The drafting mechanics of the game are terrible and fully encourage boring racing.
They where built around general riding, hardly anything has really been built around racing. Doubledraft has been in Zwift since quite early on, Zwiftinsider seems to say 2018 which is more recent than I recall.
Well he's still got it
@Roady he's a good lad so may as well use it instead of it being sat there.
That's very generous of you! At least the bad/worse/typical UK weather seemed to be confined to only 1 week (so you didn't miss it too much!).
Haha mate even C category is hard. So many should be B and so many Bs should be A.
I think I meant 0.3 miles out to be fair! I misread numbers being thay goosed. I did wait until 2-300m for the volcano sprint and smashed the group I was in. 830w for 15s due to the turbo limiting it.
Yeah I found the Vortex topped out at around that too. Some days it was 'worse' which really comes from the wheel slip/tyre pressures. Even with uphill finishes as it's unable to supply more than 7% 'max gradient' so with a kick it's really no more than an additional 2-300W you get from it. The power curve just isn't hard enough for riders with a good kick/high FTP and you find that with most of the on-wheel. There's only so much they can do due to the physical limitations of having a wheel/tyre in contact with a resistance unit. Think I got mine near 1000W times briefly a few times over several years of riding it. Unsure how! The fact it over-reads when it's overpowered I consider those efforts where similar to my 800W peaks I'm seeing now on a Direct Drive.
Yes, even C is hard. I'm quite a competitive C and can hold my own with most of them but there's sprinters in there still doing 10-12w/kg I don't stand a chance against.
How do you tell if the race will be draft or double drat? Going to do volcano circuit again tomorrow and hopefully do better than before.
At one point nearly everything was DD. It's calmed down now and you mostly find all the group rides with it on, with only a few races with it. The only ones which are generally advertise the fact. As
@xdcx said.
My Zwift racing has been going quite well. I'm getting consistent around top10 placings in the
3R & Wahoo Ride Real Race Series in CAT C Zone 3. I missed the first couple so am not placed well on GC (#19th only raced 3 of 5) with the decider race being later tonight. Box hill. Have no teammates to ride for higher in GC (well only one but can't do much as she's not strong enough to make the front groups) but have been riding well with a couple of other regulars in the front groups I'm generally in. Will be riding with and probably for them, Joe or Phil.
Race #4 on the 2nd of June was actually null & void due to Zwift problems earlier in the day. Things where ok for our race but numbers where low as many skipped it. Gotham Grind on New York. Brutal course. I actually felt strong but worked too much earlier on. We had sandbaggers in the group so I wasted lots of energy closing gaps which should not have been there. I'd made plans to lead out Phil (he came 3rd) but the ramp into the finish I got caught out and barely hung onto the group. One of the best sprinters in our CAT won that one as he'd just sat in all race.
I came in 8th sprinting to not be last in the group lol.
Second time around Race #4 on the 9th. The non-void race. I resolved to hold back for much of this so I stood a chance in the finish, which didn't work as a decisive split happened lap 2 and I ended up bridging across solo.
Big effort as nobody came with me. I was still trying to recover when things began to split again with a group making it up the road. I had nothing to go with them and figured the group I was in being larger would reel them in. No luck. Sprinters duked it out and the other friend I've made (Joe) bust out a big one and beat the other main sprinter. We'd reeled in some dropped from the front and I'd pulled the group quite a bit dropping more out the back as I put one big effort in and nearly broke away. Got reeled in but in doing so they dropped more, the remaining riders with me where 2 from up front. Only 1 of them contested sprint and
I held him off all the way to the line.
Came in 10th.
Race #5 was on London, a fairly flat course I thought. But with the first ramp of Box in there and the escalators there was much to work on... I made an early split, let a wheel go and then closed it so trimmed the massive group down to around 17 riders. I tried to place well every ramp expecting things to split again and they didn't... Then of course the only ramp I got wrong a gap opened and I found myself on the wrong side of it! Had nothing to close, worked hard trying to see if front fractured but a 25s gap by the finish with Joe taking the sprint again. Me and 1 other chasing behind, he mostly sat on me as I tried to shake him. Although did prompt him to go long as I eased into the finish to be sure I had a sprint. Worked well and used his wheel to slingshot,
he nearly kicked back past me but I held him off. It would've been a photo finish in the real world. For 15/16th lol.
Actual results putting me in 12th.
Since then I've done a couple of others,
a Crit city one which was my first race on that circuit. Really enjoyed it and came in 1st after a group of B's lapping the C group split things and I managed to go with them. Think crits really play to my strengths and I should be in B cat for them.
Then on sunday
I did a long race (2 hours!) on Big Foothills course on Wattopia I've not raced before. I had really good legs and although sitting in most of the flats I was dishing it out on the uphills. Caused so many splits and decisive moves,
coming in solo 4th as the top 3 had kept up the road with B groups. Hopefully those hills really mean I'll be ok on Box later.
Titans @244W,
Switchbacks at 274W,
Corkscrew at 244W,
Titans reverse 239W,
Zwift Island reverse 270W. All of those at around my FTP (~245W) or above. Most impressed with the Volcano as that's pretty much 10 minutes at FTP in the middle of a 2 hour race, while still able to recover and keep racing. Really enjoyed that one too and mega training for me! Think longer races and maybe similar courses suit me too!
Mike Swart my teams founder, Andy Turner and myself got a ride along side ODZ biggest hitters. 
guy was off the back doing 10w/kg killing himself and couldn't come back 
