It works better for me to have it in easy reach and pick it up on the odd occasions I’ve something hilarious to say.

No need to pick it up then 😉

i prefer the keyboard for the typing, especially being a bit 1 handed at the moment.

No need to pick it up then 😉

Tits on a tom cat and all that.

My phone fits v neatly between my aero bars.
But… the sweat causes all manner of mayhem – screen swipe randomly…can’t type as the touch screen doesn’t work with 15 drips on it!
I’m also looking for a mount, but a sort of ‘aero bar bridge’ type thing.. right out of sweat’s way!

DrP

dangeourbrain

Truth be told stumpy I found having the phone on the bars just resulted in me drowning it in sweat.

I did wonder if that might happen.

weeksy

i prefer the keyboard for the typing, especially being a bit 1 handed at the moment.

My laptop is currently off to one side, so it’s a bit awkward to reach while riding – I tend to use the companion app.
I have a grand plan of setting up a display on a folding arm & re-arrange my set-up so it is much more ergonomic, but it needs some proper re-jigging of the garage including some re-wiring to move things around which is yet to happen…

I have one of these on the bars; https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01N6M0I9M Quick and easy to remove the phone. Don’t find sweat to be an issue. Very occasionally a bit drips on but mostly not.

Who’s riding, who’s resting today ?

I’m still WFH so have the chance to ride as usual, but i’m thinking a rest day may be a plan.

I’m resting today. Really want to join the group gravel ride tonight but not really feeling up to it.

Truth be told stumpy I found having the phone on the bars just resulted in me drowning it in sweat. It works better for me to have it in easy reach and pick it up on the odd occasions I’ve something hilarious to say.

I initially had that problem, the drowning I was not so concerned about as it is in a waterproof case, but the sweat droplets were registering as screen touch inputs and almost asking the system to end my ride a few times.

Now I’ve got a proper fan it is no longer an issue, volume of sweat is a bit less and the airflow pushes it backwards past the phone (and onto the bike).

I got one of these and added a sticky garmin mount to the back: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B018I3KBTK?pldnSite=1
It was great while it worked. But that was only for 3 weeks.

I’m in the office (on my own) oddly enough today, so got a 15 mile ride home. Will take it gently – active recovery they call it, did don’t they?! Did a 50 mile road ride on Friday and my HR was about 15-20 bpm higher than normal for any given effort, so I think I still hadn’t shaken the bug – that or a heart attack is imminent! Quick blast on Sunday and things were more like normal, so hopefully all good for tomorrow.

Who else has lessons to learn then ? I need to just watch the A/B/Fast C riders wallop head in tomorrows event and sit at 250-260w off the line and the run in to the hill up to the bridge, 270-280w up that then see where that leaves me.

Just did one hour recovery ride over lunchtime today. Legs should feel fresh for tomorrow but it is a recovery week so cant kill myself trying to hang on!

I averaged 315W to get up there is 3min 42secs yesterday weeksy and the strong rider were flying away! That hill is going to hurt although I think the one when you come out of the jungle is going to be worst as when you come out of the jungle it feels like it should be a short easy spin back to the finish.

Anybody actually gonna try bike swapping?!

LOL i know… you don’t need to tell me how fast they went up !

3m 57 was 288w.

My planning for tomorrow is to have got hold of a USB extension cable in the hope of no drop-out in connection (to add to the usual hope of making it to the start at all). If it works I might even make it to the end. Wish I had some new legs too though.

I’m having a day off too, was thinking of a easy one first thing but the bottle of red wine I had last night changed that one 😉

@Zilog – Bike change, after yesterdays test recce I am considering it but it depends where I am once we hit the jungle, if I am in a decent group position or if I need to try and bridge a gap. It will be a decision on the day.
One issue is that you need to push much harder in the jungle to create a gap for the change back again, plus the MTB suffers on the boardwalk sections in the cave area.

I decided to do a reccy at snails pace today, but got bored half way though and quit.

Am I right in thinking the last 10km are on flattish tarmac?

If so then I don’t think a bike change is going to be worth it

you’d want 2 changes, not 1.

At top of the Jungle climb, then back at the brige. So 2 changes.

Oop North was crazy quick on the gravel bits.

the ZI guy reckons swapping saves him 42s (and that includes the time it takes for the 2 swaps!) over just riding a road bike. BUT that is riding solo and doesn’t factor in the draft effect with a group ride. It would be immensely satisfying though to come steaming past the pack though, riding the MTB 😂

group ? lol i wish.

I may go up and recce it now for where to swap. I’m not sure where each section begins/ends.

I won’t be changing bike, hoping to be in a group so draft should help. Plan is to try and do the first climb averaging 310/315 watts for approx 4 mins. Then pray I’m in a group I can sit in at 240/250 wattts…..that’s the plan, in all likely hood, 250 watts up the first climb and crawl along solo.
I did a solo 70 miles on the road yesterday and it felt really tough, I’m used to riding much further solo but for some reason the last 10 miles I had nothing. Recovery ride today, 60 mins at sun 130 watts. I’ll probably ride the course just to get a feel of the gradients.

You’ve all seen this…right?

“Simply put: Cory was right! Here are the Road to Ruins lap times for each of our setups:

Zwift Aero with Zipp 808 Wheels: 50:06 (see on Strava)
Cervelo Aspero: 50:33 (see on Strava)
Specialized Epic: 51:30 (see on Strava)”

Seems road is best overall… but of course that doesn’t bring in the idea of SWAPPING!!!

