. You are also able to enable or disable it. Was not possible before without contacting Zwift.
Also able to set the ride target as a SPEED instead of w/kg metric.
I did the fence thing for a ride I led today… but it didn’t set the values properly. 🙂
New roads are always great.
I encountered an interesting bug earlier where it showed the “Repack Ridge” leaderboard instead of the “Alpe du Zwift” leaderboard. No idea if that was related to the update and I was too lazy to try to reproduce it.
Those leaderboard bugs have been around for many different updates, the epic kom is one I’d see often when it clearly wasn’t appropriate.
Maybe I’m crazy, but everything just looked… nicer? Like, there were more trees, or something like that? And my frame rate felt better.
They placed some more trees in many places and some new rocks. Unfortunately often they do not fit to the other assets in the area for my taste. The italian village and the fisher huts/pier is really nice now.
Finding it hard to get excited over this. The new stretches all have a useful purpose, but I hope there is something more tangible coming to help us ride through the winter.
Kind of underwhelming IMO. Good additions to be sure, but would really like to see a faster rate of development given the $ they’ve raised and for what they’re receiving each month. And no progress on the UI, racing features, etc – all things that have supposedly been in the works for seemingly forever.
The new bypasses create some interesting short loops. Epic KOM and the bypass create an Innsbruck-like loop, with comparable vertical, and only a few km between the descent and the next lap’s climb. The Watopia KOM bypass allows for a loop of the “bypassed” part of the KOM road. And the Bridges/Island bypass (which I don’t completely understand: what does this add?) makes a very tight circuit which would make for a short crit course.
It adds a sprint to a Volcano Flat like route. Previously then Volcano Flat would only have the start/end, Flat Route would have start/end and the sprint, and Hilly Route would have start/end, KOM, and the sprint. Beach Island is similar to Volcano Flat Reverse but has the Watopia Sprint in addition.
Yes as a climber I prefer to think of the Epic KOM bypass as the Flat Bits Bypass!
Yes, in my opinion, especially the hilly crit course of abt. 2.8km length created by the Hilly KOM Bypass may offer some interesting racing.
I always hoped for waistband reversed, and it could be extended by a new connection between bridges now. It is a little bit boring to take still the same waistband route for endurance with 3R group each weekend.
Increased waistband with a bit of climbing, i like it!
I’m waiting for longer jersey sleeves
IRL problem
Why can’t they fix the rider position bugs they introduced in August? Time gaps in the rider list are out of whack, distance covered by riders who start and finish a group ride together can be over 1km different, and the ‘new’ fence throws out ‘return to group’ warnings even if you’re behind the yellow beacon. Seems like they’re probably all related, but who knows.
Same thing noticed by many people and reported these issues on the forums and to support, but Zwift has yet to acknowledge them.
Regarding the difference in distance for group rides – are you sure of this? I’ve not seen it – is it not just late starters?
Distances are different based on how wide you take the corners and how much you zigzag. This is where steering gives you a boost as you can take corners on the inside and reduce distance.
The distance bug is more than just cornering, as much as a mile difference in 100 miles, and rather inconsistent (so not just a rounding error). Only happens on distance-based rides, not time-based rides. Occasionally, there is little to no difference, but usually it is quite obvious (and also more than just a difference in the pens distance, as it gets bigger over the ride). Almost always is the HUD being “behind” the display on the right, but I think once it was the other way temporarily. Oh well, “bonus” miles on the BMTR hundred!
Eric, do you have the XP bonus point total for the new routes?
XP bonuses are distance multiplied by 20 xp (overall km for a route multiplied by 20 xp) for all routes. So the “new” Beach Island Loop with 12.8km should be 12×20=240xp.
That’s nice to know, Thanks.
From Eric’s screen shot of the Serpentine 8 route completion it looks like Zwift probably uses the course distance rounded to the nearest 1/4 km. The screen shot shows a bonus of +385 and the course is 19.3 km. If you take 385/20 you get a distance of 19.25. Conversely 19 x 20 equals 380.
Correct, Robert! And lead-ins don’t count. I’ve added the XP for the new routes to our master routes list: https://zwiftinsider.com/routes
I run Zwift in 4k and this update fixed the frame rate issues. It is solid fast FPS. I have to limit the FPS to 115 because Zwift was full speed above 200 FPS.
Wow, what hardware do you have?
