
“I like to use it for high-intensity recovery training so your body’s used to it and prepared,” Gaffney says. The Richmond map is home to two segmented climbs – Libby Hill and 23rd Street – that can be attempted back-to-back to help practise the repetitive surges of a race.

RichmondĪs the third course released on Zwift, Richmond was created for the 2015 UCI Road Cycling World Championships and was refreshed with updated graphics in 2020.Īlthough there aren’t as many routes as you’ll find in some of the bigger game worlds, it can still be used for both high- and low-intensity sessions. “It’s just great for sprinter drills because you can go really hard down the Champs and then recover up the back end and then do it over and over again,” says Gaffney. It’s an ideal option for unleashing your inner Mark Cavendish and improving your sprinting.

The only choice when it comes to routes is the direction you take around the 6.6km circuit, but the world is more than a simple sightseeing spin. Why not unleash your inner Cavendish on the Champs-Élysées? ZwiftĪnother world added to Zwift for the 2020 Virtual Tour de France, the recreation of the French capital’s most famous cobbled street, the Champs-Élysées, is also the smallest map on Zwift. “You can also use the steady gradients to work on low-cadence and high-torque work.” Makuri Islands “Going up Alpe du Zwift, you can work on your ability to sustain function threshold power (FTP) and your time to exhaustion,” explains Gaffney.

It’s not just a way to attempt one of cycling’s most iconic climbs – Alpe du Zwift, as the ascent is known, can also be used for longer efforts or even improving sprint strength. Zwift’s turn-by-turn modelling of the Alpe d’Huez climb (and its 1,045m elevation) can be attempted on this 17.3km route. “There’s not a lot of undulation, so you can hit a certain wattage and just stick with it for as long as you need to,” Gaffney adds. Key routes Tempus Fugit/Tick Tockīoth of these pan-flat courses take in the desert zone of Fuego Flats, and the minimal elevation allows you to focus on sustained, sweetspot efforts. “Watopia is the most diverse world, where you can do anything you need to do from a training perspective, as long as you know what you’re looking for in those courses,” says Gaffney. As the biggest map on the platform, it is home to numerous zones that riders can easily lose themselves in. Watopia is a hub world that is always available to ride whenever you fire up Zwift.
#Tick tock zwift route how to
Here, Gaffney talks us through each of Zwift’s 11 worlds, how you can plan a workout to best utilise the terrain on offer, and how to maximise every session to ensure that there are no wasted pedal strokes.
#Tick tock zwift route full
(We’ve got a full guide to the best Zwift workouts and training plans, as well as an explainer on cycling training zones).īut if you’re keen to break from the mould or want the flexibility to create a drill on the fly, just as you might on the road, it’s worth targeting set routes and courses depending on what your aims are for a session. You can, of course, opt into a training plan and Gaffney is Zwift’s training content manager, as well as the creator of its most popular training plan, ‘Build Me Up’. “Zwift offers whatever you want to get out of it, whether that’s long rides, paced rides, socialising, races – you can kind of scratch whatever itch you have,” explains Shayne Gaffney, a USA Cycling level one certified coach (the highest level) who has used the platform for numerous years for his own training and that of his clients.

Throw in a friendly and engaged community of riders who are on hand to give you encouragement during a group session or put your fitness to the test in a race, and Zwift provides a genuine alternative or accompaniment to winter riding.Īt its heart, though, Zwift is about providing an indoor cycling experience that – in terms of accuracy and convenience – can be as good as (if not better than) hitting the road, helping you iron out weaknesses or prepare for an event without leaving your home. In its place are re-creations of real-world spots (such as the Champs-Élysées, Alpe d’Huez and even Surrey’s Box Hill) that mimic everything from their gradients to their road furniture, while there a whole host of dreamt-up courses and routes ripe for exploring.
