Why must there be some distance before the start of a route? When I go to select a route, a distance and elevation are shown. There is zero indication that there is any added distance. There is no where in game that says what the blue line is. There is no indication that you will in fact need to ride an extra 5 or 10km on some routes. It doesn’t make sense to show a distance and elevation but when you finish the route, you’ve travelled further and higher than what was shown. If there is some distance before the route starts that should be shown. This is definitely a bug in the game. How hard is it to show a route distance plus the before distance? Or better yet, a total distance. If you are going to change the color of part of the route at least tell us what it is. Just give us all a total distance or actual distance. If you show one distance but we have to complete a different distance that’s a bug.
There also aren’t any indications in the game what the different Power Ups mean or what they do. Is this also a bug? And there is no indication that you will receive said Power Up at one of the arches. Also a bug? I guess what I’m saying is that it’s not a perfect system, but it works and you figure out some of the stuff along the way (like by asking questions in the forum). Some of the lead-ins are certainly annoying coughLutschercough, but most are reasonably benign. And a route in Zwift is (at least generally, excluding those that finish at the top of AdZ) a circuit that you can ride over and over again, should you choose to do so, without having to use the directional options (another one of those things that isn’t really explained in the game, but you figure it out), and because of the location of some of the spawning points the lead-in is inevitable. They could change this, I suppose, and that has certainly been asked for, but it’s still not a bug, it’s the way it is intended to work. I think Zwift give you the distance of the route, without the lead-in, because you can do the route multiple times, but the lead-in only happens once. So, if they included that elevation and distance people might complain the other way because their overall distance would end up shorter. (Zwift could, of course, add the distance and elevation of the lead-in in the same blue color displayed on the map, but for some reason that hasn’t happened, either.)
As a sort of example, I live near a ‘route’ called the Morgul Bismark (something well known ‘back in the day’). This route has a certain distance and elevation profile. However, I do not live on it, so I have a ‘lead-in’ to get to the route. And because this route does not ‘start’ where I join the route (yes, the Morgul Bismark has a very definite start/finish point), I have to actually ride along the route for a few miles before I get to the point where I can start the route. Then I have to ride back to that point to complete the route. And multiple laps only gives the additional distance and elevation of the route, no lead-in. (One benefit I’ll give Zwift here is that in Zwift I can just stop when I complete the route. IRL I sill have to ride home!!)
That’s a really long answer, I know, and doesn’t change your frustration with lead-ins, but it’s definitely not a bug. Something that could be done differently, perhaps, but not a bug. Just try to think of it as a ‘feature’ until it changes. 
This is akin to me telling you that there is a route by my house that is really cool. The thing is that I’ll drop you off at some random location and you need to get to the start but I’m not going to tell you how far you need to go before it starts. I’ll just let you know that you have to make 4 rights, a left, and keep going down that road until…etc. How do you plan for this bike ride? do you try to do it on your lunch ride? is a saturday long ride? Is it a good ride for intervals on the flats or is it really hilly? How much food and drink do you need to prep for such a ride? Just water?
You can see that even though the idea of riding a route is good, without me telling you how far you need to go before you even get there is just ludicrous. You’d probably tell me there is something wrong with me. Besides, in Zwift it doesn’t even tell you that you started the route. So I’m just pedaling along and at some point when i reach a banner somewhere I completed the route. No time given for this route either. So what’s even the point of having this route? The only thing its good for is a badge and that’s it.
If I can’t tell that I started, and no time is given when I finished, how do I know how far it should have been? It’s a bug.
Out of over 100 routes there are a handful that has longer than 10km lead-in’s.
99% of routes start and end at a Banner of some sort.
I think this could all be solved by having a “route started” pop up or having route timers for all routes, some do so why not all?
That almost makes it more confusing, why not have the same for all? If you’ve only done routes that have a short lead in or start at a banner you’d probably assume they all do so when you do one that doesn’t it isn’t unreasonable to not know what’s going on.
The solution is simple. A lead-in on all routes of no more than 200-300 meters, so you can get up to speed before the route starts. Everething else is just plain stupid.
I would think because there is a limited number of starting pens. So all routes start close to a starting pen.
This is the Top 9 longest lead-in’s. They are all on short routes.
Then we need less routes or more starting pens.
more starting pens should be easy enough to do shouldn’t it? I don’t see why you can’t have one at the start of each route?
110 starting pens 
The other frustrating part is how Zwift does not allow you to get credit for the route for just going on a free ride and completing the route. If the lead in portion is not part of the route, then why can’t I just complete the route if the point is so that I can do laps of this untimed route? Granted some routes are timed…but most aren’t.
From my example above, even if you ride my super cool route that’s near my house, it doesn’t count even if you start from your friends house that’s right next to the start of the route. It only counts if you start it from where I drop you off. Even if you complete the route during some other ride that includes it still doesn’t count.
Part of the issue is that all the routes were created for races and events, not for route badges (the badges didn’t show up until October and Decrmber 2019). Until the badges became a thing, no one cared or complained about lead ins, they were expected to be part of the race or event. Badges were an afterthought.
Exactly. Down with badges!
Then we need less routes or more starting pens.
I was thinking of free rides, not races.
I actually like them, I wouldn’t be compelled to tackle any of the long routes without a badge to collect 
Yeah. I’m slowly collecting them too. I have all the other cycling badges.
But all these complaints do make me think “this is why we can’t have nice things”
I get what you are saying, but it’s still not a bug. A bug is when something does not work as intended, not when it doesn’t work the way the user wants it to. Yes, there are improvements that could be made, and perhaps those will happen someday, but still not a bug.
As for your example, not really apples to apples. Zwift shows the lead in when you pick the route, so you do know how to get to the route from the ‘drop off point’. And while the distance may not be specific I think it can be reasonably determined from looking at the map. (Or you can always check Zwift Insider, which has details for all the routes.)
As for starting/finishing a route, with (I think) one exception they all start and end at a banner. It’s not perfect, but it does give the user a reasonable idea of when they have started and completed a route. And timing is a completely different issue. As far as I know the only routes with timers are those that offer a ‘fastest lap’ jersey. Beyond that I think there are no timers given because Zwift doesn’t make the assumption that the user is going to stay on that route for its entirety.
why not? I’d like to be able to select anywhere on the map to start a route in an ideal world
They can remove the badges after I have done the last 3. 
Haven’t seen any changes to the lead-ins yet, and getting worse. Tried to ride Serpentine 8 today as it fit my riding window. Advertised as 19.2km and nothing about a lead in. Hit 22km and figured I must have missed the finish as usual and bailed as I was out of time. Turns out there is a 7.3km lead in, about a 40% increase. Why can’t Zwift just say in the description that there is a lead in and what that distance is? Knowing the distance ahead of time means something to those on tight schedules, limited workout windows, and/or training plans. The Zwifter shouldn’t have to search the internet for details about their courses from non-Zwift websites. In addition to that, at some point I would like to see some kind of countdown that tells the rider how far they have left in the ride they chose. I always forget the exact distance of the route and never know when the finish banner is coming. Obviously if the rider changes the route during the ride it will require more computing power to recompute, but I would be fine having it available as long as the route is not changed. The distance to go could be in one color for the lead in and change color once on the actual course. I don’t see this as a huge addition since Zwift knows the course length and is already counting the km ridden. Put it between the map and the center stat banner. Heck, give the user the option to turn it off if they don’t want/need it.