I want to suggest a RoboPacer that operates at 4.5 W/kg.
Currently, The RoboPacer entitled: “Constance” is operating at 4.2 W/kg.
After many rides with Constance, there has been some discussions from a few Zwift members that it might be nice to add an additional RoboPacer to the Zwift platform that operates at 4.5 W/kg to give the user that little extra push (effort) when training at that level.
You could also ride using a gravel bike or TT bike as well which would increase the training effort.
I don’t think there is enough demand for 4.5wkg - 338w base which would then go even higher uphill. Even Constance group sometimes has small numbers.
Let’s say this new robopacer went up Ventop, would you ride with it at the elevated pace of say 4.9w/kg / 368 watts for 60 minutes? Or would you fall back to regular Constance 4.2w/kg (or Genie)?
There’s barely a crowd around Constance… I don’t see much of a point.
Even when they ran Big Mig it was a small group and majority bots anyway.
Ride a slightly slower bike and you can hit those numbers.
Most people training at those powers are generally doing it for intervals anyways and it doesn’t make sense to run it with a bot that doesn’t hold a steady pace…
Wow, and here I was thinking the little old lady smashing Big Mig at 7.0w/kg for hours was just an undiscovered pro rider. /sarcasm
As an experiment, if they could put Constance on a 6% gradient that just keeps going forever, I wonder if the folks riding with Constance would hold the required elevated power all the time, or drop back to Genie… Maybe that would be the solution to the “little extra effort” people want.
I say that as someone who did sometimes ride with Constance - I have enough power to stay with that bot for a few hours, even at my light weight which puts me at a bit of a disadvantage in that group. If the existing Constance bot ran at 4.6w/kg all the time I suspect a lot of people wouldn’t ride with it.
Thank you everyone for your replies.
You all have presented plenty of valid points.
I’m guessing that if there was a RoboPacer operating at 4.5W/kg, it would need to be exclusive to a flatter route such as: Tempus Fugit, or The Fan Flats in Richmond (a guess).
I do see people riding off the front of Constance holding a steady pace at times and I thought maybe adding the additional RoboPacer might be a good idea. I am also basing this idea on what a few people have talked about during a few of their rides.
However, if a RoboPacer operating at 4.5 W/kg applies to only a small select group of people, then maybe it would not be worth the effort to program such a feature ?
Thank you everyone for sharing your thoughts, concerns, ideas, and feedback. This is what makes this forum a great place to be. Much appreciated.
That would be unfair to all the other pace groups (with often way more riders) who want their robopacer category to also only ever be on Tempus Fugit. I could imagine the complaints.
Keeping a robopacer only on Tempus has been asked for a few times by various people (probably as an alternative to fixed pace robopacers) and neither has happened.
You can bet it would be popular around Christmas time when everyone wants their fast virtual Rapha 500 kilometres.
Ride a route you want at the pace you want, as a free ride. Not in a group event or meetup.
Turn on holo replay for routes. You can turn on both previous and best.
Now you have your own “robo pacer”.
Ride with your holo replay.
I dont know when you are riding but at my time (5 am CET till 8 am CET) Constance is on flat routes VERY crowded.
Americas; I rarely see anyone with it but bots.
Either way Zwift has the numbers I would hope. I’m sure they would’ve kept one around if it was really that beneficial after Mig.
Chris D9
That would be unfair to all the other pace groups (with often way more riders) who want their robopacer category to also only ever be on Tempus Fugit. I could imagine the complaints.
The other RoboPacer categories are at a lower W/kg.
Chris D9
Let’s say this new robopacer went up Ventop, would you ride with it at the elevated pace of say 4.9w/kg / 368 watts for 60 minutes? Or would you fall back to regular Constance 4.2w/kg (or Genie)?
This could be why it might be beneficial to limit a higher W/kg RoboPacer to a flatter route.
Plus, the effort required to hold that pace with the RoboPacer would be a steady consistent effort on a flat route without being broken up by climbing up and down hills.
Are there any RoboPacers currently climbing Ventop ?
It is enjoyable to share and discuss the pros and cons of an idea. Much appreciated.
True, but then there is no group interactions and no x2.5 drops multiplier if desired.
Some people enjoy riding with a RoboPacer to get a good workout, be part of a group, and collect x2.5 drops all at the same time.
