It’s coming up on two years since I wrote an article about Leaderboard Jersey hunting, and since then there have been several updates, fixes, and additional “quirks” to Zwift. So here’s an update to that original post, starting with a quick primer on Zwift Jersey Hunting while free riding.
The Basics
Zwift has four types of jerseys you can win while riding. They are the Route (always orange, but different than the Standard Orange Zwift jersey), the Sprint (green, except for special sprint jerseys, and the Marina sprint in France which is Orange), King/Queen of the Mountain (KQOM – red polka dot, except for special KQOM jerseys), and Special (various other jerseys that are associated with Leaderboards). In some worlds, the Route, Sprint, and KQOM jerseys can combine to make more variations – this was covered in the first article.
What’s a Leaderboard? Those are a list of the names/times for the previous 60 minutes for specified Zwift segments that were completed by people still Zwifting. There’s one for Overall and one for Female (which you’ll only see if you’re registered as a female). The Leaderboard also cycles to your times for the past 90 days. It’s that list on the left side of the screen – there is a setting to make it always show, which is helpful for jersey hunting. Otherwise, it just appears when you are near the respective Leaderboard segment.
The little dots at the bottom of the Leaderboard represent the Leaderboards in the Zwift world. Look closely at the screenshot, and you can see a little white dot in the orange dot. That shows you’re viewing the Route Leaderboard. The green dot represents the Sprint and the red dot, the KQOM. If you click either of those, the respective Leaderboard will appear.
The Updates
With the various additions of Scotland, Makuri Islands, etc, there are now 95 different individual jerseys to win (this does not include combined jerseys). That’s up by about 25 from the previous article! The new jerseys came from the various updates to Makuri Islands, the “new” Leg Snapper KQOM to Innsbruck, and the Scotland addition.
The current tally is:
- Makuri = 23 (Countryside 9, Neokyo 7, Urukazi 6. No Specials.)
- Watopia = 16 (Specials for Epic KQOM, Jungle, Alp du Zwift, Fuego Flats, Volcano, and Titans Grove)
- France = 10 (Special KQOM for Ven-Top, the same design as Watopia’s Epic KQOM)
- Scotland = 9 (see Quirks)
- London = 8 (Special KQOM for Keith and Leith Hills)
- Innsbruck = 7
- Yorkshire = 6
- Richmond = 6
- NYC = 6
- Paris = 4 (no KQOM)
(There’s also a Sprint jersey in Crit City, but we’re focused on free rides, not races.)
In the previous article, I mentioned Richmond was among the “easiest” places to snare a jersey. But with the update that makes the reverse Worlds an official badge route, there’s more competition. (Also of note to this reverse route, it starts you out a little AFTER the start/finish, so it makes sense to do a U-turn back to the line and then another U-turn to get credit for the loop the first time around.)
An update I find very helpful is the HoloReplay – for two reasons. First, some start lines are not prominently shown, and as before, always start your effort at full speed. Having your grey ghost waiting at the start line makes it much easier to see. The second reason is to gauge your effort as you’re trying, to get another visual measure if you’re on pace to beat the best Leaderboard time.
The Fixes
With the Makuri Islands updates, various bugs have been fixed – the automatic turning for the Flatland Route (forward and reverse) works, the Orange jersey can be worn, and the jersey icons next to your name are correct.
The automatic turning for the reverse Innsbruck Route has also been corrected. Before it would turn you left towards the Leg Snapper instead of keeping you straight to the finish line when heading back to the city.
Combined jerseys are still not possible in France or Makuri, so that must be deliberate. Scotland will be covered under “Quirks” – a combined jersey is (kind of) possible.
Winning the top spot for the Broad Street and 23rd Street sprints in Richmond still does not earn a jersey, so that must be deliberate as well. And as mentioned in the previous article, the Volcano lap jersey changed to the Volcano climb jersey some time ago. There’s a Leaderboard for the lap (either direction), but no jersey to go with it.
Lastly, knocking yourself off the Leaderboard no longer happens. (For a few months, while wearing the Leaderboard jersey, if you rode a segment that was slower than the second place rider, your first place time would be discarded and you’d lose the jersey. Yuck.)
