I’m off out shortly. I have until 3:10pm riding time. Destination mostly unknown, but will involve a pub at lunchtime. Heading Stoke Row, Wallingford general direction.

Stage 6 is brutal and i didnt expect it at all. I was already tired after a 50 miler yesterday but i  soldiered on. The first half an hour is just pure climbing and a killer at that. I pushed on over the top and ended up in a race with a belgium rider. With 1 mile to go i was slowly dropping him but my legs were screaming but i held out to the end. I actually finished 10th out of 231, i am now exhausted. I have 3 rest days now which i desperatly need, this week i have done 100 outside miles and 40 zwift.

Was supposed to be my first club ride last night and first out door ride in over 6 months. Spent an hour in traffic due to an accident and missed the start and with no idea where they were heading turned back home. Did stage 6 TOW when I got home as was kitted up and it was just about to start.

Most races I have done I have got there early so was a shock when I joined to find over 630 others and I was so far back I couldn’t even see the start line!

We took off and it was like a race with seriously fast pace. I pushed on and jumped from one group to the next. Tool quite a few places up the first few inclines moving up to 120 on hitting the mountain base. Long continuous line of riders stretched out but kept 3.8-4.0 for the duration and crested in 85th place. A group of 5 in front eased off on the top loop and as I cought them I figured I’d have an easier decent with others than solo.

We headed down but no one was taking it easy as I had to push 3+ just to stay with them. We caught a few on the decent and passed at a rate they were unable to join. As they ground levelled either they were playing games or had gone too hard as the pace dropped to 2 to 2.5 and they seemed content to take this to the line. My trainer doesn’t have a high wattage so all out sprint isn’t ideal for me although I prefer that IRL. With this in mind I pushed 3.7 for a few k’s which dropped a few but when I eased off so did the others. Pushed hard up the last hill which left just 3 of us, 2 from original group and one we just picked up on the hill. Again the pace dropped as we neared 1.5k to go. We were being caught by the group that had been formed by the dropped riders so I pushed 3.5 constant until 1k. With no sprint I decided to try and surprise the other 2 with a long dig. With 900 to go I dropped to the back just long enough to wind it up to 6/7 w/kg. As I passed them they were still sat at 3 so I gained 10 then 20 meters at the 700 mark. They had reacted now and were matching my watts, waiting I guessed for the 200 to go before sprinted fully. At 500 I gave it my all and hit 10/11 w/kg and held. With my compact crank I was spinning but holding power. They were now 15 meters behind, 10 meters, 50 to go and they were 5 behind. As we crossed the line we were all together but I thought I had just held out.

I have a glitch at the moment where when the results come up it won’t let me click or scroll so I couldn’t see the result! Luckily I read someone else’s write up and he screen printed the result screen that happened to have me on it.

All 3 of us recorded the exact same time. No separation at all, but it did place me in the middle of them in 78th place.

Happy with this ” not a race” ride 😁

I have a glitch at the moment where when the results come up it won’t let me click or scroll so I couldn’t see the result

I thought it was just me! I go to another window, then back and it’s ok.

There are pages of people reporting this issue on swift help, so hopefully a fix in the next update.

Will try the click on another window thing, thanks

ToW stage 6 here as well.

After last week’s debacle when I hit the wall my goal was to finish without outside assistance.

Started off 319 in it and for once it didn’t seem like a mad start. 97th at the start of the epic Kom in a group of 9. It was a really big group to start but the front of it split off pretty quickly.

At the hill it ended up single file pretty quick. I rode a pretty steady 3.5 to 4 w/kg to the radio tower and then backed off a bit as I was starting to feel it. At the top of the radio tower I was 58th.

I was on my own on the way down when a group of 5 caught me with 10k to go. We caught a couple of other guys as well.  They spat me out with 5k left. I spent that trying to keep the guy 20sec behind me, behind me. Managed that and finished 61st I think. I was almost dry retching at the end.

My ftp even went up to 232 watts so stoked.

I am enjoying everyone’s write ups. Some awesome performances there.

Edit: I was 62nd. It says my average power was 213w so not sure how my ftp has gone up.

Stage 7 here we go (4pm start)… 44.9 miles of zwift pain.

What a disaster!

ToW stage 7 last night. Hottest Saturday of the year, so perfect for riding a turbo trainer in the garage!

