This morning I continued with my new schedule of tackling one proper climb each week.
Today I took on Villard Notre Dame, a video climb provided by Tacx Software.
Note that this isn’t a review of the Tacx Software. That is forthcoming, but for reasons that are about to become very clear… or actually, disappointingly cloudy, the review will have to wait.
I’d done a little pre-ride recon on this one and, much like Passo dello Stelvio on RGT Cycling, I knew that there was essentially no flat bit to warm up on pre-climb.
As a result, I did 10km on Zwift’s Volcano Circuit at a high cadence but low intensity, just to get the legs warmed up. Oh, and to hit my two weekly riding milestones of 3 hours and 100km ridden.
With those out of the way, I jumped over to Tacx Software and got to setting up my ride.
EXCUSE THE PINK OVERLAY
Ok, major problem.
In order to screenshot my rides on Tacx Software, I have had to purchase an additional bit of hardware – a Razer Ripsaw HD.
The problem I was facing, as covered in my previous attempt to blog my ride on Tacx Software, was that any screenshots I took were coming out with a black area where the video content should be. Fail.
Anyway, the idea behind the Razer Ripsaw HD is that it’s a video capture card. It sits between my computer graphics card output, and the TV, and allows me to “intercept” the signal (somehow) and thus, use it as a recording input in popular streaming software OBS.
However, I think my unit is faulty as no matter what I’ve tried, it’s always pink-tinged.
Not bad for £110. :/
If you can disregard the pink overlay for the moment (I have a replacement unit on its way, but it wasn’t here in time for this ride), then we can still cover this ride without issue.
Add “Virtual” Opponents
There’s a fair few people on Tacx Software. About 300 the other night when I checked it out, and unfortunately I didn’t get the figures from today, but there were definitely other riders online.
Of course, with so many routes to choose from, and relatively few riders online, it may be that there aren’t any other riders actively riding your chosen route when you are.
Not to worry, however, as you can add Opponents.
These, I believe, are previous riders who have chosen to share their rides. This is really cool. I added a bunch of riders at just below, and just above my FTP. In my case I had a couple of riders with the same name, so I’m assuming this means that the same rider has ridden the route multiple times.
Also there’s the ability to add your own previous attempts. Ghost riders! Awesome.
The one downside is: you won’t see these riders on the video. Instead, you see them in the mini map, and on the various bits of HUD as we shall see shortly.
I really like these video rides. They are so refreshingly different to Zwift / RGT Cycling / virtual cycling.
They feel different.
Now, I’ve had a bunch of issues downloading the streams. Two streams are available:
- 720p
- 1080p
And if you can’t download these in advance (which I can’t, for two reasons) then you can directly stream the content in real time.
In my case, I can’t download the 1080p content as I’m only a demo customer. I really disagree with this, because for me, a demo should be the best experience possible. It’s supposed to entice me to part with my hard earned cash, right?
And the 720p stream will download, but it consistently stopped / bombed out. I could resume it, but it would die again only a few megabytes later. And even 720p videos are huge – like gigabytes in size – so I just opted to stream in real time, instead.
For what it’s worth I did experience a streaming issue very early on in this ride. But only once, and it had no impact on the ride itself.
What happened was the video just froze for a few seconds, and then resumed a little further on. No major issue.
I would have liked to have ridden this at a higher resolution however, because I feel the real time stream quality was more like 420p at best. It was fuzzy in places. That distracted from the immersivity.
On Screen Stuff
Again, this isn’t a full review so I will only briefly dive into the stats and “stuff” that’s on screen during the ride.
Right Hand Side HUD
On the right hand side of the screen we get the mini map provided by Microsoft / bing(?) maps.
This is cool.
It auto rotates, and feels very responsive. I like the compass, though honestly I have no bearing as to where I am beyond that as I’ve never been to Notre Dame (which is where I assume this is?)
Under this is the real time results / placings.
I started off in first, but within the first 20 minutes I’d slipped back to 3rd. You can see an example here of one rider who has ridden this course multiple times.
Under this list is three little balls – you can click on the rotational icon to scroll between other views, but this proved impractical during the climb so I never explored this further.
The best thing, for me, was the pedal stroke analysis.
