Training is tough. Pregnancy is tough. Training while pregnant… well, you get the idea. Kristin and Dani cover everything about training hard with a bun in the oven, as well as how to move forward after the baby is born. How to look after the body, ways to listen to your body, as well as why keeping track of your heart rate is so important!
The pair also get into the latest at Zwift, new pro teams, and try their hand at explaining a few cycling terms.
Photo credit: Tim De Waele/Getty
About the Podcast
The Zwift PowerUp Cycling Podcast features training tips from host Matt Rowe (Rowe & King), with regular guest hosts Greg Henderson, Dani Rowe, and Kristin Armstrong.
Since March I have become obsessed with the weekly WTRL Team Time Trial… so i asked Eric if i could share my obsession with you all, in weekly doses.
Each week on Friday I will give you a profile of the upcoming route, guidance on bike choice, and maybe even some target times if you want to aim for the Premiere League (top-10 in each coffee class get to be in a special race televised on YouTube).
There’s some big changes coming for the TTT – a new Doppio class filled with A+ riders, and a league system within each Coffee Class. As soon as I get the scoop from my informants at WTRL World HQ I’ll let you all know.
Rumble in the Jungle Recap
My recap of this week’s Rumble In the Jungle starts with a terrible error of judgment… Wednesday I was feeling great and decided to enter a race – and placed Silver (the real Zwiftpower Silver, not the pointless results table from ZwiftHQ). Brilliant! Except, as my legs pointed out on Thursday, going all-out in a race is not the same as a recovery ride. Ah well, you live and learn*.
It’s holiday season in the UK and between that and a few injuries we only started with six, but nevermind, we have heart, and we have fire in our bellies… and a mechanical leaves five! Regardless, we shot out of the pen, on matching Specialized Epic MTBs, and with the aid of double draft made it to the Start/Finish only seconds adrift of our split time and the first lap went perfectly too. But as is the way in TTT, if you go out too hot someone gets dropped. That someone was me. The lads cracked on – and passed two teams (proving I was the anchor I thought I was today) before finishing across the line together. Decent team result given that there were only 5 starters. Cone of shame for Sherpa Dave, who let the side down!
*We all know there is no such thing as a recovery ride on Zwift, and we also know I won’t learn…
Thursday 3rd September – Greatest London Flat
All back to normal next week – no powerups, normal draft and back to road bikes. This week the route is the Greatest London Flat – around the City of London itself, then over to Surrey with the flattest of the three paths through. Two little things to remember:
This isn’t the Greater London Flat… its the GREATEST London Flat – both figure into the schedule for TTTs but this one is longer, heading south of the river, and into Surrey.
It starts and ends at The Mall, not at the Start/Finish banner on Upper Thames Street… remember to add the extra 7km to your ride as you sail past.
A 7.5km lead in from the Pens, followed by a 23.6km loop through London and Surrey.
This is a flat route so aero rules. If you have it, the Specialized S-Works Venge with Zipp 858/Super 9 wheels is the pick of the bunch (and the only frame/wheel combo to consistently beat Tron on the flat). Tron is almost as good on this course, and if you haven’t done it yet – kick off the Everest Challenge and start the long painful climb to get Tron. If you don’t have either of those, here are some frame/wheel pairings that will work well for you at different levels:
Level 5 Specialized SL7 with Roval CLX64
Level 15 Specialized Allez Sprint with Zipp 808
Level 25 Cervelo S5 with Zipp 808
Level 32 S-Works Venge with ENVE SES 8.9
Level 35 S-Works Venge with Zipp 808/Super9
Level 45 get those 858/Super 9 wheels and pair them with the S-Works Venge
As always, the Zwift Insider reports on frames and wheels are superlative so if you want to find the perfect bike and wheel combo for you, check them out.
Route Recon
This is a single lap race. Starting at the pens and it’s mostly downhill to Northumberland Avenue, where you head up the hill to Trafalgar Square. Sharp left at the top and then a right as you head towards Buckingham Palace and then down the Mall to the reverse sprint.
You are now 7.5km into the ride, and this is where the lap actually starts.
The jaunt around Central London is mostly flat/false-flat, except when you head down Piccadilly through the Hyde Park Corner underpass and up the other side. Soon enough (17.5km) you will head across the river to Surrey – but fear not, you aren’t tackling Box or Leith, you are just heading through the beautiful Surrey parkland. Through the Underground Station and across Tower Bridge (23.5km) and you’re soon on familiar ground – because you’ll pass the Pens and be back on the lead-in with 7.5km to go. Just follow Upper Thames Street, up the Northumberland Avenue hill to Trafalgar, left, right, past Buck House and a quick Reverse Sprint to cross the line.
