Did stage one of the Tour Of New York this morning, and I must start by saying I love the New York course!
Now this wasn’t necessarily an issue for me today but I can see it becoming an issue, and has for many others already as I’ve seen on social media this morning… the unpublished lead in distance on the tour.
Todays course was advertised as 21 km, but there was a 9.5 km lead in…
There’s been people this morning who had planned their ride before work etc and had to bail because the total distance was a third longer than planned.
Would it be possible to advertise the lead in distance along with the lap distance?
Something like this:
[Stage 1: Oct 23 (Tues) - Route: The Highline] / 2 Laps
Distance: 13 miles // 21 km - Elevation: 1174 ft // 358 m
Lead in: 5.9 miles // 9.5 km - Total Course Length : 19 miles // 30.5 km
Yes, this was totally an issue for me! Also – the advertised it as climbing to the KOM bridge twice, and we actually climbed it 3x! I was relieved that I grabbed an earlier time to ride!
I sent a message to the address that the emails come from (community@…) to ask what Thursday’s “actual” distance is.
The one I’m most concerned about is Sunday. It’s set at over 20 miles without lead-in. If it’s more like 25, it’s good to know that going in.
This caught me out too and I had to drop the event as I needed to get to work. The lead-in adds 50% more work and there was no communication. I’ve sent a message to Zwift support and I hope they make it right. I can’t make the makeup date so it may have just cost me the kit. I love Zwift but this is a slip-up in customer service.
I came here to post about this as well. I don’t think it was listed before. While on the bike I pulled up the email for the tour, the event on Zwift, anything I could find and none of it seemed to mention anything other than ~14 miles.
That was very surprising and a little frustrating - I ended up having enough time but I hadn’t planned on that distance and kept trying to figure out how much longer I’d be on the bike - I thought I’d be on the bike for 14 miles and I had little confidence in what the real distance was at that point.
Are we to expect this for the other stages? Will any lead in time be advertised beforehand?
I came here all fired up to post the same. Many of us budget our time or our training load based on the descriptions of the rides. I hit the planned distance within my estimate but had to abandon so I could get ready for work and catch my train. If the lead in was included in the total I would have picked a different start time.
Yep, understood. But it’s good feedback for Zwift going forward on all rides like this. There will always be new zwifters joining and they will be as unfamiliar with routes as we are. Best to include leadout distance and climb in all cases.
Also on this route specifically, taking the lead in through the KOM is particularly brutal. You end up with three visits on a two lap ride.
The reason for the lead-in is that the High line loop start and finish at the KOM (this is so cool) but you have to first get to the start of the KOM to start the two laps. All races start in the Pens @ the start banner.
So in future all Races/rides that do the High line loop will have the 11km lead in.
I’ve got no issue with lead ins, its the lack of forewarning thats the problem. Not being able to accurately plan a ride time etc within your day. Although apparently they’re adding this info to future rides so hopefully the issue has been resolved.
They should come up with a solution for this. It makes no sense to have such a long ride before you get to the actual intended route. One solution would be more pens in different locations, so rides can start at the most appropriate one.
@Daren: Or just treat the Lead in as part of the Race/ride. That hill top finish was awesome. All the worlds has one or two loops that require a lead in.
The lead-in should really just get you out of the starting corral - a few hundred meters max. A distance almost equal to one of the laps plus a major KOM is not a lead-in, it’s a third of the course.
More starting corrals would certainly help offer a variety of routes for group rides, races and events. At the very least, the distance and elevation published for the event must include the entire course so we can plan our time and effort appropriately.
@Terry_Bridges; Probably because it is a brand new course and it was a small oversight. But now we all know so next time we have a race we will remember that there is a long lead in.
Edit: no we won’t remember we will complain again… LOL
Have a feeling this will be patched in future release judging by all the slack Zwift is getting this morning. The event details could use a little love
