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I was gonna join this morning's ride, but going up and down the ladder taking Christmas lights down has left me with a very stiff left quad 😆🙄 so I decided I should rest it.
If I get the chance later I might go out for a spin but got sweet spot session with Robbo, OopNorth & Dangeourbrain tomorrow, then the Bologna TT on Tuesday so don't want to do myself a mischief...
Thanks for coming guys...
The finish was 2km after as I know the route was 22ish km... and wanted 2 laps, so had to estimate WITH the lead in!
DrP
Lessons from today's ride:
1) Never let DrP choose the route.
2) New York is every bit as horrible as you think.
3) Really, don't let DrP choose.
4) try not to pick worlds on rotation, very very difficult to see your group with that many folks.
Cheers for the ride though folks, other than the glass hill. The glass hill. The glass hill. Oh and another time up that bloody hill for good measure, that was good ta.
Thanks @drp and everyone else.
That route is great. That's presumably why it was so busy!
I'm going to rest up until Tuesday now. I feel about TTs the way you lot feel about glass climbs.
I'm glad I joined in. Rare for me to able to ride on a Sunday morning. I knew it was going to be a tough ride. I'm thankful that Brian held back and encouraged me to complete the ride.
Pity there wasn't a cafe stop half way round.
The finish was 2km after as I know the route was 22ish km… and wanted 2 laps, so had to estimate WITH the lead in!
As I crossed the "line" and still saw distance to go I thought "that [insert insult of choice] has set the finish for the top!"
Yeh if you choose a world on rotation then Meet-up only view is a good option. It is very busy on Zwift at the moment which is prob why people are getting so many drop outs.
Another good thing about today. I’ve no routes left in NYC so never ever need to go back!
The main thing with new York is that silly bit once you leave the park. I actually quite like the central park routes but once you get onto that blue thing there's nothing to see, everything looks the same so there's no real feeling of progress, oh and the gradient changes are downright odd.
Given they put Surrey a short tube ride from Central London I'd have thought they could have done similar for New York, to be honest just riding some of the subways would probably be quite good in a something different sort of way, but the strange 5th element esque thing is just, well, rubbish.
I really found today enjoyable...I think mainly due to the group effort and dynamics, so thank you!
It can be dull riding ina world of many, but you don't know anyone! I found the time shot by with a bit of chat and group effort!
DrP
I think mainly due to the group effort and dynamics
Absolutely this - and if that's what you enjoy, you really should think about joining one of the Thursday TTT - that's exactly what they're all about
Yeh cheers guys, NY is much more bearable as a group. I lost my chain on the inner side so couldn’t pedal back on and had to unclip to sort it. So lost Ian and Phil, completed the ride but didn’t see any Stw again.
I felt like a few miles recovery so jumped on one of the tour rides at Richmond planning to enjoy the massive group draft and bail before the climbs. However by the time came I was enjoying passing riders and felt refreshed so took the series of climbs pretty full on passing 350 riders along the way. Then told myself just cool down now on the flats for a few miles but then thought I was a shame to do just 3 miles shy of finishing it so completed taking the hills a bit steadier the second time.
Pretty tough fifty odd miles so pretty knackered now, will enjoy a rest tomorrow.
but the strange 5th element esque thing is just, well, rubbish.
I was thinking about this riding in NYC yesterday. I’d convinced myself that they’d have been better setting it in 1980s New York. Then I remembered they’d have to decide whether to include WTC, the Sci Fi style bypasses that I guess.
Yeah, I get that I suppose - though a 30s new York would have solved it too and not seemed so silly.
Thing is the brooklyn bridge etc are iconic, could easily have been done and dumped you straight into up state of the rockies for all it matters
All that being said, they should have just done San Francisco anyhow.
I think SF would make a great Zwift city and probably a good UCI worlds course too. Plenty of sharp climbs and some iconic views.
It turned out I had ridden those some climbs before but hell of a lot slower than today, pbs on every incline today the main KOM in both directions by 4.5 to 5 minutes taking more off the time then it too to climb them today.