I’m not sure the Beach Island Loop has it’s place as a new route. I mean, yeah, it’s a new segment of about 200m new ashalt, but otherwise it’s Volcano Flat +500m… Almost same elev also. The other routes are nice, especially the Epic KOM cut. Jungle 8 is a nice addition (I know it’s not called Jungle 8, but it is an 8 lap in the Jungle anyway 🙂 )
And the sprint; don’t forget that Beach Island Loop covers the Watopia Sprint.
Yeah, it seems a bit silly. Having the sprint will make it more interesting for certain rides or races… and keep in mind it matches Volcano Flat REVERSE, which is an event-only route. So it’s fairly different from any open route currently available.
Looks like Jungle Loop is becoming the Mayan Loop. The new turn “arrows” call it Mayan Loop, while the arrows for previously available turns still say Jungle Loop.
Possible Rebel Route for entry: Cliffside Loop (if you have a better name, feel free to suggest it). If someone can confirm you can do Hilly KOM reverse onto KOM bypass, its a go. Basically this is a reverse loop of Ocean Lava Cliffside Loop, however you want to select Mountain Route. Turn right onto Epic KOM bypass, turn right at the base of Epic KOM reverse, turn right at the Jungle turn off and head towards the Volcano. Do the outer loop of Volcano circuit, turn left towards Watopia Downtown. Turn right and go through the esses, straight at… Read more »
Yay. A nice Christmas Present from Zwift.
I just had to test the Mayan Bridge road after my Alp ride this morning… And the graphics designers has done an amazing job on this section 👍👍👍 It just looks amazing and I can’t wait to ride it again, as I think there’s a lot of details to discover when you haven’t been riding the Alp just before 😉😁
Yeah, lots of cool details there for sure.
Any plans to add the new routes to the Velo Viewer leaderboards?
https://veloviewer.com/zwift-insider/watopia-short
Some new roads are always welcome. Nothing too exciting but it is at least something new to try over Christmas.
I really hate the Mayan Jungle roads and would have loved a new stretch of road to get you to the Alpe quicker. By quicker i mean tarmac roads and not slower gravel ones.
Yeah, they’ll be added. A bit annoying that Zwift has the spawn points in the wrong place, which will mean a lot of complaints from people who aren’t getting Strava credit unless 1) I make different Strava segments or 2) they do u-turns before their ride.
Glad you mentioned that Eric. I was just going to point out that I only got a Strava segment for one of them because I did a warm up lap before riding it fast 2nd time.
Unfortunately I did Beach twice with a new start each time. At least it’s not an Uber segment.
I heard they were considering adding a bus shuttle through the dirt sections for all the road riders scared of the bumpety bumps …
Great that there are some new routes even on old roads but what I think would be a good addition to Zwift would be the ability to plan a route of your own and then head ‘out’ and ride it. The prescribed routes are great but the ability to plan your own would give the feeling of ‘owning’ the experience a little more.
now that would be great – especially if you could do this for a meetup as well
Yawn… What about the improvements for clubs etc… They really are slow at releasing improvements. These seem to trivial and they don’t even work correctly with the wrong spawn points.
companion app wasn’t showing the new additions this morning
I think the Companion update will be out in the next day or two…
Still no updates to end a ride without exiting and restarting? Bit of a tough one this. A bit too niche. I guess only about 12 people in the zwiftosphere think it’s a good idea. Are they being obstinate?
Super annoying that you have to restart the game every time. Pls do something about it.
If you’re on a badge hunt this sucks!
More like the few that don’t think it’s a good idea and high priority all work at Zwift.
Bummer. Despite the post saying The latest Zwift update is now available on all platforms it is not quite available for Android either. This actually got me out of bed and onto my bike but here I sit. Do I ride an old route? But I’ve snagged all those badges already. Wait for my wife to be done working on our old but trusty laptop? Either way, looking forward to the new routes. 🙂
Strat start riding with groups. I never used to do that and only did workouts it has changed my life 🙂
Yeah, I’ll change that starting text… delayed release on iOS, Android, etc this time around.
Still not available on iOS?
When will they make it possible to pause a ride? Some of the sections are way too long for some of us to finish in one ride, Too old too busy.
The whole point of a badge is that you have the earn it. If you can pause a route, it isn’t a challenge anymore is it. Still 2 left on my bucket list btw. The Londen PRL Full and the Uber pretzel. Oh and the new ones of course.
