Forum menu
Weeksy that would have been me.
Did ToW 6pm yesterday, first time up AdZ for me, a very pedestrian 1:28. Not sure that AdZ will be a regular route for me.
planned to do the 9:15 wbr but due to jet lag found myself still awake at 5am and my normal alarm clock (a 2 year old) somehow slept in until gone 9.
looking forward to rest of ToW, never done the Pretzel before so stage 7 will be something new. By the looks of strava pretzel is tougher than fire and ice?
I am on the 6am TdW Stage 4 tomorrow. The 8am one would make me too late for work.
It will be interesting as I span around the route this morning thinking there was something wrong with my legs they were moving that slow, I am sure tonights gym session will add some speed back in.
Weeksy that would have been me.
Ah right. No worries... I quite enjoyed it even though a small field..
Also most impressed that i hit 299w average on ZP (289 on Strava) and was highest average power in the field. If only i were 20kg less ! LOL.
I've had a bad weekend of bad food and no 5-2 last week as my boy was away and then we were away at hotel and Rockingham on a trackday.. However, at Rocki i saw a dozen mates who commented on how much weight i'd lost... So i'm a bit pleased by that 🙂
XC racing, well, i can't say i'm as bothered as i was 3-4 weeks ago, i'm now simply thinking "Go enjoy riding round the woods as hard as i can" and the rest, well, we'll see what happens.
I'm actually looking forward to the pretzel, I bottled out last time i was on a ride round there so I've got some unfinished business.
I would say AdZ is a harder climb even if the route is more climbing overall it's much more spread out and shallower gradients (apart from the tower, obvs) so you get more of a draft off the group.
The best thing about the pretzel if you have not already scoped out the route is the nice surprise once you have completed the EPIC KOM reverse and discovering you are not having to climb up to the radio tower again.
I hit stage 3 last night as the lour of AdZ was just too great but took it easy as I can never get to sleep after a hard session. made it a little bit more fun by waiting until nearly everyone had set off and then seeing how many I could catch. Started 877 and finished 470ish....9mins down on my best (1.04). goal for the year is to go sub 60mins.
Love the pretzel but the ramp up to the radio tower kills me, it a challenge to even turn the pedals at some points.
Oh man, i left my legs on AdZ yesterday! The slightest of headwinds on this mornings commute and i felt like i was going backwards.
May also be able to relate to this..really would have preferred it on a wet weekend as opposed to a work evening.
Finally got around to doing AdZ last night, as there was no way I was heading outside when I got back from work. I found it pretty realistic, even though it is about 10 years since I last rode AdH. I actually found myself reminiscing quite a bit about which switchback was which, where the various cafes are etc. Good fun!
Still planning todays ride...There's the 4:00 tour of Watopia, but will that as usual just turn into a race.... ? If it will, then i may as well do the 4:05pm WBR 4 laps of CCW to get some points (or lose some CVR points) and enjoy the racing aspect.... Decisions decisions.
I actually found myself reminiscing quite a bit about which switchback was which, where the various cafes are etc. Good fun!
Agreed, it's a shame the scenery isn't a vaguely accurate recreation, would have liked that. I kept thinking "oh I remember this bit, I think...", and I only rode it 6 months ago!
Getting very bored of all the damn screenshots on the Zwift Riders FB group though!
(not sure if it has been posted before) is a good insight into the amount of work it took to create the AdZ climb.
Stage 4 of the tour completed this morning, tired legs and all it was a significantly better experience to Stage 3!
I did stage 4 this morning but i was 3 mins late and didnt have my shoes on so not a great start. Mind you it was quite an incentive to catch people so i decided to tempo at a strong pace and hammer it on the hills. I managed to go from 482nd to 101st which i was quite pleased with. If i hadnt wasted the first 5 mins i reckon i would have been top 20. Is there anyway on strava to get avg power data by eliminating the first few minutes?
on the power bit, use drag/drop type jobbie on the bit you want
Yeah, go into the ride, click on analysis then you can just drag across the time window to select a portion of the ride.
[img] 
[/img]
#sprintfinish
Managed to complete the AdZ last night for the first time without a sensor drop-out part way through the climb.
Really enjoyed it. Didn't manage a sub 60 mins (63:36) as I took it too easy to start with as I had no idea of what was involved.
Def need to do again soon but don't like not being able to sleep afterwards.
doing 2pm tour, but due to hills will be at back
Holy mother of ARRGGHHHH how tough !
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=51552
I think i ended up 194th out of 520.
Worked DAMN hard.
https://www.strava.com/activities/1502260067
Strava has me with some PRs on the climbing.. Eeeeek
239w average and a HR average of 164. Wasn't planning on quite that hard !
