New features and improvements come to Zwift before the 2023 esports worlds and Glasgow world championships
(Image credit: Zwift)
In the northern hemisphere, the winter is well and truly upon us now. Freezing weather and dark evenings can make outdoor cycling in winter an unpleasant prospect for even the hardiest riders. It's the time of year when a lot of us are spending a good portion of our time sweating it out in our pain caves on Zwift.
Watopia, the virtual world you can ride through whilst training on Zwift can make indoor cycling engaging and effective. Minor updates for Zwift are rolled out on a regular basis and Zwift also released its own smart trainer - the Zwift Hub - a couple of months ago.
For the festive period and into the new year, Zwift is rolling out some larger updates and improvements across the board, which are aimed at further improving the user experience and in line with some big events coming up in 2023. We have broken down and highlighted these new updates below.
A new riding world of Scotland is in development (Image credit: Zwift)
A brand new world and 'The Battle Royal'
Unless you have been locked in your pain cave since last winter, you will know that the 2023 Cycling World Championships are being held in Glasgow and around Scotland. To celebrate this, Zwift has created a brand new world to explore, influenced by the UCI world championship location, and inspired by the Scottish landscape and architecture.
However, the new world has also been designed to optimise racing on Zwift. The 2023 eSports World Championships are taking place in February and will use a brand new three-race format to find a winner. It will have brand new unique features including a loopable hill and a dedicated time trial course which will be used for the championships.
The esports worlds are coming to Glasgow too (Image credit: Zwift)
The new esports championship format, called The Zwift Battle Royale, will look to crown the best all-around Zwifter. Athletes will compete in three different races on specially designed courses. Both fields will begin with a field of 100 starters, and uniquely any Zwifter will have had the opportunity to qualify and represent their nation via the continental qualifier events held in November.
The first race will be on 'The Punch' which will pit racers against each other on a rolling circuit and see the top 30 advance to stage two. The second race will be on 'the climb' that will see repeated ascents of a challenging climb, again whittling down the 30 riders and seeing the top 10 advance to the third and final stage. The final stage will be 'The Podium' and will be an elimination race style format not dissimilar to what we see ridden on the track. This will take place on a challenging new crit circuit in virtual Glasgow. Once the field has been reduced down to the final three riders they will duke it out in a sprint to claim the esports world champions rainbow jersey. As we see already in Zwift racing, it will be essential to get the Zwift in-game power-ups and tactics right.
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Zwift users will be able to enter events in the new Scottish world from late January with recon rides and Zwift racing events prior to the championships. You will also be able to free-ride the world from the middle of March.
Personalised leaderboards for the Zwift companion app (Image credit: Zwift)
New events and rides to take part in
A host of other new rides and events have also been created or updated. The first of which is this year's Zwift Z Fondo series which will run from December 2, 2022 to April 2, 2023. This year's series will have three endurance options, the Bambino, Medio and Gran lengths of 50, 70 and 90 kilometres respectively. Fondo weekends will take place on the first weekend of each month.
For a lot of riders, Christmas time means the Rapha Festive 500, which challenges riders to complete 500km of riding between Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. Zwift will be working alongside Rapha to host some Festive 500 rides on Zwift. You can also register for the Festive 500 on Strava to track your overall miles. As well as unlock a unique in-game Festive 500 kit by completing rides on Zwift led by a Rapha ambassador or pace bot. Die-hards may turn their noses up at logging indoor miles, but we reckon it's all helping offset the cheese and port you may well have gorged yourself on during the Christmas period.
Users will also be able to start the Tour De Zwift in January, giving riders the opportunity to ride eight Zwift worlds over eight stages in a tour - and showcase - of the app and platform. Participants will also get the chance to earn an in-game kit, and new route badges as well as purchase a real-world kit by Pedal Mafia to match their Zwift avatar in real life.
(Image credit: Zwift)
Zwift Racing, the Tour of Watopia and Micro workouts
The Zwift Racing League is popular all over the globe. You can compete in Zwift's most popular worlds with friends, teams or solo. The third and final round of the league starts in January, top teams will be invited to the ZRL finals in early March.
Elsewhere, the five-stage Tour of Watopia will begin in March, providing a great way of quickly unlocking new gear, with double XP points on offer and an in-game Tour of Watopia 2023 kit. This could be a great motivator before the season kicks in properly.
Zwift has also added 10 new 30-minute workouts to further help the time-crunched cyclists get more bang for their buck. This doubles the number of workouts in this collection to further aid riders that want a structured session to fit into a busy day.
The popular 'Join a Zwifter' feature is also returning, due to demand following its recent removal. This feature lets you easily ride or run with people you follow on Zwift. You can find join a Zwifter on the home screen and even link up with pro athletes or famous faces. The new version, when it rolls out, will also enable you to find a Zwifter with a similar workout goal in mind.
(Image credit: Josh Croxton)
In-game improvements and tech updates
If the promise of all of those events has got you ready to ride you'll be pleased to know some functionality and user experience changes have been made too.
An update to the Zwift companion mobile app will allow users to see and analyse their times on specific Zwift segments. In the future, you will also be able to compare even more Zwift data using this feature.
HoloReplays have quickly become a popular feature, providing a visual representation of your fastest time over a segment within the last 90 days. You can now ride against your holo-replay on entire routes, not just specific segments.
A new 'For You' carousel will gradually roll out at the top of the home screen in December, making it easy for Zwifters to discover their preferred in-game workouts, group rides, riding buddies and more.
Finally, Discord, the popular platform for voice and text chat is used by millions of Zwifters to communicate during rides, is being integrated. Zwift has introduced a way for clubs to integrate a Discord link into their profile in the Zwift companion app to make it easier to find your own club's chat.
Tom joined the Cyclingnews team in late 2022 as a tech writer. Despite having a degree in English Literature he has spent his entire working life in the cycling industry in one form or another. He has over 10 years of experience as a qualified mechanic, with the last five years before joining Cyclingnews being spent running an independent workshop. This means he is just as happy tinkering away in the garage as he is out on the road bike, and he isn’t afraid to pull a bike apart or get hands-on with it when testing to really see what it’s made of.
He has ridden and raced bikes from an early age up to a national level on the road and track, and has ridden and competed in most disciplines. He has a keen eye for pro-team tech and enjoys spotting new or interesting components in the wild. During his time at Cyclingnews, Tom has already interviewed some of the sport's biggest names including Mathieu van der Poel, Tadej Pogačar and Alberto Contador. He's also covered various launches from brands such as Pinarello, Ridley, Specialized and more, tackled the Roubaix Challenge sportive aboard his own rim-brake Cannondale SuperSix Evo, tested over 20 aero helmets in the wind tunnel, and has created helpful in-depth buying advice relating to countless categories from torque wrenches to winter clothing.
