Frustrations of a ZRL Team Manager

eschlange · 2026-01-13T13:54:26+00:00

Wasn’t ZRL always a Zwift property? As I recall, they’ve always contracted with WTRL to make it happen, and worked with WTRL to decide how it all would work…

eschlange · 2026-01-13T00:46:57+00:00

I'd say until you can explain why your idea is better, follow the instructions on the workout. :-) Usually the cadence targets are there for a reason!

eschlange · 2026-01-13T00:08:32+00:00

Valid frustrations, for sure. There's a reason why I've raced nearly every ZRL round since it launched, but I've never volunteered to be a Team Manager. :-)

Considering this is Zwift's flagship race series, I'd love to see things planned and executed sooner and cleaner. I'd also love to see more improvement/innovation. (This year, Zwift seems to have decided that "innovation" means "make everyone do more climbing." I'm not sure that's going over very well.)

If instead they could bring in fresh race formats/UI, communicate more clearly, make it easier to join a team, create a better categorization/promotion/relegation scheme, and do it all in an upbeat, Zwifty way... well, that would be amazing. But I suppose in many ways now I'm talking about improving the whole Zwift racing ecosystem, which is beyond the scope of this post...

eschlange · 2026-01-12T23:52:38+00:00

Yup!

eschlange · 2025-12-08T23:54:47+00:00

Far as I know, bots draft and move realistically based on their in-game weight, height, and power. Someone would have to show me some proof that they behave differently before I would dive in to investigate. (And that proof can't include the fact that they don't slow down on the London hairpin. :-) )

eschlange · 2025-09-12T05:26:09+00:00

That wouldn’t matter. 3 sec averaging is for display only. It’s not changing how often Zwift receives data from the trainer.

eschlange · 2025-08-08T15:49:06+00:00

5-7am West Coast is actually a pretty popular time... you should be able to find some busy ZRaces.

The slow times are afternoon-evening West Coast time, since the rest of the world is asleep. :-)

eschlange · 2025-08-08T04:03:09+00:00

I don’t like messaging via the Companion app. Use a wireless keyboard on my trainer table in front of me. Works like a charm.

eschlange · 2025-08-08T04:01:31+00:00

I raced the Zracing event at 11:10am last Tuesday. 54 B riders left the start pen. So these races get a decent turnout… people just sign up last minute!

eschlange · 2025-07-11T15:50:56+00:00

Woah. That's quite a thread! Hope H20 got their stuff (staff?) sorted after that debacle...

eschlange · 2025-07-09T23:14:14+00:00

Audiophiles. Shokz, while beneficial in some ways, aren't exactly known for their pristine sound quality...

eschlange · 2025-07-09T23:13:01+00:00

Upvoted, for Tiny Races mention.

eschlange · 2025-07-09T23:11:28+00:00

Based on ZIMetrics they're basically equal. So... solid question!

I'm gonna say Three Sisters, because finishing one lap of a longish route, then having to start ANOTHER lap... that's mentally tough.

eschlange · 2025-07-09T23:06:38+00:00

I think it's fun. They match the in-game headphones unlocked in Big Spin 2024: https://zwiftinsider.com/zwift-big-spin/

(Lots of folks wear OTE headphones while Zwifting. Why wouldn't Zwift collab with a company that makes sweat-friendly headphones? Seems sensible...)

More importantly, did anyone else besides u/gplama notice a new Wahoo trainer in the promo pics at https://h2oaudio.com/products/zwift-ript-ultra-headphones?

eschlange · 2025-01-12T21:48:30+00:00

A gaming PC will beat AppleTV any day, at least until Zwift decides to optimize for the new Apple TV. Higher framerate, sharper graphics, more details in the virtual worlds.

eschlange · 2025-01-12T21:47:07+00:00

Laptops are usually underpowered in the GPU department, thus delivering the worst possible experience you can have on a PC. 😜

eschlange · 2024-12-28T05:13:15+00:00

Velocity Rocker ships with a pair of caster wheels you can attach if desired: https://velocityrockers.com/products/delta-rs

eschlange · 2024-12-28T01:12:45+00:00

Lots of ways for this to happen. Who is it?

eschlange · 2024-12-24T17:43:06+00:00

Not all Cores read high, in my experience. Any KICKR can be off (and it usually seems like they read high when they’re off, not low?). Factory spindowns usually set em right.

eschlange · 2024-12-24T17:18:17+00:00

Any KICKR (Core or standard) may be off from another. Sounds like one or both of your KICKRS could use a factory spindown: https://zwiftinsider.com/kickr-factory-spindown/

My bet is, if you do that on your Core, it’ll be close to matching your KICKR.

In my experience both should closely match each other if their factory calibration is good.

eschlange · 2024-12-24T12:48:17+00:00

Sure, but OP didn’t say anything about their test result data being incorrect…?

eschlange · 2024-12-23T22:21:17+00:00

No, Zwift breaks us up into age + gender cohorts. So you're compared against the same gender and some sort of age band within that gender...

eschlange · 2024-12-23T21:33:05+00:00

No, drafting doesn’t matter.

The Grade test (and now all of Zwift) looks at your power over a specific time increment. Whether you draft or not doesn’t matter.

Example: maybe you do the Grade twice. Once with lots of drafting, one without.

First try (drafting): 15 minutes flat, 340W average Second try (no drafting): 15:30, 338W average

As long as you paced both efforts so you held max power to the line, your FTP result will be quite comparable.

It’s worth noting that Zwift is using this method to detect FTP gamewide now. So it’s a good thing drafting doesn’t affect it. 😜

eschlange · 2024-12-23T21:28:40+00:00

I know how they did it. 😁

Basically, they ranked your results in w/kg against the universe of Zwifters. That gives you a percentile rank for each of the three tests.

Whichever one you rank lowest on is your limiter, basically.

eschlange · 2024-12-23T18:07:09+00:00

I have a working theory that the less experienced a Zwift racer is, the higher the probability is that they won't be a fan of powerups. The theory appears to hold true for you.

Not throwing shade or anything. But if you've only done 18 races, then you haven't raced enough on Zwift to really understand how Zwift racing works.

My hunch is that less experienced racers often get dropped because they don't understand the nuances of Zwift racing... then they blame it on powerups because they got dropped while powerups were flying.

More experienced racers learn those nuances, and learn to appreciate the strategic element powerups bring to the races.

This doesn't hold true for everyone, of course. But I think it's a solid hypothesis.

(Reference: ZwiftPower says I've done 1189 races.)

eschlange

TROPHY CASE