It’s only the start of day 3 at Zwift’s first ever Community Live event in Mallorca, Spain, and it has been a unique experience where guests have been treated to a series of special presentations that showcase their new product features, some of which have already launched.
The event itself is worthy of an article, where you can find yourself chatting with past and present cycling stars like former professional rider Leah Thorvilson, who won the Zwift Academy in 2016, to newly turned professional rider and 2025 Zwift Academy winner, 18-year-old Australian Emily Dixon. Oh, and I haven’t even had chance to speak to three-time Olympic gold medalist, Kirstin Armstrong, who I sat one table over from at breakfast.
The purpose of this article is to highlight some of the upcoming new items that are being released and first up is new roads!
New roads
It’s what Zwifters can’t get enough of: new roads. There is no expansion to Watopia this time, but instead, to France! As Zwift noted:
“New roads and routes are dropping in France in homage to the Paris-Roubaix and Paris-Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift. Also known as the “Hell of the North,” expect the infamous cobbles, storied sprint segments, and epic fun around every corner. New crowds will cheer you on along the road, just like the real deal, so you’ll hear just what the pros hear with every arch you cross. Take on the new “Hell of a Route Chaser” challenge to check off five of the new routes, and if you’re up for the task, join the Paris-Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift Experience rides from April 11-13 and conquer the cobblestone chaos in the new 50 km and 70 km routes.”
Here at the Community Live event, Zwift have several Ride stations setup to test this exclusive content before it gets released, and I was able to witness Emily tackle the new routes, which includes a long cobble section which is roughly 2km in distance, which Zwift’s VP of Product Mark Cote joked “You might want to turn off the road feel on your Tacx!”
Flair Streak
Last year, Zwift introduced the Ride Streak, a way to inspire you to keep returning to the platform week after week. However, apart from accumulating extra XP, it was limited. Recognising this, Zwift have introduced “Streak Flair.”
Basically, you will now be rewarded for riding consistently on the platform with an update to your avatar’s jersey pocket and will now display a special piece of flair that becomes more elaborate as your streak grows.
How Streak Flair Works
As Zwift explains, “Your avatar will proudly display your progress with some pocket flair. But if you miss a week? Your Scotty flair will shyly retreat back into your back pocket, waiting for you to build your streak back up.”
As you can expect, there are different levels. Your flair levels up as you ride consistently:
Level 1 – A Pocket Medal appears to mark your growing commitment to fitness as you hit your fourth week streak. You’ll keep this flair until you reach 12 weeks.
Level 2 – A Keychain Scotty peeks out, showing off your dedication when you reach 12 weeks. Keep riding each week with your keychain friend until you reach 24 weeks.
Level 3 – Animated Scotty! Now your pocket companion moves with a fun animation when you achieve a massive 24 week streak! This friendly Scotty will ride along with you as long as you hold onto your streak from here on out.
At launch, your Streak Flair will default to OFF and you can select FUN to show your flair in the setting screen:
Fun – Show Scotty-based unlocks (Pocket Medal, Keychain Scotty, Animated Scotty)
None – No flair at all (this is the default setting)
Simply head into your settings to adjust your flair preference anytime
Outside rides count
Zwift have connected with Garmin and Wahoo and now when you ride outside using one of their devices, such as a Garmin Edge 1030, for example, when you upload those rides to Garmin Connect or Wahoo’s equivalent, the data will be pulled into your Zwift Companion app, and you will get 5 XP per km ridden outside, up to a maximum of 200km per ride. To activate this, you will need to disconnect your Zwift account from Garmin or Wahoo and reconnect it, and your data will be pulled through, and your outside rides will appear in your Companion app. This is because Zwift are updating their Companion app.
Companion app
The Companion app is getting a makeover. It will now display more data than ever before, so you can at a glance see your fitness progress. It will include your Training Score, graphs to show your training time and in what zone, as well as keeping track of your streak.
Zwift explain that “Zwifters will also see a new Training Status indicator within the Zwift Companion app. Training Status reflects current training load by comparing long-term fitness (42 days) and short-term fatigue (7 days). Higher training loads build fitness, but it’s vital to balance this with recovery.”
Zwift Companion will indicate five levels of training status:
Ready – Ready to start or return to Training
Fresh – Active and ready for a challenge
Productive – Consistently training and recovering well
Overreaching – Training heavily but in need of more recovery. Rest weeks are essential for recovery and peak performance.
Detraining – loss of fitness due to reduced training.
Other updates
- Zwift’s France map has some exciting new updates! With this release, the Ven-Top route now includes a HUD display mirroring the Grade’s climb experience with 10 equidistant sections highlighted on screen. Additionally, when you summit this epic climb, you’ll now receive the Alpe du Zwift spinner.
- Standardized the look and feel of scrollbars throughout the game.
- Fixed an issue that could cause an incorrect value to be shown in the Weekly Goal Met in-game banner.
- Fixed an issue that could cause a Zwifter’s kit to revert to the default Zwift kit after leaving a group ride or event.
- Enabled more detailed 3D lighting on newer Apple devices and Windows machines with dedicated GPUs.
- Improved an issue that could cause intermittent shadows to flicker on Zwifter avatars in some conditions.
- Android: Improved readability and usability of form input fields (login, profile settings, custom workout editor on tablets, etc.).
Summing up
The Zwift Community Live event in Mallocra has unveiled exciting new features, including fresh routes in France and the innovative Streak Flair system, enhancing the overall experience for cyclists. With these updates, Zwift continues to foster community engagement and motivate users to stay active on the platform.
