Forum menu
GDPR re-registration stuff, very few have done it
ah, right
(can't believe you didn't turn up weeksy !)
Riding now 🙂 lower watts
well that was horrible, The Chop B - went for B as it was 3-4w/kg - got shelled out the back before the 6 laps even started pace was far too hight for me :o) so just span round, didn't even put out 3w/kg ah well 🙂
Scaredypants - not sure where we dropped you but i guess it was horseguards hill. That was quite a good race mainly because nobody was attacking. The usual fast spots on the hill but i was able to deal with that fairly easily. THEN i made a big mistake, i was holding on to an aero as i knew it was going to be a sprint finish. I was typing out a message when somehow i got the user customisation screen up so i panicked thinking i had gone in to the menu which means you stop riding. I frantically started pressing the screen but i stupidly hit the area with my power up, i was still in the race and had just used my pu 2 miles before the line,bollox! I ended up 8th overall about 1.5s behind overall winner and Silver in B group,just imagine if i had that aero!
i then did a race immediately afterwards which i had thought was a social ride,doh! 31 miles later and i finished 6th and shattered.
Yeah, over the top of the rise, guy in front of me lost the tow and so I pulled round him but only raised my effort a tiny bit; by the time I realised you were still pulling away I was out of luck and it very quickly turned into 30 seconds
I wouldn't have lasted - I needed an aero to get back on after the longish climb up from the river in the warmup and shirt was off before the start proper
(saw a comment from you as I was riding in - wondered what "I'm a bellend" meant !)
Did the 8pm kiss race but the laptop started doing windows 10 updates before hand and is still going now 2 hours later. Had to use the iPad for the race but the HRM is ant+ so I couldn’t use that for the race. Didn’t feel great for the race (but I was in Pizza express 2 hours before the race) so just tried but couldn’t keep up with the main d group. Ended up jockeying with another rider all the way up the hill and caught and overtook him on the way down. Stayed clear from him with between 10 and 20 seconds all the way to the line. Looks like my result won’t count though as I didn’t have a HRM.
Oh well at least I did something tonight and averaged 2 w/kg so even though I didn’t feel as great I was still on par with my normal power output.
It all helps robbo - I was dropped by the one rider I was left with today, then caught and beaten to the line by the next bunch of 9 or 10. Gave me a workout and that's good enough for me.
For some perspective, I had two beers sat on the sofa 😀
Weird end to the WBR London flat race there. Was in a group of 6 most of the way round, about 0.5 miles to go I was just getting into position for the sprint when the others all disappeared and my distance to the finish went up to about 0.8 miles? It was as if I was sent on a different route to the finish. Ended up doing that last bit on my own which was disappointing after a good race up until then.
For some perspective, I had two beers sat on the sofa
Ah, tapering !
(That's a weird one blitz)
Does Zwiftpower work out categories automatically based on FTP? I tried to race in B in the two lap hilly this afternoon but found myself shunted into A, where I came up second from last and near dead.
Or is it Zwift that figures this out?
Could be I just clicked the wrong thing but I don't think so.
ZP is calculating your category based on power output during the event. It's also calculating your correct cat from the last 90 days results.
Just to add they seems to use the 95% of 20 min figure but there are also power over time category limits that can cause an upgrade. The details are on the ZP site somewhere.
Just done my "second" race
Bit irritating as I lost the bunch (remind me, who's GM on here?) over the top of that first hill up from the river again. Was closer but still couldn't hold the right wheels.
Ended up with 1 other rider and was hoping we could bridge back over but he was a bigger wheelsucker than me and we achieved **** all together !
In the end I decided I'd wait for the group 20 sec behind and we all duly grouped up. The rider I'd been with made a break for it with about 5k to go and I thought he was going to get away. With 3ish to go I played my only card - feather coming up out of an underpass - and pulled 30m on the group. Had no choice but to push on (ouch!) and I caught the breakaway dude again but he just sat on my wheel (again) so I waited for the bunch (again).
