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Oh and if you aren't on ZP join up and if you are on ZP and are affiliated to a team then join the STW team. Go onto your ZP profile, select the race we have just taken part in and click on the STW icon next to one of us. That will take you to the team page where you can join.
This is one way of showing Zwift how active the community is and help us in getting more recognition!
Joined STW on ZP.
Oddly also looking forward to the next series!
Thanks @robbo1234biking for organising the series I really enjoyed it, the discusison on here before and after really makes the series something special.
For me the race last night was a total disaster, I've been feeling my fitness and motivation ebbing away the last few weeks, and I've really noticed a loss of power on the hills, I lost a fair bit of time last week, but this week I was hoping I could dig deep and save the series for me, despite what my numbers where saying. Sadly it wasn't to be, I struggled from the start, just managing to hang on to the front group but kept falling off the back and having to work to get back on, everytime I joined the group again, someone would put in an effort on the front and I'd be off again. I finally got dropped toward the end of the Titans grove section. Tried to keep the power reasonable, hoping I'd feel better later on and wouldn't lose too much time, but my trying to hold 260w rapidly became 250 then 240, about a mile into the epic KOM I was struggling to hold 220w and was slowly getting passed by rider after rider, managed to save a little bit of dignity for the last mile by having a little dig, but even that was a depressingly weak effort. Think I'm going to do the Thursday TTT then take somem time off, come up with some kind of a training plan, do a ramp test and reset my numbers and go from there. I think I've been pushing my luck with a lack of base miles this year, and it's caught up with me. Brilliant effort by so many riders and it's been great to see so many people improve week on week, even if I haven't been one of them 🙂
Once again thanks robbo, hopefuly be back in the next series (albeit with some considerably lower numbers)
Well, normally I'd post a bit more after the race, but was pretty shot with cramping legs and was just sooo tired!!
What a brilliant race, and end to a great series!
bravo the winners, and Paino (who surely MUST be an A category now??) for snatching the series via the sprints...well played!
I went into this race VERY poorly prepped...the GF and I had had a hectic weekend, so felt like celebrating it being over on Monday eve...eek!! He,ce, little sleep adn excess boozing really aren't good race prep AT ALL! In teh warm up, my HR was pounding, and I was worried I would blow up at 200watts!! But..I took it slowly, and reacostomed myself to the zwift scene 😉
The race itself went as good as I'd have hoped... My one 'desire' was almost identical to Brian's pre race breif.. I HAD to stay with the front lot at least until the foot of the climb.. the rollers were pushing my HR really early on..I was pretty much at 'race max' or 178 from the off! We stayed as a tight lead group through titan's grove, and even remained a good bunch in teh Grove KOM... cruising to the foot of the Epic was a decent pace and wattage. From the very start Niixie and Phil and Paino had made a break, and I knew I could push for a bit but would literally DIE, so I kept to my tactic of floating around FTP..slow and steady etc etc.. Kirky and I were together for a bit whilst Ben zoomed through, but I guess he too found his pace and we split... I was pretty much bang in teh middle of Phil and Kirky most of the way up.. I was eyeing up Nixie's lead, as he had (I think) 30 seconds on my, so for the most part it was 23..24seconds.. YES... but then towards the end he gave a push that I couldn't, and was about 41 seconds ahead of my time...
Was happy to have survived, and crossed the line 5th, but of course the hanidcaps pushed me waaay back...
Well done everyone who's pushed their FTP up further...
I've actually dropped a kg, so will need to amend my zwift data and handicap time..will see what Xmas brings!!
DrP
Well done everyone who’s pushed their FTP up further…
Bugger, it turns out my FTP is 10w below what I thought it was. I seem to have done the opposite to golfers who fiddle their handicap to make it easier to win. 🙂
@giggsmaster - I wasn't teasing, having been dropped in Titan's Grove I'd made up a chunk of time on you and Robbo but then was running out of power/legs to pull away so we just had that little gap for ages.
and Paino (who surely MUST be an A category now??)
@DrP just refreshed ZP this morning. My 3W FTP rise has put me into B ‘almost A’ cat. The other thing these series are doing is helping me keep the weight off. Generally I’m somewhere between 78-82kg, this has been great to keep me constantly at the lower end, however another 1kg loss is going to put me well into A cat (over 4.1w/kg)
One question I have from last night-at what point does any draft benefit cease? Is it determined by speed or gradient?
I reckon, based on the pretty decent zwift physics, is that it'd be speed. I mean, there's no headwind, so really there's little draft to be gained going uphill at 15kmh..?
