Pace Partners FAQ [August 2020]

Does the multiplier get maxed out at 2 rather than 2.5 now?

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Keep in mind that ā€˜slowing downā€™ on a hill is different than ā€˜increasing powerā€™ on a hill. Most riders, including heavier ones, increase power a bit on the hills over the flats and descents. This is what is being asked for. Something like an increase from 1.5 to 1.8-2.0. Not anything like 1.5 to 3.0.

What I want to know is why the PP colors arenā€™t in the right ā€˜orderā€™. AA makes sense with red (highest wkg), but DD, with the lowest wkg, is yellow, even though the power graph has yellow just below red. DD should really be blue (or possibly grey), while BB should be yellow and CC should be green.

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IMO itā€™s to be consistent with the start pen colours, i.e. the ā€œAā€ pen is red, and the ā€œDā€ pen is yellow.

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Need to mix up the routes now!

Ah, that makes sense. But it also begs the question of why the start pen colors donā€™t coordinate with the power zone colors. :thinking:

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So my first pace partner ride today, and as a long term zwifter then I have to say I was really pleasantly surprised. I do a lot of ERB steady state stuff and so this was good to be fairly steady state but have some variance. And of course the variance for me comes in being quite a different weight to coco - so means Iā€™m varying my effort to keep pace (Iā€™m down on my range on flat, go up above on the climbs.

Only issues I had were staying with Coco. First the distance graph is confusing as shows youā€™re behind even when in front. And then it seemed really fussy about the gap distance, and reset the counter pretty regularly when I was still in the pack (front or back). In part the power graph I have at the bottom of the screen covers the dot saying how far coco was behind, which differs from the slider that appears (similar graphic to the draft, but took me half the ride to work out the distance was the ā€˜barrierā€™ not actually to coco. One time I lost her when I was on a descent, free wheeling and being 90kg still gapped her. Another time, similar, but I was staying level on the front and then we got a slight climb and all of a sudden she shot through and I couldnā€™t accelerate quickly enough to stay within range.

All up a great addition though.

Had a ride with Yellow Den as a warmup and cool down before and after a race. Fixed w/kg regardless of the terrain really throw me off. Good and predictable on flats but had to almost stop on hills because he was way too slow with his 1.5 w/kg. But he rushes downhill like thereā€™s no tomorrow. Have been losing ā€œcontactā€ all the time. If you are in ERG mode that would probably be fine but in simulation it would be good to have PP varying power based on gradient or something like that.

Is the progress bar slower for the Halloweā€™en pace partners?

I rode with Delta Daring earlier, and after nearly 15 minutes I still hadnā€™t reached the end of the progress bar (and had none of the costume)

image

Then a bit later he took a detour into the jungle and reappeared 20m behind me, resetting my progress, which was annoying.

Iā€™m on a PC and it updated before I rode so Iā€™m definitely up to date.

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Having riden with Coco Cadence a few times on Tempus Fugit and generally enjoyed the experience, i loaded up Zwift tonight and selected one of the Halloween pace partners to ride with. I forget the name but it was one of the D cat partners.
What a total mess!
Trying to stay within 15m was almost impossible on a rolling terrain. Myself and many others we constantly yo-yo ing off the front, slowing to <0.5w/kg to then be dropped off the back. Then, out of a group of approx 30 rider, 10 of us were sent on a different route to the partner with no indication.

For me the 15m boundary is far too small and needs to be extended to make these partners work on rolling routes.

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I find it very hard to stay with the bots, especially when the group gets larger. I always loose the multiplier because Iā€™m too far away after a few minutes. Sometimes I almost have to stop for a few seconds and wait for the bot to catch up and then I have to sprint again to stay within range. And I keep my power consistent, thatā€™s not the problem. Maybe the rubber band, ERG-Mode or something similar could be activated for riding with bots. Or just allow a larger gap. Currently itā€™s very annoying and I donā€™t think I will join another bot ride in the near future because itā€™s so frustrating.

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The draft effect on Zwift is too strong and it sling shots you up to the front, then you lower power and you fall out the backā€¦ its a vicious cycleā€¦

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Iā€™ve had multiple issues riding with Delta Darling coming to the upper exit of the Sequoias - I selected the group from the Zwift start menu before starting the ride each time (did not join group mid ride). Got dropped into the group but every time I got to that branch, it always selected the wrong route for me.

Also the C group Halloween ride, going up the climb to the radio tower, the bot (and it seems a number of riders) would veer off the road and loop around back. If you are too far in front of the bot or even if you arent paying close enough attention, you can quickly be out of the group and you can loose your accrued time counter quite easily.

Entertaining, but a little frustratingā€¦

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I have the same complaint but then I thought this morning why donā€™t I just use a TT bike? If thereā€™s no draft, it should make it easier right? (with the exception of up and down hills when power output would normally increased/decreaseā€¦yada yadaā€¦)

Of course I thought of this after 20 miles with Diesel Dan and only getting to the x1.2 drops once since we the yo-yo effect was so bad.

Guess Iā€™ll try it tomorrow morningā€¦

I also thought about lowering my trainer difficulty to 0 and see if that helps

Hello ,
I wanted to do a long ride with a pace partner . About 3 hours . In zone 2 .
I chose Coco . Itā€™s my category (C) . But the pace was too fast for 3 hours
So , i stopped and chose the D category . But this time , it was too slow ,
especially in the hills . I am disapointed . I thought it was a good way to ride with others riders ā€¦ Iā€™m gonna try Coco in a workout for one hour .

I got reset at 2.0 yesterday (slow decay from 2.0 then reset at 1.0)

Yeah, Iā€™ve noticed this also. On the one hand, part of the challenge is to effectively keep pace with the pace bot. Also, I could use a TT bike which would help reduce my variability with the draft. (Do pace partners get any draft benefit?) But on the other hand, it feels too quick to drop out of the ride and need to ā€˜reaquireā€™ the bot. Especially in the rollers with the B bot. I find myself doing a lot of micro adjustments to not get too far ahead or behind, and honestly, kind of kills the mojo a bit.

I guess my opinion on improving it is to widen the window on keeping pace without all the warning crap. The bot even says something like dropping back for intervals or whatever ā€” honestly pretty impossible as it is. Let me sprint ahead or behind WAY more than I can now. After say 100m, display a message like it does now, with a 30sec drop warning. Otherwise, display nothingā€” let me zone out and enjoy the ride.

The issue I was having was on a climb to the radio tower. It was very easy to get ahead of the PP and even stopping your cadence you couldnā€™t slow enough to get back in.

The flats with CC or BB are pretty predictable - there are wonky surges still, but the Esses with DD seems a bit yo-yo like, for some reason the Sequoias with BB doesnā€™t seem as bad, but thatā€™s probably because Iā€™m working to hang on :wink:

The drafting issue (which relates to a distance issue) I reckon is the cause of the surging - I hit up a pace-bot yesterday for pre-race warmup and had to exit as the surging was so dramatic. The D & C pacebots are more pronounced due to number of riders, whereas I suspect B is less so as it has significantly less riders.