I went back to reproduce my first claim, and am unable to do so on either Windows or iPhone. I do recall I was able to complete that ride with that selection for the Watopia Flat Route automatically populating on the Ride screen after I selected it on the Badge screen. Though I don’t recall having to exit the existing ride completely, that does make sense today and I was unable to reproduce it today. Perhaps it was a fluke of populating that route after jumping out and back into the main Ride screen. Sorry for the confusion!
I’ve had this thought a few times now.
Forgot there were forums so emailed the devs, they seemed very positive in their reply but agree, wouldn’t it be great if, when you are riding a route, you are reminded how far you have left to go?
Quite often, I am riding a route and forget the distance that I am meant to achieve so I either get off early or get off late.
Would be a great addition to know how many KM are left…
and possibly also give you the option of riding somewhere else after you have completed your circuit…
Agree that the “route” feature is very much a work in progress, to put it charitably (which is important since real human beings at Zwift read this and they don’t need to get crapped on).
The route feature is especially important now that the badges (with those sweet, sweet XP attached) are available. As someone said above, you choose a route with the idea that that’s what you’re going to do in your session, which is great…but after that all the information Zwift gives you is about everything BUT the route you’re doing. Turn here! KOM segment! Sprint Segment! It sometimes even displays the name of another route. (ie: you might pick “Greater London 8”, and then it starts telling you about your PB for “the London Loop”… you wonder: wait a minute, am I doing the wrong route?)
The solution is dead simple: if I am currently doing a route (ie: if I am currently doing a route that I would get the badge for if I haven’t done it yet), then simply display the name of that route and my current progress under the main HUD element with my speed and distance: "Current Route: Greater London 8: 17.3/24.2km). This should probably replace the XP/level progress bar, because to be honest that’s not very important information during the ride. The program must know that I’m doing that route because they give me the badge for it when I’m done! If i’m not currently “doing a route”, if I’m just free riding, then that little window could say “Current Route: Free Ride” with no progress indicator (other than the overall distance tracker in the main HUD). You should still have the option to turn while you’re on a route, but then, after warning you “you’ve left your route, Uturn to return to the route” the display would change from your route to Free Ride.
This is all making me realize how baffled I would be by Zwift if I hadn’t discovered the Zwift Insider website. Zwift should be paying that guy, because the service he is performing is invaluable and without it I’d be seriously questioning the wisdom of my monthly subscription to Zwift (and the thousand dollar trainer I bought to use it!)
It baffles me why I can’t log in to my Zwift account, ie www.zwift.com and see all the routes I have done and the badges I have earn’t. Using an Apple TV remote to try to look for anything through the game is painful. The zwift website should be the place for all this stuff rather than just showing the last rides I completed etc.
Completely agree that zwiftinsider, zwiftpower and zwifthub are all doing stuff that Zwift should at least partly cover. However saying that maybe it would be better to outsource this routes completion to one of those sites. eg I can upload to zwiftpower, maybe I should be able to upload my ride details to Zwifthub, it would do a way better job of this than Zwift.
But Zwift should still do the basics, show me the route details as like everyone else I always forget the distance and have no idea if I have finished a route.
The Surrey Hills route is another confusing example: the route includes Fox Hill, and you start by climbing Fox Hill. But the route apparently starts at the top of Fox Hill, so the first climb is part of the “lead-in”, then you need to reclimb it to finish the route.
My first attempt I deviated from the route at what I thought was the finish, the base of Fox (since Zwift will often continue navigating repeat loops after a loop is completed), and didn’t receive credit. If I’d had a distance remaining indication, I wouldn’t have made that error: I’d have known when the route started, and when it finished.
It’s evident the “routes” in Zwift are sort of an ad hoc list of default turns, and aren’t really implemented as a primary feature.
I’m less worried about getting credit for routes: I ride what I want to ride, and leave the credit to events and races. But given the route achievement feature, I find that quite confusing.
