Zwift! I previously used a Cyclops Fluid (with Powertap P1 pedals) for intervals and Zwift – a lot. Pedals died, subbed in the Direto.
Zwift, I do races (lots), Fondos (few), Workouts (some), recovery rides (heaps).
Setup: easy to assemble, easy to connect to Zwift, no dropouts.
Ride: the flywheel effect is what I wanted when you get to ‘hills’ in Zwift – you don’t have to anticipate like you do on a dumb trainer. The resistance change is seemless and quick.
Sprinting: I sprint up to max power on it, it is stable (I rock it but it is super stable).
Zwift trainer difficulty: To begin with I rode this on 100% for racing, 0% for recovery. Then I rode Alpe d’Zwift. 23-11 on a 100% - no chance! The resistance is too much. So you play with it. I figured 50% represented about a 43-29. The point is, resistance (the ‘smart’) is interesting, now I sometimes race with it at zero which somewhat defeats the purpose of a smart trainer.
Sprinting with Ergo on: The Ergo mode controls the resistance automatically, so you set your difficulty to zero and theoretically the trainer ‘smartness’ should set the resistance and cadence accordingly. I find this a bit more hit and miss. In particular when it expects you at 900 to 1000 watts. This would be my main criticism of the trainer, but I don’t know whether it is the Direto or Zwift. The work around is that I work up to the sprint watts and then work down at the end. If you just stop pedalling after the sprint it doesn’t seem to bring the setting back to normal – which means you can almost not pedal the trainer. This won’t make sense until you try it and is specific to high power output. Similarly for low cadence, sweet spot power, I have had to play with the difficulty setting a bit. Not a significant issue, but talks to either the integration Zwift-Direto or that Ergo reactivity is not perfect - this is specific to workouts - you don't notice it just riding around Zwift.
My conclusion is, even with the trainer difficulty off (essentially non-smart) it is way better than my fluid trainer. Even with the difficulty off there is some change in load and flywheel effect. Secondly, you really need to keep the difficulty on circa 75% to train realistically for the road. When you get to a real hill and hit the granny gear, you will pay for setting difficulty to zero otherwise.
Hope that was helpful, these are clearly my opinions… fire away.
