spelger

Finally did this today. came in at just under 3 1/2 hours. A bit easier than I had anticipated. paced myself maybe a bit too easy in the beginning. Have you done this yet? How'd it go?

Nice brew afterwards.

sdmc530

Damn...nice.

That one took me well over 4 hours! Its a burner no doubt.
I used to badge hunt hard. I have two cycling badges left now and I don't know if I will ever attempt them. I need the Full PRL and the uber pretzel. After I got all the badges I was kind of bored on Zwift for a bit but found the training plans excellent. I am in those now.

billridesbikes

3h 51m for me, including getting a snack and bathroom break at the top of the radio tower. Poked along a bit on the flats to save myself for the last big climb, even so the climb AdZ took me about 66minutes.

Zoxe

Well done!

I've not attempted but as a noobie was staring at this route the other night thinking "someday."

spelger

That was me last year. I used to do the alpe once a month. Now it may just be this ride.

Thomas15

Good riding spelger.

You did better than me, I did it last March total time riding 4 hours 15 minutes plus a 9 minute break. I was in the hunt to complete all of the route badges and finally did so two weeks later March 28th when I did an organized ride of the PRL-Full with Zwift Insider. I did that with only 1 break of 10 minutes, total time there was 6 hours 28 minutes.

I think the hardest route though was the Uber Pretzel took 6 hours 35 minutes including a 30 minute break but it turned out to be 88 miles. I did all of the long hard rides in March of last year.

Last year I was doing the Alpe once, sometimes twice a week. Haven't done it in probably 3 months. Will get back to it once I finish the Build Me Up program that will be in two weeks.

spelger

Thomas15, that you can spend 6+ hours on zwift is a testament to your perseverance.

jpescatore

I haven't been badge hunting but checked the Zwift (in game) badge page and then the ZwiftInsider Routes by Difficulty page. So, I did the shorter easier "1 Bidon" ones I was missing just to fill in the blanks and now all I have left is some short steep segments and those longer ones like the PRLs and various Pretzels. - what the list calls 3, 4 or 5 Bidon routes.

My longest ride so far on Zwift has been 2 hours or so, and that stretched my enjoyment limit for cycling in the basement. My wife is going away for several weeks, in February, I'll have time to kill - may try one of the longer ones with a break at the 2 hour point and see how it feels.

jadocs

I don't badge hunt either, but if I was this close I couldn't "not" do it. That's kind of like being 2000 feet shy of completing the Everest Challenge.

clasher

I did it last year, was 4:05. I did the alpe in less than 60 minutes so I got the liftoff badge during that ride. I did take a break before the radio tower to grab a quick meal though.

himespau 

Once I started racing on Zwift, I slowed way down (and probably almost stopped) badge hunting. Nowhere as close as you, but I found a different source of motivation and do enough races now that I rarely have a day that's not racing, recovering from a race or has a race the next day so I don't want to overdo it with enough time to do the ones I have left.

sdmc530

you have no idea how hard it is do this. hard on the body and mind. I did the Everest badge last winter with a friend of mine, it was like 11 hours on alpe, it was BRUATAL. But I we got it.

Its funny I am doing pretty much only training plans now and I ride up the alpe every ride more than 45 minutes. The trainer is in ERG mode for the workout so if the workout gets you 3/4 of the way up you can usually knock it out in 60 minutes and get the bonus at the top. Its a nice little bonus at the end of a workout. I have no idea how many times I have been up that mt. 50+ probably

Dfreeman617 

I did Muir and the Mountain this weekend and noticed that I got a badge as I crossed the line but did not see what it was. (I was exhausted and took a break immediately after crossing the KOM point. How many XP did I get for it?

himespau 

https://zwifthub.com/

billridesbikes

Muir and the Mountain is one of my favorite routes. I love the reference to John Muir’s nickname ‘John of the Mountains’. When you complete a route in Zwift for the first time you get addition XP based on the length of the route. If the route is 25km you’ll get an extra 500XP (25*20). That is you basically get double the XP of the route the first time you complete a new route. Cheers!

Thomas15

The problem with having all of the route badges is there are no easy bonus XPs to help level up. Once you hit level 30 something, the gap between levels is either 10,000 or 20,000 XPs. For example, to go from Level 37 to 38 you need, 20,000 XPs, if you use imperial miles and have no bonus XP potential, you then need to ride about 660 miles to make the level jump 38.

spelger

I have a fairly good idea how hard. after 3 hours i was really ready to be done. my longest is about 4 when i was doing a strava grand fondo challenge. zwift is harder for me than in real life. no stop signs, no lights, i don't stop peddling, generally not downhill either, it is just a constant turning of the pedals over and over.

i think my next challenge in zwift will be watopia all right hand turns until i get back to where i started. can't do that in real life...wonder how long that will take...

clasher

That's where I'm at now that I have all the route badges and all the easy 'extra credit' badges... working on the 25x alpe badge but dunno if I will ever do the everest one. Riding in metric earns a bit more XP since it's 20 per km. Workouts up the alpe are also a great way to get XP, esp. if you get to the top and hit the spinner for 250 or 1000 (if it lands on the wheels), then you coast down to cool down or just leave it and get another 240xp.

