18.55 Gladiators race for me tonight. Just got in from work - so bite to eat first ... will struggle with the warm up!
tomlevell
Member
@mooman there’s a calculation on your profile under the ? next to your category. You have to work back your 3 best 20 minuntes @ 95%.
Might give you an idea though. You’ve probably improved on your worst one to bump you back over the limit as an average.
Just found that thanks. Average of last 3 races is 4.16wkg .. so just scraping over!!
Thanks Tom/all - useful info...
Well that's my first race done.
I wasn't sure what category to go for so decided to start at the bottom in D. From what I can gather from the results on Zwift Power I've been disqualified from the category due to my w/kg being too high for D.
Lesson learned for next time!
The race wasn't too bad but not exactly easy. It was pretty much 30 minutes flat out with no respite. I semed to be drafting ok in the group of 8-10 I was riding with but then just before the start of the final lap a load of riders just took off and seemed to pick up a 10 second gap in the space of a few seconds, not sure how that worked.
Which race? Drop a link to the ZwiftPower results page. What's your zwift name?
was going to do the 10:20 something or other, laptop spat its dummy, then wouldn't see any bluetooth devices, when it finally sorted itself out id missed the start, so climb straight back off and got changed, was feeling under the weather anyway so probably a blessing in disguise
Which race? Drop a link to the ZwiftPower results page. What’s your zwift name?
It was the 3R LaGuardia race. The Zwift Power link should be here:
https://www.zwiftpower.com/profile.php?z=1133980
Robbo seems to have gone pop. Another forum guy I ride with is just ahead of him.
Nixie leading though!
Grim!
Held onto the front group for a full lap then slipped back. Couple more laps with them and 8 or so got shelled and formed a decent group.
2 and a bit laps to go we got lapped and held them for the bit of the lap and our little group was 5.
Went at the junction just as the hill to the line starts when someone went past me and into the front by the top of the hill and just got pipped on the line by 2 others.
Tea too soon to the start and feeling underpowered.
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=146930
It was the 3R LaGuardia race. The Zwift Power link should be here
From that your a C I'd say. Probably top end C. Good effort.
Nixie leading though!
Was trying hard not to lead that much. Was 10th or 11th on the road I think. Mistimed the sprint up the hill and couldn't make up the gap in time. Annoying as legs had it. Still the guy that won is an A+ and very strong rider so was happy to be second in the sprint (time wise) to him.
I did indeed go pop! Went out to hard and just didn’t have the legs. Started going backwards rapidly so decided to bug out. Think I need a rest day tomorrow before hitting it at the weekend (unless my cucleschene voucher actually turns up and I can get out on the mtb). Well done to the others. The pace of the first couple of laps was pretty quick!
@tomlevell pace was high to start so any hanging on was good work. Did we lap you? Your time doesn't seem enough back for that (assuming your the stw badged rider in B).
Nixie - did you hit 5 PRs on the lap? Pace must have been high!
4 I think. All on the sprint. Double draft helps a little with that (plus it was the only place any attacks were happening).
According to Strava I'm 7th fastest all time on 6x that loop. Find that very hard to believe!
Yes you lapped me and dropped me again as you were starting your last lap.
First lap was brutal. Really I should have been able to stick with the 2nd group but couldn't shift myself out of last spot in the line so any split and I was done for.
First lap for me was about 20 to 30 seconds faster than all the rest :0o
To be honest the lap is too short for 10 laps as it gets messy if you're not in the front group.
It looks like that 6 lap segment has been set up today so will take time to populate.
Good write ups and riding fellas.
.
I really enjoyed that race, I was seeing how nixie was doing along with Robbo v my mate who posts at times, I'll have to get him on the stw team actually. He never does races so was good to see him out there.
Was only watching on timing though as j don't know how I'd get in viewing mode on a non scheduled world.
10:05am for me tomorrow for 2 lap volcano flat. decent number signed up
@weeksy. I think you have to join the event then change the camera view to follow people. That seems to be how the live commentary people do it.
Right, fair call.... I can do that next time. Was OK watching him on the live tracking text based but would have been interesting to see him when actually riding. I'll know for next time... well, if he survived the night that is.
@Nixie The STW badged rider in B was me. I stayed with the first group for a few laps before getting dropped and ended up TTing for awhile. How do you guys know who each other are? Tom's name is obvious, but not any others?
Just through this thread mostly. You get to learn who's who and all of the people with STW in their name are added as Zwift friends within the Companion/Mobile App. So i get to see anyone who's a friend as racing a particular event.
And I have a cold which makes the feeling of lack of power better.
