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I was in that Chop A group but had a load of drop outs, wasn't really feeling it anyway and jumped onto the WBR 2w/kg ride.
<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">Obviously not a race but i did manage my first (since the Direto) sub 10 second sprint on Wattopia flat reverse and set new 5,10 and 15 sec power records. </span>
Strava fitness and fatigue basically say's i'm dead on my feet which ties up with how i'm feeling but i'm away october half term so i'll see if i can keep tapping out some miles till then.
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#smugface
@scaled, I did wonder what happened to you. Noticed you chatting about chamois cream after the race while I was cruising around.
I was also in the chop A group with a stw tag. Legs felt like crap from Richmond last night. There didn't seem to be a huge willingness to pull and we couldn't get the gap much under a minute till the sprint. Again nothing in the legs to sprint and I came home 13th.
@tomlevell it was obvious from about lap 5 that the lead group wasn't going to get caught. Good job hanging onto the B's.
I pushed the ride out to 50k after the finish. Think I need to up the distance and lower the pace a bit to make more progress. I've nearly hit my monthly target already which is nice :).
I struck GOLD again this morning in the Kona series race which also had Scaredypants in. It was the quickest first 5 mins i have ever seen in a race, i couldnt get near the first 10 or so riders and i was pulling big wattage,it felt like they started the race further down the course. Settled in to a high tempo trying to hang on to 2 A riders but i lost them on the climb. I had 20s over the next B so had to go deep on the descent and the last 2 miles flat section. I crossed the line and saw that i avgd 4w/kg and 310w and thought thats me dq’d. Turns out the B chasing me was upgraded to A and ended with 3.8w/kg and first by over a minute.
Haha, not sure I was actually "in" your race, blader, though we did share a start !
I tried to go off steady, since there was no drafting (and also at 80kg I didn't want to be spent for the climb and have a load of 62kg riders blowing me away). That part was largely a success but seems I came back very steady too, rather than smashing out 400w for the last 10k. 3.2/kg overall, about what I expected.
Well done on the win
I did the CHOP race on Volcano CCW.
We went off nicely, for the first 3 laps i was strong as an Ox.... Turns on the front, HR all fine... But then the leg fatigue came on, the legs were tired and the HR was climbing. We'd caught the Ds and were cruising along at a nice pace, 5:52-5:59 laps of CCW, which is good but not insane.
After the start of lap 4 of 6 it was apparent the Bs were going to catch us, so as we came to the start of lap 5 they managed it just before the climb up to the start finish and i pulled out there. Didn't really care where i finished today, so bailing was OK with me.... Just wanted to work hard which i managed.
Yeah i did that climb a couple of weeks ago and i was 30s quicker then but that start this morning did my legs in a bit for the climb. In hindsight i should have taken it easier to save a bit for the climb. I am 79kg and trying to chase those racing snakes up that hill is impossible.
didn't have much time last night, so did the Primal Time Trial at 18:30 - not much fun as time trials go, 3 minutes off the winner and 3/7 in C
been up the Alpe again today, tried to hammer the 1st 20 minutes then settle down was 2w off 20 minute best and 6mins to 16mins was all best power for the year so happy with that,
14:20 today for the 2 lap of greater london flat. It's a course i like and favours my profile about as well as any apart from Richmond flat... Decent distance for me, should be about a 45 min race...
Field starting to get up there with 50+ total now.
whats the fastest bike and wheel combo on flat races then guys ?
Cervelo S5 with Zipp 808 and a disc, unless racing up A d'H when I switch to a Trek if I remember in time.
Still racing on rollers, which I hope is the cause of the poor results, after much waiting my Kickr Core is on its way.
Race went well, stayed with lead bunch for lead in and 90% of lap 1. But got dropped on the little 3% after the underpass, partly because of pace but my phone rang and I had to answer it as it was important. That kind of threw my concentration a bit. Maybe I'd have hung in longer, but wouldn't have lasted the whole race.
From there if if a Solo home for a full lap
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=93698
Just had another kicking, even on the flattish London route - actually got up that first "big" hill on the lead-in but couldn't hold them fairly soon after that.
Ended up solo TT chasing a guy 45-60 sec ahead and with a bunch just over a minute behind. Bit boring but good for fitness, I'm sure. Slightly painful left boootock on finishing; hoping it's not actually damaged
hang on a minute - weeksy, you cagey old dog. Is that a gold cup I see before me ?!
Yeah but not a great performance in some ways due to losing that group. On that particular course I'm a fairly strong C to beat. You've got to be going well to beat me without blowing out Cat limits.
out of interest, I enter as a B but at the far right of my line in zwiftpower it seems to have me as a C. WTF's that, is it telling me to enter as a C ? (it's possibly correct just now; I'm posting 3.2 FTP which is the borderline isn't it)
did the 13:05 WBR 1 Lap Greatest London Loop Hilly, managed to stay with the front bunch most of the way to the climb, when of course i got dropped, however id put enough time into the rest of the C's to get over and down the hill still having a gap, had a couple of B's closing in the last 3km, nearly messed up going up the escalator, didn't have enough speed going in and ground to a halt, concentrated on keeping them away to give the last few minutes some meaning, legs feel shot to bits at the minute, day off tomorrow
@scardypants the letter to the right is what zp thinks you are based on 90 day results. Need to keep an eye on it though as race orgs can set their events up to dq if you race under that rating.
