Zwift, my journey, my weight and my fitness.

Freddie is in STW kit! What’s his login? 😂

Anyone want to take on this format for a Tuesday night ride? Just need someone the calculate the time difference and stop people from going until the right time!

Anyone want to take on this format for a Tuesday night ride?

This is surprisingly entertaining with the commentary. Some impressive numbers from the slebs. How is Froome’s HR so low?!

I think he has a very low max hr anyway.

I love for a televised event they still had the hack-y wait in the pen system used by the TTT and everyone jumped the line

They could’ve done with @Phil56 on the stopwatch 😂

With the amount of exposure Zwift is getting plus the massive increase in use during lockdown, maybe they will start taking the racing as seriously as everyone else does!

I love for a televised event they still had the hack-y wait in the pen system used by the TTT and everyone jumped the line

I did the Bologna time trial on Friday and they had a conveyor belt system that released you at your designated slot. You could pedal to warm up no problem. I think 1 rider was released every 10 secs. Worked really well. Why don’t they use this elsewhere?

maybe they will start taking the racing as seriously as everyone else does!

I do feel that folk need to wind their neck in a bit on the seriousness of the racing.

Until we are all using the same device with someway of weight verification-say your race standard static bike has scales built in.

Racing will always be sketchy and tbh I think it's a good thing zwift have not them selves tried to make it too serious...... It means folk like me can avoid those race events where the organisers take it so seriously they have forgotten what it's like to ride outside.

Anyway we did our club ride of 70k on Bigfoot hills yesterday morning. Slept in hit woke at 7:10 it with an espresso and was on the bike at 7:28 for a 7.30 start.

First climb in titans was good. In touch with the front runners and a new pr. Volcano was pretty much a pr and was 3rd. .. last epic Kom nearly ended me. There was nothing in the tank and from there it was a grovel to the finish.

It means folk like me can avoid those race events where the organisers take it so seriously they have forgotten what it’s like to ride [s] outside [/s]

There's plenty of that in the real world too, in fact I think they're by and large the same people but at the moment they're cooped up inside. The sort who think "the rules" really are and enforce sock length on club rides.

You're right though, as an amateur endeavour it's very open to abuse and there's little point in zwift taking racing too seriously until there's a solution for that. It would be nice though if the televised/pro end didn't look quite so amateur though.

It means folk like me can avoid those race events where the organisers take it so seriously they have forgotten what it’s like to ride outside.

Have you seen the Facebook group "Zwift Transparency" in which is racers in their bib shorts and clattering SPD cleats videoing themselves getting on the scales with and without kettlebells to prove their weight? Some even show a copy of that day's newspaper to prove the date!

which is racers in their bib shorts and clattering SPD cleats videoing themselves getting on the scales

Why, why, why would you want to watch this? Drp's mid ride sausage retrieval is bad enough.

indeed and i find it laughable.

If im going to race im going to go race somewhere where handling and such like come to the fore more than just brute strength .... its essentially the bike equivalent of a smith machine. lift the weight but you dont need the core skills such as if it were a olympic bar lift.

this wednesday in non serious racing

we have moved our local TT onto zwift.

Wednesday times from 19:25 - tempus fugit out and back. Lotta big names (in scotland) turning up......

I can confirm you wont have to stand in cleats and shorts weighing your self holding todays newspaper.... even if you win - No Zpower though.

You’re right though, as an amateur endeavour it’s very open to abuse and there’s little point in zwift taking racing too seriously until there’s a solution for that. It would be nice though if the televised/pro end didn’t look quite so amateur though.

I'm not even really bothered by people who feel the need to cheat tbh (because I'm not & never will be at the sharp end 😃) as for me Zwift racing is more about challenging myself than other people.

Well the ZHR turned out a lot better than expected given at 17.20 I was debating taking some paracetamol and going to bed. Good to see weeksy and Ivan in there.

I think I'm about 2W from tipping into A now though so I imagine my racing success is about to take a massive knock.

I was on my 2nd ride of the day having done 40km this morning outside.. It went really really badly !!!

We all have those ones!

I remember once getting off my bike at the top of a hill and just collapsing in a heap on the floor trying to shovel in the few snacks I had in the hope of getting me back to the car

I wasn't best pleased to find it was a draft-free TT, especially after closing the gap to the guys who went off like rockets only to not get a rest in the nonexistent slipstream!

I don't think I was the only one, there were def some others finding out the hard way.

