Pace Partners Weekly Update - W/C 20th June

Hey everyone,

Thanks to all of you that have joined our Pace Partner group rides this week. There’ll be some more coming up Tuesday-Thursday next week, where the 5 Event Pace Partners will all be setting off at the same time and you’ll be able to ride with the EPP that best suits the effort that you want to make.

The rides this week have highlighted a couple of problems that came in with 1.26, namely, the Event Pace Partners avatars don’t have the colour that they should and there’s be some pixelation issues too. These will both be fixed in 1.27 (July).

Coco has been having a lovely time doing lots of climbing but she’s a bit sad to not have as much company and has decided that hills are dead to her.

Eddy is going to head back to Makuri at his old pace and Daniela will be reverting back to her normal pace too.

We’ve seen a drop in engagement this week compared to last, which I’ve attributed to

  • Coco is doing the hardest route in game
  • Diego has been doing a pretty hill route
  • Europe is starting to heat up (I’m even wearing shorts!)
  • Overall unique riders in game is down a bit compared to last week, which again I feel is likely to be down to the weather picking up in the UK and mainland Europe.

Here’s the route selection for next week - we are going SUPER FLAT to see how much of an impact this has on overall engagement.

Anquetil (4.2) - Tick Tock
Brevet (3.3) - Tempus Fugit
Coco (2.5) - Triple Flat Loops
Daniela (2.15) - Flat Route
Diego (1.8 ) - Volcano Circuit CCW
Diesel (1.5) - Volcano Circuit
Dorothy (1.15) - Volcano Flat

Bernadette (3.8 ) - Wandering Flats
Charlie (3.0) - Suki’s Playground
Denise (2.0) - Sleepless City
Eddy (1.0) - Neokyo Crit Course

All Pace Partners will continue to use +10%/-20% dynamic pacing.

Our Running Pace Partners continue to thrive on the 5k loop! We’ve continuing to see an increase in the number of runners joining in, with a decent increase based on last week. They’ll be staying on the 5k Loop.

Ride On!
James

I went to join Coco last night and she had just started going down the alpe, so I quit and found a group ride that had just started instead. :face_in_clouds:

1 Like

I’m with Coco, post Tron, Hills are dead to me too!
Denise has had a good selection of routes, pity about Makuri rotation affecting group sizes. (I know Makuri rotation has been covered before)

Yeah, weather has been getting nice here, have been Zwifting a lot less as a result. Hopefully you can normalize the pace partner riders as a percentage of the total current Zwifters as a rough approximation (not perfect of course) of relative engagement.

I am happy to hear Coco will be going for a less hilly route. Even if I was doing the 4 horsemen again I definitely wouldn’t want the pace picked up for the Alpe at the end of that route, I had a hard enough time just keeping the power I had going on the flat at that point in my ride :slight_smile:

1 Like

great that Eddy will be back to 1.0

I’m not that fussed about whether he’s in Makuri or Watopia. My personal preference is for rural rather than city routes though. Do all existing routes in Yumezi involve climbs that would go over 1.0?

Anyway, having a 1.0 option anywhere is the main thing. Scenery and even gradients are lower priorities)

(BTW I considered riding with Dorothy as an alternative, but not up Ocean Lava Cliffside Loop, at least not that day. I had managed to keep up with her on Volcano Circuit)

1 Like

He would only do 1.1 on climbs, but they’re pretty infrequent in Neokyo.

1 Like

exactly. the climb from the fishing village to the castle should be doable to make a rural loop for eddy

1 Like

Which route do you want? :slight_smile:

I’ll put it in for the week after.

1 Like

The dynamic pacing is such a massive improvement that everyone involved deserves a beer or two!

I got dropped in beside Diego half-way up the Epic KOM tonight, which I wasn’t quite ready for, but I survived.

Please keep the hilly routes in rotation too!

5 Likes

Going to bring back some hilly the week after to give everyone a chance to complete the KASK mission.

2 Likes

Various paces up Ven Top and/or La Reine?

It has to be a loop for the standard Pace Partners.

Nooo! Coco! I joined yesterday right before the AdZ and today again at about turn 15 and spent 90min+ each time with her. I’m still hoping I’ll find time in the next three days to coordinate and do the full Horsemen with her.

I was kind of hoping she’d continue badge hunting in the near future. Her pace is spot on for long distance endurance for me. I was hoping for perhaps things like PRL Full and some big Pretzels in future. In regular event badge hunts I tend to end up in mini blobs or solo at a slightly higher pace but Coco’s lure of drops keeps me at her 2.8W which it feels like I can maintain indefinitely.

2 Likes

Yep, we’re definitely looking to do that, although it wouldn’t be Coco but a similar paced version of her.

I jojned her on Tuesday just as she started Radio Tower, so did that, Alpe and Jungle. That took 2h15 :sweat_smile:

4 Likes

Ooooo…that’s the combo I’ve been waiting for! Maybe next week is the time to pursue the “On Fire!” badge…25x laps of Volcano Circuit. I think the last pace ride around volcano had me at 7min/lap so that’s a shade under 3-hrs of riding. A long ride to be sure but doable. (maybe take a 7 minute, off-bike break halfway for refreshments and re-join when the pace-pack lapped)

Zwift! The one office job in the world where you get MORE fit the longer your days. LOL

Echoing others: thanks for all the work and iteration on Pace Partners. They’re a big draw for me. Weather’s warmer here in Canada but I still find myself hopping on Zwift when it’s raining out.

1 Like

One of the very rare times I Zwifted after work rather than during.

2 Likes

Hi @James_Zwift … there’s another forum topic about whether any ride counts for the Kask challenge which references ‘ride events’. Would PP tag-alongs count?

Yes, PP rides are just free rides.

Anyone who weighs around 72kg - what’s your actual pace on the flats when riding with Anquetil and Bernadette?

I have to do about 209w to ride with Brevet on the flats… which is a steady “no man’s land” (Z3) workout without hills. Good fun but probably not the most efficient use of training time.

1 Like

I have exactly the same plan :+1::grin::+1::grin::+1::grin:

1 Like