Would be helpful for have a draft button on the mobile app. Pressing the button would help slow you down and pull up behind the wheel of the rider in front. Just like using your breaks in the real world. I find it near impossible to chase someone/ a pack down and fall into their draft on zwift. I end up playing yo yo for a long time going past then dropping off etc.
To to be clear the aim of this button would not be to speed you up into someone’s draft but only to slow you down naturally into someone’s draft. Like using your breaks.
I’ve voted for it. I’m not sure this is the best of the proposed solutions, but I agree they should make it easier to ride in the draft. Other suggestions include virtual brakes, and the ability to “lock in” on the draft so that you only pop out when you mean to. In this mode, excess power would be wasted, but the game would allow you to drop off the back if you can’t maintain the pace. At the moment it’s just too easy to overshoot when trying to catch or hold a wheel.
How about (at least for smart trainers) that if you ‘lock in’ to the draft your trainer automatically goes into ERG mode to match the wattage of the rider in front (minus an amount because you’re in the draft and accounting for weight etc) unless they get ahead of you and break the draft at which point it goes back to slope mode.
I guess there should be a way to ‘attack’ too so if you suddenly surge with a lot of power again it’ll break you out of ERG and put you ahead?
In general I find drafting or riding with someone to be pretty much impossible
Or perhaps a better idea just have some indication on the screen with a target wattage or speed to stay within the draft and a trainer road style bar which is green and goes red if you drop too far back or go too far forwards.
I agree with Mark. It is more of a visualization problem than a physics one. I would propose a type of view that shows a horizontal slider with zones left to right for under, target and over. If you keep your power in the target area you stay in the draft, if over you start to pass and under you drift out of the draft zone. A bonus might be to show watts saved in the draft.
Naturally as the person or group in front changes pace or the incline changes the target zone would move. That adds some complexity but I maintain that if people can visualize their draft effort, they can effectively draft.
The trick is that if you’re just riding along, not really interested in drafting at that moment, that you don’t get ‘stuck’ behind someone wasting power because you’re in the draft zone.