I just pick up on real names as I've gone along looking at here and ZP results. Obviously those in the STW team are easier to spot. Although currently I'm not as I dropped out to set up a club team then left that and now it doesn't seem to want to let me rejoin STW.
Disappointed disappointed disappointed.
2 laps of volcano flat. I saw the famous Blader was playing, although he was in B.
Went out fairly hard and what do you know, I found him there. Massive group of 20 or so of us flying along. We were group 2 on the road. The pace was high, especially any time it kicked upwards, I need 400w at these times and that peaks my HR, hitting a mid race high of 179 today and way too high overall, lots of 175-176 moments. Over the line after lap 1 I was still with the group, but getting harder and harder to maintain position. I hit my aero on the underwater section, not to try and break away but to try and get the HR to a sensible figure.
Sadly as we came out of the tunnel my luck ended. I'd positioned myself well but just fell slightly off the group. It happened earlier but I caught a lucky wheel and got pulled back.
This time there was no wheel though. I hit 559w in a vague try to get back, but I was 2s off and that was it.
I pulled over and called it a day.
I could arguably have waited for the next lot and tried to hang, but I'd had enough.
One of them days. Failed.
Weeksy i had no legs for racing today so was using the race to do a recovery ride in a group. I let the front group go and was about to let the second group go as well when i saw you flying up past me so i decided i would be your wheel man. It was far too fast to be any sort of recovery ride so thst was out of the window.I saw you dropping off so i stopped to provide a wheel but noticed you were at 0w/kg so i assumed you had a problem. I worked far too hard to get back on the group so hung out midpack and rested. I split the group on the climb to the volcano just so i could make GUTS work as he always wins and always sucks wheels. I made them climb at 7-8w/kg all the way which broke it up a bit. I then did tempo to the line and a little sprint at the end.
LOL Thanks mate... .i did send a message saying 'gone' when i went pop. I like GUTS, he always gives 100% and tries to make the racing interesting too by upping the pace at times....
I'm actually that disappoint in myself i'm tempted to race the 3:15pm today just to shake the feeling.. it might work or might make me feel 100% worse
For some reason i couldnt see or write any messages today even though the chat setting is on. I switched everything off/on after the race and joined the kiss base training but still no joy, not sure what that was all about, i couldnt even join the dirt ride with late joining function enabled, i just sat on the line waiting for it to find riders. Dont rsce this afternoon Weeksy, the morning race has told you your body needs a rest.
I did what was meant to be an easy interval session this morning.
The session ended about 2/3rds the way up whichever climb I was on so decided to complete the climb. After that I figured I might as well finish the lap so that put paid to my easy 1/2 hour session!
I'm pretty new to the whole zwift thing but I've got it all set up to train for a century ride in may. T.herewardismorecheese Is my zwift name if anyone wants to add me. I've done a few races and I'm starting to get my head around the tactics. Got my ftp up to 300 watts last night but I'm pretty heavy so not that impressive.
Yim put an (STW) tag in your username.
Done weeksy. Will that make me faster?
You’ll have more friends 😉 I just added a few - there are a lot of STW’rs on ZWIFT!
Lol no but you'll make friends
You should also be able to join the stw team on zwift power. Think it's open access rather than request to join.
Rode the Alp d’Zwift for the first time. Paced by my Bro who rides 90% road. He used to be fitter than me. He’s not anymore 🙂
Not sure how many times I’d do it, thought it’s ‘gamed’ quite well with all the extra info about each switchback. And some interesting scenery. Took us 66 mins at 220-240w. I felt really good so wonder if it’s wroth trying to crack the hour. To be fair to bro he has a Neo so he gets the 10%+ climbs, whereas my Flux doesn’t.
Even so I’m taking it 🙂
Will that make me faster?
Yeah - you'll get random ride-ons from weeksy's underground nervecentre and so you'll think soembody's watching you 😉
Joined the team now I think.
Alex can you just ride alp d zwift or does it need to be unlocked. Never really looked into doing it yet
@bigyim - no, it’s a level 12 unlock. But if you join a ride that’s going up there, you can do it or if you’re riding with someone who already is level 12 that’s fine too. I’d be happy to do it again, so could go up there with you.
I forgot to say my Bro made me change my new Aero wheels (l13 unlock) for normal ones for the climb! I have to say I thought that was taking the whole thing a bit too seriously 🙂
Having done the Alpe twice in 64 and 62 minutes I would be happy to join you for a sub-hour attempt one day Alex. Perhaps a STW Alp d'zwift group ride 🙂
I'd join that if the timings fitted. Could mimic the outlaw race after summiting and race down.
Sounds like a perfect use for the new meetups feature.
