Zwift vs Road Power

General Discussion
1

Over winter I spend a lot of time on Zwift and improved my ftp and overall power output. Now as its summer I’m spending a lot more time on the road riding and only occasionally going on Zwift. However, when I’ve been going on Zwift my power output and ftp are a lot lower than they use to be in winter when I trained on Zwift everyday training session.

However, on the road I’m hitting new pb and faster times on my rides than last year. So I was wondering if anyone could explain to me why my wattage on Zwift is lower than winter, even though I’m achieving Pbs on the road currently? I thought that my wattage and ftp on Zwift would have gone up after trialing on the road and improving my times? Thanks!

2

How are you measuring your power, both on the road and on Zwift?

3

So on Zwift, I’m using a Smart Turbo Trainer {Directo XR}
and on the road a power meter.

4

I experience something similar in that in Zwift my cadence is lower, while outside on a real bike I comfortably pedal at 90-100rpm and go quickly.

Zwift is with a Kickr Bike. Outside is with a Cervelo S5 with SRAM E-Tap AXS and Quarq power meter.

As long as I’m not getting slower I’m happy.