I guess it was already said and explained, and I can confirm, the so called “churn” is the responsible for the higher speeds of the packs, and with PD4, like the ZI tests demonstrated because of increased draft if riders keep a constant pace the speed will increase.
So, in light of what Zwift can easily tweek (or are willing to tweek), what could be done to improve this?
I’m currently exploring with what Dejan previously suggested, of implementing a more aggressive type of churn prevention, by only allowing to overtake to the front (someone not drafting), if you overcome the power to maintain the same speed if not drafting. So it won’t take you away the drafting but if you want to go to the front of the group you need to put out more power (net power, not absolute w or w/kg) than the person in front.
Adjusting rider CdA values? Surely this would be a quick fix to bring down the speed of all riders by x%?
Also currently exploring with that. The current PD4 system was prepared to configure increased CdA values if we want to. But that will bring the problem of obsolete records everywhere. And while for you and me it may sound totally fine, trust me, for a lot of folks out there, it’s not…
So I can confirm I’m working on a possible set of PD 4.1 improvements, only testable on racing events, at least initially. ETA unknown.