Wahoo RGT virtual racing

[Pedal Castro]

During early lockdown I tried Zwift, Rouvy and RGT. RGT was the best of the three but there were some issues. Now Wahoo have taken it over it's even better I have been told, and indeed it is! I have ridden a few races to check before I went ahead and created some races on behalf of N&DCA. I get a premium membership as it's been bundled I to my old Sufferfest account but people can join races easily by downloading the app and signing up to a free accounts.

The next N&DCA event is tomorrow, a 8 mile TT but on Saturday we have an Omnium, three races in quick succession, 8 mile scratch, 2 mile ITT and 20 lap elimination race. I'll post links if there is any interest.

[Pedal Castro]

Well, Wahoo closed down RGT, a bit like when a great brewery was bought by a bigger concern only to be closed down within a year. However I have now swirched to IndieVelo, which although is still in beta is very very good, that is if racing and training are more important to you than the gamification of zwift.

[Legs]

RGT was dire, but IndieVelo is much, much better.  The racing, which, unlike Zwift, enables a variety of different and interesting formats, leaves me feeling cold, though; I’ve only done two events but from what I’ve experienced and seen in others’ YouTube streams, the bots which make up the vast majority of the other riders will ride incredibly hard, then seemingly blow up right at the end of the race to let you win or nearly win.  For all its faults, Zwift racing usually feels as if you’re racing against humans.  I’m not a big fan of Zwift’s gamification, but there are loads of races without power ups, for example.

There’s nothing you can do in terms of training workouts in IV that you can’t do in Zwift.

[Pedal Castro]

Interesting that you didn't like RGT, it was excellent for our winter series last year, with magic roads so we could effectively ride on local roads.

As far as indievelo goes there are races going on without bots although because I like to race during the day mine are mainly me and bots (not that I can tell other than names not matching their flag). Like you I found the first 2 races a bit meh but as the system learns more about you then the bots are much better matched.

You are welcome to join my trial track meet tomorrow night, 5 different races over one hour. 

[Legs]

I’ve done 2 short IV TT events and trounced the bots in both - by 127m in the 6-minute hillclimb event this evening.  I can understand how it could possibly tailor the bots better to my ability, but wouldn’t that just shaft weaker humans in my pen?  If a strong human entered my event, wouldn’t I get overwhelmed by the strong bots?

[Pedal Castro]

I've only done 7-8 races so far, the first one I came 5th from 30, then the next couple a distant last but by race 4 always top half but nowhere near winning, so just like real life for me. My first races with humans tomorrow night which will be interesting.

I don't know how humans are split in the pens, I'm guessing that if a strong human joins they go in a different pen with stronger bots. I tend to get put in pen 6 although yesterday was pen 5 but that was a team race so might be different, or my increased motivation and hence performance may have bumped me up.