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Much to the surprise of its members, Rouvy did a career reset on October 1.
Not the date was – or should have been – a surprise, but the fact that this year they reset everyone to ‘starter’ level, was a big – and nasty – surprise to many.
Last year, only Legends could request a reset to starter, but all others would be reset to the beginning of their current level.
While I do not mind either way, it would have been a lot better had Rouvy informed its members timely / properly. As usual, they have come up with an explanation after the fact – you can read more about it here.
Obviously, the objective to keep the league of Legends a bit exclusive, is something I can understand, as is the fact that it should be hard to become a Legend. But not impossible…
The ‘reset’ was done in a not unusual sloppy way, meaning that the career path (tasks) initially looked identical to that of last year.
I.e. it included Furka – Grimsel – Susten and Haleakala as requirements for completing the higher level(s). I expressed my dismay about that, since I think there are so many equally hard routes to pick from, so it’s not like there’s no alternative.
And Haleakala’s video footage is not even of good quality.
But then – equally sloppy – Rouvy changed the career requirements without informing users.
Or, apparently, they did inform a couple that were – like me – ahead of the field, but not I didn’t find out until I was gearing up to complete the level I was in at the time.
Only to find that as a result of the changes, I had to do extra rides, instead of finishing the current level as planned.
And Haleakala and FGS were replaced by other rides – in fact, I think they pretty much revised the whole career path, about two weeks after the season had started…
But for the diehards, they have also created a Haleakala challenge, which runs this month as does another idiotic ‘Kona’ challenge: 122 miles indoors.
You have 24 hours to complete that, i.e. you can split it into morning / afternoon / evening sessions, but these challenges are insane.
Sure, you can win a(n) (semi-)annual TrainingPeaks subscription, which has a respectable price tag, but still…
Rouvy’s reasoning that (riding) these challenges is optional, while in itself true, does not stick when you would indeed have no other option to complete your (career) level.
Luckily, at current, I do not need to complete any other challenge, so I will pass both of them. However, if I were to complete either or both of them, it would not be indoors – more on that in a bit.
So, last week was a busy week; despite my being ‘slightly disappointed’ with Rouvy in several ways, I have started building my career again.
I reached Elite level quickly and am now working on accumulating the necessary TSS points (1,000) to advance to Regional Class.
All in all I rode over 700 kilometers last week, which even by my standards is quite a lot…
This also resulted in being on top of the season’s leader board, but that won’t last. Besides, there are people logging most of their rides at 95% intensity (IF .95) or higher, including rides over 100% intensity and even for rides longer than 2, 3 hours.
This seems to me as impossible as the performances of many other riders – some of those are ignorant as to how to setup their system(s), but just as many are deliberately cheating.
Anyway, if you want to maximize your efforts into building a career, I have some tips for you.
First – and this is my favorite, but useless if you do not have a PM on your outdoor bike – you can ride outdoors to complete challenges with indoor routes attached.
Obviously, if you do not have a PM on your outdoor bike, this won’t work, as you’ll need the output of that to set yourself into virtual motion.
If you do have a PM, just pick the (challenge) route on the Rouvy mobile app, connect your PM and you’re set. Just remember to ride in ‘race’ or ‘challenge’ mode, not in ‘training’ mode, or it will not count. You may also deselect the video stream, as you will probably not be watching the video anyway.
Keep in mind that riding outdoors means it will probably take you longer to complete a route, mainly depending on traffic and weather conditions.
I did Trail Ridge Road the other day in 1:50, including stoppage for taking a phone call, covering no less than 62 kilometers, while my PR is 1:35 indoors…
Second, multi ride challenges: if a requirement for any level is that you complete a challenge, but you haven’t quite reached that level yet (some TSS points short for instance), you can already start the challenge before you advance.
You just need to finish the challenge in that particular (next) level, but you do not need to complete all challenge rides in the same level.
Third, required online races. I got a question the other day how I dealt with those, as most races had ‘inconvenient starting times’.
Well, just create your own, starting at a time that is convenient for you. If other people join, great, if not, finish it all by yourself. It will count.
Also, the route is of no importance and neither is the length – if you have a 5 mile loop that you’d like to race, go for it.
Obviously, if you want, you can designate a required challenge route for that race and hit two birds with one stone. And if you would do so during a Double Points Weekend, you’re really using every possibility to maximize the result…
And yes, last week I also completed the ‘Rouvy challenge’ with the winning routes from the Wahoo contest, while riding outdoors.
As a result of that, I will not be in the top of the leader board, but that is of no importance. Besides, that leader board is as polluted with ‘fake’ results as much as is the season’s leader board.
There are people that produce pro-like Watt levels every single challenge. Yet for those that I can check on their outdoor performances, I can only conclude they would not last an hour riding with me outdoors.
Nor would they beat me climbing a mountain. And I can tell you, I’m not much of a climber…
Anyway, if these tips are new to you, I hope they may help you through your career a little bit ‘easier’. Good luck!
