retrorick
I thought Stumpy01’s comment about the first hill not being so bad amusing.
My attempt to confuse the opposition didn't really work. 🙂
Will probably try similar diversionary tactics next week though...
And we should be grateful as there is a downhill on next week's big climb which will allow us all to recover! (Sadly I think it's fairly short and won't provide much respite.)
There is downhill but only the titans grove downhill. Race finishes at the KOM banner.
Apologies the feed last night was not very exciting after the first climb, other than perhaps how many pain faces I could pull. I didn't have the capacity to toggle the view backwards.
@straightliner said
a downhill on next week’s big climb which will allow us all to recover!
And this group famously take advantage of opportunities to recover...
@nixie said
I didn’t have the capacity to toggle the view backwards.
The view was basically the same backwards as forwards anyway
I think he meant the 6th switchback on the reverse epic, which is cleverly engineered to go back downhill. The bit that kills the supertuck coming the other way.
@savoyad Yep, that's the one. Requires a concerted bit of grunt to get up and over when going the other way, but will feel woefully short on the reverse route that we're doing.
just looked at next week... ruddy bloody hell! When Robbo said this series would be the hardest yet.... he aint messing about!
Cheers for letting me tag on last night, some good racing , my chain dropped shortly after getting dropped off Savoyad 😛 looking forward to next Tuesday
Chris D
Unfortunately couldn't make last night due to event in daughter's school. Think this is the only race I've missed in all the series so far 🙁 And was looking forward to the hill routes the most. Ah well, roll on next Tues.
Heads-up for a few people using Zwiftpower.....
I noticed when analysing my meagre power stats from yesterdays race in ZP that there is a flat spot between 1s to ~45s where the 45s value is dragged all the way across to 1s in a straight line.
I am not sure what affect, if any, it has on the numbers reported but it certainly looks a bit crap.
The reason is due to the privacy settings in Zwift. If your activities are not set to 'public' then ZP has to use the live data from the race, rather than the fit file that gets generated by Zwift. For whatever reason this causes a problem.
Obviously if you don't want your activities to be public, then there's not a lot you can do. But if you don't care either way then changing your privacy setting in the companion app should sort it. In the companion app, choose the 3-line options button, then settings>privacy and change 'activity privacy'.
I have changed my settings, but haven't tried it yet (i.e. done an event) so can't confirm it, but couldn't find any other way to adjust the privacy settings.
According to the gumpf I found online there's an option to change the privacy of a given ride using the padlock on the Zwift save screen for the ride you've just completed, but again I haven't tried that.
You can tell if this affects you, as the lightning bolt next to your awesome power stats will be green, rather than blue.
As well as me, I've noticed this for @jimdubleyou @retrorick @sp as your lightning bolts are green like mine.
Thought it might be useful to let you know.
Thanks for the heads up @Stumpy01.
Hopefully this minor adjustment will unleash my true power on the world of virtual bike racing 😉🤣🤣🤣
Intervals.icu sent me an email this morning and gave me a power upgrade to 235W from 225 so massive increase, so pleased about that..
That ties up with the NP column in Zwift Power as well so probably true, Zwift didn't, so it's not keeping track properly.
I've looked at next weeks course profile, and here's a tip.....don't.
P.
Congratulations on the increase @Paul-S. From what I understand Zwift bases it’s estimated ftp on your best 20 minute segment based on 95% of your average power over that period of time. Unless you go absolutely flat out for a full twenty minutes, preferably at the beginning of a race, it’s not going to give you an accurate ftp figure.
Yeh that’s a good point drew. Last night there were a lot of undulations and we were over the first hill and freewheeling pretty early on so zwift wouldn’t know. Intervals is more accurate I find and measures each ride.
@drew well done BTW you've overtaken me and lead by 15 seconds ( no handicap ), so that's a big target you've painted on your back then 😉. What happened in Race 1?
P
Thanks @Paul-S, I wasn't sure what you were referring to as I hadn't looked at the GC times. It's the first time, as far as I can remember, that I've completed all the races up to this point so it's not something I usually check.
As for the first race I'd not really done much since one of the team time trials in early September partly due to a strained back and partly due to a lack of appetite to push myself. To be honest, I was thinking of giving this series a miss but decided that I'd regret it if I didn't take part and also realised that I could join in without feeling I had to go flat out. So the first race was very much a case of dipping my toe in the water to see how I felt and it actually felt quite good to be riding within myself and just enjoying taking part. However, my competetiveness (something I deny but my family think otherwise) seems to have taken over and I've ended up going for it as hard as I can again.
I really enjoyed climbers gambit in the zwift baseline event, not sure I'll make it though as covid booster on Monday and supposedly out til 7.15 on Tuesday, hopefully all will be well and I'll get a chance to ride.
Ok so final set of handicaps for this race series are live:
All to play for in the overall combined KOM and Sprint chamopionship between Savoyad and Paino. Will Paino try and knock Savoyad of the side of the mountain in a Verstappen/Hamilton style!
Dont forget to vote for your racers racer of the series:
Racers Racer Poll
Ok here are the 4 nominations for racers racer
1. Savoyad – lighting up the front of the race with multiple attacks and keeping everyone on their toes
2. retrorick – For attempting to win on a MTB and looking inspired as he opened a 10 second gap
3. stumpy01 – FOr general good nature in spite of adversity
4. reluctantjumper – for shear bloody determination and always putting it on the table despite having to ride on your own at times
Voting closes next Tuesday at 23:00!
https://doodle.com/poll/7w7nn4t8ic9s7isr?utm_source=poll&utm_medium=link
I think i said I was closing it at midnight tomorrow but cant find the post now!
