Wanna Race? Rouvy World Tour: March 17-March 23

Triathlon Forum
1

Hi Everybody!

If you’ve been paying any attention to the Slowtwitch home page, you know that we’ve been looking into Rouvy quite a bit lately. We’re going to experiment a bit here. I thought it would be fun to organize a grassroots event in Rouvy: The Rouvy World Tour.

The Rouvy World Tour consists of 7 days of racing, starting Sunday, March 17, 2019, and wrapping up on Saturday, March 23. The Tour will highlight one of the most compelling features of Rouvy, in that it will allow you to explore our world via 7 video routes on 5 different continents. The routes are selected for their support for Rouvy’s new Augmented Reality (AR) feature when possible, as well as for their location and course profile. We’ll kick things off in North America, take on some challenges in Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa, and wrap everything up with 25 miles of the Kona Ironman World Championship course.

The Rouvy World Tour will be 7 days, so if you are not a Rouvy subscriber, you can race during their 14-day free trial. This will be a good opportunity to check out just a bit of what Rouvy has to offer!

The race format will be pretty straightforward: for each stage/day of the Tour, there will be 9 different start times:
5:30 AM EST
7:00 AM EST
8:30 AM EST

11:00 AM EST
12:30 AM EST
2:00 PM EST

7:00 PM EST
8:30 PM EST
10:00 PM EST

Pick a start time that works for your schedule and be ready to race. I suggest logging in about 10-15 minutes early to calibrate your trainer and warm up, because when the clock hits 0, it’s fast and furious out of the gate! At the end of each day, we’ll gather up the results for everybody who raced for the day, combine them, and post them in this thread. We can use that to discuss our experience and maybe - just, maybe - talk a little smack. This is also an opportunity to help the Rouvy folks improve their platform for racing.

In order to help you budget your time, we’ve estimated the race time based on past results on each course for people who averaged approximately 2.0 watts/kg for their ride. You can estimate your watts per kilogram based on your FTP to give you an idea how long you might be racing each day.

Rouvy currently doesn’t offer a means to classify riders, so you won’t necessarily know who you’re up against. Hopefully, this is something that will develop for next year.

With all that said, let’s get ready to race! Here is the Tour schedule (you will need to have a Rouvy account to view the route links - sign up at www.rouvy.com):

United States - AR - North Applegate
Date: Sunday, 3/17/2019
Distance: 12.09 mi
Estimated Duration (2.0 watts/kg): 48 minutes
Elevation Profile: 1% avg, 10% max, 636 ft

Australia - Rad Kurs in Buninyong, Video von Shane Miller
Date: Monday, 3/18/2019
Distance: 6.32 mi
Estimated Duration (2.0 watts/kg): 26 minutes
Elevation Profile: 1% avg, 9% max, 358 ft

Czech Republic - AR - Svojse
Date: Tuesday, 3/19/2019
Distance: 6.19 mi
Estimated Duration (2.0 watts/kg): 1 hour 2 minutes
Elevation Profile: 6% avg, 11% max, 1850 ft

Indonesia - Tour of Bintan TT race 2017
Date: Wednesday, 3/20/2019
Distance: 10.43 mi
Estimated Duration (2.0 watts/kg): 36 minutes
Elevation Profile: 1% avg, 6% max, 318 ft

Italy - AR - Arabba-Pordoi
Date: Thursday, 3/21/2019
Distance: 5.27 mi
Estimated Duration (2.0 watts/kg): 58 minutes
Elevation Profile: 7% avg, 21% max, 1991 ft

South Africa - Gordans Bay
Date: Friday, 3/22/2019
Distance: 15.74 mi
Estimated Duration (2.0 watts/kg): 59 minutes
Elevation Profile: 1% avg, 7% max, 915 ft

United States - AR - Kona
Date: Saturday, 3/23/2019
Distance: 25.45 mi
Estimated Duration (2.0 watts/kg): 1 hour 40 minutes
Course Profile: 1% avg, 10% max, 1755 ft

To find and register for the races, do the following:

  1. Log in with your Rouvy profile at www.rouvy.com.
  2. Look for your profile in the upper right corner of the screen. Click on it to display the dropdown menu, and select Dashboard.
  3. The top menu will change. Click on Explore and On-Line Races.
  4. Scroll down to the table of races, and peruse the SCHEDULED RACES tab for the races, which will all start with “Rouvy World Tour”. Find the time that works best for you (times will be adjust to your local time), select the Detail button, study the course, and click the Register Now button with confidence.
  5. That’s it - you’re ready to race!

If you have some friends who might be interested in giving Rouvy a try, invite them to join us - this is open to anybody who wants to have fun! With 9 start times per day, we will combine the results of each day’s racing and post the standings here.

Let me know if you have any questions, and I look forward to seeing you at the starting line!

2

Bumping this - we start racing tomorrow! This is a fun opportunity to check out Rouvy!

