Seems like ZWIFT is really the next big thing with National Championships being held.
I personally am not on it, but I am not against it. For me, it’s a very steep monetary investment as an alternative for the handful of times I would actually ride indoors. I would rather put that money into buying new wheels. Also, nothing really beats being out in the mountains.
Last November, I attended a ZWIFT event/final at Huashan Cultural Park on Ba De Rd. and the place was bumpin. No entree fee for watching, there was a DJ playing tunes and TACX had free demo sessions on their new Neo and Flux units. Also, for (I think?) the past two years, the Canyon SRAM women’s pro tour team held a worldwide ZWIFT competition to fill an open spot.
I think it’s an amazing training tool and great social way to ride when the weather isn’t great, but I think it does have it’s weaknesses. You can “ride together”, but you can’t have a private ride. So, you’re online with hundreds and thousands of other people, even if you meet up and start together. A small issue that I have heard ZWIFT will add the option of private group rides, but that’s the current state.
What do you guys think about Zwift? Are you on it? Are you against it? Is it even considered riding?
Not on it.
However, they should combine it with a contest for who sweats the most.
Just measure the weight of bike/rollers/person/water bottles beforehand and then see the combined weight after.
Voila’, you get the weight of the pools of sweat on the floor.
However, always rememeber to put a towel or something over the handlebars. I made a huge mistake in not doing that in my last session and the sweat never left the bar tape. I had to get rid of the less than one month old bar tape.
I ask because I have a few friend that spent 40k NTD on their TACX Neo trainers and I’ve probably seen them come out to ride twice since they bought them in December. A 30% chance of rain and they throw in the towel. I just hope that this isn’t the case for the future.
It’s pretty clever and it works. That is, I know of at least 2 pro riders who made use of it to maintain/return to fitness while injured.
Not for me personally. I don’t want to ride my bike indoors. The whole point (for me) is that I get outside. Why people would want to spend even more of their lives glued to a screen is beyond me.
My major concern is that riders are becoming fit and strong, but they are not proficient at riding in a bunch. That is, they have no (or little) roadcraft. This can be a problem in races.
Zwift is great, and will be better once they add more training based analytics and programs where it is still falling behind more serious software like TrainerRoad. I used to have both TR and Zwift and found TR to be better when you’re training seriously for an event, but now that I am a peon and hardly ride, Zwift is more fun and interactive.
Would love to have more friends to ride with on Zwift though, that social aspect is something I havent gotten into besides participating in a few random group rides.