Zwift’s latest update includes a new FutureWorks event type called “Boost Mode”. It’s already been the source of no small amount of controversy, with some Zwifters complaining they don’t want “fake” watts/artificially-boosted Strava segment times, Zwift should spend their time developing features Zwifters are requesting, and “we don’t want Mario Kart – we want a realistic cycling simulator.”
Fair enough. But I would push back on those complaints:
- I don’t want fake watts: this isn’t like riding an ebike! Your own watts charge your “battery”, then you release those watts when desired. Zwift has been clear in saying there are “no free watts” in Boost Mode. In-game segment PRs are disabled in Boost Mode events. As for Strava segments – my guess is the boosts aren’t long enough to affect segment times, except on short sprints.
- Zwift should spend time on other features: Zwift employs around 300 people, and there are always many projects underway in various stages. Just because Zwift’s developers are working on one thing doesn’t mean they’re neglecting another. Boost Mode is a great example of this – I first heard about it back in December 2019, when Zwift was talking about releasing it! So it was in development for months prior to this, along with a slew of other features.
- We don’t want Mario Kart: here’s the thing: some people do! Zwift is different things to different people, which is why events have options. Boost Mode isn’t going to be used in every race – far from it. But it may be used in some races, and you can take part in those, or not.
Yesterday I saw that the Jarvis Club has a private test event set up: “Boost Mode Test 1a”. 10 Laps of Crit City’s Downtown Dolphin, and the first-ever live test of Boost Mode. I had to sign up! I wasn’t entirely sure how Boost Mode worked, but I figured it would be simple enough. Turns out I was both right… and wrong. Boost Mode takes Zwift strategy to the next level! Here’s the story of today’s Boost Mode race.
The Warmup
Today’s warmup was a bit longer than my usual, because the race wasn’t until 8am and I was antsy to ride. So I got on around 7am after chewing three pieces of caffeine gum and slapping some PR lotion on the legs. I had to spend a little extra time tweaking my trainer setup, because I was testing out some new Garmin Vector 3 pedals and had my bike hooked to Monica’s rocker plate and Tacx Neo trainer.
A few hard efforts got my heart rate up to 160, then it was time to head to the Crit City start pens. Let’s race!
Welcome to Boost Mode
When I clicked to join the event, I was greeted with a “Welcome to Boost Mode!” screen. This introduced me to Boost Mode, and let me set my options:
Here’s how Boost Mode works:
- You have three different “Boost Types” to choose from, and you have to choose one. You only get to pick one of these for your event, and you can change it until the event begins. Think of these as on-bike batteries which you charge yourself.
- For this test event, the three Boost Types were:
- Efficient: 50w boost for up to 90 seconds. Requires 50w to charge. Adds 11lb to your weight throughout the event.
- Balanced: 200w boost for up to 17 seconds. Requires 100w to charge. Adds 16.5lb to your weight throughout the event. This is the boost I selected.
- Power Burst: 500w boost for 5 seconds. Requires 150w to charge. Adds 22lb to your weight throughout the event.
- Each boost type has a different number of “stages”. You can store up 4 boosts with “Efficient” mode, 2 boosts with “Balanced”, and only one boost in “Power Burst”. Tapping once on the charge or discharge button will charge/discharge one stage. Tapping multiple times will charge/discharge as many times as you tap.
- During the event, buttons in Companion and on-screen let you decide when you want to charge your Boost, and when you want to use it.
- Small green icons show next to rider names when they are using a boost. You have no way of knowing which boost type they selected, or when they are charging their boost.
The Start
The clock hit zero and our small band of ~15 B’s headed out of the pens. And that’s when I encountered my first problem: the A’s showed up! I hadn’t looked closely at the event details, and didn’t realize we’d be mixing in with the other categories. (Have I mentioned how much I dislike racing with other categories?)
I pushed extra hard to hang with the front group, knowing the longer I could hang with the A’s, the better my chance at a race win. But I was off the back almost immediately – not surprising considering the A’s included heavy hitters like Kim Little, Casey Schumm, Nathan Guerra, and James Hodges!
