I know that Jordan Rapp and Lionel Sanders have been spotted on Zwift but which other pros from the triathlon or road or mtb world have you encountered in virtual reality?
IE Aussie Mathew Hayman who won Paris-Roubaix last year after breaking his arm in a race 5 weeks earlier. After doctors told him his design was over he trained at home on Zwift and then captured his biggest win.
http://www.slowtwitch.com/Products/Electronics/With_Zwift_to_a_Paris-Roubaix_title_6278.html
Team Wurtele (both of them) are fairly frequent users.
Jens has lead a few rides as celebrity group rides.
Edvald Boasson Hagen
Rebecca Wiasak
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Laurens ten Dam once passed me on a climb like I was standing still.
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IE Aussie Mathew Hayman who won Paris-Roubaix last year after breaking his arm in a race 5 weeks earlier. After doctors told him his design was over he trained at home on Zwift and then captured his biggest win.
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I rode with Matty on Zwift a while back. Prick wouldn’t do a turn on the front, sat on my wheel for 10k. Obviously I couldn’t drop him either, because he’s Matty f**king Hayman.
There’s several road cyclists on there that I know of:
Mathew Hayman
Andre Greipel
Steve Cummings
Edvald Boasson Hagen
Michael Mathews
Simon Yates
Thomas De Gendt
Alex Dowsett
Most of them don’t seem to do a huge amount but Hayman and Boasson Hagen have clocked up a bit of time.
I noticed a few Slowtwitch folks
Bruce Richter and Fred Doucette
But I have not seen any pros yet
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Jesse Thomas, Linsey Corbin
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I have seen Laurens ten Dam quite a bit. My dad pointed him out, but I never heard of him before as I do not really follow the sport.
Think I have ~40hrs on Zwift so far this year, nothing too crazy. But, for rides under 1.5hrs with intervals I would much rather be on the trainer in the safety of my home, and on Zwift. I typically have Zwift up on the laptop off to the side and then Netflix on the big screen in front of me. I look forward to when they introduce the “power match” feature similar to what Trainer Road has, due to the fact that my KICKR & Quarq have a ~25w difference, so NO ERG mode for me at the moment, which isn’t a huge deal, but would sometimes like to just set the trainer at XXX Watts and just turn the brain off and ride.
Zwift has been really restrictive on who gets “Pro Status”. From what I have learned in a few brief exchanges, “Pro Status” is only for UCI Pro Tour level Cyclist. The only triathletes I have seen getting any love are Heather and Trevor, they both have a “verified” check mark by their names. Zwift said only a handful of those have been given out, mainly ex-pro cyclist like Jens.
I believe Helle has led a few group rides on Zwift using another App to lead/talk to the group.
It has been awesome to see it develop since the days of being in Beta. I am wondering how long Trainer Road and other apps like it will survive, guess only time will tell.
I got the verified checkmark (#humblebrag) rather unexpectedly a few weeks ago. I discovered Zwift a year ago, and thought it was interesting enough to try a couple times after agreeing to be a part of the annual 24hr WBR ride, but never really got into it. Then this winter, with our unexpected boon of rainfall in Southern California, I started doing it more out of necessity. I don’t love riding in the rain, but I really hate riding in the rain with cars, especially in Southern California where drivers are not used to it. So I just started opting for Zwift when it was raining out. And then that morphed into Zwift when it was “maybe going to rain.” Which morphed into Zwift just because I realized how much I enjoyed riding without cars.
And now I also choose it for workouts where the particulars of the workout might be hard to execute outside. Most weeks, by choice now, I’ll do one of my rides on Zwift.
I see a LOT of STers on there. I know all the pros mentioned, but I have yet to see one of them on Zwift at the same time as me, for whatever reason.
I do find it funny when I’m SURE that someone is an STer because Zwift does first-initial-last-name for the display. And then I click on the profile, and I couldn’t have been more wrong. In particular, Brad, there is “another” Brad Williams. He’s got a mighty beard!
I got the verified checkmark (#humblebrag) rather unexpectedly a few weeks ago. I discovered Zwift a year ago, and thought it was interesting enough to try a couple times after agreeing to be a part of the annual 24hr WBR ride, …“another” Brad Williams. He’s got a mighty beard!
