Like most of my bad ideas, this ride was a last-minute spur of the moment decision. I wanted to ride all the roads in Watopia in one ride.
I race for Team USMES C1 in the WTRL TTT Latte division, and the day before we came in with a 3rd place overall finish. (Not thanks to me, but rather some very strong teammates. I was the fifth man and more of an insurance policy if one of the top four riders had a mechanical issue.) So my legs weren’t exactly fresh, but I was feeling OK. The goal was to cruise the route around 2.5 w/kg.
Getting Started
The day started off with Christmas presents and some breakfast. Once all the kids were focused on their new toys, I headed to the pain cave to start my journey. My real-life triathlon team is Base Performance and I use many of their nutrition products. I filled two water bottles with their drink, Rocket Fuel, and thought that I’d take a short break once I ran out and could also use that as a pee stop. I opened the basement window and turned on the fan, blowing 7-degree air into the room (a wise decision). I didn’t have a specific route in mind, but started on Tempus Fugit. I figured I would watch the map and make turns to allow for the least amount of backtracking.
After the flats, I headed to Titans Grove so I could go to the start of Repack Ridge and when I exited, I would turn left to finish going through the Sequoias and end up on the North side of the flats. I hadn’t done Repack Ridge much before and it had been a while since my last attempt. Getting used to the phone steering took a little bit of practice.
It’s a Trap!
I used a little backtracking to cover the route from my start point, did a U-turn, and headed towards the beach and Zwift KOM. After a loop around the Italian Villas using one of Watopia’s newest roads, the Bridge/Islands Bypass, I cut back East to head up the Epic KOM.
About halfway up I was joined by fellow Base Performance teammate Matthew Stepaniak. He immediately texted me that this was a trap – he was on an 8% grade with no warm-up! I assured him that we were heading down soon… after the Radio Tower. The “I hate you” response really made me feel the Christmas spirit.
A Welcome Break
Coasting down from the Radio Tower and most of the backside of the Epic KOM was a welcome breather. At the bottom, we took a right turn to hit another new Watopia addition, the Epic KOM Bypass. The next left was downhill as we went back towards the beach, south on the rollers, before the Watopia sprint and headed to the Volcano. Matthew only needed to get 14 miles in and his time was up so I was back on my own. This was a good time for my first break, which lasted just long enough to refill water bottles and visit the bathroom.
The nice thing about only filling up two water bottles is that the next bottles are a little colder than if they had just been sitting there. Also, you can choose what you want in the moment. Rocket Fuel is a mix of Base Hydro, Base Amino, and Base Salt. There are five flavors of Hydro and three flavors of Amino. I went with mixing Strawberry and Watermelon.
First I did a loop around the Volcano Circuit before going up the Volcano Climb. At this point I was still feeling pretty good and knew that I only had the Jungle and ADZ left to complete. When I hit the dirt in the Jungle, I stopped and got off my Tron bike and moved to my mountain bike. I took a left at the entrance and thought the best route would be to go halfway, turn at the Mayan Bridge, loop South in the Jungle and back across the Mayan Bridge before going up the Alpe. I’d hit the last section of the Jungle on the way out after a nice rest of coasting down the mountain.
Tackling the Alpe and Leveling Up
At this point I was around 70 miles in with over 5,000 feet of elevation and I was starting to fade a little. Before I started up ADZ, I once again stopped to change bikes. This time I went for the Specialized Tarmac Pro with the Lightweight Meilenstein wheels. When stopped I noticed an orange bubble on the companion app and knew another friend was close. This time it was USMES teammate Kevin Davis. I knew he raced for our B team and told him if he stayed in front of me the whole way up the Alpe, I’d be his friend forever, and that’s just what he did. There is not much of a draft going up, but I think it was just the motivational push I needed. I was able to hold 200 watts on each leg, but I was bouncing around a bit on my power as my legs were worn out.
This wasn’t going to be a PR day, but that wasn’t the point. I was so close to covering all the miles. Speed or power weren’t a concern. ADZ went pretty well and I didn’t start to complain too bad until we had three turns left. Kevin gave me some encouragement and reminded me that we were almost there and only had to sprint the last leg. I thought “sprint is such a strong word.” It actually did push me though as I stood up and gave it pretty much everything I had left. At the top I got the wheels on the spinner and since I already have them, I got a 1,000XP bonus. This was nice as I made level 34 at the bottom. We had made it and now got to enjoy a long coast down.
Hearing Voices
This is when Kelly Ryan jumped on and we decided to all get on Discord. Kelly is also a USMES and Base Performance member. It was awesome to actually chat with them both instead of just texting through the Companion app. The last leg was just the exit out of the Jungle, but by the time we got there was I sitting at 89.5 miles. It’s pretty hard to put that much in and not get a century ride in, so I continued. It would only be a short climb out and a nice downhill heading back towards the flats.
At this point, my watts were falling off significantly. Talking on Discord helped keep me going and I didn’t mind the power drop because I was still moving at a decent speed either downhill or on the flats.
So Close, But So Far Away…
The second I hit the 100 mile mark I was done. I clicked the menu button and End Ride. The map pops up and goes over all the roads you hit. I watched with excitement to see all of them filled in. However, my heart sank as I saw that I missed doing a loop on the Zwift KOM. I had missed the new KOM Bypass! All those miles, all those hours (over six hours by now) and I failed to hit all of the roads. I was just sick. I clicked the OK button and thought that I had a great ride, hit a century, and completed almost all of the roads, but just didn’t quite get it done.
