I’ve been playing about with doing my zone 2/endurance rides in RGT instead of Inspiration films (which are great but it’s nice to mix it up as well).
Does anyone have any tips on how to best execute these types of rides in RGT. I’ve found it more engaging when I can get into a bunch with other riders/bots and ride at a fairly consistent power for the allotted time rather than simply cycling on my own. However, I’ve also found it really difficult to find/create that bunch,
if I pick bots going at my target power then with the draft the ride ends up being easier than I want it to be for large chunks
if I pick bots going above my target power then sometimes they end up surging far above that leaving me cycling around on my own again
My schedule hasn’t generally overlapped with events that have had many real riders, but are the “chat laps” etc events any good for finding these types of groups, and how can you guess in advance if there will be a critical mass of people going at your pace (e.g. 1.8-2.0 W/kg in my case). Or is there a tactic to help find bots that will “work well with you”?
Oh nice, I hadn’t realised you could do that, that sounds like what I’m looking for. I like the slim possibility of actually riding with a real person in the calendar events, but given the low hit rate I’m probably best to just hang out with the bots!!
I suppose you’re best to set the maximum of the bots at ~50 watts higher than you want to go since you’ll be in the draft if they’re pace bots or potentially rolling on/off with real bots? I’ve found with the steering, the small groups of pace lines of real bots you used to get have disappeared since they all seem to stay in their lanes now.
The key to achieving what you want is to set up an event as a race and not a group ride. Set the PACING bots high and low watts range at the same value therefore limiting the bots ability to change pace. The reason for setting the ride up as a race and not a group ride is that this gives you access to an “Advanced” tab which allows you to switch off drafting. Now you can pace along with the bots at whatever pace you have set.
@dtjohnnyb In addition to the ideas above you can also use one of the endurance Inspiration videos or NoVid’s - use the browser extension tool and then send the workout to RGT via workouts@rgtcycling.com. Then run in ERG mode. When doing workouts I find it better to be on a flatter course but for endurance work it probably doesn’t matter as much versus doing intervals or sprint work.
Cap Formentor is my go to Z2 ride as I haven’t played too much with trying to ride groups with bots or others for workouts. It takes about an hour for me, and with several steady but not too steep gradients to find a steady rhythm and keep within the goal zones while having enough variety to stay entertained.
I might try out some of the “race” suggestions posted above next time I hit the virtual roads, this is a great thread.
I did a two hour Endurance ride yesterday on RGT. I just went into “workouts” and picked the level Endurance 2 hour workout and chose the Passo Stelvio as the backdrop. This is listed as a Zone1/2 ride which was a bit low for me (once it loads it will show you the power target). My top end Zone2 would be about 160 watts but this showed 117 watts. You can go back and increase the power level to around the wattage you want for the level of ride you want to do. Once you are up and running there is the facility in the menu, which shows up at the bottom of the screen, as you are riding to “ride harder” or “easier” so if you are going over or under you can adjust this on the fly. The app will keep you around the power targets you have set despite steep climbs or fast downhills (only the virtual speed is affected) regardless of cadence as long as you stay in ERG mode. I managed with this to ride this two hours at an average of 157 watts (158 was the limit I set) staying under my Zone2 HR (just) and I let the Bots do their own thing, some were faster and some were slower.
Thanks all, I created my own event with 100 “Beginner” real bots up Sa Calobra this morning and it worked great as a zone 2 ride. Since that’s a pretty even gradient the drafting was irrelevant so I probably should have used pace bots as @Kayak suggested.
I think for the flat courses (e.g. Borrego Springs) the draft is much more significant, so I’ll try out both pace bots and real bots to see which one gives the best group dynamics. I enjoy the fact you have to be “switched on” to make sure you’re staying in the draft and not getting dropped, it sort of gamifies a zone 2 ride for me.
If I’m more in the mood to switch off and just do the watts for an hour, I like the idea of uploading the workouts and putting on something to listen to, thanks @ozmadman and @JSampson