Psimet2001 

Upgrade guidelines have changed a lot in the last year and now without much racing it seems most of us will forget what all applies anymore. That said I found it interesting that during the LA call with USA Cycling yesterday that Stuart felt the need to point out the following:

1. Zwift races don't count for upgrades
2. Stating your w/kg at ftp is not needed, wanted, or useful when applying for an upgrade.

I laughed but he said he is getting a lot of this now from the areas where racing has occurred this year.

....so...just FYI I guess...for all those new whipper-snappers who think racing has changed and ae searching the googles for answers and found this thread.

cmh

This is awesome.

gsteinb

We laugh, but


https://www.outsideonline.com/240300...g-olympics-UCI

Enthalpic

https://www.uci.org/news/2020/the-uc...-championships

UCI is sanctioning e-racing...

Psimet2001 

There's been USA Cycling series on Zwift this year and IIRC Project Echelon is running a league on Zwit as well.

With the change in Cat 5....errr...novice -> 4 upgrade now being automated and basically just a button click when you feel like you want to move up it would be crazy to not think that many people will believe zwift racing is enough to justify an upgrade.

esarhaddon

This is funny as a person that has never raced IRL, but did buy a USAC license for the USAC races on zwift this summer. I didn't think to try to upgrade my license from novice due to the fact I raced in the A cat. Good to know I shouldn't!

I am okay with a Zwift UCI esports worlds ... but the Olympics. That is just silly. That is exactly why something like the World's Games exists for sports that don't matter. Like Ultimate Frisbee, a recent World's Games mainstay that should get into the Olympics long before indoor bike racing (I say this as a long time Ultimate player).

esarhaddon

Project Echelon is running their events on RGT for the winter. The first Amateurs' race is this weekend, with the start of the Pro series next week I think.

edit. Added link - https://www.echelonracingleague.com/

edit 2 - I will be racing in that amateur race 1 pm CST Saturday. I was not expecting the rather nice weather in Chicago this weekend when I signed up!

Psimet2001 

That's right. That's a different platform I take it. This is going to be one of the hurdles anyone else in this space is going to run into: Zwift has already become the name for online racing. A bit like calling a reciprocating saw a "Sawzall", or a circular saw a "Skill Saw". Online racing is "zwift racing"....regardless of actual platform.

esarhaddon

Yeah RGT (formerly known as Road Grand Tours) is a different platform, and I think you are right that they certainly have an uphill battle on their hands to get enough riders to thrive. Zwift is certainly the bigger one and has all of the riders at the moment. Though there are four nice things about RGT that are different than Zwift.

1. They have a different philosophy towards their game. Less gamification.
2. Different physics compared to Zwift. These are maybe more realistic physics. At least they seem to have a more realistic drafting model, but their server side calculations I think can cause issues because of server lag. As someone who has done ~300 Zwift races and 20 RGT races, they are both fun, but rather different at times.
3. For free, you can ride on 3 constructed worlds, and any Races or Group rides.
4. If you pay for RGT, you can make events on Magic Roads. With Magic Roads you can upload any gpx file (it might require some smoothing to make it good!) and ride it in a virtual world. There was a fun event during the Tour de France where everyday they had magic roads for a bunch of famous climbs used historically in the Tour.

Worth checking out for anyone interested in virtual platforms.