Saw some odd behavior with Bernie today - in a couple of places it almost looked like he just teleported through other riders - but reading through the thread, a lag issue could look exactly like that. Bernie’s pace didn’t change, I just went through a short period where I didn’t get updated as often, and when my client (iPad) caught up, it looked like Bernie zipped through a couple of folks because of the difference between where my client thought he was and where he actually was.
The rest of the ride went as expected, it was a smallish pack so drafting wasn’t as great as I wanted, I ended up going off the front and leaving him behind since he was slow going up a slight incline and with a draft, an 85-kg cyclist can stop pedaling on a slight descent and still drop him. (It usually works out that a pack of folks maintain a speed a little faster than Bernie and then it pulls away by accident as much as anything else.)
James, so it looks like there is a minimum power requirement to stay with the pace partners is this correct? Why I say this is, I did a recovery ride with Maria and her power is 165 watts and it seemed that once I went under this power I was off the back of the pace partner group even with the draft. Even if it was only 5-10 watts. When I would maintain the 165 watts or main maintain her w/kg which is 2.2 w/kg I would easily stay with the group or if I did the 2.2 w/kg I would just surge to the front being that I’m 10kg heavier then her…
Today with Genie group (about 10 people) on Tempus Fugit I had 207w average over 1:10:39, average speed 44.4km/h. 52.30km, 77m elevation gain.
Definitely very fast for Genie - nobody was really getting ahead of the robo-pacer today. This average power was what you could do with Constance on tick-tock.
Because a rider speed in Zwift isn’t that simple to calculate…Chris said that he could do with 207W to hold Constance on Tick-Tock Route. I would need around 280W for that…he must be around 60kg.
Here you go just tested for you with Genie (3.7Wkg or 277W) on Tempus Fugit…i never do this RP with B or A i save my legs for racing. I do Endurance with Coco.
I was trying to see what watts each of them where putting out. I have noticed for the last few weeks that I would need the same watt output as the pace partner to stay with a required group even in the draft. But since Chris is actually lower then what Constant (315 watts) would be putting out as with Ben who .5 w/kg below the pace partner it begs to question.
I had 257W avg with Genie today…that is 20W less and with 5kg more and 11cm…but just a little faster bike setup.
If the RoboPacer is always in draft you have to do similar Wkg to stay on the wheel…heavier riders less and lighter more Wkg.
But it questions what Chris posted. He stayed with Genie at just 207 watts. Genie stays at a steady 277.5 watts. So he would need to be lighter then 75kg to even match that kind of w/kg…
Echo most peoples comments here.
Have been riding the PPs pretty much daily for the past few years and constance daily for the past year and something definitely changed in the past few weeks.
Constance goes waaaaay harder that she used to and regularly drops the group.
For a year ive been relatively comfortable with Constance but past few weeks, absolutely on my limit just to hold wheel.
I even dropped down to Genie to test that and Genie feels like Constance used to be
This is what changed. The roll though that effects the pull of the draft. I too have been a daily rider for the last 5 years and staying with a group requires more effort then it use too…
The Goal:
This new version of PD has the goal of creating a more realistic racing experience (compared to IRL racing). The main changes introduced focus on reducing the forward and backwards movement of cyclists in the pack while also reducing the overall speed of larger groups.