I am working on them. I have 58 I think. Will keep plugging along, but I could be on the bike for 6 hrs for some of those 😥
Yeah, so make it so that if I use some “pause” feature I don’t earn the badge. It’s not likely I’m getting to top of Ven-top in one session but I’d still like to see it all. I’m fine with it if I can’t get the badge.
While this could be good for some cyclists, I think pausing an activity on Zwift would be a big improvement for all runners; it would open up huge amount of roads to run which are currently out of reach on the average treadmill run.
You can pause now, sort of: https://zwiftinsider.com/long-breaks/
You can just leave your computer on and Zwift running and pick up where you left off the next day until you finish! 😂
When I try to do this the game won’t start up again.
Rode the Ocean Cliffside one last night, nice added stretch, would be a decent race route. I turned around and did it in reverse, only problem was the turn direction arrows were reverse left was right right was left so it was confusing why I had trouble turning onto the reverse Ocean Cliff.
Agreed, a great race route! The climbers will get a gap at the start, then the flatlanders will have to work to chase them back.
Why doesn’t Zwift get around to adding the popular Rebel Routes Watopia Waistband???
Jon Mayfield to Eric Min, “Let’s promote Jordan, so he can take all the blowback when we release new features…”
😂
He has left!
who has?
Jordan
“Next man, Wes, you’re up…”
During the TTT last night, my keyboard quit switching views. I could run through them on the Companion app, but that is very slow compared to hitting the numbers on my laptop. Don’t know if it’s related, but I’ve never had that issue before.
same issue
Nevermind. Looks like my numlock got toggled off somehow.
Honestly i expect more then new 4km of Roads…
I think a minimum per monthly release:
Quarterly release:
Annual release:
Zwift should have a segregated Business-as-usual team that does all the above to keep people happy and motivated.
Zwift should have another team that works on new features like clubs, partners, steering, on-boarding, etc. to release as & when they are ready.
I’m with you, although I’d settle for half of that. I love cycling new routes, and without new roads Zwift seems stale to me. Really excited about these new bits of road,but it is only a few Kms. I hear they have Tokyo up their sleeve. Why not release that to riders at level 30 or above (say). I’m at level 42, and as it stands I have nothing to aim at. Would be great if I knew a new world was available when I got to say level 45. As it stands I’m thinking of quitting and giving rouvy… Read more »
Yep. Exactly right. I’m also level 42. Heading for 50 but then everything is done. I did the 4 new routes yesterday morning in the 2 hours after they were released. Now what? Where is the challenge with reward? Tour of Zwift is all stuff I’ve done and the routes are so short and easy that there is no point. Can do them as group rides every day. How hard is it to make a 300k badge. Or roaming 10k climbing badge. Or Ride across USA Challenge. I’m riding to L50 then joining elsewhere for a year while Zwift make… Read more »
Which one are you swapping over to? I’ve now got issues launching the app since the update and might take a break and let them sort it out and bring new features in before checking in again.
Yep. I left Zwift in favour of Fulgaz/RGT precisely because the Zwift experience was becoming stale. For the resources Zwift has their pace of development is glacial and I was starting to feel that other companies deserve my money more. I usually hop back onto Zwift whenever they add new tarmac, but that happens far too rarely.
Just when I finally finish all the route badges (PRL Full last weekend) they’ve added some more! Well that’s this weekends rides sorted!
“Seems like a silly route to add [Beach Island Loop] with one so similar already in-game”: There is one big different to Volcano Flat; Beach Island Loop goes through the Watopia Sprint like the Hilly Route / Flat route do, which the Volcano Flat does not. So it’s fresh since Volcano Flat Reverse is event-only and has a sprint.
Good point!
I think this is a great way to easily create carrots for many of the newbies. My other half avoids the hills on Zwift, so anything which gives her chances to earn new badges – even if they’re only small route changes – is going to create more carrots for her.
No update on android s10 yet. Checked the store and it just says open app.
The picture above with the caption “Enjoying the scenic Epic KOM Bypass”, looks like one of the statues but in a swimming mode. Hint of things to come?
Well spotted!! The next sport on Zwift will be rowing, then most likely cross-country skiing. If you can come up with a device which can turn swimming-like exercise into wattage output numbers, I’m sure Zwift will integrate with it!😉
A WaterRower has wattage measured, what’s Zwift waiting for?
