The sectional view to see where you are on the map is rather small. It would be great if on the plan view of the map (top right of screen) the black borders on either side of the road were replaced with different colours so that riders can see upcoming hills and their level of difficulty. Eg: flat = white borders ; 12-15% = red borders; 9-12% = orange etc etc. That way you could prepare yourself or strategically plan when to attack etc depending on how you feel etc.
Particularly in HUDless races where you get no warning of upcoming hills (in real life you can at least see hills, and HUDless is supposed to better emulate real life).
Given that most people have probably ridden all the Zwift courses numerous times then they would know where the hills are anyway.
The gradient view certainly could be updated to be a bit more useful.
I recall the Tacx Training Software giving pop-ups on climbs (at least for the video rides, I can’t recall what’s available on the VR) that (again, I think, my memory is a little hazy) would show details of the length and average gradient at the foot of the climb, then (at least on longer climbs) short pop-ups with the upcoming kilo’s max grade and average grade (much like the tombstones on ven-top).
I don’t disagree that most of this can’t be overcome with “doing the climb a bunch of times”, but I do wonder if having some form of toggleable option would help people during their first forays on routes.
I was just thinking of this today during my ride. I sometimes get caught off guard by the hills. Maybe a toggle for a map like what the pros have on their bars?
I was just thinking there, about what has been said, my thoughts were, how about having some kind of graph being added to the bottom map screen, on the companion app, showing the route ahead, with any upcoming hills with colour coding for the gradients, and also the current gradient that you are currently on.
That way we could ride with a hudless display, and all we need to do is have a glance at our phones/tablet to see what is coming up on the route ahead.
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