Need new routes

Small ask: change up the current robopacer routes…they’ve been the same for most of a year

Bigger ask: include a larger variety of routes in the rotation…some will rotate out and others rotate back in try to use most of the routes in Watopia and Makuri

Biggest ask: bring the robopacers to the other worlds in the schedule, consider putting them all on the same route for some fun chaos

Give them all some mountain routes for the same week, with exceptions of the 1.5w or lower bots.

Given how the coco group seems to figure strongly on Fuego Flats Reverse, they’ll love the thrill of epic KOM and radio tower climb.

Someone mentioned the thrill of the sprint some months ago, there is a nice ability to sprint at the top of Epic KOM. :wink:

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If they created a new route by extending Accelerate to Elevate to include the return to the desert and the Northern turnaround that’d make a nice wee loop. :wink:

Nice one would be ADZ, return and back to start of road to sky then across the cliffside shortcut then right turn up to Epic KOM then back to ADZ. Repeat.

Good routing. Going that way means you can incorporate the “Bonus Climb” too :blush:

I don’t know why they don’t do it, that would be a mega climbing route. All the hilliest sections of ADZ on an easy loop.

I don’t mind the bonus climb, but since it’s on Epic KOM I don’t normally use that route because it’s a bit easier than ADZ. It used to be good when old Amelia Anquetil (the steady 4.2w/kg 65kg version) went along the Epic KOM and radio tower climb.

That was good for a daily 85km pace partner ride.

They don’t do massive climbs in general for a few reasons, but my guess is the biggest reason is most people much prefer flatter routes.

I say that because the data was pretty clear back when the A bot rode the Epic KOM before all the new bots came out, but it’s even more clear now if you look at which routes are popular with the current pace partners.

For instance, I took a quick scan 20mins ago and the contrast between the flatter and hillier routes is pretty astounding. And the hilly routes are not even that hilly.

These were the numbers I just saw:

  • Coco had 160 riders on the flat route (Tempus), 27 on the hilly route (Turf n Surf).
  • Yumi had 70 riders on the flat route (Waistband), 11 on the hilly route (Neokyo All-Nighter)
  • Jaques had 25 riders on the flat route (Flat Route), 3 on the hilly route (Railways and Rooftops)
  • Constance had 6 riders on the flat route (Volcano Circuit), and 0… Yes, 0 riders on the hilly route (Makuri 40) - which is not that hilly.

So it’s in general right now a split of about 88% to 12% between flat to hilly. I don’t see why anyone looking at the data, who see how few folks ride with Constance on a hilly route would think it makes sense to create a new Constance bot and to put that bot on a hillier route (rather than another bot which would get a lot more usage from the community), the demand just isn’t there for it. I think this is why they treat the Alpe as an event for pacer bots.

The other issue with massive climbs is they have massive descents. The issue with bots is you want them to be useful to people at any point in time, but if you only have 30 mins to ride and you jump onto Coco and she happens to be close to the top of the alpe, or just starting her descent… If you weigh more than coco, you will spend 15 mins not pedaling and still have to wait for coco at the bottom, if you weigh a lot less than Coco you’ll get dropped and both heavy and light riders will complain about it - that’s really not a good experience.

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I wish they would change the hilly routes up once in a while. I’ve been doing the big foot hills and three little sisters routes with each bot for the pass year at least 4-5 days a week…

I’m kinda surprised none of the bots are using any of the new routes at the moment. Might be due to that one bug where the pacer’s Crr is messed up on dirt maybe?

Back then the A bot used to have a determined set of regular riders who joined it, a few pros, me, and a few other regulars. Usually about 6-8 very consistently. I was there daily. “Mikey M” from UK was very often there.

Which is about the same number as you have quoted above for flat routes. Now because Constance does 4.6w/kg uphill it’s just too much (it’s 345w), I guess people don’t bother anymore unless it’s a flat route.

And the old crowd? They are just riding on their own now.

I should have recorded dates and numbers so I could refute the numbers presented above. Because my observations may as well just be lies. :roll_eyes:

It would be nice if lighter riders were catered for just a bit, we do exist. Posts like yours give the impression, heavy riders prefer flat routes so light riders just should deal with it. :frowning:

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The data I’m talking about makes no distinction between heavy and light riders, it’s just the total number of Zwifters riding on flat vs. hilly routes currently with the current pace partners. What I think it shows is that Zwifters in general prefer flat routes for the pacers.

That was just the current numbers, but those numbers are pretty consistent with what you see all the time in terms of hills vs flat pacer usage - Just looked again, and now there are 2 riders riding with Constance on the hillier route, that’s 2 more than before, but doesn’t seem like there’s enough usage to really make the argument that tons of riders really want another even hillier Constance route.

And… I’m not saying nobody wants it, I can see how Mikey M, a few pros, and yourself would for instance use it regularly (though I think you wouldn’t enjoy the downhills if they simply added an Aple route and kept the same weight, and dynamics they have today too because you’d need to push on the downhills if you were much lighter than the bot still I think right?).

When I rode with Anquetil it was 4.2w/kg DOWNhill as well. No adjustments - it was just 4.2w/kg all the time. We managed, we had to.

I was 6kg lighter than 65kg Amelia Anquetil.