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    NewsTips & TricksRacing

    Send it! How Zwift’s updated out-of-the-saddle sprints work

    Eric Schlange
    By Eric Schlange
    December 10, 2019
    15

    Since Zwift’s early days, our avatars would get out of the saddle and sprint if we hit 460 watts or more. It didn’t matter if you were a 50kg climber or a 90kg sprinter–the cutoff was 460 watts for everyone.

    But a recent update has changed that.

    Now, your rider will get out of the saddle and into a sprinting posture if you exceed 2x your FTP wattage.

    Go past 2.5x and your sprinter gets in an even more strenuous position, tilting their head up and down just like the pros in a sprint to the line!

    A Smart Change

    This is one of those little changes that just makes so much sense. Kudos to Zwift for making it!

    The across the board 460-watt threshold wasn’t ideal, if you think about it–the 1400 watt sprinters haven’t even started working at 460 watts, while the lightweight endurance workhorses may be getting out of their saddles well before they hit 460.

    Tying it to each rider’s individual FTP is smart, because it customizes the sprint threshold for each rider, making what we see on the screen with our own avatar and others’ more realistic.

    Everyone Sees It

    In case you’re wondering: when your avatar gets out of the saddle to sprint, those around you will see it as well.

    This is different than the out of the saddle climbing behavior, where all the avatars except yours automatically stand on your screen once they hit a 3% climb, regardless of the rider’s actually cadence.

    Implications

    How will this change affect our Zwift experience? Here are some ideas:

    • Time to get sneaky.
      Before this change, you would see riders out of the saddle quite regularly–at the start of the race, up short climbs, or when attacking off the front. But we’ll be seeing less out of the saddle riding on screen, because for most racers, the sprint posture threshold has increased. This means it will be harder to spot attacks since most are done below that 2x FTP threshold.
    • See a sprint? That’s a big sprint!
      Racers will need to recalibrate their minds around the fact that now, when they see someone out of the saddle sprinting, they are really going for it. Double your FTP is a very hard effort to sustain for more than ~30 seconds.
    • More standing for less powerful riders.
      Some riders rarely, if ever, saw their avatar out of the saddle. I’m talking about riders with an FTP in the sub 200-watt range, which is actually a lot of people. Those Zwifters will be able to get their avatar sprinting more easily now, which makes it all more inclusive. That’s a good thing.

    Your Thoughts

    What do you think of this change? Share your thoughts below!

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      Eric Schlange
      Eric Schlangehttp://www.zwiftinsider.com
      Eric runs Zwift Insider in his spare time when he isn't on the bike or managing various business interests. He lives in Northern California with his beautiful wife, two kids and dog. Follow on Strava

      15 COMMENTS

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      Alex Hutchinson
      Alex Hutchinson
      2 years ago

      WAY better idea.

      0
      Reply
      Denis M
      Denis M
      2 years ago

      It makes sense, the thing though is that there are SOOO many annoying bugs in the platform – plenty of things to fix way before getting to how your avatar is sprinting!

      0
      Reply
      Dbaker
      Dbaker
      2 years ago

      Sounds good. Except as some one with high FTP but low Peak power will struggle to get out the saddle much! But I guess realistic to my real life!

      0
      Reply
      David Cooper
      David Cooper
      2 years ago

      Whilst acknowledging the point that there are bugs that need fixing with Zwift (as with any software … any developer will tell you that 100% bug-free software is essentially impossible) it is also the case that once you move away from the 2 or 3 programmers working on it stage of being a development company, you will have some programmers working on bug fixing while others work on new feature development, so that the two things can happen side by side. Introducing tweaks, changes and new features while there are still bugs can be frustrating for users, but the rollout… Read more »

      0
      Reply
      Derek
      Derek(@dpr4473)
      2 years ago

      I have one of the worst sprints of any Zwift racing regular, so anything that can be done to help me go faster is a plus.

      0
      Reply
      Spencer
      Spencer(@jones-spence)
      2 years ago

      On the one hand, this change makes sense. However, it is now easy to game the system to make it so your avatar never gives away that you’re sprinting: simply raise your ftp setting in game to 500 watts

      0
      Reply
      Eric Schlange
      Author
      Top Member
      Eric Schlange(@eschlange)
      2 years ago
      Reply to  Spencer

      Yep. Or change it to 100 watts and sprint continuously!

      0
      Reply
      Ian
      Ian
      2 years ago

      Beyond signaling a rider is trying light their tire on fire, do the sprinting positions effect in-game speed?
      Im still trying to get a handle on when the game applies bonuses/penalties for my avatar changing position.

      0
      Reply
      Eric Schlange
      Author
      Top Member
      Eric Schlange(@eschlange)
      2 years ago
      Reply to  Ian

      They do not. It’s a visual thing only, you don’t get more aero when sprinting, or anything like that. Just checked/confirmed this with HQ!

      0
      Reply
      Cliff Baker
      Cliff Baker
      2 years ago

      This is a good point and I think it needs addressing, Maybe riders should be given a generic FTP until a real FTP is established in an actual ride. Manually adjusting your FTP should be disabled.

      -1
      Reply
      Seb
      Seb
      2 years ago

      I’d like to think they ignore your user-set FTP and base it off of their calculation from your last dozen rides or something. If not, they really should.

      0
      Reply
      Eric Schlange
      Author
      Top Member
      Eric Schlange(@eschlange)
      2 years ago
      Reply to  Seb

      You can think that, but it’s not the case. 🙂 We tested it!

      0
      Reply
      Calam Leneham
      Calam Leneham
      2 years ago

      Same for the tron?

      0
      Reply
      Eric Schlange
      Author
      Top Member
      Eric Schlange(@eschlange)
      2 years ago
      Reply to  Calam Leneham

      I believe so. Didn’t test it with Tron, but it’s always been the same.

      0
      Reply
      Judit Manzano
      Judit Manzano
      2 years ago

      My avatar isn’t in aerodinamic position a lot of time. I see a lot of raiders with no TT bikes crouched holding the handlebar underneath. How is it?

      Screenshot_20200418-113626_Gallery.jpg
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