Last week’s This Season on Zwift included the always-exciting announcement of a Zwift map expansion. Even more exciting, it’s the expansion of everyone’s favorite map, Watopia! Let’s dive into the scant details we know as we look forward to its October launch.
The Big Picture
Here’s how the ~18 km of new roads (in red) fit into the existing Watopia map:
As you can see above, the new roads connect the Jarvis circuit to the Jungle, offering what Zwift calls a “flat bypass option around the Epic KOM”.
A Flat(ter) Western Bypass
Based on Strava data, the elevation of the new road at the Jarvis juncture is ~3 meters, while the elevation on the other end at the Jungle is ~31 meters. So we know there is at least a bit of climbing to be done on these new roads, but it’s much less than the ~100 meters of elevation gained when you ride up the base of the Epic KOM Reverse from the Marina and turn to the Jungle.
Another way of looking at it: Zwift’s southern coast expansion in October 2023 added ~19 km of flatter road around the Epic KOM to the southeast. This upcoming expansion adds a bypass to the northwest.
Teaser Visuals
Zwift says this expansion is an archipelago island chain inspired by Catalina Island and California’s West Coast, which makes sense. Zwift is based in Long Beach, CA, after all, and various biomes in Watopia are based on California themes, including the redwoods of Titans Grove, the beachfront in downtown Watopia, and the desert of Fuego Flats with its California Super Bloom.
I’ve only been able to get two teaser images from Zwift, which I’ve included below:
The first image is quite nondescript and could be in Makuri Islands apart from the tiny floatplane pictured. The second image faces Alpe du Zwift, and shows a whale jumping (sure to be a dramatic animation!) and a lap banner for one of the new crit courses.
More Details
The new map includes two “crit-style circuits” with “mini paddocks” attached, “made specifically for racing” according to Zwift. We don’t know exactly how the crit circuits will be laid out, but you can see my best guess below in white:
There’s also a lightning-bolt-shaped circuit which has been referenced as “Power Island” internally at Zwift. This will include some power segments (introduced in the recent New York expansion) which will feature in an upcoming event series (see below). Also, it sounds like Zwift may be expanding the power segment idea to include the ability to set power targets for specific segments. Interesting!
This expansion will add 20 new routes to Watopia. That may seem like a lot (Watopia already has 127 routes!), but with all the roads in Watopia, adding fresh roads creates a huge number of interesting potential routes. I don’t think we’ll find the new routes as repetitive as those released with the recent Paris expansion.
We don’t have details on these routes yet, but one I’m personally hoping for is a slightly longer, flatter version of “The Big Ring” that will be even friendlier for long group rides. (Hopefully it will go in a CCW direction, too, which should make the Jungle section feel like much less of an obstacle.)
Related Events
Two major Zwift events will take advantage of the expansion, beginning with the ever-popular Tour of Watopia (October 5-November 22) with its double XP and another ultimate challenge.
Stage 4 of the Tour kicks off on Monday, October 26, and that will be our first chance to ride these new roads. Tour of Watopia is a 5-stage tour, and Zwift says the Tour includes “6 new route badges to chase”, so it would seem that the three routes used for Stage 4 and the three routes used for Stage 5 will all be new.
Additionally, a new “Power Play” series kicks off in November, running from November 23 to December 27. Details are sparse, but they at least tell us the Watopia expansion will include multiple power segments. Zwift says the series “aims to give Zwifters a fresh and fun new way to get a quality workout, making use of Power Segments in New York, the Montmartre and The Grade climbs, and new Power Segments that will launch in the new Watopia Expansion.”
Your Thoughts
What do you think of Zwift’s planned Watopia expansion? Can you see any cool route ideas that use the new roads? Share your thoughts below…
Todo llano… Al menos un encadenado de cotas, estilo clásica belga… Eso sería algo diferente. Aún así, nuevas carreteras siempre son bien recibidas.
I presume one of the new routes will be a Super Duper Uber Pretzel?
It’s time!
”The Grand Watopian” … I should trademark it now. Could get an imperial century route easily in Watopia with these new roads
Considering the full Watopia rebel route is 96 miles, this would end up over 100 with the 11 new miles in the expansion, but it would be just short of the PRL Full in distance and elevation.
I’m gonna start getting ready to add these new roads to my program so I can fill in the actual distances when they become available and find a new full watopia route covering all the new roads.
The Ultra Über Pretzel…….
Süber Düber Über?
‘Lord of the Rings’ (one ring to rule them all!)…
you should do Misery Loves Company by Torturefest Cult rebel route. It took me a little under 7 hours. It’s every climb in watopia forward & reverse 😈 111 miles and 12,900ft
As the Uber Pretzel almost killed me, I sure hope there aren’t any new, longer versions of it!