I got myself organised in good time, plenty of drinks, a couple of towels and lined up with another 300 or so hardy folk (mostly from the US it seemed).

We rolled out, I barely lifted from the 150w i’d been maintaining during the warm-up, which meant I was healthily in the middle of the pack, watching the whippets disappearing into the distance. 5 minutes gone and already the distance counter was showing less than 70km, ha ha, so easy!

Before I knew it the climb was on us and the lightweights who I’d distanced on the flat started to come past. Don’t go mad, keep the rhythm and keep drinking (by this point not opening the garage door seems like a poor decision), 37mins for the Epic KOM and I hit the radio mast in almost bang on an hour. Down the other side and a group of three formed, we managed to catch another 3 riders on the flat, but as we approached the zig zag climb, my wifes stability ball leapt off the shelf and locked the back wheel. By the time I’d sorted that out I was in a 50 second no-mans-land in both directions. Not a race, so I was happy to TT it.

I had about an hour to do the Epic KOM in reverse smash the descent and sprint to the finish, if I wanted to finish in under three hours, Game on! Hammering down the other side it was starting to look like I wasn’t going to make it, by a minute or two. Get to the sprint through the village and the low battery warning comes up, bound to be enough juice to finish, though I can’t reach the laptop to cancel the message and I’m not stopping! 1.4km to the finish, red light of death and the laptop shuts down, are you kidding! Get off the bike in a massive strop, clean everything up and eat the contents of the fridge. This morning, my daughter who was using the laptop to play Roblox, cheerfully tells me that my cycling game was still on the computer when she turned it on!!!! Another lesson learned.

I’m now looking for the Stage 7 times on the catch-up days, it will give me a chance to pip Weeksy on the full pretzel Strava segment!

Oh man, that’s a good write up!

Did stage 7 tonight after a Sunday lunch down the pub and 3 pints.

It’s a bloody long time on the turbo that!

That’s a bit of a bugger Matt. My iPhone battery has just decided that it will start to die really quickly, and coupled with the fact that someone in the house has put my usb battery pack in a ‘safe place’ which cannot be found, I can’t rely on the companion app either.

Stages 6 and 7 to do next weekend – joy. Timings just didn’t work for me this weekend. Only way to do it next week is Stage 7 on Saturday and Stage 6 on Sunday (v early).

Was out walking this weekend in and around Matlock. Calves and hamstrings are really hurting today, so tonights workout may be interesting. If you are out that way and fancy a pint Sinclair’s Ale house is very nice, and worth the climb up the hill.

Hayfever has properly set in too, grrrr!

I like Zwift but no chance if it’s sunny outside

I like Zwift but no chance if it’s sunny outside

That was pretty much what happened to my stage 6 attempt 😀

Managed to finally ride Stage 7 yesterday evening on the 6pm event.  I had intended to do the 10am and the 2pm one but both times the tv decided it would stop working about 15 minutes into the event.

After setting up the emergency monitor and updating Zwift on the MacBook I finally got underway, driving hard to the Epic KOM climb knowing I would end up sitting at my own pace and watch everyone else slowly overtake I only managed to lose about 80 places on the first climb which was a bonus.  I have discovered on these events that not a lot of people work on the descents, couple that to my above average weight the descent from the Radio tower allowed me to get some proper overtaking done and close time gaps that would otherwise be impossible.

I ended up with another rider who lost interest in working on the flats so come the reverse epic climb I was over taken by him again as I laboured up the hill and it was a fairly solitary affair until the end.  5 minutes faster than last time I attempted the Pretzel 2 hours 34 minutes at 260 watts average which given the temperatures I was pretty happy with.

My legs hurt today, eating the contents of my fridge has done nothing for the hunger either.

It’s pissing down here so looks like i’m going to be streaming on CVR again tonight, not sure the world needs to see me sweating in bibshorts but i need all the points I can get today.

Long fast drag followed by Leith hill then box hill shortly after. I’m just going to have to sit in the bunch and keep my powder dry which isn’t always easy to do when you know that you’re strongest on the flat.  The course would be much better for me if it were the other way round!

Did the 5:10 WBR 2 lap London flat.

All went swimmingly until the last 3km, then approaching the underpass I was toast. Exiting the underpass and everyone was 4+ and I threw my hand in and cruised the last 2km.

