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Change of plan here, i've gone for the 15:00 Tempus Fugit TT. No drafting, which doesn't work in my favour LOL.... but flat and fast course which does. Got into work early doors so will be at home with plenty of time for it.
Bit confused by the TT race today. You go off in groups of 3 at 15s intervals.
I thought I went ok, if a bit too hard early on
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=228857
Results say otherwise though. What confuses me is that I thought Zwift was biased towards power to an extent. But plenty of riders miles ahead of me put out a chunk less watts than I did. In normal racing though that would see me beating them but not today?
Also would have thought that on flat TT course Watts would be king. Was TT bike enforced or could some of the lower Watts riders have been non TT bike and drafting?
In TT mode there's no drafting.
There is slight advantage to be gained by having better kit.... Nicer wheels and more aero frame etc.
But mostly....even though it's flat-its not flat. So weight does come into it as well alot of it is up or down albe it only 1-2%
I couldn't keep my watts up today. About 30 seconds off my pb for that course.Fatigue and adrenaline wearing off...went out in the real world and nearly got flattened by a courier **** van.
Did you remember to change your frame to TT bike ? Makes a fair big odds that one.
Well no, it said you can use any bike so I went with the new sworks diverge and super fast TT wheels. I don't think I saw anyone on TT bikes.
Once I've got the Great Eastern Run out of the way & the nights start chilling a bit more I'll probably sign back up to Zwift.
I've had it cancelled all summer (I didn't bother cancelling last year, when the cost was much lower).
There are tons of new routes for me to try out & new features, so I'm quite looking forward to it. I just need to sort out my intermittent internet connection in the garage, which can make for a frustrating experience.
Did you remember to change your frame to TT bike ?
That reminds me, I have 3 million Zwift shekels, what to do with them...?
Not done anything with mine
Had a look at results
I see only 1 or 2 folk who beat you with a lower w/kg for the duration. Yes there are lower actual watts beating you but they probably weigh as much as fag packet so their watt/kg is better
I totally get that, but still would have thought watts trumped w/kg?
I can't change it and couldn't have tried harder, could however have ridden cleverer, but not that much. No biggy, was a good session
Aye TT is an art. You went well that's sure.
Gonna do the dtcc crit tomorrow night at 19.25.
Prep for our clubs winter zwift crit series starting in November.
Crits are not my thing . Short bursts are not my thing. Zwift power agrees I'm a long climber and a time trialer
Lighter riders are smaller riders. They can go faster for less watts on the flat too thanks to a lower CdA.
Its only when drafting gets involved that watts trump fatness a little.
Strewth! My mate from the next village was racing tonight. So of course, that spurred me on to hold the front group! With just 0.1 mile warmup, I was smashing the four-fiddies to not get dropped. Eventually the pace eased off.
To 30mph 🤦🏻♂️ That meant 280-330 just to draft. Somehow I stuck with it and then we hit the foothills. Already doing threshold+ I had nowhere to go but out the back door.
Rich got dropped too and waited for me. Soon we picked up a bigger group from behind and amazingly I clung with them over the top.
I got some good recovery in on the descents and by spinning up the flywheel in the kickers, could coast freely to the front each time.
We were making good speed on the second lap and picked up more riders and blasted through some others.
Second climb and it split to pieces but I made it surprisingly far with the leaders.
Picking up two others, we blazed down the descent and I decided to use the kickers again and managed to get a five second lead going through the lagoons.
Burying myself at around 360, I slowly eased out the gap to 15 seconds for around 60/144.
Another C cat trophy for the collection 😎 🏆
Massive power, impressive
Thanks! Bang on ftp basically. 290w average and 300w normalised.
I would have beat those two B’s in the finale for 25th/34 in B cat 😩
If ever there’s a good incentive to not lose weight it’s Zwift racing in the lower cats 🤣
I was +29kg on the guy in 2nd 🤣
Struggling to find anything interesting/nice for today.... The best i can see is a SZR 18:00 race, but timings are not ideal for me.
