I think an option for a practice race against bots would be good for people who haven’t raced before.
It’d be pretty much a route based workout, guiding people through what to expect in a race.
In the pen telling them to be ready for a fast start. Coming up to a ramp telling them that people use hills as an opportunity to attack, be ready to increase the power. Cresting a hill telling them to hold the wheel so they’re in the draft for the descent.
It would need smarter bots though, the pace partners aren’t suitable for it.
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Don’t understand your problem, its a RACE.
I only come out of the pen flat out for the simple reason it allows me to then pick and choose the bunch I intend to stick with. You do not need to go out hard for a whole minute you only need like 15 seconds and then drop back to your race target Wattage. For me the Cat A riders go past me, the CAT B go past me and then I start looking for a bunch. This thing is however as the other riders go past you you are still drafting them so its pure tactics. You need a bunch with ideally 5 or 6 riders at least but its rare to find a bunch that is actually prepared to work together and alternate at the front. My last Zwift Unlocked ride for 42km was the best, clearly the guys in the bunch actually knew one another going by the messaging that was going on and it made a huge difference to the final time. Being heavy I mainly took the front for any downhill segments and they helped tow me up the hills. A bit of cooperation totally changed the ejoyment level of the ride.
The Neutral Zone in races should be an option for race organizers to turn it ON…and i think it should only be available in races that are longer than 60minutes…this way some of the Longer Mass Start events could be more relaxed.
I don’t think any races that have Staggered Starts need Neutralized starts.
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My real life racing has a standing gate start and the start is probably 75% of the race among close peer racers. There’s certainly no soft rolling start, that would make it less realistic.
I don’t particularly care whether the rolling start is implemented or not, but you’re still going to get people attacking as soon as the neutralization starts, which IS realistic and doesn’t especially change the situation. Seems like a pile of development work for moving the same start attack situation 30sec (or whatever) down the road.