Isn’t funny how we all plan to take it easy but end up turning ourselves inside out. I have the lurgy so just wanted to work up a bit of a sweat to help me shift the lung batter and snot but ended up doing a huge turn, just cant help ourselves.
thanks for the strava advice guys, off to check my ride now.
If you have an airways infection below the neck, the last thing you should do is ride anything close to hard to try and clear it! 😉
My first ride since last September, tall or virtual.
Was a 12k WBR Sprint/ race.
Good news I'm consistent.
Bad news is I came last out of 56! Which is consistent! Lol 😆
Good to have broken my cheery again though. 😏
Well done that man! You might have finished last in the field but you're way ahead of me today.
I signed up to the 6am, 8am and the 4pm TdW rides and haven't made any of them!
Well done PScoop ! Top man !
This is getting ridiculous... Of course, in a good way... but it's still ridiculous. Just been sorting out my summer shorts and out of 15 pairs of shorts, only 4 fit me anything like acceptable. Most have 2 arms and more of space in there, but the rest are just absolutely useless to me. My cycling shorts (baggies) are falling down when i go out now and some are max adjusted, so they'll need replacing too. I'm dreading taking my t-shirts out at the weekend and seeing what fits/not !
I did Warriors racing league this morning. One lap of the figure 8. Entered C with 8 others. I ended up in a group of five after the start which splintered after 5k on the first hill. From there I TT'd the last 25k on my own. Finished about a minute twenty down on the guy ahead of me and three minutes ahead of the next group.
Probably didn't go off hard enough at the start although judging by the results the only decent group was about 5 min ahead of me so I wouldn't have kept up anyway.
Finished sixth out of seven in C and managed to average 3w/kg so pretty happy with that. It is bloody hard on your own.
Weeksy - that is a good problem to have and better than all your kit being too small!!
poopscoop - well done that man. You didnt finish last as you were ahead of all the cyclists that were sat on the sofa 😉
jk - its pretty grim when you are on your own, its like being back on a dumb trainer pre zwift.
Your right there Blader. Thankfully I never did the dumb trainer thing.
Also I forgot to say cheers Scaredy for the ride on!
Back on it tomorrow after 15 days off the bike (and Zwift)
Gonna do AdZ - Carb'ed up to the max.
I discovered that there appears to be a reverse - ie: descent - ADZ jersey the other day, Banged down the thing only to find myself riding round the jungle in a spotted top. Turns out I was also KOM on the official Zwift Insider wotnot descent segment, though I didn't realise until someone beat me. It was all slightly surreal. I'm a lot slower down the real thing thanks to self preservation instincts and the need to actually slow down for the bends...
Another TdW Stage 4 ride here. What everyone else up there said about turning yourself inside out.
Decided to see what the pointy end of the race was like, so set off with the fast guys. Was jockeying for 1st for the first 8km, then any talent I may have started to run out. It's horrible to see a group ride away from you slowly, when there is bugger all you can do about it.
Settled in to a small group of following riders and happily* maintaining 380w for the rest of the ride. Little sprint at the end to grab 19th. I was putting out around 1000w from 250m to go, but two others just rode past me.
Took quite a while to recover from that one. Also recovering from a head cold. Just wish the gunge would go away and I could stop blowing my nose.
Final time was 41:39
ZP says I had the highest average power for the event at 397w. At least I'm now down to a steady 93kg.
*really struggled
397w average ! Fooook ! That's just .... Impressive.
^^ what he said. Wow! If you can 'just' manage that for 6 hours you'd win Paris Roubaix.
By the way, my Facebook feed is showing bits of a Frank Schleck led ride up AdZ. He's putting out 230w with a heart rate in the 70's!
He’s putting out 230w with a heart rate in the 70
The TdF year that Garmin put out live rider data was real eye opener to how fit these guys are.
Chris Anker Sorensen’s SRM Data from Stage 19
- Weight- 64kg
- Functional Threshold Power- 400w
- Total Time = 3:27
- TSS = 254
- KJ = 3499
- Average Power = 282 Watts. Avg Normalized Power* = 322 Watts
- Avg HR = 148 bpm
- Max HR = 171 bpm
- Mean Maximal 1-minute power = 518 w
- Mean Max 5-minute power = 442 w
- Mean Maximal 20-minute power = 393 w
- Avg Cadence = 82 rpm
- Avg Speed = 19.5 mph
Enjoying the Tour of Watopia, it's given me a bit of extra training motivation.
The next 3 stages look a bit "samey" though! Up to the radio tower in all 3. Still... it's good training and having done 4 stages I feel obliged to finish it off.
