Zwift.

[CLP]

noticed earlier that Pacers had been added to Watopia under the Futureworks label.

this is probably a low effort addition since at the very start of Zwift's life the entire Zwift world was populated with bots that you could ride with.. but anyway.. it's there if you want it

The blue ghosts?

I think you must have been on Zwift longer than me Carl. I can remember them, but not very well.

before things really kicked off for Zwift they used to have a number of bots riding around. The number used to fluctuate depending on the number of human riders. that way the world was always populated by a minimum number of riders...

[Duke]

Not much in this months update but I guess they did have a huge update last month.

ZWIFT UPDATE VERSION 1.0.55226 RELEASED

Today Zwift has taken Repack Ridge out of “FutureWorks” mode – the first FutureWorks project to truly go “live”. Congrats, Repack Ridge. And congrats Zwift!
Although you could steer on Repack with the Elite Sterzo Smart, Zwift has cleaned up the interface now, making it function smoothly.
You can also ride any MTB from your garage – you aren’t forced onto the Zwift MTB. A new Strava KOM is imminent!

All events now have steering disabled by default, but you can visit zwift.com/events/tag/steeringrace to see events which have steering enabled.
Added a new alert indicator when users save their activity to let them know if they are in an offline state to reduce lost rides and runs.: This should help with the complaints of “my ride didn’t save”!
Improved Meetups to ensure you can enable late join OR race results (rather than both at the same time). Even if you’re just racing your friends, you need to complete the entire meetup distance to take the top step. There have been issues with race meetups since they were enabled in the last big update. Hopefully this fix improves that!
Cycling Pace Partners is now only available for cyclists. A future game release will provide a complimentary Pace Partner for Runners.
Fixed an issue that would cause the HUD to flicker in Meetups.
Fixed a bug where in certain scenarios a rider would get dropped from the draft.
Numerous UI and text updates.

[CLP]

Zwift Academy sign ups have opened... for those that like that sort of thing

[CLP]

[norbs]

Interesting little gadget that one.

Some thoughts on the meet ups. I was chatting to an old work colleague yesterday about meet ups. Apparently in his club there is a huge broohaha about meet ups. They were doing club meetups, and the groups werent split. He is a fat old bastard like me and did 50kms last weekend in 1h 10m! LOL

I think it is fair to say that meet ups are really fucking up the stats for many people. Both at the front end and the back end of groups. I dont think they should count, or there should be a revision done at the end of the ride to be more representative of the actual effort put in. Averaging 45kph and sitting on 200w is bull shit if you ask me. I suppose there is no real way to police it. I probably wouldnt be dark about it at all if I was getting dragged along by a big bunch of A graders

[CLP]

Some thoughts on the meet ups.

interesting points, and something that has impacted V in a Zwift ride.

PACC were/are running no-drop group rides, which on the face of it sounds okay. Except there's a mix of abilities, and some of them are doing workouts etc. What that meant in practice was that despite barely pedalling V was being constantly slung up the road at warp speed to keep up with the group. The concern was that she'd kill her Strava PRs on that ride and basically never be able to come close in the future, which would remove a lot of motivation for riding and improving going forward. So she's not doing those any more

they work as advertised, but i think they work better without wildly difference rider abilities.

[norbs]

Im probably wrong, but I dont think your times count from group rides.

[CLP]

Im probably wrong, but I dont think your times count from group rides.

On Strava they do... Strava knows nothing about the type of ride you are doing, just where you've gone and the time you've taken ..

[Duke]

PB's don't count within Zwift when in a meetup iirc.
Not sure how it works in Strava but worse case if you make those rides private then they don't count or at least are not visible in segment / leaderboards including your own I believe.

I don't see the issue tbh, all virtual rides would have a lot of inaccuracy wrt to times, speeds & distances by the very nature of them being virtual.
If it bothers ppl that much then filter out Virtual rides in all the apps they care to use. Simple!!!

[norbs]

PB's don't count within Zwift when in a meetup iirc.
Not sure how it works in Strava but worse case if you make those rides private then they don't count or at least are not visible in segment / leaderboards including your own I believe.

I don't see the issue tbh, all virtual rides would have a lot of inaccuracy wrt to times, speeds & distances by the very nature of them being virtual.
If it bothers ppl that much then filter out Virtual rides in all the apps they care to use. Simple!!!

