Pace Partners launched in August 2020 as a FutureWorks project, and now two years later they are about to graduate!
For those not familiar, Zwift often launches new features under their “FutureWorks” banner when the feature isn’t completely polished, but needs to be released publicly for testing, feedback, and further refinement. Read more about FutureWorks on Zwift’s blog >
Here’s an update on what we can expect this week from Pace Partners, as well as what graduation from FutureWorks will look like.
First: This Week’s Pace Partners
Pace Partners aren’t quite out of FutureWorks yet, so here’s the schedule of routes for this next week…
Watopia:
- Anquetil (4.2) – Volcano Flat
- Brevet (3.3) – Volcano Circuit
- Cadence (2.5) – Triple Flat Loops
- Draft (2.15) – Big Foot Hills
- Disc (1.8 ) – Three Little Sisters
- Diesel (1.5) – Tick Tock
- Duster (1.15) – Watopia’s Waistband
Makuri Islands:
- Blazer (3.8 ) – Castle to Castle
- Chaser (3.0) – Neokyo All-Nighter
- Drops (2.0) – Neon Flats
- Echelon (1.0) – Sprinter’s Playground
Running Pace Partners are on 11.1 Ocean Blvd route this week.
Cycling Bots: Pacing and Route Rotations
When Pace Partners come out of FutureWorks in September, both Watopia and Makuri will have eight cycling Pace Partners active at all times. All Pace Partners will weigh 75kg for simplicity, and will be 175cm tall. Their names will also be changed.
Each map’s 8 bots will use the following w/kg paces: 1.2, 1.5, 1.8, 2.2, 2.6, 3.2, 3.7, and 4.2.
Eight routes have been selected for each map, and the route assigned to each particular Pace Partner will rotate through this list of eight each week. James says “Where possible, I’ve tried to make it so that if it is a hilly route in Watopia, Makuri will offer you a flat route at the same pace. This isn’t always possible, but I’ve done the best I can.”
Watopia routes (beginning in September):
- Volcano Flat
- Three Little Sisters
- Tick Tock
- Watopia’s Waistband
- Flat Route
- Big Foot Hills
- Volcano Circuit
- Triple Flat Loops
Makuri Islands routes (beginning in September):
- Temples and Towers
- Neon Flats
- Castle to Castle
- Neokyo All-Nighter
- Suki’s Playground
- Sprinter’s Playground
- Wandering Flats
- Flatland Loop
Running Bots: Pacing and Rotation
There are always 11 run bots trotting along at a wide range of paces, so if runners want a bit of company, there’s a bot available:
- Michael Midsole: 10:00/km
- David Doubles: 9:00/km
- Tracey Trot: 8:00/km
- Albert Amble: 7:30/km
- Sarah Stride: 7:00/km
- Benito Bounder: 6:30/km
- Hettie Hare: 6:00/km
- Brendan Bolter: 5:30/km
- Rebecca Rocket: 5:00/km
- Stuart Speedster: 4:30/km
- Patricia Pacemaker: 4:00/km
Run bots are all placed on the same route. Beginning in September they will move through a weekly rotation of 4 routes.
Routes:
Share Feedback
James is still looking for feedback on all things Pace Partner. He requests that you share feedback (and any questions) in one of these spots:
Can I earn achievements while riding with pace partners? For example I need the 25 laps of Volcano Circuit
Yes you can.
Looks like this is the week to get that 25x volcano badge, probably the fastest I’ll ever be able to make it happen thanks to B Brevet. Just gotta carve out…what, 2.5 hours?
Yep, I did it in 2:33 with B Brevet, with the last couple laps off the pace in zone 2 for a cool down. And of course the 100k badge as a bonus!
Pas assez de C dans pace partener 2,8 et 3,0 will be good thank you
It’s weird that Rebecca Rocket isn’t the fastest runner.
Thank you for the update Eric. The pace partner (or bot) experiments have been very interesting over the past few months. The pace partner chase race in France and the pace partner ride up ADZ were really good. I hope we will see those rides as part of the FutureWorks roll-out. The new schedule of 8 pace partners in two maps is welcome, but there are some gaps in the w/kg range currently available (e.g. 1.0 Echelon, 2.0 Drops and 3.0 Chaser) that will be missed. Regards, David H.
If only there was a way for people not interested in this feature to turn it off so not to be bothered by the inane chat of the pace bots and prompts to join while riding these routes. I dared to suggest such a feature in a Zwift Forum and promptly had my comments deleted. James is not looking looking for feedback on “all things” Pace Partner- he is only looking for feedback that he agrees with.
I find it very hard to believe a politely worded comment on that was deleted. Also, what prompts, or do you just mean when their inane chat suggests you ‘join the party’? I personally use them a lot but I would also prefer they’d keep quiet because their chat adds nothing.