I hope they continue to “verify” pro triathletes. I think a lot of the pros on the platform are bringing awareness to the app and it gets people interested when we are using it. Hopefully they will return the “favor” and start some type of “validation” system or criteria of what it takes to get validated/verified. I am fine with them holding it to a higher standard, but some sort of criteria would be nice.
As for the Pros that have been verified, all I know of is you (as of now), Heather and Trevor. Makes sense, as you are partnered/support WBR, who has done quite a bit of work with Zwift. And then Cervelo/Enve has the P5X/wheels on there and has done some work with Zwift as well, which are both sponsors of Heather and Trevor. Not to mention all 3 of you have quite the resume’s to go along with those “connections”. Or maybe it is just coincidence?
And yeah, I will from time to time think I am riding with someone I know and lone and behold it is just another random person with the same name.
I found myself on Zwift the most when we were over in Germany earlier this year and I was time crunched, being “single parent” as my wife was working noon to midnight and the kiddo was in childcare from 8am to 3pm. I just so happened to be getting back on the bike at that time so most rides were under 2 hours, which made it very easy to just hope on Zwift, get the work done. Like you pointed out, much safer being the best part, and the effectiveness of the intervals that are hard to nail on the road being the second best part, in my opinion.
Talk to me about Trainer Road vs Zwift. I’m a regular on Trainer Road with no experience with Zwift. Trainer road works for me as coach prescribes my intervals and I just hop on the trainer and hit the numbers. Could I do that on Zwift?
In other words, I understand how Zwift presents a virtual alternative to the Saturday group ride. But does it serve those of us on Dawn Patrol?
Scott
Nice job on the Hayman piece. His ride at Roubaix made me a cycling fan and put Orica-Scott firmly at the top of my rooting interest. Orica’s Backstage Pass is hands-down my favorite thing to watch on YouTube. Everyone here should subscribe and follow the 2017 season!
Scott
Talk to me about Trainer Road vs Zwift. I’m a regular on Trainer Road with no experience with Zwift. Trainer road works for me as coach prescribes my intervals and I just hop on the trainer and hit the numbers. Could I do that on Zwift?
In other words, I understand how Zwift presents a virtual alternative to the Saturday group ride. But does it serve those of us on Dawn Patrol?
Scott
I have no experience with Trainer Road, so I am not 100% sure. In Zwift, you can indeed program a workout where you can set power targets, cadence targets, interval duration, etc. Even if you have a “smart trainer,” Zwift will NOT adjust the trainer to match these parameters (EDIT: according to some folks, it will adjust the resistance IF you use your trainer as the power source). I.e., if you set an interval to be “300w,” Zwift will not adjust the resistance to always be 300w regardless of cadence; it simply gives you visual/audio cues if you fall out of the target zone.
For “work” intervals, the screen will pop up a reminder for “more/less power” inside of a +/-25w (I believe) band and a +/-5rpm cadence band; on “recovery” intervals, that band goes up to +/-50w (I believe) but still +/-5rpm.
If you are doing intervals, you do not have to set all parameters (i.e., you can set only power or power+cadence).
Intervals are power-only (no HR).
Way more detail here: https://support.zwift.com/hc/en-us/articles/208467596-Using-Workout-Mode
Anyone know if there is a way, or if it is being planned, to be able to build workouts online (or at least not using the same device that you use for running zwift)? This would be great. I’d love to build a workout at lunch at work and be able to go home and just be able to pull it up on my home PC running zwift. The workout builder software for zwift is really easy to use. I like it.
Almost every ride I do on Zwift is in workout mode in erg mode.
You can use erg mode in Zwift when a smart trainer is the power source.
You cannot use erg mode if a power meter is your power source, but they say that option is coming soon.
I use Ct-ant software with my Computrainer as a work around (to pair my Quarq), but that would only work with a Computrainer.
You cannot use erg mode if a power meter is your power source, but they say that option is coming soon.
n.b. With a Kickr you can configure it to use an external power meter (rather than the Kickr’s optimistic internal one), you just give it an ant+ id to look for.
With that done:
How does that answer anything I was asking?
I “think” I got a fake celebrity in the way too hilly race I did today. In the A division (I was not in that one) one of the competitors was A dam Yates (orica). Maybe it really was him, I’m not sure, I just figured he would win? Also, there was a space between the A and D in adam (at least in the results, but I assume that was taken directly from zwift). He does use it, so maybe it was him.