The Equalizer Race: Lisa’s Raid on Cade

The fast guys may not like it, but for everyone else, you can’t top an Equalizer Ride on Cade …. the great leveller.

DOWNLOAD CADE FOR FREE HERE AND GET AHEAD OF THE PACK

West London VR are running Monday evening test races on Cade, it’s currently free but subscriptions will be required in the near future, so get in and try it now.

Cade is neither Zwift, nor RGT but will eventually overlap both and be a serious player in the online cycling market. But it has a whole load of its own characteristics and personality too, and we would pick out cornering and Equlaized Races as highlights for us so far.

We are currently running our races on a ‘no crash’ model whilst riders discover this exciting new platform, but we’d recommend you do a few solo rides to master it, it is actually quite good fun.

However, where our races are catching people’s imagination is the Equalizer. Basically, every rider sets to the ProPower setting and, in effect, power is equalised and effort in what wins you the race. You should have seen Lisa Snell flying around the course on Monday 7th November to win convincingly! Well done Lisa.

This is about as good as handicap racing gets and makes for thrilling races. Give it a go on Monday 14th November at 7.30pm on Cade

You can see the Cade dashboard in its current incaranation. It will develop more, it is in its early stages which is why we are working with Cade on theseTest Races …. why not join in?

Cade hasd audio and you can choose who you speak to, maybe just your team, or maybe everyone in the race. As you can see, you can also put your image on screen. At the centre bottom you can see the speedometer as we approach the corner. The speed in slightly in the red zone at 45.4kph and the rider will crash on the corner unless they slow down. There are two ways to slow down, firstly stop pedaling, and secondly press your laptop Spacebar which are your brakes. Furthermore the left and right arrow keys allow you to move right and left in order to take the outside line on a bend. This is way above anything that Zwift has (remember cornering on Zwift is a bit of a joke really) and ups the skill factor from RGT’s automatic breaking. At first we found crashing a bit frustrating but we now think it adds a lot to the experience.

DOWNLOAD CADE FOR FREE HERE AND GET AHEAD OF THE PACK

Cade is at the Beta Test stage, so will get even better, but it already looks set to overtake Zwift and RGT for features, yet all in one package and half the price of Zwift. Not quite perfect yet perhaps, but why not ride it whilst it’s free? It will be around £65 per year once they start charging. We are giving feedback to Cade and are finding that they are already dealing with most things we cite, or are very responsive.

We’ve had a go, there are all sorts of ‘maps’ (routes) with varying scenery, some fantasical like Zwift, other stuff more realistc. It can brake and steer, albeit from a computer keyboard which won’t suit every set-up. You can crash too, taking bends too fast for example, but this can be switched off. It has a feature that can equalise races, a sort of handicap, where the strongest riders will need extra watts, in other words a race strictly on effort, regardless of you ability. You can communicate in-race (no Discord needed) and there is loads more we haven’t even tried yet. The graphics are generally good, although avatars are being upgraded, which sounds about right to us.

Obviously there’s a bit of a learning curve on screen, but why not try it for free now?

FIFTH TEST EVENT FROM WEST LONDON VR MONDAY 14th NOVEMBER 7.30pm UK Time

To join the ride on Monday at 7.30pm, sign up for Cade now (It is currently free to test). Our test race is 12km long, set in in countryside and we’ve set it up with no wind this week. Riders will be uncrashable (ie you can’t crash during the race) and you should SET YOUR POWER TO PRO POWER WHEN JOINING THE RACE to equalise everyone’s power

Go to activities, then choose scheduled and you should see the race there. Also, search for the West London VR group on Cade, so that you will be invited to future races.

In the ‘Game UI’ settings we recommend that you switch off scoreboard and switch on the lap distance option. Pro Power is what we will be riding in this particular race and there is a three minute warm up just before the start that delivers you to the start on time. You can set the difficulty low in the warm up. The warm up is to take away the idleness of sitting in the pen before the start. When you join on Monday evening, you need to go into the ‘LOBBY’ before the race. Set your audio to ‘Playlist’ so that you can chat to other riders.