ZwiftPower restoration update [March 2021]

[xflintx (Flint)]

Hey racers!

It’s no secret that ZwiftPower has had its ups and down since coming under Zwift HQ’s official care. We’ve been putting a lot of work into things behind the scenes to improve the site in several ways, and we’re feeling good about where we currently find ourselves after the last few challenging months.

It’s premature to say “yes, the site is fixed.” So, what work do we still need to do?

That’s what this post is for: I want to ask you all to help us understand from your POV what things that used to work before still need fixing. We want to make sure that our understanding is aligned with your perception, and vice versa.

There are two things I feel worth mentioning beforehand:

• Missing .fit file data: We are aware that there are instances where .fit files don’t always make it from Zwift to ZwiftPower. We are currently investigating this and the work is in the queue to be examined. Please note: we do not have a timeline for a solution at this time, but the conversation and investigation is in flight.
• Live Data: While it’s not functioning flawlessly, we feel that Live Data has sprung back to a more reliably in the last couple of weeks. Instead of discussing that here, please keep updating the Missing Live Data thread with races that are not behaving as you would expect, with as much detail as possible.

There are also some guidelines I would ask that you please follow when posting to this thread:

• This thread is designed to let us know what current issues you’re experiencing with ZwiftPower that adversely affect your Zwift racing experience. This could be missing segments, missing power data, inaccurate results, etc.

• Before adding your feedback to the thread, please ensure no one else has already posted something similar. If they have, please use the like feature to give your +1 in lieu of making a new post.

• When adding your feedback, please be as detailed as possible. Include event IDs, screenshots, game log files, etc., where applicable.

• A blue sky wishlist for a faster, stronger, able-to-leap-tall-buildings ZwiftPower of the future is not what we’re asking for in this thread.

• Please keep the discussion civil and constructive. We are aware of the perception of ZwiftPower’s transition over the last few months, and comments which do not contribute to the discussion in a constructive manner will not be tolerated.

I’m looking forward to seeing what you all present, whether it’s something you’ve brought up before or something new. This is a community tool, and we want to continue to include you, the community, as much as possible; your feedback helps directly contribute to a better ZwiftPower.

Ride On.

[Dean]

Live button- when using this function during a race, updates are infrequent. I havent done many events recently so not sure if this is widespread - example event ID 1919961

ALL Race events showing France sprints/KOM’s- example ID 1930001, 1930008
Some events not showing primes eg ID 1934682

Cheers Flint.

[xflintx (Flint)]

@Dean

ALL Race events showing France sprints/KOM’s

Do you mean that the data is incomplete? Or that the sprints and KOMs don’t show the same way that others do specifically when France is the world?

[Robert_C (Robert)]

A dumb question probably - but with ZwiftPower and Zwift being all in one pocket now, is there still a need for a separate account creation and linking process? Shouldn’t the Zwift account be sufficient, a Zwift account automatically appear in ZP, and thus the ‘no ZP account’ that turns 50 D-cat finishers on Zwift into 15 on ZP be a thing of the past?

[xflintx (Flint)]

That’s actually a great question, and your thinking is correct in that it should be easier and under the same umbrella. That’s being discussed as well.

[Dean]

@xflintx

Or that the sprints and KOMs don’t show the same way that others do specifically when France is the world?

Snip probably best explains it. Note this is a Watopia race:

[Robert_C (Robert)]

I’ve used the ZP account creation and linking process in a totally unrelated presentation I did last year. Let’s say it wasn’t to demonstrate best practices.

[xflintx (Flint)]

This perfectly illustrates it. Thank you!

[anderfo (Anders Lyngvi Fougner)]

You might be aware of it, but there is still a big issue with pulling FIT files from WTRL’s events, especially TTTs. The FIT files are only analysed in rare cases. There is a separate thread about the issue here: Zwiftpower FIT Files for TTT - #19 by Simon_Perkins
We haven’t seen any response from Zwift in there, so we don’t really know if it’s being looked into…

[W_ally (W)]

some newer courses don’t show in the course column of the event page

[W_ally (W)]

Data in the “live” tab, where you can view power output of other riders at any time during an event, often shows up with a long delay, or gets stuck at some time (ie, the race has progressed until km 27, but the live data are still showing the situation as it was at km5). The usual delay used to be around a minute, or so, which was already on the verge of limiting this function’s usefulness. Even shorter would be nice, but it would be already great if it would function more reliably

[W_ally (W)]

one more thing: at some point it was promised that the functionality of automated threads for event-specific discussions would be restored, as was the case when ZP still had a public forum. Not unexpectedly, post-race discussion has all but disappeared, after the forum was shut down and threads had to be initiated manually here on the Zwift forum.