Just didn’t have a finish in me today.

Tired.

Beer and champions league time!

Does anyone else have make up rides to do on TdW? I’ve got stage 6 to do, after doing the pretzel on Sunday it seems daft to not do one last little stage!

Stage 6 as well to make up. I’m thinking I might try Saturday at 8:50am to get it over with early.

Bit windy here so……

WBR 4 Laps Classique Flat Race (26.9km/16.7mi)

Today 13:25

👍

Stages 6 and 7 for me. Have to look at times to see what works with the family.

I’m now on rest/chill week for the duration, i think they call it ‘tapering’ i just call it IRRITATING !

I’m now on rest/chill week for the duration, i think they call it ‘tapering’ i just call it IRRITATING !

Might be there Sunday 🙂 Got the fast bike out of the loft and a couple of decent laps of Swinley have given ‘encouragement’

Might be there Sunday  Got the fast bike out of the loft and a couple of decent laps of Swinley have given ‘encouragement’

That’s just what i need… LOL !

Team STW bagged another win last night and i’m beginning to really doubt the numbers coming out of my turbo. On the one hand, i’m not that fast, on the other there has been a fairly steady improvement over the winter. Who knows, i dont have an independent PM and seems I don’t know anyone with one either so i’ll just have to suck it up.

Back to the race, London Triple Loop and we completed it in just just! over an hour. I’d really have liked to get it under but we played some cat and mouse at the end, but lets start at the beginning. I don’t like this course, Leith hill is a nightmare for me, my 3 main rivals are all 59KG to my 76.

It was all quiet for the first loop on the flat, I’d promised myself that I wouldn’t go steaming off the front and try and form a breakaway.before the hills but off i went a few times with no joy (bloody obviously). My zone goes off with all the groups together so we were a big bunch at the bottom of Leith and I felt pretty good on the lower 5% slopes, there were a fair few attacks at 7+ w/kg from the whippets which meant some big efforts from me. On the steeps we ended up with a bunch of 4, we dropped my buddy Frank (from racing B last season) so there was me, one team ODz and two Draft riders, not the ideal situation when they’re all 59kg and there’s still box to go…

I managed to just about hang with them up most of the way up box then one of the Draft riders had a mechanical, offered to wait for him as we had a decent gap to the next big group although we did get caught by a small group that we’d dropped on the last climb with the faffing about.

All last year i’d got dropped on the ramp at the top of the hill, this time i kicked and dropped someone else! Just me and Leo from Draft went over the top together, no bloody way was i working on the down, I think he knew I had him in a sprint so was trying to keep us both at 4+, not happening buddy 😀 I just sat on his wheel until the escalator ramp where i kicked on again and got about 5 seconds on him. I didn’t have another couple of minutes of 6+ in me which is what he was putting out while he was catching me. I decided to play it safe, recover for a minute then get ready for the sprint.

Bit of cat and mouse for the last 2k, sat behind him and wound it up for the little dip and he didnt chase. HR hit 190 at the end and i was a a little bit sick in my mouth :$ wobbling mess for about the next half an hour as well.

Hahahaha, you’re awesome mate ! Congratulations.

Whether your numbers are real or not, doesn’t matter… .they’re what you have and what you work with 🙂

A mechanical?

Scaled – doesnt matter what your numbers because what you do know is that they are better than the rest in the race!

i did Surrey Hills this morning for the first time ever, safe to say i wont be doing that again. It is a truly hateful course, i did get SILVER but i think there were only 5 of us. Note to self to always check the profile of the race.

Hopped onto Zwift last night for a race, after chatting with coach Shutler who kindly provided some googled advice, I was armed with 50g of carbs. 🙂

Chose the KISS race at 8:05pm;

No big hitters meant it was an 6x London Classic absolute crit simulator. The curve balls were the “hill” and passing the other bunches, had to be really careful you weren’t following a C/D wheel as they swamped us right until the small hill. My intention was to be as lazy as possible and use my 50g of carbs carefully, unfortunately I followed a duff wheel on the second lap? up the hill then had to bridge to front pack. Meant I burned up some of my legs for the sprint. But I think with a PU (I didn’t get a single one in the last two laps) and more concentration I could have been on the podium?! I ended up with 8th though.

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=56171

Cracking result that nath, how’s the low carb coming along now?

