Simon, Shane, and Nathan reconvene for Episode 83 – and to celebrate a minor victory: the return of the famous First Attempt Very Intens Strava segment on Zwift. Simon has a little insight into how it happened.
Lionel Birnie, one of the co-hosts of the popular Cycling Podcast joins Simon for a chat about the recently-updated Meetups in the game and to discuss what the prospects may be for a return of IRL bike racing this year.
The Zwiftcasters spend a few minutes riffing on the behaviour of pro riders in group rides on Zwift, ranging from the exemplary… to the not-so-good. The chaps have a few thoughts on how things may be improved.
Monica Schlange, writer for Zwift Insider, is recovering after her monumental Route Hero achievement. Simon talks to Monica about the best bits and the hardest bits.
Do we even need to see The Fence back? Simon, Shane, and Nathan discuss whether self-regulation on group rides has settled into something acceptable.
And the podcasters round off this episode with awards made on the Zwiftcast Pants Podium… jeans, track pants, and all-day pajamas… who’s wearing what and why?
We hope you enjoy listening.
Hi guys,
this is really good idea but could I also suggest as races generally have a lead in into the course before you pass the start point but often on a road race this often a neutralised section before the race starts but I have found that the race starts from the gate so there is no chance of a fair start or even keeping in touch with a lead group in your category.
is there some way of introducing the fence up to the actual start gate then releasing racers after the lead in section has reached the start of the course.
whichever you guys have introduced a great app for bike riders whatever the level.
cheers
gary
Ttfffdx
I’ve just listened to this edition and was struck by your comments relating to the Ineos race being more watchable than regular zwift racing – a statement with which I totally agree.
Where we differ slightly however, was you believe it was due to the number of racers involved which was significantly lower than normal.
Personally I think you probably underplayed the importance of the selected route. Too many Zwift races are flat, or at best flat-ish, drag races of limited duration which favour a particular type of rider and which have relatively little room for tactics.
Until the parcours and duration ends up being more varied I’m not sure why people will continue to watch what is effectively the same race week in week out.
The crit circuit is a complete waste of time in that the dynamics are nowhere close to real crit racing – instead of it being a sketchy series of decelerations followed by hard accelerations the lack of braking (and crashing) on zwift just means it’s the same sustained high effort.
I also believe introducing a more varied parcours would have anti-sandbagging implications in terms of helping prevent people “tuning” their weight. You can’t be 85kg on Monday to race a flat drag-race within your w/kg category and also 55kg on Wednesday when you’re racing a mountain TT or whatever.
Let’s see what happens when series organisers start adding two lap race of the four horsemen or whatever into the mix.
Jj izhbuiy
IUDs
First listen and a newbie to Zwift. Very enjoyable listen, keep up the good work.