[Joakim_Lisson (Joakim Lisson (Team PO Auto))]

It seems that the view race report is not working anymore. The page is stuck on work in progress, despite being from races with fit file data (blue bolt). It used to be a bit hit and miss and sometimes required a reload but does not work for me anymore, using windows 10 and Chrome. The power curve tab still works properly

[OleKristian]

zid=1942155

Missing route profile for Park Perimeter Rev.

[Gerrie_Delport_ODZ (Gerrie)]

Event ID: 1942142

Missing route profile and name for “Ocean Lava Cliffside Loop”

[Andreas_Traff]

I have three requests, things that would mean a lot:

First,
I would like to have the direct link to the ZHQ rider profiles back in the race results. I’m referring to that little green bar diagram icon that used to sit on the far left in the results on each line/rider. (I’m not talking about the pie chart icon on the far right.)

I liked the transparency it brought. It was so convenient with a direct link to other riders’ HR diagrams in order to spot the cruisers in the race.

These days you have to search for the corresponding rider in the ZHQ results and, due to the many sandbaggers in any and every race, a placing on ZP almost never corresponds to a ZHQ placing.

Also, due to navigation issues on zwift.com, it is not that easy to get to the results page for a particular race, especially if a few days have gone by. It is generally somewhat easier to use the companion app. But then if I, for example, would like to have a look at a winner’s HR diagram, then I’m on a different platform and device. It gets complicated. With the previous direct link you could get to ZHQ rider profiles easily even in very old races.

Second,
I would like more data. These days if you want to look at race results in races you didn’t participate in yourself, then you can only browse races a couple of weeks back and it’s such a shame. The data is there, you just can’t browse it and step through more pages of past races than just a few.

Why is this? It can’t be a Data Protection Act/GDPR issue, since if you can show what you show today, then you should be able to get away with showing up to 2 years of data. Is it a performance issue? Cloud costs? Fear of competitor scraping? Or nobody ever asked simply? (I do now, and I think it would be really valuable to users for several reasons.)

Third,
This might be asking too much, but if, in addition to deeper historical data, I could also export race results to .xlsx or .csv easily, then that would be wonderful. I have my reasons. I like doing statistics, no secrets there, but I’m sure there are e.g. league organizers who would appreciate this too when cross-posting results on social media or just keeping tabs on their league, which might be running for a whole season.

I really like the transparency that Zwift already provides. (Compare it to the hush-hush RL cycling world.) It’s actually one of the things I like the most about Zwift. You get all these numbers thrown in your face. It’s fine to disregard them and just ride but you can also take a closer look at your own numbers and learn a lot about yourself from them. And then you can look at other riders’ numbers and learn from that too. But I think you could go a few notches further. I mean, I can sic a scraper on ZP today if I really want the data but it feels wrong.

[S_A_ccc (S A)]

ZwiftPower - Login my data for this ride is incorrect despite a blue bolt. i recorded a 1 min pr of 10+ wkg up libby hill. the NP is showing as lower than my actual wattage (173 raw vs. 164 NP). my time and power up libby is correct in the the kom tab and on strava etc. nothing unusual like a connection drop or anything happened during the ride so i’ve no idea what caused it

ZwiftPower - Login here is another recent bugged entry. i was disconnected from the ride after 2 minutes but it put me in the results anyway

i believe these are recent bugs as i’ve never encountered either of them before

[Anna_Ronkainen (Anna Ronkainen (AEO))]

The number of .fit files waiting processing in the queue is still not indicated correctly on the front page or on the event pages concerned. (I guess this won’t be much of an issue (except for Tuesdays…) as the summer approaches and event participation decreases overall.)