@alex, your bro will only be getting the true 10% plus climbs if he has altered the trainer difficulty setting. It's set to 50% by default.
Is there a quick test to check alp times, if memory lacks?
Sounds good. I really wanted to go at it harder especially with 5km to go. So a STW meet-up for a sub hour crack could be fun.
I’ve just joined the STW group.
I’d be up for an Alp d’Zwift group ride if I’m not working.
@j4mesj4mes if your registered on zwift power it should appear in segments under your profile. Otherwise look on zwift insider for the 'official' Strava segment.
I’d join an Alpe Zwift group ride tomorrow some time.
Just joined the STW group
Did my first race this year earlier today - commuting and being busy, couple of cx races plus a week away skiing had kept me off it
Not as shit as I thought I'd be at less than 10% down vs my awesome peak late last year
2 more weeks of very little riding and then hopefully back at it (though nearly ready to drop my account again once spring hits properly)
Welcome back!
I'm jumping on a gentle 9:10am cruise with brt today, will just ride with the group for the hour and then maybe a lap of the world's course after at a gentle pace to get up to 50km.
Was going to go outdoors, but went to get my riding kit which involves going outside, it's not nice.
Had another crack at a race this morning in the 3R Innsbruckring Flat Race.
I didn't think it went too badly overall but on checking the results after the race I finished 20/26 in C which was pretty disappointing, even more so havign looked at ZwiftPower and seeing that I was 6/7 riders on there. I seems like that is the right category for me as my finishing time would have won the D race.
It seems odd to be that Zwift is just like some XC races where categories attract obvious sandbaggers. Looking at the guy who won the C race, it looks like he's racing every couple of days and winning C races with times that would see him finishing top 5 in B. Seems a bit of a piss take for the sake of getting a virtual podium place!
I'll have another crack at a race later in the week and see how I get on, hopefully better then second last in category 😀
I still am bemused with the Cat stuff and think sometimes it takes a little while for ZP to play catch-up on riders. I was watching a race this morning with an STWer in and the 2 C's in the front of him were at 300w and 4+ w/kg.... But it was only the 2nd race for one of them, the other guy had raced a few more..
I went through a stage of winning almost every C race i entered, but i was still back 3-4 in B, so felt justified in C as i never broke the B limits either, but why people race in completely the wrong Cat, i just don't honestly know.
Making the step up in Cats is tough though, when i went from D>C it seemed impossible i'd ever get top 5 in C.... then i went to winning most... Now, I'm a competitor in C but rarely podium at the moment, certainly not the riders on course at the time. But some of that is my own fault as i seem to end up in the Bs and get dragged along until i go pop.
Debating the 3:15 today or the 4:10 both have merit for me on time and layouts, although not sure which suits best... tricky one.
I'd be up for a tour de zwift group ride if you could all let me know when
i think the problem would be of how much of a group ride it would be.
For example picking say me and someone at 70kg, to keep together i'm going to have to average say 280w to their 180w.... which means the group splits really quickly and massively.... So it depends on what you want from the 'group'....
I'll happily create a get-together if people want it... but on a hilly layout like that, the group may not be quite as groupy as you'd think
You're the lead out man up the first 3 corners. You have to keep the pace at the required times for the segments then chuck the anchor out ;0)
Actually riding up the Alpe makes a group ride easy as you can agree on a w/kg and everyone should be around this figure. Whether people can hold on is another matter but if the aim is to beat the hour this could be worked out with some time checks on the way to ensure still on pace.
For a meetup whoever sets it up everyone needs to be following that person.
I doubt I'd be able to make it but next time I can be bothered to go up it it will be a sub hour attempt aiming at about 55mins. Tough call mind.
Looking at people just under the hour and my own best you need to be around 3.3w/kg. In a group you could probably go under that but whoever is on the front would need to be sitting at about that.
Then I look at that and it's my current FTP so 55 minutes is probably impossible on my own at the moment.
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=149497
Fun but slightly ridiculous race. On Zwift companion app I'm actually 16th. But the guys ahead of me were all way way over limit. One guy on 4.69w/kg lol, racing in C.
But it was a great race with lots of battles. Should have won it as when a split came I should have kicked on but I missed it as I thought it would come back.
Pitiful spring for the line though, nothing in the tank
I think the winter here in the northern hemisphere has increased the zwift activity no end as every race i see multiple people who clearly dont belong to there chosen category. I did the met5 race this morning and was beat by a guy who finished with 4.3wkg in B,it happens every time these days. To be fair i took silver and only avgd 3.1 but it was a strange race of slow A riders,wheel suckers, zpower users dragging groups back from nowhere,lots of riders just stopping mid race.