My First Charge
Once the failed fight for the front finished, I turned my attention to Boost Mode. I needed to charge my first boost! So as I began descending the twisties, I tapped the battery icon in Companion. This reduced my power by 100 watts while it charged, as indicated by the “-100w” graphic below the power number at the top-left of the screen:
Zwift doesn’t change your power numbers shown on screen (pure watts or w/kg number) when you’re charging or using a boost. And they shouldn’t! We all want to see accurate power.
Crucially, Zwift also doesn’t change the power numbers it records while you’re charging or boosting. So your final fit file will be accurate, showing the actual power you put out during the event.
Timing Bug
There was one bug that Zwift will need to fix, though. I didn’t notice this until after the race, when I was watching my recording… but it took the same amount of time (8.5 seconds) for me to charge my boost as it took for the boost to discharge. Why does this matter? Because charging only cost me 100w, but discharging boosted me by double that (200w)! So I was getting 100 free watts for 8.5 seconds every time I used a boost!
I chatted with Wes Salmon at HQ about this – and he made it very clear that their goal here is for boost mode to give no free watts. Which is exactly how it should be. So this is just a bug which will be fixed in short order – probably by the end of today, according to Wes.
Wes also said they’re building in a bit of a “charging tax”, so the watts you get when activating your boost should be a little less than what you put in – like charging a real battery.
The Middle
As the race continued, I started paying more attention to what was going on around me, both in terms of the overall race situation, and how other riders were using Boost Mode. Our B group was quite scattered, with a few riders up the road with some A’s, and me with a small pack of B’s in what I assumed was the second group. (This is one reason why I don’t like racing with mixed categories – it makes it harder to track who is where!)
I had my eye on Chris Pritchard, who was up the road with some of the A’s. I figured he (as well as others) were live-streaming this effort, and you know how that goes: when you know the world is watching, you push yourself to the max!
My boost charging and discharging fell into a more regular pattern as the race continued. I would charge on the descending twisties, because descents are where it’s easiest to keep speed high even if watts drop off. Conversely, I would use my boost on the brick prime climb, because climbs are where wattage boosts help your speed the most. This had the effect of making my effort more “even” over each lap.
Extended Animation
But just because it evened out my effort doesn’t mean it made the race boring! The opposite was true, in fact: Boost Mode really animated this race, in ways I have never experienced before on Zwift. Having a boost in my back pocket gave me the gumption to attack hard on the climb or bridge up to riders ahead, when I would have otherwise sat in with my group. Instead of the typical Crit City race of attrition, I found myself in a constantly-changing small group of riders as we caught some up the road, dropped others, and got caught by others using boosts to chase us down!
The 200w boost was definitely noticeable – it made a huge difference in terms of effort up the prime climb, and really boosted my speed on the flats. The -100w hit when charging was also noticeable, but not too bad when done on the descent.
There was an entirely new level of strategy at play here as riders tried to leapfrog groups or attack hard and drop others. All of the Boost Mode madness was mixed in with the standard powerup fun, too, so it was possible to (for example) use a feather plus a 200w boost on the prime climb.
The Finish
In the final lap I found myself with a pack of two other B riders: Mike Ellis and Chris Pritchard. There were just a couple B’s well up the road, as far as I could tell… so we were fighting for a podium spot or two.
Mike had been putting in some hard attacks throughout the race, and I figured Chris had a strong sprint. I had held onto an aero helmet powerup for the final sprint, and charged both of my boosts. So I had 17s of a 200w boost to use, plus a 15-second powerup. What was my best strategy in the final meters of this race? Now you can see how Boost Mode brings another level of thought to Zwift racing! And my poor addled race-brain was having a hard time deciding the best move.
Given how I’d seen Mike attacking thus far, I figured he would go hard on the prime climb and try to stay away. Pritchard, on the other hand, had been racing smart – sitting in the draft. So I decided I would try to follow the wheel of anyone who attacked hard on the climb, using one Boost if needed. And I would save my other Boost plus aero powerup for the final sprint.
