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Did the old WBR one lapper last night, god i take ages to warm up! It feels almost as if it's the turbo that takes half an hour to ease up but that's not possible with a magnetic turbo is it?
The race was largely uneventful, seems that someone got off the front by a few seconds, it must have been round the hairpin before the flamme rouge, i didn't notice anyway. Won the sprint but was 3 secs down on the winner. Didn't feel great, didn't feel terrible.
After that though i just did a few freeride ramps, grabbed a few wheels and kept zipped round the classique course while watching walking dead on netflix. I started to feel progressively stronger (and knew that the Mrs was watching Made in Chelsea, so wasn't in a rush to get back indoors) changed direction and headed towards fox hill and did a nice steady time up there and bagged myself a spotty jumper, almost enjoyed it! then the loop took me round to leith hill, definitely didn't enjoy that one as much but picked up another jersey.
I had the daft idea that I should work out how to get to box hill and do that but naaaah, i had 60k in the bank by then and it was getting late. Good ride though, first time i've really enjoyed something other than racing.
Did a 200 mile ride earlier in the year at 19mph
Bloody hell, solo?
Not solo no, 6 of us and on a route with no big climbs.
I did one last year with 200 miles and 14000ft of climbing. That was a different matter. I don't think I managed 14mph
Checking in. Not raced in ages!
Apologies if I don’t respond to anyone on Zwift, I’m usually running TrainerRoad at the same time as I use Zwift as a visual distraction/log the “miles”.
I just did an ftp test: 310w @ 75kg, 6w less than my previous test a couple of months ago. I’ve barely been doing any cycling but I’ve been religiously going to the gym mon-fri (hoping the 5kg is upper body muscle ready for mtb’ing Haha) so I’m happy at that, if I do any racing on Zwift though it’ll be TTs as I’m not sure I have any top end...
New one tonight, I actually got away from a group and stayed away. Been struggling with a dodgy back so didn't kill myself trying to stay with the front group on the WBR 3 lap flat race. Was in the 2nd group, a few fellow B's but mostly C's. Pootled along at a very sedate pace, then a break went with 10km left, nearly missed it but sprinted across the gap. Pace was higher from that point forward, but still fairly comfortable. I had an aero boost which I'd kept all race so decided I'd not wait for the sprint and have a go at 2k to go. Pace was quite high at 2km so waited til about 1.5km to go, used the aero boost and just went as hard as I could for the rest. Before I knew it I had a decent gap and even managed to freewheel over the line. And then as is normal for WBR I got disqualified.
Think I've slipped into a habit of hanging round at the back cos it's more fun. Must put more effort in at the start to stay with the front group 🙂
Hey Dazh, I was in the same race it seems. I was also disqualified for racing as a C while it appears ZP have bumped me up to a B! I hadn't realised that they had done this and that you don't automatically get reassigned in a WBR race. Ah well, you live and learn. I purposely took it a bit steady so as not to be pushed up into B again and was a pretty steady race all told with a nice tight bunch from about 34-50th place. It all stayed together with only a couple of minor short breaks, right up till the final sprint. Managed to come in in about 4th-5th in the bunch sprint which would have placed me around 2nd/3rd in the Cat C group I thought I was racing. Was 46 seconds down on Daz! Will try harder next time 🙂
If you’re purposely holding back to stay in cat C shouldn’t you just race in cat B??
@Dazh, seems your on a classic trainer. That means you have to use a HR monitor to avoid DQ. Do you use the companion app? If yes does your phone support Bluetooth 4 ble?
If you’re purposely holding back to stay in cat C shouldn’t you just race in cat B??
This, definitely. Embrace the upgrade.
I’m actually on a trainer with a power meter but it keeps reading as ZP which is a bit weird so think it might be on the blink.Either that or the ant+ dongle is knackered. But yes I do need a HRM. Anyone recommend one? I’m not mad keen on chest straps but needs must I suppose.
Recommended by DCRainmaker but not cheap. I just bought another Garmin strap for £25 instead.
https://www.scosche.com/rhythm-plus-heart-rate-monitor-armband
I'm using one of the decathlon ones https://www.decathlon.co.uk/ant-bluetooth-smart-hrm-id_8334795.html . Could not find any non chest strap ones at a sensible price.
What trainer? When you pair does it appear in the top left as a power meter? Could be advertising itself as more than one device and the game is locking onto the wrong one.
I raced in the KISS greater London hilly loop last night. Most of the big guns were in the earlier GCN race so was hopefully for a good result. There was also a good team turnout. The catch was I did an 8 mile run over the weekend (on no run training) and my legs were seriously stiff.