I have found it really enjoyable and even though some of the stages are going up the same climbs I have discovered how stuck in my ways I was with my normal morning routine of hitting the Road to Ruins route before work as it felt like a good balance of climbing and sitting at a decent wattage.
Stage 5 will be a Saturday effort for me around a route that although I have ridden all the parts I have not in that order, looking forward to it.
Forget that idea.... it's Spring this weekend ! I'm heading out in the big wide world... It may be only road and a few select trails at the moment, but give it another week and they'll be dry trails too !
Wow! If you can ‘just’ manage that for 6 hours you’d win Paris Roubaix.
Doesn't help that I'm 20kg heavier than the pros. I'd say that I was quicker, or had the potential to be, when I was in my twenties. Being clueless about training, and having found alcohol and girls at uni RUINED IT ALL!!!!............
If someone could just get on with developing rejuvenation technology I could live my dream, instead of facing 50 in a few short years and a downhill spiral ;-P
Well if it stays dry between now and Sunday I'll be a Swinley early for a lap 🙂
It needs to be dry for about a fortnight here before anything gets dry. Kids are back at school next week so i am definately hoping to improve on my 40 miles of outdoor riding this year. My FS bike thinks its in a retirement home as its not been out this year!
back to zwift, i forgot to mention that yet again during stage 4 of the tour i only got 2 PU’S and the rest were points. Is anyone else getting such high level of points rather than PU?
I had 1 PU that I started the event with and 1 at the end however I think that is becasue I didn't use the one I started with until the final mile. Can't even remember where the others should have been dished out, top of the 2 climbs maybe?
68:18!
Done for
Built for cuddles not climbs
Well done Tiger..
Also did the AdZ climb this evening as part of the WBR Climbing training. Was confident I could slash my time from my first attempt but was a lot closer than I thought. In the end I took 63.40 which is just under 3 minutes quicker than my first attempt (66:31). Getting a time under an hour looks like it could turn into a real challenge.
Mind you. I have lost a couple more pounds and haven't updated my weight for a while. I think I am entitled to drop 2 kgs on Zwift, which of course I should have done before I went up again! Ah well, next time.
tentative first attempt up the alpe today after 3 weeks of illness, 71:33 on the spinny wheel, 71:11 on the strava segment, only 224w, so power is someway down, its decent though, a longer session than i would normally do so thats something, will try again when im not so time cruched
Also had my first attempt this evening, managed 56.31.
I think I was with 'thetallpaul' at the beginning - who seemed to be doing intervals up it!!!
Phil, I most certainly was: PRL100 wk2 Day 4 workout. 1min on at 450w and 1:15 off at 215w, I think. Ten times! Almost lost the will with that one.
Workout finished at turn 4, so carried on to the top and gained the wheels. Always finish a climb + 50m at effort I was once told by a bloke who used to destroy me in my youth.
Day off Zwift today for my birthday meal (46). Pretzel on Saturday at some point for ToW.
Btw nice time Phil.
Tricky one today... All the RRRRRRRs
Road ride
Race
Recovery
Rest
Undecided at the moment. I was planning a rest day as there's a nice window of opportunity for tomorrow for riding. But sadly the weather change hasn't quite kicked in yet here as hoped, so won't be the glorious sunny warm day i was hoping for. But i still have the option for 3-4 hours out riding.
There's a A/C race around the Volcano later, which means i don't have to mix it with the pesky B bunch 🙂 So that's an interesting idea... I'm not feeling a Zwift recovery ride at all today.. it takes a certain mindset to cruise round Zwift and i don't have that today...
Decisions Decisions.
Did ToW stage 5, the three sisters. 174 in it.
Started well and was 72nd at the bottom of the first hill but was up to 52nd at the top in what turned out to be my 3rd best time ever. Got into a group of 9 and we stayed together until the start of the epic Kom. By the time we got to the village I was up to 46th. Stayed there until the radio tower. Got to the top of the epic Kom in my second best time ever. Started the radio tower and was up to 38th by the top.
By this time I was really thinking this is going well. Started the downhill and was pretty much solo to the volcano turn off. With about 10k to go all of a sudden I really started to feel it. By the time I got to the volcano climb I was on fumes. My son poked his head in the garage and I sent him off the find me sugar as I was really struggling.
At about this point a procession of the guys I had passed earlier started passing me again. After the first couple I was beyond caring. Within 5k I was down to 55th. I ended up riding with one guy who had caught me to the finish. I can only assume he was as shot to bits as me.
I crawled over the line. Despite totally losing the plot I still beat my pb by 3min although it was half an hour before I had the energy to move. Shattered.
Maybe doing this after racing yesterday was not one of my better ideas.