Since their release in August 2020, Pace Partners have become a popular part of the Zwift landscape, providing always-on group rides/runs at a consistent pace. In November 2022 they were renamed “RoboPacers”, to differentiate them from HoloReplay ghosts.
Here’s a quick snippet of one RoboPacer in action:
As the name says, RoboPacers are bots, not real people. They ride at a consistent pace on a particular route, and you can easily join them if you’re looking to ride with others.
This page contains everything we know about RoboPacers. Let’s dive in!
Meet Your RoboPacers
Cycling RoboPacers
- Taylor – 1.1 W/kg
- Bernie – 1.5 W/kg
- Miguel – 1.8 W/kg
- Maria – 2.2 W/kg
- Coco – 2.6 W/kg
- Yumi – 2.9 W/kg
- Jacques – 3.2 W/kg
- Genie – 3.7 W/kg
- Constance – 4.2 W/kg
Note: all cycling RoboPacers weigh 75kg and are 175cm tall.
Running RoboPacers
- Billy – 6.0 kph
- Louis – 6.7 kph
- Maggie – 7.5 kph
- Dean – 8.0 kph
- Lizzy – 8.6 kph
- Roger – 9.2 kph
- Audrey – 10.0 kph
- Jesse – 10.9 kph
- Kat – 12.0 kph
- Carl – 13.3 kph
- Joan – 15 kph
Uses for RoboPacers
Zwifters use RoboPacers in a variety of ways:
- Warmups and Cooldowns: getting ready for a race or tough group ride? Get your legs spinning with a pack of friends. It’s more fun than dropping into a map alone, and it helps get you into that group ride mode.
- Group practice: still learning how to stay in the draft and ride efficiently on Zwift? RoboPacer packs are the perfect place to practice. Move around in the group, noting how it gets harder or easier depending on if you’re off the front, tailgunning on the back, or sitting somewhere mid-pack.
- Steady training or long distance: looking for a steady effort? You always know what the RoboPacers will be doing.
- Intervals: interval training with a RoboPaced group is more fun than doing it alone. Try riding off the front for X minutes, or dropping off the back then sprinting on.
- Fitness Testing: want to push yourself? Choose a RoboPacer that rides above your race pace, and see how long you can hang on. Then come back and do it again!
- Meeting a Friend: want to ride with a friend? Just tell them which RoboPacer group you’ll be in, and they can join whenever they’d like!
Joining a RoboPacer
Find all the currently-active RoboPacers under “Find a Pacer Group” on your homescreen. Each Pacer’s card has details about what that particular Pacer is doing:
Select the RoboPacer you want and click to start riding/running with them. The game will give you a little burst of speed to make sure you don’t get dropped right away, but it’s best to be pedaling/running before you’re dropped in the world so you’re already up to speed!
Where Is the RoboPacer?
Here’s a little tip many Zwifters don’t know: when you click on a RoboPacer’s card from your home screen, a route map will pop up which includes the RoboPacer’s current location. It can be a little hard to see, but it’s the grey circle with a RoboPacer symbol inside.
Old Homescreen UI
A Note About Dynamic Pacing
Cycling RoboPacers use dynamic pacing, increasing power by up to 10% uphill and decreasing up to 20% when descending. This provides for a more natural overall pace, as riders on smart trainers instinctively boost their power on climbs and decrease it on descents. Just like outdoors!
Drops Multiplier Game
The Drops Multiplier game was created to encourage riders to stay close to the RoboPacers. It provides a bit of a challenge to help us engage and learn how to manage our position in the virtual peloton – a useful skill for races and group rides. And of course, we all like more Drops, so we can fill our virtual garages with more bikes and wheels!
The big idea here is: stay close enough to the RoboPacer and your Drops Multiplier will increase, which means you’ll be earning Drops faster. It takes 5 minutes to fill each stage, so after 5 minutes of riding close enough to a RoboPacer your multiplier will go from x1.0 to x1.2 (this means you’re earning Drops 20% faster than before.) 5 more minutes and it will go to x1.4, then x1.6, then x1.8, then x2.0, then x2.5.
It will stay at x2.5 as long as you stay close enough to your RoboPacer.
Chance of Thumbderstorms
If you’re looking to get a lot of Ride Ons, there’s no better place in Zwift than a big RoboPacer group. Not only do the RoboPacers hand out Rides Ons regularly, but riders in the groups do it as well! Many Zwifters have received their “Bigger Than Jensie” badge (100 Ride Ons) simply by hanging with Coco long enough…
Route Rotation Schedule
RoboPacers rotate through this set of routes, changing to a new route each week on Monday at 7am UTC:
Watopia riding routes:
Makuri Islands riding routes:
Running routes:
- 5K Loop
- Chilli Pepper
- That’s Amore
- May Field
The RoboPacer’s current route is visible on the homescreen.
