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Well that was interesting as a first go. Had a go at the Primal Europe Crit. Did the sprint at the beginning, went off the front straight away quickly slowed down to wait for the rest (was very tempting to keep going), then pootled along in the front group thinking this is easy. Then all hell broke loose, before I knew what was happening they were gone. Rode with a couple of other guys but legs failed in last few km probably due to my failed efforts chasing the front group. Need to pay attention more. Haven't quite got my head around the lag between putting effort in and how the game responds.
unlucky daz - I do wonder sometimes if your internet speed has an effect on this. I'm clearly* the fastest rider out there but every now & then I drop a few metres instantly and I wonder if it's a signal dropout
Beyond that, yeah, stay mid-to-front of the pack (and maybe try view number 8 or whatever, the one that shows the bunch from above)
[i]*not all that clearly. terms and conditions apply[/i]
My internet can be a bit flaky, (half way up a hill at the end of a long copper wire) but think it was just me not responding quick enough. Interesting though, much like real life, when the elastic breaks and you get dropped, it's very hard to get back. I guess there's something in the drafting physics after all. The speeds are way off though. I've never got anywhere near a 39kph average over 30km on the road.
Well, this is a much quieter experience so far
What's that mate?
The chain
It’s so quiet 🙂
My team race is at 13;08 so when do you think is the best time to eat? I pretty much do all my riding in a morning so its almost always fasted riding.
you [i][b]did[/b][/i] put it back on, yeah ?It’s so quiet
so when do you think is the best time to eat?
All the time! Hence why I'm the fat bloke in all races!
you did put it back on, yeah ?
LOL
Frankly my mechanic skills are less of a worry than the effect of last nights gin.
Not sure I’ll make the last 30km of this group ride
I think that in large groups , your power gets uploaded and processed by zwift and returned to you ... By the time iy does it it adds delay and ends up with large jumps in adjustments.
I think it’s probably pretty accurate, although in the game you’ve got a perfect aero profile, perfect road surface, no traffic/junctions and (crucially I think!) no wind.The speeds are way off though. I've never got anywhere near a 39kph average over 30km on the road.
blader1611Nathb - good luck for tomorrow, i hope i dont see you on the course as that will mean you have apped us. I am in B race so setting off 8 mins after you.
crosshair
Yeah good luck Nath! Jesper and Tim are commentating it on FB live @ Cyclinghubtv so get plenty of airtime
Thanks guys, but I pulled out - I'm not physically able to cycle properly at the moment, with two full A teams I didn't want to take up space.
Hopefully be back racing soon once my body is used to using fat as a fuel source.
Good luck blader!!!
Nathb - thats a shame, hope you get better soon.
I assume the A race will be streamed but are any of the others races being streamed/commentated on?
It looks like my team is made up of misfits as we all seem to be ill at the minute, all of us have a cold and we were meant to be the strongest of our 2 teams. I think its going to be tough going today as that figure 8 course doesnt have much in the way of recovery sections from some quite big efforts. I did it the other day in about 43 mins and it was super tough so having to do it 3 times is going to be a challenge.
Hopefully be back racing soon once my body is used to using fat as a fuel source.
What's this all about then Nath?
BAck out on the Parkwood today. It was not a lot above freezing and the legs were tired from yesterday at Afan, but i jumped on the bike and headed out. First thing i noticed was how amazing the latex/whatever gloves were for keeping my hands warm. I had winterish gloves on but even with them i usually get freezing early on and sometimes you don't come back from it and stay cold, but the gloves were exceptional at keeping me warm. 35km in i was in the middle of no-where and having a nice lovely sunny jaunt, but the feet were feeling the cold, so i headed back towards home.
Finished off at 53km for the ride which was decent, no super speed sections, but i was on a 29er not the road bike and it was a wintery day, not really a day for quick ones.
Well that didnt go very well. We had one team member snap his rear gear cable on first lap and another had a power cut at his house.
I signed in with 15mins to go and was right at the back of the field (243 in B!) so the start was painful as hell to get to the front group. It was nearly 500w for a long period and then the pace seemed to settle at about 280w which isnt really helpful for recovery. I stuck with the group for about half a lap but it was too much and i slid back to the second group. At least it made me cough up about half a pound of phlegm which helped me breath easier (stupid cold). Stuck with this group for the entire race and mopped up quite a few other groups. I had 1 team member with me which helped with morale and we ended up about 70th out of 243. It was 2hr 10m which is my longest on zwift by an hour and it was so cold i only had the fan on low setting. I might have hung on if i didnt have a cold but it was pretty rapid. Shattered now and my lungs are a bit sore from coughing and the cold air but overall i enjoyed it and a sense of pride as well for being one of the highest place riders for my team.
