The ~NWesterly wind outside was quite strong this afternoon outdoors in Southampton, a great asset if a tailwind on the flat and downhill, but brutal when a headwind. For example, I only reached ~21mph freewheeling down Woodmill Lane earlier between hill climbs due to the headwind, when ~30mph is very possible even without a tailwind.

Zwift does not emulate wind as far as I’m aware.

I cannot recall if it’s OneLap or VirtuGO, which I’ve yet to ride but have the installs ready to play, but at least one of them does emulate wind IIRC.

So i’ve had my first go on zwift this week, someone brought there setup in, very addictive. Had a potter round london yesterday work mates supprised i did a good time up box hill.

I was riding as someone lighter than me but the power figures were apparently good for our little group, but as above told them i have to lug 6’6″ and 100+kg up hills.

Did a race today (road to ruin course 13.10) was hard work and fluffed up the sprint at the end. But interesting on trying to work out some sort of stratergy. One plus the intervals on the turbo helped at heart rate was pretty stable.

Now how to justify a computer just to sit in the garage and “play cycling”.

Well that’s the CVR season over. It was a tough one last night and the first time I’ve ridden Road to Ruins since I lost a fair bit of weight. I’d done an uncharacteristic amount of prep checking out the course, all i could think from looking at the profile was that it can’t be as hard as I remember!

The race itself was all a bit weird, the A bracket was already sealed up by one of the CVR guys (Casey Schummmmmmm) so the fast guys were having a bit of fun bursting off the front and seeing who chased.

I was reasonably well warmed up and made it up the first climb pretty much unscathed, no other B riders had gone off the front so just decided to sit with the main group and see how thing unfolded. I was quite surprised to see that we mopped up the break before the second ‘climb’. The guy whos second in the A bracket kicked at the bottom of the climb and nobody followed, i knew that it wasn’t as steep which suits me and I also had nothing to lose as I’d already dropped 2 races so let him get 2-3 seconds on the group then sprinted after him. We both got away for about 10 mins, my first ever little breakaway 😀

We got mopped up eventually and with about 12k to go I followed another A break and just couldn’t hang on. The B’s I was racing were chasing but about 15 seconds behind with ~6k to go. I really didn’t think I was going to make it but none of the A’s were interested in chasing me down and I was no ~20 seconds behind the leaders, maybe I couldn’t make this stick, but I could certainly make them work for it. My rule of thumb when a fast group is chasing me in about 10 seconds/km but somehow I was slowly but surely extending that time out. I was suffering pretty hard there though at over 5w/kg and just trying to hold on. My heart rate hadn’t dropped under 180 for quite a while at this point and peaked at 192 (if i push over 190 and I get a strangely pleasant tingling feeling!) but I seemed to be settling into some sort of rhythm of pain and suffering that’s only achievable on a turbo, eyes closed, forehead almost on the handlebars and the neighbors probably wondering if i’ve started running some sort of amateur abattoir in the garage from the noises i’m making. 2.5k to go and i’ve still got 20 seconds, I might just bloody make this, i know it’s a flat run in (yay, prep) so, hammer down and i TT it all the way home, 30 seconds in the end 😀

Good news is…

The TT effort!

Pics not working. Was that the one Kim Little was in??

Ah the 22:00- Casey raced both 😂

Awesome result- well done!!

Gah, bloomin google photos. FTP increased from 341 -> 352, second was was just a graph of red and orange 😀

No Kim Little that I know of, I was racing at 10pm in zone F

Ah yeah, Casey is a bit of a machine from the looks of it, he was up at like 5am his time commentating on the other zones

Holy wattage scaled that is really impressive. Are you going to do the zwift british champs on saturday? I think you would do really well in that.

EDIT:  you were just less than 2 minutes faster than me from my race yesterday and i thought i was going to die at the end. That is a very impressive time and one i am never going to get near.

Holy wattage scaled that is really impressive.

Not until you find out how much he weighs it isn’t.  w/kg is a measure of comparable power, not watts alone.  Care to reveal Scaled?

Haha it’s all there to see in the chub club 😀

Down to 77.8KG this morning (from 85 just before new year)

4.5w/kg – yep, thats impressive, nice one!

Not until you find out how much he weighs it isn’t. w/kg is a measure of comparable power, not watts alone.

Lol! You’re into your w/kg at the mo aren’t you 🤣

You’d have to be pretty chuffing fat for a 352w ftp not to be impressive 🤦🏻‍♂️🤣🤣🤣

For a flat Crit I’d rather have the straight watts at a lower w/kg anyhow!

Without knowing the full picture w/kg is no more comparable than anything else….

