There is a bug on the escalators when going DOWN them where you lose all draft, so you’ll be at like 105 draft as you approach, lose all draft on the way down it, and then due to speed increase be on like 330 draft as draft returns at the bottom and you hit the flat.
Riders should be GAINING draft when going DOWN a gradient, not losing it entirely, which is currently making it very easy for lighter riders to get separated from a group whenever you go DOWN an escalator. Can this please be looked into and resolved ASAP given how often those sections are being used in the New York expansion routes.
It’s not as if drafting going DOWN any other gradients in Zwift weren’t working, they were, the escalators specifically and exclusively though were dropping to no draft at all.
That change you linked to appears to simply be a slight alteration to the calculation of total draft you get on gradients, as opposed to being a fix for places where it is simply “stopping working entirely” - I’ll need to wait and see the next time I’m going down an Escalator with a group but I suspect this will not have resolved it
I use Sauce for Zwift which along with a bunch of other stuff (which Zwift SHOULD be giving us the option to use/see, but that’s a whole other issue/situation!) allows me to see the Draft I’m getting at any point in a ride. So I can clearly see that it goes from showing a normal level of draft on the flat, to suddenly dropping away entirely on the escalator, to then going back to a normal (albeit higher value due to the pack’s increased speed) at the bottom. I weigh about 70Kg, but it is definitely not just a “losing ground to heavier riders” situation, it’s clear to see that the Draft is stopping going down the Escalator but is perfectly fine before and after it.
Also, I know I’m not the only person who has experienced this since other users on Discord pointed it out before I first experienced it. I was initially coming to the forums to see if it had an ongoing situation/timeline for resolution but it looks like no-one else actually reported it here.
Well the draft numbers in Sauce absolutely changed after yesterday. They are now showing very large numbers on the down escalators compared to 0 previously. Whether the numbers are right or wrong, the behaviour definitely changed.
I realise the values may well not be an actual 100Watts saved or 200Watts saved or whatever it shows, but the values being used are the values being transmitted by Zwift and which it has used on its elite events to show the visible draft ‘cone’ in colours on the road. So when it suddenly drops to nothing on a downhill Escalator but is a normal value (open to interpretation of actual ‘saving’) immediately prior and following that indicates a clear issue with the draft on that section
Ah, good to know, I haven’t ridden the last few days due to leg pain, but perhaps @Steve_Hammatt is right that the more general new update to the draft on offer on both up and down gradients has incidentally also fixed this bug. Fingers crossed
There are a few other places across the various Zwift worlds where draft drops to zero, I reckon. Usually - I think - where you move from one sector to another/at junctions.
Also are the 2 escalators different lengths? I went up one in a group like 700 watts and it took about 7 seconds. I then went up the other one by myself and doing about 180 watts and it still took 7 secs.