That’s quite some HR you had going there 😀

Thanks, bit miffed I was only 1.7s from 1st 😆

LCHF is working for my stomach, energy levels and general happiness. However it’s killed my top end cycling and my HR is wildly up on what I’m used to (around +10/15). Starting to experiment with 50g carbs 30 mins before a race to see if I can revive some top end. It’s a bit disconcerting seeing my HR at 180 just keeping with the bunch where normally it was 160-170.

KISS TT tonight if I get back in time to see where I’m at under my own steam.

Just did the KISS TT, longer than expected as I didn’t read the description properly. Cartwright was on the start line so I knew that 1st place was gone, unless he had a mechanical 😆

Music on, head down and pedal was the tactic. Result was 3rd and an FTP boost from 300w to 310w @71kg. There was loads more starters than the results show?! https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=56376&sid=b52d246db4186f661b5af0c5e4434fe4

Also with various updates etc I decided to track my Tacx Vortex power against my 4iiii (which matched a stages). The results:

Vortex – 333w average- https://www.strava.com/activities/1531648233

Power 327w average (chop the end off) – https://www.strava.com/activities/1531621907

Pretty damn close!

Did the Pack social ride on the greatest London loop reverse which was the first one I had done in ages. About 150 in it. For the first 5k everyone stayed together but once we hit Keith hill gaps started to appear.

It did not help the ride leader had “sweeper” in his name. He was at the back most of the way and asking people to stay with the leader. I could not figure out for the first half of the race where the leader was until I realised it was him.

The ride was advertised as a 2-2.2 w/kg which has normally meant about 2.5-2.7 for me but today that seemed about right. I even had to slow down at times and at one point turned the fan off as I was getting cold!

I finished in a group of 75-100 or so with the rest having gone off the front at various stages. It turned out to be an hours ride and I didn’t have time for the after party back up Keith hill. All in all a nice recovery ride.

PS I normally read this thread on my phone. At one point it was up to page 220 or so and then changed to page 199. Now it is now back up to page 224. Weird.

Quick 2 lap race on the Flat to get the legs moving.. 21:05 WBR

BY GOD IT WAS TOUGH!! – Lead group went off at a brutal pace and just didn’t calm down. Held on for 1.5 laps but with about 10km to go the elastic broke and there was no 2nd group for about 1m:30s so individual TT to the end. Tried to 2up with another B rider but he wasn’t having any of it so let him go..

Anyway no my greatest race, suffering a bit with Hayfever asthma at the moment…cough cough.. send me a jiffy bag…

Anyone else having trouble finding the tour of watopia events on the companion app? I am using iOS and they don’t seem to be there.

Ok scratch that they have appeared

Decision time for today.. Had yesterday off as a rest day, also have tomorrow off as rest before Checkendon XC on Sunday. So today i’ve got a ride.. The rain has destroyed any chance i had of an outside pootle so it’s onto Watopia for today… Do i do the 10:30 volcano CCW race, or will that kill my legs… it’s mostly flat with just the small kicker on the CCW, but obviously will be quite an intense ride for a chunk of it.. But it’s all good training if i have tomorrow as resting ?

Right, zwift can stick stage 7 up its arse.

Decided to knock out stage 7 again today on one of the catch-ups.Took my daughter swimming, so got to the start line with 12 seconds to spare.

There were only 80 or so brave souls today and half of them, me included, made a very gentle start. Once we got to the Epic KOM I made a conscious decision to spin an easier gear, about 10 rpm quicker than normal. That seemed to work for me and I set a new PB on the KOM and hit the radio mast about 3:30 quicker than last weekend.

A quick blast down the other side and over the hill, i was in TT mode flying along (by my standards). Closing in on the start/finish line by the beach and zwift crashes, never to recover. Not quite as bad as a cock-up after three hours, but I can take a hint.

Probably just going to use zwift for high intensity stuff, when I’m looking after my daughter. Longer stuff, I’ll do IRL!

Matt

Had a go at WBR 3 laps volcano flat this evening. Jumped in A with Nath and after the brutal start, was sitting pretty in the bunch with HR right back at 160. Out of the tunnel and still hanging in there.

The pace ramped up in the lead up to the climb before the Italian village. 400w became 600 as we climbed and I tried not to surge over the top of the leaders.