I’d like a higher paced bot, too. With the bots now on mostly flat routes, and the fact you can sit behind them in a group often at significantly lower power, a 4.5wkg would be great. Or maybe 4.7wkg, to follow the same format as Jacques and Genie.
Constance often has around 20-30 riders when I ride (UK lunch time). Another bot might thin the numbers out a little, but that’s fine with me. It can be unengaging to sit in a large pack. Smaller groups mean you have to pay a bit more attention.
Similar - sometimes less for me. I used to ride around the same CET time as the person earlier. 20-30 isn’t much when some of them are bots or 45-50kg folks, and some others are just teleporting in for coffee breaks and free distance (repeatedly, interrupting the pack dynamics).
I think using a gravel bike, mountain bike or TT bike would give you the harder workout you want.
Or they could put Constance on Epic KOM and radio tower so people can ride at the elevated 4.6w/lg pace for longer - that’s unlikely as people will complain.
I remember It has been said we can’t have any more robopacers because there were already a lot.
I know I can use a different bike. I’ve done enough upgrading of TTs and gravel bikes to last me a lifetime, thanks! And I’m currently doing a road bike, so, that’s not convenient. I did find using a gravel bike quite tough at times (back when the routes weren’t so flat). You really notice it on the hill and any time the bots/group surged!
I’m not expecting Zwift to create a new Robopacer for us. I’m just adding my voice to the request for one because it’s even less likely to happen if we don’t ask.
It’s a shame that is how it is. I would wager that a lot of the people who ride with Constance put in a lot of hours on Zwift , so it’s a slight shame that pure rider numbers dictate things. If most of the people riding with the slower Pacers are doing, say, 1 or 2 hours a week, it’s a shame they’re so well catered for and not those doing 13-14 hours a week. But whatareyagonnado. There are enough of them to massively outweigh things.
Yeah, no chance a bot is going up Epic with the focus on flat routes now. Even if it did, you’d have a huge amount of downhill, which would be even worse than Constance on the flats.
Totally agree that there should be more pacers for stronger riders. I’m nowhere near Constance pace yet lol but I believe Zwift should cater equally to the platform’s strongest cyclists––more incremental jumps between Yumi, Genie and Jacques would be helpful, and a pacer above Constance would no doubt be welcomed by those who can comfortably hang with Constance.
Hopefully more pacers will be added in the future; would be a shame to think that the stronger you get the less pacer options you have to help keep you progressing! I mean I don’t ride with pacers all the time but I know how popular they are, so hopefully Zwift will keep expanding the options.
This is where the old steady pace Anquetil was good. Downhill it went 4.2w/kg as well so you had to keep pushing. However people didn’t like that - the robopacers went too fast downhill so that had to be changed.
Not always, even requests with huge amounts of votes (100+) get ignored. People wanted lighter robopacers - you saw how that went nowhere, despite the large support. People just said, oh, ride with slower robopacers among some other less nice comments.
At the moment, Constance has only 9 people with it - and that’s considering it’s pouring rain here so you’d expect quite a lot of people joining at this time of day:
Genie only has 13.Coco and Maria have have 65-70 each, Miguel 55, much more.
Because Zwift doesn’t cater to strong riders. Look at the numbers of racers in the Advanced realm; there’s a reason why by default it’s the entire range of 600-1000, and everything below that gets split into 4 groups x2.
People at those powers aren’t interested in a bumpy ride along with a robo, they’re either doing a proper workout, as they should be to maintain numbers, or getting in base miles.
I don’t even think I can count on one hand the number of A or very strong riders I see on Zwift often, that ride with Constance on anything that resembles ‘regularly’.
Things may be extremely different on the other side of the world, but Constance and Advanced racing on the Americas side of the world is a ghost town… always.
There was a very strong group that would regularly ride with Constance on the CET timezone mentioned before - they were just about daily. So they do exist. I don’t ride with the robopacers anymore so I don’t know if they are still doing that.
Riding with robopacers wasn’t really improving my riding so I changed things up completely. I’ve done over 500,000m elevation gain this year (combination Zwift and real riding outside) and become way faster from that. I miss out on the fast kilometres (makes bike upgrades very slow) and miss out on the lucrative drops multiplier, but so be it.
Thank you to everyone here who has contributed and shared their thoughts, ideas, comments, suggestions, views, concerns, and perspectives on the topic. This has been a great discussion. Much appreciated.
Thank you. Ride on.
