I rode Alpe du Zwift yesterday and I think its a solid for solo riding and TT style effort but too extreme for social group rides. My feeling is people will get scattered all over the mountain.

What I like about group rides is the ability to draft and the group dynamics at 'normalish speeds'. It is the closest feeling to a real world chain gang I have ever experienced on a trainer. I think that we will lose this feeling by going up the Alpe du Zwift due to the weak draft effect at the slow speeds. So I would prefer if the Vanilli kept to undulating/mixed terrain where it will be easier to stick in a large group.

In the future I would be open to having a TT challenge rather than a group ride one week. Force everyone onto TT bikes and do multiple timed sectors over a 60-70min course. Everyone could decide how many of the segments they actually wanted to race, depending on how hard they wanted to work that day, and then the results could be listed for each sector as well as the combined total. Alpe du Zwift would be perfect for this with the sectors being defined by the hairpin numbers.

who wouldn’t want to go up alpe to zwift with jordan?
with emphasis on “want”! i’d like to do that and many others too i guess.
i already tried to stay with the group and on a hilly track - i did! the first round at least. i could rest on the downhill, some people could catch up and regroup. ok, second round i got dropped, but hey - i’m just a bop’er enjoying to get to ride on zwift with a few racers i’ll probably never even get to train with in real life.
so if you want it to stay a group ride/race like it’s rules define it (time goal, all out at the end), 90 minutes uphill will not do it: little drafting, little chance for regrouping. if you lead with steady watts/kg then the others will either be able to put out those numbers or not. to me, that would lose quite a big portion of that “slowtwitch group ride charme”.
see you on one of the next thursdays, even if it’s alpe de zwift 😬
dan

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then someone will say, what is lost can never be saved.
despite all my rage, i am still just a rat in a cage.
- smashing pumpkins: "bullet with butterfly wings"

For what you lose in the drafting then it may help keep the group together if people stick to the w-kg guidelines. On the flat routes there can easily be over a 100 watts difference between a light rider and a heavy rider sticking to (for example) 3 w/kg which can cause light riders to struggle to keep up - whereas going up a big climb if they are both sticking to the guide they should be climbing at the similar pace.

However that being said this week is the Tour of Zwift so will be focusing on that and i wouldnt want my vote to count for a ride i wont be participating in.

i jumped into a race last week and it climbed up through a town or two, from sea level, to the top of a ski area, with a tram, and a little turnaround at the top. but that was only 2,000 or so feet above sea level. what was that?

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

The "Epic KOM" - Watopia Mountain Route - https://zwiftinsider.com/epic-kom/

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"Non est ad astra mollis e terris via." - Seneca | rappstar.com | FB - Rappstar Racing | IG - @jordanrapp

I put us on the road to ruins. much more suited to a social ride... What we might do for another week is ride the Jungle Circuit. Then if people want, we can "after party" up Alpe du Zwift, since it forks off from the Jungle.

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"Non est ad astra mollis e terris via." - Seneca | rappstar.com | FB - Rappstar Racing | IG - @jordanrapp

i dug that. i'm going to start putting my front wheel on an incline, about 7 percent, to do these climbs. i dig climbs. that one was cool. in fact it got me motivated and i went outside yesterday and did our big climb. well, most of it anyway.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

Too long an uphill slog for a group ride. Folks would be all over the map.

Great for an individual effort. i did it today and it took forever and a day. However, nice steady z2/3 effort for an wodnerful workout. I'll do it again on a rainy Saturday or next winter.

Or just call Wahoo and get them to send you one of these - https://www.wahoofitness.com/...door-grade-simulator

We have two in the office but I haven't ridden it yet...

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"Non est ad astra mollis e terris via." - Seneca | rappstar.com | FB - Rappstar Racing | IG - @jordanrapp

yeah, i know about it, we reviewed it (tony did). it seems pretty cool. but i'm not that gucci. perhaps someday. i think i'll just start out with one of those front wheel mounts, the kind with slots of various heights. i have a few of those laying around.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman