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Jumped into a Crit City Slam with some of the club TTT riders. Internet issues got me in with 1 minute to spare.
All cats together for the short 8 lap of the Dolphin which I've not raced before.
Jumped out of the gate and promptly got spat out the back of the lead group pulling 350w.
Settled into the 2nd group which was slightly more sane.
Newbie Zwift racer reappeared in my group after dropping back after the climb.
6 laps of hanging on and got slipped off the back by a lapped rider I couldn't raise power enough to get out of the sticky draft. Someone else got me back on.
Same again end of lap 7 and a massive effort got me onto the tail end around turn 3 just as the tail end was getting tailed off.
Kept the power up to make sure nobody came up from behind for a decent result. First C placed rider other than clubmate who got himself upgraded after :0) only problem with that is our TTT squad got upgraded too :0(
See you in Thursdays results in Frappe.
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=661664
Nice one Tom... You enjoy the layout ?
heads-up on potential pen waiting times, could be up to 24 minutes!
Sorry, forgot to say that I'd entered the TTT for tomorrow. Can't get discord working though.
Thanks
heads-up on potential pen waiting times, could be up to 24 minutes!
So not much earlier after all then!
I have an old laptop running Vista. Doubt that would cope with Zwift - or would it? If I update to another OS, has anyone experience of running Zwift on any of the free OS (Chromebook, Linus etc)?
Zwift needs fast single thread performance and a reasonable graphics card. However it does also work on lower power hardware. What laptop do you have? Does it have a better or just the stock one? There is an article on zwiftinsider from March about how to get the higher quality graphics modes for not a lot. I've been using my 3 year only work laptop but off the back of that article just taken delivery of components for a zwift PC. Spent just over £300 (reusing a case) and should be able to get the highest graphics settings with all the bells and whistles.
Thank, Nixie, I will take a look at that
Knife to a gun fight.
Turned up to the dtcc ride tonight...... Pulled 6.5w/kg for the entire lead in and wondered why the **** I was going backwards.
Threw in the towel on lap 1.
Did tour of tewit wells to take stock and evaluate what was going wrong.
Turned up to a double draft race with a sodding TT bike.....
There is an update available so anyone doing the TTT tonight log in early to allow time for the update!
Do we still need to be in the pen at 6.30 even though we don't start for another 24 mins?
Do we still need to be in the pen at 6.30 even though we don’t start for another 24 mins?
We're at 12.5 min but yes, still need to be logged in and in pen, not pedaling, at 6.29pm.
I'm not sure if I'm going to make it this evening. Will see how I go across the day, hoping I pick up a but not been good over night.
You could be the virtual Directeur Sportif keeping it all together via the discord channel and fan view.
I've seen the Movistar documentary, all you really need to do is shout about how powerful our cajones are apparently...
You could be the virtual Directeur Sportif keeping it all together via the discord channel and fan view.
Audio would not be good for you lot. Comical maybe, but not good!
Damn, i was debating bailing as i'm tired... but i'll play as Danger isn't well. 🙂
powerups for Meetups! Might give me a chance in the sprints 😂There is an update available
oh awesome stuff !!!! look forward to them !!!
Nice one Tom… You enjoy the layout ?
Dolphin seems easier. Climb is steeper but shorter and it's shorter to the finish line where groups tend to back off a bit sooner. The other way round seems to be full on all the time as as soon as you go through the finish line you hit the climb and it goes crazy again.
Damn, i was debating bailing as i’m tired… but i’ll play as Danger isn’t well
So far I'm ok...
On that basis I'm in for this evening and fingers crossed I'll make the finish line with the rest of you.
SO we've got a good group for tonight then, with a flat course depending on where it starts of course. If it's on the usual Greater London Flat start then it's a bit lumpy off the gate, you've got a couple of toughish little kick ups early on. Then it's mostly flat apart from the section at the underpass exit.
Looking at who's in, once we settle down after the first bit by the river, we should have a good flying group.
It's looking good. We have 7 riders on the start sheet. Our STW tags are all OK. That leaves time for one more person to join I think.
We must be in the pen by 6:30. Our start time is 6:42:30 (it's 30 seconds gaps between teams because busy).
Last week we rode as bumblebees. Do that again? Or mix it up so each rider is more identifiable in the group?
I can see all 7 riders in the discord server. If an 8th does sign up, here's the working link: https://discord.gg/uRuQp7 - Voice in the STW Voice channel, text chat in the #general channel.
The seven names so far are:
weeksy
phil56
savoyad
IvanDobski
dangeourbrain
dknwhy
zilog6128
See you later.
