I’m relatively new to Zwift. I did my first Slowtwitch group ride not long ago. Yes, I got dropped, but I’m an old pro at getting dropped on group rides. I am not an especially strong rider. But on this ride I got dropped fast, twice, by a group in which I should have been as strong as anyone. And these are not random Zwifters who are guessing about seeding. These are Slowtwitchers, people at the center of triathlon, who probably know their FTP and weight.
Background: On Zwift, you classify yourself on an honor system based upon your weight and FTP, i.e., your w/kg ratio. I signed up to ride with the “C” group that’s supposed to have riders under 3.0 w/kg. At 2.95 w/kg, I should be as strong as almost anyone in that group.
The ride description says it begins with a 5-minute warmup with everyone together. So I started at warmup pace, and everyone else in the under-3.0 group started their “warmup” over 3.0 w/kg, and then held that power. I realized within about 10 seconds that there weren’t any people behind me, so I jumped up to around FTP, but the “warmup” group was increasing the gap, to the point that I stopped to calibrate my trainer in case something was wrong. (The trainer was fine.)
Zwift will let you restart a group ride that’s in progress, so after calibrating I air-dropped back into the group. I did 5 minutes at FTP+10w, barely hanging on to the back of the group, before deciding that I would crack if I tried to do an hour at 10w over my FTP. I bailed out for a solo ride. Which was very nice, BTW.
Of course, I’m not accusing any specific person in the group of being an actual real-life cheat. I don’t know anything about any of the others in the group, and I’m not giving a ride date or “location,” so I'm not trying to out anyone. (If anyone “doth protest too much” in the comments, I’ll let you decide whether they’re guilty.)
But if Slowtwitchers are fudging the numbers on something as trivial as Zwift group rides, how many triathletes are doing the equivalent in real life? Is this problem limited to Zwifters? Slowtwitchers? Zwifting Slowtwitchers? Will easy online cheating bleed into real life?
Yes, maybe this should go in the “cry like a little biatch” thread.
<The Dew Abides>
Background: On Zwift, you classify yourself on an honor system based upon your weight and FTP, i.e., your w/kg ratio. I signed up to ride with the “C” group that’s supposed to have riders under 3.0 w/kg. At 2.95 w/kg, I should be as strong as almost anyone in that group.
The ride description says it begins with a 5-minute warmup with everyone together. So I started at warmup pace, and everyone else in the under-3.0 group started their “warmup” over 3.0 w/kg, and then held that power. I realized within about 10 seconds that there weren’t any people behind me, so I jumped up to around FTP, but the “warmup” group was increasing the gap, to the point that I stopped to calibrate my trainer in case something was wrong. (The trainer was fine.)
Zwift will let you restart a group ride that’s in progress, so after calibrating I air-dropped back into the group. I did 5 minutes at FTP+10w, barely hanging on to the back of the group, before deciding that I would crack if I tried to do an hour at 10w over my FTP. I bailed out for a solo ride. Which was very nice, BTW.
Of course, I’m not accusing any specific person in the group of being an actual real-life cheat. I don’t know anything about any of the others in the group, and I’m not giving a ride date or “location,” so I'm not trying to out anyone. (If anyone “doth protest too much” in the comments, I’ll let you decide whether they’re guilty.)
But if Slowtwitchers are fudging the numbers on something as trivial as Zwift group rides, how many triathletes are doing the equivalent in real life? Is this problem limited to Zwifters? Slowtwitchers? Zwifting Slowtwitchers? Will easy online cheating bleed into real life?
Yes, maybe this should go in the “cry like a little biatch” thread.
<The Dew Abides>