I haven't raced on Zwift for a few months because I've had 4 operations on my eyes. All good now though so should be back to middle C racing at the end of the month. I think I'd almost rather be a lowly B racer than winning group C though if I could make enough power to genuinely be in that category.
Did the gran Fondo yesterday, it seems I'm very out of shape. ☹️
Hero to zero, after last mondays silver in b, a week off due to cold/feeling run down, thought id best get back on before a couple of long shifts at work, still not feeling 100%
Did the 1815 DBR Winter series, 52/55 in B just crept over 3w/kg - terrible
Lol some of us dream of 3w/kg.
Admittedly, today I'd have beaten a few B riders which is nice. But not many.
Day off tomorrow as I'm hoping the weather plays ball and it's KTM time
you did 2.9 today 🙂
Short race.
I'm not sure how to work out what class I should be in. I seem to hover about but the last short race I did I got 3.2 w/kg I didnt expect to be that high and entered cat c. I would be right at the back in cat b but I'm hovering around the limit on shorter flat rides.
If there was a long hilly stage I'd be cat e if they made one !
Sounds like me 3&4 months ago, I could hit B power breaking limits on short flat races, but at 90kg, I'm not close.
I reckon on a Richmond flat short 4-5 lap I'd still do it, but spend a lot of my rides hiding in a bunch.
Put me on a hilly course, I'd be last in B. The decent B guys are close to the 4.0 limit, that's crazy.
Race as a C until Zwiftpower upgrades you. Gives you 3 shots at overshooting the category limit, if you're smashing the limit from day 1 then maybe you should move up, which means if you don't sandbag by backing off then you get to win a couple of races then when you get shunted into B you can get mid table sometimes.
I've worked up to being over Cat limit just and got upgraded so now happy in B. Only done one event and wasn't feeling great but did ok.
Apparently I am back on the team pending list if the ZP team moderator could let me back in.
We have a moderator ? I'm fairly sure i set up the team in the first place... but don't recall that...
I'll look though
MAybe it wasn't me... i don't have anything that's for sure that i can click/do.
Ta I thought it was an unmoderated team but the ZP mods suggest that I'm on the pending list. If you can't see me or a list I'll prod them again.
Yeah, ask them who the Mods are... if they're not valid/current we may have to see if we can update with some new Mods for the team. Or remove moderation completely.
I was wrong about the first time I did the Alp. It was actually 68:30 not 66 mins. This time - on my tod - I was at 63:15. Wasn’t feeling great and a bit leggy from a massive MTB ride Sunday but even so, an hour feels a LONG way away.
Still FTP has gone up from 218 last year to 223 on Jan 2 to 238 this afternoon. All I need now is to lose 2 more KG to get below 12 stone, and that’ll be it in terms of fitness goals 😉
Happy to do a meet up tho, but I couldn’t lead it to get under an hour based on that.
Back on the team. Not sure what the problem was but they had tried to reinstate me in the club team which I've set up for future use potentially and not STW :0)
Started in a group too high, managed to hold them till Horse guards on lap 3 and fell off back with a DBR rider. We teamed for a bit and group behind caught us so we both jumped on with them. Then on last lap we caught some back markers and I got hung out to dry on a wheel and lost the group! Arggghhh. I then got caught on the line by 3 others and popped. If I could have held that wheel I'd maybe have placed higher but not too sure as I was cooked if I'm honest.
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=150113
Legs are crying for rest I just admit. I've tweaked the muscle between my arse and leg lol. Think I did it lying on the floor, not from riding.
3 above you in C are over limit, and another 2 have no heart rate data
The 18.55 Team Italy Gladiators Race this evening. The tough Everything Bagel route .. those climbs hate me!
I lost the front A group not long after starting the first climb - just a case then of trying to join a group to try and maintain a decent gap from the chasers behind.
At the moment I am about 10-15watts down on what I was the other week; hopefully as I feel better the strength will come back again.
Not the last of the A cats .. so chipping away.. RESULTS
I did cat c 3r ultimate racing league rising empire 41km. Started off in the front pack and the wheels fell off as soon as I hit the first real climb. Need to drop some kgs I think to compete in hills. Still enjoying it though and ended up rolling in 30 something place out of 115 riders
You did great for a big fella, we'll done
Anybody have a link to a reliable lightning to hdmi adaptor/cable? My ebay one has lasted one race and now refuses to work which seems a pretty common problem with them all. I am considering an apple tv but i would prefer not to spend £100 on a second hand one for the sake of one app. Am i right in thinking that apple tv still dont link to nas boxes? I dont know apple tv a lot but what else could i use it for (i dont have content from itunes)?