There are loads of upcoming rides on this route, so if you want a proper recce visit this ZwiftHacks.com link. I struggled to find many times that would suit our American friends, but the Europeans and Antipodeans have quite a few choices.
Unlike last week this is all road surface. No significant hills to split the group, but there are a few areas to watch out for:
From the pens its a nice flat start allowing you to get into formation and go… 3.7km in you make a sharp turn onto Northumberland Avenue – that’s a 150m stretch at 4% – keep the weight-weenies in check and you’ll be fine.
Just past the 11km mark you will head down Piccadilly (1.1km where you will pick up speed) into the underpass and back up the other side (where you will lose it again). The incline out of the underpass shouldn’t split the group but keep an eye on your teammates.
At 18km you hit what I think of as the worst part of the course… legs are starting to get worn, and there’s a 3km stretch of just annoying ramps. Can’t describe it better than that… annoying and just in the right place to create a split.
Right before 23km you exit the Tube station – it a short, sharp shock peaking at 15%. This will hurt.
Once more down the lead-in, with the main lump being Northumberland Avenue again
No time to look, but you’ll see Nelson’s Column, Big Ben, and Buckingham Palace again then SPRINT for the line with whoever’s left in the group.
Target times
New for this week I’m going to give you some predictions and target times to get an invite to Premiere League for each class.
Split 1 – 8km – Between the start/finish and the arch at the end of the Mall
Like some other Zwifters I have a mild self-diagnosed OCD which among other things makes me get up at 4am every Friday for my BoOCD2000 ride which is my own route including the Radio Tower, Alpe, and a u-turn on the way down the Alpe to hit precisely 2000m.
And the reason I hate Zwift (well not really but…) is they choose to roll out a new (buggy) update almost every single Friday which isn’t really what you want to see early in the morning when trying to ride before work.
A few Fridays ago, the story repeated, and a new update was forced on my Win10 setup. Fortunately, I’m on a quick connection and decent hardware so when they roll out an update it downloads quickly. I got the update and started riding. Went on the forum while getting some heat in the legs, just to see how many bugs people already has discovered, and discovered that the new steering feature had dropped like a bomb.
Stages and Sterzo
First thought was “Nah… don’t really want steering, I’m here for the pain.” And a few hours later the order confirmation from the Zwift store hit my mailbox. 😊 (Of course… guessing that the Sterzo units probably would be sold out very quick I couldn’t resist ordering one, just in case I would change my mind about that pain thing.)
The package from Zwift arrived very fast (Tuesday) here in Denmark and installing the Sterzo on my old Neo trainer setup was a 5-minute job. The Stages SB20 next to it looked a little sad when it realized that it was “outrun” by a well-used Neo and an old Trek fitness FX bike.
The first test was quite impressive, and a few rides on the Repack Ridge MTB course was a lot of fun. Especially if you ignore that I got slightly seasick!
Finding the Line
The next Friday after some outdoor riding and zwifting on the Stages bike I decided to jump on the Neo for my Friday BoOCD2000 and just activated the steering because I could. A few miles into the ride an idea popped up: why not try to steer on the optimal line up the Alpe?
So while trying to figure out if it was a great idea to climb 2000m fasted early in the morning I was also trying to estimate if actively steering for the optimum line would make any difference. But I didn’t really come to any conclusion, so I kept climbing.
No steering
Steering, optimal line
At the top (well more like on the way down when trying to find some oxygen) comparing the photos from a non-steering BoOCD2000 ride with the active ride I realized that I actually rode 600 meters less during the 40km ride by actively keeping the optimum line!
Bad, On Purpose
Of course, my mind had to mess with me, so for the next Friday morning ride there wasn’t really anything to do but try riding the same route while taking the worst line and see what distance that would result in on the top.
For some weird reason Zwift didn’t have an update ready that morning and I just hopped on. The legs weren’t quite as enthusiastic as I was, but at the top, the distance ridden was 500 meterslonger than the non-steering ride – making the difference between the optimum line and the worst line 1100 meters!
Steering, worst line
Conclusion
The distances stated above are from the photos included in this article. There might be a slight difference where they are shot, but Garmin connect shows the following distances to the same point at the top of the Alp which confirms everything:
Normal no steering: 40.79 km
Steering optimum line: 40.25 km
Steering worst line: 41.90 km
For me, the surprising conclusion is that line choice does affect the distance ridden. Well done Zwift! 1100 meters less on a 40km ride is quite a lot if you are racing.