Mike jumped on the prime climb as expected – and he jumped hard! Watching the replay, he must have used a Boost, because he flew away quickly. I was gapped, even with my extra Boost power. Pritchard used a Boost as well as a feather powerup to make it up the climb easily, and we traded pulls as we chased Mike on our way down the descending twisties to the final sprint.
Timing the boost and powerup wasn’t easy, with Mike just within reach and Chris right on my tail. I hit both of my “assists” probably earlier than I should have, getting out ahead of Chris then passing Mike before Chris came roaring past in the final meters. I was right – he did have a strong sprint!
In the end I got 4th place. One nice thing about Jarvis Club private events – no sandbaggers! Our in-game results matched ZwiftPower’s results.
See my activity on Strava >
See my activity on Zwift >
See race results on ZwiftPower >
Watch My Recorded Race
Takeaways
My big takeaway from this event is that Boost Mode is going to be a big deal in Zwift racing. It will never be used for all races, and it shouldn’t be, because some racers want a more “pure” race experience (no powerups, either). But I believe once Zwift gets Boost Mode dialed in, Zwifters will find they really enjoy the way it animates races and adds strategic options.
There’s plenty of strategy and variability in outdoor bike racing which we don’t get on Zwift: wind, mechanicals, pack positioning, braking/surging, etc. Boost Mode, in my opinion, will bring some much-needed variability to Zwift races.
My second takeaway is that I’m happy with how Zwift is letting Jarvis Club members test these new FutureWorks features. This is exactly how it should be done – let experienced Zwifters test stuff out and provide feedback so things can be polished then released to the entire Zwift community. For Boost Mode in particular, Wes mentioned that next week they’ll have more events, and the numbers for the boosts will be tweaked, as HQ dials in what works best for charging wattage, boost wattage, and charge times.
Your Thoughts?
What do you think of this boost mode idea, now that you’ve read/seen it in action? Share your thoughts below!
This is exactly why F1 introduced KERS. It makes the races much more interesting by providing a lot of strategy options, and greatly increasing the amount of passing (overtaking) that goes back and forth during races.
Interesting analogy. I used to be a big Formula 1 fan. Then the adjustable rear wing/push-top-pass was added and I immediately lost all interest. That change pushed F1 over the line from Sport to Entertainment.
I turned off the TV and have not watched an F1 race since.
I used to be a huge fan of American football. Then, they introduced the forward pass, and I haven’t watched a game since. Completely destroyed the integrity of the arbitrary rules that change on a regular basis.
I think KERS was actually introduced to give F1 a “hybrid” element, which manufacturers insisted on in a petrol-powered series, rather than to make the racing more interesting. I also think the only time it really mixes up the racing is when it breaks on one of the cars.
Like Steve, I’ve also gradually watched less and less F1 since before DRS came in. The racing just doesn’t float my boat any more.
I think two stronger examples of motorsports which use similar boosts to this Zwift system to mix up the racing are Indycars and Formula E.
Indycars has “Push to Pass” which gives drivers an extra series of power boosts throughout a race. Over the past few years this has been either a fixed number (e.g. 10 boosts per race), or a fixed duration (e.g. 120 seconds of boost per race). Similar to Zwift’s boosts, drivers can use it to attack or defend, as opposed to F1’s DRS – which only gives a benefit to drivers who are behind. Unlike Zwift’s boost, there’s no penalty for using Push to Pass, except for slightly higher fuel consumption as you use it. They’ve tweaked this over time and I think it works well.
Formula E uses “Attack Mode”, which gives every driver a period of time where their cars have extra power. To receive this power they have to take a small time penalty as they can only activate the boost by driving onto a part of the track which will temporarily lose them time. It was purposefully introduced to be “a bit like Mario Kart” and I think it also adds a different element to racing.
I’m in favour of Zwift mixing up race formats and boost types and I can see me wanting to compete in different types of races with or without different features in future. Just like when I play motor racing games, sometimes I like a simulation and sometimes I like playing Mario Kart.
I don’t race in Zwift anymore (Doctors Orders), but that does look like a lot of fun!
They should be working on getting the cheaters and wrongly categorized riders out of races from the start of the race so C and D races are not blown up from the get go. I am not sure how many people really want a feature like this.
