Zwift's Wild Isles Adds the Flattest Route Ever Built to Watopia

Zwift's new Wild Isles expansion drops today with roughly 20km of fresh Watopia roads—and for once, the headline feature isn't climbing. The Power Islands circuit clocks exactly zero meters of elevation gain per lap, making it the flattest route Zwift has ever built. If you've been grinding Tempus Fugit for structured intervals because everything else forces you into unwanted climbs, this changes your options.

The expansion sits between the Mayan Jungle and Jarvis Island, creating a bypass that finally lets you string together longer flat efforts without threading through jungle switchbacks. Nine new cycling routes range from the 4.1km Seafoam Circuit (a quick crit loop) to the genuinely absurd Watopia 150—151.6km of pancake-flat riding across 30 laps of Power Islands. That's a four-plus hour session with no elevation change, which sounds either perfect or soul-crushing depending on how you feel about staring at virtual cacti.

Three distinct circuits anchor the expansion: the Caldera Cruiser (slightly rolling, volcanic scenery), the Seafoam Circuit (bison herds, Catalina Island vibes), and the Power Islands (flat, straight, designed for power segments Zwift says will get "fresh functionality" in coming months). Each has forward and reverse lap leaderboards. The Avalon section recreates the real Catalina town, complete with the Casino building and a gravel road climbing into the hills that's currently blocked off—presumably future content.

For time-crunched training, the flat circuits matter most. You can now run steady-state threshold work or VO2 intervals without gradient interference, then cool down through coastal scenery with dolphins and a breaching whale you may or may not actually spot. The visual variety is legitimately better than Tempus Fugit's desert monotony. Wildlife, harbors, wooden bridges—Zwift's art team clearly got more budget here.

The tradeoff is discovery fatigue. If you're already juggling routes across Watopia, France, and the other worlds, nine more cycling routes and eight new leaderboard segments add complexity to an already cluttered menu. Zwift hasn't simplified route selection—they've just made it bigger. For riders who want flat training variety, that's a fair trade. For everyone else, it's more scrolling before your Tuesday night crit.