Pace Partner Weekly Update - W/C 27th June

Thanks Gerrie and James, those are good suggestions. There is also this “Time Trialist - Purely focused on maintaining long high even outputs” which I found on the Wahoo RGT Real Bots help page.

probably if you just run something between 2-3wkg on tempus fugit 24/7 along with everything else then it should please just about everyone. unless they are getting dropped on the three meters of climbing per lap. at least they can enjoy the scenery if they do get dropped

I think I made a similar point about Tempus Fugit and dynamic pacing a wee while back. If you’re getting dropped on TF you don’t deserve to have fun times. :wink::grin:

I agree that would solve the problem. I was hoping for something a little quicker than 2-3 w/kg though.

But it’s really boring though :pensive:

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If you compare it to doing a fixed pace ride alone, it’s less boring because of the group. (Of course there’s no single pace that would please everyone.) Personally I would prefer flat routes where dynamic pacing doesn’t really happen, even though the hilly routes are more appealing.

Boring is subjective. Grinding it out at 3.8 w/kg behind Bernadette is far less boring than SST in erg mode on your own. Zwift clearly needs to chase subscriptions to survive by supplying popular entertaining ride options. But this does not have to be at the expense of those of us who want to use Zwift as a serious training platform.

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Then you are most probably following a training plan with set workouts, so not real need for Pace partners.

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This isn’t about chasing subscriptions. At all.

This is about me trying to deliver the best Pace Partner experience to as many as I can. So by focusing on the most common pacing, I hope to achieve.

I haven’t been given a directive from our Marketing team to tell me that I must maximise subscriptions, etc etc. I’m not that person.

My ultimate goal is to be able to improve the Zwift experience to as many as possible because, ultimately, this is the platform I spend a significant chunk of my life on (outside of working commitments) and if I can make things better, I will.

And yes, I’d agree that workouts with sustained power are more boring that Pace Partner laps around Tempus, but I’d always prefer a bit of variety.

FWIW, none of my objectives are sign up related.

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Besides, in theory, isn’t it correct to also point out that if indeed there is enough demand for a static wkg group ride, that theoretically these could be arranged and setup as group rides with a bot leader? Would this functionality ever extend to other orgs to setup under their name, – ie. a Bot-led fixed wkg group ride, and the organizer can still contribute their own ‘leaders’ and ‘sweeps’ to such?

I’m not keen to have bots in Community led group rides. One of the best things about the Community is leaders and sweeps and the value they add to other Zwifters.

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Though the community event organizers could/should still contribute sweeps, and leaders if they want. On top of that, they automatically can’t get any grief for hosting a ride that others felt wasn’t at the advertised pace :slight_smile:

I just don’t think it improves the experience.

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Yeah, I wouldn’t be interested in such, but the premise was IF there really is a desire for a super fixed set of non-fluctuating wkg group rides with no dynamics at all, then perhaps something like these could be set up to satisfy that demand.

one major use of the 2.5wkg bot at tempus fugit was to actually use it to pass time while waiting for a community event to start, like a pre match lobby. it’s always there and there is no time restraint

before a zrl race for example you would see like 200+ people there at any point in the day, some warming up, some already warmed up and just staying warm, some zoning out and watching tv without having to pay attention to the app… prem league riders, A riders, B and Cs… whatever your ability as a cyclist, there are very few people who are too strong to get something out of time spent at 2.5wkg

and it still leaves 7 other slots open for more interesting courses for people into that stuff

I used to warm up with Coco pre-race.

That doesn’t change the fact that you can still do so, even if there’s some bumps in the road.

true but i also got momentarily dropped by the 2wkg bot (whichever one was doing big foot hills) on the titans grove rolling downhill section yesterday because i was watching eurosport. i cant even remember what i was watching on eurosport, but i’m sure the four seconds of whatever i missed while catching back on were really interesting

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See I’m telling you that the effort required to ride with a 3.0+ PP on a hilly route was not “the same pace forever and a day” without dynamic pacing… you can comfortably ride in the draft at 75-85% of PP W/kg on the flats, in the draft, but need to rise to 95-105% to keep up on the hills.

When you add dynamic pacing, you’re now going from 75-85% to 105-115%. That’s a big leap!

The requests to add this feature were coming almost entirely from the big Coco crowd, and I was one of them, but I’m telling you it’s too much for the faster bots… it’s overkill.

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Let me give a concrete example. I rode a couple laps of tick tock with Anquetil last week, averaging 229 watts / 2.9W/kg. But to keep up with the bot on Volcano KOM I now have to increase from 330W before dynamic pacing to over 360W. 230 on flats to 330 on hills was already a very big change in effort!

I think that’s because Anquetil is too easy on the flats, partly due to weight.