This isn’t a scientific test, just me having fun trying, so you might want to do a few tests of your own. It’s fun and you get to be on Zwift so why not? Ride on!
Zwift’s most recent update (August 6) included a new feature which just went live minutes ago on the roads of Watopia. “Pace Partners” are pacer bots which Zwifters can join from the drop-in screen. When you click to join a bot it will be just like joining a friend who is already riding – you will be taken to where that bot is on-course, and you can ride with them as long as you’d like.
Here’s what the drop-in screen looks like:
And here’s a quick snippet of one Pace Partner in action:
Our guess is each bot will always have a group of riders around it in a sort of ongoing group ride. The Pace Partners are visible to everyone, so even if you don’t click to join them from the drop in screen, you can always choose to grab the Pace Partner’s wheel if you see them in game.
There are four bots, and last we heard they were scheduled to be available 20 hours per day (the 4 hour window allows for tweaks/maintenance from 8:30-10:30 and 20:30-22:30 Pacific time). Each bot rides at a set wattage on a particular Watopia route:
D. Diesel (1-2.4 w/kg)”: Casual-paced group ride with a few gentle hills
C. Cadence (2.5-3.1 w/kg): Moderately-paced group ride with occasional hills
B. Brevet (3.2-3.9 w/kg): Expert-paced group ride with frequent climbs.
A. Anquetil (4+ w/kg): Elite-paced ride on a challenging route. Many tough climbs!
When we checked, only Anquetil and Cadence were live, riding Road to Ruins and Tempus Fugit respectively:
Just the Beginning
This is just the “minimum viable product” (MVP) version of Pace Partners. There are lots of possibilities for this feature to expand in the future, including having bots modulate their power in smart ways (increasing on climbs, decreasing on descents), giving riders rewards for staying near the bot, running pacers, etc. But Zwift wants to test out the feature first to see if people find it useful.
As with all FutureWorks features, Zwift releases them so the community can test and provide feedback via in-game surveys and the FutureWorks forum.
For the past 19 weeks I have become obsessed… so i asked Eric if i could share my obsession with you all, in weekly doses. For the past 19 weeks my entire Zwift experience has centered around the Thursday Team Time Trial arranged by WTRL. If you haven’t checked it out, you should – for me at least, it is the best of what Zwift can provide.
For the uninitiated, the WTRL TTT takes teams of (up to) 8 riders around a course that changes from week to week. The trick is to learn how to work as a team taking advantage of drafting, rotating turns at the front then resting at the back, while managing energy to make sure you get 4 riders across the finish line as fast as possible. Teams are categorized into 5 classes; Vienna (ladies), Espresso (no restrictions), Frappe (mostly As and Bs), Latte (Bs and Cs) and Mocha (Cs and Ds) so there’s something for everyone.
The WTRL website at wtrl.racing is a great place for more information on how it works.
WTRL’s TTT has become such a phenomenon it has caught the eye of the race commentators at Zwift Community Live. Each week Nathan Guerra and Dave Towle run a live commentary of the TTT – you can find last week’s coverage here – and there is already a placeholder for this week’s TTT, #71.
My weekly Zwift schedule for the past 5 months has revolved around examining the upcoming route, plotting target times for my team and helping with equipment selection. I typically ride and re-ride the upcoming course, and try to be at my freshest each Thursday because anything else would be letting the team down! Thursday evenings are spent poring over the results and comparing how we did to previous weeks, looking to glean something that will boost performance next week. Yeah – you could say I’m obsessed.
Each week on a Friday I will give you a profile of the upcoming route, guidance on bike choice and maybe even some target times if you want to aim for the Premiere League (top-10 in each coffee class get to be in a special race televised on YouTube).
Thursday 27th August – The Rumble in the Jungle
This week the route is the Jungle Circuit: a 5.7km downhill lead-in, then three laps of the hilly 7.8km Jungle Circuit.
The WTRL team are pushing our comfort level this week – not only do we have to contend with a dirt road, they are enabling some of the powerups, and it will be double draft. There were some rumors flying around that the new Sterzo steering plate would be working which caused plenty of debate… but unfortunately, ZwiftHQ hasn’t opened it up to events yet. Some of these additions are one-off experiments, and some will filter into later weeks’ TTT events.