Sod it, i'm in for the 17:10 round the Tick Tock layout. Planning on starting a bit easier than usual to try and make the distance. Will let the lead group go i think.
Anyone else fancy that ?
Too early for my turn to do the bath tonight.
19.25 for me although I seem to have developed a tickly cough so may not we will see
I'm not waiting for that one anyway now 🙂
I'm going to bimble round for 40 mins then do the 15:35 round Sand and Sequoias. Even though it's a rubbish layout for me, it's decent training. I won't pick up any pots or any ranking points though
There's ranking points.
Do explain .... Maybe there's more to this that meets the eye
So looking at for example my profile page
https://www.zwiftpower.com/profile.php?z=164586
middle left. 'info'
WKG Category C 280 races
95% of 20min 270watts / 3.04wkg
95% of 20min 256watts / 2.88wkg
95% of 20min 253watts / 2.85wkg
Average 260watts / 2.92wkg
Race Ranking 522.20 pts in 5,156th
So riders start at 600.00 and when you perform better than that ranking, your score goes down.
So look at my last 3 races then scroll right.. it shows on the 2 i got silver, my ranking points were dropped down.
then go to the 'rankings' tab.
https://www.zwiftpower.com/rankings.php
You can see where you are in your Cat.
So i'm on 522 points, the top Cs are 380 give or take.... the crap part for me is while i had time off racing you lose points... I was in the top 100Cs before i lost them and lost form.
It's also part of the reason i sometimes pick and select races and routes that suit me.
Now we get to the complex bit.
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=229260
This is my race today...Looking at the C riders in the race who are currently signed up most are on 600.00
So even if you beat them you get sod all for it... it's beating people above you in the points that really tells.
So last night for example Crosshair got <2.00 which considering the time and effort he put in seems very unfair... But if you pick and choose correctly in the races and who's racing, you can get a good chunk of points.
I don't see me getting any today though as the hill will put me way down.
Ah ok cheers for the explanation. Had no idea
LOL it's 50% of the reason i Zwift race.... fitness being the other 50% of course.
My fall from grace saddens me lots.
Another fun and slightly silly race.
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=229260
Silver after sort out, but was 9th before it on Zwiftpower with the winner being an A rider at over 4w/kg.
On Zwift companion I show as 16th. Which as I say is a bit dsft
Went out well and was in the usual lead group, big big group. About 6km in I could see a split coming but embraced it and let it split as I wanted to save a bit for the hill at Titans Grove. So I jumped with the group catching us, so did all my group of 4.
As we hit Titans I tried, I really did. Honest. I averaged 178 bpm up it and set PR in lead in to it, the climb itself and the way down after. But it's not enough. I ended up in a group of 5 to the line, but a sustained silly HR meant I had no sprint.
Nice one well done. Some strong segments in there 👍🏻
Well I said I wasn't a crit racer and I'm still not.
Rode the 19:25 dtcc crit on the London classique Held the pack I was with for whole event then they ****ed off with about 300m to go doing 7-10w/kg I could barely muster 5 by that point
15th of 22 in the b's or 30 out of 97 total.
Averaged 3.6w/kg which was much better than j was going on yesterday's TT.
That little 5% grade on every lap is killer.
Nice work there!
i don't mind that hill in Titans, just the right length to really hit it hard without blowing
good results all round!
classique - yer last time i did that i was dead on my arse, was essentially full gas last km, no idea where you pull a sprint from at that point
I think If I wanted to go for it id have to get up the 5% then go full gas for the long game.
I can hold a midling power (4-450watt for 2km) output into the wind for quite some time but I cannot hit the big numbers for short periods come sprint time.
I do like the climb up in titans as it's not too steep like say zwift Kom or the climb to the mast.
Any love for the 17:05 today then ?
5 laps of the volcano CCW. One of them courses that isn't 100% suited to my profile, but it's far from terrible and looks like being a massive field, so will be an entertaining one at the very least.
