Zwift Chat

[Whorty]

I cycled along with a guy the other day. I was going in and around 3w/kg. His power stuck to 3w/kg without deviation for as long as I was looking at it. It did make me wonder if he was a cyborg. Or maybe he just had an incredibly smooth and consistent pedal stroke.

I had this on one of the DBR races - I was dropped from a group and this rider caught me up pushing exactly 3.4 w/kg. No deviation all the time he was chasing me (lump or descent) and when he caught me he didn't punch etc to get past me. I sat on his wheel for a while at about 2.8 w/kg and he was pulling me along ... not a jot of deviation. As this was a race, and I suspected it was a bot, I dropped my power to let him pull away so I didn't get an unfair advantage. I called it out on the race, but it didn't stop the guy further up the road I was chasing to then sit on the bot's wheel and stop me from catching him

Not seen the bot in any other DBR races so maybe someone else called him out.

 

[Whorty]

Cheers for asking, negative for covid but wife unfortunately had to be admitted to hospital, although thankfully seems to be on the mend now. looking after baby at the minute so not much time for cycling (or sleep, which explains the climbing talk!)

Oh mate, not good. Hope wife gets better soon

 

[Del C]

Cheers for asking, negative for covid but wife unfortunately had to be admitted to hospital, although thankfully seems to be on the mend now. looking after baby at the minute so not much time for cycling (or sleep, which explains the climbing talk!)

Blimey!

Hope she’s feeling better?

Did she test positive for Covid?

 

[bridgy]

Yes, some teams have to be told to get lost after drafting about 1-2 km....

View attachment 530995

When is that from @Brusgaard ? Is it a screenshot from a video?

 

[mjd1988]

Blimey!

Hope she’s feeling better?

Did she test positive for Covid?

No, likely bacterial infection, so hopefully will be home in a few days

 

[Brusgaard]

When is that from @Brusgaard ? Is it a screenshot from a video?

View: https://www.facebook.com/martin.mortensen.311/videos/10158397639107498/


They pass you a couple of minutes earlier. :-)

 

[bridgy]

Yes, some teams have to be told to get lost after drafting about 1-2 km....

View attachment 530995

View: https://www.facebook.com/martin.mortensen.311/videos/10158397639107498/


They pass you a couple of minutes earlier. :-)

Ah OK, back on 7th May. I wasn't in that group at the time as I'd got dropped on the climb just before this happened.

But it is clear from the video that the DBR passed our team at the crest of the climb, and immediately stopped pedaling (clear from the video) - which meant a gap didn't form straight away. There was then a 1 minute descent, mostly -5%, during which the teams were mixed together. I wasn't there, but I've been in similar situations and its harder than you think to separate yourselves from a group like that going 60-70kph downhill. The teams separated as soon as the descent ended and the terrain was flat again. It almost certainly looked worse than it was from the DBR team's perspective so I understand their reaction, but there was no intention to draft or gain an unfair advantage on the ZSUN team's part - they were just caught up during the descent. Considering the whole thing happened over a 1 minute -5% descent during which there was much freewheeling I doubt any advantage was gained whatsoever. And there certainly wasn't any intention to draft the DBR team - I wasn't there but I was on discord and they were trying to get themselves organised and separated from DBR as soon as they could.

Funny how a screenshot of a moment can look so much worse than the reality if you know the full context

 

[IrishAl]

Hi Alan, yes the primes all added to one overall points system. That is probably the easiest way to do it but I agree with Tommy and Del in that if it wasn't a pain in the arse then having a separate KOM and sprint classification would make things interesting for more riders. I think you'd have to just give points for 1st 2nd or 3rd though as it would get a bit of nightmare to track. Also you would maybe say before hand that there is only one or two sprints or Koms on a course- sometimes on Dbr it wasn't clear which ones counted.

Having all primes count toward the GC sort of made a nonsense of the final result as I believe the first person past the line should be the "winner."

It might also encourage more breakaways? For example on Richmond rollercoaster hopefully you would get some pure climbers go after the first two Koms then you have a break. Otherwise what tends to happen in these race series is that a heavy rider will almost always win a bunch sprint (I shouldn't be complaining)

im going for the series win...what are you trying to say 😤😀
in fairness I totally agree. It will make for much more interesting and tactical racing - for me it would be a question of do you try and mark the Lighter riders on the hill Or let them go and concentrate on league opponents / sprint points opponent , risking losing the stage or worse letting the lighter rider into contention for overall.