3

What times for UK / Europe do they start?

4

The times listed above are all Eastern Standard Time, which is GMT -4. If you have a Rouvy account, you can see the start times in your time if you go to your dashboard > Explore > On-Line Races.

With that said, I just realized that there is already an issue - I had created these races before Daylight Savings Time started. Now all the start times in EST are an hour off. It’s too late to change it.

5

Thanks
.

6

It’s Day 1, and there is still plenty of time to get signed up for Rouvy and join the races.

Here’s some video from Day 1, Group 2 (7:00 AM EST):
https://youtu.be/tpRBxzTeWng

It’s pretty cool to see the Augmented Reality with several riders (at least for the first few minutes, before I got dropped).

I’ll be tracking the results, and you can find them here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hmkd622YDeJ4FEkoYOovUzh_R3p-UOrqdosMda158So/edit?usp=sharing

7

Day 1 is complete!

Results can be found here.

We’re heading to Australia for Day 2.

8

Alrighty, there is just one more group (10:00 PM EST) to go for Day 2 of the Rouvy World Tour. We visited Australia for our shortest stage of the tour.

Here is a bit of video from the start of Group 8:

https://youtu.be/h22ViVhjuB4

The first stage was an Augmented Reality (AR) stage, so that had the added feature of avatars representing each rider shown on screen. This particular route does not have AR.

Tomorrow, we’re off to Czech Republic for a longer stage with AR functionality. It’s not too late to join in on the fun and check out Rouvy!

9

Day 3 in Czech Republic is coming to a close. That was a hard stage - pretty much a constant uphill from start to finish. Not a lot of people finished it.

Here’s a little video of the end, where you can see Rouvy’s Augmented Reality at work:

https://youtu.be/_R0EP9Qq0SI

Results are updated through Day 3, and can be found here.

Tomorrow, we race in Indonesia, we’ll head to Italy on Thursday, South Africa on Friday, and we’re finishing this whole thing off in Kona on Saturday!

10

i drove the passo pordoi once - never rode it - and i swear they paid that road builder by the switchback. i counted 17 switchbacks on one side, 23 on the other. and the road is not that long.

now i’ll finally ride it. sort of. i’ll ride it with you all tomorrow.

11

i drove the passo pordoi once - never rode it - and i swear they paid that road builder by the switchback. i counted 17 switchbacks on one side, 23 on the other. and the road is not that long.

now i’ll finally ride it. sort of. i’ll ride it with you all tomorrow.

Excellent! It will be fun to get your perspective on the route. It should be 5.27 miles of pure joy: average grade of 7% with a maximum of 21%. It will be an AR route, so we’ll get to see avatars racing each other again. I think the avatars enhance the feeling that you’re actually racing other people.

The results are updated through Day 4 and can be found here.

So far, if I haven’t messed up the results, we’ve had 59 people from 18 different countries finish at least one stage, with 6 people who have completed all 4 stages so far.

For those out there that have joined in, what are your thoughts so far? Fun? Having issues? Any feedback to help improve Rouvy as a racing platform?

I thought the Indonesia route was fun - some short climbs with enough up and down to add some challenge. It was hard to get into a rhythm and hold steady power. Here’s another video of the start:

https://youtu.be/XzegjjaFMls

If everything goes right, I am hoping to broadcast my Saturday race on www.twitch.tv (https://www.twitch.tv/vectorcycleworks)

That will be a learning experience.

12

Stage 5 was brutal. 11 finishers for the day. I had a nice back and forth with jachady during group 9. slowman completely destroyed me. Does that make me xtraslowman?

The results for day 5 are updated here.

The scenery was gorgeous. Was it anything like you remember it being? How did you like the experience?

Here’s a little video with some of the scenery:
https://youtu.be/d6pip3dluds

And tomorrow, we’re off to South Africa!

13

Travis, The ride last night was awesome. I have only had my smart trainer for a week so I am new to all this techy stuff. But it makes such a huge difference in the effort I give on the bike. I thought the back and forth was you just laying back to make it interesting, but based on your comment I gave you a run for your money. I will say that the AR really enhances the feel of a race. It pushed me harder than I would have without it, and the final sprint, especially the timing of the launch, was stressful. You went just before I was about to and couldn’t catch up.

Looking forward to tonite.

14

it was steeper than i remembered. i wasn’t geared for it. not even remotely. but i got to work on riding out of the saddle a lot!

the thing i really like about rouvy is that the courses are real. if i want to do a 3-day “tour” of the dolomites i can. if i want to ride the 70.3 worlds bike course in nice, i can. in fact, i can even make sure my gearing is correct.

zwift has advantages over rouvy, namely, it’s a megachurch, and rouvy contains a lot of “believers” but they’re “worshipping” all over the place. i think as we do more of these slowtwitch group “meetups” on the “road” these prayer meetings will get more populated. i could, really, see a future in (for example) groups of slowtwitchers riding the 56 miles of nice in preparation for that event.

