Hi.
Does anyone else get an issue, which is particularly notable in races, whereby your Avatar ends up covering more distance than any of your competitors? I’ve always assumed that in bunch races this is somehow related to the dreaded sticky draft, and that its just unfortunate that my Avatar seems to get stuck on practically anyone’s wheel, going nearly sideways getting past etc. It happens on all manner of event, if I’m climbing then I’ll literally have to punch past riders doing 0.5-1.0w/kg less than me, by putting in a 1.5-2.5w/kg extra spurt in just to get by them before pulling away at the same w/kg I was doing prior.
I thought it was something limited to races with draft, but I did a TT on the Bologna course today, whereby most riders were on TT bikes (not all) and the same occurred. Getting stuck on everyone’s wheel on the flat despite doing 1+ w/kg more. In the end I covered about 0.2km more than anyone else on screen 8.2 vs 8.0km.
Been happening since at least the Sept '20 update. I related it to the steering update and the fact that we weave around within a group a lot more than prior to that update (lots more msg’s to get back in draft even in middle of pack). I just ride at front of any group and always have the least distance of any racer. But I may be way off base with this.
Never had or heard of sticky draft while on a TT bike but found one post in the forums where someone mentioned the same. Does that mean you also had benefit of draft in the race?
Thanks for the thoughts Dean. I’ve not had the means to use the steering feature, so yes I suppose I can see how it could be linked to that. Though I feel I’ve had this issue for a lot longer than Sept 2020 - since early 2020 at the very least.
Certainly the TT event was non-draft, so there was no draft benefit going on for me! In fact it was worse whenever I got near anyone as they were essentially a roadblock so I always wanted clear air in front, to no avail!
Can’t quite get my head round why I always read higher distance covered in every event I do than the rest of the race. Could be something to do with my operating system or version of Zwift? Or even trainer type. Scratching of head continues…
I did a race series late last year and 2 people always had 200-400meter further distance than the rest of the field. They were in the same “team” and the only ones with a larger distance so I asked them, several times about what equipment/config they had but never replied. So it does seem that some people seem to be predisposed to the issue over others.
Might also be worth passing your log file to Zwift.
Keen to see other’s thoughts/experiences on this one.
Sticky drafting issues can be quite severe sometimes and very annoying , as OP said I sometimes have to ensure I push 2+ w/kg over someone who I pass , especially since I see some who dont seem to get a draft issue at all. In worst cases I can have others close quite sizeable gaps on me which I am held in these drafts and yet they wont be caught at all , both of us doing the same sort of pace / power when we approach.
Sometimes I think it might all be in my head , but then I read others who see the same and think there is something to it .
Interesting that steering is being mentioned as I do have and use steering (not so much at the moment as its broken) .
Zwift reports different distances for riders in a group riding the same course. Below is an illustration from yesterday. The HUD top center says I’ve covered 73.7 km. The display on the right says 74.7. Others in the same group with me are reported at 74.5 to 76.0. We started together in the pen and we rode together in an event: no turns, no deviations. But somehow one had ridden 1.5 km farther than another while going from the same virtual point A to the same virtual point B. (And my Sterzo was not paired.)
I can’t add much apart from “SAME HERE”. That sticky draft drives me wild! I’ve had a few tests where I slowly ramp up the watts to break the draft. 2 watts per kg extra seems to work. Ouch!
It it amazing how It holds me back.
Maybe since no one seems to have any answers we should look for a common set of setups.
Running Zwift on an outdated laptop running Windows 10. I am 197cm and 73kg.