I think the update messed up the Uber Pretzel route navigation. I set out to complete the route this morning and got stuck doing laps around the volcano about halfway though.
Thanks for a interesting site. I dont know if this is a Zwift problem but the segment Curvy Hill Blast in Strava seems to be incorrect. Suddenly my speed went up to 77 km/h. Double up. Thanks from Uppsala Sweden//Björn
THe Serpentine 8 probable has temples rather than templates.
Really poor update… again… new Routes with a few km, lol… and the existing and known issues are not fixed, again… FIX THIS STICKY DRAFT PROBLEM!!!
I noticed the pace partner beacons were easier to spot when they are coming from the opposite direction in a free ride. I’m on Apple TV. Before they were a blob that went past before you could react and now the beacon is visible on the mini map and in virtual reality far enough in advance to do a U-turn and jump on 🙂 P.S. thanks for the ZRL bike recommendations in No Breakaways videos 🙂
Since the update (1.0.60239) Zwift does not log in. Did anybody see the same issue? Daniel
I too have a buggy app. On launch I get the music and the wheel at the white arrow which stops dead and the music keeps going. I swipe it away from the iPhone screen and music continues for about 10s and stops. If I delete and add app back it gives me the staring welcome screen and finds all my devices ok. Then takes me straight to route selector but when I activate ‘ride’ the whole screen stays in portrait mode (which is 90deg rotated on the tv) through the iPhone to tv hdmi device. So, I close down… Read more »
disappointed about this update. 4km since april 2019 in the main world (titan grove was released a few months later but streets were ready in april ).
I am trying to create a meet up for a group ride and use new routes just released but I don’t see them when I try to create the meet up , are they not available for meetups?
Not yet. I’m sure they will be soon…?
Eric, will you be making a new Watopia Map poster that includes the new routes?
For sure! Probably in the next couple weeks.
Would love if the they fix the meetup with race results.. let everyone start in a pen instead of from the side of the road next to eachother. As it is now the race results mode makes no sense
Over the past two Saturdays I’ve noticed the time gap flaw. People directly in from of me reported as a 2-second gap. People behind me, less than 10 meters (flat course), and they’re 5 seconds down.
then this morning, checking out the bypass/bypass reverse…you have to mouse over the turn and click it, vs just using your keyboard. Any other intersection and you can keyboard L/R to make your turn.
I am having no end of problems since this update, with it losing connectivity, and not loading routes right, or leaving me solo so I see no other Zwifters.
I too have a buggy app. On launch I get the music and the wheel at the white arrow which stops dead and the music keeps going. I swipe it away from the iPhone screen and music continues for about 10s and stops. If I delete and add app back it gives me the staring welcome screen and finds all my devices ok. Then takes me straight to route selector but when I activate ‘ride’ the whole screen stays in portrait mode (which is 90deg rotated on the tv) through the iPhone to tv hdmi device. So, I close down… Read more »
Re. “until Zwift adjusts these start points” — are you in contact with Zwift about adjusting the spawn points?
I rode Beach Island Loop and Two Bridges Loop today (in two separate rides) to get the route badges, but I didn’t want to take any chances by doing manual turns or U-turns and so I didn’t get a match on the Strava segments.
Yes, I’ve let them know.
I’ve done the u-turn trick now on two of the new routes, and go the badge just fine. So I wouldn’t worry about it!
Not sure if this is the reason but before this update, I had some “sliding” effect with my trainers. (tested with 3 different trainers: Tacx Flux / Wahoo Kickr / Elite Suito) I’ll try to explain: when I was sprinting, resistance was dropping when I reached approx. 1400W. Sensation was like if my trainer belt was sliding around. And my power curve was peaking at 1400W too from 1 to 10sec (flat curve) Since this update, I am not able to reproduce this sliding effect, I can give it all I got. My power curve now peak at 2000W, steadily… Read more »
(curves on the image are all from the same install/setup using my Tacx Flux)
after the latest update i cant get into the app.As i press the play button near my name the rolling wheel frezzes and cant proceed.Deleted the app and reinstalled it twice,it seems to work on first shot but the next day when i again try to workout it just freezes in the same play button.Is it just me or what.Am using iphone xs max 14.2.Earlier version seems to work just perfect.
I think its your iPhone. My 6S has same issue now but my old ipad works ok and its on IOS 12! the tech giants have got us in an endless upgrade path whilst they accumulate huge wealth.