Pretty pleased with the result though, 7th in cat and 33rd overall - if I'd had an actual TT bike then who knows, I might even have got 32nd.

You were flying btw dangeourbrian.

I don’t think I was the only one, there were def some others finding out the hard way.

Nope you weren't the only one!

I am thinking of doing a ITT tomoz evening.

Got a choice of 3:

Newbury Velo at 19:00 (this is prob the preferred one)
XRS at 19:10
Deeside Thistle at 19:25

None fit great with bed time for the little guy though. Might have to let him stay up a bit late!

I would join you but Wednesday night is my night off.

Does remind me though, are we TTTing on Thursday? I'm looking out of the window trying to resist the temptation to book something in if the real world

Thursdays have been become one of my real world ride days so I'm not likely to be TTTing if one does get posted.

I've just signed up for the HERD Racing points race for tomorrow night though, I've not done one before so it should be pretty interesting to see how it pans out.

pretty inbreeding

No matter how hard you try you're not going to tempt me to race on a Wednesday. Even if your sister has a mytee puurty fayce

Deeside thistle in B cat are giving you times around 7.40 now if that helps.

its a scratch race so CAT doesnt matter.

Don't know what you mean...

I swear my predictive text waits a few seconds and then changes what I wrote!

Deeside thistle in B cat are giving you times around 7.40 now if that helps.

its a scratch race so CAT doesnt matter.

Going to try and get on this - the TTT goes over the epicKOM climb on thurs, did it last night on a gp ride and I'm just going to be a portly handbrake for my team, so need to do something else.

Changed to my cross bike on the turbo and it seemed good on the Alpe at the weekend, might eek out a couple more Watts. TT bike was OK but giving me a few aches and pains I think.

the TTT goes over the epicKOM climb on thurs

That sounds mean

The TTT entry is in. 6.30pm on Thursday. It's 3 laps (27km) of the Hilly Route Reverse in Watopia This isn't actually as hilly as it sounds, and (don't listen to Garry!) it definitely doesn't go over the epic KOM. It does go up the original non epic "Watopia KOM" but backwards, which is up the long drag we've ridden a few times together now (at 30km/h) and then a fast descent down the steeper side. The rest is just lumpy.

Enter here: https://www.zwift.com/events/view/868219 - category A this week
Tag your rider name with (STW) in zwiftpower settings.

I'll be back with a start time on Weds.

Zwift kom from the bridge side ?

Thanks Savoyad - I've entered

Sry, my watopia geography is a bit vague. Thought it was backwards over the epicKOM.

The TTT entry is in.

That's the one trail_rat. No probs Garry.

it definitely doesn’t go over the epic KOM.

That sounds better, really don't think I'd have fancied that as a TTT.

I'm signed on.

I'll watch the start times . I'm riding late tonight and tomorrow so should be able to do jnrs bed tonight and tomorrow and may get out for early thursday but will let you know Thursday morning if I'm still needed.

ITT Tomorrow might kill me haha

Sorry rolling it back a bit.
TPbiker (correct me if I'm wrong) you're a TT rider typically. If you want to be competitive in zwift bunch racing on the flatter and short hill routes you need to develop your short power and recovery from efforts which doesn't equate with TT riding.
I'm competitive in C as I can put the power out to stay with groups and recover. When feeling good I can dictate the effort in the front C groups if needed to try and shake people out. I can still recover for a decent sprint, not always mind and I currently have a habit of starting too early.
I am bothered about people cheating to keep under cat limits but it doesn't really affect the racing as I can beat them and it adds a dynamic to try and beat them as they are the favourites. They also maybe legit. Worst is out of cat riders who are over the limits tearing groups apart or bringing dropped riders back. That's pretty annoying.

A points category system would be nice where you win a bunch get promoted and then maybe get relegated again later.

just read this ZI article about Zwift potentially hosting some kind of virtual TdF event next month.

https://zwiftinsider.com/virtual-tdf/

exciting stuff! potentially some new routes (STW meet-ups with sprints on the Champs-Élysées would be AWESOME 😃), maybe even some long-awaited improvements to racing/spectating infrastructure.

You'd be struggling to not back Rohan Dennis then ! He's an animal on Zwift as we've seen. 1 hour efforts, he's very very impressive !

Ha yeah saw an arguement in the comments of a Rohan dennis based zwift article where the fanbois were saying how the zwift pros would nail him on account of them being able to kick harder after a long effort like that.

Someone replied with the numbers off the zwift pros in question with the sign off that based on the numbers they wouldn't even be able to see Rohan come the finish....