Great work that man
Nice one 🙂
well done blader !
I was on the turbo this morning - had a warm air fan blowing on me as well as the 2 normal fansso cold i only had the fan on low setting
Not sure it was better but it [i]felt[/i] as though it was
Bought a new 2240 today to replace the old one, will see you out there soon.....blader, those are some impressive numbers!
Well done - over 2hrs on the turbo sounds like an awful thing.
Eemy - it was a bit painful on the backside but happily due to concentrating so much the race went quite quickly. Absolutely no way could i do that without it being a race, its just too long.
I think i finished 7 minutes behind the winner which is ok considering i wasnt 100% but i would have liked to have been a little closer. I finished in 2hr11m,avg 245w (257w weighted),3.3w/kg and 2160 calories burned. My HR avg was 148 and max 173 but my monitor is pants so i reckon they are inaccurate.
My legs feel like they are about to cramp when i go down stairs, this is a sure sign i am ready now for a curry that i am sure will surpass the 2160 calories burned.
Hi guys been reading this thread due to thinking about joining zwift for winter and other training I.e when time is short and really need to keep legs and hart pumping. WEEKSY I see you are also using MTB I am purely mtb(fatbike) but have a old mtb on hybrid wheels will this be ok to use I have a dumb turbo so am looking at getting speed and cadence Sencer will I need Ant+ or can I use Bluetooth on my laptop to join zwift .
And dose it help with riding trails ,climbing and endurance
Cheers guys
And dose it help with riding trails ,climbing and endurance
Well I've only been doing it a week and yesterday I went out on my usual road loop. Legs felt terrible but I managed to get a PR on an uphill segment that I've ridden over a 100 times in the last 3 years without even trying. No idea if that was a result of zwifting (only a week so probably not) but who knows? Also lost just under 2kg in weight so that might explain it.
I have watched a few youtube videos of the Team Worlds race and i was quite surprised at the level the teams were going to win the race. It seems they were taking it very seriously indeed and most were quite young riders. I have re-evaluated my effort and decided 70th wasnt that bad a result after all considering i am a podgy middle aged man with a stinking cold. However it was interesting to see the last 2 miles of the race which was incredibly fast and a lot of riders using PU very early, i guess they were just trying to stay in touch for the last mile. I think team ODZ may have won it but cant find final results anywhere.
So the Kiss 100km (112 actually) was an exercise in pain I’ve rarely encountered before. The hammer went down very early, didn’t try to stay with the front group and instead tried to maintain a steady 250w effort. Almost worked but died towards the end. Interesting that some riders were placed much higher but had similar average power figures. I guess that’s just being better at judging the amount of effort to stay in a group and better drafting?
Yeah DAZH its all about the group and drafting. Well done though that is a brilliant effort, having done 90km yesterday i doff my cap to you for doing a century,its hard work.
Crosshair - it doesnt say who the winning team is though.
That's a good point 😀
Least points win, starting from 1 for first isn't it? I guess Tam is working them out at the mo.
Top three team riders from each race so I'd say ODZ and Team Poland both have 18 points right??
Get your spreadsheet whirring Nath 😉
In for the WBR 1 lapper in 5 mins. I really wish there was another race I could have entered instead.
Interesting one today. I've got a window of opportunity today so jumped on the App to see what's about. WBR 4 lapper at 12.30. Perfect.
I then noticed its split start times, 1 min intervals. Which means in reality the C group won't be hanging with the A or B riders which is usual. But more thinking how this will play out in rankings points. You'd assume with 1 min deficit from the B group we'll automatically be finishing behind all but a few if any at all.
So would it be better to try and hang with the B guys and see if even the stragglers hold off the C guys and take more ranking points? Or stick in C which is my true current cat and just forget the rankings but fight for best C position I can?
Decision time!
Where do you get these ranking points, Weeksy?
I'm assuming that the A's go off first, in which case unless there's talk on the start line about trying to catch the B's it's probably best to just hang with the Cs and save yourself for racking your own cat. 4 Lapper on london is only 17 miles, thats only about 40 mins of racing to make up a minute...
http://zwiftrankings.com/vcr/client/home
Yup ABCD in that order. It used to be that way with split starts for ages
I did a WBR race this morning and it was a split start and also poorly attended. Not sure how i feel about the split times as i quite like to hang with the A group for as long as i can.
