New York’s “Astoria Line 8” is named for NYC’s first subway line. This route covers all the ground-level roads in Central Park. Created from GPS data of the actual park roads, this route accurately reproduces the Central Park ride experience.

Dave Chauner (photo at right), who raced Central Park back in the late 60’s/early 70’s, had this to say after riding the roads on Zwift: Rode the new Central Park course this morning. It’s been a long time but I recognized every meter of the circuit, like this one, a mile or so from the base of Cat’s Paw Hill. But I couldn’t come close to the 13/14 minute lap times we routinely did way back when (’68, ’69, ’70, ’73) during the springtime Central Park Series. Great job Eric and the NYC boys at Zwift!

ROUTE BASICS

Length: 11.5 km (7.1 miles)
Elevation: 141 m (463‘)
Lead-In: 0.4 km (0.2 miles)
Map: New York

Central Park’s ground-level roads are best understood as three interconnected loops of continuously rolling, curving roads. To the north you have a small loop which includes Harlem Hill. In the middle you have a large loop which covers approximately 50% of the park and includes the start/finish banner and start pens. Lastly to the south you have another small loop which includes the sprint point. This route covers all three loops in a figure 8 fashion.