Zwift, my journey, my weight and my fitness.

Thanks Kelvin. Same to you (and to Tom and nixie and garry and the other people I'm overlooking who ride for various other teams!).

Savo, I'm good physically now mate.. I was/am waiting for a mate to let me know if we're riding, but i'm thinking that's unlikely. If that's the case, then yeah, i'll be with you 🙂

Also personally I find it really helpful for telling individual STWers apart if everyone picks a unique hairstyle/colour/hat etc as this is the easiest way to differentiate riders!

ginger beard and pink socks.

Thanks Savoyad entered stw added will get discord sorted shortly

OK. We have - for the first time ever - a full house of 8 riders on the start sheet for tonight, all correctly tagged and entered. Here's the plan:

- Dress as bumblebees. Ride a road bike. Try to look distinctive.
- Comms will be in the STW Voice channel on discord. I think everyone has access to that. Push to talk is better, less panting etc.
- Join the event before 6.30pm. We're in category A this week, which starts on the dot. Late joining doesn't work.
- Stop pedalling just before it says "go" at 6.30, so you don't roll over the line before our start time. Don't "go" when it says "go". Sit there and wait until our start time, which is...
- ... +4.5 minutes this week, so we're off at 18:34:30. We will confirm who on the line but someone will do the timer and count us down to start together.

I think that's it. The eight people are:

phil56
trail_rat
dangeourbrain
tiger6791
weeksy
ljarch
savoyad
zilog6128

See you in the pen.

Silly q's ahoy

Are we aiming for a line of conkers or a blob and how many we need to cross the line

Right sorry chaps but I’m withdrawing my hat.

Been out today and my legs are heavy so I’ll just hold you back

@trail_rat conkers... WAY more efficient! (there was a link to an article explaining how it works in the game a while back.) The big boys can take turns on the front & everyone else will try to hang on at the back 😂 Only need 4 over the line but (so far) we've been waiting/regrouping for the slower riders rather than intentionally dropping them as it's a team effort!! (Obviously if anyone is happy to be dropped or wants to that's fine, they can make it known, plenty of scope for it with a full team!)

One problem we've had so far is a bit of confusion when overtaking or being overtaken by other teams (esp. if they're wearing the same or similar jerseys). Basically if we're being overtaken the idea is to ease off a bit to let the other team get clear. Similarly when overtaking you dig a little deeper to get through them quicker. But everyone in the team needs to do the same otherwise we'll very quickly get strung out which is no good! So communication via discord is vital.

We aim for a line, but that rarely works - it's like herding cats!

It's the first four across the line - but we've never had the luxury of considering that before.

Also we're very much on the side of trying to keep everyone together (unless someone really has a big problem) rather than shelling people off the back

Unfortunately I’m also having to bow out crossed wires with the better half have a good one!

I'm in.... not sure what i've got !

Cheers for this evening folks

Bleurgh. That was ok, then found a wall after the final kick. The chase back after escalator finished me off.

Yeah really hate that escalator. Battered myself up it so as not to lose the guys in front! Good ride that, well done all, felt fast!

Cheers gents , that was tough but enjoyable.

I wondered if everyone knew about that last kicker ....it's not pleasent if you have buried your self along the river.

My discord is really quiet. Through the phone or when I connected it to my speaker really broken up. Just watched the side bar in the end

Thanks everyone - enjoyed that, good effort

Sound quality on discord has always been a bit crap! Must be a better option out there.

We used to use team speak or raid call back in the day.

Or Skype worked well if there weren't too many of us

Provisionally 140 of 189 in Frappe which I don't think I'd too bad given we only just met the minimum requirement for that category.

@dangeourbrain yes considering you can have 3 As in that cat & we had none 😂

Well there's one in my name...

Given we largely looked like the number balls inside the Camelot lottery machine most of the way round that's not bad 🙂

Apart from me and Sav who were strung out nicely at the back. We did our job, wft were you lot doing

*Kidding

Looks like 159 of 224 on the final standings.

By heck some of those teams were quick!

I am doing the Bologna Time Trial at 18:00 if anyone wants to join in. I last did it just over year ago. I averaged 240W but went out too quick. This time I am aiming for 200w for the first part which is flat and 300w for 10 mins on the hill. FTP is 270w so should just be doable...

Took 28 mins last time, with weight loss and power increase I am aiming for 22/23 mins...

Is it a flat ish ride with one climb then? I've not done it at all but if it is that's likely to suit me so might opt for that over the crit which is a bit flat for me

hmmmm was going to have a rest day after the TTT but I've not actually done a proper TT on Zwift before, plus it's pretty short, so yeah will have a crack at that!!

This is the course:

https://zwiftinsider.com/route/time-trial-lap/

But yeh 3 or 4k flat lead in followed by a 1.3mile 10% average gradient climb. TT bikes aren't required (climbing bike would be better).

bummer - id love to bolonga is a course that suits me

Cant do it and babys bed time though and its my turn on account of the TTT last night

(climbing bike would be better).

