Hi guys, I’m currently level 7 in Zwift. I have my challenge set to the Everest challenge.
I started off free-riding but I’ve been liking workouts lately, and I’m trying to see if there is a way to maximize workouts by using them to ALSO accumulate elevation for the Everest challenge?
On another group someone wrote this in response to someone’s question:
“If you do training workouts using ERG just select the Alpe as the course. Efficient way of gaining elevation metres without having to blast yourself on the Alpe each workout”
Does that mean that I can, for example, pick the “Road to Sky” Watopia course for my workout and accumulate 3428 miles climbed in that workout? Or pick the “Jungle Route” and turn right at the start of the alp (can you even ‘turn’ when doing a workout, I don’t recall if it lets you pick your route options?)
The only thing I’m sure about is that it seems that there is 15-17 miles of riding required before even getting to the alp turnoff, so I don’t know how I’d do this with a Zwift workout.
Honestly I’ve only just started even being able to ride for over an hour (I think my longest ride is 1hr 15 min so far)
Any tips on using workouts to rack up more elevation meters?
Just pick any route that goes up a climb. All elevation gained in a workout will count towards your challenge. You don’t have to do the alpe you can ride up the epic KOM and then do some “bonus climb repeats”
Easy fast way to get to the epic KOM is pick the Jungle Circuit and make a u-turn then turn right up the climb.
Thanks Gerrie! Now for the embarrassing question! (I get lost in parking lots).
Would you mind elaborating on “Easy fast way to get to the epic KOM is pick the Jungle Circuit and make a u-turn then turn right up the climb.”
I see I’ll be starting at the north point, and then the route curves to the right to start the loop. Are you saying to make a U-Turn close to the 6-o’clock point so that I’d be going back and forth up and down that half of the loop?
I think Road to Sky is the same these days, since they moved the start location.
As far as I can tell, they both start in the same place just after the start pens. So you could pick either.
No, Gerrie means make a U-turn immediately. Jungle Circuit and Road to Sky default to take you to the jungle or up Alpe de Zwift, but if you U-turn as soon as you start you’ll go the other way towards the Epic KOM.
Worth noting that you also have the option of taking the new(ish) shortcut and going up the forward Epic KOM as well, but it’s further to go to start any climbing of course. (Still shorter than choosing Mountain Route if you want to go up that side though.)
Thanks Darren!. So I’d still start with the ‘Jungle Route’ and make a U-Turn right away, but then where do I turn off to take the side you mentioned? (does it have a name so I know when I see it as an option to fork to). Approx how many miles before the climb starts?
I’m still trying to get a grasp of the mapping. I also found this route, is it any good (The Pretzel)? It seems to climb pretty quick from the starting point if I’m understanding the map. I wouldn’t do the full route just up the mountain then go back down which to me looks like about 17-18 miles:
(it won’t let me post the link but it’s at this URL without the spaces and below is the map from that site: whats on zwift .com / world / watopia / route/the-pretzel
p.s. - what do the white round numbers on the map mean? (72, 1, 40, etc)
I’m not sure what the route/turning is called I’m sorry. But yes, you’d U-turn immediately, then go straight on/right at the first junction, and straight on/left at the second (I can’t recall what the actual options are).
That route has a good amount of climbing in, but it’s quite long as you can see. So it’ll take a while.
The white numbers are the kilometre markers. i.e. they start a 1km from the start, and go along the route. The last one is a 72 just before the end because the route is 72.5km long.
It looks like it’s around 4.5km before you start climbing.
If you just want a long climb, another option is to ride France and climb the Ven-Top route.
The only reason why I suggested the epic KOM is because you said you ride about an hour. That will most probably take you to the top of the “bonus climb” (we all now it is the radio tower) and if you have time to spare you can do a few repeats of the “bonus climb”
yep perfect that’s exactly what I need, esp since I mostly want to do this while doing a structured workout. I didn’t know that was the same as the radio tower, thanks!
I think starting from the jungle loop, immediately doing a U-turn then taking the cliff side shortcut and going up the normal Epic KOM would be the easiest route for lots of elevation. None of it gets super steep. U turn at the top and roll back down then start again.
