As burritos are generally only used in rare racing events, they tend to be be a complete unknown to those new to racing. By having them available in the ZRacing / Introduction to Racing series it often leads those new to racing hitting them at the worst time and effectively dropping themselves. As the work completely differently to other powerups even reasonably seasoned riders often make this mistake, helping people like me who’ve raced hundreds of times at a big advantage. This will make a proportion of them disillusioned with the whole idea and never race again. Could these powerups be put into all Zracing series to help stem the follow of new racers who could beat me at some point in the future?
It’s also been used in Crit month (June/July), Zwift Classics (July/August), Race Like a Champ (October), Race Makuri (November), Race Like a Pro (December) and Flat is Fast (January).
We don’t have it on every event, but there’s certainly been a good amount of Burritoing in previous series.
I regularly laugh my socks off at people using the draft power-up when they’re off the front, the anvil going uphill and the feather going downhill.
It just strikes me that people are, generally, very ignorant of what these things are for.
When I was a new-ish Zwifter, I had a sweaty towel activate an ill-timed power-up, and ever since I’ve given folks the benefit of the doubt when I see something like this happen.
I did the Stage 2 Scotland race today despite the burrito being the only power up, only because Erik from DGDC was there - I wanted to say I was dropped by DGDC and I did manage to get dropped as expected
If he wasn’t in the race I would have completely ignored it specifically because I don’t like the burrito, I find it mainly makes racing more frustrating, and I have a hard enough time racing without being frustrated
As an aside my kids asked me if I could make them burritos today completely out of the blue, so now I need to think about burritos at dinner time too, they are gonna keep haunting me.
There’s an epidemic of sweaty towels
Yeah, the great thing about it is how counterintuitive and despondent it must make people new to racing feel. Just as they learn to draft, that powerups improve your chances, along drops a powerup which usually harms your own chances! Hopefully many of them will never race again, leaving the path clear for those of us who know that it generally an act of self-harm to use a burrito.
Gotta agree with Rob on this one. Right now only a handful of races are afflicted with this scourge. The brilliance of making it the only availaible powerup, needs to be visited on a lot more races. I envision a Zwift future where every race chat is filled with people melting down. Where noobs self-destruct after every arch. The fact that no one ever actually wants a burrito is irrelevant. Make sure they all get one and let the fun ensue.
Gotta think that someone at Zwift is messing with us… 3 burritos per lap X 5 laps X 349 racers = 5,235 burritos… zRacing Race Scotland Stage-2 Cat-C: Glasgow Crit Circuit 5-laps - Mon 17:12GMT - YouTube
Hopefully they all get used up and we never see them again!
Stage 2 was carnage.
“Oh, look! I’m off the back of the lead pack in a small group, surely using a burrito will improve our chances of rejoining?” No, it doesn’t.
“Oh, look! I’m in a group of 4 and there’s a bigger pack chasing us down, surely using a burrito will help us stay in front?” No, it doesn’t.
The Glasgow crit circuit was always going to be a tough one but with everyone and their dog dropping burritos and self-sabotaging we might as well have been riding a time trial as there was no draft to be had.
I made it as far as the base of the climb on the fourth lap before the dumb use of the burrito finally destroyed my will to go on. And I finished 34th out of 83. More than half the field had already been dropped by that point.
Never again will I ride a Glasgow crit race with burritos. Same reason I don’t race a hilly circuits. As a bottom of the cat B I rely on the draft if I’m to have any chance to at least finish with the front. Without the draft it’s not even a contest. I don’t enjoy being pack fodder and I’m certainly not going to pay for the privilege.
As racers with more skill than strength where are the power ups that hurt their power? What about cherry bomb drops everyone’s power around you for couple seconds?
It’s pretty bad that Zwift left so many people under a misapprehension about this powerup. Again, only the glare of the Worlds brought it to light.
It was exactly how I thought, but no-one believed me. He changed the article a few days after I sent him this video:
nice use of the burrito at the end, in a really nice attack… but still don’t like the burrito
I think it only hurt me, slightly, I would’ve got a greater slingshot through the pack if I hadn’t used it.
The sarcasm went lost on you.