Riders who jump into the world of Zwift soon learn that the vibrant community is really the game’s secret sauce. Simply put, there are many rabid Zwift users who love to dig into the game’s details and push it to its limits. (I should know: I am one!)
This month, WTRL and Zwift are collaborating with the community to design a route that will be raced in the Zwift Racing League. Here’s how it will work!
Contest Basics
Riders have just 10 days (August 12 deadline) to create and submit a route for consideration. The selected racer-created route will be used for the final race of ZRL’s 2024/25 Round 1 on October 15th.
This is a unique opportunity for ZRL participants to influence the series, showcase your creativity, and leave a lasting impact on the community! The winning route will not only debut in the Zwift Racing League but also become available to all Zwift users in the future.
How to Participate
- Plan Your Route: I recommend using zwiftmap.com to design your course. It makes it easy and fun!
- Test Your Route: Ride your designed route on Zwift to ensure it provides an exciting racing experience.
- Submit Your Route:
- Send a link to your Zwift Activity covering the route to [email protected].
- Include the following information:
- Route Start Location: You may need to ride to the start point near the event paddocks. Let WTRL know the kilometer in your activity where the route starts.
- Route End Location: Try to finish your activity where the route ends at a segment arch.
- Lappable Routes: If applicable, specify the lap point, especially if there’s a lengthy lead-in. Point to Point non-lapped routes or single-lap routes are preferred.
- Description: Write a short description (max 100 words) explaining why your route would be ideal for the ZRL.
Route Requirements
- Start and End Points: The route must start at an event paddock and end at an existing segment arch.
- Distance and Elevation: The rroute should be 20-35 km long and not exceed 400m of elevation gain.
- Originality: The route must be unique and not an existing in-game route.
- No U-Turns: Only intersections can be used.
- Existing Roads: Only existing roads can be used.
- World Selection: You can use any Zwift world.
Submission Deadline
Submit your route by August 12th, 2024. After the deadline, a panel of judges will shortlist three routes. The community will then vote to determine the winner!
Helpful Notes
- To find your Zwift Activity link log on to www.zwift.com/feed, click on JUST ME, find your ride activity, click on the activity name to navigate to the activity, then copy the full URL of the activity to submit. The link will be in this format: https://www.zwift.com/activity/[activityID]
- The activity’s privacy setting will need to be set to Public. This can be changed using the settings cog on the activity page.
- If you want to make your route on a world that is not available on the world rotation, you can access the world using the My List feature. Details of this process can be found in Zwift Insider’s My List article.
Questions or Comments?
Post below!
cool idea.
I have one idea i sketched out below. will try to ride sometime next week. curious on your thought.
called “Down. Up. Repeat”
start at neokyo water pens. then down cave, circle around grove and go back up. then around the temple back down cavern and around sisha sprint to go back up cavern for a finish in the temple sprint.
307m
33km length
https://zwiftmap.com/makuri-islands/custom-route?points=-10.805406%2C165.838655%21-10.801631%2C165.842196%21-10.799237%2C165.842518%21-10.80552%2C165.836509%21-10.807073%2C165.822519%21-10.808317%2C165.81679%21-10.806235%2C165.819665%21-10.803766%2C165.843537%21-10.799638%2C165.840672%21-10.801984%2C165.820867%21-10.79692%2C165.815942%21-10.808126%2C165.801126%21-10.809478%2C165.813206%21-10.80506%2C165.839685
You’ll need to send it to the email address listed above, I guess.
BTW. The zwiftmap route painting is cool, however it is unable to route through the new roads (Grade, Itza, etc.).
cool thing 🤗 …
but I noticed that stage 5 (Glyph Heights) doesn’t respect the route requirements … it has way more than 400m elevation gain 🙈🤣
But… why should all stages of the round have to meet the requirements of the custom route contest?
correct … only joking 😉
Dang, their guidelines make my Alpe, Oh Hill No, Watopia KOM, Box Hill, Venetoux combo I was envisioning impossible.
Scratch race only? Or can it be for a points race?
It’ll be used for race #6, which is a scratch race.
Time to get Gravel Mountain out of Beta Mode
Or bring back Repack Ridge.
Hello there, after i have made the route, how do i get to test ride it before i submit? Do i have to save as gpx file and save it in a Zwift folder on my pc?
You just need to manually navigate yourself in a free ride to do the custom route.
You are asking folks to make routes, but what about the pressure on Zwift to improve the racing experience? Should not a fan page like this be more involved in pushing for changes? We have subpar Pack Dynamics, the CE system is laughable, and the ZRS is even worse. The pen allocation is comical. We have static and boring starts only from designed pens instead of anywhere. We lack a serious result portal, there is no proper info on racers (unless 3rd party webs are taken into account), no diversity in race formats, no velodrome, no information on the climb during the race (how long to the summit, what is the upcoming profile…), no info on the gaps between various groups in the race. Too many.
This is not a fan page, rather it functions more as a Zwift PR channel. But I totally agree with you.
Surely one of the main things you would want to do on a custom race route is to be move start pens and set new finishing points. Zwift should be able to put a finishing banner anywhere very easily
Custom finish banners are already available. Event organisers can choose a custom length on any existing route. There are also a handful of routes that finish away from a segment banner.
This was fun! Here’s what I came up with:
https://www.zwift.com/activity/1667470153601810480
That finish was deliciously brutal…
Sweet!!
let’s go reverse alp!!! Revenge of the Heavies!!
Honestly though, reverse alp into a lap or two of the jungle would be an interesting race. Would the heavies get enough gap to hang on around the jungle? Which bike? Bike swap? An event only route with a restricted starting pen makes it difficult to test in advance.
if it were not for the pen requirement, start at top of Ventoux, all the way down and take a right at the intestines, then 2 more rights to finish at arch after downhill. Call it “Le Grand Toboggan”
I’m not a big guy, but racing downhill could make it tricky. Give everyone a couple aero PUs to be used wisely.
This just makes me wish that there were “link tunnels” where you could take a turn in say Watopia that lead you into such a tunnel and you’d exit in say Scotland. Would only requite minimal new roads to link all the worlds and make for some outrageously fun or inventive routes
Puncheurs route https://zwiftmap.com/watopia/custom-route?points=-11.635933%2C166.953309%21-11.647249%2C166.97441%21-11.673562%2C166.96941%21-11.645678%2C166.948189%21-11.635785%2C166.952716%21-11.643044%2C166.954411%21-11.643445%2C166.959368%21-11.639713%2C166.95763%21-11.636132%2C166.950216