.
35-49 riders per category signed up for that 1705 now, but I really shouldn't sign up, been feeling under the weather since last weekend with minor sore throat and physical fatigue, as today has progressed I'm now feeling a bit "chesty." Gentle turbo spins might the fullest extent of cycling I do over the coming days. 🙁
.
Are you me nobody.
I've decided a couple of days off. .
Chest is sore and I can feel it working its way down in so in a scorching hot bath instead of riding my bike.
Coupled I guess with after that session last night I didn't sleep till 12:40am and was up again at 4.30 with the little one.
4 hours on MTB on sat so don't want to be crock for that so zwift loses out.
Setting the wife up with zwift trial on Saturday ....which is good as If she likes it I'll get justification to insulate and plyline the pain cave.
come on boys
You inspired me to give it a go , and it was painful, but fun.
Where did you finish mate?
I'm half happy, half angry and half meh.
It went wrong early on as the C/D pen goes off about 80m behind A/B. So when you meet the As are gone. Boom.
So settled in with the easy B and fast C group and fast they were too! Decent lap times. By lap 3 I'm finding it hard. As we climb to the line and cross it I lost a wheel or 2, then another few meters and the guy ahead of me kicks, I'm then floundering. I wallop the power to close, but it's too late, the group went. Damn! I knew for sure they'd be the top of the legitimate C's. Into lap 4 and the group behind me and 4 other are about 30s down. They slowly close with some B who must have been asleep for 3 laps now sticking in 4 w/kg. Dragging another 5-6 riders with him.
Last lap they're 15s behind us and we're 45s behind group in front. I power on 3-4 times to maintain the gap behind but the others are not doing enough and as we hit the climb for the line they catch us and with momentum fly past, I latch on to hold but on the push for the line I'm 5th out of our group of 9. Meh.
8th overall and the group 1 min ahead were the main C's as predicted.
Power was decent at 260w. But overall I just need a day or 2 rest.
KISS race this morning, a lap of Watopia Waistband, pretty big field. As usual a rapid start, couldn’t hang onto the fast gang so settled in with some faster C and slower B riders. As the kicks came we slowly lost more from the group, on the kick into the volcano I nearly lost contact but managed to power back to the group on the flat, by this time we are down to 9. The sprint wound up with .3m to go, don’t have much of a sprint at the best of times, dropped 2 seconds to top 3 in the sprint but came home 4/9 of the group. Turned out 1 C was up the road with the fast B riders, after ZP did it’s stuff ended up in Bronze for a relatively low 241W.
Legs were tired today, think I am on 33 consecutive days of cycling or running, couple of easy days/rest coming up.
33 days, you're worse than me!!!!
Confirmation that 8 minute climbs in a Zwift race is too much for me. 2 laps of whole lotta lava up the volcano. Couldn't hold onto groups over it both time. Nearly held the people I wanted to but lost them on the flat at the top as couldn't raise myself anymore. Basically a TT from there with a small group forming the next lap but couldn't stay with it.
Too many Bs sandbagging in C pulling people away too. 16th on Zwift but 9 got binned!
Not that interesting race either due to not being able to do anything other than try to hang on.
Still leading the overall though.
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=229283
Hoping for something like the standard Watopia hilly circuit up the KOM next week.
Weeksy, I got 12th in the Bs. As usual the race was mad at the start and after the fast ones had pulled away it was all I could do to cling on to the group I was with. Luckily it was quite a big group so I could sit in the slipstream and save myself for holding onto them on climbs.
When the final lap came around it was all I could do to stay with the group with nothing much left for a final sprint with the top 10 getting a few seconds ahead of me.
Looking at the zwiftpower w/kg for people above me I think my sprint is what really lets me down, but I felt so drained by the end I had nothing left to give.
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=231267
Binned a sweetspot workout scheduled for tonight so may race TFC @7pm tomorrow instead. It’s London Loop so likely to get shelled up Box Hill but being a split start I might get lucky.