I somehow seemed to PB each section of the climbs in Richmond as well, which is more surprising given we raced it in the first Tuesday series. Hopefully I’ve not burned out before Tuesday.
If they do this years uci champs course in Flanders with its narrow punchy cobbled climbs it should be fantastic. Have they done the uci course every year or been selective about it?
No Doha (thankfully, imagine.), no Bergen. I'm not sure about what they intended this year, because it was so close to the Olympics and I'm pretty sure they had that ready to go. If both happen IRL next year, that might reduce the chances of Zwift doing Flanders I suppose.
Also @kirky72 surprising himself with fatigued hill-PBs in Richmond 40 miles into a Sunday eventathon is pretty ominous for the rest of us.
6.45 virtual commute/workout in the morning if anyone wants an invite. 3 of us are doing a SS workout, you can choose your own workout or just ride. Rubber band will be on however!
Ah, that's a point. I'm going to have to ditch on tomorrow morning sorry Robbo.
Was planning to go into the office today to do some stuff but about half of it isn't practical to do solo so I'll be in the office about 5.30 🙁.
RGT has a Flandrien route I think so I hope Zwift have something up their sleeves.
Woke up this morning and decided to do the Uber Pretzel loop. Finished it an hour ago after about 5 1/2 hours on the bike. Tough but really enjoyable.
Got a rocker plate for my Wattbike and it's super comfortable now. Made all the difference.
Gonna celebrate with an alcohol free dry January beer 💪
Well done it's a very tough route 👏👏👏
Good effort, I need to do that at some point.
Okey dokey.... after the fact that NY on Sunday wasn’t actually too terrible, and despite Brian’s protestations...who fancies another Sunday Hills this coming Sunday?
I’m strongly tempted by the London Pretzel... A nice long flat lead in to stay as a group and bash out the miles, a sprint to try to get a feather, and then Fox and Box hill to finish with.
It’s 10km longer than the NY route we did, but I reckon we could get it done in 90-100 minutes with a. Good group rolling pace.
It’s NOT the scheduled map either, so won’t be too busy.. I will probably NOT have it ‘meetup only’ so we can grab a wheel off strangers if needed...
Takers?
DrP
It takes around 100 mins for the London Pretzel...well it did for me and the previous times we have done it on a Sunday hills ride. It's a good route with the hills only kicking in at around the 30km mark.
I'll see how I am Sunday as the tour routes this week are big hills which I'll probably do Saturday...I'm thinking Alpe or La Reine.
I can always join Sunday and do the initial flat if I'm not in a hills mood.
3rd stage of the tour is a choice between:
La Reine
Road to Sky
Mountain Route (which include the radio tower)
Not sure what to do but wont be doing it until Saturday afternoon so might just do a recovery ride on Sunday morning. I don't think I have the motivation for La Reine or the Alpe at the moment. If it isn't a scheduled map then should be busy enough to see some people but not mental like yesterday!
It depends how the weather is at the weekend, I’m eager to get out and properly test the Addict now I’ve cut the steerer added aero bars and a new set of wheels but don’t want the maiden voyage to be on slush or ice.
If I’m on the trainer I’ll probably do tour of ice and fire as I’ve been up the alpe a fair few times but never got that badge, I also fancy breaking the hour. Like oop north I’ll try and join on Sunday and see how I feel as we hit the hills.
oopnorth Full Member
It takes around 100 mins for the London Pretzel…well it did for me and the previous times we have done it on a Sunday hills ride.
I thought I'd done it before. I'd be keen to do it again, or something similar if the weather's rubbish. The snow has now turned to boilerplate ice outside so will see how quickly it melts, or if we get more snow. More snow = more splitboarding again 😀
Well this should raise a smile from a few of you:
Mrs brain has started doing the odd bit of zwift in the last week and jumped on this afternoon on her lunch break for a quick 20 minutes as her meeting finished a bit early.
