In a group ride/race I always travel further

Bugs and Support
#1

Hello,

It’s been bugging me for a little bit now. Whenever I go on a group ride I always travel further than the riders around me. For example, on the ToNY ride 1, I took a snap showing me at 9.0miles and the next 6 riders in front of me had only travelled 8.4miles (by the end I was about 1miles greater distance than anyone around me).
This has happened to me every single group ride that I do, to some extent. It’s linear, in the start pen I’m 0.0 as with everyone else. The delta increases gradually the farther into the ride we go.
I have also noticed that as we go around corners everyone else takes a much tighter line than me, like across the grass rather than on the road. Whilst I see a few riders with “steering wheels” I would say that that accounts for only a few percent and isn’t pertinent to the issue.
As a result of this, when I look at the results, I’m way down the list for w/kg to where I believe that I should be. With the ToNY 1 example, I averaged 3.5w/kg, the 5 riders above averaged 1.9w/kg and the 5 riders behind me averaged 1.7w/kg.
Also, the Strava moving time and the zwift event time (even accounting for time in watopia before jumping over and the pen time time) has a delta of about 8minutes.

Any clues as to what’s wrong with my setup? I was slipstreaming the whole time, that would not significantly account for the delta in w/kg.

Cheers,
Glen.

#2

Hard to say that the issue is with regard to distance travelled, but I definitely noted a number of riders ‘taking shortcuts’ on today’s ToNY ride. My guess is that this is due do there having been a Zwift update late in the week, and not all riders being on the latest version. I’ve also noted on other rides, especially those with lots of riders, that when your avatar ‘moves around’ in the pack a lot (i.e. weaves side to side) you tend to show more miles than those around you.

With regard to the time, Zwift counts your time in the pen as part of your ride time (but not pat of your event time), so if you sat there for a while before the event that might account for the discrepancy.

#3

Yes, ok. I’m using the latest version, I know that. Yes, my avatar swerves around a LOT. So, how do I stop my avatar from swerving??? :slight_smile: Maybe I should cut out the booze I’m pouring into my laptop?

Hmmm, I was already accounting for pen time. I made a note of the time left on the counter. Without that there’s over 9minutes delta.

#4

Its been happening since people have been quite vocal about drafting in large groups not working too well. If you stay in the middle of a group, you seem to travel further than someone who is on their own or at least not in the group often.

#5

B 542 [******** (MTLA )] 40:39 +14:38 1.8w/kg 141w 78.9kg 165cm
B 543 [******** ] 40:43 +14:42 1.9w/kg 131w 70.0kg 139bpm 170cm
B 544 [******** [TugaZ]] 40:56 +14:55 2.1w/kg 127w 60.0kg 154cm
B 545 [******** ] 41:07 +15:07 1.9w/kg 155w 84.0kg 183cm
B 546 [******** ] 41:40 +15:39 1.9w/kg 105w 55.0kg 109bpm 168cm
B 547 [******** ] 41:44 +15:44 1.8w/kg 167w 93.0kg 158bpm 185cm
B 548 [Glen Tunstall] 41:55 +15:54 3.5w/kg 259w 74.8kg 163bpm 185cm
B 549 [******** ] 42:03 +16:03 1.6w/kg 179w 113.6kg 155bpm 182cm
B 550 [******** (SZR)] 42:17 +16:16 1.8w/kg 119w 68.0kg 165cm
B 551 [******** (HERD)] 42:23 +16:22 1.7w/kg 145w 86.0kg 173cm
B 552 [******** (HR)] 42:23 +16:22 1.6w/kg 155w 95.0kg 158bpm 176cm
B 553 [******** ] 42:39 +16:38 1.7w/kg 147w 88.0kg 180cm
B 554 [******** ] 42:44 +16:44 1.8w/kg 161w 92.0kg 170cm
B 555 [******** ] 42:55 +16:54 1.6w/kg 167w 106.0kg 140bpm 186cm
B 556 [******** ] 42:56 +16:55 1.6w/kg 137w 88.0kg 145bpm