Throughout the race you will have the three opportunities to collect a powerup – one each time you go through the start/finish of the loop. The powerups enabled are:
Aero – Use this when you are at the front of your team to lead the way
Feather – flagging on that hill? Hit the feather powerup for a brief respite
Truck – Extra help when you’re hiding in the draft… for 30 seconds
Steamroller – You might be riding on dirt, but for half a minute it will roll just like tarmac
Specialized Epic S-Works
What to Ride
While the route starts on tarmac, it takes place almost entirely on the dirt surface of the jungle. Eric has run numerous tests on Zwifts dirt surfaces, and the results are conclusive – in a predominantly dirt surface a mountain bike will outperform a road or even gravel bike.
So for Thursday, I will be riding a Specialized Epic, but all the mountain bikes perform around the same. For the budget-conscious, the free-to-all Zwift MTB will do the course only a few seconds behind any of the others.
Route Recon
The lead-in heads down from the pens into the Jungle with the road changing from tarmac to dirt on the way down. In the forward direction, you roll through the lap banner at the loop’s lowest elevation, then ride a gradual climb (~3%), cross the rope bridge then back down to do it all again.
The best way to get the hang of a TTT route is to ride it. Whether you find a race/group ride, get your mates together for a Meetup or just jump in yourself… if you haven’t ridden that course in a while, I suggest riding around a few times, noting where your team is likely to break apart and lose draft (doubly important this week as double draft is enabled).
It’s been a while since I did the Jungle loop so I did a three-lap test ride Saturday. One thing to look out for is just how hard 29km on dirt is versus 29km on tarmac. This will feel like a 40km road ride and last as long. Expect your team’s time to be correspondingly longer.
If you are looking to practice Jungle Circuit ahead of the big race check out ZwiftHacks’ events app – and here are a few Jungle Circuit events happening this week:
On Tuesday, the WTRL Gravel series is over the same course and distance as Thursday’s TTT – evening Europe/UK and evening USA
If you’re looking for something laid back on Wednesday this ZHCC Sub2 ride will work perfectly!
What to Watch For
Familiarity with the route is one thing, but a Team Time Trial means sticking in the draft of your teammates – if a gap opens up it can be fatal. Gaps open up if your team isn’t disciplined or prepared, and you hit something that will change your speed. In a normal ride (like a race or a group ride) where you are drafting does not matter, but in a TTT it can make a huge difference to the team’s speed as you all slow down to regroup.
What are we looking for? Hills, descents, changes in surface, Let’s take a look at some of the key danger areas for The Rumble in the Jungle…
The lead-in is pretty straightforward – experienced teams won’t have any trouble at all. That said, there are two areas to watch for:
From the go it’s a nice downhill for 5km. Get into your groove and ride like the wind!
Just over a kilometer in, the road switches from tarmac to dirt-track. That change will cause a slow-down of the riders, with heavier and lighter riders behaving differently. That can cause a split. Luckily here everyone will have fresh legs – all pay attention and you’ll be fine.
Just after the Jungle Circuit “Y” there is a slight ramp – nothing in the grand scheme of things but enough to throw off your rhythm if you don’t pay attention. You’ll pass this three more times, but by then it’ll just be more grist for the mill.
After this, it’s all downhill to the banner
The rope bridge
For the most part this is a simple 2.5% up for 2.5 km then a shallower descent averaging 2% for 3 km. There is one danger area: right at the top of the climb is the rope bridge – 200 meters going down at 7%, 200 meters coming back up. Just long enough to cause a split if the riders at the front are gunning it and not looking at their followers!
Wrapping It Up
The Jungle Route is a perfect introduction to Team Time Trialling. It’s one of the simplest routes without too many “gotchas.” This week for the first time ever the WTRL team are putting powerups into the race! If you don’t have seven mates to join you, there are teams at every level looking for fresh riders. Visit wtrl.racing to get signed up!
Questions or Comments?
Did you find this article useful? Will you be riding in this week’s TTT? Share below!
It’s with great pleasure that we are able to confirm the dates and plans for the first UCI Cycling Esports World Championships. The year has certainly been a challenging one for all, but we are now back to enjoying racing and have a new UCI World Championships to look forward to at the end of 2020.
Virtual races were hugely popular during the period that competitions ceased, and I truly believe in the potential of esports to help grow participation in our sport. This is a historic moment.
David Lappartient, UCI President
Almost a year ago it was announced that Zwift would be hosting the first-ever UCI Cycling Esports World Championships for 2020. It’s been a crazy year, though, and with all the UCI calendar juggling and COVID restrictions, there was uncertainty about whether the event would actually happen.
But today it was announced that the UCI Cycling Esports World Championships will be held on Zwift December 8-9, 2020. This is especially good news considering the continued uncertainty surrounding the 2020 UCI Road World Championships – the races were scheduled to take place in Switzerland on September 20th, but the Swiss Federal Council has banned events uniting more than 1000 people through September 30, so an alternative venue is being sought.