See you all then and don't forget *stop pedaling at 6.29pm! *
I reckon stick with the same jerseys, helps see who's who when we're passing through other groups.
Anyone have a rough estimate of how long the race will last? Just so I can budget my pain levels and hopefully last the distance 😂
yeah stick with bees, might be worth giving each avatar a more distinguishable look, hat etc? My guy has long hair in a ponytail so easy to spot from behind!!I reckon stick with the same jerseys, helps see who’s who when we’re passing through other groups.
just so I don't balls it up as I didn't do the first one last week - we all stop pedalling at 6.29, join the pen, sit around getting cold and then at 6:42:30 exactly someone (team leader?) will say go and we all start pedalling from standing start? I take it this setup exists because every team is part of the same race event and the TTT organisers are cleverly staggering it to work within the existing Zwift system (which doesn't officially support this kind of event?)See you all then and don’t forget *stop pedaling at 6.29pm! *
Join the pen first
Pedal away until 6.29pm then Stop.
Wait until whoever says go then pedal away.
You can apparently sit in the pairing screen to twiddle away. I might give that a go this evening to keep my legs turning over for the wait, but I've not tried it before.
But yeah, essentially it's a workaround.
Beaten to it.
Edit - also beaten to it.
Yes zilog6128 - the zwift system supports the event only partially - so we have to time our own start.
We must stop pedalling at 6.29 to make sure we're stationary at 6.30, otherwise we'd roll over the line, then stay still until our start time. There's a workaround - you can safely pedal in the pairing screen without moving - but you might find that trickier to get in and out of than just sitting still...
Who took charge of the timing and countdown last week? Can you do it again?
Oh, and how long will it take?
I'd say 45 mins will probably win the category. 60 mins will probably come last.
Last time it was on this course (= 19th March), 27 out of 42 teams in our category were between 46:xx and 49:xx
Yup, each lap of GLF is about 20 mins, plus a little for the lead-in... So 45 ain't far off.
Anyone have a rough estimate of how long the race will last? Just so I can budget my pain levels and hopefully last the distance 😂
Not the greatest comparison, but I did ~39mins for 2 laps in Tour Of London stage 1 in Dec 2019, in a group of ~30 riders, doing ~3.5W/Kg https://www.strava.com/activities/2921939471
cool, thanks guys, looking forward to it!!
We did 16:30ish on the meetup. Record is under 40 from last time for Frappe/Latte.
Max would be 45mins I'd suggest. 43minutes for my last race to 2 laps of 3 laps. Hoping to be nearer 40 tonight as the second lap was 2 mins slower as I dropped from the front group.
Actually, my numbers above were for a race on GreatEST London Flat, wrong course. Tonight will be a few minutes quicker than that. Based on last time (14/11/19) looking at 40-45 minutes for most teams in our category.
Best of luck folks!
I'm still in for tonight. Will give it my best but my legs are pretty heavy after my first crit race last night.
Crit racing is mental! Entered cat C (i'm C almost B on Zwiftpower). 15 laps. Was 400w from the off and then stayed above 300W until lap 3 when I had to let the front group go. Was dying nearer the end but managed to stay with it as best I could. Didn't manage a good sprint though and narrowly lost out on a couple of places.
FInished 11th on Zwiftpower rankings (20th in the companion app results). 264W average and 3.5w/kg.
That sounds like a fine effort. !!!
I didn't Zwift but I did ride outside, not too hard though.
15 laps. Was 400w
I read that bit and thought "bloody hell, you'll be fine tonight heavy legs or no".
Honestly you'll be fine though, even with heavy legs there's no mad crazy dash from the off so just about holding a comfortable pace.
No need to murder your self in the first 30 seconds just a nice steady pootle at 350w or so for the 40 mins should be fine 😉
I've signed up again so I'll have to blow the dust off my zwift bike. Hopefully try and see you online
Well done guys. That was bloody hard work!
just a nice steady pootle at 350w or so for the 40 mins should be fine 😉
I guess you didn't see the winky face no?
Yeah. I was just below my HR limit the whole time 😂 I did a couple of v short turns on the front which basically killed me. Almost dropped out a couple of times but that was psychological more than anything else - I never ride at constant effort like that, it’s always sprint, rest. Repeat so I found that really hard work lol
Great effort though!
Well done - a great team effort that - it was hard, but I really enjoyed it!
Anybody fallen foul of the no draft bug? One of my TTT teammates had it and had to drop out. Zwift patch imminent.