Pace was easy till the hill, really easy. HR was barely above 140! A stayed in mostly a big blob. Leith hill sorted that out and fractured the whole lot apart. I ended up in a group of four with one other BRT rider. We had a virtual team car running on discord which really helped me on the climb. Couple of times I thought I was done and the encouragement spurred me on. The group of four held till the top and I collected a feather from the banner.
The other two riders seemed to be coasting down the other side so I out in some power spikes to wake them up :D. There was a fiat bit of tactical chat on the way down. I was pretty sure I had no sprint from leg tiredness. The stiff bits weren't effecting my spinning but bigger efforts they made themselves known. Having the feather gave me one chance, go for broke on the ramp out of the underground. I think this caught the others napping and I managed a 10s gap on them by the time I was on the bridge. This opened to 15s before I had to calm it down. Just a matter of holding on for the last km now. One of them tried to come back but Instill had a 5s gap at the finish.
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=107197
Firmly mid pack but PR for the route and Leith hill. Also first time I kept up with any As on that climb. Very good event all considered.
still beat all the Bs though 🙂 Good one.
Did the morning grind race which has all my nemesis in the race so its super competitive and also brutally hard. I think Scaled was in the race but he seemed to be going backwards so i assume his recent efforts took there toll. I sent him a ride on when we caught him hoping he might drag me along but he slowly slipped out of the back of our group. Anyway it was a brutal race and ended up in a big bunch finish, i ended up 7th i think but we were all seperated by only 2s. The A group race must have been a cracker as i think the first dozen riders were all within 1s.
Ahh thanks for the Ride On, Blader.
Monday took it out of me I suppose, then had a load of people on Teams messaging me, I really need to book that time out so it looks like i'm in a meeting 😀
Just watched the video from the race this morning and after about 45s i am actually in 2nd place,it didnt last very long. The race was faster than i thought as i had 26 acheivements according to strava. I hadnt realised just how much wattage i was putting out, holding 425w for a minute in the middle of the race i think did the damage to my legs. The first lap i avgd 307w which is probably why i seemed to spend the rest of the race trying to get my legs and breath bsck.
"mate, we have a server/cluster/farm down"
Is the message i dread when i'm cycling.... Jabber pops up... "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO"
I hadnt realised just how much wattage i was putting out, holding 425w for a minute in the middle of the race i think did the damage to my legs. The first lap i avgd 307w which is probably why i seemed to spend the rest of the race trying to get my legs and breath bsck.
That's big boy numbers there !
Scaled, you were right in the mix at the end of lap 2 as i saw your name on the video.
Weeksy, sadly big boys numbers in the middle of races means little boys numbers at the end of races. I just never have enough left in the tank for a good sprint,something to work on over the winter.
Nah, I got shelled out the back on the second time up the KOM climb - nowt in the legs for that, averaged 4.3w/kg up to the point i was dropped. I thought that was a doubledraft race but apparently not :/
Anyone noticed the effects of the DD ?
I've only done 1 race with it and apart from a larger group it didn't seem any easier/quicker really.
I only notice it if you drop off the back,anything more than a few seconds and you will have to turn yourself inside out to get back on, it is horrendous. To me all it seems to have done is reduce the amount of attacks off the front as it is simply too hard to drop a group now.
Doing a few Zwift events we've been having a few dropouts where everyone else vanishes. Is this likely a problem with our limited internet or is it a known zwift issue? We have a wifi extender due to stone walls etc which is slightly weak/slow compared to our main router but not really poor. The dropout is a bit annoying as you seem to lose the draught meaning you're dropped by the time it comes back. Are the power line extenders a better solution than a plug-in wifi thingy?
It can happen when it's really busy, evenings etc with 7000+ riding but i've barely ever suffered with it myself
To me all it seems to have done is reduce the amount of attacks off the front as it is simply too hard to drop a group now
That was the case in our race yes... 3 laps of Volcano flat and starting the 3rd lap we still had 30+ in the lead group, which is VERY unusual, especially as it was a long race and high power..
DD has a big effect. It allows the rider on your wheel to shelter a lot more and is much harder to drop someone. I had a wheel sucker on a race earlier. When I was sitting at 3.6 he seemed to be able to hold my wheel at 2.2. Every time I sat up, he did the same to stay on my wheel. Did this for the whole race until the last 2k when he held out 6wkg the whole way to the line.
