Well that was interesting as a first go. Had a go at the Primal Europe Crit. Did the sprint at the beginning, went off the front straight away quickly slowed down to wait for the rest (was very tempting to keep going), then pootled along in the front group thinking this is easy. Then all hell broke loose, before I knew what was happening they were gone. Rode with a couple of other guys but legs failed in last few km probably due to my failed efforts chasing the front group. Need to pay attention more. Haven’t quite got my head around the lag between putting effort in and how the game responds.

unlucky daz – I do wonder sometimes if your internet speed has an effect on this. I’m clearly* the fastest rider out there but every now & then I drop a few metres instantly and I wonder if it’s a signal dropout

Beyond that, yeah, stay mid-to-front of the pack (and maybe try view number 8 or whatever, the one that shows the bunch from above)

*not all that clearly. terms and conditions apply

My internet can be a bit flaky, (half way up a hill at the end of a long copper wire) but think it was just me not responding quick enough. Interesting though, much like real life, when the elastic breaks and you get dropped, it’s very hard to get back. I guess there’s something in the drafting physics after all. The speeds are way off though. I’ve never got anywhere near a 39kph average over 30km on the road.

Well, this is a much quieter experience so far

What’s that mate?

The chain

It’s so quiet 🙂

My team race is at 13;08 so when do you think is the best time to eat? I pretty much do all my riding in a morning so its almost always fasted riding.

It’s so quiet

you did put it back on, yeah ?

so when do you think is the best time to eat?

All the time! Hence why I’m the fat bloke in all races!

you did put it back on, yeah ?

LOL

Frankly my mechanic skills are less of a worry than the effect of last nights gin.

Not sure I’ll make the last 30km of this group ride

I think that in large groups , your power gets uploaded and processed by zwift and returned to you … By the time iy does it it adds delay and ends up with large jumps in adjustments.

The speeds are way off though. I’ve never got anywhere near a 39kph average over 30km on the road.

I think it’s probably pretty accurate, although in the game you’ve got a perfect aero profile, perfect road surface, no traffic/junctions and (crucially I think!) no wind.

blader1611

Nathb – good luck for tomorrow, i hope i dont see you on the course as that will mean you have apped us. I am in B race so setting off 8 mins after you.

crosshair
Yeah good luck Nath! Jesper and Tim are commentating it on FB live @ Cyclinghubtv so get plenty of airtime

Thanks guys, but I pulled out – I’m not physically able to cycle properly at the moment, with two full A teams I didn’t want to take up space.

Hopefully be back racing soon once my body is used to using fat as a fuel source.

Good luck blader!!!

Nathb – thats a shame, hope you get better soon.

I assume the A race will be streamed but are any of the others races being streamed/commentated on?

It looks like my team is made up of misfits as we all seem to be ill at the minute, all of us have a cold and we were meant to be the strongest of our 2 teams. I think its going to be tough going today as that figure 8 course doesnt have much in the way of recovery sections from some quite big efforts. I did it the other day in about 43 mins and it was super tough so having to do it 3 times is going to be a challenge.

Hopefully be back racing soon once my body is used to using fat as a fuel source.

What’s this all about then Nath?

BAck out on the Parkwood today. It was not a lot above freezing and the legs were tired from yesterday at Afan, but i jumped on the bike and headed out. First thing i noticed was how amazing the latex/whatever gloves were for keeping my hands warm. I had winterish gloves on but even with them i usually get freezing early on and sometimes you don’t come back from it and stay cold, but the gloves were exceptional at keeping me warm. 35km in i was in the middle of no-where and having a nice lovely sunny jaunt, but the feet were feeling the cold, so i headed back towards home.
Finished off at 53km for the ride which was decent, no super speed sections, but i was on a 29er not the road bike and it was a wintery day, not really a day for quick ones.

Well that didnt go very well. We had one team member snap his rear gear cable on first lap and another had a power cut at his house.
I signed in with 15mins to go and was right at the back of the field (243 in B!) so the start was painful as hell to get to the front group. It was nearly 500w for a long period and then the pace seemed to settle at about 280w which isnt really helpful for recovery. I stuck with the group for about half a lap but it was too much and i slid back to the second group. At least it made me cough up about half a pound of phlegm which helped me breath easier (stupid cold). Stuck with this group for the entire race and mopped up quite a few other groups. I had 1 team member with me which helped with morale and we ended up about 70th out of 243. It was 2hr 10m which is my longest on zwift by an hour and it was so cold i only had the fan on low setting. I might have hung on if i didnt have a cold but it was pretty rapid. Shattered now and my lungs are a bit sore from coughing and the cold air but overall i enjoyed it and a sense of pride as well for being one of the highest place riders for my team.

