Published September 4, 2025 07:00AM
This Season on Zwift Expect to Ride in NY but Only if the AI Suggests It
Every year there’s a new slew of this season in Zwift announcements and this time AI is at the center.
(Photo Zwift)
I’m sorry to tell you but the season for outdoor riding in much of the northern hemisphere is winding down. That means many riders will be jumping on something from our list of the best smart trainers and moving indoors. For many people that move will mean a move to Zwift and, with that in mind, today Zwift is announcing a slew of updates for this year’s “This Season On Zwift.”
New controllers ditch braking & cog gets easier
In 2023 Zwift launched a product called the Zwift Play Controllers. It allowed for mounting on a wide range of bikes and offered a sweat proof solution for navigating the Zwift menus, using power ups, and steering/braking/shifting. The MSRP of that product was supposed to be $149//£149//€149 with an introductory price of $99//£99//€99. That “real” price never happened though and at this point they are all sold out.
There was also the Zwift Cog and Click upgrade that launched later and expanded as more trainers gained compatibility. It included a very simple controller for shifting only and a clever “cog” that slipped over the freehub on your trainer to convert it so that it didn’t matter what drivetrain your bike had. Instead of shifting on the bike you’d now shift virtually through Zwift.
This season on Zwift the whole system is getting simplified. On the controller side, the Zwift Play controller is gone and so is the Click controller that was part of the upgrade kit. In place of both is a new controller that splits the difference. There’s no more paddle, which eliminates braking from the design, and what’s left is the same four button panel that was on the previous Play controller but with the addition of a tab for shifting plus the ability to change the orientation in the software. The updated design means it’s easy to mount to flat bars, aero bars, and drop bars.
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Along with this update, there is also an update to the Cog design. Instead of removing your cassette, and needing a chain whip plus a lockring tool, now it comes preassembled with a freehub for compatible trainers. Pull the whole freehub with the cassette attached and put the new one on. This is actually the same as the Zwift Cog With Multi-Trainer Freehub that was part of the latest Cog and Click upgrade kit but now it’s more complicated on the Zwift side (more skews) so that it’s easier for you to install at home without extra spacers.
Simpler and the whole system is cheaper at $49//£49//€49. You’ll also get the same thing if you buy a Zwift ready trainer as the cog will be preinstalled and the click is included.
Unfortunately this does all mean that braking is now reserved for a trainer bike. The least expensive option is Zwift:Ride at $1299, so it’s not a small investment, and braking is incredibly useful when racing. If you are serious, it might be worth an upgrade.
Zwift gets AI
This summer Zwift launched a credible Strava alternative with Zwift ride tracking. For those that haven’t spent much time considering the new system during the summer, it does give credit on Zwift for outdoor rides. It’s also an incredibly easy way to view how hard you are riding on any given day. Those aren’t the end goals though.
As we’ve seen across the industry, the end goal is personalized training through AI. Connect your headunit from Wahoo, Garmin and Hammerhead—now easier with improved onboarding experience in Zwift—and Zwift will use that data to adjust your weekly goals for realistic improvement. That’s not the AI part though.
Starting in November Zwift will use AI to suggest what you should do when you log onto the system. When it goes live, there will be a section of the homescreen dedicated to a suggested activity that you only have to press start on.
The recommendation will look at indoor and outdoor rides to consider training load, riding preferences, and activity types to decide what to suggest but you can also adjust the suggestions. Zwift shares that a “tune button” will allow tuning the content type mix further if you prefer. Either way the main point is solving the what to do on any given day problem so as to be productive without being bored or spending a bunch of time deciding.
Also, given that systems like TrainerRoad offer similar suggestions and interface with Zwift, the external suggestion will take precedence on the home screen if you have it connected.
This season on zwift gets a better progress report
This is actually pretty simple as this already exists to an extent. What’s changing is that starting in November it’s getting a big upgrade. Currently there’s just not much info shown. In November that will change with the addition of fitness score progression, training status, goal progression, current streak, bike upgrade progression, level progress, and racing score improvements.
You can also see more by jumping into the companion app to look at fitness trends over time however that piece is live now.
A new tour, new roads, and new power measurement tool
Every year Zwift gets new roads. For the 2025 this season on Zwift we are heading back to NY and it’s launching as part of a new tour. Starting October 6th through November 16th the Tour of Watopia is getting replaced by the Zwift Tour. There’s still double XP but it’s also ten new routes from across Zwift Worlds.
The final two stages will take place on an updated New York map. The update adds 31 km /19.2 miles including 20 new routes (16 bike & 4 run) and moves out of Central Park into the city and the subway.
Expect things to be a bit flatter in these courses but as you move into the subway you’ll find Power Segments. These are like the sprint segments of old but now the focus is on power instead of time.
Immediately these segments will show comparisons to previous attempts in the last 90 days as well as how you rank against others. Over time the system will roll out to other worlds but it’s not just for fun. This is also a way to start measuring more than just FTP. Using this data Zwift will have a better understanding of a user’s power curve. Expect that to lead to future, unnamed, improvements and adjustments throughout the game.
This season on Zwift racing gets more competitive
Starting in September the rollout of Zwift racing score will complete. No more ABCDE categories based on sand bagg… uhm… self selected FTP. Instead your category determination will come from your performance and fitness with 11 total categories. Note, that does not mean 11 starting pens but there are 11 categories for scoring as to leave less people on the edges of a category unable to lose or win.
Further helping to keep the categorization fair is the introduction of Zwift Racing Score ‘score decay’ for riders who haven’t raced in the last 30 days. It allows for “updated seed scores based on your most recent personal bests (inside or outside of races), and a new option for event organizers to categorize riders by their 30-day best score, not just their current score.”
Of course that only affects real people who maybe haven’t raced as often lately. To handle actual cheaters, Zwift is also rolling out new anti-botting detection. According to Zwift this is actually live now and helps “clean up racing, protect leaderboard integrity, and stop unfair XP farming.” It’s also training on the live data. Over time the system will continue to get smarter about detecting unrealistic performances.
The end of the race will see some changes too. Previously when a race ended you instantly got dumped back into the public world. Right now there’s a 5-minute cooldown on the course and soon that’s getting extended to ten minutes. It makes it easier to turn a 45 minute race into just about an hour of workout time but it also means you can tau… er… chat with fellow competitors after coming across the line.
Zwift camp expands
Zwift is sharing that there’s a lot of love for the Zwift Camp. Because of that it’s back and this year Zwift Camp will offer three different training paths throughout the off season. First, in September, you can get started with baseline. Next up there’s a build session then the final piece is a breakthrough group of workouts. Each section is four workouts so serious riders will need a bit more but the idea is to get you started on a good training structure plus there’s in-game rewards available.
One of the rewards, actually you still need to buy it but it is a drop shop reward, is MyCanyon colorways. This is obviously a paid partnership but for the first time “Zwifters can purchase bikes with distinct colorways in the Drop Shop.” Only Canyon to start but there’s going to be “four designs from the Opus Collection, the Fabrio Collection, and the Mano Collection.”