It was a stupid race this morning as we ended up just a bunch of 5 of us pretty quickly but the pace was all over place. There were times on the flats we were doing less than 200w and it just felt like a recovery spin and then all of a sudden 1 would attack and we all had to pull over 300w for a long time to catch up and this kept happening every 10 mins or so,it was just weird. There seem to be no logic to why or where they were doing it,very odd. Ended up 5th as i had to do all the chasing plus i couldnt be bothered to change gear to do a sprint so cruised home instead.
There were times on the flats we were doing less than 200w and it just felt like a recovery spin and then all of a sudden 1 would attack and we all had to pull over 300w for a long time to catch up
Not that I've ever done one, but that sounds fairly similar to a normal road race. I guess this is what makes it hard, the constant and unpredictable changes in pace and the need to push for as long as is necessary. The issue I've found is that the slow response times to putting in effort (a few second at least, sometimes more than 5) mean that you have to be very quick to follow breaks and as a result you end up putting in more effort than required.
Not even sure i need to write reports now.... You all know roughly how it went 🙂
Went off with the lead bunch, warm up 3/4 done, the climb wasn't too bad, i held in there OK... over the line to begin the 4 laps. Just then, 1 guy went off the front, however, not only was he averaging 4.4w/kg for a DQ, he was on a TT bike.... So i ignored him, not that i could have gone at 4.4 if i'd wanted to... Lap 1, up the hill, i had a feather so did OK. Held my own and stayed in there... Lap 2... Same but without feather.... Round to start lap3... 13 in the bunch... You know the rest... We hit Horseguards hill.... i was hitting 3.6-4.0w/kg, all the riders around me, 5.5, 6.0, 5.7. It was all over.
Got dumped out the back and had to solo for the next lap and 1/4. I had a massive lead over the next bunch of over 3 mins, so i just put my head down and pedalled, trying to average 250w, which i think i did OK at.... Pootled over the line 43s or so beind the guy in front and 3mins+ over the next bunch.
Looking at the results the winner was a B rider who won by over 1 min 😀 even from 1 min behind.... 6.0w/kg average GTF in the sea ! Nutter...
We'll see what happens in the dust up but i think i was 11th in C.
Destroyed now.
Looking at the live results I reckon quite a few that finished ahead of you in C will be promoted to B so you could potentially end up with another trophy. Well done.
Really tempted to do the 5pm race today, but had a cold last week and felt quite rough during and after the mtb ride yesterday, so maybe should just leave it for a day or 2.
Eddie BH out in London this morning!
Kryton57 - Member
Eddie BH out in London this morning!
he'll be counting his blessings that i was in work then 😈
https://www.zwiftpower.com/profile.php?id=2631412
Zwiftpower seems to have all gone to crap. All the previous races no longer have DQ'd riders as DQ's now. People are still showing as moved from C>B for exmaple, but all around are riders that were previously DQ'd.
Kryton57, not seen you much in the strava feed. Indulging in a bit of stealth training? 😀
Weeksy, as per crosshairs post...> https://zwiftblog.com/whats-going-on-with-zwiftpower-com/
Privacy issues/terms of service are incoming. until then it's a very stripped down zwiftpower
Zwiftpower seems to have all gone to crap. All the previous races no longer have DQ'd riders as DQ's now. People are still showing as moved from C>B for exmaple, but all around are riders that were previously DQ'd.
Yeah, I had that with a race last week while ZP was down. When it came back up the guy who finished nearly a minute in front of me was given 2.5 W/kg even though he must have been pushing out way more than that because I probably was over that too but was also given 2.5 W/kg.
No-one in the whole race was DQ'd or bumped up a group either.
I assumed as service was now resumed it was back to all systems normal.
I guess in that case, it's just racing for pride then for now.
Dazh - i guess it probably was like a real race but it kinda all just felt wrong. I am sure one guy was just taunting us for a laugh as i had to dig deep to haul him back in. The lag in efforts is quite annoying in both trying to attack and covering them, as i found today this is increased when its a very small bunch.
As with most software systems they need to concentrate on getting the basics right and not fudge it up by trying to incorporate fancy bells and whistles.
i guess it probably was like a real race but it kinda all just felt wrong
I don't really mind chaotic ones as I'm using these as training for MTB races so the unpredictable nature of how long you need to keep pushing for is quite realistic. What is annoying though is that when you chase you go too hard and end up overtaking the group rather than just tagging on the end, as a result the rest of the group speeds up and you go straight out of the back again.
