The popularity of the rides during the Tours speaks for itself - they’re awesome!
Organized Group Rides are generally too specific (not just a category but prescribed wattage like 1.7w/kg or whatever), too preachy (fenced/force-blobbed/etc)… and ultimately too small (vast majority can’t touch the numbers of a Tour ride).
Why aren’t there just constantly Tours going on?? One ends, next one could begin!
The obvious reasons, over saturation leads to diminishing participation. The large events and tours are special and well attended because they are limited. The event calendar is crazy during these tours with events every hour on the hour which takes the Zwift team a lot of time to plan and execute (planning starts months before the tours are announced and scheduled). The large tours take away from community events as well.
I’m not convinced people use them “because they are limited” - I join them because they’re incredibly convenient.
A large group ride that will have riders of every ability, almost certainly a group somewhere I can join? And they start every hour! It’s perfect.
Oh and I don’t have to muck through a bunch of group rides that 30 people show up for, or that have some very specific w/kg or ride format that make them impractical.
Why not just use the pace partners then?
26th of December the Winter Tour of HISP starts. 13 deadly stages in a row… are you ready?
I really like Tours too.
We “just” finished the https://www.flammerougeracing.com/ tour and soon will be another.
I agree with your suggestion, however you might also try some leaderless group rides such as the BMTR Fundo / Mini-Fundo if the times work. They have huge fields with different distances starting together.
When it comes to the big Zwift-organized tours like Tour de Zwift, I think a few more (1-2) would be good, but definitely not more than that. Then the whole thing just becomes… kind of blah. Less special, in a way. Less incentivizing to join.
As for numbers, I’m not really sure. I suppose you’d be able to attract more people to a given ride/stage than normal, but for me it doesn’t feel as worth it to join something like that, that is constantly going all the time. Keeping it broken up (like Tour of Watopia in Jan, Tour de Zwift in Feb-Mar, Tour Makuri in Oct-Nov, like it is now) is definitely better.
You’re right, it’s the leaderless rides that are the key.
These Rapha rides are a perfect example. Super popular, over 2000 riders for the 11am in 2 mins!
Pace partners if you want that, go up the road if you want, drop back, there’s groups everywhere. It’s great.
More of this please!