They’re working on both. Zwift has 300 employees… they don’t all work on one feature at a time.
Then maybe they should reallocate resources as it is ridiculous that cheating has gone on this long without a fix. I like (LOVE) Zwift a lot but there is ZERO excuse for a couple of very obvious shortcomings and maybe if online leaders such as yourself used your voices instead of being reasonable…
I don’t agree here. Eric is using this website a lot to write about sandbagging, and how it affects races. And fortunately Zwift is currently active in doing something about it.
Grammatical error in “effect segment times” … should be *affect* and not “bring about”
Excellent. Fixed!
I’ve seen a few of Chris Pritchard’s streams lately. He does have a 1,500+ watt sprint.
how much does he weigh tho ;D
And he’s a “B”? I just got bumped into the B’s last weekend and I’m pretty concerned about being at the bottom of the deep end of the pool. I’m really not that fast, just have good endurance so I’ve been able to put down good 20 minute numbers. I can see 1500 watts when I plug in lotsa light bulbs. I’ll never see that on Zwift. My 5 second is 640watts.
Same here, in fact my cheap trainer maxes out at around 800 anyway!
Chris was/is ill, he only put out 1000 watts or so.
Cycling has always had different abilities, Chris is a sprinter. If you want to beat him, don’t go to the line with him, you will get beat everytime unless you are also a also a sprinter. Put him to the sword before the last lap.
Also, another tip – don’t weight dope, far too many light riders on zwift crit races. Weight doping will make you get destroyed in crit racing if you are in a category above what you should be.
I jumped in this between my am meetings just to see how it worked. Having forget my di2 battery was chrging meant “taking a lap” and just having fun with the feature.
Main takeaway is that this will make cirt racing (and other racing) more interesting and hopefully should enable and promote breakaways. I wasnt sure how this owuld be and although wasnt in the mix in this race and just playing around a lap or so do I can see how this is “game changing”
Super excited for its rollout
Great points about animating Crit racing. Having done it, do you think it could still benefit animation in events that exceed an hour?
Is it visible to others when you play a boost? I like the variability but I would like to have real time insight to how i am getting destroyed. Finishing a ride and wondering how someone did that when you have gamified options doesnt sound entertaining for long
Yes, you see a green arrow icon next to their name in the rider list.
Exactly so. I always want to know the how and why of getting destroyed. It’s usually fairly obvious though.
I’d like to see when someone is charging , it would be a good time to attack.
I should try this out before objecting. But my initial reaction is I don’t want Zwift to become just another gimmicky video game, albeit human powered. I would rather Zwift put their effort into creating new routes/worlds and fixing the problems with race categories. Make Zwift deeper and more realistic, not more gamey.
The weight penalty should be a percentage of body weight not a flat weight tax. Maybe even same with the boost wattage amount and cost to charge it. 22 lbs is almost 20% of my bodyweight as a female rider so there’s no way I could ever use the Sprint boost setting because I be would never make it through the race with a 20 % weight increase because it turns my 4 watt per kg ftp at 220 watts into a 3.38 watt per kg ftp.(55 to 65 kg)
22lbs/10kg to even a 150lb rider is a much smaller penalty. My BF who weighs 68 kg basically almost all of that 13 more kg is lean muscle mass. His ftp is actually 340 but for this comparison, lets make it only 4 watts per kg – 272 watts. At the 78 kg penalty weight that puts him at 3.48, which is less of a penalty AND he can charge it while doing zone 1 wattage. Vs high zone 2 wattage for me
I swear it’s like they have great ideas but just constantly butcher the execution in such a tremendous fashion I genuinely don’t understand how it’s anything but laziness not wanting to actually bother to do the math to make it work for everyone. Same way the current featherweight gives me more of an advantage than in a heavier rider. SMH zwift had so much potential to be great but they need to stay hiring better
Then the Feather Power up should also be a % of weight.
To be fair, Whitney, if the weight penalty is a percentage of body weight, then the wattage boost should be a percentage of FTP. After all, 50 extra watts helps you more than your boyfriend!
