Originally Posted by
himespau
It's been a while since I've been on Zwift (and never did much in the way of racing - just tried to see if I could get on some odd sprint leaderboards in the very early days). Is there any strategy/skill involved? Is staying in someone's draft something people do/care about? Or is it blast as many watts as you can and see who can drope the hamer the most for the longest?
Drafting matters. But, because cyclist avatars don't really take up space, you don't see fights for position and you can just drift directly backwards in the pack so there's no real set rotation or anything. In general it seems to me that there are also far fewer successful breakaways. So, it often becomes the following:
1. Start hard so you get in a fast group
2. Ride a fairly steady pace in the group. When you creep up to the front, you'll naturally have increased resistance and then creep backwards where you'll get a draft and creep forwards again.
3. Try to stay attached during the hills (this is where separation happens).
4. Sprint at the end. Possibly with a "power up" from the game.
Corners don't really matter (no need/way to brake), and you can't be boxed in or anything. So (and I'm speaking largely out of ignorance here so take it with a grain of salt) tactically it isn't the same and is generally much simpler.