If you just google the route you’re looking to do you’ll find the forum showing the lead in and the exact route. Some are confusing for sure. Surrey Hills was the most frustrating, but to have a tracker would mean that you can turn or deviate from said route, which we know people will want. With how many courses there are to have a tracker for each would be difficult. Plus not every world is available every day.
After learning the hard war on Achterbahn I just goof ahead of time to know total elevation and distance.
We are unlikely to get this at the moment but I agree having an indication of distance remaining would be useful. I am 2 weeks into Zwift, still trying to learn the interface fully and I agree this would be good to have.
I would also like a better way of seeing what elevation is coming up. The little grey rolling hills indicator at the bottom of the map is not always clear.
Not much of an issue for me as my smart trainer is not controllable by zwift so I just keep pedalling and trying to maintain power but when my new one arrives it would be good to have this.
I agree with everything everyone has said here. I have been Zwifting for about 3 months now and have learned a lot. But I am still completely baffled by “routes.” Like others, IRL I like to select a route to ride, monitor metrics while riding to see how I’m progressing in finishing the route, and look forward to the sense of accomplishment when I’m done. Why can’t I experienced that on Zwift!? BTW, the YouTube personality, Lama, just recently posted a video on a web app called ZwiftHub. It’s worth a watch as ZwiftHub provides a lot of route metrics not available in the Zwift or Companion apps. Here is a link to his video.
I could not agree more and would take the liberty of not even calling this a “feature request”, but more of a flaw in basic functionality. It is really frustrating that you only have the useful dashboard above telling distance elapsed and left when you do events. You need exactly same functionality when you train on a route. Some routes have painful long warm-up’s and you simply lose track of how far you are and thus lose ability to manage your power appropriately.
I am a new user. I select a route based on distance. I implicitly expected Zwift would announce when I completed the route. Of course that turns out to be not so. Then I thought, maybe that is what the horizontal orange progress bar is on the main screen; but I quickly realized there is no correlation between the orange bar progression and the % complete on any given ride. [I since learned the orange is the progress to the next Level; so far, I am a don’t care on what Level I am at, perhaps that is indicative of my age and I am really not motivated by “game” Level.] So, YES, please add a % / distance complete / distance remaining “Complete a Route Feature” to the main display.
Keep in mind that many routes have a lead-in before the actual route starts. This is akin to the distance you would need to ride from your house to a local training circuit, on which you would then complete a number of laps. Some lead-ins are very short, and some are absurdly long. If you check out the route details on Zwift Insider you should be able to find this information for all of the Zwift routes. Also, when selecting a route from the Zwift menu, the lead-in is shown in blue, while the route itself is shown in white. (Also, I’m not saying that Zwift couldn’t improve on how this is handled in-game, just pointing out how it works in hopes of helping you avoid future frustrations.)
I would like to start by saying that Zwifting has truly changed my life for the better. I would, however, like to add my voice to the chorus requesting an overhaul of how routes are managed in Zwift. Here’s a roll-up of how it seems like Routes should work:
When selecting a route to ride on the opening screen, at a minimum the list menu should indicate if routes have been achieved or not. It is seriously frustrating to have to track routes achieved separately or to have to pick a route, start a ride, go to the menu, see if you’ve done it already, and possibly then have to end the ride and re-start on another route. Bonus would be to see profile, sprint/KOM details, such as what Zwift Insider has compiled.
As many others have suggested, route progress in-game seems like a no-brainer - including lead in details and progress, route started notification, route progress in km (at a minimum), and notifications if junction selections would take you off your route. Not knowing if I’m still on a route or how much further I have to go (and therefore not being able to manage time/power) has been one of the most frustrating aspects of my short experience with an otherwise amazing software experience.
We know the functionality is possible as the in-game progress details are available for events and segments. It almost seems like Zwift WANTS to keep route progress a mystery? So odd… Thanks for considering!
Thanks Gerrie - I realize that if you don’t make turns then you’re still on a route, but I’ve had a couple of experiences where I’ve selected a route and it has not activated for some reason, and it took me many kilometers to realize this after I’d gone in circles. I still think it would be helpful to have HUD that tells you what route you’re on and what your progress is.