Top ranked zwift pro pushing 5.1for 20minutes Vs Dennis's 5.9 for an hour. Monster !

Did anyone do the Deeside crit I'm the end? Pretty sure I saw at least one STW in the results.

I was well rested for this. Not done any zwift since Monday week as feeling rough. Only rides have been low intensity. Been ages since a iTT or FTP test as well. I pushed my zwift FTP up to 345W (from 332W) with a 4.7wkg AVG 😀. Very happy with that. With a few TTs I may just be able to sneak A+ soon.

So I did the HERD Crit City points race this evening, might be my new favourite racing format it went so well.

Format is 50pts for crossing the start/finish line first, 49pts for second and so on down to 1pt for 50th and the race was over 18 laps - most pts at the end wins and there was unconfirmed talk of double points for the last lap.

The various cats start separately and get points for their position in relation to their category but everyone ends up on course together so there's always other riders around you.

The racing isn't quite as hard as a normal zwift crit and there def seems to be more tactics involved. It'd actually be a really good event to enter an an STW team - working together picking of individuals and racking the points up.

I've no idea how many points I actually got but I was 3rd on ZP so happy with that. On a side note the reverse crit course seems a lot easier than the standard loop.

Did anyone do the Deeside crit I’m the end? Pretty sure I saw at least one STW in the results.

I was well rested for this. Not done any zwift since Monday week as feeling rough. Only rides have been low intensity. Been ages since a iTT or FTP test as well. I pushed my zwift FTP up to 345W (from 332W) with a 4.7wkg AVG 😀. Very happy with that. With a few TTs I may just be able to sneak A+ soon.

I swerved it in the end - going to do the TTT tomorrow now I know where it's going, and tbh wasn't feeling up to a game-ending effort today.
Congrats on the ride, sounds very rapid. What time did you get - must have been sub 23 at those numbers?

Thanks, no where near 23 though. Shows me at 26:25 on ZP. Gavin Dempster won in 24:45 at well over 5wpkg.

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=869998

Oh right was thinking of the tempus course I've done on the Newbury TTs which is 17ish km I think. Great ride for 20K - large numbers at the sharp end there.

I threw my 12yo off CoD today and onto a tempus fugit D-ride - worked surprisingly well, he rode at 50-60 watts all round and was with other riders for most of it (main gp was a bit faster), seemed to enjoy it.
It's a delicate one - my lad, like me, is physically lazy. Cycling is the one sport he actually shows some enthusiasm for so the turbo seems like a good way of killing that. But perhaps zwift can play a positive role.

Yeah I did it

27:18 pb on power for me. Highlights why I need to lose weight......

353 ave power.

The last loop caught me out.....saw the line coming up and thought that's it.....and still had another 1800m to go round the loop brutal

Nice power @trail_rat.

I've done that course as a TT so knew about the extra loop. It caught me out the first time! Doesn't help that the segment times disappear as you go under the arch.

Well that's it I often do the zwift fast Friday ITT on that course. Not once has it done the end loop.

Was able to keep the hammer down had not emptied the tank clearly.

Anyone coming racing with DIRT at 11.40 ?

How did it go weeksy? You got any legs left for a TTT later?

Im out for the ttt my legs are brutalised after last night it was a deep dig.

OK, TTT info is here for this evening....

Our start time is +9.5 minutes. So in the pen for 18:30, then once it says "GO!" we don't go until 18:39:30. Phil will handle the stopwatch and shout go. (is that OK Phil?).

There are still places in the team. Enter category A here https://www.zwift.com/events/view/868219 and append (STW) to you Rider Name in Zwift Power.

There are five of us on the start sheet at the moment:
ljarch
dangeourbrain
phil56
zilog6128
savoyad

See you in the pen.

How did it go weeksy? You got any legs left for a TTT later?

Posted 6 minutes ago

Not terrible not great. I've lost form at the moment for sure. Started off not going nuts and letting the A/B split away and sitting in with the mid Bs and fast C's. But when the pace kicked on near the end I didn't have the legs/lungs/desire and fell off the group.
I think part of it is the fact I'm racing more for mid table mediocrity rather than battling for a podium, just doesn't give the same levels to push on to. But I'm way down on my average and max HR at the moment and a chunk down on power too.

Just feeling all a bit meh about the indoor stuff at the moment. Tues I was out with the boys and set 3 Kom and had tonnes in the legs, power was there, form was there, but indoors, I've just lost it all.