Hmmmm I'm going to go digging, something tells me I should get more from the aero benefit on the much longer flat section than the weight on the climb, I'm likely wrong.

i would have thought a TT bike with climbing wheels 😀

So being a geek...

There should be about 10 seconds for me over the flat section from the most aero wheels [which I don't have] vs the least

On the climb the same best vs worst comparison should give me 6-7 seconds.

Given my choice doesn't include 3 of those 4 sets of wheels...

Enve Ses 3.4s (2nd best climbing wheels) vs zipp 808 (6th best aero) both of which I have and neither is terrible

2.1seconds bonus on the flat for the zipp
1.25 on the climb in favour of the Ses.

So wheels for me should see about a 0.8 second advantage for the aero over the weight.

Best in class wheels
Zipp 858 super 9, 5.2 seconds on the flat
Leightweight meilstein, 2.83 seconds on the climb

For bike choice I've got a trek emonda (top 3 climbing bike) or the zwift TT (worst TT bike)

The trek should see a 10.2 second improvement on the climb
The TT a 10.26 second improvement on the flat.

Best in class on the bikes
Cervelo p5 14.5 seconds on the flat
Tarmac Pro 8.84 seconds on the climb

Im not sure whether this has previously been mentioned (don't follow this thread really), but Zwift for under-16's is free.

i have the mellensteins - got them after being pipped to the post on the line during TFA alpe stage. ..... those would have been my choice . on the shiv disk

On the same comparison the meilenstein are actually slower than the enves

The 3.4s vs the 858 see
3.47 seconds for the 858 on the flat
2.26 for the 3.4s on the climb

3.4s vs lightweight
1.7s for the 3.4s on the flat
0.56s for the mellons on the climb

The mellons are actually pretty slow on the flat but will save you 5 seconds up the alpe at 300W

Of course this all falls apart if you're going harder on the climb than the flat...

🙂 What time are you aiming for @dangeourbrain? Got to be in the region of 17/18 mins?

I am wondering if I am being a bit optimistic on my 22 mins...anyhow I have only programmed my brain for that much suffering so will have to get it done!

I did a race on Bolognia on Monday where it was the two laps so effectively, Up, Down, Up, Down and though the climb is proper there's a lot more time on the flat than I'd really appreciated.

I know Dangoeur's run the numbers but it felt a lot less of a climb than a drag with a climb to me me

I'll be on my rubbish TT bike kelvin 🙂, I mean it is a TT so I may as well go for it? (and for 6 hundredths of a second wgaf?)

Not sure on times robbo, on paper it should suit me very well. Short flat with a nice steep climb at the end, if I can keep my head down on the flat bit and not bury myself I should manage to kick up the hill nicely (just so long as I don't try sprinting it like the innsbruck one this morning that I misjudged and over egged).

I'd like to think it'll be a respectable time but I've never ridden it before so will have to respond to the feedback rather than being able to put a couple of kicks in before the start of the climb and given the lag on the turbo that isn't great on a steep climb. Also I'm not sure after yesterday's team run what I'll have left but it's a short effort so I should be OK. Zwift power suggests I should come in around 18 min give or take so we'll see. I think if I manage 18.30 or less I'll be happy enough, sub 18 will be pleased at this point in the week.

Well that was surprisingly awful

Well that was surprisingly awful

I enjoyed that. 21:22 so bang on where I wanted to be. 266w average. Stuck to my plan and seemed to work. Enjoyed the time trail format.

You got a good time @dangeourbrain.

You got a good time @dangeourbrain.

Annoyingly I dropped a few seconds on in the city and the on climb when it dipped. I was too slow picking up the effort on those so had a few sections where I was at 250-260W or lower and that probably saw me over the 18min mark.

I don't think being so near the front of the race helped either, I ran out of folk to chase long before the climb, the only people I could see on the list were pulling 5w/kg and when we hit the climb the one person I could see suddenly vanished (58kg according to zp so no great surprise they left me standing)

It's a rough hill though is that!

That's a good effort robbo, good to see all this effort paying off and good you gauged it right too

Zwift racing is beginning to get on my tits..

I do a tt and because I'm not a 16 stone brute I get hammered. And I do a crit race and again because my outright power is not great I get dropped within first lap.

So today I decide to drop down to the c cat for a crit race, far easier than b, held my own but predictably left for dead in sprint. No worries at least it was enjoyable and I was in the mix.

Then I get kicked off the zwift power results for 'cheating' on watts per kilo. This despite only coming 12th.

The cats need to be designed better. Watts per kilo is a terrible way of deciding what cat you can race in, given it's totally irrelevant where you place in a race. Basically it's relevant for the bologna tt and the alp d'huez race, and thats it. Every other event it comes down to pure horse power. All but one rider in the top 10 today put out more outright power, but less watts per kilo than me.

Rant over..

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I used best bike split to pace it. Got a load of PR from 12 to 20min and a 6w ftp bump so pretty happy with that.