Solid point, Whitney. That said, if you use the 50 W version, the weight penalty is less, and you get a bigger boost from the watts. 50 W is .9 W/kg for you, and only ~.7 W/kg for your boyfriend.
There is ebike racing in the real world, and the motor and battery setup (same Wh) weighs the same, regardless of the rider. Or, if you take ebikes out of it, the UCI minimum weight is 6.8 kg, regardless of rider weight.
Seems like it would be cool in the long run to let riders have a scale of power ups that they could use, so you could go for less Watts for longer, that is also easier to charge. Would make breakaways easier if you could run +25 W for 3 minutes, for example.
Interesting feature and article 🙂
So the drive unit seems to sit in the rear hub? 🙂
Do you feel the additional weight? What impact did it have on your race?
I like everything which mixes up things a bit and adds new impulses – as long as you are able to choose what you want.
One main concern for me is usability, as because of limited space in our apartment my desktop PC is in another room and I have only the companion app for input, no keyboard (ANT+ and screen wired with long cables I have to lay through the hallway…).
For example, if I think back to steering the MTB: it would make things a bit too hard for me in racing – it’s hard enough to hit the power-up button on the tablet while sprinting without flipping the whole tripod or needing three tries. (By the way: would be nice to have a “race mode” page or the possibility to adjust the UI like size of the power-up button. Or am I the only one having such problems?)
Common guys at Zwift. What is next? Donkey Kong throwing waterbottes ?
If so, it really would be “on like Donkey Kong”, wouldn’t it?
I’m still waiting for the banana
Sums it up perfectly Eric, great racing.
Re-charging certainly made me push harder knowing that I was ‘losing’ watts meaning that I finished the race with a higher average.
I genuinely don’t understand how some people seem unable to accept that Zwift HQ aren’t developing Zwift purely for them and their ideas of what Zwift should be.
There are a ton of alternative options out there and zwift is doing pretty well so they’re presumably doing something right even if it’s not the hyper-realistic experience since people say they want.
Personally I don’t mind the boost idea but I’d rather they went full Mario Kart with oil slicks and missiles etc – as an option. Go nuts and have a pubg style battle-royale mode where you need to get across watopia ASAP until you’re the last zwifter riding!
Some people might never ride these modes but some some people never ride up the alpe, I never ride in NY if I can help it but I don’t tell zwift where they’re going wrong with it because plenty of people do seem to like to ride there.
As I’m flying down the 180 degree switchbacks on Alpe Du Zwift at 48mph knowing full-well that I’d end up dead in the valley below in real life and again racing criterium courses where I can hang out in the back because there’s no penalty to having to slow down further in the corners and sprint out of them like in real life, I’m actually ok with some of the gamification of zwift. What I’d like to see them address is more of the real-world behavior. My list would include some that have been posed before: pack positioning slows you down in corners of more than say 45 degrees- the further back you are the more it is, Mountain descents should force you to slow down to real world speeds (don’t look for perfection- just something more reasonable than 62mph from the radio tower into that left corner!), and here’s one that’s sure to be unpopular: add some wind simulation. Now imagine the strategy in THAT knowing that Tempus Fugit introduces a 10 mph headwind on your attack heading back to the finish! Slap a little windsock icon at the top of the screen to tell you which way it’s blowing 🙂 Since we don’t have steering yet, pack positioning with crosswinds and echelons and all of that wouldn’t matter quite yet but I think it could still have more interesting effects than doubledraft. And as with the boost and powerups, these could be added to race-only events too so it wouldn’t impact the masses out for their fun outings.
RGT slows you down in corners by cutting your power and even “leans” you in to the corners. Their implementation is horrible and ruins the ride. I do not mind the unrealistic switchbacks after climbing that thing but would agree some slowing – rubber band around u-turns in a pack would increase the effort and enjoyment.
I think this sounds cool and could be a lot of fun. I’m all for having to think more about strategizing. Seems like it makes up
for some of the IRL things Zwift can’t replicate. I can’t wait to try it. And thanks for talking about PR Lotion. I finally tried it and feel like it has a positive effect.