I'll do the stopwatch - everyone make sure to be on the Discord channel, or you won't hear the 'GO'!

I’ll do the stopwatch

Are you going to stop pedaling though 😂

well you can be in charge of the 'Shout to stop pedaling' - at my age I struggle with multi-tasking!

Looks like we've got 5 signed up for the TTT tonight!

Good luck lads!!!!

6 now, tiger6791 has joined us.

cool 😎

I have a tt tonight which I'm dreading. In the faint hope that outdoor tts may be allowed in the not too distant future I'm using the tt bike exclusively on the turbo at the moment.

10% power lost, with probably 20% extra effort required, so my expectations around performance are minimal

Has anyone got a link to the discord for the ttt cheers

https://discord.gg/rHgm8c

Cheers for this evening folks, I needed that more than I realised.

Yeah thanks lads had to go pretty deep to hang in there but really enjoyed it. Still getting used to discord though

Great ride that, don’t think I’ve ever worked so hard on zwift!! Thanks to those on the front for dragging me round 😀 cried a little inside though each time we closed on a team as it meant another kick was coming 😂

We were 11th in Latte on the provisional results at one point, seem to have disappeared completely off the page now?

Really enjoyed that, great effort from everyone.
Thanks for organising Savoyad, appreciated.

Yep, thanks all was great fun tonight, first 5km was tough but after that everything clicked I was working hard but really enjoying it, even managed a few turns on the front!

The hour just flys by 👍😀 and it’s great seeing us close in on other team’s.

Av power for me this week was 301W

By the time we hit the finish I was done though.

301! Wow. Top job mate. Back on form

Entered with our club.  I was a bit hesitant as it was last minute thing after I did a 1:40 Z3 interval last night.

Anyway, had a strong ride averaging 3.6wkg and like before, very much enjoyed the event.  Strangely the hill felt worse on the second lap than it did on the third!

TT time 43:10, Zwift power total time (B, Mocha) 54:14.   My mancave looks like someone had a shower in it after I forgot to take my hayfever meds on top of the normal sweat and dribble!

301! Wow. Top job mate. Back on form

Ha! No still a fat **** 😀😂

Takes that much power just to shift the carcass

We were 11th in Latte on the provisional results at one point, seem to have disappeared completely off the page now?

‘Reckon they’ve worked out Phil’s a pro and disqualified us 😀😂😂

Had a good ride on our TTT, rolled round in 41.45 - I've put up some wretched performances on hills recently but felt solid this evening. Think swerving the crits for a couple of weeks has done me some good.

Some insane speeds up on the results atm - top frappe team 26 min at 63kph? Surely not and must be some errors being dealt with there.

Very impressive result last night guys - our time of 42.41 placed us 13th out of 159 teams in Latte.
254th overall out of 582 teams
That's pretty solid for a team of enthusiastic novices!

We had a great result for the team I ride for. Rolled over the line with 38:52. We’re a mixture of A’s and B’s and had a full compliment of riders at the start (8) that makes a big difference. A couple dropped off near the end but it wasn’t a problem, they’d buried themselves and done their job to make sure enough of us crossed the line to make a time. That course suits our team well with its rolling roads. We have a couple of lightweight climbers for the hills and some big old Diesel engines (like me 😜) to drag everyone along on the flats. Put a good shift in, averaged 334w, 346NP.

That’s pretty solid for a team of enthusiastic novices!

Great result. Well done all.

Got to wonder who is enthusiastic though!

TT time 43:10

Got to wonder who is enthusiastic though!

Pre-race

Ah, that explains it. I was thinking by 7pm most of us didn't sound too enthusiastic

No wonder I unhitched on the last lap. That was our best result yet. Great ride.

The entry is in for next week.

6.30 on Thursday. Enter category A here: https://www.zwift.com/events/view/889027

The website always goes haywire at this time of the week - at the moment in different places it says Watopia Hilly Reverse and/or Tick Tock - but I think it might actually be Watopia's Waistband when the dust settles.

I'll post this again with concrete news on the route early next week.

The entry is in for next week.

Thanks @savoyad - I'm in too.

See - that's enthusiasm!

Beat us by 2 seconds last night.
Down to 4 though. Our 5th rider crashed out in the pens and would have also seen us in Latte and might have snuck us into the PL spot.
I had to drop off on the last climb as was done in. Not many places to hide in a 4 man team.

Anyone seeing merit in the 4pm ZHQ race over the longer Crit race distance today ?