See a full weekly schedule of RoboPacer cycling routes at zwiftinsider.com/robopacer-schedule/
RoboPacer FAQ
Do RoboPacers draft?
Yes.
Can I draft behind a RoboPacer?
Yes.
What’s the story behind Coco Cadence’s name change?
That’s a story Simon tells best.
Development Timeline
For the true Zwift nerds, here’s a timeline of Pace Partner/RoboPacer evolution:
- August 2020: Cycling Pace Partners go live as a “minimum viable product” (MVP) version
- September 2020: Drops Multiplier game launched for Cycling Pace Partners. UI tweaks to help you join and stay with the Pace Partners (read more).
- October 2020: Beacon added over Pace Partners for easier visibility, and warnings shown to help you make the right turn to stay with the Pace Partner (read more).
- December 2020: Run Pace Partners go live
- January 2021: Pace Partner UI tweaks made to help you stay close
- February 2021: Drops Multiplier game tweaks make it easier to get those Drops. Lower-level Zwifters can now follow Pace Partners into level-locked areas of Watopia. Read more >
- March 2021: route rotation announced for cycling Pace Partners
- April 2021: Zwift tests non-drafting Pace Partners… but not for long!
- September 2021: Zwift moves Pace Partners server-side, making things more stable and paving the way for much more powerful features.
- November 2021: Pace Partners launch in Makuri Islands, marking the first time the bots have appeared anywhere other than Watopia. A sign of things to come?
- March 2022: dynamic pace testing begins, making Pace Partners decrease efforts on descents and increase on inclines for a more natural riding experience.
- May 2022: a raft of new Pace Partners are released for testing various paces. Test events are held with Pace Partners as beacons/leaders, including Alpe du Zwift climbs and chase races.
- August 2022: homescreen UI revamped to display all Pace Partners as well as their route, group size, current w/kg, speed, and location on the map.
- September 2022: Pace Partners graduate out of FutureWorks. A whole new set of Pace Partners is spun up, and the list of Watopia and Makuri Islands routes for the Pace Partners is finalized.
- November 2022: Pace Partners are renamed RoboPacers.
Question or Comments?
Share below!
I was surpised to see Robopacers in Urukazi today. Shouldn’t be there. Maybe they got lost.
Zwift just recently changed the routes to include Urukazi. I just updated the list above!
As a 110 kg Clydesdale, it is very easy to outpace the Robo and accidentally leave the group after cresting a hill and accelerating away as you speed downhill. Even not pedaling fails to stop this. Can a means of indicating your desire to stay in the group be built in or have the software recognize the zero cadence?
Maybe just fall off the back a little bit during the climb, so the group is a 2-3 seconds ahead as you go down the hill?
This would be a very extreme option, but if you really are barreling downhill fast enough you would like to brake a bit, opening the pairing screen will do that. Make sure you close it pretty quickly though, or the group will ride right past you.
Likely in the wrong group. Go up another w/kg classification.
What happens during a course rotation? Will the robopacer disappear and the group is left to itself?
The Robopacer leaves, but everyone else in the group is stuck, forever riding the same loop, over and over, unable to ever get off their trainer or stop pedalling.
To join a RoboPacer mid-ride, I was able to use “Fan View” to locate the RP and manually navigate to meet; not able to anymore.
After joining a RoboPacer mid-ride, one would have to manually turn to follow RB.
Anyone have tips and tricks for this? Assumingly, a solution will require development.
What if you choose the route that the Robo is already on and start riding it first, then mid-ride use Fan View to locate it? That way you should be on the same route and the turns will be the same?
Yes, choosing the RP’s route at ride start will work, but many usually opt to join a RP after finishing a race or ride event, which may be on a different route. Unfortunately, the “fan view” on an RP is not enabled. Eric, any Z wisdom on this to share? Thanks
Pace Partner are on +/- 0.3 W/Kg
But when trying to choose one I see many with the same W/Kg value! (Your picture shows it as well)
I’m specially seeking for 2.0 where I see only 1.8 and then 2.2!
Do I miss something?
There is no 2.0 (you can see our list of pacers above in this post, it goes from 1.8 to 2.2 as you’ve observed). There are two pacers at each pace value – one in Watopia, one in Makuri Islands.
Pace Partner sounded so much friendlier and encouraging. I’m sure the name change was discussed at several meetings and such. I don’t know how they came up with this new name but it makes no sense because it didn’t improve anything. Putting all of those consonants together for such a simple concept is a waste of human energy. Pace Partner was simple quick and conveyed the concept much more efficiently.
Agreed! Everyone will just call them Pace Partners forever, anyway.
