In early beta with zero stickiness yes it was a little tricky to learn how to draft (just like IRL!) but then I got it and worked it. Please let’s go back to that. At a minimum make this a ‘feature’ you can turn on/off. This is something that could be individualized without us affecting each other. This is a major annoyance to even casual riding for me and sounds like at least a good many others. I heard that some like some degree of stickiness…fine…just allow the option but let the rest of us opt out.
Why? Sticky drafting drives me crazy…even on regular non-group rides I’ll be drafting on someone and I’ll get knocked back when we pass someone going slower. On big group rides it’s hard to gauge how much power to stay in place since too much and you still don’t go forward. In hard rides it takes more power than necessary to move forward past someone.
We are looking in to some drafting improvements including making it optional or being able to set level of draft lock assist. However I’ve got few major tips for you if you don’t want to be affected.
Speed - faster you go less effected you get
Power - as you approaching the rider in front of you and get about one bike length away you need to produce more watts per kilo than him.
Agree that drafting is not really working that well currently and needs a lot of work - being suddenly bounced out of the pack is so annoying!!! To the extent it sometimes makes me give up and stop riding!
It’s going to come up on a year later in a few months and still not an option. I’d have to say this is my single most frustrating thing in zwift. I real problem is that this hurts when it can hurt the most…you are at your limit, trying to stay with a group/race, and get slowed down a tiny bit…bam you are dropped. Zwift naturally neutralizes my best strength: pack handling. I’m not too fast but am good at using what power I have in the real world. I realize those on z/virtual power want sticky drafting since they can’t simply stop pedaling to stop the wattage perception…but for those of us w/ pm/smart trainers we can. I remember in beta when there was no sticky drafting and sure some people complained about that, but once I got the hang of it I did fine…would love to go back to that feeling.