I agree. The races are getting too predictable. Grab your group within the first 3 minutes, hang on, sprint for finish. No way to bridge. Even moderate sized groups will catch small groups pushing same watts. Every time.
In principle, I like the idea, however I don’t know I like the weight penalty. Mostly because it’s something a rider can change (e.g. set weight to be 10kg lighter then take the power boost and ride at actual weight), but also because I don’t know if the fixed amount is fair to lighter riders (50kg + 10 is a bigger impact than 100kg + 10, and I don’t know the w/kg benefit of the boost lines up).
I’d much rather see the penalty handed out via some variable that the rider cannot change. I’d be tempted to go for a rolling resistance penalty for 3 reasons:
Couple of other thoughts/feature requests:
I was thinking the same thing. People will drop their weight to offset the weight penalty. Great ideas about how to display charging and use of boost.
The problem with Boost Mode is that it is proof that Zwift management is just doing their own thing while ignoring a heap of long requested changes from their user base.
Of course, Zwift management can do whatever they want, and clearly are going to do so. I’m not sure that ignoring what your user base wants is the best path to success. Maybe fix some of the issues on the top of the user request pile before introducing any more silly features.
Great analysis! This is going to be fun!
Boost mode does sound interesting but after 4 years on zwift I don’t bother with power ups as forget about them, I’m an ex cyclo Cross rider
Just here for the group rides, and training
Sorry ’bout that SLAP
A weight penalty for the whole race. Nice its about time lightweights suffered a disadvantage in a race.
Lightweights are already at a disadvantage in flat races, what are you talking about?
Take a read of Eric’s article here to see why lightweights are more often at a disadvantage in races (for the current category system): https://zwiftinsider.com/wkg-tests/
I was a bit unsure myself about how this would be in practice with me generally being someone who is not too keen on going down the game route but it looked and worked really well.
My son was looking to use Zwift so with me keen to check this out I let him use my account.
With the settings adjusted he entered the race and chose the 50W boost option. He used similar tactics to what Eric used in his article and was having a great time jumping to riders ahead or even trying to pull out gaps.
Overall he had his highest average power and said the laps seemed to pass by much quicker with the extra distractions and really enjoyed the whole experience.
Having initially been skeptical I now think this definitely has a place amongst the Zwift Events and can see it being a great option when you are in a ‘can’t be bothered’ mood.
Sounds cool.
I think the more interesting point to come out off your piece is, no sandbaggers in Jarvis club !
Race series where all riders are grouped by their last 10 race outputs, no exceptions would be the most straightforward way of controlling the problem. Not done 10races yet ? No problem, enter a “wild west” open race, where everyone chooses their own category, realise how frustrating it is, work through to get entry into the good series.
Is there a need for these boosts to be relative to ones power output? I’m a D rider at the moment and I can’t see myself ever being able to charge up with a 150w deficit. My ftp is 250ish (with no sprint!) so it’d be a big hit to my power. If you can output 350w, at least at 200w you’d still be moving!
I do wonder why the boost isn’t a W/KG bonus rather than simply watts. And I think they ought to make it an either or with the power ups.
I was watching Pritchards stream and enjoyed you and him going back and forth. He’s got a heckuva sprint on him.
Zwift is opening the door to rivals with the increasing ‘gamification’ of the app. As a long-ish term Zwifter, I’m now quite disillusioned with the platform & looking at other, more ‘realistic’ options. Maybe Rovey is showing the way forward?
Eric ur clearly not an EPIC GAMER, every1 knows it’s Mario Kart ;D
Dang, you’re right! And I played that game A LOT in my younger years!
Boost Mode “…will never be used for all races, and it shouldn’t be, because some racers want a more “pure” race experience (no powerups, either).”
Options are always good. However, there’s a complication to abundant race options. Some (many?) of us have busy lives, and narrow windows to ride. Say I’ve got a two hour time slot, and I’d like to participate in a race with hills, other categories invisible, no power ups, double draft, anti-sandbagging, and no boost mode…. And there’s nothing that meets even two of those criteria in my time window.