15

Travis, The ride last night was awesome. I have only had my smart trainer for a week so I am new to all this techy stuff. But it makes such a huge difference in the effort I give on the bike. I thought the back and forth was you just laying back to make it interesting, but based on your comment I gave you a run for your money. I will say that the AR really enhances the feel of a race. It pushed me harder than I would have without it, and the final sprint, especially the timing of the launch, was stressful. You went just before I was about to and couldn’t catch up.

Looking forward to tonite.

Oh yeah, you definitely were giving me a run for my money! It was fun to go back and forth with you, as that was great motivation on such a relentless course.

I agree about the AR enhancing the effect. When setting this up, I hoped to have all AR courses, but the selection isn’t quite there yet. Hopefully, next year. There are a lot of challenges with this whole eCycling RD thing, and having that presence there is a big part of it - if we can grow this a bit more and have more people join in, I think this will be a lot of fun.

16

it was steeper than i remembered. i wasn’t geared for it. not even remotely. but i got to work on riding out of the saddle a lot!

the thing i really like about rouvy is that the courses are real. if i want to do a 3-day “tour” of the dolomites i can. if i want to ride the 70.3 worlds bike course in nice, i can. in fact, i can even make sure my gearing is correct.

zwift has advantages over rouvy, namely, it’s a megachurch, and rouvy contains a lot of “believers” but they’re “worshipping” all over the place. i think as we do more of these slowtwitch group “meetups” on the “road” these prayer meetings will get more populated. i could, really, see a future in (for example) groups of slowtwitchers riding the 56 miles of nice in preparation for that event.

I like your megachurch analogy. With over 2,400 video routes, and the ability for anyone to contribute (that will be an article coming your way after I get a Virb), it introduces a challenge for Rouvy to create awareness of how many people are riding at any given time. I have a bunch of questions and thoughts to pass on to the folks at Rouvy in hopes of improving the race experience.

In the meantime, I am already thinking we could do some more of these Rouvy tours - a U.S. tour, European Tour, Down Under Tour, etc. Maybe every 3 months or so. Would you be up for that?

17

Travis,
Thanks again for setting this up! I haven’t been able to do all the stages because of life (stupid obligations!!) but it has been fun so far and I look forward to tonight.

Rich

18

it was steeper than i remembered. i wasn’t geared for it. not even remotely. but i got to work on riding out of the saddle a lot!

the thing i really like about rouvy is that the courses are real. if i want to do a 3-day “tour” of the dolomites i can. if i want to ride the 70.3 worlds bike course in nice, i can. in fact, i can even make sure my gearing is correct.

zwift has advantages over rouvy, namely, it’s a megachurch, and rouvy contains a lot of “believers” but they’re “worshipping” all over the place. i think as we do more of these slowtwitch group “meetups” on the “road” these prayer meetings will get more populated. i could, really, see a future in (for example) groups of slowtwitchers riding the 56 miles of nice in preparation for that event.

I like your megachurch analogy. With over 2,400 video routes, and the ability for anyone to contribute (that will be an article coming your way after I get a Virb), it introduces a challenge for Rouvy to create awareness of how many people are riding at any given time. I have a bunch of questions and thoughts to pass on to the folks at Rouvy in hopes of improving the race experience.

In the meantime, I am already thinking we could do some more of these Rouvy tours - a U.S. tour, European Tour, Down Under Tour, etc. Maybe every 3 months or so. Would you be up for that?

yes i would. as to yesterday’s route, the start was rude. but i liked it. and now i want to do a little more of it. as in, 3 days of climbing. dolomites. alps. there are some very good U.S. ascents: mt. lemon and kitt peak in tucson, palomar, etc., but mt. rose is the only east side of the sierra nevadas. we need to get together and do a little work helping get the eastern sierra ascents up on rouvy. but, yeah, that’s my cup of tea. i could see myself wanting to get together a couple of times this spring/summer for some 3-day climbing “vacation” competitions.

19

From what I could see, you seemed to lose power and drop off the course for a bit? Did you have a flat or some sort of hardware issue?

I was feeling good tonight - I liked the profile of that course, with a couple of solid climbs, and some downhills. That seemed to work pretty well for me. I was looking back as much as I was looking forward, watching the distances! Thank you again for the motivation - this is a lot of fun. I do look forward to having the AR again tomorrow in Kona.

I’ll get the results posted up as soon as I can. We still have one more group to go tonight.

20

Travis,
Thanks again for setting this up! I haven’t been able to do all the stages because of life (stupid obligations!!) but it has been fun so far and I look forward to tonight.

Rich

Hi Rich!

Thank you for putting the pressure on tonight! I was watching the numbers, thinking you would drop me on that last climb. That was fun!