I gave my critical feedback. It was not deleted. I was heard and responded to, and that’s all I can ask for. There is a lot of whining and ranting on the forum and I’m sure it’s hard to take on a daily basis. I give James high marks even when he doesn’t act on my amazing suggestions.
Edwin, you made this comment repeatedly in the Zwift forum, over many weeks and in several threads. James read it. At a certain point it becomes spam and it’s annoying for everyone.
We need a new A bot in France.
May I suggest Annemiek Aero?
Annemiek Ascender surely? And she should only power up Ven Top at insane power non of us can match!
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If they don’t have some bots with steady power I won’t believe there’s anyone (with authority) at zwift who know enough about riding in real life and especially on zwift to be making these decisions. Hey it’s business and if eveyrone wants something that reinforces bad habits …cool…but maybe having SOME (any?) holding steady power (I won’t get into why or what good habits or skills are and if you tell me “there aren’t important skills on zwift” … you make my case for me … i love y’all and am familiar with large groups making spectacularly bad decisions or… Read more »
Sorry I found that really hard to follow, but if your argument is that pace partners should hold steady power like they used to so that we can ride in our own zone 2 (given their main use must be long steady rides), then I couldn’t agreed more. They seem to have been changed to mimic real life bad training habits on rolling terrain, which makes no sense!
I also preferred pace partners when they had fixed power levels, but it seems this is a minority viewpoint. From what I can tell, a lot of people really like dynamic pacing. I assume the majority of people using pace partners are doing so for fun rather than training. Both approaches are legitimate, so it’s a little sad that they picked one and ran with it. Nothing stands in the way of doing both.
Dynamic pacing mimics riding in real life, rather than focused training around a set power output – (I mean, who actually does that in real life, what with traffic, junctions etc. to deal with??). If you want to ride at a rigidly fixed wattage for an extended period of time, you can do that by creating a custom workout. You can even change the wattage up or down mid-ride if you want to. Given that you can get what you want to achieve through a workout, but you cannot get the effect of dynamic pacing without a bot using dynamic… Read more »
Dynamic makes the biggest difference in hilly terrain. Never enjoyed fixed pacing as it was too easy to gap the bot going upwards (without even giving it much additional power), then getting blown away when the road started slanting downward as there is natural tendency to ease off. I suppose the ones who are mad about this feature gone are the ones who weren’t even really watching the Zwift screen, like their focus was watching a movie, so in that case, why bother.
No you still have to watch what’s happening with a fixed output pace partner or you won’t stay with the bot, due to the variable effect of the draft in the group. I preferred it because I intended to do a fixed pace ride and I just paid attention to pace when on the hills. The “natural tendency” you’re talking about is resolved by having the self discipline to stick to the pace even on hills. The group environment made it less boring than riding a fixed pace solo. This use case is no less legitimate than preferring dynamic pacing,… Read more »
The body is not that exact, as long as you stay in your zone you are getting the workout. Actually, I would even argue some variability is good. Furthermore, there were always variations in pace because of the uneven draft. The steady power is especially hard if you riding close to your limit and then there is these accelerations downhill and you dont shift fast enough / increase cadence. It made a more disruptive ride IMHO.
Will they add in benefits to running with the pace partners?
Is there a way to see the route a pace partner is currently on when joining with them in the application? I got caught off guard yesterday with Cadence on triple loops. She was just about to start the KOM there which completely split up the group the moment I joined. I would have liked to know which route (ideally complete with the map of the route) she was on before joining.
An even better thing would be a live view of where the pace partner is on the route at the moment.
The list tells you which route, but not where they are on the route.
This is in the newest update
The only bit about this which concerns me is the news that their names are changing. We need to keep Coco in particular (and my new best friend Charlie)
In the Aug 1 pace partners update on the forum, James said Coco will not be renamed. Wouldn’t want to start a riot.
Charlie is also my new best friend. We’ve been riding a lot together and I’ve really enjoyed the 3.0 pace. Not sure whether I will switch up or down in September.
So, does that mean Makuri is gonna be a permanent map starting in September? That would rule!
Awesome news. I love how many levels we will have now. It makes it easier for me to chose a low, mid or high intensity day. Get the future works coming
It too bad they are not in the rest of the worlds! I’d like to see them In France as well!
Although we will have more bots on the release, the wkg selection will be less, and the gap can be quite big (e.g. no more 2.0 and 2.5 wkg). Why not have different wkg list between Watopia and Makuri? Say Watopia has 1.2, 1.5, 1.8, etc.. and Makuri has 1.0, 1.3, 1.6, 2.0 etc.