Spotted Yorkshire on the world list, and picked tour of tewit well because it would be "a quick flat course round the stray" - which if you know where tewit well is makes perfect sense.
Suffice to say it was neither as quick nor as flat as she expected and I was greeted as I came in this evening, not with a cheery "hello" but "it's Yorkshire today why does the tour of tewit well not go anywhere near the tewit well? It went to pennypot!" *
*pennypot is the roundabout where the squirrel is. there may be words missing from this sentence.
Re Sunday I think I might plan do the tdz Sunday since it's going to be hilly anyhow (might work as a group of us and just chat through the discord server instead?) and maybe get outside for a ride Saturday.
Ouch!! I'm sure she enjoyed the steep leg snapper... 😉
Hmm.... OK so I've popped an invite out for Sunday... but...
I too need stage 3 (mount ven top) of the tour... which at the moment I've penciled in for 5am on Friday!
Brian... what group are you doing? Group A?
DrP
Looking at the choices yeah, it'll be la reine (a) though it's not a lovely ride!
Thinking probably the 8am? Though if I went for the 7am option I could try the champs elysee race afterwards...
ZHQ FutureWorks Circuit Race - Anti-sandbagging https://www.zwift.com/events/view/1521682
I’ve penciled [la reine] in for 5am on Friday!
You see it's not just 2 laps of NY that makes me think you shouldn't be in charge of things 😉
5am??? I thought we were crazy at 6-45am for the workouts...
I might try the Alpe again, I still need to get under the hour....that may not happen, but gotta keep trying. I found La Reine worse than the full Ventoux route, probably because I pushed too much at the beginning through the esses and on the petit KOM before hitting the main climb. One day I need to go up Ventoux again but I'm in no rush.
I tried RGT tonight, that's a tedious game. The better drafting physics are kinda irrelevant when I only saw 2 riders going the same way in 17.5km of the Dirty Reiver route. A badly rendered avatar riding through badly rendered countryside with no idea where I was. Single loop so no chance of meeting anyone else, eugh.
Cheers @oopnorth and @stumpy01 for the ride this morning. Zwift crashed on me 40 mins in. I managed to extract some data to Strava so not all was lost. Not a good start though considering there was supposed to be a patch to fix crashes and that downloaded at the start.
Going to do the TdZ Mountain Route stage at some point tomorrow - probably at 2 or 3 depending on family stuff! Might see some of you on it.
Still not sure on Sunday morning yet but if anyone wants a group ride on Sunday Morning DrP has organised one so ping him for an invite if you haven't got one already!
Jeez Robbo that was tough this morning...no wonder you left early 🤣🤣🤣
That last set...ouchy ouchy ouch ouch. Think that was the toughest one yet! Only just made it and my cadence was rubbish today.
I'm on the 9am mountain ride tomorrow...hoping to make sunday...at least for the flat section!
Have a good day all
Yeh I think that one needs a bit of adjustment - maybe slightly shorter sets - 3 sets of 10 might be more manageable. 1 min Vo2 max intervals next Friday! Cant wait! Lol
I was doing that this morning almost...was taking at least 10 seconds fof the power to come down between sections.
Looking forward to next week...not! Time to find an excuse! 🤣🤣
1 minute on, 1 minute off isn't too bad. Don't forget we are working up to 3 mins! haha
Think I'm gonna do the 11am Ventoux TDZ route tomorrow. Maybe see some of you on there...
oopnorth.. you doing the la reine route?
I skipped the 5am ride today as having a rest today... but going to hop on a TDZ Group A moutain ride tomorrow am (still doing the london loop with you lot on sunday..)
Might aim for a zone 2/3 effort in France, rather than push myself to FTP+...
Anyway..will either do 8am or 9am tomorrow...
DrP
@DrP no I'm just doing the short mountain route, the C group ride. Got lots to do tomorrow so I don't want to muller myself on the Alpe or Ventoux and be useless the rest of the day.