There are still some key details being worked out for the inaugural Esports World Championships, but let’s dig into what we do know.
Place and Time
Events will take place on December 8-9, 2020.
Riders will compete remotely from their own homes or training bases, much like we saw in the Virtual Tour de France.
Stage Details
The events will take place entirely on Watopia, and men’s and women’s races will take place on identical courses over equal distances. Route details will be unveiled in the coming months.
Race winners will be determined simply by “first over the line” instead of the points systems we’ve seen in recent pro races.
Riders
The UCI will be inviting national cycling federations to take part in the 2020 event. Similar to the UCI Road World Championships, national federations will be allocated a number of places determined by certain criteria including UCI Road Rankings as of June 2020, the number of riders in the anti-doping Registered Testing Pool and the number of eligible riders on the Zwift platform.
More detailed criteria will be released which ensures that all five continents are represented for both women and men and that the maximum possible number of entries for both genders will be the same.
Automatic invitations will go to 20 national federations (Italy, Belgium, France, Netherlands, Australia, Spain, USA, Great Britain, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, Denmark, Poland, Austria, Colombia, New Zealand, South Africa, Norway, Ireland, Japan) for the men’s event and to 13 national federations (Netherlands, Italy, Australia, France, USA, Germany, Belgium, Great Britain, Poland, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Japan) for the women’s event.
Additional wildcard invitations may be awarded to individual riders by the UCI.
New Rainbow Jersey
The World Champion’s rainbow jersey is a highly-prized bit of kit for any pro cyclist, and the Esports World Championships will maintain this tradition. Winners will be awarded a newly-designed rainbow jersey to wear within Zwift. Physical jerseys will also be given to winners to wear while participating in esports competitions for the following year.
Looking to the Future
Zwift’s press release quotes CEO Eric Min:
2020 has been a big year for esports as it has helped fill the gap left by traditional sport. We look forward to establishing this as a new discipline of the sport – not one to plug gaps, but one that’s truly complementary to other disciplines, whether that be road, cyclo-cross or mountain bike. There’s a huge opportunity to grow the sport with esports and I’m proud that together with the UCI, we are able to lead the way.
Clearly, Min is bullish on the future of Zwift and esports. He always has been! This year has seen Zwift racing make huge strides forward – the massive influx of pro riders on the platform, the Virtual Tour de France, and now the Esports Worlds have all brought Zwift closer to a realization of Min’s vision.
But we’re still in the early days, and there is much progress to be made. Min has his sights set on Zwift as an Olympic Esport even as Zwift takes over ZwiftPower, anti-sandbagging controls begin rolling out, and the eracing rules and hardware standards continue to evolve. It’s going to be an exciting winter!
Rolled out with the first version of FutureWorks steering back in October 2019, Repack Ridge is Zwift’s first and only MTB singletrack. Steering here has always been accomplished by the Companion app running on your smartphone mounted to your handlebars.
Now Zwift has released an updated version of FutureWorks steering which allows us to steer on all Zwift roads, provided we have an Elite Sterzo Smart connected.
But can we use the Sterzo on Repack Ridge? The answer is: yes! Just access the trail the same way you always have, but with your Sterzo connected. Here’s how to do it…
Finding Repack Ridge
To ride Repack, you must first find the trailhead. It’s a one-way trail found in Titans Grove. If you enter Titans Grove from the north and ride south for another 2 miles you will arrive at the trailhead, which is on the right.
There is no route choice which puts you directly on Repack Ridge – the best you can do is choose a route which will take you to the trailhead after a few miles of riding.
Choose “Dust In the Wind“, “Muir and the Mountain” or “Quatch Quest” Watopia routes for the most direct line to the new trail. This way you won’t need to select any manual turns until you until the (?) prompt comes up near the new trail (see below).
Companion Required
There is one bit of weirdness when it comes to riding Repack with a Sterzo: you must have the Companion app connected to your ride in order to get the turn prompt which allows you to get onto Repack Ridge. This is a holdover from the original version of steering which used the Companion app. Here’s what that turn prompt looks like:
Turn right to get onto Repack
Once you’re at the Repack Ridge trailhead, you’ll see prompts which imply that steering is still being controlled by the Companion app. Disregard these – apparently if you have a Sterzo connected, then the Companion app doesn’t do any steering. Start your Repack ride, and steer with your Sterzo as normal.