Great work that man

Nice one 🙂

well done blader !

so cold i only had the fan on low setting

I was on the turbo this morning – had a warm air fan blowing on me as well as the 2 normal fans
Not sure it was better but it felt as though it was

Bought a new 2240 today to replace the old one, will see you out there soon…..blader, those are some impressive numbers!

Well done – over 2hrs on the turbo sounds like an awful thing.

https://zwiftblog.com/whats-going-on-with-zwiftpower-com/

FYI race fans 🙂

Eemy – it was a bit painful on the backside but happily due to concentrating so much the race went quite quickly. Absolutely no way could i do that without it being a race, its just too long.
I think i finished 7 minutes behind the winner which is ok considering i wasnt 100% but i would have liked to have been a little closer. I finished in 2hr11m,avg 245w (257w weighted),3.3w/kg and 2160 calories burned. My HR avg was 148 and max 173 but my monitor is pants so i reckon they are inaccurate.
My legs feel like they are about to cramp when i go down stairs, this is a sure sign i am ready now for a curry that i am sure will surpass the 2160 calories burned.

Hi guys been reading this thread due to thinking about joining zwift for winter and other training I.e when time is short and really need to keep legs and hart pumping. WEEKSY I see you are also using MTB I am purely mtb(fatbike) but have a old mtb on hybrid wheels will this be ok to use I have a dumb turbo so am looking at getting speed and cadence Sencer will I need Ant+ or can I use Bluetooth on my laptop to join zwift .

And dose it help with riding trails ,climbing and endurance

Cheers guys

And dose it help with riding trails ,climbing and endurance

Well I’ve only been doing it a week and yesterday I went out on my usual road loop. Legs felt terrible but I managed to get a PR on an uphill segment that I’ve ridden over a 100 times in the last 3 years without even trying. No idea if that was a result of zwifting (only a week so probably not) but who knows? Also lost just under 2kg in weight so that might explain it.

I have watched a few youtube videos of the Team Worlds race and i was quite surprised at the level the teams were going to win the race. It seems they were taking it very seriously indeed and most were quite young riders. I have re-evaluated my effort and decided 70th wasnt that bad a result after all considering i am a podgy middle aged man with a stinking cold. However it was interesting to see the last 2 miles of the race which was incredibly fast and a lot of riders using PU very early, i guess they were just trying to stay in touch for the last mile. I think team ODZ may have won it but cant find final results anywhere.

So the Kiss 100km (112 actually) was an exercise in pain I’ve rarely encountered before. The hammer went down very early, didn’t try to stay with the front group and instead tried to maintain a steady 250w effort. Almost worked but died towards the end. Interesting that some riders were placed much higher but had similar average power figures. I guess that’s just being better at judging the amount of effort to stay in a group and better drafting?

B Race

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=28272

C race

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=28274

D race

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=28276

A race

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=28073

Yeah DAZH its all about the group and drafting. Well done though that is a brilliant effort, having done 90km yesterday i doff my cap to you for doing a century,its hard work.

Crosshair – it doesnt say who the winning team is though.

That’s a good point 😀

Least points win, starting from 1 for first isn’t it? I guess Tam is working them out at the mo.

Top three team riders from each race so I’d say ODZ and Team Poland both have 18 points right??

Get your spreadsheet whirring Nath 😉

In for the WBR 1 lapper in 5 mins. I really wish there was another race I could have entered instead.

Interesting one today. I’ve got a window of opportunity today so jumped on the App to see what’s about. WBR 4 lapper at 12.30. Perfect.

I then noticed its split start times, 1 min intervals. Which means in reality the C group won’t be hanging with the A or B riders which is usual. But more thinking how this will play out in rankings points. You’d assume with 1 min deficit from the B group we’ll automatically be finishing behind all but a few if any at all.

So would it be better to try and hang with the B guys and see if even the stragglers hold off the C guys and take more ranking points? Or stick in C which is my true current cat and just forget the rankings but fight for best C position I can?

Decision time!

Where do you get these ranking points, Weeksy?

I’m assuming that the A’s go off first, in which case unless there’s talk on the start line about trying to catch the B’s it’s probably best to just hang with the Cs and save yourself for racking your own cat. 4 Lapper on london is only 17 miles, thats only about 40 mins of racing to make up a minute…

http://zwiftrankings.com/vcr/client/home

Yup ABCD in that order. It used to be that way with split starts for ages