There should 100% be 1 pace partner from each category (D,C,B and A) going up Alpe du Zwift. I have seen this in events and it is amazing, they should be in a loop from the start of the segment to the top of the climb, round the turn at the top and back down till the bottom where they take a U-turn and start again. This should be on all day. This would be a very good adition to Alpe du Zwift.
James has said before that it’s not possible to have Robopacers going up and down AdZ 24/7 because the route is not a loop. It only works for events where they go up once.
Of course the obvious solution is to create a new route that goes up AdZ, comes back down, does a loop of the jungle and goes back up again.
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Whilst I’m fully in the pace partners on ADZ is a quick win for zwift as that’s what people want camp…
My preference and belief would be a PP in Innsbruck doing the climb both ways with a lap of the town… Climb is long enough to get a good effort, not a huge downhill and the town lap just enough to recover and go again…
Though, I think Innsbruck is a great indoor Sunday morning spin route through the winter so perhaps I’m biased…
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So, the issue for me is, even if they did create an alpe loop and put pace partners on the loop… For me I personally wouldn’t want to start the loop somewhere in the middle so I would only really want to join the pace partner at the bottom, or while they are going downhill (so I can do a warmup before starting the Alpe but still start relatively fresh). It’s unlikely the pace partner will be there when I’m ready to ride since the majority of the time they will be somewhere on the uphill.
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Does the HoloReplay work for free rides up the Alpe?
This would be a good way to incrementally improve your PR/PB (if that’s your aim).
I believe so. I usually do a workout up the alpe, but I think if I was free riding I would see the holo partner.
Previously I rode with Amelia Anquetil up ADZ. Probably a bug but it certainly happened and I could go back to find the date. I was pretty miffed because I joined just at the start of ADZ with no warm up! 
A suitable loop could be to start off at Road to sky start point, go up ADZ, do the full climb , go back down again, turn left and leave the jungle then take the cliff side route, turn right and go up epic KOM,skip radio tower climb then go back down again back to jungle and ADZ.
That would be an appropriate loop. That would also be a great loop in general for people who like to ride hills.
I know some people would like rules so that riders could not join on the descent of ADZ.
I believe at some point during testing PPs were sent on Four Horsemen, which is the only route that includes AdZ as part of a loop. There were also some events held on Road To Sky with PPs (was that back in May?). For something like Road To Sky in a loop, they would have to create a new route. Given the low popularity of PPs on climbing routes, my guess is this won’t happen as a regular feature for PPs. Personally I’m in favor and I hope to see more events on Road To Sky. The PPs have been commenting “stay tuned for events” but I’m not aware of any lately.
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That’s true- as soon as coco group hits even the slightest hills it goes from 150-200 people to 20 or less.
If the nearest similar pace partner (like Yumi or Maria) are on a flat route then everyone goes there.
I cannot say which route Anquetil was on as it was back at the time when the route name never changed in the traditional Home Screen.
The fact that 90% of the time you’ll join the RoboPacer and they’ll be part way up the Alpe means this is, unfortunately, a more or less terrible idea.
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If they go at a set time e.g C cat goes at 1hr up each time and 10mins down, there can be a schedule for exactly which time they start a bit like events that are held every hour. They can also add a loop like the one at the top of the climb at the foot so you can do reps like many pros such as Vingegaard do.
Two things:
1 - Roaming pace partners cannot ride routes that are not laps. This isn’t something that can be fixed quickly, or probably ever.
2 - We have used Pace Partners as an event leader on the Road to Sky route and hope to do again soon - I just need to find time to get it set up.
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It would be nice to have a pacer at 2.4 w/kg, between Coco and Maria. There is a big gap between these two pacers and this is the pace range that has the highest participation levels.
I ride with both and it seems to work OK depending on what I’m looking to get out of the ride.
Try riding with Maria on a gravel or mountain bike. That’ll make it harder.
Also, maybe ride with Maria for 20 minutes and then straight away ride with Coco for as long as you can manage, and maybe then drop straight back to Maria. Kinda like RoboPacer intervals.
Maybe I’ll give this a try. It would be nicer not having to switch equipment etc and just join an appropriate ride.
Thanks
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