This is one feature of the Tacx Neo that I haven’t experienced yet.
I can’t say I fully understand what it was telling me, but it was insightful in helping me understand where I was putting the weight down on the pedals.
I’ve often felt that my right leg does more work than the left, but this widget proved that theory wrong today.
Left Hand Side HUD
Over on the left side of the screen are the stats I am more typically used too.
There was my current speed in kilometers. You can swap between Imperial and Metric in the options.
Watts, RPM, and heart rate (BPM) are all present and correct.
I liked the real time calorie counter.
And again, there was the 4 menu balls and rotational icon which I didn’t explore during this ride.
One thing I really liked was the current 300m segment section. This was very helpfully colour coded to show easier and harder sections approaching. This allowed for a little pre-planning, and gearing. Very nice.
Also on this part of the HUD you could see your location in relation to your opponents.
Under this was the more general ride stats which are self explanatory.
When on the climb this showed distance to the top, and climb meters remaining. Very useful metrics in keeping me informed.
At the bottom of the screen was the full course view.
Again this was fully colour coded, with harder and “easier” parts of the climb in various shades of red and yellow.
Being able to see all the opponents on this view was very useful, too.
In terms of the info displayed on the HUD, I think Tacx Software have nailed it.
Opposite l’Alpe d’Huez is one of the most mentally challenging climbs in this part of the Alps. Only the brave head to this climb with its shear drops & pitch black tunnels where even the most powerful bike lighting is not enough! The reward for this late October afternoon ride is a kaleidoscope of colour as you climb into the sunny higher slopes.
Tacx Software – Villard Notre Dame Route Description
Ahead of this ride I was aware that some long, dark tunnels lay ahead.
They really weren’t kidding. These tunnels were pitch black.
I’m guessing real life your eyes are thousands of times more powerful than a blurry 420p stream, but even so, I’m guessing riding in these in real life is dangerous AF.
Unfortunately, for whatever reason, the animated gif I made above is cutting out before the fun part.
This ride was visually stunning in parts. More on that below.
I think I saw only three other humans about on the map. One was a car coming the other way. One was a motorbike passing by. And the third was this old boy carrying a gun.
I tried to make the gif above to show this, but it’s cut out. Rats.
Coming up to the top of the climb, the sun shining down over the mountains ahead was beautiful, no denying it.
This is obviously something games just can’t replicate. At least, not yet.
Again, I bet this looks amazing in 1080p. And … not pink.
Fortunately for me, the real ride wasn’t pink.
Whilst this climb was extremely tiring, it was on the shorter end of the climbs I’ve done over the last 3 weeks.
Having an opponent behind me kept me pushing as hard as I could.
And I do think I did well on this climb.
I’m struggling to get comparative stats to those available in Zwift. But the Strava stats below show a strong performance by my standards.
Who are these crazy folk who want to live at the top of a climb like this?
I managed 5th overall. First place absolutely smashed it, and I was significantly far behind 4th place. Having Le Francis behind me definitely kept me pushing through this one. Without an opponent behind I imagine my time today would have been several minutes slower.
I feel the Watopia warm up massively helped.
Also I put in about 18 minutes solid effort right at the start, but fell shy of keeping up the wattage for a full 20 minutes.
After 21 minutes on the ride clock I ended up taking my foot off the gas for about 5 minutes.
Still, plenty of improving to do.
I managed to pull the above stats out of Tacx Cloud.
There is an associated graph for these stats but for whatever reason, it won’t display. It just shows a spinner. I’ve tried two different computers.
Averaging 197w definitely feels like progress. I’d like to see the average heart rate drop a touch over the next few months.
I’d say the Tacx Software excels at solo rides. There are enough climbs in there to keep me busy for at least half a year of having a new climb each weekend. That’s amazing.
But when it comes to racing, having the other competitors on screen (e.g. like in last week’s Alpe Du Zwift race) still feels better than just a dot on a map.
I’m looking forward to getting the replace Razer Ripsaw HD and seeing if this silly pink overlay issue is resolved. I genuinely hope so. I can’t wait to put in a solid review for this software, it’s genuinely really good.
Until then… dinner time.
