I really enjoyed the (WWSR) ride yesterday but it could have been awesome! It was difficult to know when or where to start. Obviously, I understand other riders are not taking part but numerous riders were confused at the side of the road and once it started it was difficult to know who was taking part.
I started rolling forward slowly at the time the event was meant to start (to find other riders), but then got the disregard banner come up without the option to close it.
Here are some ideas, some short term, others would take a lot of work (time).
- A count down timer, a Parc ferme or sportive type start area.
- and / or no other riders shown except for those entered.
- A handicap systems to ensure you are starting with riders of a similar ability.
- A way to identify / flag up riders on a event.
I feel that these types of events will motivate riders to stay with Zwift long term.
one option might be to allow group riders to choose to ride at a %FTP, that way if you are a strong rider 80% for you should feel about the same as 80% for a weaker rider.
Ron, I agree a handicap system seems like a good idea. The clever team at Zwift could easily create a formula to create an even playing field and then the riders could except it or not.
Trainer Road offer a similar thing where one generally rides at 100% but it can be cranked up or down depending on the day. Thanks for your post.
I believe Tour de Giro has a similar handicapping system in its virtual riding environment and Erg Video is designed around that concept… So it is do-able.
I have taken part in WSR rides for the last 8 weeks. We have found the suggestions in the post below make it easier to know if someone is joining the ride especially now that the group has grown. I believe we had approx. 20 riders.
Please read the Full Details for Sunday’s ride which were posted here: https://www.strava.com/discussions/club/104733/posts/190641/comments
These guidelines have really helped, but we are open to other suggestions.
Feel free to join another ride and let us know what you think.
Lynette, thanks for advice and this will certainly help. I should point out that I was referring to the Saturday ride and the Sunday ride was very well organised. I enjoyed both by the way but am slightly red faced about the bee shirt rather than the green in the Stava post…Oops!
However, I still feel it’s difficult for someone with a FTP of 200+ to ride with someone of say 100 without getting bored and then going above the requested speed. Now imagine if the rider with the FTP of 200 had to work twice as hard at the rider with 100 (handicap). How about we all have shirts with WSR on and a parc firm to start in.
I’m only suggesting improvements and think the organisers are doing a great job and deserve a pat on the back for their time and effort.
No worries. It happens every week. I see your point, but also think that every posted ride is not for everyone. ie: I have no business joining TNW or some of the other training rides. It would be pretty cool if Zwift created a WSR kit. I think it would be cool if they put our name on our jersey rather than a bubble above us, too.
I’d like to see an option where you could queue up for a race and when enough people enter the queue (maybe 10 riders for 3 laps or something like that) the race would start.
People could ride around the island and when there are enough people to race, you are transported to the race with some type of rolling start.