I found that having the steering sensitivity slider in the middle worked best, but you can mess with this setting as you ride to dial it in just right. Now go shred some virtual gnar!
Our newest Rebel Route comes from Zwifter Craig Devonshire, who suggested a route planned along the same theme as the infamous Badwater Ultramarathon. This race travels 135 miles from the lowest point in North America (Death Valley) to the highest point in the continental US (Mount Whitney).
For our Zwifty version, we travel from the lowest point on Watopia (Ocean Boulevard, -5m elevation), to the highest point (Alpe du Zwift, 1047m elevation) then back again. Who will be the first to complete the route in under 90 minutes?
About Rebel Routes
“Rebel Routes” are Zwift rides which are not available on Zwift’s routes list, thus requiring manual navigation.
The reward for your rebel ride? Exploring a new route, knowing you’ve gone where few Zwifters have gone before. And a Strava segment rank in the tens or hundreds instead of the thousands! They are included as a separate category on our Veloviewer Route Hunter leaderboard.
Route Description
Before we begin, please note that since we summit the Alpe on this route, you must be a level 6 Zwifter or higher to ride it.
Begin in downtown Watopia by selecting the “Flat Route”. Turn left onto Ocean Boulevard, which will take us underwater to the lowest elevation on Watopia. Enjoy the flat roads while you can – they won’t last long.
Downtown Watopia start/finish banner
The lowest elevation in Watopia – below sea level!
Turn left at the windmills
After you climb out of the tunnel, turn left at the windmills to head over the dock and up the snaking climb toward the Epic KOM and Jungle. The climbing is beginning, but this is just the start! Turn right at the next fork toward the Jungle, then another right once you’re on the Jungle dirt to being the circuit in a counter-clockwise direction.
Another right finds us at the foot of Alpe du Zwift – time to climb! Hammer you way up those 21 turns, take a breather as you ride the ring road at the summit, then descend and retrace your path home!
Time to climb…
Enjoy your descent!
The route ends at the main downtown Watopia start/finish banner.
Profile
Getting Started + Lead-In
Start by choosing Watopia’s Flat Route. This will take you in the right direction for the first portion of the ride.
Turn by Turn
Here are the turns you’ll need to make to successfully complete Down Up Down. Start by choosing the Flat Route route, or any route that begins in downtown Watopia heading east. The official Strava segment begins at the downtown start/finish banner.
Matt and Jordan are stoked to have a pillar of the endurance industry, Dirk Friel, with them for this episode. Dirk shares the history behind founding TrainingPeaks and what it’s like to be the son of a true legend of the coaching world, Joel Friel.
They also talk about how to use metrics while training to stay on point during these strange times as well as some things to try to avoid.
About the Podcast:
The Zwift PowerUp Tri Podcast is hosted by former pro triathletes Matt Lieto and Jordan Rapp, lending their in-depth knowledge of the multisport to the Zwift Tri audience.
UPDATE (Sept 9, 2020): Good news! Elite made several improvements to the Sterzo Smart’s design in order to prevent rust/corrosion issues and simplify setup. Read about it >
Thanks to the new FutureWorks Steering feature, Zwifters can steer on all roads in game. It’s fun, especially in races!
Now that I’ve put 20+ hours into my Elite Sterzo Smart, I figured it was time to review this unit. Additionally, sweat corrosion issues have started rearing their ugly head for some Zwifters, so I wanted to share that info and some tips for avoiding sweat-induced problems. Let’s get to it!
A Note About Supply
Zwifters must purchase an Elite Sterzo Smart steering block in order to steer on all roads. But Zwift quickly sold out of its stock and doesn’t expect more until early September. Someone seriously underestimated demand for these units!
I reached out to Elite and Zwift to inquire about when stock will be available for purchase, but that’s not an easy answer to give since Elite ships to distributors who then ship to specific stores. So while I don’t have super-specific dates, I do have this from Elite:
We are shipping product as we speak and we have taken actions to increase our production capacities by adding a new production line. We will start to see the benefits as early as next week. And some air-freight shipments are being done to reduce transit time from here in Italy where the Sterzo Smart is made to overseas customers.
The Elite Sterzo Smart will be available at other online retailers, but I don’t have that list yet.
Setup
Setup is quite simple. Unbox it, install the batteries, and place it under your front tire in the right direction. Easy!
My one complaint: the battery compartment (3 AAA batteries) has a small screw holding it closed. I’m not a fan of batteries that require tools to install – we live in the age of plastics, CAD software, and 3D printing. Certainly we can figure out a battery compartment that can be opened by hand!