As expected, got the shit kicked out of me in the sprint. again
It was me Scaredy. I had a good race for most of it - managed to somehow get into the first 4 at the top of the first climb and we had a decent gap. I tucked in and in the end about 15 riders in total eventually got back on.
I got dropped before the end of the first lap though - tried to draft an 'A'-rider coming out of the tunnel but he was even more knackered than me. That said, then managed to solo it round the 2nd lap and not get caught which was pretty satisfying.
11am EVR Asia Race this morning, 2 laps of London Classique, why does it have to have a bleeding 7.5km lead in? is there a list of races with and without, it was already 47km anyway - anyway, lined up, sprinted off the line, went to change gear, nothing happened, assumed the Di2 battery was flat as i could still shift the front, was in a decent gear so carried on (rear mech was unplugged not a flat battery) was going to do 1 lap and bail, but towards the end of the first lap i was feeling ok so carried on, decent little group of 5 or 6, no one really working just all pushing on and trying to hold on, couple dropped behind on the rise around the bottom of box hill, left with 3, one managed to escape on the run to Buckingham Palace and get away, had an aero boost and used it to nick it on the line from the other rider, 1st in C on ZP though, so ill take that
bladder1611 was in it, but his group got a gap up northumberland road during the lead in and ended up a good 10 mins in front at the end
8 races in the last 7 days, legs feel cooked but its been fun, rain due all day tomorrow, think ill have an easy spin outdoors on Sunday
assumed the Di2 battery was flat as i could still shift the front
I think it's the other way round - back stays working but front stops if the battery's going
(I wonder if you knocked the mech and put it in crash mode (did you mount the bike on a direct trainer just before the ride or has it been on there for a while?))
well done eemy, that first climb was pretty hard; I thought I was on form up to that 🙄
I did the ZHR hares and hounds race, three laps of greater London flat. I nearly bailed before the start as didn't think I'd be able to keep up with the pack and do a fair share of pulling. The start was so much nicer than normal with no huge rush off the line and a nice settling in period. Lap one was nice and steady with a reasonable pace. The time to the B group started to come down nicely and I still had the legs to do some pulling. Lap two it got harder, very nearly fell off the back a few times after pulling. Seemed to me the pace had gone up and I was in trouble. Around the end of the second lap one A moved away from the rest of us (.Ford), they were clearly faster and had no issue gapping us at all. He must have been the pace driver as after that the group pace slackened a bit and I was more comfortable. We were steadily reelling in the other groups now and there were only few left. With 5k to go there was just an improbable B who had latched onto .Ford's wheel (much to his annoyance I think). I attacked lots in the last lap to try and drop the B's who had attached themselves on the way past. Managed to drop a few but there for four left alone with four As for the sprint. This wound up as we turned into the mall. By 300m to go the As started to pull away. I was a bit behind but a final effort got me over the line in third.
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=92063
Its not moved off the trainer, i had taken the chain off to wax the previous evening so it was probably that
Dirtyrider i hadnt realised you were in the race. It was greatest london flat course so it is quite a long race that. The guy who won the race was incredible (Norm) he actually pulled time on us even though we were a good size bunch of A/B riders, i think he is one of the big hitters on zwift near the top of the leaderboard. I hung on for the bunch finish and ended up 7th overall and a bronze in B. I now have weekend off the bike as that last race had me at nearly 90 miles of zwift racing on just thurs and fri.
Gaaah what was I thinking?
10 laps of classique and I'm now on 300+km for the week and I'm supposed to be racing outside tomorrow.
Ended up second but there were weird drop outs happening all through the race. The winner seemed to be holding 6.5w/kg for over 10k at the end yet zp doesn't show that, weird.
I have seen quite a lot glitches on zwift lately, i wonder if the increase in numbers is to blame.
Was wondering about that. Did a race Thursday evening and the graphics were quite jerky. Did an 8.30 race this morning (Jungle loop, 3 laps) when the game world was quieter. Graphics were smooth and flawless.
One bugbear I do have is these races where the first lap is the warm-up or lead out. There’s no warning up or leading out! Everyone is out the blocks in 150% race mode and there’s no let-up and do it becomes a race of x laps + one extra.