It’s Oktoberfest still. I’ll take the Bavarian Pretzel
To be honest I hope Zwift someday will get as close to IRL as possible so please get rid of those “power” segments
Lets bring traffic lights to watopia
Do you want a cycling Simulator or just fun Training indoors?
Maybe try Rouvy, you have at least irl visuals…
Richmond is the perfect middle ground (Rouvy vs Watopia/Zwift fantasy-land) imo. Though it’s Watopia here so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Paris was a travesty, however. 😉
any new roads are welcomed in reality. Zwift has been going for a long time and these new road drops are nice to refresh routes and keep it interesting
I just wish they would do some more major challenges like the 3 initial ones, but a bit longer and with a decent prize as a result.
we all know people want a flat 100km route, but having rolling hills is very nice as well, a bit like the Flanders Classics would be perfect. 👍👍
I was personally hoping for a route that went around the back of AdZ in the similar to the Southern Coast, maybe with an alternate route up the back of the mountain as well. This is the second Watopia expansion in a row that adds small islands near the volcano. I am not a fan of the trend towards adding floating roads, especially when they are transparent like in New York. I rode a TT on Neokyo All-Nighter and I could do without the visual of the floating road against the city below on the Rooftop KOM when my heart rate is 190bpm.
At least this expansion should be able to avoid having 10 of essentially the same route like the previous Paris and New York expansions. I worry how they will pull off 20 routes when Jarvis had 6 routes.
Probably by just using the new km to add to the rest of watopia and create longer routes. I guess a bigger ring will be part; a loop around the entirety of watopia. Probably a figure 8 or double figure 8 or something, there will be plenty of options.
btw there is an option to change the glass roads of New York to appear solid. There is a zwiftinsider article…
Roads on water or under water do get kind of boring: it’s just a tunnel, not much more. They were novel when flat route was released, not so much anymore. And New york has a bunch of them now.
I also would love to see more rolling hills. Not enough of them in Zwift and they’re true to the terrain in many places and fun.
This is awesome – so glad Watopia was the focus for this expansion. The topic of new roads had me thinking of when Gravel Mountain will come back after it was pulled earlier in the year…
It’s already back. Zwift is holding races, and some organizers are holding events:
https://zwifthacks.com/app/events/?route==Red%20Rock%20Loop%20Reverse
https://zwifthacks.com/app/events/?route==Red%20Rock%20Loop
I’m surprised that Zwift is kind of sneaking in some races on the course instead of announce it’s comaback a bit more official! And for me, I’m just not that interested in Racing on a BMX bike… I went all in the first time, bought the fastest gravel bike and wheels and really enjoyed Racing the PAS Racing series and especially the stage on Gravel Mountain even if it was a bit fast and blurry 😉 I’m still waiting on proper serious Racing on Gravel Mouintain 😄 👊
I’m not surprised, considering how buggy it was when they launched it with PAS a few months back. I think they’re a bit gun-shy and want to make sure it’s presentable before rolling it out in earnest.
Raced the fun friday race and disappointed that they still have the “acceleration” feature. Just really throws things off when things are going double speed.
I’m all in for flat routes.
Surely this update gives the clearest indication that at some point they will add another climbing option to the top
of the Alp? Would be even longer though as I assume would come from sea level.
Seems like the next logical step until they do another short island expansion in Watopia next fall.
Great idea. If they stick so some kind of irl resemblance they should rebuild col de sarenne. As it is already in the climb portal, I guess they won’t do that…
Is this 18km of new roads or 9km of new road and you’ve counted both directions?
A valid question, given Paris. 🙂 I believe it’s 18km of new roads, counting 1km of double-lane road as just 1km.
Tracing a scaled version of the map I got around 7.8km without the crit circuits which implies they are counting both directions of a road as separate roads again.
I checked the routes on google maps and posted findings in the forum
https://forums.zwift.com/t/zwift-watopia-expansion-september-2026/671035/22
A lenticular cloud!
Indeed!
I thought of Gatorade when I first saw the power zone map.
I like new roads but I just don’t see why we need 20 new routes on this short amount of roads. I see this as being like the NY expansion which got tedious after a few rides.
I’m sure most of the routes will simply make use of the new roads, but not be entirely contained within them.
Expansion is great, but it would be even better if it included a notable California climb such as Palomar Mountain, Mt. Tamalpais, Mt. Diablo, or Mt. Baldy.
Palomar’s a great climb. The Alpe d’Huez of America!
At 1300m and 19km, it’s a pretty good match for the back side of AdZ. 😃
A climb up to the half way point on the Alp would be awesome. Who can experiment on putting the Ski Climb on that? Of course that was the original (error) version of 685 meter climb at 8.5 (instead of 17 km). But, the 340 meter version was still very tough. The 20% climb version was like sprinting intervals at every tooth of the climb.