You’d have to be pretty chuffing fat for a 352w ftp

I’m saying nothing 🙂

Cheers nemesis. I knew if there was a way the STW crew would know.

I’m saying nothing 

You can say what you want mate, on a flat course nobody will be able to keep up to hear you!

Think I’m about to get DQ’ed but I proper gave it some wellie!

Can’t wait for Dorito turbo to turn up though with 2% power accuracy because I sort of don’t believe my own results…

Got the tracking number and it’s on its way 🙂

Will re-FTP test and decide if I should ditch the C and maybe go back to D… or up to B …

388w C !  LOL. thats insane mate.  I’ll be curious too, with 4.1w/kg you’re a cracking C…. 🙂

388w C ! LOL. thats insane

i know! It can’t be right as out on the roads  or mountain bike I’m very average.

The Dorito of truth will know  🤔🚲👍

Morning people. If it’s any use tiger I got a replacement Direto set up yesterday and went for ride up the mountain. The biggest difference is that 6 or 7 % gradient feel a lot harder. The climb up to the mast is a killer. It simulates 14% max and I’m not sure I could get up with a standard road cassette on!!!.  Really smooth and stable when stood up. I had a Tacx Vortex before and I think that was probably measuring a bit higher power. Like I said the biggest difference is the feeling on the steeper gradients.

I have the trainer feel set at 100% on Zwift. Registered on Zwift power so gonna try a race sometime soon.

Expensive but Halfords have them and with 10% off for British cycling and 3% TopCashback back it comes out at about £650. Hopefully get a couple of hundred for the Vortex too. If anyone wants to try the direto you’re welcome if you are in Yorkshire or passing.

Teamslug – is the direto a vast improvement on the vortex? I have the Tacx flow which is pretty similar to the vortex but i think later this year i am going to upgrade and the direto is on my list.

Yes massively better. A lot smoother. Come over and have a try, I’m off next week.

I’ve never moved the simulation slider above halfway. Can’t see the point in grinding away on a tiny gear up the silly slopes. Halfway on the Dorito lets you know it’s biting on 3/4% gradients and 14% is enough to get you down the block plenty but enough to allow you to maintain a decent cadence if you so wish.

Oh and good going with the racing everyone. Hopefully shake this minor cold that’s holding my ability to suffer back soon.

They’re some mighty fine numbers up there!

You lot are making me want a new turbo though, i’ve only just got this one!

🙂

Get it set up and write a review.

watched the uk champs this morning and it was a very good race. I think 11 riders were in a sprint to the finish whereas the other races generally had a solo winner or very small group of 2 or 3. Luckily for those 11 i wasnt able to race today!!😉

I set the Zwift difficulty at ~85% on my Direto, based on the turbo being able to emulate up to 14% and Zwift hitting 17%.

On the radio tower final climb, it means I’m using my easiest gears.

Don’t understand 85% does that mean you’re getting 15% power for free ??

not really tiger – more that the hills feel a bit easier but your power still is only whatever your body produces and your avatar’s speed is dependent on that (it’s really just like using an easier gear on a hill – you still have to get up it and you’d have to spin faster to achieve the same speed)

For me if I want to grind up a 17% slope like in real life I’ll just run a bigger gear. I’d quite like the ability to spin up them otherwise I’d probably find myself avoiding the radio mast climb.

First race for a month.

4 laps of the Volcano which I’ve not raced on before. Those little hills hurt!

Couldn’t hold the front group after the first time up the Volcano climb and ended up solo for a lap until 3 others caught up. Couple of C’s pulling very hard giving me a hard time to hold on. Last lap wavering on and off the other 2 who were left and just couldn’t hold on for the sprint up to the finish. Had a good go but they wern’t coming back. Winner of our trio was bumped for no HR but should have been an A and the other was a heavy powerhouse and wins flat C’s all the time. We were close to catching a couple more who’d dropped out of the front group. Everyone else ahead held onto the front group.

Disappointed to not hold the front group but new power records for 20mins to 25mins suggest I wasn’t slacking ;0)

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=44766

Right got the Dorito unboxed and set up, just had a quick go, but the race has already started by the time I joined.

I’ve just chucked an old MTB cassette on it (all I had) and it wasn’t working properly. It was jumping as I tried to get the power down, quite distracting, new chain and cassette are on order.

The Dorito is supposed to be 2% accurate on power, which is as good as it gets I think, however it will be nice to know I’m no longer an estimate.

It’s very smooth and instant but I haven’t been up a ‘virtual’ hill yet so not tried that bit.

I can’t quite do a proper comparison yet as my legs are jelly from a 60k hilly MTB ride yesterday but feels a touch harder than my dumb turbo so suspect my 385w FTP will be coming down 🙂

Measurements at the top end are way up so in one short ride I beat all my previous max powers (even with jumping chain) but 20mins plus efforts you can see the estimated difference (although I only rode 15 mins??)