There is no such thing as warm up or lead in in zwift world so once you know that then just ignore it.
Think you can beat me in a sprint????? Not today.
But yes, probably tomorrow and the day after.................... not today though!
well Sundays easy spin outdoors didn't happen, couldn't really be bothered, weather was rancid all day yesterday, cold this morning, meant digging out some warmer gear, so had a lazy morning with the kids, mrs took them to a out this afternoon so decided to have a go up Alpe Du Zwift, first time since end of April, FTP increase from 267w to 282w, which was a surprise, 58:25 - could have saved some time changing the wheels and stuff, only noticed at the top i was still on 808's and the Zwift Aero frame ha!
so the FTP increase puts me towards 3.5w/kg, so B for races, but i never see anything over 3.1w/kg in races, i guess i should just suck it up and enter B's and hang on as best i can
Wasnt feeling great today but figured I would give the Kiss First Base race a go. Windows 10 almost conspired to prevent me from competing and after finally getting Zwift to work I had 2 mins for a quick spin before the start. Went quuick out of the blocks and ended up in the second group on the road in a bunch of 8 riders. Kept with them most of the way around the first lap but I felt I was one of the stronger riders as I was pulling away a bit up the hills.
This course (Watopia Flat Forward) suited me better as there were some short hilly blasts which is more like the roads around here (Derbyshire). 2nd Lap I pulled away slightly with another rider but we were caught before the end. Sprint to the line started early and I came in just behind two other riders. Was a good 25 riders behind me (but most arent registered on Zwiftpower so dont show up) and was a competitive race so I really enjoyed it. Ended up having the highest power output in the race but my high weight doesnt aid me!
Well done Robbo... the weight is less of an issue on some more than other layouts as you've seen. Watopia flat, volcano flat etc, all suit us big boys a bit better. But yes, you'll often have one of the higher power outputs for your Cat.
12:05 is looking prime candidate for me today. 6 laps of Volcano.. yeah.
I am doing the 11:15 race which is watopia flat in reverse. I dont mind the reverse way as it eliminates the climb up to the esses which is a race splitter, it just means there are a few drags each lap.
I saw that.... but 4 laps of the flat may be a bit long/hard for me.
I also realised, my car isn't outside yet... It's in the garage and may be finished today. So i'll need a 30km ride over there to get it if done anyway.
Good job Robbo. Looks like from your ZP history you've a nice upward trend going on across the different power measurements :D.
Don't think I'm going to make the wahooligan race tonight unfortunately. Wife is away and I'd need to put daughter to bed 20 mins into it. May try though and just accept a break in the middle or let her stay up for a bit.
Did the 1 lap road to ruins hilly race last night, legs were not feeling it and ended up in the rear group with 5/6 C/Ds and a similarly lowly finish.
3rd time lucky for the Wahooligan race tonight as the last two weeks they have messed up and set the races up as TTs, will bail if that happens again.
Been using zwift without a fan and have got fed up with the constant puddle under the bike so have bitten the bullet and bought a Wahoo fan, waiting on its arrival from Wiggle, it'll make me faster right?
Dark at 6.30......must be Zwift season again!
Dug the turbo out of the shed and hopped on a steady group ride last night. Seems like I've got a long way to go to get me back where I want to be 🙁
Cheers all
@nixie - yes I do seem to be making progress. I am finding ifeel a bit tired but I am still getting PB's (on both Zwift and on the real roads) so I am making progress and not getting slow. Sometimes it feels really slow and ponderous though. Maybe I just need to reset my expectations as the results differ to what I think I am doing! In a good way 🙂
Is the wahooligan race at 7.40? Cant check at work as ZP website has topped working for some reason. If so I was planning on doing that one.
