When I ride with some group rides, and its moving kinda slow, I hit the fence, slow down and let everyone pass me and then help “sweep” the back of the group by allowing them to draft. Repeat. It was the HERD via Discord that told me about this process.
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Just make an exponentially increasing head wind in front of fence. If someone wants to go smash their brains out in the front, let em… Race leader wants to have a race, drop fence. Simple. No more flyer issue… Dynamics for drag already in game…when rider hits fence and gets annoying “return to group counter” instead just adjust that riders cda value…when they return back through fence reset cda value to normal…If cda doesn’t work because of hills then adjust cda+kg… rider is 10 feet tall and weighs 500lbs when they go through fence…
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Another way might be putting the fence based on the biggest group of riders which should be the ones not riding off the front. Then the fence becomes a barrier you cannot ride through no matter the watts.
This would also stop the problem of ride leaders zooming off from the pack.
The big group will just make the fence faster and faster. As a ride leader I can tell you that the bunch is constantly pushing the pace, the hardest part of the leader is to hold back to keep the group at a steady pace. You will see the leader often far behind the fence with only a few with him, the rest is very close to the fence.
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And I can tell you I’ve seen ride leaders going well above the advertised pace and when they are called out on it just brush it off or laugh about it.
The ride ends up split up and no amount of sweeping (which I do) helps. Why should I destroy myself if the ride leaders don’t do the right thing.
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I agree with you 100% that some ride leaders are not good.
The point I am trying to make is a fence following a big bunch with no leader will also not work. What would work is a fence at set pace, but that will feel like the pace partner rides.
What’s the difference to the group if you leave the ride by going off the front, or actually quit the event or get zapped? Seems there’d be no net difference to everyone behind the fence either way.
With no fence if you go off the front you pull people with you in a small group and others don’t notice that they are moving away from the leader until they realize the pace is to high and then complain that the leader is going to fast only to be notified that they are ahead.
It is super easy to fall in this trap, I have seen it many times.
Atleast with the fence they see that thy are crossing the line and back off and not follow those that wan a faster group ride on their own.
This is very true, I did the Mark Cavendish ride on Sunday and there was no fence. Huge group of riders, I got sucked in to a group and before I knew it was way ahead of Mark.
It was a flat & fast route, not concentrating, reading messages etc. Fence would definitely have helped.
back as in last rider ;)*
I like the idea of not being able to ride through the fence. As long as a rider can leave the ride if they want to. The ride leader can always drop the fence during a ride if they want a sprint etc. and could drop it before the end of the ride if they want a bit of a race at the end. This would stop people hijacking a social ride and making it a race and claiming a win on Zwift Power.
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The fence is good for group rides especially when you internet is not the best
Sometimes I can’t see the group leader but nearly all the time I can see the red fence and my opinion they should be option for for the fence to be set at:
- 1 second from group leader.
2 fence should be set at speed that is before the group ride and automatically communicate to the group when it change - this would help people like me.
Only the time-based ones are randomised. Distance-based (set course) ones certainly have placements.
Ah yes, fair point.
The fence can be set to 1s but that is down to the event organiser.
Bad Internet shouldn’t be a reason for functionality though.
May be it not bad internet, may be too many people.
The red fence even set to zero would be good.
People like me can lease see the fence and used as guided how fast to ride at in group rides.
It depends upon what you mean by a “social ride”.
Yes, we all know at least 1 definition of social ride but it is more complicated.
Zwift , itself, freq has social rides also kind of set up as a race.
The Tour of Zwift had people being DQ’d from a “social ride” because there was also a category GC race taking place on the rides.
All cyclists or at least racing fans, understand the “race within the race” but it’s hard to write the code error free the first time thru.
Actually, I think this was the 2nd time because I think the previous attempt at GC allowed riders to ride different courses for a given stage- oops!
Rides ,races and fast rides can all take place at the same time.
I don’t understand why some riders feel hijacked.
Ride your ride. It’s all good.