Can you spot on my power graph where I was riding on my own and keeping a steady pace on intervals vs when I picked up on of the D-bots (riding at a steady pace)? Then again when I dropped the bot (or rather, it dropped me).
Maybe if there are issues, perhaps they are compounded by variations in bikes. I ride the handcycle which I believe has a 50% better draft. I also weight more than the Bot. But, to keep a steady pace, depending on the terrain (which seems to have a massive difference compared to when I ride solo), my power output has to vary so much.
If I get the Right bot, I can ride in my Zone 2 / Recovery band on the paved roads. Once the ride hits dirt I’m easily onto Z3. Climbs of 1-2 percent, I’m hitting sweetspot. Climbs of 3-4% I’m hitting Z4/5 threshold/ vo2 max (pushing 200w+ (up to about 2.5 w/kg) to keep up with a D bot. Climbs over 4% and I’m thrown off the back like a 4th of July bottle rocket.
On descents I’m pretty much coasting (just bumping the cranks to keep my arms turning, and riding in Z1 which I never do on any other ride).
The ride above was done on 16 April, 2023 on Turf and Surf. I managed to catch the bot just at the top of the climb exiting from the cave where it’s about 3% and i was still fresh and I wanted to see how long I could keep up with it, given that my previous two experiences with bots where horrible. With the flatter paved roads of Neokyo this wasn’t too much a problem, just have to go into a few near max effort sprints to get up the short hills like the one after the first sprint shortly after the start. But the real fun starts when you hit the Surf. The first big descent, I’m basically coasting and getting ready to put my foot on the Kickrs flywheel to slow down. Then with the constant surface changes and the gradients, bouncing back and forth between sprinting an not before coming to the final climb through the cave where I’m just waiting for that first 5% gradient that knocks me off the back.
So, in order to keep up with a D Bot (at a steady pace) I’m pushing anywhere from 20 - 200+ watts (.25 - 2.5 w/kg and basically using every training zone available to me. My previous experience with the bots were horrible and this one was probably more so. The only reason I pushed to keep up was out of boredom on the ride, but it was supposed to be largely a 2 hr recovery ride. Again, maybe it’s more of an issue with the variation in performance of the handcycle there’s nothing remotely steady or “pace” about riding with one of the bots; it’s basically the performance I would expect out of a crit race.
The kicker though is the camera view or that handcycle. It’s fine if you’re riding solo but once you get into a group, and it’s especially bad with the number of riders with the D bots… the camera is aligned with everyone else’s ar$$es and that’s largely all I can see, except when a rider gets between the camera and my bike where the camera goes inside the other rider and I can see them from the inside out, and let me tell you, the distorted faces get very nightmareish! But luckily, you have the frantic pace changes to distract you from that, though because you can’s see the upcoming terrain/ road surface, you can’t anticipate and so the sprint changes are even more dramatic.