Add more races? Is Zwift going to ensure that a variety of race options are available throughout the day?
Can’t please everybody all the time. But if you don’t please everybody some of the time, folks will move on.
How does this change race dynamics? Such as a rider with a lower ftp, but a big sprint might have been able to hang with the bunch on a flatter course then try to sprint at the end for the win…. does this help or hurt that rider more? Or on a hilly race does this favor or hurt lighter riders?
Watching your an Chris’ races, I noticed Wes charged and used his LOADS of times per lap as did Chris, whereas you were much more conservative. Chris had a full charge at the end for example as he charged up with 0.7k to go. I feel in the future you could try and use much more? Charge in drafts?
Yes. Well, one reason they charged it more was because the timers were broken (mentioned above), so charging “cost” was much lower than it should have been. But yes, I had to remind myself to charge more!
the funny thing was everyone was on Chris’ back for being stupid and just constantly charging and using it, but given he was getting a net gain, spam away was the smart way lol.
Just had a super fun experience working with a group of 4 to pull a rider back – boosting through and then charging on the way back through the pace line. So focused on strats it was a struggle to remember to hydrate.
I had a great experience in the test event too. I was with another B and a A. Chose to charge at the wrong time and dropped myself. LOL. Would have been better if the cats had gone off separate though as the A did mess with the B pulling some away.
Beyond gamification, this feature seems to be rooted in a cyclists FRC (functional reserve capacity). As I read Hunter Allen’s writings, the FRC is described just like how the BoostMode operates. More seasoned cyclist may be able to describe this parallel better than i can.
Well written article Eric— edge of seat reading!
At first I thought the idea was pretty stupid, but now I think it might add an exciting element to some otherwise somewhat boring races.
Right now, most flat-ish races work exactly the same way: Sprint at the start to stay with the leading group, built a 1min+ gap to the next group and then stick with that group until roughly a mile out. At that point you start sprinting again and that’s it for 135lbs me when the big boys start to crank out 800+ watts. In a group of 10-20 riders, most of the time there’s just no chance for a breakaway on flat surface.
Zwift, get your priorities right! We want cycling, not a computer game. Give us wind, not bikes!
Not e-bikes!
These aren’t ebikes, though. You have to charge them with your own watts! Crucial difference…
But I support the wind idea! Especially if we can somehow position ourselves on the road…
Eric, I noticed on ZP you weigh 81kg. I weigh 76kg. But we were both docked the same weight penalties. 11lbs, 16.5lbs, 22lbs. Is this just part of the Beta testing? Were smaller riders docked the same numbers or should it be a percentage of their weight? I imagine a 22# penalty on you would be much easier than a 145# flyweight adding 22#. Thoughts?
It’s the same weight penalty, because you get the same boost from it. Think of it like bringing a battery onto your bike.
if they didn’t do it this way, lighter riders would complain that bigger riders could get a bigger wattage boost. That wouldn’t work well!
Personally, I’m waiting for Beast mode…
For those of you who are getting annoyed with Zwift adding silly things like this boost toy, doing as little as possible to stop cheating (everything seems to be focused on getting more uses into the game no matter how detrimental these people might be) rather than adding new courses – or even finishing the ones they have started like the MTB route there may be hope on the horizon: https://cyclingtips.com/2020/05/the-zwift-we-dreamed-of-you-can-now-ride-your-bike-in-grand-theft-auto/
I must be a purist. This sound ridiculous.
I tried it today and unfortunately I’m not a fan. In fact if it became a common theme to Zwift racing I’d probably go elsewhere and it pains me to say that as Zwift has been a lifeline recently.
I think it could be a good feature if you punch at the top of your weight category but for those of us mid to lower wkg riders who spend each race all out just to keep near the lead then trying to swallow a weight penalty somewhere where you’d normally try to recover is a big ask.
I do think I could have boosted more effectively but I doubt it would have kept me near a stronger rider who had the capacity to recharge and use those extra watts against me later.
Certainly didn’t enhance the fun for me and I think it would only enhance a sandbagger if they’re not dealt with before this ‘Feature’ is rolled out.