Personally, I don’t care whether we have different types or roads or not but we should make a distinction between hard packed dirt roads and gravel roads. The roads in Zwift which kick up the dirt are loose gravel roads. Just look down at them the next time you ride. I have ridden many of them during my randonneuring days and there is no way I can maintain my tarmac speed on loose gravel (especially climbing). On hard packed dirt roads, maybe yes. I actually think that Zwift has been quite kind to us in its attempt to recreate the outdoors. Just my 2 cents.
Harry
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For some reason, this week (Feb 2) I started to have the issue initially described here - on group ride, a route I regularly travel on Watopia, I was cruising along at ~170 watts and 30kph in the pack, and as soon as we hit the dirt, I dropped to <10kph and got dusted by the ground. As soon as I eventually left the dirt, I was right back up to full speed… albeit 2 minutes behind the pack now.
Did anyone figure out a way to work around this?
Setup:
- ATV
- Kickr Snap trainer
In app:
- All of the Trek Madone, Canyon Aeroad and Specialized Roubaix SWorks had no difference
- Zwift 32mm Carbon wheels
Welcome to the forum.
If you scroll up you will find the answer.
The dirt roads has different rolling resistance than the paved ones.
Thanks for the quick reply.
I can’t believe this is working as designed, dropping kph by ~20pkh depending on surface feels like its over indexed, no? Also, one would expect that the entire group of riders would experience this roughly the same, when it was clear it was only a small number of us.
Mountain Bikes goes faster on the dirt than the road bikes. Most riders will use the MTB in the Jungle.
Thanks - this was actually at the small dirt section below the Italian village. It was part of a 30km group ride that was mostly tarmac, so I don’t suspect that others were switching bikes just for these few kms.