Sadly, I timed it wrong and lost watts (SNAP only- no PM) so instead of rolling nicely into the bunch each time, a small gap appeared. That turned into a big one and at 35mph down the other side was impossible to close. Soon I was fumbling for my PU at 184bpm and couldn’t get back on. Ah well, see ya Nath 🤣🤣

I waited for some B’s and joined a bunch of five. Into lap two and I tried a few attacks. Efforts that would launch me well clear in real life got me nowhere and my hopes for some quality TSS were fading.

The battle for the lead was playing out in real time via WhatsApp thanks to Joe and I felt quite sad that I’d dropped out so foolishly.

Anyway, bell lap and time to get something out of the session. I decided to go with 1 mile left- simulating a Hillingdon flier.

Attacks started before that and I matched them all no probs. Hitting the bridge-tunnel from the volcano, I kept the gas on and slowly pulled out a lead. 420,480, 500w and a gap opened up. I was ready to blow as I crested the jucnction and had to dig deep to keep the watts going.

The gap was 35m and started to close. The central govener saw the 200m to go sign and let me have a bit more sugar to finish the job. At 15m, the gap held steady and I crossed the line pretty pleased with 470w average for the final mile.

Got 7th A, three places behind Nath. But absolutely sick that I dropped out so stupidly.

Nath- amazing how fast your fitness has returned. You should be well pleased 👍🏻👍🏻

A rainy day so I decided to tackle the AdZ for the first time. So I had some company I did ToW stage 3. What I didn’t realise was that was going to add another 9k on. Music on and I was ready to go.

31 at the start and I settled in to a group of 8 after the first couple of k. The pace wasn’t on which I figured was because everyone knew what was coming up. 8 became 3 on the climb to the jungle and then 2 at the start of the alps climb. After a few hundred metres I was on my own when the guy I was with fell behind. After the first couple of way points I was a minute ahead of the next guy and a minute and a half behind the bloke in front of me and 7th overall.

Then I realised I was catching the guy in front quite dramatically and actually caught him halfway up. He had two goes at dropping me but I got back on. Then he tried a third time and the elastic snapped.

Worked reasonably hard to the finish but in hindsight probably treated the climb with a bit too much respect. Finished 7th in 81min and did the AdZ in 53:41. Also got a small ftp increase to 238w although I do think it’s not that realistic doing it on a climb.

Good fun though.

Had a couple of hours free so today I jumped on the 3 laps jungle. Having played 90 mins footy yesterday the legs were feeling heavy so wasn’t hoping for much but think this is my favourite route.

Only managed 1.2 mile warm up so struggled with the start but managed to just catch the main first group. Big group of A and B riders hit the first climb up to the bridge on the lead in but as the A’s hit 7w+ the 5 of them rode away by the top gaining around 15 seconds. I managed to hold onto a group of 5 B’s and we pulled away from the rest over the next mile or so.

As we hit the jungle we were working well and holding around 3.5/4.0w with a gap of 40 secs to the A’s and 60 back to the pack. As we pushed on we picked up a dropped A rider and settled into a steady tempo with 6 riders. On the long climb out the A rider pushed 5w but we all held on. As the ride went on the pace dropped but as I prefer a fast steady race to the surging that happened on every climb I pushed the front for a while at around 4w hoping it would smooth out and stop any attacks. As soon as I eased off a couple of the B’s hit the next hill hard. I took a while to react and had to close the gap which was increasing. As we went over the wooden bridge I had to give it everything on the up side to get back in contact, hoping they wouldn’t push on over the top. Thankfully they didn’t and I could grab a breather. Last half of last lap the pace dropped again which let me lower my heart rate. I had an aero power up from the start and planned to use about 500 out but as we hit the 1km mark the other 5 hit theirs and took off. I knew i couldnt sprint for that long so upped the pace to 7wk to try and stay in contact and hit the aero at 800. I was last out of the group as it was all strung out, but they weren’t leaving me. I passed one then two and closed on 3 and 4 just as their power ups ran out. At 250 I began my sprint and passed the last remaining group member (the A I think) with 150 to go. I was done in but could see I had 15m and crossed the line 1 sec ahead for the B win and 5th overall.

I had the page number thing last week as well. Was 199 one day then 122 the next but with no new posts.

Anyone racing Monday evening (uk)? Would  be good to ride with some of you.