BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
Zwift has released its New York training platform.
It delivers a futuristic vision of the city and signifies the company’s move to ‘gamify’ the cycling training experience.
Zwift’s co-founder and CEO Eric Min said: “Whether you’re a World Tour Pro rider or a newbie cyclist, our New York world is going to blow you away.
“We set out to gamify your training experience because if you enjoy your training, you train harder. It’s that simple.
“The escapism of our New York world will transport Zwifters back to their video gaming days as they ride our futuristic take on New York, around Central Park and on the suspended glass roads above Manhattan.”
Zwift co-founder and chief programmer Jon Mayfield said: “It’s no secret that Eric and two of Zwift’s management team (Mike McCarthy and Charlie Issendorf) grew up racing in Central Park, during the 80s.
“Manhattan was a grim place back then, so we had to give it a makeover!
“Since the early days of Zwift our community has taken great pleasure from our gamified fitness environment.
“Our creative approach to building New York has been inspired by some of the video games we were playing back in the 90’s.
“It’s helped us deliver a more challenging, and significantly, a more entertaining environment that I know Zwifters will love.”
In total, the New York platform features ten new cycling routes.
The Rising Empire, 20.7km, is a climber’s course that enables the rider to hit the KOM in both directions and the Park Perimeter Loop, 9.7km, is the outermost loop of the park.
The Highline, 10.5km, enables players to ride elevated roads in the skies above Central Park and the Lady Liberty, 12.3km, is a steep climb up to the KOM before a long lap around the park.
The Mighty Metropolitan, 20km, enables riders to traverse most of the park and elevated roads in a meandering loop and the Astoria Line 8, 11.5km, takes a figure of eight around the park.
The Knickerbocker, 22.4km, is a mostly flat route which has some grit in it with one trip up the KOM via the steep route and the Grand Central Circuit, 6.8km, is a circuit course that takes the steep route up and down the KOM with a short loop around the sprint in between.
The Everything Bagel, 34.3km, enables riders to hit the sprint and KOM in both directions on a long, looping route and the 6 Train, 6.5km, is the shortest route around the park.