What we need is a route with a quick succession of punchy climbs, each 1-3 minutes. Would be perfect for racing and unguided workouts. Zwift always puts too many flats in between climbs (Yorkshire excluded but that map is ugly).
Live to close Baldy Steeper then alp and and longer hen vent top based on segment start. very straight till last few miles. Popluar start is from turn on the road most of the way up the alluvial fan in Claremont to ski lifts longer then vent top about 13miles/21km and just gets steeper not less till the very end. Dirt road at base of ski lifts steeper about 16miles/26km long. We locals do tend to avoid going above the village most the due to how steep is thoes 5-6 miles to ski lifts with narrow road with cars. GMR is better for mountain copy in general zwift. Baldy goes to climb portal Turnbull Canyon 2 to 2.5miles/ 4km long either side in first set of hills due north of Zwift HQ.
Im looking forward to this. Like someone else mentioned I feel it should be time for an updated Watopia pretzel route. I was thinking some of the power segments would be on that lightning bolt circuit (seems like we have an official name now) as it makes sense. Cant wait to ride it next month.
Well an interesting route would be if we draw a line from alpe Du zwift to coastal road. Go from the jungle or myan to epic climb & or end up meeting up with the radio tower the last bit would be a killer or towards epic. Nice climb with all that snow. Something different. They could then go off the other side down towards the coast roads. Would have 4 different climbs of epic which would be nice.
This is exciting!
Yah, since I joined zwift this is the first watopia expansion, so im excited too and looking forward to see those roads full
of riders to collect many drops 😎.
Perfect segue for the Col de Sarenne coming off the Alpe. Only ~8 years after my original proposal of it in the Zwift forums.
Need some downhill focused routes for us Heavies.
Maybe a lift to the top of Alpe 😂
How about some minor upgrade to the graphics. It needs a face lift, looks like 90’s tech. Not a complaint, just a suggestion.
I really hope we do get some new long, not-too-hilly routes suitable for endurance group rides – it looks promising.
Of course the most important question about the expansion: how long until we see an update to the Watopia Map Poster?
ASAP! But I need to get details from Zwift before I can work on it. My guess is I’ll have it done within a week or so of the expansion’s release…
Always grateful for any newly added routes. For those wanting even more flat routes, I would bet Zwift has some preliminary plans for all the land to the east of Fuego Flats – someday!. Is there a way to generate a list of all the new routes each year? It would be helpful for those of us who are spreadsheet geeks and keep track of the routes we do each year. 🙂
I don’t have plans to make an always-available, always current page listing routes by year. But I do a “year in review” post at the end of each year, and always include new routes for the year in that article. Example: https://zwiftinsider.com/2025-review/
Great. I’ll be watching for it.
“The first image is quite nondescript and could be in Makuri Islands”
Narrator: the new routes did not, in fact, look inspired from California or Catalina Island, but were reused components from Makuri and other worlds.
For only 18km my expectations are low.
Makuri is the best looking world (maybe some parts of NY) and then Scotland, and then Watopia, so not the worst thing.
Adding another 20 routes to an already packed list. Endless scrolling just to find a route the suits your intent for the day. How about following a strategy similar to the workout list, with filter parameters such as distance, elevation gain, alphabetical, etc – all searchable either by the entire Watopia map or by area of the map broken up by quadrants, regions, etc. It would be nice to narrow my search down to a handful or routes based on what the type of ride I plan for the day.
Or even just mark a few favorites that are displayed on top.
To be honest, I was hoping for some new climbing routes.
Watopia / Zwift has so many flat kilometers and just a few proper climbs.
ADZ, VenTop, Innsbruck and Epic… That’s it.
Climb portals I don’t count, because they can’t be selected for group rides.
A few more vertical meters would be nice.
The two crit circuits……one should be named duck and the other chicken
Apologies if this has been covered already, but have Zwift given up on Makuri? Seem to remember that was intended to rival Watopia for scale eventually, but hasn’t been expanded for a while now
They do two expansions a year. It’s been watopia and new York and Paris that have gotten them lately. Just not that many expansions overall.
New roads are appreciated. New activities are also appreciated.
I hope they do some fancy teaser with artefacts building up in previous stages of the ToW like they did when they unveiled Jarvis island.
And after this… north coast connecting the top of the South Coast expansion to the east bridge and the west bridge to this new road to the jungle (as well as to the east end of the Jarvis loop?
I think I see what you are describing. Uses the existing ocean cliffside lava cross over road. Hopefully they can get the elevation changes okay for that because it’s a significant climb up to that road.
Well, and the eponymous sequoias of Sand and Sequoias.
Still kinda disappointed by how many liberties they took with the Paris routes. Richmond is kind of awesome… you could almost bike around IRL on just your Zwift memory.
Guess that’s nbd with fantasy-land, though the lightning route is a bit much.
When’s the map that you can buy being updated?
In the next few weeks. We’ll announce it here on the site once it’s done…