I am sure one guy was just taunting us for a laugh as i had to dig deep to haul him back in.
Or maybe he was attacking repeatedly to try and soften you up? I guess it's harder to tell whether someone's taking it seriously on just playing on Zwift than in real life. But essentially the effect's the same anyway.
I had a brilliant race once which was really chatty with about 6 of us... The other lads were complaining as this guy kept hammering off the front.
"If you want to sit on my wheel then i'll keep attacking you"
"But that's not racing" was their reply
"That's exactly what racing is, get on with it"
They whinged and moaned lots... he kept attacking them and eventually won the race.. i'd been binned by then but i was laughing lots watching how it all played out.
The guy in my race would shoot off and hold us off for 5 mins then drop off the group and then come back and sit there and do the same again later, there was no way this was just an ordinary race attack. I guess its hard to describe but it just seemed odd almost like he was having connection issues. I have seen/been in plenty of races and todays was just a very strange one of fast pace mixed in with almost stationary riding,it was like a track race on the road.
The guy in my race would shoot off and hold us off for 5 mins then drop off the group and then come back and sit there and do the same again later,
Probably using a race to do some 5 minute intervals.
I think a lot of people use the races as training, so they'll put in efforts when not necessary then have a rest. On the 100km race I did yesterday I was caught by a couple of germans. They were putting out 5w/kg to catch me, then proceeded to ride at 180-200w for ages which was disrupting my 250w time trial so I cracked on and gained 40s, then they streaked past me about 30 minutes later and I never saw them again.
Although if you're not trying to be competitive then it's quite good fun being a disruptor 🙂
Stoopid sodding people. My WBR race isn't showing Cats. All the others from today are showing Cat results.
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=29319 like that. My one is still showing all of us as U.
I've just emailed the WBR guys out of curiosity.
🙂
[img] 
[/img]
Perfect. 🙂
Wasn't before. I'm guessing my email and his reply "we'll look into it" worked 🙂
Lets hope it updates more later as i may end up winning when they kick out all the >3.2 🙂
Well my new zwift pc +monitor on a articulated arm worked a treat, tho it is still somewhat ridiculous that a game with graphics that wouldn't look out of place on an N64 even on ultra needs a powerful graphics card!
I did a cat D this time and came 4th, had a good battle with a chap up box hill - he tried to drop me going up an underground escalator (?!) but apparently his belt snapped! Was good fun, but i swear box hill is less hard in real life 😀
Potential zwift newbie here..
I'm looking at a smart trainer and wondering how critical the two way connectivity (eg automatic effort adjustment) is as that function costs a fair bit more.
Halfords have an Elite Nuvo smart on offer at the mo which is supposedly two way at £180 or the tacx flow at £220.
Planning to use my iPhone and the app initially. Might go for an apple tv or cheap laptop if I like it.
Thoughts? Alternatives?
TIA
did a cat D this time and came 4th
Great work mate. Its very rewarding for a computer game. Ha ha.
Battles can really make or break a race that's for sure. It turns a dull spin into a battle of wills!
nemesis - if you have access to any compatible trainer zwift is fairly enjoyable but I do think the controllable resistance adds quite a lot. No massive deal, just a bit more intuitive to chnge to a lower gear for a hill rather than taking a higher one or even just spinning on and ignoring the terrain
Also, if you ride in a group/race you'll find that people sometimes really ramp up the power on the hills - as I'm sure we probably all do in real life. On a dumb trainer you'll need to have your wits about you so as not to get dropped
Thanks for that
I rode the first 4-5 months with a dumb trainer, there's nothing wrong with it as such, it still works, you still race, you still go up and down... Just in 1 gear 🙂 I'd say from a fun perspective, dumb is 7/10 and smart is 9/10
I'm still needing to find a plan... Well.... maybe need a plan.
I'm still getting killed on that kick (or any other kick) on Horseguards hill coming to the end of the lap. The others seem to have the ability to stick in 5+ in the later stages of a race, i don't have 5+ in me, it's just not there. Is that power ? Is it technique ? is it just bloody determination ? I don't really know. Is it the fact that each and every person who beat me wasn't actually a C and their overall power put them as a B... possibly.
I'm not sure where the questions leave me, in the past 4-5 weeks i've upped my race performances from a little slump, i'm now able to put out about 10w average for the distance of a 4 lapper more than i was 4-5 weeks back, so i'm happy that i'm getting some form again. But that doesn't change the fact that when we hit that hill on laps 3-4 i'm weak and lacking compared to the other guys i'm racing, it's not a question of IF i'll get dumped on that section, but which lap i will.
