Zwift’s Pace Partners are probably the most popular feature added to the game in the past couple of years. And today, Pace Partners began riding new tarmac for the first time in a long time… because they’ve been rolled out to the Makuri Islands!
Currently, the same four pace partners are being used in Makuri Islands as we’ve seen in Watopia. The route’s they’re riding are all in the Yumezi portion of the map:
- A. Anquetil on Countryside Tour at 4.2 w/kg
- B. Brevet on Chain Chomper at 3.3 w/kg
- C. Cadence on Kappa Quest at 2.5 w/kg
- D. Diesel on Three Village Loop at 1.5 w/kg
How To Ride with a Pace Partner
Joining a Pace Partner is easy! Remember, Pace Partners are only available in the Watopia and Makuri Islands worlds at this time.
Just select one of those worlds from the tabs at the top of the homescreen, then click the Pace Partners box at the top of the rider list. This will bring up a window where you can select a Pace Partner to join.
Questions or Comments?
If you have feedback for Zwift on this feature, please post it on the official Zwift forum thread. You’re also free to comment below!
Strange course for Coco.
But, happy to have them there.
Agreed… a very climby route considering alternatives like Flatland Loop are available.
Agreed and would hate to get dumped onto the middle of the climb when starting out with no warmup.
2.5w/kg is 2.5w/kg regardless of the simulated terrain. Shouldnt ever matter where you join, 2.5w/kg isn’t going to be significantly different.
If there was no draft, completely true. On flats however I only have to push 2.2 over an hour average (85kg) to keep up with the Coco bunch. 2.2 is never gonna make it on an uphill section, you will drop back quite soon.
at 91 kg it definitely makes a difference. I can keep up with C doing about 2.2 on tempus fugit.
Besides being climby the route is also largely (100% even?) on dirt, so that meaning different dynamics for people on MTB’s or Gravel bikes while Coco herself is probably riding the Tron.
the bot on a climb is far too simple… you dont even have to be a climber to hang even without a warmup. its going down the hills which is a different story
When they already have a pace partner on a flat route in Watopia, I think it makes sense to mix it up when they add other pace partners. It adds more variety without detracting from the originals.
Does this mean Makuri will be available all the time alongside Watopia
Not anytime soon, no. But Zwift HAS said that they want Makuri Islands to built out to the size of Watopia, and I think this is a nod to the fact that Zwift sees this map as a high priority…
Saw D.Diesel while I was pushing hard on my workout on Wandering Flats.
Why not new set of Pace Partner?
Perhaps a rider from country with a relatively large ridership; a Canadian, a Dane, a South American and an Asian pace partner.
Could really use a 2.0 w/kg pacer. The jump from 1.5 to 2.5 is pretty steep.
Fully agree Rich!
Try riding a slower bike with D
yeah, get a MTB and hang on the slower group; it evens it up
I ride the Aspero gravel with D and it works out to 2.0 pretty consistently. Plus you have the benefit of dropping everyone in the dirt sections.
Do they ride road or gravel bikes?
trons
Are they ever going to address the fact that uphills are slow, especially with Diesel at 1.5? It gets super frustrating. Hopefully I didn’t miss an update.
Hi guys…frist of all good training platform. Can we make campion app more useful. Can we be able to trace Pacers leaders with deferent colours on the map than just looking the same with other riders around them so it can make it simple to chase them if ever you had to stop or had faulty connections. Thank you
I like this!
The pacers are completely useless at the moment.
They are getting dropped on downhills due to their crazy stickiness.
They are extremely slow on climbs and the bunch breaks up every f*cking time.
Forcing riders onto dirt roads does not help at all either because of reduced speed and drafting effects.
The only way for pacers to make sense is to make them ride only tarmac roads without climbs.
But it appears Zwift is doing their best to make us feel uncomfortable.
Are you sure you tried all of the im talking A mr red him self???…just pick your own level and stop doing group C or D obvious you will drop them on hills or down bcoz they only using same pace unlike you u can push it up anytime. And also try group A races or group ride. My view zwift accommodates every one.
I was riding on ERG once and still dropped C Cadence in the desert. I am no heavy weight either at 68 kg.
I saw this rather big ‘in between’ app update yesterday, do you know if that was because of this change? I also noticed a new green bow/arc when starting the Wandering Flats course, which seemed to mark the start/end of the course. Any more changes known?
B. Brevet is 3.3w/kg not 3.2
Will these pace partners still be riding when Makuri is not on the course calendar?
The answer is : yes.
For now, anyways, you can have a fairly private session with a pace partner.
+1 for Server-side bots. This bodes well.
It’s December 23 and I do not see the option for Pace Partner within Makuri when Makuri is not a listed world. When I set the preference to Makuri as my HOME, I do not see the option for Pace Partners. Am I doing something wrong? Did they change it back to only Watpoia gets this feature?
Indeed, looks like they’ve turned off the full time pace partners on Makuri. Was kind of fun while it lasted.
I was just riding Castle to Castle on 1/13/22 “world hacking via meetup” and definitely passed B. Brevet and D. Diesel going the other direction. The green and yellow glowing avatars made me check. On the companion I hit their dots and it was definitely them. So they’re atleast still running. I should have ripped a U-turn to see if I could hop on for extra drops but didn’t want to miss the course badge. Might be worth investigating another day though?
I like this. I would like to see them do the same thing with the running pace partners, to give us alternatives as well. (I’m one of THOSE people who uses Zwift to run, but I do not have a bike (yet))
isn’t DD on the flatland course ?
Hi Eric.
Have you ever considered looking at the imapct of riding different bikes & wheels behind the pace partners?
I generally find C. Cadence too slow for me (apart from the time I forgot to switch back from a gravel bike and was rapidly dropped!), but B. Brevet too fast.
It would be interesting to know if you could simulate other W/Kg behind the pace partners by using different bikes & wheels (e.g. to need to ride at 3.0 W/Kg behind C. Cadence, use Frame X + Wheels Y; to need to ride at 2.7 W/Kg use Frame A + Wheels B).