Again I'm going to punish myself and half agree with this- a good queen stage so that the same people don't win every stage, the alpe would be too much but a fairly brutal climb might make sense. Can't believe I'm typing these words

we finish this series with Volcano after party, and I think this Richmond stage will be interesting. I stand a good chance of the series victory in B, but I missed stage 1 and there are 2 or 3 opponents who already have points on the board So I can’t really afford to mess up this week especially as I know I could suffer in the last stage. 2 of my opponents are junior riders - one weighing in at 50kg and pushing A* wkg numbers.

So for this week I’m just going to concentrate on being near the front for the punchy climbs at the start...if one or 2 of the opponents get away early I will let them go and rely on a bunch forming and bringing them back...I just hope that the bunch doesn’t watch me and expect me to do the chasing. I think I should be under their radar sufficiently unless someone blurts it out on the start line to keep an eye on me - that’s you warned Carl 😂

 

[bobinski]

Ah OK, back on 7th May. I wasn't in that group at the time as I'd got dropped on the climb just before this happened.

But it is clear from the video that the DBR passed our team at the crest of the climb, and immediately stopped pedaling (clear from the video) - which meant a gap didn't form straight away. There was then a 1 minute descent, mostly -5%, during which the teams were mixed together. I wasn't there, but I've been in similar situations and its harder than you think to separate yourselves from a group like that going 60-70kph downhill. The teams separated as soon as the descent ended and the terrain was flat again. It almost certainly looked worse than it was from the DBR team's perspective so I understand their reaction, but there was no intention to draft or gain an unfair advantage on the ZSUN team's part - they were just caught up during the descent. Considering the whole thing happened over a 1 minute -5% descent during which there was much freewheeling I doubt any advantage was gained whatsoever. And there certainly wasn't any intention to draft the DBR team - I wasn't there but I was on discord and they were trying to get themselves organised and separated from DBR as soon as they could.

Funny how a screenshot of a moment can look so much worse than the reality if you know the full context

Looking at the power numbers suggest Zsunr had backed off as well compared to the other team.

 

[<Tommy>]

Berty basset seems to have decided to do something rather silly today... he can currently be found going up and down alpe zwift. Silly sod! Let’s get on there and give him some encouragement

 

[Brusgaard]

Funny how a screenshot of a moment can look so much worse than the reality if you know the full context

A screenshot was provided by @bobinski, when he called the others wa*kers. I don’t know the full context of their actions either.

Besides, if you want your rider/group to stop, go to the pairing screen for just a few seconds. Works on downhill too.

 

[bobinski]

A screenshot was provided by @bobinski, when he called the others wa*kers. I don’t know the full context of their actions either.

Besides, if you want your rider/group to stop, go to the pairing screen for just a few seconds. Works on downhill too.

I know the context in which I made the comment. I was one if the team affected. The difference is you did not know the context of the other ride yet you sought to draw some kind of comparison. Bit silly really.

 

[bridgy]

A screenshot was provided by @bobinski, when he called the others wa*kers. I don’t know the full context of their actions either.

Besides, if you want your rider/group to stop, go to the pairing screen for just a few seconds. Works on downhill too.

I have no idea about the context of @bobinski 's screenshot as you well know. And I made no comment on it. I commented on your screenshot because you actually mentioned me and said I would know about it. I don't see what point you're trying to make.

And seriously, in the middle of a TTT you think teams should /will literally come to a complete stop on a downhill by going to the pairing screen? Don't be ridiculous, no one would or should do that.

 

[<Tommy>]

 

[Whorty]

Ah OK, back on 7th May. I wasn't in that group at the time as I'd got dropped on the climb just before this happened.

But it is clear from the video that the DBR passed our team at the crest of the climb, and immediately stopped pedaling (clear from the video) - which meant a gap didn't form straight away. There was then a 1 minute descent, mostly -5%, during which the teams were mixed together. I wasn't there, but I've been in similar situations and its harder than you think to separate yourselves from a group like that going 60-70kph downhill. The teams separated as soon as the descent ended and the terrain was flat again. It almost certainly looked worse than it was from the DBR team's perspective so I understand their reaction, but there was no intention to draft or gain an unfair advantage on the ZSUN team's part - they were just caught up during the descent. Considering the whole thing happened over a 1 minute -5% descent during which there was much freewheeling I doubt any advantage was gained whatsoever. And there certainly wasn't any intention to draft the DBR team - I wasn't there but I was on discord and they were trying to get themselves organised and separated from DBR as soon as they could.

Funny how a screenshot of a moment can look so much worse than the reality if you know the full context

As @mjd1988 posted via Zwiftinsider recently, in races when going down hill, if you stop pedaling then you actually descend faster, so I'd probably argue the ZSun guys were between a rock and a hard place .. had they kept power on it would have looked like they were trying to catch up, but dropping power they actually went faster Nothing much they could have done really in that situation until the descent was over.