Zwift’s New York City Expansion Now Available: First Ride Details!

Earlier this fall Zwift announced a bunch of new features that’ll roll out over the course of the fall and winter (well, Northern Hemisphere winter). Since then, we’ve seen a number of small tweaks and new features, and that’ll continue as well. However, the big-ticket item for many is ‘new pavement’, and today that new pavement arrives in the form of some 31km of new roads, which Zwift is saying is the largest new pavement day in 5 years.

Notably, this new pavement includes both cycling and running routes, all of which are set within the existing New York City map.

I’ve done a couple of rides now on it, and figured I’d share a few thoughts/screenshots.

Power Segments:

However, before we get to the thoughts and routes, a quick note that there is also a new segment type – which is ‘Power Segments’. Previously, we’ve had sprint segments where you race for a given section/distance, against both yourself and others. Now, there are Power Segments where you’ll see a target duration (e.g., 5-sec, 10-sec, and 20-sec peak power), and then you just go bananas to hold the highest wattage possible during that timeframe. It’s kinda as simple as that.

Here’s what it looks like when you approach one, showing that it’s a 10-second attempt:

And here’s what it looks like during one, showing my current average, as well as my current PR. Note that these are all combined together, so it doesn’t matter where on the course you see a 5-second, 10-second, or 20-second one. You compete against all 5-second attempts, or all 10-second attempts, etc…

And here’s what it looks like upon completing one. In this case, I’d done too many of these sprints this go-around and was settled into giving up.

You’re racing against your 90-day and 365-day bests, as well as other people’s bests. There is also a new jersey that you see there as well for top wattages. There are six of these segments spread around the New York map now.

The New Routes & Pavement:

Next up, here’s the listing of all the new routes available. Here are the details on kilometers per route, plus the elevation gain. As always, keep in mind that many (most?) of these routes are basically just overlapping and reverse variants of each other, and/or include other bits of existing pavement. In the case of the below, I’ve linked it to ZwiftInsider, which has more details about each route.

Cycling Routes:

Avon Flyer (5.1km, 30m)

Double Parked (42.2km, 330m)

Double Span Spin (12.6km, 120m)

Fuhgeddaboudit (79km, 838m)

Green to Screen (28.4km, 207m)

Issendorf Express (7.3km, 53m)

Prospect Park Loop (5.5km, 37m)

Spinfinity (19.3km, 155m)

Spinfinity Ultra (35km, 291m)

Stay Puft Pursuit (31.2km, 416m)

The Double Borough (17.9km, 147m)

The Greenway (36.8km, 292m)

Toefield Tornado (10.3km, 53m)

Watts the Limit (31km, 219m)

Here’s a look at all the routes, in terms of the map overview, and the details:

And then, in a nod to treadmill runners, they’ve added these three new running routes:

Running Routes:

Avon Flyer Run: 3.3km; 24m
Prospect Park Loop Run: 5.5km; 37m
Toefield Tornado Run: 10.3km; 53m

Got all that? Good, let’s go ride.

First Ride Thoughts:

In my case, the first route I did was the Watts the Limit route. This route essentially starts in Central Park, and then immediately leaves Central Park to go via Times Square towards Prospect Park. Albeit, it does this by traversing the majority of Manhattan, including the Manhattan Bridge (there’s also a route that includes the Brooklyn Bridge, such as the Double Borough).

However, as you approach Times Square, you actually dip below it. I guess I kinda hoped you’d ride through the middle of it at street level. But nope, below we go:

In fact, the vast majority of the route across Manhattan is either below ground in F-Zero style subway tunnels, or above it on an elevated roadway. The subway stations are interesting, and remind me of aspects of the London map.

And we’ve seen elevated roadways in New York previously of course. But I do feel like between these two aspects, we don’t actually get as much super-unique terrain as you might think. Or at least, it feels pretty repetitive.

In the case of the Watts the Limit route that I did initially, you’re essentially traversing all of Manhattan to touch the gates of Prospect Park, only to go all the way back again (you don’t enter the Prospect Park loop). Something like the ‘Double Parked’ loop would accomplish that, and also include a full loop around Central Park, too.

So for my next route, I did ‘Green to Screen’, which is roughly the reverse of the previous route, except that you start in Prospect Park and do a loop of it, before doing an above-ground loop of Times Square. Also, this time you hit both the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge.

Starting off in Prospect Park, it pretty much feels like Central Park, but with a different name:

From there, it’s across the Manhattan Bridge, before dropping back down to street level and below for the traverse across Manhattan.

This is a good time to point out the F-Zero style escalators. These zip you right up to the top of each climb, no matter how much (or little) you pedal. For fun, I did a few attempts where I slowed down to as slow as I could get it – about 3KPH, and then boom, as soon as my wheel hit, I was up at about 23-25KPH for the 20% climb, zero pedaling:

After that, you’re up above Times Square, doing a bunch of loops of sorts. I’ll say this is the only kinda disappointing bit about this map addition. Despite going through Times Square twice (once below, and once above), you are never actually at street level. And more than that, it just doesn’t seem all that exciting (especially compared to the real thing).

In any event, after that, I did the Manhattan traverse before hitting the Brooklyn Bridge. I noted that just like New York City, Zwift too, gave up here, and simply let it be the ugly that it is in real life.

After that, you zip back down a few kilometers before dropping into Prospect Park to repeat it all again.

Wrap-Up:

The routes will be available later today for Stage 4 of Zwift Unlocked, and then also available once the New York City map is next available on the schedule.

Overall, I like the new routes, and in general, I think it makes the New York map feel quite a bit bigger than it really is – which is nice. I do really wish Times Square had more…well…something…to it, as its trademark thing is a massive overwhelming amount of energy, and this really lacked that.

But the touches put into the underground stations (including differing styles), as well as the Manhattan Bridge, are well done as always. And I’m keen to see how people leverage the F-Zero escalators in Zwift Racing.

With that – thanks for reading!

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