Just joined Zwift this week but just using a non smart turbo a cyclops fluid 2. Appears to be a couple seconds delay in pedalling and it impacting zwift, is this normal? Also how much better are direct drive trainers like Kickrs? Is it a much better experience. It seems quite difficult to judge on a non smart trainer in terms of drafting and catching people up. Seem to get dropped and then put too much effort in and go by. Is it much more responsive on Kickrs, or just a case of getting use to it whatever method.
The immersive element of having the game/turbo adjust the resistance automatically is really worth having. As far as direct drive I didn't want the hassle of keeping a wheel on turbo calibrated. It also takes less room. My direct drive smart turbo (elite direto) feels responsive to me and I don't notice lag when I pedal harder.
Some great race reports and good to see new people joining 🙂
I have been doing a Saturday morning short sprint race that's a great quick blast out. It's run on a league basis. I missed a race so trailing the leader in points now.
For the first time Greenhalgh, me and Destefano, 1, 2, 3 in the league were all together in the same race. Good chance to take some points of them and close the gap. Felt good and was happy to take to a sprint or go long depending how the race went. Greenhalgh crept away early and went out to 8 seconds clear, no one else wanted to close so I had to jump the gap. Few hills later with 2km to go I was confident and pushed over the last hill then disaster.....
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=W2k_S_4uDws
@jlc I don't think the lag is related to specific trainers - there have been plenty of threads on the internet (various places) regarding this. I get it a bit (maybe a couple of seconds) but have mostly got used to it and I can draft reasonably well except when trying to latch on to anyone coming up fast from behind.
The "realism" of altered resistance is nice and definitely adds to the enjoyment for me, though again the lag means that my hills start and finish a couple of seconds later than they do on the screen. I don't know how the whole zwift thing actually works, which aspects are run locally and which are on a server somewhere, so I've no idea what to do about it. (my PC is relatively low end; my internet has recently gone to fibre and has about doubles in speed but didn't seem to make a noticeable difference to lag).
*adds* never had lag as bad as that didgy - what failed ?
**** me ! Hardest race pretty much ever for me just now. What a pace from the start, and flattish, so we stayed with the A bunch for a long, painful time. Finished 7/11 in B, 6 beats off my absolute max HR, 12 secs behind the winning B but I'd no chance of holding on.
Nearly fell off the bike after - had to keep pedaling & hold the garage shelving to avoid it
Decided last minute to do the midday 47km Ottawa Top speed Race. 10 minutes to change into shorts and shoes - switch system on - sign on ... made it with 2 minutes to warm up.
I missed getting into the first half dozen at start, so chased from the back and made it into the middle of the group, but still a fair bit off the pointy end. My gears were not slipping into gear properly - so had to change up 2 then change down one to get the right gear .. which was slowing me down finding a comfortable cadence.
Managed to work myself up to front 10 riders by top of first climb - but didnt manage to stay with them at top and soon found myself 10 seconds off back of them ... and 30 seconds in front of those chasing behind!
So I decided to ease off and and allow chasers to catch me and hopefully with more riders we could grab some time back.
By start of next climb 3 riders had caught me; and by halfway up .. theyd dropped me too! coming back from a week riding on Gran Canaria on Friday, and a 29km race last night ... my legs just suddenly popped halfway up.
The Next 40 mins was a horrible slog just to finish ... day off tomorrow!
How do I join the STW Zwift club?
it's in zwiftpower kryters - you just type it in from your profile page IIRR
So I decided to ease off and and allow chasers to catch me and hopefully with more riders we could grab some time back.
By start of next climb 3 riders had caught me; and by halfway up .. theyd dropped me too!
latching on to a passing group is the hardest thing for me, timing your own increase in power (or did they just drop you after you'd caught the draft ?)
There is a group on Strava as well Kryton. STW zwifters- allows you to compare you mediocre times up some of the climbs to the fast guys! Mind you I am guessing you will be prett fast up some of the hills so will be in the upper echelons!
I stayed with them from bottom of climb - until about half way ... and then just had to let them go and survive.
On a flat fast section I just allow them to get about 5meters behind, and then try and match the power output I can see they are putting out ... usually they will sit on your wheel then instead of going straight past; easier to sit and get on their wheels for a bit.
sodding dropouts!!!!