Says the man doing a lot of meet ups. I agree there is some wiggle room, but doing 45kph average at 200W is not wiggle room. I think the meet ups without the no drop option is a better way of doing it. Each to their own i suppose.

And Carl was right, Strava wouldnt know. Im not sure where I heard about that.

[Duke]

Yes I guess the way a meetup is setup could be a pain especially if your not expecting it to stay together as a group but that option is enabled, in which case blame the meeting creator then.

No issue with the meetup's I attend as they are setup to either be, no drop group rides with stay together enabled or specific training/effort rides with the stay together option disabled.

[Duke]

ZWIFT RAISES $450 MILLION INVESTMENT IN SERIES C ROUND

Zwift, the global online fitness platform for cyclists and runners, today announced a $450 million minority investment led by leading global investment firm KKR, accompanied by other new investors Permira, Specialized Bicycle Components’ venture capital fund, Zone 5 Ventures and the Amazon Alexa Fund and existing investors including True, Highland Europe, Novator and Causeway Media. The investment will be used to accelerate the development of Zwift’s core software platform and bring Zwift-designed hardware to market, making Zwift a more immersive and seamless experience for users.

Zwift has now raised $620 million altogether and is valued at north of $1 billion.

[Duke]

I like this & am interested to see how they work out the divisions. I assume it will still be based on w/kg (ZP grade) but I'm hoping they try do it differently.

ZWIFT RACING LEAGUE ANNOUNCED

LEAGUE STRUCTURE
The league is comprised of 5 divisions: Open Divisions 1, 2, 3, and 4, and the Premier Division. The Premier Division events are invite-only.
Open Division events will have multiple timeslots to satisfy all time zones. The Premier Division is region agnostic, with a single time slot.

DATES
Open Division will run for 8 weeks, from October 13 to December 3.
Premier Division will run for 6 weeks, from October 13 to November 24.

RACE FORMATS
Races will be held every Tuesday and Thursday.
The Tuesday series will be comprised of a scratch race and Thursday series will be a Team Time Trial (a format which WTRL has popularized!)

TEAM-BASED
The league is entirely team-based, with overall season rankings based on accumulated team points.
Open Division races will allow for an unlimited team roster size, but a max of 6 athletes per race. Teams can register at any point during the season but would forego points for any races missed, e.g. a team that registers the second week would only start to accumulate points from week 2.
In the Premier Division, teams can have a roster with up to 10 riders, but are limited to 6 athletes per race, with a 3 athlete per race minimum. Premier Division teams are required to keep the same 10 rider roster for the entire season and cannot rotate riders in/out who were not registered at the start of the season.

ORGANIZERS
The Open Divisions will be organized by WTRL, a well-respected community race organizer whose most notable accomplishment is the very popular Thursday Team Time Trial Series.
The Premier Division will be operated by Zwift Esports.

[Duke]

Today we released an update to the game client which further sets the stage for the start of Zwift Academy (kicking off October 1st).
In addition, the update includes a number of content additions for upcoming events and as always, bug fixes and improvements.

Missions and Programs
Zwift Academy has arrived and this update delivers all the components for Zwift Academy Road, Run and Tri.

Content
Added or updated numerous kits across cycling and running.
Updated Pace Partners to inform riders when they join or leave the range of a Pace Partner.
Added Baby on Board workout collection consisting of shorter workouts for expectant moms or riders who are looking for a less intense, yet still motivating, workout.

Events and Meetups
Added a filter to show (or hide) Zwift Academy events on the event list.

Bug Fixes and Improvements
Fixed a bug that caused route badges to not be awarded to riders who completed the Four Horseman and Uber Pretzel routes on Watopia.
Fixed a bug that caused riders to swerve in steering disabled events when a steering device was paired.
Fixed a bug that would sometimes cause auto-paired steering devices to not work properly with steering in-game.
Fixed a crash on MacOS 10.15 due to a folder permission issue. The OS will now prompt the user to update permissions when Zwift launches, and if permission is denied, Zwift will gracefully exit.
Pace Partners will no longer win segment jerseys.
Nailed down the remaining bugs with items floating in the air in some parts of the France map.
Fixed a bug that caused AppleTV to report an incorrect number of paired BLE devices.
Fixed issues on Android causing Repack Ridge dirt roads to improperly extend into the normal roads.
Fixed a bug causing the DT Swiss ARC wheels to display both disc brake and rim brakes at the same time.
Fixed a lighting issue in Yorkshire that would sometimes cause jerseys to have washed out colors.
Updated numerous workouts to fix typos.

