Hello
I’ve noticed that the distance covered in a race can seriously vary from one rider to another? Is there an explanation? by what is it determined?
Sam
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My personal thought.
Either it was a “late joining” race (which I doubt they exist)
Either it’s because you were warming up on whatever map you are, and after riding 800m selected join event which meant you had 800m in your total done going into the race
Thank you for your reply Enzo, but i was not late joining (first join 30 min before the race and second 3 minutes before the race) and the warming up was about 13 km, it really increase ‘slowly’ during the race
this was earlier in the race
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Hope someone can enlighten this then 
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There are many things that can cause this…
In my experience, the “Zwifters Nearby” board often shows lagged information. Despite the fact that these other riders were listed above your name in the nearby list, (especially given the fact that this looks to be a sprint phase, where there are drastically different speeds/power occurring), these names may well be listed out-of-order with respect to your actual position on the course. This effect is most noticeable, for example, on a climb, when riders nearby have actually reached a round-about at the summit, and are returning through other rider’s courses that they’ve already traversed. I’ve also noticed on fast descents, with multiple riders in a group, that the position of the avatars on the screen and the relative position of the “riders nearby” often differs considerably. However, the distances on the screenshot you provided seem even larger still, given that the time differentials are nil
As the other poster mentions, this happens in a late-join group all the time. I went from one Stage 3 ride to another without stopping my peddalling, and was transported to the front of the peloton, and my distance varied by over 10km, but with a normal time delta.
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Yes, totally, agree about late joining, climb and fast descent, i also already note it, but at the end of the race every one should all have almost the same distance, even in strava distance riden differ, and also segment length doesn’t match
in this case segment is officially 5.05 km long but start at 4.5km and finish above 10km.
I first though it could be linked to the height/weight (a big and heavy rider like me will turn less short) but some small light riders ride more distance than bigger & heavier other, so there must be an other explanation
Cursor placement? Here’s what my segment details look like for the same bit:
Also, Strava has multiple references about distance anomalies on their support web-sites.
Edit: prior image had the name of the segment cut-off … apologies.
Here’s an example (e pluribus):
Why is my distance on Strava different from my GPS device? support. strava. com/hc/en-us/articles/115001188624-Why-is-my-activity-s-distance-different-than-my-friend-s-
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it could be explained with how Zwift AI makes you take corners and moves you around the road, sometimes with very strange behavior. For example, why does my avatar go to the middle of the road to pass someone occasionally when there is plenty of room on their right, or just pass though them other times?
This article shows how you can cut 600 meters off a 40km ride by using the optimal line when climbing the alpe with steering. Steering vs Distance: Testing the Sterzo On Alpe du Zwift | Zwift Insider
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I found a similar topic called Extra Distance covered by my Avatar vs. Others in Events?
There is no definitive answer, but some good leads, it seems that riders riding ahead (what i never do 
) are riding less than other. I also check my last TTT race, every one ride about the same time in front and we all had exactly the same distance.
So a possible explanation could be that in middle of the pack the constant overtaking make you ride more distance that being in front (or at the back) of the pack
I posted this, possibly related, comment a couple of hours ago, that you might find of interest. The recent “group dynamic” AI update has definitely changed “things” on Zwift…
forums. zwift. com/t/riding-on-the-left-hand-side-of-the-road/546416/2
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… riding-on-the-left-hand-side-of-the-road
almost English and Australian riders have this issue 
More seriously, yes it make sense that it could be a consequence of the new group dynamic (even when you’re not steering)
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That is not relevant to Zwift. Zwift “GPS” data is very smooth.
The Picture show 11 laps, you can see they are very similar.
maybe to do with cornering, you don’t get to choose ur line without Sterzo thingy, so maybe some people end up cycling further than others by having poorly chosen lines through corners. dno tho.
also movement in the pack etc. as already mentioned. it’s not just everyone riding in a straight line on the exact same route for the whole ride, ppl are moving all over the place and this will affect distance cycled by a small amount.
Why was this flagged?
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