was having a great race 18:20 WBR 1 Lap Figure 8 Hilly Race - group of 5 of us in the 2nd group, and i had a ANT+ dropout on one of the small rises, about 5-10 seconds, but long enough that i tried and couldn't get back on, left me in no mans land a bit spent, couple more come past me and i couldn't hold on, had enough time on the next back , took foot of the gas and rolled home
quite like that course,
upgraded in the results to B 🙂
I had a great race once where I had a dropout and totally disappeared from the race, reappeared about 50 yards behind the bunch. Some fast rider came up behind and I caught his draft until we reached the bunch (he ****ed off ahead after that - was an A who'd also had a dropout). I finished with the bunch but somehow zwift decided I'd beaten them all by 50 yards 🙂
I had a crazy idea this evening. A 47k race over the three sisters route 😜. Not a massive field in this one, 6 As, 3Bs and about 20 C/Ds. First hill was the volcano. The pace was nice up this with just two jumping ahead at the top to try and grab the jersey. Heart rate was still nice and steady as we cruised down the other side. All stayed bunched till the big climb. Predictably the two light weight whippets pulled away and I was left in no man's land. They disappeared up the hill while I put it all in to stay ahead of the A behind. He got the gap down to 10s (from 30) by the time we were half way up the mast climb extension. At this point my TV turned off from inactivity so I went all in with a huge effort over the top. I smashed it using only the companion map and waited for the down hill to start. I pushed up to super tuck speed and jumped off to turn the TV back on. The climb must have killed the other A as by then bottom I was 2 minutes ahead. I had pedalled hard the whole way down (spurred on my a ride on from scardypants) while he was rolling at times.
By now the two leaders were a minute apart and I was gaining on second place. I held a decent effort up the KOM climb and finished strongly. Got bronze which was nice but it was a small field!
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=94063
I'm having a sulk, I was having a bash at the Kona 112 mile (180ish km) thing.
I'd managed 60 k on Friday night and was planning on the same the yesterday and today, one thing led to another and i needed 120k tonight! Of course, this is the night where i get my first ever Zwift crash 🙁
Finally reaquainted myself with Zwift this weekend. First time back since Feb!
I did a long steady Z2 group ride. Karma got me though..... one chap complained that his Di2 was dead which gave me a little chuckle as my gear cable was still on 100%.... 10 mins later my Stages battery dies 😭
I had nothing yesterday, i was going to join a Zwift climb race and ended up losing my dongle as it flew out and ended up on the other side of the room when i was sorting the cable... So got on 30s late for it...
Tried to bimble round, but had the wrong headspace for riding, so only managed 45 mins. Meh....
12:30 WBR UCI Worlds Hilly Race, good race, big bunch for the first couple of km, got strung out a bit in the next 2km until it starts going steeper up hill, loads went of into the distance, about 5 of us climbed together never getting more than a couple of seconds in front or behind, all descended together and stayed together for the couple of km flat before the hill in town, thought i was going to get shelled out the back, but powered up and did a PR for that section ended up 7 seconds ahead at the top, kept away on the descent and flat putting in more time, couldn't bridge to the 2 riders in front, but kept ahead of the chasing pack, 6/8 in B on ZP, loads more in the race than that though
5:10pm race for me. fasting day, so no going nuts with As
What a race that was. LOL.
Went off and let the properly fast fellas go, settled into group 2.... Up the hill i held my own and dropped a couple of places only, then over the crest i hit an aero and we ended up catching a couple of slackers in front. I think we were sitting from about 45th to 60th in a big group, couple of splits on the next sections, i'm coming in OK with my position within the group and managing to keep the HR sensible, coming to the hill i was around the same placing, mid 50s, the HR was on about 153 which is low for me, i then kicked up to 180 on the hill, lost some time, gained some time, as always, splits everywhere. I then grabbed the aero again up the hill and down the far side, puling in several riders with 300w and an aero, i think then we were about 35th- 45th and group behind, we'd caught some more ahead with a random C in our group who never dropped below 4.2w/kg so we mostly just let him tow us round.
The race ended with a cracking sprint for 42-45th overall with a bunch of us, i finished 44th but got the power down well and was very happy with it.
FTP increased from 281w to 285w.... plus.... i got bumped to B !
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=95164
Nice one weeksy. Are you going to commit to the B group coz those stats are very much B group material. I just finished 3 laps of Volcano flat and was in a bunch finish and was only 2s behind overall winner (i got silver in B group) and i avg 287w,
i was warming down when i passed a guy who was going pretty slowly, only doing 1w/kg. I then may be saw the reason why, he was currently at 173.6 miles. I had to give him a ride on, that pretty impressive.
Well that race flattered me a bit I think. But I was over 2 mins ahead of the other Bs and my other results are fairly strong in C. So maybe it's time to step up to B again yeah. Unless I drop 10kg though I'll never see the pointy end of B cat sadly.
More trophies for you ! You're doing amazingly
I think on your favoured courses and you get to recover from the ridiculous starts i dont think you would have a problem holding on to a group of B’s. The problem arises on hills or when people do the short attacks. This is where i cant hang on to the A riders, i need recovery time between efforts. I suspect as the weather changes and drives people indoors then my trophy efforts are going to be in short supply and my true level will start to materialise.
I was in that race with you, hung on for a lap and a half, got dropped from the bunch, on the rise at about 5/6km, finished in the group behind, 3 minutes back
3 of us finished together, thought i had them but went too long, got jumped at the end by one and held one off
by far and away my best flat 20 minute power just 4w off what i did up the alpe last week, happy with that - i assume the little cup next to the different powers is your best?
Correct yes.
I got several yesterday actually. Which pleased