Idea for a great race format

Zwift: last one standing

You all ride on Zwift, and the last one to give up wins.

It’d be fantastic both as a competitor and a spectator.  A true test of endurance.

How fast do you have to ride though….

or… maybe keep up with a pacer bot…..

DrP

It’d be fantastic both as a competitor and a spectator.

Watching someone ride an exercise bike sounds worse than watching one of WCA’s videos.

Yeah, needs spicing up.  Have a read of ‘The Long Walk’ by Stephen King for ideas

Hard nope for me. Zwift racings just a 2 dimensional pastiche of an actual race.

I’d like to see BMX and track cycling merge with a Devil or Points race. Or just for the alliteration, a pump track pursuit race, but the race carries on untill someone is caught.

How fast do you have to ride though

Not fast at all – over a certain power, probably, but it’s low just to make sure you don’t stop pedalling.  It’s a test of how much grim ness you can endure.

Hard nope for me.

It wasn’t a serious proposal. Actual Zwift racing is not a substitute for real racing, but it’s much easier to do, you can go to your garage and enter a race any time you feel like it wherever you live in the world. It’s a tool to liven up the boredom of indoor training.

The 18hr Girdle. Women’s only endurance race in unyielding cycling shorts.

Bicycle Water Polo

Sounds about as fun to watch as a “keep your hand on the pickup” competitions that rednecks love.

Yeah, but at least the winner gets a pick up….

Sitting alone on a bike in your garage just sounds depressing…. Would rather go for ride even if it was pissing it down outside.

How about a virtual trackstand competition? Last man track standing wins.

Sitting alone on a bike in your garage just sounds depressing…. Would rather go for ride even if it was pissing it down outside

I wouldn’t… Ergo… Zwift exists!

DrP

I reckon downhill MTB but holding an egg and spoon could work. 🤔

Sitting alone on a bike in your garage just sounds depressing…. Would rather go for ride even if it was pissing it down outside.

Three times a week? After work, in rush hour, in the dark?

I’ve been there and done it, the novelty wore off after a few years. Zwift is shit, for sure, but if you want to train and the weather is crap then it’s an option. And the actual racing makes it less shit. I can’t understand the people who do it and don’t race though. If I’m not racing I’m watching Netflix.

Downhill mtb but you get uplifted AND downlifted, teh competition comes entirely from how long you’re willing to stand in a queue for.

I reckon downhill MTB but holding an egg and spoon could work. 🤔

How about a virtual trackstand competition? Last man track standing wins.

Inspired by a track event in the US called the Marymoor Crawl (at Marymoor velodrome), there was a trial of what over here was called The Longest Lap. Basic rules – track stand for an unspecified amount of time until a gun goes, then it’s a full sprint of 1 lap, winner is the first across the line. Therefore the best tactic is to position yourself fairly near the line, wait for the gun then you have a lap to go. But if you cross the line before the gun has gone, you’re out.

It did become a bit of a crowd pleaser, I think a lot of people were just relieved to see something new and different at what was getting to be a slightly stale format event.

a pump track pursuit race

Now that would be good

It’d be fantastic both as a competitor and a spectator

Get in touch with Sky Sports right now as they’ll be waving fistfuls of dollars at you for this.

How about a virtual trackstand competition? Last man track standing wins.

I think crazylegs missed the word “virtual” in there 😂

“Not fast at all – over a certain power, probably”

To make it fair, it would need to be based on rider weight not just power. Power per kg (watts per kg) is how Zwift works.

It’d be fantastic both as a competitor and a spectator.

I suspect to have any spectator appeal at all, it’d have to be done nekkid… That really would be ‘a true test of endurance’. Or maybe just stupidity.

I’ve done the running version of last one standing and it was surprisingly good fun.

4.16 mile lap. You have an hour.

You need to be on the startline ready to go again every hour, on the hour. If you aren’t, you’re out. Last person to complete a lap in the time wins.

Someone said to me before the start ‘its easy until it suddenly isn’t’ That was very true.

Do you go fast and get some rest? Do you go slow and not push yourself too hard?

The record is now something daft like 114 hours! The good guys are sleeping in 3-4 minute bursts each lap.

How about a slow race down Pike’s Peak or other famous mountains? The riders have their feet strapped to the pedals (so no feet on the deck), the last person to the bottom wins.