Zwift version 1.96 begins its phased rollout today. This is a small update, but racers should take note of a fast new wheelset, and achievement badge completionists will want to know what’s changed on their badge list. Read on for details…
New ENVE SES 4.5 PRO Wheelset
The biggest news in this week’s update is a new, top-performing wheelset from ENVE. The real-life ENVE SES 4.5 PRO wheels were announced in July of this year, and ENVE shared that the wheels were developed with direct input from Tadej Pogačar and UAE Team Emirates XRG over two seasons. When the wheels were announced, they had amassed 25+ victories this season alone … before Tadej won the Tour de France!
The wheels are now available in the Drop Shop, accessible at level 29 and above, for a price of 675,000 Drops. They are the only wheelset in the Drop Shop with a 4-star rating for both aero and weight, so we expect them to be fast on the flats, and light on the climbs!
Watch this space for a detailed post about their performance once we finish our speed tests.
If you’d like to try the wheels before purchasing, September’s ZRacing events feature them, meaning everyone will be placed on these wheels for each of September’s races. (More info on September’s ZRacing will be published here on Zwift Insider tomorrow.)
Unearned Event-Only Badges Now Hidden
Zwift says, “In the Achievements screen, placeholder badges will now only be shown for routes that are available to all Zwifters in the Routes list. If a route is only accessible via an Event, the badge will be shown in the Achievements screen if it has been earned.”
The event-only route badge situation has been a messy one for years on Zwift. In the early days, event-only routes didn’t have achievement badges. That changed with the release of the Neokyo Crit Course in November 2021, the first event-only route to ever have an achievement badge and corresponding bonus XP.
Since then, more and more event-only routes have had achievement badges attached. But there are still many that don’t.
Zwifters who love earning achievement badges have been frustrated by their inability to earn badges for certain event-only routes, and this seems to be the driving force behind Zwift removing unearned event-only route badges from the list and the counter at the top.
To be clear, you can still earn these badges. They just aren’t visible until you earn them, making them like other hidden “extra credit” badges in Zwift.
Here’s a full list of event-only routes with achievement badges and associated XP, in case you want to make sure you earn all these badges:
| Route | Map | Badge XP |
|---|---|---|
| Cobbled Crown | Richmond | 480 |
| Empire Elevation | New York | 485 |
| Glasgow Crit Six | Scotland | 360 |
| Handful of Gravel | Watopia | 125 |
| Hilly Route Reverse | Watopia | 180 |
| Hot Laps | Watopia | 465 |
| Hudson Hustle | New York | 405 |
| Kaze Kicker | Makuri Islands | 340 |
| London Classique Reverse | London | 110 |
| Macaron | France | 50 |
| Neokyo Crit Course | Makuri Islands | 90 |
| Neon Shore Loop | Makuri Islands | 660 |
| Park Perimeter Reverse | New York | 195 |
| Peaky Pavé | France | 610 |
| The Epiloch | Scotland | 160 |
| Three Step Sisters | Watopia | 755 |
Release Notes
Zwift provided notes on additional tweaks and bug fixes in this update:
- The in-game “Friends Zwifting” notification is no longer shown during Workouts.
- Fixed an issue that caused some environmental shadows to have jerky animations.
- Fixed a crash that could potentially occur when creating custom workouts.
- Fixed an issue that could cause water to flicker at some locations in France.
- Android: Improved Bluetooth connection reliability.
- Windows, Android: Stability improvements.
Discuss this update in Zwift’s forum >
Questions or Comments?
If you spotted any other changes or bugs in the update, please comment below!
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