Zwift turns 10 this fall, and over the years, Eric Min and others at the company have leaked activities on Strava to tease new roads and other features.
The last Strava leak of new roads was Eric Min’s ride in Neokyo in November of 2021. But today, Zwift co-founders Eric Min and Jon Mayfield appear to have ridden together on the upcoming Watopia expansion.
See Jon’s ride on Strava, titled “Only time I’ll have the KOM jersey” >
See Eric’s ride on Strava, titled “Zwift Expansion — the early peek!” >
See Jon’s ride on Zwift.com >
See Eric’s ride on Zwift.com >
Some screenshots from Strava:
I reached out to Jon Mayfield when I saw his ride, and he told me, “Last time I ever had a KOM and a sprint jersey was back on the day we launched the original Jarvis.”
Digging Into the Data
Looking at the Strava map of Eric and Jon’s rides with a little help from ZwiftMap for Strava, we can see the shape of the new roads and that they connect to existing Watopia roads via a spur from the Volcano Circuit:
If that shape looks familiar, you may be an OG Zwifter. It’s the exact shape of Jarvis, the original Zwift island. After months of speculation, we’ve found our answer: Zwift is bringing Jarvis back! A fitting move for the 10-year anniversary.
Jon’s activity shows the loop’s profile as he rides a counterclockwise lap first, then flips a u-turn to ride it clockwise:
Eric’s ride used a route titled “Deca Dash” (you can see the route name at the top-left on the minimap, which is sporting a fresh route profile that I’m sure will be released soon):
The Deca Dash route appears to be 10 laps of the new loop (hence the “Deca” name) for a total of 47km. This indicates that the new loop is 4.7km in length.
Looking at Jon and Eric’s rides in the Companion app confirms that each lap also includes sprint, KOM, and lap leaderboard segments, in both directions. Currently they’re simply titled “Jarvis KOM”, “Jarvis Sprint” and “Jarvis Lap”:
The screenshots give us some metrics for two of the segments:
- Jarvis KOM Reverse: 1.3km at 3.1%
- Jarvis Sprint Reverse: 200 meters at 0.2%
Availability
Zwift has said Watopia’s expansion will be available to ride in Tour of Watopia events beginning tomorrow, November 12. So my guess is we’ll all be in Watopia-Jarvis very soon.
Your Thoughts
Excited for some fresh roads, scenery, and leaderboard segments? What are your thoughts on Zwift’s latest expansion? Share below!
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