Zwift Group Ride Quality

There are a few issues that detract from the quality of group rides (non-races):

  1. The ride leader constantly having to ask the front group to slow down to the advertised pace.

2. Sometimes the ride leader sets a pace very different from the advertised pace.

  1. Sometimes the ride leader cannot control the ride and it splits to pieces.

While these issues may not bother some percentage of the participants, it may  alienate others who may give up on group rides and then have a less satisfying Zwift experience than they should.

I understand how splits can happen but not why they persist after it is obvious that the ride leader is well behind with a significant fraction of the group.  Plus trying to corral this herd of cats is a thankless task for the ride leader and I can’t imagine it is how they want to spend their ride.

I’m sure I am not the first person to raise these issues and I hope Zwift is considering ways to mitigate it.  Personally I wish that the ride leader could choose to remove riders from the event if they are too far off the front.  Or make them invisible to the rest of the group at least, particularly when the event finishes with an “after-party” that should be for the riders who stayed with the leader.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Every single word you said was true and yet you get negative votes. People are funny.

Realize that power output seems totally subjective with all the different ways to connect to Zwift and that leader using ERG is quite hard to follow if you are using sim mode and a higher gradient. I’ve needed 3-4 w/kg on every single 1.5 group ride I have been on.

Group rides ■■■■■ foot up hills then race down. Total opposite of what is needed for group cohesion. Should be the opposite. Attack hills, recover going downhill and regroup on flats. Nope.

People that ride in front ruin group rides, yet people riding at the front are riding much smoother and even paced than the folks that have to work hard *just to stay behind the leader*.

After parties are for everyone. Silly idea to not let people take part. You want to punish them???

 

 

Woodbury, I too feel the way you do too.  I’ve all but quit going on them.  They advertize a set watt per kilo, and then all of a sudden I’m chasing at 5 watts a kilo.  on days I want a tame ride. I don’t want to have to ride at 5 watts a kilo on a 2.5w/k day…  Ride leaders need a way to kick people out of the group whom disrupt it,  and are making it a race.  another way to handle it is if they get to far off the front, they are removed automatically from the group by zwift.  don’t understand why people do a advertise group ride of 2.5W/k and ride at 3.8 w/k. being strung-out over 2-3 miles is not a group ride.   

also the group workouts are bad idea for me.  Maybe not for everyone but for me…  doing 350w on a flat and doing 19mph.  not sure where the happy medium is, but if you track mileage and time, group workout is a real downer imo.  I guess some people need that group think mentality and its probably good for people who are slow,  but I would rather do my workouts alone, than to be relegated like that.  

i just dont understand why ppl ride off the front on group rides??? my solution is to give them violations. ppl who accumulate 3 violations would be banned from joining group rides for a week. and i dont understand why zwift doesnt do anything about it???

Spot on. I joined the MEC ride last night that was advertised as 2.0-2.5 w/k. 3 minutes before ride start, the ride leader said that everyone should ride at an average of 2.4 w/k max, and if people are up for it, there would be a race at the end with 3k to go. I got dropped almost immediately when I saw that the front group (including the leader) were riding at 4.0+ w/k off the line. It’s not like it built up to that, either. They took off from the line and gunned it. The ride leader did nothing to try and reign it back in. So yeah, that wasn’t very fun.