RoboPacers and (missing) Route badges

Bugs and Support
1

I’ve already posted this in the General Discussion forum and dont want to make it a duplicate

But it is clearly a (recent ???) bug. When I joined zwift in April 2025, this is the way I got all my initial badges: following RoboPacers. Now, it no longer works.

There is a zwift insider article (I cannot add a link) which does not really solve anything. I have checked and I was already on the latest version (like I am most of the times).

And there is a Route Badges on the support page (can’t link sorry) which is interesting, but not what happens in reality.

So, this is a request to zwift to either

  1. fix the doc (saying that it is no longer possible)

or

  1. make it work without raising a support ticket (which inevitably awards it).

Regards

Andrea

2

Once upon a time, you could get route badges by joining a robo pacer any time and passing the route finish banner.

These days, to get the badge with a robo pacer, you have to ride the complete lap from route banner start to route banner finish. Potentially you might have do do almost two complete laps to get the badge, if you joined a fraction of a second after the route start banner.

3
  1. Joined the RoboPacer from home screen
  2. Not teleported anywhere else
  3. Not taken any turn
  4. Joined well before the lead in (even if the doc on the support pages does not list it as a requirement)
  5. Completed the partial lap plus a full one plus a few more KMs
4

Contact Zwift support and they will give you the badge. The badge assignment when following RPs seems to be buggy, and sometimes the badge doesn’t get awarded when it should (i.e. when you’ve followed the whole route correctly between start banner and finish banner.

5

The support docs do list the lead-in as a requirement, and once the pacer completes the lead-in (once a week when they begin riding on a new route) they usually won’t do it again.

I don’t actually know if that information is true but it is in the docs. I have no way to test it without using a new account. The same information is mentioned on one of the blue loading screens when the app starts up.

6

Not sure if this is a good example, but a few months ago I did Petite Douleur.

As a freeride, you start by the Petit KOM banner, which is what I did solo and got the badge when I did a lap that passed the KOM banner the first time.

But as a race, you start in the pens at the bottom of what I think of as Petit KOM reverse, with a ~11Km lead-in through Intestines and up Petit KOM, so to do a race lap you have to climb the KOM twice.

I’ve no idea if robo pacers do Petite Douleur loops, they ought to, it’s like an extended Grand Central with a bit of everything (uphill, downhill, flat, rolling).

7

I don’t think the pacer begins from the starting pens. They are doing a free ride.