Nature calls on Zwift

Johnny Long (0:00)

Roglicz is like a one-man XTS Astana, where he's just gobbling them up.

Caley Fretz (0:10)

Welcome back to Spin Cycle, everybody. I'm Caley Fretz. Today on the show, Zwift's latest update goes awry. Tadej Pogacar will become a Dome-estique next year, and there's one Frenchman who simply can't get enough of cycling, even in November.

Welcome to the show, Dane Cash. How are you?

Dane Cash (0:31)

I'm doing well. How are you?

Caley Fretz (0:33)

I'm good. And Johnny Long, welcome back.

Johnny Long (0:35)

Hello. Happy Friday.

Caley Fretz (0:36)

Happy Friday, everybody.

I was about to say I'm going to go get a good bike ride in this weekend, but I am not.

No, we're going to do more digging. We're still digging here in Durango. You still have drills? No. I mean, yeah, up there somewhere. The gorge is probably fine. Yeah. Yeah. But you can't get to Junction Creek for obvious reasons. It's all gone. Anyway, we don't need to talk more about that. Let's talk about Zwift. Let's talk about a virtual world where floods never happen. But other interesting things do sometimes. So Zwift's latest rollout is real worlds you can ride through, which is fun. This is something that exists on other platforms for a while. And I think one of the main complaints about Zwift is that it's pretty cartoony.

And it's kind of fun when you first jump in it. And then it... I don't know. I don't love how overly cartoony it all feels. And there's like dinosaurs flying around, like other things like that.

Johnny Long (1:46)

You get enough of that in your regular life.

Caley Fretz (1:48)

I get enough dinosaurs flying around in my regular life.

So what they've added is real places you can ride through, which is all good fun. Which means that an actual car probably drove down these roads, a big camera on it, and whatever's happening around is actually happening. I was riding it actually yesterday on a brief stretch of road, which I think is actually maybe the stretch of road that we're talking about this morning. And there was a dude with a dog, and the dog almost ran in front of the car with the camera on it. So all sorts of crazy things can happen. But Johnny, something a little bit more unfortunate happened with this particular rollout.

What were Zwifters greeted with in one of these new lands that they could ride through?

Johnny Long (2:32)

So in the American Southwest, as you correctly said, one of the 385 kilometers of road filmed in 4K resolution, which is very important, seen as one of the things picked up in 4K, was a person camping at the side of the road and popping a squat right as the car filming the route went past. So an eagle-eyed Zwifter, is that what they're called? Zwifters?

Caley Fretz (2:57)

Sure.

Johnny Long (2:59)

He spotted this, Sam Sky, and he posted a screenshot on Facebook, making sure to circle the person, relieving themselves in luminous green, just so that no one would mistake it, and was sort of very, you know, very entertained about that fact for YouTube viewers. You can see it there. In the newsletters tomorrow, there's also a recording of the video and what it looks like. And it's unmistakably someone taking an outdoor bathroom break.

You know, that's kind of, you know, that happens in camping. There's, you know, depending on how it sets up, that's nature, hey? For millions of years, we were doing the same. Animals still do it every day.

Caley Fretz (3:43)

Are we talking a number one or a number two here?

Johnny Long (3:46)

Well, this is up for debate. Obviously, you know, I'm more of a city boy than maybe you, Kaylie. So the idea of if you have to relieve yourself in public, don't do it right by the side of the road, unless you're like a child. And you know, you often see us on the road to way, and there'll be a dad holding up their child, and the child just be, you know, pissing into the wind, like up against the tire or something.

Caley Fretz (4:10)

Done it many times.

Johnny Long (4:12)

Fine, that's the one exception. But you know, if you don't want to be captured on Zwift for all eternity, maybe shuffle into the bushes a bit more.

Caley Fretz (4:21)

I'm going to guess this is the number one, and probably a woman. I've seen worse. I was riding with a friend of mine, I'll leave all names unnamed in this small story. I was riding in front of mine, like in the sort of town trails in Durango, right? You're like never more than about 15, 20 minutes from town and we came around a corner. Actually, I wasn't here for this. My friend was telling me this story. Came around a corner and there was a woman just popping a squat in the middle of the trail.