TdZ Jungle Loop Lead-in surface

Tried finding the answer on a couple external sites that do course descriptions, but couldn’t determine – is the 3.5 mile lead-in to the Jungle Loop that’s one of the TdZ routes a dirt route as well, or is only the last ~5 miles that constitute the official circuit a dirt course?

Hi John, are you looking at stage 4?

There is a small amount of pavement from the start pens to where the dirt begins, mostly all downhill. I suggest using a MTB for the long, Cat A, and short, Cat C.

The chain chomper route, Cat B, will have more pavement. I think most of it is paved until you get to the main climb up to the tree that is all dirt. A gravel bike might be better for this route, or do a bike swap when you get to the bottom of the climb and get out the MTB.

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Yup. Stage 4, Cat C. Since the first 40% of the event distance is just the lead-in, I wanted to know if that that section is also dirt. Much of what I could find talks about the Circuit being dirt, but nothing talks about the lead-in itself. eg. https://zwiftinsider.com/route/jungle-circuit/

Thanks for confirming the lead-in is also mostly dirt. Indeed was trying to figure out what made more sense if the lead-in was paved: Gravel bike the whole route, or Road bike swapping to a MTB after the lead-in.

I think the paved part is less than a mile, so I always stick with the MTB on events that start in the Jungle Pens.

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Only about a mile of the lead-in to the jungle is asphalt - it changes to gravel just before you join the jungle circuit.

You then have about half a lap of the jungle circuit to get to the start line, at which point the lead-in ends and the full lap of the circuit begins. There are a couple of points around the jungle circuit where it temporarily switches to boards or pavement through caves or over bridges, but it’s easiest to think of it as being all-gravel.

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