When the save screen came up I noticed that there was a back button in the upper left corner and I wasn’t sure which screen it would take me to, but I clicked it. It was such a good feeling when it took me back to my ride and let me continue. At this point I was completely shot and in the middle of the flats. I knew that it was only 4 miles away and that I had to get there. Barely pushing 100-150 watts the three of us slowly made our way to the KOM Bypass. I quickly crossed it, saved my ride, and went straight to Strava to make sure everything was there.
Wrapping It Up
The route ended up being 104.62 miles with 9,160 feet of elevation and took 6 hours and 45 minutes to complete. The only nice thing about having to do a few extra miles at the end was that it pushed me over 9,000 feet of elevation. When I first stopped at 100 miles, I was at 8,990 feet.
Unfortunately, all of the pictures I took using the Companion app came up all black, so I don’t have those to share. Kevin got one of us riding together in our USMES kits and sent it my way. Today was quite the journey and I’m thankful for my teammates’ help getting me through. I think I’ll try to hit all the miles in the other worlds as well, but for now I’m going to enjoy the rest of the holidays. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, everyone.
What About You?
Have you ever ridden all of Watopia in one go? That was a much easier ride a few years ago, compared to today. Share your experience below!
Funny enough, I did the same thing almost exactly a year ago when the family was out of town: https://www.strava.com/activities/2966679258
Your photos should be in the “pictures” > “Zwift” folder on your computer!
Before the new roads came out, I had done a 200k with all roads both ways PLUS all the timed sections (full loops of Volcano and Jungle both ways and Hilly Loop both ways). Only missed the turn-around in the desert nearest the banner. Now I have to figure in all the new roads. Such fun!
https://www.strava.com/activities/4385959366
Great Ride! Jason! Nice punctuation mark for your year!
Thanks Ryan!
Did a virual Mallorca 312 earlier this year on all zwift roads in april. 322 km, 5091m elevation and 13 hours 25 minutes 😂 https://www.strava.com/activities/3352555305
ADZ at mile 71??? I wonder how you would do it if you were planning in advance.
Not to diminish Jason’s ride in any way, I was wondering what the shortest distance or most efficient way would be to ride all the routes. AdZ early in ride to get it out of the way?
My guess would be to finish up AdZ (although not good on tired legs) because it’s somewhat out on a limb if the target was minimising mileage and you end up doing a big out and back over mostly the same roads (a bit of variation in the jungle) to get back to the main part of Watopia. I have no plans on putting the theory to the test though!
Uber Pretzel throws you up the Alpe at mile 72.5, when I did it I was so broken I took just under 2 hours to do it, almost double my usual time (including a sit down for 15 mins or so)
Given the choice I would definitely get it out of the way early.
Well done Jason. Very impressed. Need to get the directions on a printable pdf, it’s something I’d like to do. Congrats again, well done. Chapeau sir!!
Thanks Roy. You can click on the Strave link above and you should be able to download the GPX file and create your own route and then export the turn by turn directions.
All black photos usually happens when you have your laptop connected to an external screen and the graphics card is only just up to the job of driving that display.
Quite a day in the saddle Jason! Congrats…
Great ride — I don’t like to think about my route that much en route so I always considered the Uber Pretzel the pre-planned ride for all the Watopia roads. How does the “Jason” Pretzel compare to the “Uber?”
Thanks Jim. Click on the Strava link above and then View Flybys to watch the route to compare to the Uber.
Way to go Jason!
Thanks Ant’ny!
Haha, done that :p Such a fun ride with friends. So fun to learn them how to steer and do the MTB course
Weirdly I did a similar thing for NYE, except I did the uber pretzel, rolled down AdZ, saw it was 88 miles down, and decided to limp my way to 100, ticking off the missing sections of road (in order: jungle bypass, KOM bypass, volcano loop, sprint bypass, kom bypass). If I wasn’t completely broken I’d have done Titan’s grove too, but abandoned that idea after getting to the end of the kom bypass.
Got to 100 on the bridge to the volcano, but switched to the TT bike to milk XP as I was about 100xp from a level up. Came to 105 miles and covered every road except titan’s grove, repack ridge & the turning circles for Fuego, but the route here has a lot less duplication than the Uber Pretzel I did to start.
Super impressive. Reading all the other comments, it looks like there’s a good case for a rebel route which covers all the roads in Watopia and is as little over 100 miles as possible. Perhaps this could make a future mass participation event like the recent Uber Pretzel ride
Thanks Neil. Now that clubs are available, maybe we should plan a mass participation event.
Nice work Jason! I did a similar ride covering all roads in Watopia except Repack Ridge (I didn’t even know it was there so now I want to ride it). I used the Uber Pretzel route and then added extra miles that the route didn’t cover. Ended up with 110 miles: Zwift: Watopia Uber Pretzel Century – my longest Zwift ride! (Century #10) | Virtual Ride | Strava
Thanks Peter!
Hey @Jason Hohulin : It looks like you approached Repack Ridge from the south, but I’ve read that you can only enter it from the north of Titan’s Grove and that doing a U-turn after the entrance when coming from the south won’t trigger the appearance of the right turn towards the question mark. Can you confirm this is not the case and you CAN in fact enter Repack Ridge from the south if you do a U-turn after the entrance ? Thanks !
I came from the South and did you U-turn. It worked at the time, not sure if an update changed that since it’s been a while.
You can click on the Strava link above to see the ride and then click on View Flybys to watch me on the route to see the specific turns.