For me Zwift is a fun training tool. I’m a non-competitive recreational cyclist who likes group rides to keep in shape.
I am time constrained and often can’t find a ride for the time I have available. For these non-competition rides rides, I weight dope so I can hang with different groups, from 1.0 watts/kg to 3.0 watts/kg. I have to “guess” and change my weight before a ride and often my guess is wrong since the group is not sticking to the advertised watt/kg or I’m having a good or bad day.
Dynamic Ride Handicapping would allow you to increase or decrease your Handicap during a non-competitive social ride that decided to allow this feature during it’s event (allow on/off like the fence).
Think of it as a Golf Handicap. You will never be able to play near the ability to Tiger Woods, but with the golf handicapping system you can actually play an event with Tiger and be close to him at the end.
The goal is to have more options and ride more and be healthier.
I think this would be a great option for social rides.
At some point we reach a peak, even world class athletes reach a peak. For me, and many, it’s about being healthy and participating in as many events as is possible. The notion that you can continually “improve you cycling” is a recipe for disappointment. We all have limits. I’m 58 years old, know my FTP, and know that is likely not going to increase forever as I age.
What I’m proposing is a a feature like a handicap in golf, allowing players of varying ability to play together.
Zwift is a game, a toy, one that people pay to use. It should cater to maximizing participation and hence raising the revenue base. There will always be racing and events that don’t allow weight doping, and those are targeted for folks looking to “improve their cycling”.
I think there are better options out there. As you said there is not sosial rides this afternoon, so even the weight thing would be an option.
How about a battle royale Style ride. It will work something like this. You pick a type of event (race, workout or sosial ride) and you pick the intensity. Then you start a free ride, while you are riding Zwift find and match people that selected the same as you. You get a message “do you want to start your …” when you click yes you go to the starting pen with other people and your event start.
I’m a software developer. This could very easily be implemented with a scalar on one of the attributes on the rider (such as his weight). Actually would be very easy in Object Oriented Programming.
Understood Eric. I did not imply you were snarky, just there are realistic limits on our biology. Not everybody is going to be an “A” rider just as not everyone will improve to become a professional Tour de France rider. We are prisoners of our biology that we can optimize, but not everybody can be elite or even reach the level we want to. Throw in aging (now sure how old you are) and things are not continuously improving.
Here’s a scenario. I have an hour to fit in a ride and the only option is an “A” social ride. I’m a “D”. Now, in my lifetime I will not become an “A rider”, but with Dynamic Ride Handicapping I can jump in with the “A” group, get exercise, make new friends, and have a great experience.
It’s about fun and who I am with at this point in my life.
In training mode there is a toggle to make the workout harder or easier. It would be nice if that feature existed for group rides as well. The fast folks could make it harder and the slower folks could make it easier. Of course when making the ride easier one would would not be included in leader boards or on Strava segments. Sometimes I just need a few extra km/H to stay with the main group. It is always sad getting dropped and having to ride a lone …