WHAT A RACE! 4 lap flat reverse and all cats went seperately so you only had to worry about your own cat. Fast tempo right from the off and after the first lap i really couldnt see why i liked doing this in reverse. Also first 4 power ups were points but that another story. Pretty much hard tempo throughout which meant virtually no attacks other than a couple of times but it was only a few seconds. We hit the last lap and i reckon it was a group of at least 15 with quite a few recognised names. I was trying hard to conserve some energy but it was too fast for that. 2 miles to go and we are bunched up knowing its going to be a hard sprint. The last mile has 2 long drags which i knew was going to hurt. The first drag and people start ripping in to it so i go about 90% gas and i am hanging on to about 7th but its stretched out. We crested for a short flat section and i just about gave up but the next rise came and my legs were hurting but i was just about holding on to some sort of cadence. We were over that and it was 0.3m to the line but i noticed everybody had used a PU on the drags and i had creeped up to about 5th. I hit the aero straight away as i was starting to pedal in squares. I managed about 4 secs of sprint power but i was toast. I looked up to see there were just 2 guys left in front so i kept a reasonsble tempo but my legs were all over the place. I was just about to collapse when i looked at the screen to see that they had all blown up with 0.1 to go. I maintained the slowest sprint in the world only doing about (500w) and died about 50meters before the line but managed to freewheel over the line for the win, GOLD. Slumped on the bike for 2 mins heavy breathing. If you check out the result below it actually transpires i was the fastest rider in the entire race, beat the A winner by 5 secs.
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=93003
Haha... fantastic, well done sir !
Nicely done @blader1611
@robbo1234biking yes that's the race I want to do. I noticed you in the start list along with Simon Copping in C.
I dont think it was that quick at the end of my race, it was just people going too early and gassing out. The last 2.5mins of the race (about 2km) i averaged only 415w.
Well that was a bit of a disaster. Went of really quick and kept up with the front group for the first 8 miles. Even led for some bits of it.Then we hit the hilly section. Not sure if it was an issue with Zwift for a bit but it seemed to go back to front with the gradients. When I was going up hill I was spinning like mad and going downhill was really hardwork. I assume there was some kind of bug. I was pushing at 45 rpm struggling going downhill at 41mph! This really threw me and I completed the first lap but had nothing left in the tank for the second lap.
When I look at the initial results on ZP though it gives quite good results but I just finished early. Feel kanckered but after the commute in tomorrow I wont be able to ride for about 5 days and my body prob needs a bit of a rest as I have been pushing it hard for 2 months or so.
Well that hill (or three hills) was a ****er! I've never ridden the Richmond courses before and I never want to do them again. I'll take that hill in Innsbruck over the three at the end of the Richmond UCI. Was all going well till we hit them on the first lap. I was with the lead group and feeling ok (dispite having to hit 800w+ at the start to stay in touch). All fell apart on the hill as the stronger riders pulled away. I managed to get into and stay with a group of five. We then caught another three in the flat.
Somehow we all stayed together through the hills on lap two but there was nothing left to sprint. I cruised over the line in 28th.
Richmond is pretty boring, glad that doesn't come up much.
I need to work on my pulling. I can get onto the front of a group but never then seem to stay there very long.
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=93163
Glad that it wasn't just me struggling on those hills then nixie. Worst bit seemed to be on the last one (I think) when there was a multi-storey car park or similar on your left. It just seemed to keep going but at that point I was already kanckered!
I am going to do the Zwift academy workouts now before I do any more races. Try and build a bit of fitness more suited to the racing.
Richmond Flat is like i think a Crit Race would be... suits us big boys perfectly.
Sadly, Mrs Weeksy came home late last night after too many cocktails, so i've got to cycle and get her car instead.
I like Richmond Hilly as it cuts out the boring flat bit. The last of the 3 hills is the worst up to the finish. I can generally hold my own on the middle one but I normally get dropped on the first one as it's just a bit too long to hold on to the lightweights.
Chop C race tonight. First in a while and inspired to get back to it by everyone else racing. Reasonable group of Cs but it became obvious we wern't going to hold the Bs off so backed off and were caught on 3 laps to go. Bs went past with a surge but 3 of us got onto the group. As looked too far behind even with some STW powerhouse in there. Sat in with the Bs relatively easily although it left me with no real sprint. 2 Cs made it to the end and I came in second but 1st was above Cat limits so first C and 8 seconds down on the winner. Happy with that.
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=93394