Zwift Companion version 3.18
Added a new filter option to show (or hide) Zwift Academy events on the event list.

[CLP]

Anyone doing this years Zwift Academy?

[Duke]

Na, now the weather is getting better I will be riding more outside than on Zwift, even contemplating unsubbing for a while.

[CLP]

i get the strong impression that this years Zwift Academy has been a bit of a rushed effort. On screen instructions seem inconsistent with the actual work outs and the instructions in the companion app are inconsistent with on-screen.

We have been struggling a bit on some of the segments that they've put in too, eg a 30 second, 65Watt segment right after a all out sprint. My trainer barely has enough time to stabilise :/

I think part of the problem is that they market this as a training program, when in reality, it's a talent ID scheme. Which is fine, but maybe it'd be nice to be able to extract information out of the workouts to look at. eg. In a workout they might say that a particular effort tells us about some physiological aspect of a rider. Great! how do i find out that information? As best I can tell, I can't That said, i suspect for the majority of riders the assessment would look like: Based on the test results in this segment, you suck. :P

[norbs]

i get the strong impression that this years Zwift Academy has been a bit of a rushed effort. On screen instructions seem inconsistent with the actual work outs and the instructions in the companion app are inconsistent with on-screen.

We have been struggling a bit on some of the segments that they've put in too, eg a 30 second, 65Watt segment right after a all out sprint. My trainer barely has enough time to stabilise :/

I think part of the problem is that they market this as a training program, when in reality, it's a talent ID scheme. Which is fine, but maybe it'd be nice to be able to extract information out of the workouts to look at. eg. In a workout they might say that a particular effort tells us about some physiological aspect of a rider. Great! how do i find out that information? As best I can tell, I can't That said, i suspect for the majority of riders the assessment would look like: Based on the test results in this segment, you suck. :P

Pretty fair summation Carl. It has always been a weak point of Zwift, the workout stuff. Well, compared to Sufferfest and TrainerRoad.

[CLP]

I recall watching a video (or reading a webpage.. ) which assessed the Zwift workouts and they didn't come up too favourably.

From my (possibly uninformed) point of view, it seems like there's too much down time/recovery periods. Other oddities like a long recovery segment, followed by an even lower wattage segment prior to an effort don't make a lot of sense to me. Why not just transition from the recovery segment to the effort? And then there's managing to fail the warmup/cooldown :/

I keep meaning to try out TrainerRoad, given all the positive reviews. Need more time in the day and/or more energy in the legs :/

[norbs]

When I was beta testing for The Sufferfest, the talk wasnt favourable about Zwift workouts.

I think there is a 14 day trial for the Sufferfest Carl. I highly recommend their work outs.

One of the negatives of working a 2nd job, i have all but lost interest in cycling. And with the bride about to hit 8 weeks away, I find I am even more time poor having to try and keep the house tidy, if not spotless

[Duke]

I am just about to pause my membership, not using it now the weather is more favourable & lockdown is pretty much over in VIC
I hope they spend this on much needed changes, fixes & features for when i return to it next year.

Strava raises $110 million, touts growth rate of 2 million new users per month in 2020

- raised $110m
- 70 million users
- 2 million user growth per month this year
- company valued at US$1.5bn

[CLP]

I hope they spend this on much needed changes, fixes & features for when i return to it next year.

despite having exactly zero inside information, I can guarantee with almost 100% certainty that none of those things will happen :P

[CLP]

Although, that's Strava scoring that money, rather than Zwift..
but the comment still stands

[norbs]

I hope they spend this on much needed changes, fixes & features for when i return to it next year.

despite having exactly zero inside information, I can guarantee with almost 100% certainty that none of those things will happen :P

If we are talking about Zwift, I would expect a few small additions in the next 6 moths.

Strava, they will probably just jack the price up and remove some features

[Duke]

I hope they spend this on much needed changes, fixes & features for when i return to it next year.

despite having exactly zero inside information, I can guarantee with almost 100% certainty that none of those things will happen :P

If we are talking about Zwift, I would expect a few small additions in the next 6 moths.

Strava, they will probably just jack the price up and remove some features

Ah crap just released I got mixed up thinking this was Zwift but it's Strava... Still my comment stands for both platforms.