I'm on holiday, so no racing for me 😭.
I left my crystal ball at home so I'm unable to guess the winner this week...
Well it won't be me, my improved/recovered fitness has meant that I now actually have a handicap, as opposed to the lovely pretend one that I used to have. Come to think of it the same happened in the Spring race series.
Race tactic: Not managed to recce this one so will be flying blind and trying to keep up with @drew to regain the lost 15 secs, but not optomistic.
P.
🤣, after looking at the numbers I think Mat v7fmp will be my choice for the handicap win.
Top ten will be separated by 90 seconds 🤔🤪
I'm hoping to be there but currently aching like an aching thing after a long run yesterday (stupid boy). Either way, chances of me getting close to my handicap billing are pretty low, but will be great to see how it all pans out once again.
Annoying to concede the green jersey this time round but beaten by the bigger boys (well done to @Paino and @Savoyad on that).
Should be a good one tonight!
THese kick off at 1930 right?? Tough route tonight... think i may make a cameo for this final one!!!
DrP
Booked in my booster, "Would I like to come in at luchtime", with the final race tonight it is safe to say I declined and booked tomorrow.
P
Streeeeeammmm. Expecting a tough fight at the front tonight, don't think there will be any riding away.
Urgh, climbing.
We shall be having a big lads party at the rear with mince pies every 5k and a little sit down picnic half way up the final climb.
Second climb is long enough for a new FTP effort for those that way inclined.
won't take 20 min up to the Epic KOM banner will it?
DrP
DrP
won’t take 20 min up to the Epic KOM banner will it?
No, it won't.
It'll take (me) longer.... 🙂
Might drop my Zwift FTP value if I remember & see what's what.
won’t take 20 min up to the Epic KOM banner will it?
Only done it as part of the the pretzel before. That was 21:30 @ 278W average so assume a bigger effort probably 18-20 mins up front. The same power at your 71kg got you just over 20.
Anyone who is under that is under can flip a U and go up the radio tower to get the extra time.
stuffing myself full of mince pies - hopefully that will help!
The descent halfway up won't help with a true 20 min output (unless you're pushing on). I suspect many of us will use that section for a quick breather before the next phase of the ascent.
The same power at your 71kg got you just over 20
Oh year, 20.17...
Well, will see what tonight brings!
DrP
Also..down to 69.5kg now 😀
Bloody lightweights.
The descent halfway up won’t help with a true 20 min output
True, depends on who is around you I guess. The descent isn't that big.
I'm out again for 3rd week in row due injury, good luck everyone. Physio tomorrow, hopefully I can get sorted as I'm already feeling the post christmas lethargy and it's not even been yet...
Chapeau all, and thanks Robbo!
Last minute bail out from me. Feeling demotivated again and the walk home from work did not enthuse me for getting changed and heading out to the garage! Fire's on already!
Feel bad it's the last one on the season though, but I'll do the Tuesday climb next week!
Have a good race everyone, good luck!!
Nixie's towel on a bungee cord is a good idea. I shall implement it for my towelling duties and therefore removing the fear of dropping mi towel on the floor during the races. 👍
It's a cheap decathlon one. So much better than on the bars and dropping which I used to do.
Oof.
Repeat.
Oof!
DrP
Cor that was hard... thought i was going to get dropped from the bell. Managed to claw across a few groups and finished 20th.
Still too early to say if I loved it or hated it. Great series again Robbo.
That hurt and really needed some deep digging towards the end. I need some rest.
Well done everyone, times at the top of the leaderboard suggest that was all quite close at the sharp end.
Thanks to the group between ~20 and 28 for working well together on the early hills and flats. I’d have been bailing if it hadn’t been for holding on to you after the first ride out of the seaside village.
@robbo1234biking - thank you again for a brilliant series of different and challenging courses, and to everyone for giving it a go and making the post ride analysis lots of fun
Absolutely buried myself on that one, just happy to finish the series on a relative high note!
The usual thanks to @robbo1234biking for organising it all but a special shout out to everyone who's given me encouragement throughout. Especially @giggsmaster and @stumpy01 who have unwittingly stopped me chucking in the towel a few times in each race with little messages, massively appreciated guys.
I suppose it's time to think about the next series.
My legs were sore today and I ate too much, that was nearly a killer half way up the reverse epic.
I couldn't really workout how that was going to go. The start was gentle enough and @savoyad kindly towed me to second in the sprint (as I popped out of his draft at the last second). S Bach tried their luck off the front for a while. Didn't seem much point in chasing but tried to keep the group within 10s as I suspected the mass in the rollers would close it down.
Titans grove was stay in touch with the aim of making others work instead of rest going down. This seemed to work and two of us ended up off the front. To start with it didn't look like it would come to much but slowly opened to 10s then 15s. I was expecting @savoyd to close at the bottom of the epic reverse then disappear up the hill but he seemed off colour after @paino took the points on the first two segments.
Up the reverse epic I was just trying to get away slowly and keep my numbers above the second place rider. Too much food meant managing the effort.
Thanks again for the races Robbo. I've really enjoyed them. 👍. Well done to all the series winners.