The Quirks
There are a few jerseys that you continue to wear no matter which direction you’re going. That’s not a quirk, since there is no corresponding Leaderboard segment that goes the other way. What is odd, is that if you do a U-turn, Zwift will still give you the little warning at the top that “Jerseys Are Tracked Directionally.” Examples are Maruki’s Rooftop KQOM and Railway Sprint, Watopia’s Alp du Zwift, and Innsbruck’s Leg Snapper KQOM.
Scotland has several oddities, which isn’t surprising since it’s relatively new. As described above, the Champion’s Sprint jersey can be worn in either direction. BUT… surprise! The reverse Champion’s Sprint jersey can also be won and worn (in both directions), despite not having a true Leaderboard.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get a screenshot of actually wearing it* (trust me) – but you can see I won it in the jersey icons next to my name and I got credit for it in the post-ride Activities summary. Besides the normal Champion’s Sprint jersey, it also shows a reverse KOM and the reverse Sprint (as indicated by the small black “U-turn” symbols in the jersey icons).
*I had already won a KQOM, so I wasn’t initially wearing the phantom reverse Champion’s Sprint jersey (see the next Scotland quirk), until I did a U-turn and it appeared (and I failed to take the screenshot). I then won the forward Champion’s Sprint, and it became moot – I would wear the green jersey in either direction due to the forward win.
I think, but haven’t confirmed, that the phantom reverse sprint starts at the forward Champion’s Sprint start, then after the forward finish does a U-turn, goes to The Clyde Kicker reverse KQOM finish, then another U-turn to get back to the forward Sprint finish again. Basically, an out-back segment that included both the forward Champion Sprint and the reverse Clyde Kicker.
By the way, I won it in a blistering 10 minutes and 38 seconds as I was poking along! Here’s the Activities summary that also confirmed the jersey, which is where I found out my time and tried to trace out the route:
Another quirk in Scotland is that a KQOM won’t combine with a Route jersey (KQOM > Route and Sprint). From my experience above with the phantom sprint, KQOM and Sprints don’t combine either. (Although I think I saw a combined Sprint/KOM in another Zwift Insider article.) As can be seen in the second screenshot, Sprint and Routes obviously do combine in Scotland.
Innsbruck’s Leg Snapper KQOM also won’t combine with the Sprint (and presumably) the Route jerseys. In fact, unlike Scotland where the KQOM seems to take precedence, the Sprint jersey will override the Leg Snapper (Sprint > KQOM).
It’s been hard to pin down the logic:
- In Scotland, Breakaway Brae replaced Loch Loop (KQOM > Route)
- In France, Ballon replaced Aqueduc (Sprint > KQOM)
- Also in France, Marina remained over Pavé (Sprint (orange) > Sprint (green))
It’s not always the latest Jersey won that is worn, and there also doesn’t seem to be consistency among the worlds for which jersey gets priority. More research to do.
A frustrating quirk whose cause(s) I haven’t been able to pin down is randomly not getting credit for certain sprints. This has happened to me more than once on Watopia’s Sprint, the Fuego Flats Sprint, Makuri’s Railway and Village Sprints, and a few others. I complete the sprint and it just doesn’t record anything. It’s never happened on a first try, just on a subsequent attempt. Frustrating.
Another oddity is when trying to extend the 60-minute time duration. I haven’t fully tested this out though. When I’m wearing a Leaderboard Jersey, I’ve tried to extend wearing it by re-riding the segment. If I beat my previous time, all works well. The clock gets reset. But if I don’t beat it, but am still faster than the second place rider, the new time isn’t counted. I time out of the jersey based on the previous time, despite having the (new) fastest time in the previous 60 minutes.
Summary
That’s the latest status of jersey hunting in general. I suspect there are things I’ve missed, so if you know of anything that may be of interest or benefit to others, please put them in the comments.
Meanwhile, I’ll be keeping myself motivated in part by continuing to try to win a jersey on each free ride I do, and winning all of the available jerseys (two to go as of this writing). Happy Zwifting!
Questions or Comments?
Post below!
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