Riding on indieVelo:
Riding is pretty lonely on indieVelo, as it is very early in the life cycle of the game, and riders are only just discovering the game. Plenty of Bots though!
Jump straight in and choose a Free Ride – 18 routes to choose from – the shortest is a lap of the Velodrome at 0.5kms with 0mtrs of climbing and the longest, “The Swan,” is 109.00kms with 224mtrs of climbing. With plenty of other rides, with varying distances and height of climbing in between.
The HUD (Head Up Display), what you seen on screen, is pretty straight forward.
Elapsed Time, Distance Travelled, Height Climbed and Speed on the Top Left.
Heart Rate, Cadence and Effort in the Top Middle and Mini Map, Wind Speed, Gradient and Distance to go on the Top Right. With the Nearest Riders on at the Middle Right.
And Graphs at the bottom of the Screen – Effort and Elevation.
Click on the Bottom Centre of the Screen and a Control Bar pops up – Rider Views (1 to 10); Ride Reverse, Screen Shot; Join People; Take a Break and Message.
In fact, everything you would want – all laid neatly out on the screen. None of the information takes up too much space – so you can still the ‘action’.
Riding is fairly smooth – the road surfaces and the wind don’t seem to make too much difference.
The Draft is pretty consistent, when you riding with one of the Pace Partners. The slingshot effect still comes into play.
Overall a very pleasant ride experience. The distances are realistic and the climbs ‘feel’ about right!
One different and interesting feature, is that the “Nearest Riders” are, as usual, listed by time gap – but the riders current speed, as opposed to their effort (Watts per Kg) is shown.
This is novel, as you can see by how much you have to increase your speed by to catch somebody up, or even stay with them.
Races are listed, and start every 5 mins. And there is a Monthly Challenge listed every hour, on the hour.
For example, the current Challenge is 8 laps (4.1km) of the Forest Velodrome. It is listed as a Time Trial, with the explanation: “All riders start together and the rider covering the course in the shortest time is the winner. There is no draft effect between riders in this event.”
There are no Time Trial bikes either!
You can see your times on the Challenges page, see how you performed Globally (Everyone); by Your Country; By Team or by Female Only. So, a great way to see how you perform against everyone else.
Do I like riding with indieVelo – Yes, I do…!
Am I likely to continue riding with them – Probably not!
The Reason – it’s all about racing – and I’m not a Racer – I like the Social Rides, the Group Rides, and the Free Rides…! I like to ride all the routes by their degree of ‘difficulty’.
I’m happy to ride the occasional race, but it is very demotivating to come in last every time.
I’m happy to come in the last quarter of the field however, being the Lanterné Rouge in all races is not my idea of fun.
I will certainly keep ‘my eyes’ on indieVelo, and I’m sure I will return to it from time to time.