I love racing but the scramble from the pens has always been a real issue.
Not everyone is a sprinter or can put 5-12w/kg for a solid minute in order to join in the race; this effort is akin to a Velodrome gate start every time!
The introduction of a Neutral zone in races would allow racers to get settled ready for the challenge.
The zone could be rubber banded or limited to say 2w/kg, 1km or even be equivalent to the lead in on certain longer routes.
Yes there are those who will say âif you canât stand the heat..â etc but wouldnât a neutral zone make for a better experience all round.
You could still drop all your watts at the end of the neutral zone with an acceleration rather than an all out sprint just like real life racing.
But this will get shouted down by those who stand to gain the most by those huge efforts out of the starting pens. If those were stopped, would these folks then lose their biggest advantage? I doubt theyâll be too pleased with that.
I do agree it would be interesting if everyone was rolling at 30km/h behind an âofficialâ car and the start happens as in real life.
Did you read those old topics? It doesnât get shouted down. Almost all the responses are some variant of âgood ideaâ. Personally Iâm ambivalent about it and would be happy racing with or without the feature. If it were an optional feature then organizers could use it or not and see how it affects participation. I suspect it wouldnât affect attendance much either way but maybe the folks who put on beginner races would see it as a plus.
Paul, it looks like you are entering D category races that are not mass starts. I donât think you need to do the kind of power you mentioned to stay with the leaders unless itâs something like a Tiny Race. I donât do that kind of power at the start and I am a medium-sized person racing in C or B pen currently in the ZRacing events. (Unless the Ds go harder?) You might also consider entering longer events since those tend to start easier as more people fear the distance.
Before my first Zwift race I wondered if it would be from the gun or if it would be artificially restricted on power or speed until the end of the lead-in. I soon found out. I think a neutral race zone could be good, but have learned to live without it - the race route just includes any lead-in so consider how that plays into the efforts and strategies.
I typically start âsprintingâ 2-3 seconds before the gate drops and I would still love to see this option. Even 500 meters of controlled/banded roll out of the pen would be wonderful!
This! ^^^ I feel that part of the issue (if not most of it) is that there are people who are already pushing a load of watts âwhen the flag dropsâ, so they just rocket off into the distance. And, IMO, Iâm not sure that adding a neutral zone would affect things as much as some think it might, as those same people would then just cruise for X time/distance, and then âdrop the wattsâ.
As an alternative option to a neutral zone, what if racers had to be at 0 watts when the flag drops and, if they are not, there is some penalty where they are stuck in the pen for some amount of time? This would change the entire experience of Zwift racing, of course, but would also make it a bit more like IRL racing (at least here in the States, where there arenât generally neutral zones, and everyone starts from a standstill).
Of course, Iâm guessing that the more clever amongst Zwifters will quickly find a workaround for such a change, and it will be propagated rapidly.
But what would the difference be if you do that out of the start of after the neutral start stops. People will still put out those watts there, only a bit later than now.
I think the difference would be youâd be in full draft on the neutral start when people do that acceleration, so it would take a bit more for people to get dropped, and a blob would be more likely to form again. Itâs easier to drop someone who is surprised from a standstill before they get fully up to speed and in the draft. But yeah, I do expect folks will throw down a lot of power as soon as the neutral zone is done.
That said, personally Iâm ok with the start of Zwift races, when I was racing B I would always get dropped somewhere in the race (basically the first climb), but the start was never a problem - though not easy either. Neutral starts would be interesting as an option for race organizers however.
Yeah, I would think itâs a much bigger problem for newer folks who arenât expecting EVERYONE to go VO2MaxPlus on the start line for a minute or so.
Yeah, thatâs true, but I guess itâs probably in Zwiftâs interest to make peopleâs first race experience a good one, looking at how many folks only do 1 or 2 races from the stats we saw posted a while back maybe there would be more return racers?
From my experience people donât even read the race descriptions let alone a FAQ that youâd have to dig to find
Anyhow, in terms of the main topic, itâs not something I personally need, but I could see it being a good thing to implement as an option for race organizers and to add a bit of variety to how races go. Itâ would be fun to have a car with a dude standing out the back waving a flag for the start of the race - that said I do have a lot of feature requests Iâd like them to build ahead of this
Just as in track racing, there are those that anticipate the starting gun and wind it up early. If executed correctly, if can be an effective was to open a gap but also itâs been used so often, itâs expected. But at least youâre already rolling together at âspeedâ instead of making sure that everyone has a fair chance to start together.
The first lap of a mass start track race is a âneutral lapâ, so itâs effectively the same as adding a neutral zone. I feel sort of ambivalent on the whole idea. I can certainly see the benefits of a neutral zone at the start of Zwift races (or standstill penalties for registering power before the gun), but that whole 'wind it up before the gunâ thing is sort of a lynchpin of what makes Zwift racing what it is.
With my current trainer (Kickr Core) I wind it up 1 second before the start and thatâs enough. Trainers vary so you have to get to know the equipment and how it responds.
