What's the point of racing Zwift (I know this is the TR forum)

since Zwift is all over the place and people start racing “seriously” in different cats against each other, sometimes big events, I don’t get how that could possibly work given the difference in power readings of PMs and Smart Trainers

what’s the point? I mean, I understand I could race just for fun, but how can it possibly taken seriously?

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It can’t.

The vast majority of people I speak to are only racing because they have a hard time motivating themselves to do intervals indoors during the winter.

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I don’t take it seriously, but race there now and then, it is fun and a good workout.

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Soem people do take it very seriously. And why not? British Cycling this year are running an official eCycling national championship. There’s been the CVR World cup with it’s live events and large prize pot. Zwift have made no secret of the desire to invest in eSports.

But ultimately, the last thing we need on this forum is another thread of people looking down their nose at Zwift.

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I’m definitely not :slight_smile:

“And why not?” because one PM reads 50W higher or lower than another one?

but how can it be taken seriously? e.g. “official eCycling national championship”

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Why shouldn’t it be taken seriously? Playing devil’s advocate, why is it any less serious than staring at a blue box, trying to make the yellow line go round the outside of it?

Any halfway serious Zwift racer ignores the “official” Zwift results and looks at Zwiftpower where a lot of the bogus results are flitered out.

The final of the national championships are a live event. Everyone in the same room, on the same equipment having weighed in. All the finalists will be on a level playing field.

Why don’t you watch the stream on Wednseday (6.30pm GMT) of the KISS Super League, and then come back and ask the same question?

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ok, in that case I’d say it’s credible

seriuously, I rather watch paint dry

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Your mind is obvioulsy made up. Why even bother asking the question then?

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what!?

you gave me the answer that there are actually events with the same equipment for every participant, I wasn’t aware of that …so

I was referring to your comment about watching paint dry.

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because I wasn’t asking about watching people play videogames

You were asking what the point of Zwift racing is and how it can possibly be taken seriously. The KISS Super League is a good example of how it is taken seriously. Several professional teams and two Zwift teams racing against each other.

Again, playing Devil’s advocate, is TR not just a video game too? Except it more like an old Atari console and you’re playing a game of pong tennis? All you’re doing is tracing a box and matching some numbers?

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you already answered my question regarding that

maybe, but I won’t watch anyone ride on it’s trainer or play Trainer Road Atari

The key difference in this context, is that TR is a training tool only. It is about working on and comparing to yourself. There are no competition based uses built into the app.

Zwift is different in the racing ability because you go head to head against other riders. It is an integral feature.

So the two differ in overall abilities since only Z has “racing” and other group options.

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I’m sorry, but I just get frustrated by the persistant view on this forum (maybe not by the OP, who just happened to encounter my views at the worng time!) that people cannot improve by riding on Zwift, it is just a game, cheating is rife and all those that are serious about getting faster use TrainerRoad.

There are countless threads about it. In all honesty, I’ve probably encountered more people serious about riding on Zwift than I have here. There are all manner of pro-riders that use it as a training tool. Some such as Cav and Thomas De Gent have even lined up in races over the winter. Some of the top racers are riding at the very top level. Leandro Messineo (one of the very top ranked Zwift racers) is currently racing the Vuelta a San Juan along side the likes of Peter Sagan.

In the winter it’s a safe way to keep up the hours. Yesterday I did a 100km Z2 ride on Zwift. There is no way I’d have been ale to stay focussed for that length of time on TrainerRoad.

Zwift racing is only set to become bigger and more popular. There’s a new breed of rider, the indoor specialist, becoming apparent. And some of these indoor specialist are also pretty handy on a bike in real life.

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There was no internet when the Atari was popular!

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Serious question: The professionals who are using Zwift, are they following their own workouts and connect to Zwift for pure entertainment? Or are they using Zwift workouts? What I can’t imagine would be true is that they either ride a lot of “junk miles” or race their guts out every minute inside Zwift - but I could of course be totally wrong.

I suspect that they do the workouts that they are presrcibed by their coaching teams. They simply use Zwift to make it more bearable when it’s not possible to ride outside.

Not everyone that isn’t racing or using a Zwift workout is simply riding around doing junk miles. You can still do your own workouts and Zwift makes the hours pass more quickly.

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Some good points here.
Unless it is in controlled environment, like any other race, I suppose, it cannot be taken seriously…

From my own experience, racing alone is not as effective as structured workouts, not for me anyway…

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But you’ll likely watch other grown men playing golf/baseball/football/basketball, right?
eSports are a thing, should probably get used to that.

To your original post though - I mostly agree with you… both you or I just hopping on our trainers and racing against each other in Zwift, there’s no proof it’s a level playing field at all, or the rest of the field for that matter. I think in that sense, you get the virtual atmosphere of racing (and the motivation associated with it), but mostly racing for PRs?

Take a look at the power/hr data of the workout, a lot of times you can tell if it’s structured or not - if you’re talking about pros, I’m sure they aren’t just riding junk miles… likely they are doing just as you would if you tried to ride a prescribed workout outside - stay mainly in the proper zones for the goal of the workout.

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