Zwift Chat

[Whorty]

Yes the races were set up like ECRO so all riders together. This was not how it was meant to be. It gives the strongest riders in any pen draft bitches from higher pens to hang onto so they can beat the rest by even more than they would have anyway.
Totally not the DRS ethos.

In fact I'm of a mind that anyone that can hang on with the faster pens should be racing with them. Boot them out

But since it was only the Prolog, it doesn't count for the League table anyway. I didn't race or stream as I am on a medical time-out.
I hope to be racing again by week 3's TTR, but we'll see.

I’d agree on a flat course, but with the climb within the first 3 minutes that was all moot. I think our race hit the kom with everyone in the blob, so no one gained anything really.

I gained on the kom as I had targets to chase. Mostly silvers though, even though 2 were in a gold pen.

I think for our race it worked. Our climber got herself promoted to gold, and someone in our gold team got demoted to silver. We didn’t see any obvious sandbaggers.

 

[Whorty]

But since it was only the Prolog, it doesn't count for the League table anyway. I didn't race or stream as I am on a medical time-out.
I hope to be racing again by week 3's TTR, but we'll see.

Ah, I did wonder why I couldn’t find your race. I usually use your morning race as my pre race watching to learn the course.

Hope you feel better soon

 

[13 rider]

My team HCT entered 7 teams in ZRL and yesterday the 2 admin guys had a nightmare day not only with the TT bike or not issue but 3 teams changed leagues hours before the race needing new race passes which resulted in riders being entered into 2 events 😵‍💫. There's rumblings that DRS may be a better option after this round it's a shame they both clash so it's one or the other

 

[alex_cycles]

I’d agree on a flat course, but with the climb within the first 3 minutes that was all moot. I think our race hit the kom with everyone in the blob, so no one gained anything really.

I gained on the kom as I had targets to chase. Mostly silvers though, even though 2 were in a gold pen.

I think for our race it worked. Our climber got herself promoted to gold, and someone in our gold team got demoted to silver. We didn’t see any obvious sandbaggers.

Two guys in our team's race finished with the guys from the higher pen. I say they should be racing with them.
If they can hold on up Fox hill they are racing down.

The point about all cats together is that it makes the start much faster which screws over the weaker riders in each pen.
If I wanted to race against Emeralds I'd have chosen the higher pen (moot since I wasn't there).

 

[Whorty]

Two guys in our team's race finished with the guys from the higher pen. I say they should be racing with them.
If they can hold on up Fox hill they are racing down.

The point about all cats together is that it makes the start much faster which screws over the weaker riders in each pen.
If I wanted to race against Emeralds I'd have chosen the higher pen (moot since I wasn't there).

We expected fast start as we had gold, silver and bronze together but for our race it didn’t feel too bad. Clearly faster than had we been just silver, but the golds didn’t push too hard (golds are lower C mostly I think so they’re not likely to push too fast).

Had it been a long flat start though, you’re right, it would have been too much of an advantage for those at the top of cats.

Do we know why all cats were together? Was it a zwift or DRS mistake?

 

[Whorty]

Also, it was nice steering was disabled.

We can no longer buy the steering controllers (they’re in a cog bundle apparently), so those of us on not zwift hardware will be at a disadvantage with steering enabled.

 

[alex_cycles]

We expected fast start as we had gold, silver and bronze together but for our race it didn’t feel too bad. Clearly faster than had we been just silver, but the golds didn’t push too hard (golds are lower C mostly I think so they’re not likely to push too fast).

Had it been a long flat start though, you’re right, it would have been too much of an advantage for those at the top of cats.

Do we know why all cats were together? Was it a zwift or DRS mistake?

It was definitely a setup error in that it was not what was wanted, but whether it was requested wrongly or not is yet to be determined.

 

[alex_cycles]

Also, it was nice steering was disabled.

We can no longer buy the steering controllers (they’re in a cog bundle apparently), so those of us on not zwift hardware will be at a disadvantage with steering enabled.

It's the only thing I don't like about DRS, but it doesn't spoil it.
Mass starts for all races would though.

 

[Whorty]

It's the only thing I don't like about DRS, but it doesn't spoil it.
Mass starts for all races would though.

Agreed, mass starts in a league would not be good and favours sandbagged 🙄

 

[steverob]

On this occasion, with there being such a decisive climb so early that naturally split up the field, I think the mass start didn't actually make a big difference, but yes I wouldn't want it in any other races.

The only slightly annoying thing about it was that you didn't really know where you were placed out on the road. I crossed the top of Fox Hill in something like 31st out of 67 but had no idea how many of those ahead of me were in my category. As it turned out, I was the 10th C to summit and so ended up picking up minor FTS and FAL points on the climb, but I only found that out after the race was over.

Also took 5th on the sprint, crossed the finish in 6th and ended up equal 6th on points.

 

[alex_cycles]

On this occasion, with there being such a decisive climb so early that naturally split up the field, I think the mass start didn't actually make a big difference, but yes I wouldn't want it in any other races.

The only slightly annoying thing about it was that you didn't really know where you were placed out on the road. I crossed the top of Fox Hill in something like 31st out of 67 but had no idea how many of those ahead of me were in my category. As it turned out, I was the 10th C to summit and so ended up picking up minor FTS and FAL points on the climb, but I only found that out after the race was over.

Also took 5th on the sprint, crossed the finish in 6th and ended up equal 6th on points.

Yeah I was watching one of my rider's stream from the hospital waiting room. It looked as if she was 26th, but it turns out she finished 6th in the C pen.

2 guys in our pen held on with the higher group up the climb. That's a big old red flag right there innit?
Everyone else was about 90s behind or more.

My argument is that the strongest can break away, but they have to work very hard. Give them draft bitches and it spoils things.
Plenty of races like that - ECRO, ZRL etc. DRS is supposed to be better than that. (Or at least different).

There seems to be some discussion about whether Zwift will be willing to change the rest of the events or not. Early suggestions hinted at reluctance, but we'll see. It would really spoil the TTR in week 3 if it was mass start.