Zwift L'Etape du Tour thoughts

[Muttley]

Hi guys,

 

I noticed that no one has posted anything about the Zwift L'Etape du Tour and was wondering what you guys thought of it... 

 

Stage 1: 30.32 km/682 m

Stage 2: 47.61 km/309 m

Stage 3: 21.85 km/1535 m

 

I thought that stage 2 last week was rough considering that it was a full out sprint for 47k's and the last stage was just brutal!

 

The new France World is a nice addition. Considering the ZAR's we pay, I wish Zwift would add more worlds, more often. 

 

How did you guys find it?

[Schmorglebot]

I did all 3 stages and personally they just felt like every other Zwift race except with a lot of people. I'm happy to keep paying for Zwift, it suits my purposes just fine.

 

Stage 1 was nothing special, just a big race on an old route. 5 minutes of above threshold then settle into the climb, then empty yourself up to the radio tower.

 

Stage 2 was a bit of the same but faster and the 2 climbs broke things up nicely. I honestly don't get to enjoy the new scenery much because I'm pretty much at my limit the entire time. At 55kg it's hard work keeping up on the flats and that means I'm spent when the hills arrive.

 

Stage 3 was tough but fun. All climb, all the time! I can ride a bike up a hill so at 45th place this was my best result of the 3.

 

I already have the tron bike so I don't see myself doing this route too often

 

All in all, it was good to see the races well populated and people generally amped to compete. Makes me wish racing in the real world!

[thebob]

I only did the first two stages. For me there was a great vibe and I enjoyed the routes and pushing myself against other people. I would have done stage 3, but I was not able to make the time. The KOM climb on stage 1 was brutal, especially the sneaky little radio tower bit at the end, but the downhill after was worth it. Stage 2 had my lungs and legs burning trying to keep up the pace. I ended with a 38km/h average, which I was pretty damn proud of.

 

I would love for Zwift to add an Italian and Spanish world and do a virtual Giro and Vuelta, but I am not sure how their infrastructure works or why they have the worlds on a rotational schedule. For me, I'd like to see more worlds and all of them open all the time, maybe it will happen in future.

[HdB]

Hi guys,

 

I noticed that no one has posted anything about the Zwift L'Etape du Tour and was wondering what you guys thought of it... 

 

Stage 1: 30.32 km/682 m

Stage 2: 47.61 km/309 m

Stage 3: 21.85 km/1535 m

 

I thought that stage 2 last week was rough considering that it was a full out sprint for 47k's and the last stage was just brutal!

 

The new France World is a nice addition. Considering the ZAR's we pay, I wish Zwift would add more worlds, more often. 

 

How did you guys find it?

It was cool. Really enjoyed Stage 2, even though as you say it was basically just flat-out for 47km. I'm not sure how much time the developers had to build the new worlds, but I think they look great.

 

Stage 3... Ven-top looks good, but I didn't enjoy it, it was just a 90min slog. Going hard on the RGV route discovery ride the previous evening was probably stupid. I will have to do it again when fresh and I've forgotten how much I suffered this Saturday.

 

In terms of new worlds, a new world a year is probably enough, I think. As long as those new worlds have plenty of space for smaller extensions, like how Watopia has been extended over time.

Personally I'd prefer less bugs, dropouts, perhaps Vulkan support, over many new worlds. And better handling of cheating, sandbagging.

Edited July 20, 2020 by HdB

[Schmorglebot]

Apparently the Japan 2020 Olympics course has already been made, so we should see that released next year around Olympics time

[Paul Ruinaard]

Was thinking that the Cycle Tour organisers would do well to get a virtual cycle tour going in the light of the current situation. 

 

 

[Muttley]

I did all 3 stages and personally they just felt like every other Zwift race except with a lot of people. I'm happy to keep paying for Zwift, it suits my purposes just fine.

 

Stage 1 was nothing special, just a big race on an old route. 5 minutes of above threshold then settle into the climb, then empty yourself up to the radio tower.

 

Stage 2 was a bit of the same but faster and the 2 climbs broke things up nicely. I honestly don't get to enjoy the new scenery much because I'm pretty much at my limit the entire time. At 55kg it's hard work keeping up on the flats and that means I'm spent when the hills arrive.

 

Stage 3 was tough but fun. All climb, all the time! I can ride a bike up a hill so at 45th place this was my best result of the 3.