It was frustrating but adds another element to racing that I think is a good thing, though if you lose a wheel that's you finished.
Thecaptain, i would say its 99% likely down to your internet, i have had it a few times and its always due to a dropout. Like Weeksy said there is the odd rare occassion when zwift just doesnt cope due to massive numbers.
I've not sat on a bike for DAYS !
Tweaked back on Fri, thought "it wil be OK...." so raced Sat.... made it worse....
So i've not sat on the bike since Sat !. Won't be tonight, possibly tomorrow depending on hangover so may be a very gentle one.
Anyone noticed the effects of the DD ?
I’ve only done 1 race with it and apart from a larger group it didn’t seem any easier/quicker really.
Pretty marked I'd say - It makes being right in the bunch an absolute must. Most noticeable when not concentrating (or when going up a short hill) and you drop a couple of metres. There's almost no getting back on. Arguably more realistic (I don't do group rides outdoors so can't really say) but I think it penalises the larger rider, since mashing out (relatively) high power on the flat gets you nowhere once the tiny folk get on your wheel 🙁
Too tired at moment to have motivation to race - so gonna do a bit of strength work completing the Wahoo Climb Mission in 6 days ... anyone else thinking of entering? chance of prizes added motivation I guess ..
no races i could fit in today, so up the alpe, new PR of 51:56:57 (helped by a 1.9kg weight drop to 80.8kg, when i weighed in on 2/12/18, not actively trying to lose any weight, so ill assume it was a blip and it will be back on in a couple of weeks when i weigh again, to keep everything accurate) and a 1w increase on FTP to 302w
ill take that
I had a little ride up the Alpe as my warm up for the MGCC race this morning. I was coasting at 280w (3.6w/kg) and my heart rate never went above 145bpm so i thought my legs might be in good form for the race. Pretty much the first 80% of the race was so easy i thought i could be on for a win here. Err no,yet again i was beaten in the sprint although this time i had at least a little bit in the tank to make them work for it. I did the last 300m at avg 654w which just isnt enough for a sprint, i was 3rd and just 0.77s off the winner.
well done blader, or it would've been for me anyway
I've just quit the hare&hounds thing due to constant dropouts with the entire bunch disappearing every couple of minutes and individuals flickering in & out all the time. Anybody else getting the same today ? (not sure if it's zwift or my connection)
Hi all, i did my first race in a while last night (wbr 1 lapper) but for some reason ZP isn't showing my results? Even though it shows results from previous races.
That sounds excellent and at this time of year would be really cool. We did a few back in the older days of all just starting and meeting at a particular point.
I think i've got a reasonable chunk of STWers on my list. Something worth trying i rekon.
Hi all, i did my first race in a while last night (wbr 1 lapper) but for some reason ZP isn’t showing my results? Even though it shows results from previous races.
pre GDPR? you need to relink accounts
I did a 50 mins gentle one today... I was dying of a hangover from Weds night, plus my first ride since i tweaked my back last Fri.... So just taking it nice and easy.
Aah, GPDR. I did the linky think this morning when checking. Thanks for the heads up.
Hey hey,,, interesting thing here.
Was chatting to my riding mate, we ride regularly together and discussing Zwifting. He owns a KickR Snap, same model as me.... So we were going through the thoughts as to why his seems harder or he's slower than i'd expect.
I got him to send me a screenshot of his pairing screen. Bottom right, controllable trainer option was set to Wahoo KickR %$^%$^ Now, i thought we always used the FE-C option for Zwift... So got him to change his to that...
Then i jumped on a ride to shadow him. Checked my screen.. mine was same.. No FE-C.
I'm off to do some Googling, but i'll be curious as to anyone elses settings, whether they're a a Snap or on anything else ... Are you stil seeing FE-C in your bottom right corner of the Pairing?
Aiming for the EVR race at 8:05 tonight - no high hopes, ridden every day this week but the Mrs is out and i've already eaten a pizza and a load of rice pudding so needs must 😀
Off to try the WBR 1 lap highliner in a mo. Be my first time as a self-selected Cat B rider. Wish me luck!
I’m off to do some Googling, but i’ll be curious as to anyone elses settings, whether they’re a a Snap or on anything else … Are you stil seeing FE-C in your bottom right corner of the Pairing?
Are you using Bluetooth or ANT+ - with Bluetooth my Kickr just has one option which isn't FEC labelled, but is clearly controllable. On ANT+ there are two options, one is FEC. which is what I use, the other isn't. But yes, if I connect on ANT+ I use the FEC option cos that's the controllable one.