Smart trainers and software

[g-boaf]

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[warthog1]

That gets called out pretty quickly and flagged. We had one guy punching 7.0w/kg up ADZ the other day, and not just instant 7.0w/kg, but the whole way.... A whole lot of people shouted at him and flagged the guy who I expected got booted out.

Otherwise the guy sitting on effortless 350w with 130bpm heart rate... Not even Matej Mohoric does that - and I've seen him on Zwift going up the reverse Epic KOM at 345w with 145bpm, then picking it up to 450-500w up the radio tower climb (and up to 155bpm). It was just insane watching him do that and see the heart rate in comparison with the power.

Mind you just riding over in France IRL recently it's always a shock seeing the fit locals who look like they've not eaten anything in weeks and seeing just how damn fast they are... It's a totally different thing to what I see here locally. Sure there are some fast and fit riders around but they aren't at those extremes.

Never been over there.
A few locals over there racing though and yes the field has far more very fast riders by all accounts.
So many more people and so many more cycling.

[warthog1]

Yep, another couple of sessions on Zwift using the tablet again.
Stuck it on the table in front of me. Can't read the watts/kg but that shows on the companion app on my phone.
Rode by myself and it worked perfectly.
Had the TV on watching news 24. That was better than watching Zwift.
Don't think I'll bother with the apple TV box anymore.

[g-boaf]

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[warthog1]

https://zwiftinsider.com/wasting-watts-pd41/

Pace dynamics 4.1 explanation.

This is why I've gone away from the group rides - it's more enjoyable to ride the ADZ. Okay I don't get 60km in 90 minutes like the old days of Tempus Fugit but it's a far better value for the time spent and isn't influenced by the size of packs riding nearby.

If anything, the smaller groups in the new PD4.1 can go more easily without this "riding through mud" feel.

Thanks.
Yes, yesterday I noticed putting out 20 more watts and I didn't move in the bunch.
Previously you would.

[warthog1]

WellI went up La Laguna Negra today.
Averaged about 4w/kg which is my limit as a 54 yo never was.
Anyway there was a bloke who passed me doing a bit more watts/kg.
I could see him on the board list of nearby riders on the way down.
I was doing about 2w/kg on the way down as I didn't see the point of just rolling down.
The bloke who passed me on the way up was most of the way sitting on 0.0w/kg.
I did not catch him at all. Until the very bottom where it leveled out he was rolling away from me.
I wasn't racing and he is a stronger rider than me so I care not, but I don't see why he descended faster without pedalling. What is going on there?

[g-boaf]

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[blizzard]

WellI went up La Laguna Negra today.
Averaged about 4w/kg which is my limit as a 54 yo never was.
Anyway there was a bloke who passed me doing a bit more watts/kg.
I could see him on the board list of nearby riders on the way down.
I was doing about 2w/kg on the way down as I didn't see the point of just rolling down.
The bloke who passed me on the way up was most of the way sitting on 0.0w/kg.
I did not catch him at all. Until the very bottom where it leveled out he was rolling away from me.
I wasn't racing and he is a stronger rider than me so I care not, but I don't see why he descended faster without pedalling. What is going on there?

If you don't pedal, your avatar will super tuck and it's actually quicker than pedalling once you get above a certain speed.

[warthog1]

Thanks fellas.
I reckon that'll be it, the supertuck.
Didn't know that was a thing.

[g-boaf]

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[Mr Purple]

Heavier rider as well?

I find the downhills very unrealistic on all of the virtual training platforms. I think it's just because they rely completely on weight, and don't account for the fact that to descend a mountain you first have to climb said mountain, and the lighter guys are often a lot faster on the descent as well as the climb because we've done a lot more of them.

There's a guy on the Fulgaz leaderboards who always beats me when there's significant descending involved. I'm pretty sure he's about 100kg and sits on 3W/kg and is aero doping - because the moment things start angling even slightly upwards I obliterate him. 21km/420m challenge this week - 35:17 with 4.8W/kg NP average and got him by two minutes. Last week was a lot flatter at 200m and he beat me by six seconds - I'm fairly sure our power was roughly the same both weeks.

The clue is this is a guy who cruises around at 35-40km/hr online and doesn't have a linked Strava account. I'm fairly sure that's the giveaway that something is amiss.

[warthog1]

Heavier rider as well?

Don't know if he was heavier. Plenty stronger if so.
I put my height and weight into my zwift account and the avatar looks a similar body shape to mine.
I see other avatars that are visibly larger.
This guy wasn't going a heap faster so watched his avatar slowly ride away. it was slim.
The tuck business seems to explain it.

I don't take it very seriously as I am old and not that fast. Just wondered what was going on.
I am pretty sure there are plenty on there who do put in a false weight to make their watts/kg higher.

[g-boaf]

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[Mr Purple]

Not only Zwift - Strava has also removed the power curve that used to be publicly available including w/kg.

It used to be you could work out their wattage and w/kg from that and therefore their weight. Now you can only get it to the nearest few kilos by using the weight range bracket. Either that or plug their power and time into bike calculator - which I occasionally do on Fulgaz if I get decimated by someone pushing less overall power than me. Inevitably it comes out at about 20kg.

[g-boaf]

I didn't even know they had that!

Shows that I don't pay much attention to Strava - TrainingPeaks is my go to. I have both, but TrainingPeaks is a lot more useful at showing me the information I want to know.

[g-boaf]

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[warthog1]

https://zwiftinsider.com/wasting-watts-pd41/

Pace dynamics 4.1 explanation.

This is why I've gone away from the group rides - it's more enjoyable to ride the ADZ. Okay I don't get 60km in 90 minutes like the old days of Tempus Fugit but it's a far better value for the time spent and isn't influenced by the size of packs riding nearby.

If anything, the smaller groups in the new PD4.1 can go more easily without this "riding through mud" feel.

Thanks.
Yes, yesterday I noticed putting out 20 more watts and I didn't move in the bunch.
Previously you would.

They have now admitted they have a bug. The sticky sluggish effect is excessive. They didn’t catch it because the testing groups were only fairly small and on local networks (fast).

Thanks I might do another pace bunch when I am next away at work again.

[g-boaf]

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[g-boaf]

New roads coming to Watopia - event only at first:

https://zwiftinsider.com/tsoz-fall-2023-new-roads/

[g-boaf]

Zwift 1.51 is out

[g-boaf]

Check the latest Cycling Weekly article Virtual Insanity!

It has the group I ride with featured - Ale And Carry and their crazy 365x Alpe du Zwift featured.

[lone rider]

Just what it needed, more flat roads.

If Watopia needed anything new it's London and Innsbruck type climbs. The up and down gradients of Volcano and both sides of the mountain are very frustrating.

[Mr Purple]

They certainly know their market.

Heavy riders who like racking up hundreds of kilometres at 40km/hr+ and racers with 1000W+ sprint but an FTP that keeps them in C grade.

One of the things I found most frustrating on there is that their race gradings are based purely on W/kg, but all of the races are so flat that the overall winner is determined by outright watts only. And the pack dynamics are so skewed that those outright watts are only necessary for the last 10 seconds of the race.

[warthog1]

I don't compete on it. It is an opportunity to ride when no other exists. Nothing more.

Stuck inside in front of a screen with a fan on is a pretty poor substitute for a real ride but it is marginally better than nothing.

[g-boaf]

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