My friend, they started at the bottom and rode through the banner at the top. That’s the very definition of getting to the summit.
That you discount that because they hitch-hiked part of the way is you imposing your standards/rules on them. They don’t care, and you can’t make them care, and being exercised about it is a colossal waste of time.
Can’t you just teleport back to the people you are with? This works well with robopacer groups or riding with friends from what I’ve seen.
I also went through the stage where it was physically impossible to ride more than 10 minutes at a time (with maximum 80-100 watts), even just getting on a trainer bike was difficult, just getting started from stand-still was really difficult. Coffee breaks were available, but made no difference anyway.
I’m sure a lot of users here have gone through serious medical/injury issues, you aren’t the only one.
It would be great if Zwift accounted for a coffee break in the same way as doing a portal climb at 50%. It gets ‘gamified’ and does not count on Strava leaderboards. (Except accidently…there are a couple of qom’s that I have seen where the ‘leader’ did the climb at 50% but somehow was given credit for riding at 100% …and of course, none of them will change their ride to unlist it from the leaderboards.)
I’m always happy to help others with a coffee break and the vast majority of riders have no complaints. Maybe there can be a setting for riders to make themselves invisible to others (and unavailable for coffee support) outside of races if there’s a pressing desire to opt out of Zwift group dynamics.
I don’t think that’s the issue. What I do have a problem with is that cofee breakers affect other people by messing up the draft in groups. They’re super hard to pass and appear to get the best spot by default. So other riders are forced to the side out of the draft. The coffee breakers are also extremely hard to pass, so if the front of the group accelerates a bit, the coffee breakers can easily cause the group to split. That is simply unacceptable, people who are not riding should in no way be able to affect people who are riding.
These are not my rules my friend, these are THE rules. In every sport where there is a distance or elevation achievement, you are required to complete it under your own effort to earn that achievement. For example, Everesting requires the cyclist to climb the height of Mt Everest in a 24 hour period. You cant take a 3 minute uber, you cant have someone else ride for you for 3 minutes every 30 minutes, you must ride it yourself. In running, to be considered a marathon runner you have to complete a 26.2 mile run. You can’t have someone else run for you and you can get a ride to where you would have been if you didnt take a break. This is just the way it is. If you are not physically doing the activity for 3 minutes (you are not physically pedaling) you are not completing the climb.
I sometimes wonder if instead of creating coffee stop they should just have improved the teleport feature so you can always get back to the person you were riding with after you are done whatever thing took you off the bike to begin with.
Zwift can always show the ability to teleport to a ride leader in the same way they do for robo pacers which means group rides would not need coffee stops.
Zwift could let you select someone you want to teleport back to if you know you are going to be off the bike for a few minutes, when you get back on the bike, simply teleport back and keep your ride going with the people you care about. They could just show you a list of the folks you were riding the most with as well automatically and give you the ability to jump back to them when you get back on the bike.
In these instances… While you’re off the bike you wouldn’t get km or XP since your avatar would just roll to a stop like it does today. Zwift would need to add a bit of logic to stop folks from abusing the feature on hills (i.e. teleporting to the top of the alpe and riding down without doing the uphill effort as one example, they also need to block or put limits on the “teleport every 30s to keep moving all the time” thing that people do with robo pacers today already).
Chugging up Titan’s Grove in a group ride to earn a route badge is not “sport”.
The person annoying you probably isn’t vEveresting or running a marathon, so that’s a straw man argument.
They’re probably just tired and need a rest. Maybe those 3 minutes are what they need to get another 27 minutes of riding done. Maybe over a year’s riding those extra minutes add up to a life-changing increase in fitness for someone who’s out of shape.
This is perhaps the only thing that Zwift should be looking to change with the coffee stop… the rest of the complaints have been around for a long time and ignored by ZHQ, in fact the changes they have made actually made it easier and increased coffee stops, not the opposite. I don’t think they are going to go in reverse on their decisions becuase half a dozen people on the forum are complaining about people getting “free distance”, so you probably just need to come to peace and ignore those who use the coffee stop.
The fact that coffee stops get lined up all together and cause issues with pack dynamics is perhaps the only thing that could be changed from all these threads and posts over the past few days.
Also, ending the loophole where people teleport and coffee stop between robopacers, etc… no one needs to be doing that to “stay with their group”
Cycling is not sport? “Chugging up Titan’s Grove” is not sport? Now that is a straw man argument. My point, that you clearly missed, was not the distance or the climb. Its the point that in order to “complete” an activity you have to actually do 100% of the activity. Anything less is not complete. It is impossible to complete a climb (even one as short as Titan’s grove) if you dont ride it in it’s entirety.
One thing to point out is that the individuals (not a single individual as you mention but many) that use the coffee break are only doing it so they dont have to put in the work. How do I know this. Because for the last 5 coffee breakers, the second I noticed the coffee break pop up, I chatted in the ride that I was stopping and applied the breaks. Almost imediately they start pedaling. There was barely enough time to pick up a dropped towel never mind use the bathroom or refill water.
Lastly, you mentioned that “They’re probably just tired and need a rest. Maybe those 3 minutes are what they need to get another 27 minutes of riding done.” OK, then why not just stop?
You also state that " Maybe over a year’s riding those extra minutes add up to a life-changing increase in fitness for someone who’s out of shape." Please explain how a 3 minute coffee break will lead to “life-changing increase in fitness” vs. stopping for 3 minutes?
So as long as you are payed for it you are ok with the coffee stop.
That contradicts your whole argument …
I was doing some of the longer Climb Portal climbs that take over an hour, and when I got tired, I just stopped and took a rest.
That’s a way to get that 3 minutes to go another 27 minutes of riding done.
Strange, huh?
And that’s cool, for you. If it was me I would have just kept pedalling because, for me, stopping pedalling would be past the point that I call failure. We all play by our own rules, is my point. 
FWIW, I was thinking of coffee stops in group rides (a better use case, I think) rather than climb portals. I think it’s a bit meh to use one in the climb portal, but in the unlikely event that it bothered me I’d likely just flip to 1st person view and forget they were there.
Simple solution is already available: Turn off wifi after starting the ride, then you can safely ride without being worried about other riders.
Peter, as mentioned previously, Zwift will not mark the portal climb completed if you lose wifi connection. I had this happen to me.
It does not contradict my argument. My original suggestion was an on-off option. I merely offered that as an alternative since it is unlikely that Zwift will create an on-off option. Getting XP and drops for my effort would not be my first choice but at least I would be getting something for the effort. As it is now. I get nothing.
Now you get it Lol
Where is your proof that the vast majority are fine with it? Because the forums are full of coffee break discussions similar to this one. Saying the vast majority doesn’t make it true. The vast majority of folks in the post alone aren’t in favor of coffee breaks.
People who enjoy the coffee break have no complaints about the design so you mostly won’t find them commenting here. I think taking away any part of it would produce more complaints than you have seen on the forum thus far. The happy people have no need to debate the subject.
I stop as well if needed.
Besides if I used a coffee stop, then that climb is not counted for my own challenge. Same with no HR, one lap was impacted by that so I will end up doing an extra one for the year, so will probably have 367 laps, but 1 not counted.
That doesn’t work well, Companion App needs that connection to work. Without it navigation is way too difficult if the computer is not within reach.
There should be an incognito mode for users who want more privacy (eg, stalked, hiding from domestic violence situations). It is just a question if the rights of people wanting a coffee stop are more important than privacy.