How to ride in WATAKATA — FATRACING virtual races

1. What is WATAKATA

WATAKATA opens at watakata.fatracing.ru — this is a regular page, not a program: you don't need to install anything, you already have an account if you go to FATRACING.

The roads are real. In the game there are 18 rings of Novgorod region according to the maps of the authors of the routes with 53cycling.ru on a scale of 1:1 — from Yuriev (14.2 km) to the Luga Ring 300 (287 km), plus two of our race tracks: the Tsar Grader circle and the Tour de Selishchi. The heights are taken from terrain data, lakes and rivers are from OpenStreetMap, so the ascents and views coincide with what you see live on these roads.

Speed is calculated based on power, gradient, your weight, and resistance: it's harder on an uphill, and you can coast downhill. The ride is recorded and appears in your FATRACING account, just like a regular workout.

2. What you need before starting

You need a computer or an Android phone with up-to-date Chrome, Edge or Brave: access to sensors goes through Web Bluetooth, and it's not in Safari or in any browser on iPhone and iPad. The game will open from Apple, but the trainer won't connect to it.

You need a power source: a smart trainer with Bluetooth FTMS or a Cycling Power / speed-cadence sensor. Without it, the ride won't go — WATAKATA has no mode without equipment, speed is taken from your watts. The heart rate monitor via Bluetooth connects separately and optionally.

Free the trainer from other applications: one device simultaneously sends data to only one program. If the trainer remains connected to a phone or to The 'Indoor Trainer' page. it will not appear on our website, in WATAKATA.

3. Log in via your FATRACING account

Click the round button with your initials at the top right — the "Cyclist Settings" will open — and select "Log in via FATRACING". Login takes place on the main site, after which you return to the game: the site and the game have a common session.

What gives entry: name and avatar in joint races, and weight and FTP are pulled up from your profile — from measurements in the bot, from the rider's card or from the connected Intervals.icu. Any value can be corrected with your hands directly in the settings, the game will not affect your edit.

The main thing is to have the 'Save rides to FATRACING account' switch turned on: without it, the ride will only be saved in the browser. If the indoor trainer is already connected, the login will open in a new tab — this is done on purpose because leaving the page breaks the Bluetooth connection.

4. Connect your indoor trainer and sensors

Open 'My Devices' in the left column and connect one by one: the indoor trainer, heart rate monitor, power meter. The browser will show its device selection window — permission is granted only after your click, the page does not search for sensors itself.

If a separate power meter is connected, its power and cadence are more important than the trainer's. Data older than five seconds is discarded by the game, so a 'stuck' number on the screen will not appear: if the connection is lost, the value will reset.

With an FTMS trainer, ERG mode is available: the game maintains the target interval power for you, allowing you to pedal at a steady cadence. If your model doesn't support control, readings are still displayed — you just adjust the load using gear shifts.

Nothing is found or the connection breaks — the analysis of frequent causes is collected in a separate guide.

5. Select a route

The 'Routes' button opens the 'Where to Go?' window. Routes are organized into groups: bike rides, road, dirt and gravel, MTB, brevets, and races. On the card, you can see the distance, elevation gain, surface, and approximate lap time, so you can choose based on your training goal, not randomly.

Your own track is also suitable: a GPX file from Strava, Garmin, Komoot or scheduler becomes expensive right in the browser and ends up in the "My Tracks" group. The file is not uploaded anywhere — it remains in your browser. An unclosed track game drives back and forth.

The following link leads to the selected route watakata.fatracing.ru/?route=poozerje — it is convenient when we agreed to ride on the same ring.

6. Free ride or workout

In the "Training" block on the bottom left are "Free Ride", "Aerobic base", "Threshold intervals" and "Easy Recovery". You can upload your task with the "Upload .ZWO" — from the designer, from the trainer's plan, or from any service that gives this format.

Interval targets are counted from FTP. Check the "Threshold power" field before starting: with FTP 250 W, the goal of 60% is 150 W, and with FTP 200 W, it is already 120 W. You can collect your task in the training constructor, there also lie ready-made files.

7. Race and controls

Click "Start check—in" - or the space bar, it also pauses. The C key changes the camera, the individual buttons on the bottom right turn on the full screen and take a picture. While the race is going on, the screen of the phone and tablet does not go out: hands are busy driving.

If you minimize the tab, the check—in will pause - this is protection from "driving in the background". The recording is saved every 30 seconds, on pause and at the finish line, and the last 20 races are in "My races" at the bottom right.

The game can be put on the home screen of your phone or tablet: it will open as a separate window without an address bar, like a regular application.

8. What happens after the finish

After 'Finish ride,' the results will open. With saving enabled, the ride goes to your personal account—tab. "Training"; if Strava is connected to the account, the training will be queued to be sent there, and when connected Intervals.icu it will leave and its copy. Keys to these services remain on the website and do not get into the game.

The race can be picked up as a file: .FIT for Strava, Garmin Connect and Intervals.icu or .TCX For services that need XML. Both include time, distance, elevation, power, speed, cadence, heart rate, and course coordinates, so after manual import, the workout will have a map.

The "Snapshot" button saves a frame from the world with a bar: route, distance, time and average power. The system "Share" will open on the phone, and the snapshot will be saved as a picture on the computer. Strava does not accept photos via the API, so the picture is attached to the workout with your hands.

The message about the end of the check—in is not yet a confirmation of sending: if Strava or Intervals are important, check that the training appeared there. The downloaded file remains your backup copy.