I still sit for the hills, i don't know why but on the Snap i don't seem to generate more power or better power up out of the saddle, is that a a quirk of turbos ? Or is it my perception that outdoors i make more power standing but in reality i maybe don't actually make more ?
The clear and obvious answer for me is to drop weight, but as we're all aware that's not necessarily as easy as just saying it. If i were to race at 80kg, i'd be faster, of course i would, but we'd just end up with the same discussions then as today, but in B not C
I'm looking forward to Crosshair response 😀
I guess i want a short term answer to a long term issue. 🙂
I can't train in the way he does, or others do, i just don't 'get' it... I struggle with recovery rides on the turbo, if i do a gentle one it's outdoors.
The trainer for me is an all or nothing thing really. There's no middle ground.
I know what you mean. My Zwift time can be quite sporadic, I can be on it every other day or might not get on all week so it's difficult for me trying to commit to a 8-12 week workout plan. I guess that's the difference though if you want to get better you have to make that commitment.
you rang ?? 😀we'd just end up with the same discussions then as today, but in B not C
Exactly the same for me weeksy; I can't keep up on any of the little hills, say the one on the watopia flat.
I think I'm a bit of a diesel and can hold quite close to my max for pretty long spells but once I've done that I'm basically without any kick at all, at least by comparison (I can do a 1000+ sprint for 20 secs when I'm fresh but can barely get past half that on a hill half way round a race or at the finish sprint.
Seems the options for me are either to sit in a slower group and compete to "win" that or go harder and finish at the back of the next pack forwards. I still prefer the going harder option and live with the fact that the others in my pack haven't ridden to their max (or their bodies work VERY differently to mine)
(I watched one of the vids that blader mentioned, of the world team B race - front group. Those jokers were obviously potential A's up front, shitting out watts like they were going into orbit. Sure, they had a lull in the middle but they were chatting and joking on their radios and still well over 3w/kg doing that. As a mid-pack B, I can't ride with them)
I’ve used my phone before in a pinch but a slightly bigger screen is definitely better. More immersive. Clicking on individual riders, etc, might be a pain when you’re riding. Plus it’s handy to be able to use your phone for the Mobile Link app or controlling music/discord/etc.Planning to use my iPhone and the app initially. Might go for an apple tv or cheap laptop if I like it.
(I watched one of the vids that blader mentioned, of the world team B race - front group. Those jokers were obviously potential A's up front, shitting out watts like they were going into orbit. Sure, they had a lull in the middle but they were chatting and joking on their radios and still well over 3w/kg doing that. As a mid-pack B, I can't ride with them)
In all races i enter now i generally see the best part of 50% of riders either being a DQ or an auto-upgrade. Which seems a bit daft sometimes to me. I don't get why they ride time after time in the wrong catagories. You even see there and see Josh Hayes EVB B in their name, but they're racing in C... Invariably they do very well in C too LOL, which tells me that they're actually B's... If i look at their profiles, i then see them having done a dozen races in B... LOL. It's kind of irritating as i'm turning myself inside out to stay in their bunch because i think "Well, they're Cs, i should be able to hold a C group"... but in the full results i find that none of them were 'real' Cs as they're all putting out 3.5w/kg LOL. So how was i ever going to hold onto them.
I understand the desire for glory as much as the next man, i'm competitive but if i was a B rider, dropping to C to win the cat, wouldn't give me a lot of pleasure. It's not even like some of these guys are 45th in a B race, they're top 5s... LOL
I tried the WBR Flat race last night on my ancient Macbook, with what can only be described as 'variable' results. The graphics and lag are so wonky that I have to time sprints about 10 seconds ahead and then remember to back off before anything actually starts showing on the screen.
The end result was that I lost the lead group within about 10 seconds and had a few yo-yo battles after that, which were all good fun. Oh, and just after the finish my Mac crashed, so didn't save anything to Strava. 😥
That's not sounding ideal Gavin, on the PC you can export from Zwift and import into Strava, i assume the process is similar on MAC, go to Zwift.com and login, see your event and export it.
Thanks for the heads up on that - I didn't know you could do that. I tried to upload it, but got an error saying 'the .fit file was malformed' or somesuch! Doesn't matter really, just encourages me to look out for a cheap new PC as a dedicated Zwift machine.