Three days ago (at the time of writing), Zwift forum user Olivero posted this screenshot up to a very long running ‘Zwift Velodrome’ feature request post.
From what we can see, the track lives in Watopia, off the shores of the Wind Farm.
If you’re familiar with Zwift / Watopia, but not quite sure where that is, you could approach the Wind Farm from three directions, but probably one of those three approaches is most well known to you:
The right turn (straight ahead according to Zwift), takes you through the marina, then back up to Downtown or off to the Volcano.
The left turn starts you on the approach to the bigger Watopia climbs – the Epic KOM (both directions) and the Jungle / Alpe.
And, of course, you could be coming at the junction from the reverse of any of these routes.
Anyway, that fresco of the mountain on the left, and the villas on the right is – it seems – where the new Zwift Velodrome will live.
What else can we see in Eric Min’s Velodrome screenshot?
There are a few interesting things found in Eric Min’s velodrome screenshot.
The route name seems to be Velodrome 500m, implying the lap length is 0.5km, which is the top end for a velodrome track. Olympic standard velodromes are 250m in length at a minimum, with 333.33m being very popular.
With a velodrome, the shorter the circumference, the steeper the bank angle.
The bank angle can vary significantly depending on the design and purpose of the track. Typically, the bank angle in a velodrome can range from 10° to 50°. However, most modern velodromes used for international competitions have steeper banks, with angles usually between 30° and 45° to facilitate high speeds and better accommodate the physics of track cycling. The steeper the banking, the faster the cyclists can go without losing traction and sliding down the track.
For a 500m track the angle would be somewhere between 20° to 30°.
We can also see Eric is using the Zwift Steering controller, as noted by the encircled ‘Y’ under his draft van power up. Also it mentioned Steering Enabled in his debug menu on the bottom right, and the little steering bars icon on his HUD.
Also we can see Ghost mode / rider replays are enabled for the Zwift Velodrome circuit.
Leaderboards are enabled for the Zwift Velodrome.
And lastly, judging by the ‘Gear 1’ text, we can see that Eric is using the Zwift Cog on his turbo trainer.
When is the Zwift Velodrome going live?
Typically when an Eric Min or Jon Mayfield test ride are upload to Strava like this, the actual route / addition appears live on Zwift a few days after.
However, I really have no idea if this is actually coming.
In this particular instance, however, it would appear that the picture was uploaded in error as it has since been removed from the Strava activity. It is possible that the Zwift Velodrome is an internal testing loop, designed for short QA rides.
Also, without meaning to be cruel, it looks highly unfinished.
There is also a question of exactly how might a 500m track actually work in Zwift? Think about it. There are frequently 20,000+ people online. Even if just 500 of those, that’s just 2.5% of the total online Zwifters, decided they wanted to ride the Velodrome, it would be a real mess, really fast. Sure, Zwift already cut off on-screen riders at 100 (as best I recall), but it would still be super janky.
The only other thing I will add is that with the forthcoming Zwift Games, it could be something added for that?
Interesting times ahead.