Tour de Zwift 2021

I’m usually pretty excited about doing these Zwift tours, but there’s nothing really exciting me about it this year for some reason. :man_shrugging: Maybe because there’s nothing really new in the way of courses or different ride types or something. The Double XP stage of the Tour of Watopia was pretty awesome and would definitely kick things up a notch though… :grin:

I also did the TDZ A ride on Monday with >11k people on my iPad 6. Gen. No problems at all. But yeah in the comments section it was all about people getting dropped etc. I guess it‘s probably more a client side problem as the admins are well aware of how much connections they have to handle based on recent years. If they think their servers can‘t handle the stress they probably would limit the amount of riders to ensure the quality of the service. Or at least i hope so…

Only 700 for Longer Stage 7am GMT.

I really don’t think these issues are Zwift side - like I mentioned yesterday, they go multiple pens for the same distance/ event when they get too many. Still doesn’t stop the first pen being the fullest, and complaints, but…

I was on the 08:00 gmt cat A this morning, was a solo ride to me but for a few glimpses of other riders…not sure if it was network or Zwift issues.

That’s network as far as I’m aware.

I imagine that some of the internet problems (at least in the UK) could be caused by every kid logging onto Teams for their lessons.

I seem to remember someone saying that Zoom really struggled in the UK at about 2pm because that was when USA started waking up and logging on.

I really don’t know so I could just be reporting/repeating a complete myth. It does kinda make sense to me though.

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That used to be said about the whole internet this side of the Atlantic!

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I haven’t been doing TdZ rides, but I have been getting booted by my morning Zwift group rides for the past week. And the group messages in my companion app are not working either. Running Zwift on the 2020 M1 (Big Sur) Mac Air.

There’s a reason I left Zwift for TR… only paying for Zwift for Jan-Feb so I can ride with my co workers this winter.

Did the first 2 stages, standard distance (group B), 6am Eastern - relatively small groups (shy of 1 000 for stage 1, approx 300 for stage 2), no tech/glitch/fps issues. I’m doing those while doing TR workouts: Bluebell Monday while climbing up Innsbruck - must have really been weird for others seeing me blast by them, then just spin around below 100W for 3 minutes.

Doing Stage 3, Alpe du Zwift, with Mary Austin -1 tomorrow morning - that should be interesting… It helps motivation during the hard intervals.

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I did TdZ last concurrently with my TR program…definitely gave me motivation during some of the longer intervals, but in the end, I missed just doing the stages as stand-alone events…so this year I am just swapping out the TdZ stage for one of my SS intervals (currently in SSBHV). basically similar efforts (just less the recovery intervals :joy:)

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This may help with some of the performance issues many have noted.

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What I want to see in the next Zwift update is for them to put a small “glow” around your avatar for group rides…it can be almost impossible to find yourself in large groups…I’ve tried everything - unique hairstyles adn color, the newsboy hat, socks, etc. You still lose yourself in big groups.

Remember back in the 90’s when they put a “glow” around hockey pucks for broadcasts? A subdued version of that is what I want to see…

image

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I would only need that for the first few minutes - I end up out of a bunch pretty fast, mostly since I’m doing TR workouts at the same time. This said, try selecting shoes and/or helmet that are noticeable, those pieces of equipment are not affected by the TdZ kit.

They basically render only 100 riders around you. This is visible in some weird ways - in the start pen, you see a bunch of riders around you, but a big empty area between that bunch and the start line… that’s where the riders you don’t see are. Once riding up the Alpe, you can see the algorithm at work, with riders in the straights above and below you visible on the map, but not those ahead or behind you on the same straight as you if they are further away. As the pack thins, the radius of visible riders on the map increases… So clearly they’re doing “100 riders closest to you”, where closest is straight line distance and not distance on the road. It’s a simple way to limit both network traffic and rendering workload.

Not sure if it was related, but the list of riders on the right hand side, showing those ahead and behind you, was not working this morning. It already gets reduced to make room for the Alpe map, but it showed only me, no data.

I think you could easily address that by programming the “glow” to automatically kick in if you are in a pack of 10(?) riders or more…no matter if it is a group ride or just a blob you join when out riding.

ETA - shoes don’t really work because they are usually blocked by other riders. Helmets don’t really stand out that much IMO…the white Evade seems to be the best option, but lots of people wear that too.

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There was a dude with a blue aero helmet on the road this morning, he stood out… And my green 2020 TdZ shoes are quite visible.

Are you talking about the tuquoise TT helmet? I’ve seen a few people with it, but have no idea how to unlock it…which kinda highlights the problem. A universal solution would be better.

Or how about just having the ability to “paint” your helmet like you can change the color of your bikes (for some models)? Even that would be a huge step forward…

I’ve done a few events doing a TR workout but it just didn’t feel right to me. Anyway, will swap stage 3 in as opposed to laps of my 5km restriction at the weekend. Probably go La Reine - the chalet is enough of the climb for me (Ventoux definitely on my bucket list in the real world, but think it’s a boring climb in zwift), and I’ll be too sucked into going for a PB on the Alpe.

I really couldn’t tell you the exact color, I was doing Mary Austin going up so it’s all a bit of a fog.

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