Comments on: “Four Horsemen” Route Details (Watopia)

By: Jan A. Van Mieghem

Jan A. Van Mieghem — Sun, 14 May 2023 18:34:05 +0000

Thanks for all the posts, which are very informative. I joined the WeDu Sunday C ride. The group does start out fast — no warm up, so if I were to do it again and wanted to stay with the C beacon I’d warm up for at least 10min before the start. Today I started cold turkey, and after a hard Saturday ride, so I rode zone 2 and was dropped on the volcano climb. Then we did form a little mini-group on the Watopia KOM climb, which was nice. The radio tower is a b*h, but we know that. And then a shorter descent and onto the jungle with Alpe du Zwift. I made it up just 1min before the 2:50 aim (to collect the WeDu jersey). Then start the descent and let your avatar go so you have 10-15’ break to get coffee, refuel, bathroom etc. Surely nice break! When I got back on the bike, I changed to gravel bike and just rode steady out of the jungle. Back on tarmac change back to road bike and finish to get the badge :). 3:38 in total. With all the posts here, expectations are set and I liked the challenge so would do it again! Good luck!

By: Marc

Marc — Sun, 16 Apr 2023 21:02:26 +0000

I did it today with a WEDU group ride. It helps a lot.
Will do that for all long ride by checking on https://zwifthacks.com/ what are the Event coming for the route I want to ride.

By: Roman

Roman — Sun, 02 Apr 2023 21:28:22 +0000

Nice route for Z2 training. 3:45 in Z2 130bpm. ~2.6w/kg

By: JohnnyBabo

JohnnyBabo — Sun, 08 Jan 2023 00:58:10 +0000

In reply to James Metcalfe. Come on work on your power

By: Alex Paul

Alex Paul — Wed, 16 Nov 2022 16:26:14 +0000

I've done this course twice during "The Norseman" and "L’Etape du Tour Sportive" events but still no badge. Hoping to make it real next week for a birthday solo ride

By: luke

luke — Sun, 30 Jan 2022 03:12:29 +0000

In reply to Paul. smart

By: Ramón

Ramón — Sun, 05 Dec 2021 20:16:22 +0000

In reply to Weiwen. Great advice, buy a nice MTB in preparation for the switch. I stopped three times because I didn't feel I was in the most efficient bike, had to buy one, it's still quite hard, that jungle

By: Doug Gerard

Doug Gerard — Tue, 30 Nov 2021 15:12:28 +0000

In reply to James Metcalfe. If you are not racing, have found it to be less of a pain to change over to my mountain bike for the gravel sections.

By: Weiwen

Weiwen — Tue, 30 Nov 2021 14:53:37 +0000

I just free rode Four Horsemen. Maybe a restatement of what James said below is that this is a really psychologically taxing route! You’re going up the Alpe after the Epic KOM + the Radio Tower, and I really have a love-hate relationship with the Radio Tower. Then after you go down the Alpe, you’ve got a gradual climb on gravel, and gravel does make the distance longer than it seems.

Instead of “pedal harder”, one good piece of advice might be to wait for one of the badge hunter events and do this in a group. Drafting helps you cover the flat sections faster. Also, you can always climb off and take a break. Stretch, eat, stuff like that. There’s the concept of chunking: mentally break the route down into segments. You’ve got each of the climbs. After the Alpe, you could take a break (and you should change bikes, even if all you have is the Zwift MTB!). Then you could split the finish into just climbing up to the pavement (and changing bikes), then the ride back into town (which does have a nice descent!).

By: Carl J

Carl J — Sun, 21 Nov 2021 10:53:57 +0000

In reply to David BigJohn. You get the badge when the message displays on the screen that you finished. NOT when you complete the Zwift Verified Route.