You can now have a coffee stop and 'teleport' on Zwift — virtual training platform releases new spring and summer updates

Indoor training giant Zwift has announced a bunch of new features coming to its virtual cycling world in the upcoming months. These include a ‘coffee stop’ feature, improved group ride functionality and real-world climbs. 

Most of these updates are rolling out in the next couple of months, so let's dive into the details of what you can expect… 

Coffee Stop

Just mention 'coffee stop' to a cyclist and it’s guaranteed their attention levels will go up - it’s like saying ‘treat’ to a dog. 

Zwift’s Coffee Stop function doesn’t quite mean that someone will bring a flat white and a slice of carrot cake to your turbo trainer, but rather, it’s a way to pause your ride for up to three minutes without falling behind the group you’ve been riding with.

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This is ideal if you - as most of us do - have forgotten a water bottle or towel, or simply need to jump off to run to the bathroom. Once activated, you can take care of whatever you need to do: make an espresso, sign for a delivery or refill your bottle. Your avatar will keep pace with whatever group you’re riding with while you’re off the bike, and you will even keep accumulating distance and XP. 

Rider Teleport

Rider Teleport will help you when you’re mid-ride, and one of your friends decides to hop into the same Zwift world. You can 'teleport' directly to them without exiting your current activity. 

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You can also use the teleport feature to catch up with a pacer group or move yourself to a RoboPacer after your event finishes. If you teleport, the jump will show on the map as a straight line. 

Action Bar update

The Action Bar that allows you to dish out ‘Ride On’s, do u-turns and the like is getting a revamp with sub-menus. You have one for the reactions all in one place: Ride On, elbow flick, toast and wave. A different sub-menu will give you options for Rider Teleport, and you can also access the Coffee Stop from Action Bar.   

Climb Portal

This new addition will put you in a new Zwift environment replicating places in the real world. Expect legendary grades and iconic switchbacks with other riders. Zwift says that at launch (in the summer), two of the climbs available through the portal will be Col du Tourmalet and Col d’Aspin, both storied for their prominence in some of history’s most exciting bike races. 

Group riding updates: keep everyone together, group dynamics and highlighting riders

Previously the function to keep riders together regardless of their power output has only been available at selected events, but now any Zwifter who is an administrator of a club can turn this feature on for their club’s events. 

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Zwift has also updated its Pack Dynamics - the way drafting and such work in a group - and made the peloton riding ‘more realistic’. This means you won’t be overtaken as easily, and won’t get sucked up into a peloton while riding solo.

The new in-game dynamics should also make it easier to float from the front to the back of the pack, and to break away from a group if you want to. 

Another group riding update Zwift is introducing is the Player Highlight. This should make it easy to see your avatar, pick out friends, and spot ride leaders on Zwift.

The Player Highlight shrouds your avatar, as well as those of Zwifters you follow and ride leaders in a glowing halo when you’re riding in a dense pack. The highlight fades in smaller packs and when you’re riding solo. This seems to be a handy feature for those situations in events when everyone is wearing the same jersey.

Ride events and training plans

In addition to the plethora of updates, Zwift has also announced some new events and training plans. These include a spring training series, Classics courses, ‘Ride with Pride’ in May, and Tour de France // Tour de France Femmes Avec Zwift Mission in July.  

You can check out more details of the updates on Zwift’s website.