There's also doing laps on the TT bike, volcano circuit is a classic one, over 33km/h pace will net you more than doing workouts. Paris is a bit better since there are two banners there. Rides with Coco cadence are also great for getting xp and drops if you need those.

Thomas15

Agree with everything you say here.

I am two weeks away from finishing a 12 week workout program that hasn’t allowed me any extra time. Once I finish, I will resume my weekly Alpe rides. I have very good luck hitting the spinner for 1000XPs, I have 42 Alpe runs under my belt. I didn’t get the masochist badge until I completed my 26th Alpe run btw.

I have thought many times of changing to metric but imperial is what we have here so I stick with it. I’m averaging 150 Zwift miles/week this winter. This will put me at level 38 third week of Feb., then level 39 (10,000 xp) by March 15. I will put a push on to make level 40 (20,000 xp) by April 15 then start riding outside. One of my goals 2021 is to be level 40 by April 15

It is interesting that in Zwift the halfway point to level 50 is level 36 based on XPs. Most people by the time they get that far have used up most if not all of the bonus for the first time on a route so it slows down progress. Level 36-50 is 250,000 XP, based on 30XP per mile that is 8300 miles. Figure 8000 miles with some power up and misc bonuses still that is about 2 years on Zwift for me, actually more than 2 years. I would imagine that Zwift will add more levels it seems like there are many level 50 riders out there.

gthomson

Yikes, getting those badges would be mega ambitious for me. i have to really force my self to stay on the bike and trainer after 1.5 hours. I am going to make it my goal to do Mont Ventoux but that will be a struggle as it will probably be 2 hours for me. Good on ya for achieving all those badges, I'll have to look into that.

sdmc530

Spot on....so here is the deal, level 36 is a big one. If you get to level 36 and many badges you have all the high end stuff.

Currently I am at 37. I have the fastest frame, lightest frame, lightest wheels, second or third fastest wheels I can't remember, fastest TT bike, tron bike, and I think 2nd best mountain bike, 3rd? I think gravel bike. (all this according to zwift insider)

So that is why I started training plans this season. The 20,000 point jumps are huge and take a very long time, 10,000 isn't too bad. You don't gain any really great stuff over 36 except for the wacky stuff and some super fast wheels in the 40 levels. So the drive to hit level 50 just isn't worth it.

Drops are a nice mix up and all but once you get the higher end rates stuff you just collect lots of drops. I am over 3 million now and nothing I really want to buy...I hope they do something soon to mix it up. France and Paris was nice but I was hoping for a better route I guess. Maybe Australia or something? IDK

sdmc530

when they did the big jump from 25 to 50 they said on a interview that some 20% of the subscriptions would be there as soon as it was released. So it seems it was too late then already.

clasher

Yeah, at first that difference between imperial and metric doesn't seem to be a lot, but I think it works out to being over a 1000 miles more riding to get to level 50 in imperial vs. metric. Though if it was reversed and I got more points for riding in imperial I don't know that I would be making the switch

I'm at level 29 now, so 5000km and I'll be at level 36, kind of a stretch goal for the winter but if I do TT loops and Alpe climbs it should take a lot less than 5000km to get there. I already have the tron bike so I'm not really jonesing to get the venge and the wheels, I don't race enough that it really makes much difference to me at the moment. Definitely the route badges were the biggest motivation I had to ride in zwift, now just grinding out XP is kind of all I have and it's not as interesting as it was last year when I first got into zwift. I'm hoping for more new roads in all the worlds but I'm not holding my breath on that.

Thomas15

I am also at level 37, have a bunch of frames and wheels in my garage, more than i can keep track of, and of course the Tron. Right now I have 6.5 million drops and there really isn't anything I want to buy except the ZIPP disk wheels but that is at level 45. Still I'm using Zwift to maintain and hopefully increase my riding performance for this upcoming season. I'm planning on going hard and heavy on Zwift until April 15. I'm also planning on importing a Training Peaks workout program into Zwift in a few weeks to see how that goes. Last summer I hardly used Zwift at all, this summer I think I will use it more, training during days the weather isn't nice or if time constraints keep me from riding IRL.

For all of it's warts, Zwift has for me been a big help in getting my fitness level up from where it was two years ago, a pathetic individual I was. When I made the commitment to get the Tron and all of the route badges, it forced me to ride more and harder than I would have ever done on my own, and certainly way more if all I had as a stationary bike with no interactive stimulus. For that reason I'm a fan of Zwift although it could be better it's still a great value for the cost.

atwl77

I just completed the route today in 4:06 moving time (4:34 elapsed including one unscheduled toilet break, and two water + refill breaks) and I feel like it was tougher than the Uber Pretzel that I did last year. But to be fair, I probably messed up my pacing by attacking the first three climbs and claiming PRs (well, recent 30-day PRs) for them and by the time I reached the base of ADZ my legs were completely shot. When fresh I usually can do ADZ in 60 minutes, or go an easier Z3 effort in 70 minutes, but this time I was miserably suffering along and reached the peak in 80:15 (while being passed by two runners on the way up, lol). One of these days I'll probably want to have another go at it, probably try and pace it better and hopefully get a sub-4h result. Maybe switch to pure climbing bike and see if that makes a difference in time.