Who “refers to this real world draft as Double Draft”? I haven’t heard this before except in reference to the explicit event feature.

However, at the end of the article, you also note that the Double Draft Mode is only enabled for specific races

“Double Draft ModeZwift has an event mode called “double draft” which gives riders twice the standard Zwift draft effect. This is only used in particular events or races and has the effect of keeping the pack together while increasing overall pack speed. 

Can you explain a bit more? Thanks @Eric Schlange

That’s a great attitude to have, Kenny. It IS all about extending yourself and putting in an honest effort.

I’ve done plenty of races where I had no hope of winning – my goal was just to push hard. Hang with the front as long as I could, then get dropped and see what I could do with the chasing group.

Regardless of any finishing position, the striking thing about your ride is finishing in the bunch on 2.9 W/Kg. That’s Cat C wattage and is a masterclass in drafting.

Discussing the race and the skill of drafting with a friend, I likened it to learning to juggle or hit a golf ball. I’m not very good at those things either. However, in each, we know what we’re supposed to do and there’s only so much ‘thinking’ we can apply. We’ve just got to keep at it and then it happens. Insights from you and the other contributors to this article all help though.

FWIW, I’m 60 so my legs are permanently shot 😉 and any race is essentially against the ageing process and my true nemesis which is me.

I had been hoping for a larger field and somewhere to hide. I’d even gone from the Tron bike to one with drops so that I would be able to see the ride position change.

With the smaller field I guessed that it would be more difficult to stay in the draft and just decided to go with it all until the doors blew off.

Took a prime and an overall as well as my three best Strava lap times before the elastic snapped.

Tactically and skill wise it was pretty poor but I had an absolute ball.

Previously, I’d been put off racing on Zwift because of the number of sandbaggers but have been drawn back to it through category reinforcement being more of a thing now.

I honestly don’t give a fig where I place. The fun is extending myself in an honest effort where not much attention is being paid to numbers in the moment.

Just hanging in there is a thrill. People will either understand that motivation and the concept that you don’t need to beat others to ‘win’ …. or they will not.

Thanks again for the site and for taking the time to expand here. It’s all extremely useful and most importantly makes it all a bit more human.

Practice makes perfect, for sure. Knowing the course helps a ton – know where you can ease off, fall off the back a little, and come back on easily, where other spots you need to have a better position near the front. Knowing how to modulate your power to hold a good position (which for me is a couple bike lengths from the front of the pack, usually).

In today’s race, my legs were SHOT. I had just done a 12-lap race right before it, but decided to hop into this one to see how these new ZHQ Crit Races are shaking out. (And I wanted to see people misusing the anvil power up – I was not disappointed!)

So in this race, I took it as easy as I possibly could – never on the front, often sagging back a bit. And on that last lap my right quad cramped at the top of the climby bit, which made the finishing sprint a real experience!

In the race before this one, I averaged 3.4w/kg. I was working a few other guys, attacking here and there. Amazing how much energy you can save if you really want to!

They’re treated the same. Workout riders draft, and can be drafted.

On flats it’s less about wKg and more about the actual power. So a smaller rider will need to put out as many watts as a larger rider, minus the watts needed to compensate for the drag difference (a larger rider will have to put out slightly more because of the resistance their body’s create)