Is it possible to do a time trial on completely flat ground in Zwift, as if riding in a velodrome? I am completely new to Zwift, having only done a couple of workouts.
I believe the flattest route on Zwift is Tempus Fugit and many race time trials use this course. It is not perfectly flat but is very flat.
Assuming you are using a controllable smart trainer, you can also change the Trainer Difficulty setting in Zwift to zero, which will make the road feel completely flat. On Tempus Fugit there is a little rise where you will lose a bit of speed but in a given gear at a constant cadence you will produce a completely flat power graph with that approach. Speed/distance in Zwift should be considered suspect (probably inflated compared to outdoor riding) unless you have excellent equipment, very aero position on the bike, smooth roads, and calm conditions outside. Time and power are more believable than speed/distance unless proven otherwise by your outdoor performance.
I prefer racing against the clock (on the same route to be able to track progress) or other peoples time at time trials, rather than against other people in a race. Best would be if Zwift had a velodrome where you could race in time trials competitions.
There’s a feature request for a velodrome, from 2018. I don’t have high expectations of it coming, but I know they are aware of the interest.
You could also try the Zwift TT club events and see if there’s any appeal, though they are not always flat and routes vary.
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There is also the WTRL TTT on Thursday’s if you like working with a team. You need to join a team or club however to access the TTT, it is not open to anyone like most other races and events on Zwift.
If you’re just concerned with your time against the clock compared to previous times, and you don’t want to feel hills, then as Paul said, just turn your Trainer Difficulty to 0, and pick any route to ride as your TT route. TD=0 will make it all feel like a flat road–the elevation will still be there to affect your speed, but it’ll be the same every time, so you can still measure your efforts against each other.
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I guess the other thing if you really want to compare apples to apples is to use a TT bike within Zwift while you do this so you won’t be leveraging the draft of folks who you are behind or passing etc. So, probably the best you can do is: Pick one route as your comparison route (Tempus Fugit is probably the flattest), make sure you’re on a Time Trial bike, set your trainer difficulty to 0, and go for it.
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I like the flat laps on Richmond. It has just a teeny tiny up and down to break up the monotony and has a timed sprint finish.
Some others prefer the Watopia volcano clockwise which has a small uphill portion. The benefits are the lap counter and lap times. If you turn on the holo of yourself, you can pace behind your best lap time.
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Using the Holo is a good idea, yeah.