Hi all. Last night I joined Stage 5 A-route a couple minutes late. Zwift let me join, but for the entire time I never visually saw any other riders (no avatars or even dots on the map). It said I was at position 48/105, so I’m guessing I would have seen someone. Also, the route it took me on took much longer to complete. Rather than the advertised 30 miles + 3,000 ft climbing (give or take), I didn’t cross the “banner” and get the “Stage 5 completed” message until I rode a total of 43.23 miles and climbed a total of 4,820 ft. I just kept riding after the planned 30 miles thinking that maybe I had to ride a bit farther because I started two minutes late. Also, the graphic that shows how far you have left to ride went down to zero at the planned 30 mile route length. THen it just stayed at zero for another 7 miles or so. Then at 37 miles ridden, it turned back on and said I have 30,000 feet remaining and started counting down. And magically, once it counted down all the way to zero feet remaining, it gave me the Route completed message. Very weird. Anyone else ever experience this behavior?
I did a late start on stage 5 yesterday evening as well, coming in just a few minutes late. I initially was with a group, but right away, when the group turned right to go up the first big climb, the game turned me left. I knew this was wrong, so I quite the event and re-started it. Did the same method of a late start (just now a few minutes later) and it dropped me back in going the right direction and all was good. I’ve seen mention of others saying that it can send you the wrong direction if you do a late start sometimes. Not sure if Zwift will get this fixed or not. Definitely something to watch for if you do it. If it send you the wrong way early on, just quit and re-start.
J_Lamoreaux - this is exactly what happened to me! At my first turn it made me go left, everyone else went right. I just kept on riding for the heck of it to see what happened per my description above. Glad I wasn’t the only one!
This is a common problem with late join. It has been unreliable for a long time. I try not to use it, or expect that it may not work and be prepared to repeat it.