When the battery compartment is poorly-designed in the first place, it’s like Elite is making me do extra work without any actual benefit. (If it uses an actual screw, shouldn’t it be tightly sealed?) But more on that seal issue later…
Pairing Up
Moving your front wheel back and forth a bit will wake up the Sterzo, then it’s just a matter of starting up Zwift and pairing the Sterzo on the pairing screen. Typically this is a quick process, but I found that sometimes the “searching” window would take 20-30 seconds to find the Sterzo, even though the Sterzo was awake and blinking.
Pairing got more dicey mid-ride, if I decided to unpair the Sterzo and repair it. Zwift seems to have a really hard time finding the Sterzo in this situation, although it seems to find it eventually. I’m not sure if this is a Zwift issue (not searching for the Sterzo properly) or an Elite issue (perhaps the Sterzo still thinks it’s paired, so it isn’t broadcasting via Bluetooth in order to pair properly?) Regardless, this step needs some help.
Once you are paired, you can move your wheel back and forth to see the reading for the Sterzo on the pairing screen. And once you begin your ride, you will be greeted with a Welcome screen that explains how FutureWorks steering functions. A simple, straightforward explanation… although I’d like the screen to stop showing up now that I’ve used my Sterzo for several hours.
In-Game Experience
Before I talk about what it’s like to ride in Zwift with the Sterzo, you must understand a few things about FutureWorks Steering:
If you don’t steer at all, you will basically stay in the same left to right lane position during the ride. Think of the road like a slot car track, with (I think) 12 slots in it. As you steer, you are moving between those slots. If you don’t steer, you stay in your slot… although you may get bumped around a bit when moving through other riders.
You can ride through riders front to back. When that happens, Zwift automatically steers your rider around the other rider.
You cannot ride through other riders side to side. So if you want to cut a corner sharp, but there’s a group of riders on your inside, you won’t be able to move all the way over.
Physical Steering “Feel”
Steering with the Sterzo on Zwift doesn’t feel exactly like steering outdoors. Outside, at any significant speed, bike steering is done more by leaning (and even countersteering) than it is pointing your front wheel in the direction you want to travel. Zwift steering feels more like what you experience when climbing slowly on a mountain bike, when you actually do point your wheel in the direction you need to go, and leaning isn’t an option.
One thing I really liked about the steering on the Companion app was that I could lean into turns and the app saw that as steering. That doesn’t happen with the Sterzo, obviously, because the Sterzo doesn’t know you’re leaning. That said, I still find myself leaning (on my rocker plate) into turns with the Sterzo!
The Sterzo is spring-loaded, so it stays centered unless you actively turn your handlebars. It’s a pretty stiff spring, too, which is good because we want to minimize accidental turning when riding out of the saddle or sprinting.
The Head Tube Angle Challenge
When Zwift first released steering via Companion on Repack Ridge, there was a lot of talk about creating a steering turntable which doesn’t force your trainer to “walk” as you turn the bars. It wasn’t easy, because the turntable needed to be tilted up to match your head tube angle.
I was curious how Elite would handle this challenge with the Sterzo, since the angle really depends on your specific bike. The Sterzo is certainly designed with some head tube angle in mind, but I found that it still pulled on my rear triangle quite a bit when steering – especially if I turned the handlebars to more extreme angles. I also found that it was harder than I’d like to turn my handlebars, due to the angle not being correct.
I ended up putting a small block approximately 1″ tall beneath the front of the Sterzo, tilting it up for a better fit with my Roubaix SL4’s head tube angle. This made it easier to turn, and noticeably reduced the movement in my rear triangle.
Race Positioning
Being unable to steer through riders left to right makes positioning a challenge in races with a lot of sharp corners such as Crit City. If you want the fastest line, you have to find a gap in the riders in order to cut the corner. This means anticipating the turn and moving over when there is an opening. It also means that, the busier the race is, the less your chance of an efficient line!
This isn’t a bad thing – in fact, it’s very realistic. In an outdoor crit race, everyone knows you can corner more efficiently when you’re on the front, or in a small group than when you’re in a mass of 50 riders. I think we’ll find that racing with the Sterzo is more fun in smaller groups, and more fun if more of your competitors are also using the Sterzo.
Clearly, the Sterzo will be a huge advantage in TT races, since pack positioning will be a minor issue and optimized lines will trim valuable seconds off riders’ times.
The sharper the turn, the more you can gain from cutting the corner. So you may find that you only focus on a couple of key corners, such as the hairpin leading into the finishing straight on Crit City’s Downtown Dolphin route. Making your corners count is important, too, because you may pop out of the draft while you’re doing it! Let’s talk about the draft…
Watch my recent Crit City race to see how this plays out in an actual event:
Dodging the Draft
If the pack is on one side of the road, and you’re cutting the corner on the other side of the road, your rider will often go from the sitting up “drafting” position to the crouched “out of the draft” position, indicating you aren’t receiving any draft benefit. That’s a bad thing in races, where conserving your energy is paramount.
Me out of the draft, rounding the Arc de Triomphe
If you’re going to pop out of the draft, make it count, then get back into that draft as quickly as possible.
It’s worth nothing that the Tron bike does not show your avatar changing position based on draft status. This puts Tron riders at a bit of a disadvantage when steering in races.
Is It Faster?
Steering makes the ride more engaging and immersive, no one will argue that. But is it actually faster in a race? Absolutely yes, if you do it right.
Here’s the test I did: two laps of the Downtown Dolphin route at 250 watts steady, with no other riders on course. One lap without steering, one lap with steering.
No steering: 3 minutes, 11 seconds
Steering: 3 minutes, 4 seconds
So steering saved me 7 seconds on just one lap of the 1.2-mile route. That’s significant! Bearing in mind that you probably won’t be able to hit every corner perfectly when riding with others, and that lap times are shorter in races, I would say steering still gives you a 2-4 second per lap advantage on Crit City. That’s much more than any bike frame or wheelset gives you.
Battery + Rust Concerns
I’ve already seen a handful of posts from Zwifters dealing with rust issues on their new Sterzos. Hopefully this post will help other Sterzo owners avoid these problems!
There are two areas of rust concern on the Sterzo:
Battery Compartment: if you’re sweating on a softer foam floor (common in pain caves), that sweat can go beneath your Sterzo and work its way into the battery compartment. This will quickly corrode the batteries and contacts.
Rollers: sweat falling on the main platform of the Sterzo gets picked up by the rollers beneath the wheel holder, and those rollers quickly rust.
Here’s what those rust issues look like (after just three days of Sterzo use):
A rusted out battery compartment, complete with a broken conductor tabRusty wheels/bearings on the underside of the moveable wheel holder
I reached out to Elite about this issue, sharing the photos above which came from fellow Zwifter Mike Lister. Here’s what they had to say:
Needless to say we did testing with multiple persons for multiple training sessions for multiple weeks but the images you sent from FB are very clear. So to cut to the chase, we will clearly substitute next week this person’s Sterzo Smart and will do the same for anyone else encountering the same issue and we already have our Tech team working on solutions to keep the compartment isolated with Sterzo Smart totally submerged underwater.
Kudos to Elite for being willing to quickly replace rusted Sterzos. If you need a replacement, reach out to Elite’s support at support.elite-it.com.
Here are some simple ways you can avoid rust issues on your Sterzo:
Towels are your friend:
If you’re on a soft floor, lay a towel beneath your Sterzo so it can soak up sweat without allowing it to puddle and fry your batteries.
Place a towel between your Sterzo and front tire, large enough that it covers the entire Sterzo and moves smoothly with your steering. This will soak up any sweat drops and keep your Sterzo dry and happy.
Wipe any moisture off your Sterzo after each session, and run the wheels over a towel to make sure they’re dry.
Use a towel on your handlebars to catch much of the sweat that would otherwise drip straight down.
Duct tape fixes everything: apply duct tape over the battery compartment to seal it from sweat.
Fan support: a strong fan like the Wahoo Headwind should blow sweat drops back far enough that they’ll miss your Sterzo entirely. That’s been my saving grace!
Conclusions
The Sterzo works well as a steering device, although it isn’t perfect. (It’s a first-run product after all, and this is FutureWorks steering – so I don’t expect perfection at this stage.) Yet even in this early phase, steering on Zwift is fun, especially for races. I’m really looking forward to taking part in races where everyone has a Sterzo – that will be interesting!
There are three Sterzo improvements that need to be on Zwift/Elite’s shortlist, in my opinion:
Make Pairing Faster/Seamless: with such a simple device, pairing should be quick and easy, every time. I think we’ll get there.
Tilt-Adjustable: make the two front feet height-adjustable so users can dial in the tilt a bit, or offer aftermarket feet to accomplish this. (Note: this has the added benefit of keeping the battery compartment off the wet pain cave floor!)
Stop the Rust: rusting after just a few days of use is unacceptable. The battery compartment needs to be relocated and/or sealed, and the wheels need to be replaced with something that won’t rust such as plastic or stainless steel. I’m happy to hear that Elite is working on improvements in this area.
