RoboPacer Flat Routes

The recent, current and future routes for RoboPacers are crazy. It was said that one Pacer would ride a flat route and one would do hills on any given week. I ride Miguel everyday when he’s on a flat route. This week neither route is even close to flat. One big hill may be flat for some people but considering route distances that can mean 8-10 loops and 3,500’ of climb over 80+ miles. I have followed the number of riders on flat routes vs hilly routes and, as a lot of posts of writers that I’ve read state, the number is normally 3-4 times more on flat routes. I ride with a pretty large number of people regularly and we all very much prefer flat routes and without them, as this week we do a lot of teleporting trying to miss hills and still get some distance. I would think that Zwift would be interested in what a majority of their riders desire. There is no good reason to not abide by what the original stated plan put forth.

It would be great to see a range of bots from A through to D always available on a flat route such as Tempus Fugit. This would help alleviate the problems caused by the dynamic pacing of the RoboSurgers.

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Maybe ride with the next RP down but use a gravel or mountain bike, assuming the route they’re on is tarmac.

You really don’t get the point. They’re quite a few of us that ride for miles. Going slower is not the idea. That is the one reason so many don’t like hills. That’s the same reason we don’t like gravel or dirt. What do you get out of that except slower speeds. At least climbing you gain elevation. When Zwift changed a lot of routes to gravel a few years ago there were and still are people who think that was crazy. As I said there are multiple numbers of people on flat routes instead of hills when we have the choice. There are several groups that always choose the flattest route available. Look at the numbers some day. Your suggestion has absolutely no validity and is way off the mark. Do what Zwift said they would when they revamped the RP’s, one flat route and one hilly route. What’s the issue with that unless you purposely driving people away from the bots.

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So what is the problem with one flat route and one hilly route. Everyone gets what they want. I ride everyday and have been riding since 2018 and know very well what I want to do and don’t need the diversity, thank you.

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Definitely need moee dlat routes and i mean flat not everyone likes climbing or up and down routes

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Agree with having equal choice of flat and hilly routes - not just hilly. I haven’t met anyone on Zwift so far that enjoys doing daily 100km+ rides on hilly routes. Further, if you are returning after injury, illness or time off, the choice of only a hilly or gravel route for a pace partner ride may not be suitable, or even doable, for some. Flat options would definitely be welcomed and used by those who want them.

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*Here for the flat routes! We want flat routes. We want flat routes. We want flat routes!!! *

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Thank you for bringing up some great thoughts that I had missed.

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Yes I wonder why there couldn’t be 2 pacers in each W/kg category. One on a flat route, one on a hillier route. The number of bots doesn’t seem to be an issue as they’ve increased from 3 or so total to 9 in a world now. Not enough flat or hilly routes? We overtake or are overtaken by other bots all the time so it probably doesn’t matter too much if there are 2 (or more) bots on the same route. Maybe existing routes can be combined to make new flat/hilly routes. (e.g. one tempus fugit loop, one tick tock loop)

I think users would appreciate a clear choice of hilly route or flat route for each W/kg bot. Putting the W/kg bots in competition with each other might produce some interesting statistics. However the statistics shouldn’t be used to downgrade this increased service.

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I think I should get a pass given that you didn’t make that point in the post that I replied to. :rofl:

Problem with that is then people wouldn’t want to “experience/enjoy” all the other Zwift routes. Naturally they all gravitate to Tempus when possible.

So rotating favourite robopacers away from Tempus solves that problem, they are “encouraged” to enjoy other routes. People are forced to ride elsewhere or end up crawling at 1.2w/kg on Tempus. :wink:

They aren’t really hilly, none of the robopacers do the epic KOM or radio tower climb! :wink:

Bring back 65kg Amelia Anquetil on her old properly hilly routes at steady 4.2w/kg! None of these rolling courses! :wink:

Or I’d send Genie and Constance permanently on a new loop taking in just cliff-side bypass, Epic KOM and Alpe du Zwift. Come on Constance folk, you are in A Grade, time to hit those big mountains! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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Obviously we have different definitions of hilly. I am talking about is what is the elevation gain on a 100 mile ride. If it is over around 3,000’ it’s hilly. KOM’s do not denote hilly routes. As far as people being forced to “experience/enjoy” other routes, most experienced riders with whom I ride know what they like and can look at the route description as to whether or not they want to ride it. I know exactly the type of route I want to ride, flat and no dirt/gravel. There are a lot that agree with me as one can see by the numbers of riders on each RP route.

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I know also people love the flattest route, hence why Tempus gets the most people if a mid-pace robopacer is there.

I also would have preferred if each robopacer level would have an always on Tempus option, but it’s probably deliberately not done in order to have people ride different areas and or make the world more evenly populated with riders.

My use of the words “experience/enjoy” was from the UX angle that is sometimes used when those types (in some business) want to push out something people don’t always like. :wink: