Tour of Watopia is coming back! Zwift’s iconic event starts October 15th and registration opens September 30th.
Zwift states:
“This year marks the 10-year anniversary of Zwift, and Tour of Watopia 2024 is primed and ready to celebrate a decade of cycling and running fun. The 2024 ToW will take riders on a trip back in time, starting with some of the first routes in Watopia. From there, it’s all about cruising through fan-favorite routes all the way to Zwift’s roots, where a special surprise awaits. And to top it off, Zwifters will earn Double XP and epic unlocks all along the way!”
The stages
There will be five stages in total. The first four stages will be hosted on some of the most popular routes, with the fifth being a new one that will appear before our very eyes, rising slowly from the ocean, and will be available on November 12th.
There will be three different routes to select; short, standard and long.
Stage 1 – 15th October – 21st October
Stage 1 features some of the oldest routes in Watopia. All three courses start in downtown Watopia. Figure 8 route includes the Hilly KOM (0.9km at 5.5%) and Hilly KOM Reverse (2.4km at 2%). Interestingly, these are the oldest climbs of Zwift, dating back to April 2015.
The oldest sprint in Watopia can be found on the Figure 8 and Mountain Route which is the JWB sprint and is named after Julynn Washington, who was a prominent user of the platform in the early days.
The Mountain Route includes the Epic KOM which, at 9.5km, was the longest climb on Zwift when it was first introduced in March 2016.
The three options include:
Short – Whole Lotta Lava (12.3km)
Standard – Figure 8 (29.7km)
Long – Mountain Route (29.6km)
For running, the standard (5km) and long (10km) run options both feature sections of Whole Lotta Lava.
Stage 2 – 22nd October – 28th October
Stage 2 enters the Mayan Jungle. The Jungle Circuit and Serpentine 8 routes first appeared in October 2017, whilst Alpe du Zwift was launched in 2018 and is modelled on the real-world Alpe d’Huez.
The three options include:
Short – Jungle Circuit (7.9km)
Standard – Serpentine 8 (19.4km)
Long – Road to Sky (17.3km)
For running, the standard (5km) and long (10km) run options both feature sections of Road to Sky.
Stage 3 – 29th October – 4th November
Fuego Flats Desert features in Stage 3. The Fuego Flats Desert was released in 2019 and currently Tempus Fugit is Zwift’s most popular route.
The three options include:
Short – Tempus Fugit (17.3km)
Standard – Sand and Sequoias (20.1km)
Long – Eastern Eight (51.7km)
For running the standard (5km) and long (10km) run options both feature sections of Sand and Sequoias.
Stage 4 – 5th November – 11th November
Stage 4 celebrates their most recent addition, the Coast Road expansion, which introduced in October 2023, as well as Zwift’s latest edition, The Grade, release only a few months ago.
Short – Going Coastal (16.5km)
Standard – Mayan 8 (23.1km)
Long – Itza Party (45.7km)
The standard (5km) and long (10km) run options both feature sections of Mayan 8.
Stage 5 – 12th November – 18th November
All will be revealed on Tuesday 12th November when stage five explores this new, exciting and historic land.
Rewards
There will be the customary unlockable cycling and running jerseys and for those that participate in one of the scheduled events, double XP (experience points) will be rewarded to help you level-up enabling you to unlock more features and reach that coveted level 100.
You will also be able to select these events to ride at a time that suits you, and you will be rewarded with 1.5XP for your efforts.
Summing up
Lots of nice routes to tackle and XP to gain and in rapid succession, these events are always well attended so don’t expect to be riding alone. I think it will be exciting to see what is in store for the expansion in November.
