burnthesheep

I feel like there's a population of Zwift that feels to me at least got there because they don't care for the IRL racing environment. I don't mean the people in your race. I just mean the whole "what it takes" to even make it to a lot of races places in the US. The US is a big country with lots of land and not a ton of bike racers. Meaning distance, time, weird times of year for some races, etc......

I mean, folks who race Zwift......if you get shelled you can give up and try again tomorrow. There's so many races, for free, you never have to wakeup at 3am to eat, drive 2 hours somewhere, and then race at dawn at freezing temperatures for your one or two local road races per year. Or beg to get off work early to drive 2 hrs west to the warm weather crit series.

Real life racing takes some more commitment. I mean, duh.

There is a bit of a risk/reward ratio with your time commitment for IRL racing. You could prep for that race for months and get a flat and be walking a few miles or waiting forever on a ride to your car. Zwift.........try again and again, etc...

I'd rather eat it and do the limited amount of real life stuff I do and be happy with it. Zwift racing I tried and am just "meh". A real TT there's just the sense of flying over the ground. Like, down a little grade at over 30mph on your own power alone. Cool looking machines and kit. Win, lose, new PR, not new PR.........I still felt like I was flying at some point in the ride.