Oh and my sprint times were pretty com parable to most of me previous but 3 secs slower than my fastest.

oh and oh lastly pleased with 1450w now I need to see how much more i can get 🙂

We’ll soon find out then 🙂  Keep us posted buddy.

I’m on a rest day today, legs are tired.

Have my ftp test tonight after the 4wk training workout.  Was previously 214 after a race jumped it up from 160ish.  My 10 minute free ride best effort was around 250 a couple of days ago and that felt quite easy, will see how things go tonight!

Anyone know the best route to get an “accurate” FPT test on, I think it could be slightly exaggerated if i performed the test on a super hilly route.

Have my ftp test tonight after the 4wk training workout.  Was previously 214 after a race jumped it up from 160ish.  My 10 minute free ride best effort was around 250 a couple of days ago and that felt quite easy, will see how things go tonight!

Anyone know the best route to get an “accurate” FPT test on, I think it could be slightly exaggerated if i performed the test on a super hilly route.

Select the FTP tests workout in the starting menu.  This makes the terrain irrelevant so you can just concentrate on putting out the power.  It’ll also give a good warmup ready for the full 20 min test.  The whole workout will take about an hour

Tomlevell – that is a great effort considering you were unfamiliar with the course.

magnetodog – look forward to seeing how the elite fairs on a hilly race, keep the reviews coming.

I have done a lot of zwift racing but this mornings race was one of the hardest/fastest starts i think i have been in. I stupidly did a 20 mile warm up which turned out to be closer to racing pace than warm up because i ended up riding in a group ride where i knew a few riders. The race start involved  me doing close to 400w for 2 minutes just to catch the leaders,it felt like they started ahead of us as catching them was difficult. It turned out it was 5 or so C riders churning out big numbers and A/B just drafting. I caught the group and just hung on and then the climbs just split everyone apart. I ended up in a group of 4 and we were behind the lead group who were all A’s and 1 B. I made a silly mistake on the downhill section and ended up losing the group but i was wilting anyway. I caught 1 guy up on the climbs and ended up with BRONZE. It was a tough race made worse by my stupidly fast warm up which turned out to be the same exact avg speed as the race itself!!!

LOL Blader, men, when will we ever learn from our mistakes 🙂

magnetodog – look forward to seeing how the elite fairs on a hilly race, keep the reviews coming.

hmmmm I’m staying away from hills for a day or two after yesterday, virtual or otherwise

Bloody hell, how long were you out to do all that?!

Get yourself a nice recovery ride booked in. i’m doing the 19:20 2w/kg ride (i think) if i can time the child sleeping/wife out at yoga perfectly.

Smashed out 45 mins this morning and picked up another win, only 11 across all cats in the field though!

Was getting slightly worried about losing my rankings on zwiftrankings, I rarely do a race that is on CVR so jumped on for a Richmond 1 lap.

Start went ok but I didn’t quite make the A group after start insanity, someone made a jump at 5+ to bridge to their group and I tried to go with him but realised it wasn’t happening for me as I was just out of his tow, so settled into group 2.

This seemed to range from 43rd overall to 57th. We were cracking along well, I was doing very little work on the front, but as it was quick I was still up around 172bpm, with my max being 182, I’m ok at 172.

So I sat in there marking the from few for the lap, watching the countdown. We’d caught a few, dropped a few, so I think lead in the group was 39th, down to about 50th at back of our group. Roughly 115 overall.

Coming into the final 1km I was sitting exactly where I wanted to be, in a decent gear and feeling ok. Pace had picked up now and I was 179bpm, time to turn it on, 350m to go I tried and tried, but my man was only just getting out of the saddle with a poor 550w or so. I pulled a few places in and think I ended 42nd on the road.

Happy enough, enjoyed the high intensity workout bit shows again how flat my power is.

Good fun

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=45869

Weeksy – i dont think i will ever learn when it comes to sport and competition. I knew i was meant to be warming up but i just couldnt help myself, i think i need to have a word with myself.

That is very good avg watts for your race though, not sure i could live with that pace.

Tiger that graph looks like a hr monitor attached to a patient in hospital, that is some serious up and down cycling.

Thinking that an 11-28 cassette is the best all rounder for Zwift?

I’ve got an 11-28 on my turbo bike but not tried any others so can’t comment on what is optimal…

I’m just starting an FTP test after doing the 10-12 wk FTP builder. Christmas disrupted it a bit and been a bit slack for the last fortnight, but we’ll see how it goes…!

It’s bloody cold in the garage!