DrP
Paino, it’s finishing returns the slower and steeper it gets.
Apparently drafting somebody doing 330w saves in the region of 3% so not an awful lot compared to 35/45% on a descent.
https://zwiftinsider.com/draft-savings/
Thanks to @trolo for pushing me hard in that race! At the start I didn't get into the top group, but ended up in a nice group of about 6 of us that stuck together really until the Epic KOM where we fragmented. I was chasing @trolo and @GarryLarger for ages up the climb with them being agonisingly close at 2 seconds ahead that took me an age to make up. I then had an epic battle with @trolo in the last 5 miles playing a bit of cat and mouse. Thought I might have been done when @trolo pulled out a feather PU 0.3 miles from the end, but I just went for it and managed to reel him back in and overtake to finish ahead. The banner at the top did catch me out for a second, but I quickly realised we had to continue to the blue banner.
I managed to go up a couple of places in the points rankings into the top 10 and overtake @andeh in the GC so very happy with that.
Thanks @robbo1234biking for organising this series, it's been really fun. From not having done a Zwift race before until 2 months ago, I have learned a lot that will help in the next series and my FTP has increased over the 6 races.
I had a good time on the climb until I got to the castle. Straightliner and Giggsmaster both overtook me here and I lost all momementum. I seem to do OK when the gradient is constant but when it is variable (like just after the castle or after the tunnel) I seem to lose focus/struggle to keep the power up. I ended up at least a minute behind them for the second half and in no mans land so I struggled to keep a pace up and ended up 1min 30secs of my PB up there. Its difficult when you are on your own as you don't have someone to push you.
That was tough (as always - probably need to stop starting my comments with that as it has been a given throughout both series). Another race where I wasn't quite 'at the races' compared to earlier in the year although felt better than last week. Tried to stau with the lead group, but lost them on the Titans Grove climb and then got caught by a couple of guys on the descent. Start of the KOM, found a rythm and then started to pick of a few. Then spent a few km in a titantic battle with @savoyad - Every time I thought he'd cracked he kept bouncing back - but at the end pulled away to finish on my own (so no finish line sprint dramas) a good distance behind @kirky72 who I never really looked like catching despite some vague hopes further down the climb.
On another note - a genuine question - my drop in performance has been sudden a quite alarming. I held a very steady FTP of 323W throughout the summer and even into and through October but it seems like almost overnight in November this has dropped by (I reckon - not officially measured it) by about 40W which is huge, but then remained fairly consistent since. Looking at my data the issue doesn't seem to be with the amount of power I can actually generate, but my heart rate escalates really quickly to over FTHR and I cannot sustain it. By example, my personal best on the Epic KOM, set earlier this year, is 22:21 (so nowhere near enough to challenge for the win) at a average HR of 153, yesterday was 23.15 but HR was 167, which is a crippling effort given my FTHR is 162. But... when I finish, and regain control of my breathing my legs feel fine and don't really like I have pushed as hard as a I could.
Anyone have any ideas or experienced something similar?
@robbo1234biking - I'd like to add my thanks onto the pile! Well done fella, I don't quite understand why, and as you discussed on the podcast it is strange that a group of mountain bikers would get so enthusiastic about Zwift, but somehow you've found the 'magic sauce'. Well done, and a massive thanks.
Well done to all the various points winners, but more importantly well done to everyone who won their personal battles, either in their 'race within the race' or to improve their fitness/FTP whatever. Well done to you all.
@crazyharry My guess is the higher heart rate might be a result of overtraining. Is your resting HR higher than it used to be? When was the last time you have a recovery week?
Awesome stuff @robbo1234biking, brilliant that it's continuing as an official event within Zwift as well! (Top work from STW towers for their input with that!) NOW... have we decided yay or nay on mandatory MTBs for the next series, and did anyone dare mention "STW Jersey" when in discussion with Zwift HQ?!...
Yes MTBs will be involved in the next series. I have full access to all the routes on Zwift and am utilising some of these to do some different races in the next series which will hopefully keep things interesting again!
The subject of a STW jersey has also been mentioned. At the moment we would likely need a bigger community in order to get one but the success of the series will help that. Mark is promoting Zwift by doing the podcast and other stories that he has published on the website so there may be traction gained from that side of things. This is one of the reasons I have been pushing signing up to the STW team on zp if you aren’t already affiliated to a team. 300 members gets you onto the front page on zp in terms of member numbers of you look at teams and then sort by numbers.
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This is one of the reasons I have been pushing signing up to the STW team on zp if you aren’t already affiliated to a team.
