I think I’ll shut up now and stop digging myself into a deeper hole 
PD4 is obviously a very subjective thing and, maybe, with time, when we’ve all got a little more mileage under our belts, we’ll wonder what all the fuss was about?
3 Likes
Yes, with so many variables, both in PD4 itself and also per rider, it isn’t hard to see that the way PD4 works can have very different effects on different riders.
We will adapt anyway, whether we want to or not 
1 Like
Did cobble race in B yesterday evening, it was a very hard and interesting race. I pushed in front hard on each cobble sector, did a mini breakaway and was taken back by the peloton after, but that was on purpose, in was trying to thin out the pack, and to make the sprinters a little tired to be able to hang with them in the final sprint.
The pd4 worked very well : as long as nobody pushed I could stay away but as soon as someone took the chase, they went back (I am lightweight and knew I wouldn’t stay away).
By the way, could these cobbles stay forever ? The rgv map is way more interesting with these cobble sectors, favorising breakaways.
1 Like
What category are you racing in, because this is not even remotely my experience of either PD3 or PD4? I race weekly on Zwift and also do an outdoor race-ish ride locally weekly. PD4 feels more like the real thing, since surges in the peloton outdoors require you to actually work, moving up in the group is hard, and getting back on into the back of the draft requires almost as much effort as pulling through at the front (it can be 800 watts for me to get back on to the back of the group as it surgest past if the pace line is rotating and moving fast). PD4 just felt much more like IRL to me. Less free ride (I generally finish with the front group and do the least wkg of anyone in my group on Zwift, meaning I’m getting a sort of free ride in the center of the peloton on Zwift–I basically never see the front or back of the blog unless I’m purposefully attacking the front, I just maintain position in the middle.) On Zwift in PD3, I could sit in with a group doing ridiculous speeds while doing Zone 2. With PD4 I actually had to spike power frequently to stay with the group, but there were definitely points where I could rest a bit. But this is just like outdoors–lots of power spiking. I get much more destroyed by an outdoor ride than a Zwift ride. Zwift in a blob has been far too easy.
1 Like
I’m riding in cat B. I am also mostly in the front group, and place at the upper part of the result list but don’t have the sprint to win.
I don’t have the same experience as you when it comes to frequent spikes in power with PD3 vs PD4. The races I have done with PD4 don’t have as many spikes as you are talking about, but it could be down to the different races we have done.
I’m not questioning if surges at the front should make the peloton work or not.
I agree that outdoor is much more taxing than a Zwift race. I’m just comparing to PD3.
1 Like
So what’s going to be in PD5?
runs and hides
1 Like
The spikes in power may have been people just more feisty because they knew they were trying out PD4. It will be more telling, I suppose, to see what PD4 is like in a month than right now, since it’s hard to separate what are psychological effects and what are the actual effects of the dynamics. I certainly can’t rule it out. And this was only my first time with PD4 so take it all with a grain of salt 
.
1 Like
I rode the short Tour ride at 6:00 EDT and was impressed by the lack of churn in the somewhat large pack that I stayed with for most of the ride. I noticed auto braking twice in situations where it made sense—I overpowered short hills and was backing off the power to avoid ending up in front.
Knowing it was pd4, I rode on purpose with a lot of accelerations et decrease in power, to provoke some splitting in the pack… my ride was very spiky on purpose… (I wanted to exhaust the heavy weight sprinters so I rode hard on any incline or cobbled sector)
I am pretty sure i am not the only one doing it.
3 Likes
Did it work?
Partially. I could finish the sprint with the top riders. I am 12th on 70. The three first one are very very high ranked but being able to compete with the sprinters on a short, fast, flat stages means it worked.
1 Like
No surprise it will be spiky if you have many of you in the same race
1 Like
Sandbaggers still being able to sandbag though - Guy who won, has won 3 races yesterday, plus podiumed twice a day for the last few days.
Don’t know if he sandbags : he has a sprinter power profile, is heavy with a lot of watts, he wins races with short efforts… even the small uphills (leg snapper for exemple) are perfect for him…
But give him a long hill he won’t be able to stay with the front pack.
1 Like
Not to derail the thread, but if you are winning multiple races daily, either you are racing the wrong people or the system is broken. I have no doubt he could smash through the A cat boundaries at all levels if he wanted to.
3 Likes
Let’s keep the topic focused on PD4 please.
6 Likes
Yes! Just one thing : pd4 works well but gives possibilities to attack we didn’t have before, so races seem more spiky!
Seems like this is the new reality in racing with PD4 and we better all get used to it. Meta has changed, so to speak.
Is there anything baked in to prevent autobraking while going uphill?
1 Like
I guess the one thing that David mentioned is it’s primarily going to happen going from a high to low draft situation, so if the scenario you’re talking about is a long trudge up the Alpe for instance (while catching up to someone), then you wouldn’t be starting in a high draft situation.