France not in France...Huh?
 

So i "rode" in France for the first time the other day in Zwift. some route that was pretty windy near a river, the big climb was near by, roman aqueduct. being my first time in France i noticed that i rode near what i had assumed was the ocean. when done i got onto strava and zoomed out on the map looking to see exactly where i rode. much to my surprise the map showed me on an island just east of Australia. does anyone know why this route is not in France? I had assumed that it was because Zwift did not want to mess up any DEMs that Strava has...but...NY is in NY, London in London, and Yorkshire is in Yorkshire.

I get why Watopia is not in Watopia.

I thought that was a bit weird myself. I was hoping to ride some of the roads I have been on in France. I'm not sure how well modeled the rest of their routes are either.

It's not easy for Americans to get a visa this year

If you actually want to ride in France. Try Rouvy to actually ride the roads in France not a computer generated one. :)
https://my.rouvy.com/virtual-routes

i think i need to go to France to actually ride in France.

And i doubt Rouvy would be any better than Zwift. They are both just computer generated rides.

You should give it a try. Completely different from Zwift much more representative of actual rides throughout the world.

If you want more realistic rides, Rouvy definitely gives you that. But, a lot of the rides I tried there are so realistic that they are not scenic at all! Miles of scrubby bushes on cloudy days, going by realistically trashed up roadsides!

I stuck with Zwift - personally, when riding in my basement I'm not looking for reality, I'm looking for distraction.

Yesterday, I did the Thanksgiving Day Zwift "Ride with CEO Eric Minn" (on the RGV course in "France") along with about 3,000 other Zwifters. Between the scenery, Minn's text comments and the text comments of riders, before I knew it the hour was up.

I noticed the same thing on Zwift, Strava put the France ride in New Caledonia in the Coral Sea. BTW, New Caledonia is a French territory.

No Rouvy is actual rides People in the country video a ride and match up the gps. If you go to the link I posted you will see the hundreds of rides in France. The are not computer generated in any way. Way harder riding than Zwift thou. Zwift doesn’t any real rides at all you don’t get the actual rollling up downs like Rouvy gives you. You have a choice of training where you can turn down the reality of a ride and time trail where you are in 100 % reality. Of the climbs.

Sorry, but i still consider these to be computer generated rides, they are just modeled on a real life ride, no different than say part of NY, Richmond, and Yorkshire (i don't include London because i don't remember the hills south of the Thames when i was there but that was a long time ago), never been to Insbrook so don;t know how "real" that is. So in my opinion (and it is just an opinion) what rouvy has to offer is no different than what zwift has to offer. sure there are videos but unless you have a wrap around scene it is just looking at different eye candy. More realistic scenery but still fake and that is hard to convince me otherwize, i still need fans blowing on me and music to keep me more engaged (i don't ride IRL with music).

i did look at the link and i thank you for that. i had a much closer look at the rides and i will be able to parse the data and use those rides in my own app. right now i only have a map to look at but i am learning graphics programming so ill enhance it as time goes on.

by the way, i believe watopia does offers everything that an IRL ride has to offer but just not as much. it is a limited virtual world after all. i don't complain about the zwift world at all, it is not what i had expected before i started but still pretty good. i am only a part time zwift user.

one last thing, it is not my intent to bash Rouvy, i like the idea a lot. what would be great is a platform that just had it all. i can't be subscribing to all of these different platforms and i really only use zwift in the winter months.

Never noticed that Zwift France was not actually in France, interesting. I read that it had something to do with being able to expand the France route to include other areas which would be hard if they used the exact GPS location? don't really understand that but Paris is actually Paris.

Have you tried Mt Ventoux yet? It's a killer. I pedaled for 1.5 hours and was barely half way up and had to bail. I could barely hang onto my handlebars by hands were so wet with gloves on! Maybe I'll tackle it over the holidays on a boring, snowy day.

As for the debate between Zwift over Rouvy over Trainer road, I haven't tried any tools other than Zwift but a friend of mine has, and it really all depends on what you expect. I don't think anyone rides Zwift to simulate real biking routes but it's about the training plans, group rides and races. If you haven't joined a race yet and have to ride your FTP for 45 minutes, well then you have something to look forward to. Riding against other cyclists from around the world brings out the competitive juices and pushes ya to ride harder.

Even though I know I won't win, I just try and find a competitive group I can keep up with and stay in the pack so I can keep drafting to make the ride a little easier.

Being able to create hook ups so you can ride with your club or friends is also pretty cool. I even enjoy watching the live Zwift races which being considered as part of the competitive tour.

The Zwift Fence map is really "France like". Meaning, similar scenery as if you were riding in France. Not intended to be any actual rodes in France. At least that is my take.

Personally, I think Zwift did a really nice job on the map. I really enjoy it. To me, it makes for a nice pleasant ride. Excellent for group rides.

I ride year around as my wife’s health only lets me ride a couple rides a week outside. So ride several of the different app’s to mix things up.
There is a new app coming out that will take a lot of the Zwift racing people off their app. Veloton still in beta. https://www.velotoncycling.com/

Having rode the Zwift and Rouvy versions of the mountain rides. The GPS Rouvy ride was way tougher. At the end you are done 😀