“Since we know that the road bike is fastest on pavement, and the MTB is fastest on dirt, we can easily formulate a smart swapping strategy to test. Road to Ruins goes into the Jungle then comes back out onto pavement, so when we hit the Jungle dirt we’ll swap to the MTB, then once the dirt ends, we’ll swap back to the road bike.

Using this strategy, our lap time went from our previous best on the road bike (50:06) to 49:24. A savings of 42 seconds (see it on Strava)!”

I’d be too slow swapping I think!

DrP

I may go up and recce it now for where to swap. I’m not sure where each section begins/ends.

yeah I can’t really picture it despite having ridden the route a fair few times. Had a quick look on the net though, seems like it might be worth staying on the road bike until AFTER the initial dirt descent & the wooden bit (because the MTB is really slow on those!) and only swapping after the wood, before the dirt climb. And then keeping on the MTB until the end of the dirt section.

You’ve all seen this…right?

yeah, that’s we he says it’s 40-odd s faster when he swaps!! of course, you have to not balls-up the swap, but that just adds to the excitement!

testing today, 135w on spec venge 30kph
135w on mtb 25kph

on tarmac @ 0% incline

@zilog6128 on the Sunday recce oopnorth was flying on the downhill section on MTB. Road bikes had the advantage on wooden section.

It’s true, I made up the changeover time pretty quick and caught the group, however on the wooden section I lost 8 to 10 seconds to the road bikes I was with at the time.

Interesting… I was testing it today. You got to get the bike change right. If you time it wrong going to the MTB you lose more than double the time, if you get it right, then it’s good.

I think though the biggest factor is pacing and grouping. I dropped 45-5bpm off my HR following a guy who was 3.4w/kg and barely pedalling on the way down the hill, over the bridge and to the bottom, that’s a bigger facotr i think. If you can pace with 2-3 riders and get someone else to work, you’ll make up the ground instead of grinding on your own.

As I’ve said before and during yesterday’s test run, on the back half of the jungle you really have to push to get the MTB to be beneficial in gaining time and I was still not able to catch Simon in that section. By that time I was blowing as you have to keep the effort down. So that extra effort may become a factor later in the route when you need it, for example the climb back out of the jungle or around the Italian village and volcano.

Using all your energy in the jungle may not be the best options depending on your endurance levels. Pacing may be the better option for some.

afternoon all !
No bike swaps for me, wouldn’t know how to start (thought you had to end a ride to swap over)
Can I ride the tronbike ?
Is it very hilly? 🙁

It’s flat up, slightly down then slightly up, then down.

The middle section is only 3-4% mostly. But depends how hard you find 3-4% inclines

Tron bikes are fine!

off out for a recce in a minute, check that the bike’s working – not that I don’t trust you weeksy! 😉

… tell you what, it is mighty scenic out there innit ?!
Not sure if I’ve done it before but I think I must’ve turned up the detail on the computer since I did

I reckon changing bike may be faster on a solo ride, but from what I’ve seen so far in the series, the most important thing is don’t get dropped off the group. If you stop to change bike you won’t get back on, and you’ll absolutely hemorage time.

Case in point Mr dangourbrain last week. Lost a wheel and ended up losing 2 min to me, despite I’ll wager him being a stronger rider on the flat than me.

Bike change only worth considering if you get dropped off the back of a group, and even then I reckon it’s a 50/50 call.

Case in point Mr dangourbrain last week.

Not sure about the second bit of you’re statement but I’ll take the compliment 😉.

I averaged 290w I think for the final 3 laps, could have done a bit more but hadn’t twigged the folks with me weren’t dragging heels avoiding the front so kept backing off a bit to try encourage them forward. Oops. But I digress, there were a few folks in that front group at much lower w but put in 2 mins on me.

Week 1 was the same. I backed off too much on the down hill, lost the group and that was it done. I sat at closing on 300W for the rest of the race and got swallowed by zilog’s group about 20min later, 1k from the line. No offence intended to zilog or anyone else in that bunch but none of them would put a few minutes into me normally. The group is king.

Unless you all switch your 42 sec gain will turn into a huge loss as soon as you fall off the group and the reduced aero on the mtb and gravel means you’re having to work harder to stay in a group.

I might switch if I’m 30s off the front at the switch point. Otherwise I’d just be switching to drag the group round as they catch while I swap. Otherwise no, power on…

However, there won’t be groups, there’ll be 3s maybe 4s at best. That hill will shatter any groups as there’s no draft. .

If we see a group of 5 after the bridge I’ll be astounded

I think that’ll depend on the numbers on the start line weeksy and how smart people play it. If there’s only 20odd line up it’ll split up very quickly but if there’s 30odd b/c I think you’ll see it hold fairly well and bunch up again over the top.

If I recall the hares and hounds the group stayed well enough to the climb out of the jungle. To be honest, I think that’s where the sensible place to push is, get in a bunch and take the benefits of the bunch to there then, when the hill breaks it naturally and the draft isn’t worth much, make your push for glory.

So have we decided who is switching and who isnt? I reckon I’m going to set my stall out now and say I’m not. It might work, it probably won’t, and the max you’ll gain is 30 sec tops. As opposed to how much you’ll lose if it doesn’t work out itd not worth then gamble.

Unless of course the entire group I’m with switches..then I’d be in alot of bother..