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Zwiftpower is owned by Zwift now, isn't it? Does that mean we can log-in with our Zwift log-in? Or do we need to create a separate account?
Jesus Christ! Why do my quote keep coming out as garbled shite?! There seems to have been a recent change, which has cocked things up (or I'm doing it wrong).
You still need to create a separate account and connect it to your Zwift account. I think @savoyad has some instructions from the TTT.
You called?
Yes, even though it's now run by zwift you still have to manually connect your zwift account with a zwiftpower account.
All the instructions are here: https://support.zwift.com/en_us/connecting-to-zwiftpower-SyldRc_4H
It's a faff, but a quick, one-off one at least.
And once that's done, go here for STW: https://www.zwiftpower.com/team.php?id=756 and press "Join STW" (top right).
Well done on a great series Robbo, I'd say it was a shame I couldn't make the last 2 races but looking at last night's profile I'm not sure that'd be entirely true!
I've no objection to there being mtb and TT'ing events but would prefer not to have to do everything on the mtbs. Mainly because it's a bit "look at us we're so crazy!" but also because choosing the right bike & wheel combo does have an impact on your time.
Joined team STW on ZP.
Cheers savoyad...
I've joined team STW.... I thought I had already joined but I hadn't.
I've been scouring everyone's power data and mass so I can work out how much food and drink I can stuff down my face I've Christmas 🤣
Why are some people's FTPs estimated and others not?
Well.. I'm heading back up the epic today, as going to tick off the "bigger loop" route..
Bit more sedate today I think! Garmin told me to recover for 72 hours after the race, so keeping watts sensible!
DrP
@robbo1234biking can you link to the charity you would like donations to? I can't find it in the 30 pages of this thread.
^ Wot he said.
Double post when website went down for maintenance.
Another brilliant series of races, well done Robbo!
Just listened to the podcast and your aim for the handicap system to be as inclusive as possible and enabling everyone to have a chance of a win is for me exactly why I've been there every race.
Looking forward to the next series!
I didn't actually nominate a charity for this round but it seems that a few people would like to donate so will sort something out!
Robbo - your work is never done!
Another brilliant series of races, well done Robbo!
Just listened to the podcast and your aim for the handicap system to be as inclusive as possible and enabling everyone to have a chance of a win is for me exactly why I’ve been there every race.
Looking forward to the next series!
I agree, I think the the handicaps worked really well. In the last 2 races where I felt I did better I scored more points than the other races. Also it was super tight with the timings after the handicaps were applied that every second counted which pushes you more and in turn helps to get you fitter.
I donated to something previously I think!
There was a GoFundMe for Series 1 which went to Cardiac Risk in the Young.
Brian is going to set up a GoFundMe for Series 2 which I have nominated the NSPCC for so if anyone would like to donate (no pressure too - it has been a very tough year for a lot of people) then hopefully he will post it up when he has an opportunity to and people can donate.
Thanks everyone. Its good to give something back this year and support some worthwhile causes as a result of the series.
So as a few people have asked there's a fine raiser up for Robbo with proceeds to the NSPCC as his nominated good cause this time out.
Thanks to Robbo for the organisation and to everyone who took part making it great fun. [And for making me realise I've got very lazy since summer, yeah thanks for that.]
Robbo's Races Round 2 gofundme page in aid of the NSPCC.
Done. Good work Robbo and Brian
Donated.
Good stuff!
When is the award ceremony, with the champagne, trophies and scantily clad ladies?
and scantily clad ladies
This is 2020 not 1990
You get mark, binners and chips.
Still scantily clad though. (possibly an improvement on Chips' usual sartorial choices)
Thanks Brian. That’s me donated. Good choice of charity.
Donated. Nice One.
Donated - well done chaps
@slowpuncheur - You could be right and thanks for the advice. I did have a week off the bike early in November - although more enforced by a house move than part of training plan, and although did not involve any leg turning was not really "rest" in the truest sense. It did also occur that the stress of the house move on top of everything else may have had an impact, although not feeling particularly stressed. Anyway - now that this race series is over, I have forced myself to take a proper week's break and I will see how I feel after that. I noticed after a couple of days off my calves in particular really hurt for a day or so, but that seems to have gone now.
Hopefully I'll be back to full form for the 2021 series!
@crazyharry. It's hard to make yourself rest sometimes but you'll see the benefit. If you've ever tapered for a week before an event, you realise what being properly energised feels like. If you haven't got one, get a foam roller on your list to Santa. Really helps my calves, hamstrings and IT bands. I just don't use it enough!