Original Post; Just hunting for information and community reactions.
As of today, six days from competition, they are still short one male and one female cyclist.
Here’s a quote: In cycling (Zwift), the top 16 (8 women, 8 men) best performing virtual cyclists from the invitational Zwift Grand Prix cycling series and the 2023 UCI Cycling Esports World Championships will compete in an exhilarating new event format and a unique approach to mixed gender racing at the live finals in Singapore.
Just one community reaction: it’s not much of a spectator sport at the elite level. I’ll catch up on four WorldTour races, maybe a few minutes of B/C category Zwift streamers I follow if I have any time left for that after the pro racing feast, and skip the elite e-racing events.
They need to offer a much better being experience. I would hope an app would provide functionality to enhance the watching live online. Where you can highlight multiple favourite riders as a minimum.
The really short Zwift races don’t seem like they’re really favoring what I think of as “real” cyclists - it’s a different sport that doesn’t interest or impress me at the elite level, and a good long Zwift race is fun to ride but super boring to watch, so I’m not sure how to fix it from a spectator perspective.
Terrible camera work and coverage for a fairly good event.
Love that gal from Hong Kong, great effort to beat some top riders.
I don’t see the point of a points race series.
It is very very short, to a flaw.
Most fans want to see the winner cross the finish line first.
Why are the teams all mixed up from 4 different countries?
Who really wants to fly to Singapore for a 15 minute race and two sprints or a climb on the Sgurr?
Apart from all the other flaws (big fat red outline, missing important sprints because the camera was focused on the riders instead of the race, final result being more or less determined before the final race) the fact that for two of the races what happened on screen did not seem to match the final results should be embarrassing for Zwift.
In the women’s sprint race Lam Kong appeared to win and was initially announced as the winner but eventually the result was overturned and she was put into 2nd place.
Then in the final race Kaminski clearly finishes second on screen but again the result is overturned and Maertens is put into 2nd place in the final results.
Fortunately neither of these affected the overall result, this time.
I believe this is a lag problem with what is happening on the Zwift servers not necessarily matching what is on the computers used to show the race. Whatever the reason it looks terrible when what broadcast doesn’t match what the final results are. It’s not even a question of a photo-finish because if you looked at “the photos” they won’t match the results that Zwift declares.
This isn’t the first time that this has happened either. It’s been a long standing problem with big Zwift races that what is broadcast doesn’t necessarily match the results. If Zwift wants to be taken seriously in this space then they need to sort it out.
Lam did an amazing job, shes a pocket rocket superstar! Although our team welcomed the points and could clearly see on our screens the results page and that Marlene had got it we were equally pumped for Lam and I hope the camaraderie between the different teams came across. As riders we had zero choice when it came to the race format; equipment and what was put out in the broadcast and yes there were definitely some big lessons learned for the organizers however this is the first time in many years that a live event has taken place and I can say that it was totally worth the trip and an amazing experience for all of us. Fingers crossed for more live events in the future!
