Thanks John. It’s the variation in pace from Amelia and Bowie I want to eliminate from some of my rides, not all. The variation to the pace partners speed is mainly caused by the gradient. My ideal for this would be Amelia grinding up and down on Tempus Fugit.
But you will still go slower up the hill so to keep up you will need to increase power and gear up.
Not at all. Pace Partners are a constant wattage up or down a hill. Trainer difficulty of 0 would just mean you stick your bike in whatever gear you’re most comfortable with spinning and output the same wattage as the Pace Partner (subject to weight differences) over the entire course.
I don’t ‘think’ that’s correct. Trainer difficulty as I understand it mainly makes the course feel flat in terms of the gearing you would be using at a certain wattage if it is set to 0, you still need to push the same wattage to get yourself up the hill at your weight at whatever speed you want whether or not you’re difficulty is set to 0 or 100, so I imagine that would mean you would still go less far up a hill with the same wattage if you are heavier than the pace partner for instance on the hill at the same wattage you were following on flat - meaning to keep up you would need to increase wattage. It will just feel like you’re on the flat for how you’re spinning… Let me know if I understand that correctly. I could of course be incorrect, but this is what would make sense to me.
I’m not exactly sure what this conversation is about. For Kayak’s question… if for arguments sake Kayak is the same weight as the Pace Partner referenced, and they both put out the same wattage and therefore the same w/kg, whether Kayak’s trainer difficulty is set at 0 or 100%, she’d go the same speed as the Pace Partner. Kayak though would never feel a need to have to change gears or cadence and would maintain a speed the same as the Pace Partner whether they’re riding up a hill or on flat ground. That said I have no idea how Kayak’s weight compares to the bot Pace Partner. If Pace Partners were bots that cruised at the same speed regardless of the terrain, that would be a whole different conversation, but that’s not how Pace Partners work.
No I didn’t. The road would feel flat for Kayak no matter what weight differential is between them if TD is set at 0. Kayak for all we know is lighter or heavier than the Pace Partners referenced. But, Kayak is referencing 2 different weight PP’s, Bowie who’s 80kg and does 265 watts, and Anquetil who is 65kg and does 274 watts. I’d have to imagine Kayak is somewhat close to one or the other of them in weight. Kayak’s wish is that the the A and B pace partners could ride a flatter course. Only knowing that, then Kayak setting her trainer difficulty to 0 should accomplish exactly that wish.
Maybe the thing I’m saying is, setting the trainer difficulty to 0 makes the course feel flat from a gearing perspective, but if you aren’t the same weight as the pace partner you will need to adjust your wattage to keep up with the pace partner depending on the slope you are on (i.e. a heavier pace partner will go downhill faster than you if you’re lighter and keep the same wattage, will go uphill faster if you are heavier and keep the same wattage), so it won’t be the same as them being on a flat course because you will need to adjust your wattage as the slope goes up or down depending on your weight. If you weigh the same as the pace partner it’s a different story. Let me know if that makes sense.
Maybe I’m missing something, but even on flat courses when Amelia is on Tempus (part of it) she still has variations in pace if you get other riders in the A group pushing 4.5w+ which often happens.
Particularly if they see one rider just drafting they will try to wait until that rider is off the back and then the pace goes up. I’ve watched that a few times.
It would be handy to have alternative A, B, C and D bots that go on flat routes. That might also prevent some of the pace partner groups getting huge.
This is only true if the rider and the pace partner is exactly the same weight.
Trainer difficulty only change the way the trainer apply resistance. So if the road goes up you will still need to increase the power to stay the same pace otherwise you will slow down.
Agree. I’m not sure what Zwift was thinking when they gave the 4 bot leaders different physical characteristics. It throws confusion into the mix on ride selection, especially as it’s likely most aren’t actually aware of what the physical differences are (below). If you ‘normalized’ the bot Wkg ratings to one common weight – using an average 73kg weight, you’d see them respectively as D-1.7, C-2.3, B-3.6, A-3.8. So, either much smaller or much larger differentials between one Cat and the next than are obvious with the way Zwift has it currently
BotNm | Watts | Wkg | Weight
D Diesel | 125 | 1.5 | 82kg
Cadence | 165 | 2.5 | 65kg
B Brevet | 265 | 3.3 | 80kg
A Anquetil | 274 | 4.2 | 65kg