 

I already have the tron bike so I don't see myself doing this route too often

 

All in all, it was good to see the races well populated and people generally amped to compete. Makes me wish racing in the real world!

45th... jeepers- that's epic, well done!

[Grantc]

Did Stage 3 yesterday - really struggled and was properly shattered when I got to the top

The only good thing was that it brought back good memories of when I rode it for real in 2011

[Schmorglebot]

Did Stage 3 yesterday - really struggled and was properly shattered when I got to the top

The only good thing was that it brought back good memories of when I rode it for real in 2011

 

 

Thanks!

[Veebee]

Did first 2 stages, was good hard riding. Stage 3, well Durbz had awesome weather this weekend and decided to ride out both days.

[Job]

Stage 1 and 2 were ok for me...stage 3 was brutal, I wish there was a spinning wheel at the top like on Alpe Du Zwift to open some bikes  or wheels etc. I've done it partly on a TrainerRoad workout for an hour then I finished the rest of the climb on Zwift resistance with 50% difficulty setting.

[Bub Marley]

I wish they would improve the user friendliness of the app before they start adding new worlds. Just making stuff more accessible to view without having to load the whole system would be welcomed. 

[SeaBee]

I liked it! But it was between all my other training stuff, just another ride. x3. Stage 1 was fun, stage 2 was... boring and stage 3 was... mourse fun! Well done on 45th! I was happy with 180th! But I did do an epic trail run the day before. But at 55 k's you'll beat me up there any day! 

 

TBH, I got my trainer the day after lockdown was announced. At the insistence (seriously!) of my wife. If I was not able to run or (as a backup plan) ride... lockdown would go bad for the rest of the household. I am now very happily doing intervals and really getting my fitness up with structured training. Hardly ever do free rides. Just the odd fun group ride or event. It helps bugger-all for singletrack skills. But I feel good, have a way to switch off from now working in the study, and is leaner than when entering lockdown. 

 

Whether it's the gamification or the structured training, I don't care. 

[Muttley]

I liked it! But it was between all my other training stuff, just another ride. x3. Stage 1 was fun, stage 2 was... boring and stage 3 was... mourse fun! Well done on 45th! I was happy with 180th! But I did do an epic trail run the day before. But at 55 k's you'll beat me up there any day! 

 

TBH, I got my trainer the day after lockdown was announced. At the insistence (seriously!) of my wife. If I was not able to run or (as a backup plan) ride... lockdown would go bad for the rest of the household. I am now very happily doing intervals and really getting my fitness up with structured training. Hardly ever do free rides. Just the odd fun group ride or event. It helps bugger-all for singletrack skills. But I feel good, have a way to switch off from now working in the study, and is leaner than when entering lockdown. 

 

Whether it's the gamification or the structured training, I don't care. 

 

Don't underestimate the free rides - I did one after just doing the Build me up Plan and got toasted by the climbing...

 

Busy with the Dirt Destroyer Plan now which has been beyond average IMO. Think I'm gonna spend some bucks on a Training Peaks Plan

[sirmoun10goat]

 

I would love for Zwift to add an Italian and Spanish world and do a virtual Giro and Vuelta, but I am not sure how their infrastructure works or why they have the worlds on a rotational schedule. For me, I'd like to see more worlds and all of them open all the time, maybe it will happen in future.

 

Rotation schedule is because there aren’t enough users to keep all the worlds busy all the time. It’s more fun when there are other riders, so they don’t want sparsely populated worlds, which would be the case if they were all open all the time.

 

And infrastructure, I’m pretty sure they use hosted servers, so they can scale according to demand. By not they now when peak demand is, as well as demand. I would guess each world is hosted on its own instance, with multi tenancy, so financially it also doesn’t make sense to have all the worlds open at once, cos that will carry costs which can be avoided by turning off unused instances

[Schmorglebot]

Rotation schedule is because there aren’t enough users to keep all the worlds busy all the time. It’s more fun when there are other riders, so they don’t want sparsely populated worlds, which would be the case if they were all open all the time.

 

And infrastructure, I’m pretty sure they use hosted servers, so they can scale according to demand. By not they now when peak demand is, as well as demand. I would guess each world is hosted on its own instance, with multi tenancy, so financially it also doesn’t make sense to have all the worlds open at once, cos that will carry costs which can be avoided by turning off unused instances

 

But you can "hack" into any of the worlds at any time. I was riding in France 2 weeks ago. Surely that means all the worlds are hosted simultaneously?