The home screen doesn’t use the new name and says “Find a Pacer Group”, so I don’t think I’ll ever need to use the new name, and nor will it become normalised in my mind.
I wonder if Tempus Fugit will be disappointed not to get a mention ?🥲
Oops. Fixed!
A 2.0w/kg option would be good as currently, there is a 22% difference between 1.8 – 2.2w/kg.
Robopacers seem like a good idea, but due to a number of factors don’t work that great on rolling courses compared to flat. Firstly at 75kg they are over 10kg heavier than the equivalent w/kg thresholds used for racing. The dynamic pacing to me seems to miss the point, if you want to do a constant effort then you should stay at the effort on a climb and keep on the effort on a descent. There’s lots of surging in robopacer packs as riders actually doing a constant effort go off the front on a descent and then have to… Read more »
I guess that anyone wanting to ride a rigid steady power could choose the flat route options (there is always one flat and one hilly/rolling option at each power level) to reduce the effect of dynamic pacing. Or set up a workout with a fixed power level. I would suggest that the majority of users like the fact that a Pace Partner group behaves like a group IRL and ride it naturally rather than on a fixed power. In that sense dynamic pacing is a massive improvement as the early pacers would always fall back on the climbs and run… Read more »
Is there any way to join a pace partner/robopacer mid-ride? i.e like you can do with training sessions. I never ride with the faster pace partners as I don’t want to do a threshold effort with no warm-up. Maybe something to add if not already in the game.
I do think that it would be great to be able to select another pace partner and jump across to them – so warm up with one partner, then select a faster pacer and be transported to them, and then switch back for a cool down.
However, at the moment you need to end the ride and choose a new pace partner from the home screen. At least we no longer have to exit Zwift completely!
When you exit a session and join another that’s in the same world, the load time is minimal. Seems this is a reasonable trade-off for “good enough” to me.
Whether Zwift uses “Pace Partner” or RoboPacer” really doesn’t concern me, but I wish Zwift could coordinate their communications to at least be consistent. They announced the change to RoboPacer over a week ago IIRC, and yet their own Companion app still names any Activity with a pacer as “Pace Partner Ride: ….”.
Over seven weeks ago, according to the Zwift Forums announcement (Oct 5)! Sloppy…
Shhh…
They will always be referred to as Pace Partners by most of us!
The jumps between some of the W/Kg of the RoboPacers are quite big…
Eric – do you have any stats on what wattage is required to sit in the draft behind each RoboPacer on different bikes?
i.e. If I wanted to rider behind a RoboPacer at 3.4W/Kg, is there a heavier, less aero bike & wheelset I could choose to ride behind Genie (3.2W/Kg) that would mean I’d have to put out more watts to keep up – so giving the same effect as being behind a 3.4W/Kg RoboPacer on,say, a Tron bike?
I’ve never done a post about that specifically, no, although you could do the math and figure it out pretty closely I think. Just a combination of known Zwift draft physics, plus the Crr of different bike types (https://zwiftinsider.com/crr). That Crr post has watt savings numbers in it…
They are great, I love them! And I would love them even more if we could choose pace partner on every route.
Will there be pacers on Tempus Fugit at the end of December for the Festive 500? Hoping to do similar to last year with a 500k ride, but the course and pacer were key to accomplishing it. Thanks Eric
Is there any website to find out what route which pacer is riding on right now? Before when there was just 4 in Watopia i’ve seen a schedule, but not anymore.
Not currently, but we’re working on something. Should have a calendar up next week!
I see the calendar! Great!
What happened to Diesel Dan? I miss him … was he retired or replaced?
He retired. Rode slowly off into the sunset!
Is it possible to earn the “On Fire!” badge (25 laps Volcano circuit) by joining a RoboPacer on this route?
Yup!
Can you get a route badge achievement with Robo Pacers?
Of course!
i dont think robopartner get draft from us. our avg wkg on their blob always lower than robopartner wkg. when i join genie’s blob, i only need 3.1 wkg to stay on blob
It’s a big gap between 3.2 watts/kg and 3.7 watts/kg 🤔
I find that riding with a pacer, i either go off the front or the back on ascents/descents, losing the drop multipliers every time
Easy solution: pedal less. Or more. Depending on where you’re at. 🙂
Seriously, though: RoboPacers are a GREAT way to practice riding in a pack on Zwift. Good practice for efficient racing.
can i remove the robopacer from my route?
Not sure what you’re asking.
Is it just me that is fi ding it hard to see the new robopacers? The pace partners were so bright coloured but the new robopacers are dark grey almost black so very hard to see. In a big group I often can’t tell if they are in front or behind me.
They’re brightly colored on my screen. Weird that you’re seeing them as dark grey! Maybe contact Zwift support, and/or reinstall Zwift…?