Not sure this belongs in another category but today joined
[Zwift - Group Ride: PACK SUB2 Saturday + KOM After Party (D) on Outer Scotland in Scotland]
I started fine and just moved to front riders and stood with them and some passed me while I passed others and suddenly the software said GO TO PACK (something like that) and began a countdown, I saw a group in front and seemed to stop and than started again a countdown and basically threw me out of the group ride.
What happen? I am new and only did 2 group rides but was I suppose to stay back? Is this ride require you must stay in main pack cause later I saw many riders riding alone ride with me the rest of the course.
It means the ride leader was using a fence to keep the group together. You rode through the fence and were given 60 seconds to get behind the fence before you were ejected. Not all group rides use a fence, and not all rides with a fence use it to eject people who ride ahead of the group.
I treat a group ride as a ride with the leader. I stay with the leader, or I ride with the sweepers behind the leader. If the ride was too easy then I suggest picking a different ride with a higher pace.
My last two group rides were more like races so I expected that this would be the same and wish I knew cause I wanted an easy ride today. Is this in the description before you sign up?
Anyway now I know what it is. It was not that it was easy I was just trying not to get dropped. LOL
This is the fence, the ride leaders usually mention it is turned on so keep a watch on the comments.
I know some of them also ramble on about everything and anything so it can get lost in the stream of ride leader comments.
I wonder if the fence could be done in a better way that the riders at the front just cannot go through it no matter how fast they try to go. And if they are somehow ahead of it, they are slowed or teleported back to the fence.
I agree it should be as easy as teleport you back and after maybe several times you can be ejected. This is only my third group ride and no races so I was really confused and I actually wanted a slower group ride today.
It is usually in the description, but once you see the leader in the starting pen before the ride, you can ask if they are using a fence and whether it is “hot”. Some ride leaders also turn off the fence at various points during the ride, which is usually announced.
If you want to see if a ride has a fence before joining, you can look it up on the ZwiftHacks events app. https://zwifthacks.com/app/events/
When you click on the event to expand the details, it will say “Fenced” and/or “Zap flyers”. If there’s a fence you should try to stay behind it. If it’s set to zap flyers that means you will be ejected if you stray beyond it for too long.
There is a learning curve to social rides, some are spicy and people go hard and that’s OK, some are not. Find the ones you enjoy that are operated in a way that you like and keep coming back.
Yes we state the fence is on in the pens and say you have 60 seconds to drop back. I even repeat the message once we are moving but I understand these can be missed by new riders, some say they did not even see the return to group message as they were concentrating so hard not to get dropped
Its really a zwift issue but they dont seem to be taking feedback or suggestions to improve it like we wish to help new group riders. The two improvments I would like is not kicking the rider but turing the draft off once you go through the fence and turning the whole screen a light shade of red to make it even move apparent to look at the message.
It’s the hot fence. I stopped doing those group rides because of that silly thing. It punishes those who pull forward away from the group by not allowing them to return to the group on their own terms. But it lets riders who lag behind stay away from the group as long as they want and allows them infinite time to get back to the group on their own terms. Real life rides don’t run like that. Real life group rides let riders move forward and lag, and leaves each alone to rejoin the group on their own terms. Why some groups use that hot fence is inexplicable.
There are usually faster group rides you can join (run by same clubs) if you want to ride at a greater pace.
Usually most clubs let people go ahead for quick sprints and then turn the fence back on to get everyone back together.
Otherwise you end up with the ride leader and a few others doing the advertised pace (or trying to) left way behind while these other folks race away far off the front.
Real life bunch rides are about staying together. I get it that some folks don’t feel confident being in the bunch so they ride off the front to avoid it, but then you are missing out on learning. It’s also for safety and that people don’t get lost.
I have a lot of experience with real life bunch rides and leading them. It’s a lot easier if folks stay together just to know that everyone is safe. If someone is off the back we wait for them, have an experienced rider stay back with them or get the person with the support car to get them if they are really struggling.
Also in my old club for the regular morning rides we had groups of different speeds so the faster folk were always welcomed to move up to the faster group.
I think for me the most confusing part was which pack? Ha.
There were riders in front of me and behind me so I was not sure if going too fast or too slow and my first instinct was go faster.
I like zwift much better for group rides cause I had terrible experience in real life where guys of all levels tried to keep up with each other and was just demoralizing so after a while you stopped showing up. With zwift you can get similar riders together to have a great expereince.
On Zwift the answer is Robo pace rides. You get treated the same way whether you drop off the back or go out ahead. In each case you can either stay out or rejoin by either slowing down or speeding up. That’s how it is in real life group rides too.
On Zwift the answer is Robo pace rides. You get treated the same way whether you drop off the back or go out ahead. In each case you can either stay out or rejoin by either slowing down or speeding up. That’s how it is in real life group rides too.
Oh, and speeding ahead splits a group up neither more nor less than dropping off the back does. Only, on Zwift group rides with hot fences riders falling off the back are not booted from ride whereas those running off the front get booted. The whole thing is silly nonsense. Robo pacer rides are the best group rides on Zwift.
I don’t know about that. IRL group rides, at least with the clubs I’ve seen, have a leader, who accepts a limited (eg. 12) number of riders to join. They don’t tend to be happy if a rider or three disappear off the front, when there may have been others on the waiting list to join that ride but couldn’t because it had filled up. So those riders may well not be invited back, but instead encouraged to find a different group ride to join next time.
I do admit it is confusing when I check on zwift and they use the language “race results” but it is a group ride and rank you.
Should you really be doing that in a group ride? A race is a race and a group ride is a group ride. Group rides definitely have their place for getting you ready to race.
Structured training, weekly group ride which all leads to a race finally. But a group ride should not be called a race no matter how spicy.
Even well known racers (from A) race group rides, like one of the MAAP rides yesterday which ended up an absolute smash-fest at the front (15 or so) and the rest were I think 2 minutes behind or more.
I think it does. If the ride leader is doing the advertised 2.5wkg and is always in the draft because they’re constantly being dragged along behind a group of riders pushing 3wkg, then a light rider at the back might need to be continually pushing over 3wkg to keep from being dropped. Ooft.
If the ride leader is in the wind a decent amount of the time, everything is that bit more chill. You’ll have noticed exactly the same effect with RoboPacers, I expect.
Pretty much every group ride I did in my life turned into a race. But my point is more if I would have kept the pace of my last group ride I would have been riding pretty much at a recovery pace and would have reflected on zwiftpower.
Maybe I am putting too much into zwiftpower but if that is used for anything other than reference the group rides probably should not be on it.
I’ve seen plenty of people dropped on group rides.