Just to inform you, when I am close to the leader I will get dropped easily when I loose my focus. I can handle this once or twice but sooner or later I will be dropped for the remainder of the ride.
Like I said, I will find other ways to have fun on Zwift. It was just a free advise to improve the fence feature. Nothing is lost and a there is a big gain with a lot of happy faces.
What I don’t like in this discussion is the suggestion of being close to the fence the whole time and so speeding up the group. That was not the case nor my intention. Whenever I tot close to the fence I reduced my power output. But sometimes during an incline this is simply not possible without schifting or an extremely low rpm. The downside of the first part of Titans Grove is the repetition of inclines and declines. I don’t like shifting all the time. The only alternative seems to be lowering the trainer difficulty for these rides.
I’ve only done a few group rides. Easy ones at this point as I just had my right hip replaced. Left one was replaced 4 years ago.
I enjoy the fence. During my group rides I found myself off the back, got a phone call from my brother, and had to chase back on. I found myself at the fence, I found myself at the leader, I found myself in front of the fence a few times. It’s kind of difficult for a beginner in Zwift to maintain a level w/k to stay in one place for an hour. I see no problems with leader remarks, the fence or anything else in a group ride. It’s not a race. Ride with the group or go alone when you want to. It’s just fun to hang out in the group or head to the fence once in awhile.
I have used zwift before the fence was implemented and the rides seems to stay more grouped with fence. Before they always seemed to get strung out. It does take a little getting used to and some groups do better at it then others so best is to find one of the many groups that will work right for you and enjoy the ride. The best thing is there are so many rides listed its not hard to find something that should fit your style.
The having to concentrate on the pace to stay in the group is the thing that makes group rides good. Makes the time go quicker.
@ Alexander. if you don’t want to change gears, then do a flat TT or change the gradient simulation of your trainer to 0%. If you want to have fun on climbs, drop off the back of the group and chase back on during the climb (I do this).
But what other people can do in this discussion is just to think 1 minute on my proposal. Yes I like the fence and this is a great feature. But why not improve this a little. With my proposal really nothing is lost if it comes to the blob, but a lot is gained.
Just trust people who are riding in the group. These riders are far different than real flyers, so don’t apply the same rules on them. Real social riders pick a social ride for a certain reason. They want the joy of riding together. These riders are not up to be a flyer or speeding up the group. Just trust them. Get rid of this 1 minute for these social riders. It makes no sense.
There is an art to group riding which i am lucky to have learnt during many years of IRL cycling. A wise cyclist once told me that group riding depends on your brain as much as your legs. This is very true IRL and also applies to Zwift group riding.
I lead rides for my cycling club IRL and it can sometimes be difficult to keep a group of 8-12 together when we are able to directly communicate and see each other in person. It is therefore extremely challenging for Zwift ride leaders to keep 50/ 100/ 200 maybe even 300 riders happy and grouped.
What happens when a rider pushes off the front… another rider wanting to be a little ahead pushes on, then another, then another. It is human nature to want to be at the front. Very quickly there can be 20 or 30 riders all trying to ensure they are in front, subsequently the pace lifts.and the group will stretch out.
The fence was introduced as a tool to hold riders back from pushing beyond the metrics of the ride. Be sure that for every rider that is pressing the fence there are two struggling to hold on at the back. Trust me, i regularly adhoc sweep on rides i drop in to and see this first hand. As a B Cat rider i could press the fence on most group rides but it is much more rewarding to help out at the back.
Alexander, you note that you push beyond the leader as sometimes you get dropped when you lose focus. Perhaps there is a little training involved to improve your concentration? Perhaps you lose focus as the ride is too easy and you would be better off in a harder group ride? I don’t know, but the fence feature has been welcomed by a huge number of Zwifters and the majority seem happy with it working in it’s current format.
Hi All,
could we have a fence that you could not cycle through?
Call it a barrier.
Even if a Zwifter was putting out way too much power, the barrier would prevent them from leaving the group. It could be set by ride leader, you could even make
it invisible.
Or better still give extra drop points or enhanced milage points for staying very close to the ride leader. I’d definitely like to level up quicker if possible.
100% agree. People that are riding off the front know what they are doing, and ride leaders shouldn’t be begging them to hold the pace. I appluad Zwift for trying to address this.
Another fan of the fence here! What is also really nice, are the fenced group rides where the fence get’s lifted at the end for a mini race. Exciting but not as exhausting as a pure race.
I joined the suggested group ride and it was a nice ride.
However, the first lap I intented to stay as close as possible to the leader but I got dropped several times during downhill and it took me some effort to chase and join the group again.
The second lap I tried to stay in the front of the pack. During downhill I dropped to the middle of the group near to the leader. But I was still enjoying the social part of the ride since I didn’t need to chase.
Just to be fair, I liked the second lap far more than the first lap. Yes I was “licking” the fence a few times and went over it and saw the counter ticking down. But that whole lap was far more relaxed. Even to complete this, I needed to put more watts/kg than other to ride the same pace in the group.
Btw Gerrie. I noticed your goodmorning greeting, but I don’t have a keyboard so no chatting for me during a ride.
Yes downhill sections can be a bit tricky, we lost a few riders after that first hill. That is why we had to slow down. I think next time I will slow a bit more before going over the top. I try to soft pedal downhill so that I don’t go into the supertuck when leading.
O yes the second lap was a lot of fun, I think I hit the sweet spot on the downhill.
This depend on your weight, lighter riders will have to put out a bit more w/kg especially on the flat sections.
When leading I focus on the w/kg of those around me and I keep their average in the ballpark.
I think this short descent during the first hill is a little tricky. If you loose contact there it is hard to fight back during the second part of the ascent which seems to be less steep. The best is to regroup just before the second part starts.
For the KOM I noticed that I needed to put 2.7 while you did 2.3 while staying for 30 secs or so allmost near to eachother.
I will decide on sunday if I join again. This ride is fairly easy and since my overal fitness is not at the best at this moment, it fits well to get back on track again.
