Originally Posted by Psimet2001

If you've been listening you also know that while I can sit and complain about something like gravel - It's about all I am "competing" in anymore.

Originally Posted by Psimet2001

While I enjoy taking shots at Zwift - I still rode an hour on it yesterday. I just refuse to think that anything is an all knowing savior of anything. A lot of times my probing and pot shots are meant to pull the zealots out of the conversation and find those that use it with a critical eye in hopes they can truly quantify the long term value of it and it's place in the sport. Without doing that then I feel all I am doing is listening to a Peloton commercial given by a bunch of disciples.... when the last commercial really pointed out some of the flaws in what they think is their mission.

In reality I am paying for an account and I am trying it with an open mind. My skin still will crawl when people try and draw some sort of comparison between Zwift racing and real world performance but I am not alone in that. I truly wish we could just embrace it as a game without trying to make it seem like real life racing. Change the graphics but give it the same tactics. I think it could be interesting that way. Like why can't we have a race on a course that resembles a large rollercoaster with loops? Sections that float in space? Sections that act like their powerups do where people can develop tactics that in a way mimic racing tactics (not saying they don't already as I don't race on there yet).

It's the stuff where people sit around and do video comparisons between zwift's Alp d'huez and the real thing that make my eyes roll hard enough that it distracts me. I've never had the time or money to ride the thing in real life but i know enough to know that no approximation of it will ever be accurate so take it at face value. If the idea of riding an analog of it gets your training done then bravo...just don't destroy it by trying to analyze the hell out of it.

Apologies on not having any new podcasts lately. Cross season is always the busiest. 7-day work weeks for months on end. now officially over. Have a few in the can and a couple of topics I want to pick up. This will probably be one of them. I've been a lot less disagreeable lately and that honestly doesn't make for good podcasting. Try thinking of the last time you listened to a podcast where people talked about something and no one ever disagreed. Believe it or not sometimes we have an outline and have agreed beforehand which sides we are going to take if it's an issue that we all agree on in advance.

The hate of the hand-wringing about racing comes from this place. Always full of a bunch of people that want to emulate what they perceive to be the racing culture but unwilling to take the step to try it. After doing it - yeah draw your own conclusions. It's not for everyone of course. The reasons cited for not doing it get old. I have heard all of them over the years.

You alluded to me talking about what is killing racing? Nothing is killing racing. That's the part that I don't think people get. They always seem to insert their own narrative and attribute their own experience as somehow being some sort of cause for racing dying. It's dying at the same rate it always has....it's just that no one is trying it anymore. If people were trying it we would be chugging along like always. Some would love it. Some would hate it but the people leaving every year through natural life shifts would be offset by those coming to it. They just aren't coming to it anymore. It's not gravel. It's not Zwift. It's not money. it's not gear. It's a general shift in what people want to do with their time. Racing (IRL) is just not one of those things. Playing a video game where racing happens is.

Hell we should shoot a video blog where I try a Zwift race. If it's like real racing then I should be crapped out the back in the first 90 seconds or so....

At the end of the day it's still riding a trainer. Like I said I rode for an hour yesterday. That's an hour I wouldn't have done without the distractions of Zwift. I am grateful for zwift in that regard.