STW Zwift Autumn Race Series 1

Alright kevt…!?

Good ride that. The other rider was Antram.

I knew someone was gonna go coming through the underpass and I couldn’t react.
Stick with Antram to the line but he got the jump on me. I was closing on the line, but didn’t have enough distance for it to count.

Boring course so pleased we hung in a group! Helped me keep my wit’s about me.

Oh, and once again – thanks Robbo!
Any ideas what the charity totaliser got to?

Firstly, thank you to everyone who has taken part in the series. This has made the event what it is, by people taking part, getting involved and generally enjoying themselves.

A few stats for you:

Average race attendance (not including those who had to drop out): 40.7

Total time spent racing in the series: 218 hours 22 minutes 22 seconds

Meters Climbed: 67,993m

Distance travelled: 7101.6km

Secondly, thanks for all the donations; to date we have raised £333 for Cardiac Risk in the Young. IF you don’t know about them their aim is ‘Preventing young sudden cardiac deaths through awareness, screening and research, and supporting affected families’.

https://www.c-r-y.org.uk/

Donations

Finally, thanks to STW towers and @Mark for bringing this community together and supplying some prizes.

I have been involved in Jennride’s with real riders and now done a lot of zwifting with a great big bunch of you. This is a great internet community and with winter approaching, the nights drawing in and local restrictions becoming more prevalent being able to ride on the computer with a bunch of mates can really help to keep your spirit up.

Hopefully next summer we can organise a real meet up on our bikes and mince around somewhere central in the UK, continue the great banter and share a few real beers!

Enough of me talking crap here is what you really want: the results from the final race of the series.

Firstly, the results of the various categories:

Cat A:

1. nixie
2. Phil56
3. tpbiker

Cat B:

1. paino & w00dster
2. J-R & andeh
3. Oblongbob

Cat C:
1. kirky72
2. haloric
3. ivan

Cat D:
1. whirld1
2. Jmd12

Now the race results for the final positions with handicaps applied:
1. andeh
2. tpbiker
3. V7fmp

And finally the moment you have all been waiting for, the top 3 from the series based on points scored:

1. kirky72 (257)
2. W00dster (251)
3. Tpbiker 234)

A special mention goes out to the Lanterne Rouge (whirld1) who has had the tenacity to complete every single stage with some serious slogs on his own. I hope that you have enjoyed the series and it has contributed to an increase in fitness for you. STW towers have also supplied a prize for the Lanterne Rouge.

I will get in touch with Mark to let him know who the winners of the series are and to arrange prize giving. We need a photo of the winner with their prize as well I am afraid! Based on the youtube footage I dont think you will be shy!

Im going to take a couple of weeks off but if anyone is missing the racing we will be back the first week in November with courses etc to be decided and hopefully some improvements with the learning from running this series.

If you are missing the Tuesday meet ups then join us on the TTT here:

https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/zwift-team-time-trial-thursday/page/10/#post-11414396

Or for more social rides then see this thread. There are Sunday Hills, weekday virtual commutes and I might put something slower paced in for Tuesday evenings in the interim (perhaps like Weeksy’s original lap sprint format on Richmond Flats).

https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/zwift-meetups-and-social-rides/page/74/

For more general racing see this thread:

https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/zwift-my-journey-my-weight-and-my-fitness/page/377/

A tough race for me. My TT bike was probably better than the bike I swapped to on lap 3 but either way it didn’t really get me anywhere!
At the start when we are all supposed to be forming a blob at 100w I was struggling to stay in the group at 300w. I think I need to calibrate my trainer?
I didn’t get lapped twice so that a bonus!
Thanks again Robbo.

@kevt – the GO was said, we were not one big blob, several riders were off the back afaics, but its very hard to make a starting blob happen.

If you didn’t see it, check you don’t have group messages turned off, that has caught me out a few times, normally after a software update.

Personally I would rather see a cruise at say from 2.0 to 2.5w/kg max as the starting speed or an absolute kmh, which would give people a change to catch up and modulate speed. 100w is often quoted, but you just end up yo-yo-ing around from front to back if you try that, and then you panic that you are off the back, and then you are off the front again.

I reckon ride to a fixed point, stop dead, wait 10 seconds then drop the flag.

I might put something slower paced in for Tuesday evenings in the interim (perhaps like Weeksy’s original lap sprint format on Richmond Flats).

You’ve done an awesome shift running the series @robbo1234biking. Put your feet up for a couple of weeks.

If people want I can sort a couple of weeks of roll and sprint sessions, like the start of lockdown rides that Weeksy was doing.

Great series Robbo and fantastic riding all.

Some of the watts being pumped out were epic to watch. Was really good to be able to see the tussles going on at the front/near the front.

Entertaining just to watch, let alone ride in.👍

Well done Robbo, excellent series. And well done to Kirky. Did my best to drop you on the last two races, you managed to hang on for the win. Great work!
The first lap is such a killer, Kirky was first up the short steep climb, I was close to just packing it in there and then!! I was wheel sucking you on the long climb and noticed you’d used the boost fairly on – I was sat behind enjoying the draft, then as you started to drop the wheel on the guys in front I put a big surge in to try and get you to drop. You did really well to try and keep it to less than a minute between the groups. Congrats again!

I came 3rd in handicap! Boom!

Who won the gc in the end? I think it was bloody close..must have come down to 20 sec over all 6 races between Phil, myself and Harry? It was certainly all to play for with 2 km to go, super tight.

Is there a link to the results sheet, or am I being a bit premature? 😆

That was a tough one, I spent most of it trying not to fall off the back of the group cos it would be game over, plus covering the breaks and trying to pull them back in.

Was great fun but after the craziness of lap one I was concerned I wouldn’t make 5 at that pace, luckily it chilled a little. We had a great group which seemed pretty well matched, after a while it was obvious it was going to go down to the final sprint…which I royally messed up by not realising the blue banner was well in front of the end of lap banner…so I left it too late to go.

Great race series, I find I push myself harder cos I know the performance of some of those around me and know that I need to keep with them, unlike normal zwift races

Cheers all and well done, kudos to Robbo but you all contributed to a great series.

Sorry here is the results sheet.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zXYe-yQSG8429UxPsAC0ipwjXs8rJtBvlqHxFpLBlaE/edit#gid=0

@tpbiker yes super close on the GC between you three!

I realise the starts aren’t ideal – will think how else we can start them. If only zwift would let you start a meetup in the pens!

Thanks Robbo! Another great race. I was in the savoyad, Crazy Harry etc. groupetto sitting about 45s behind the group ahead (maybe the leaders?) – I so nearly got back onto the leaders round the Arc but just ran out of steam. Gap opened to about a minute then came back to 45s and we weren’t going to close it. Reading the posts above, I think a lot of us think we we in the “second group”, but there were more groups on the road! Made a howler of the finish…for once the blue barrier was before the finish line (or what I thought was the finish line). I was was wheel sucking kirky, trying desperately to compose myself for a last push when it was suddenly all over (secretly I was a bit relieved). Somewhat unfairly I think I was placed ahead of him because of the odd start time thing (sorry!). Savoyad went early, but we managed to chase him down. Great fun!

Hey @stumpy01, good riding, i almost “alaphilliped” in the sprint with l abbott, he went, i went then ran out of legs when i couldnt see the banner then saw the banner snd went again just held on.  My garmin gave me a 5 for aerobic and told me that i need to  lie down for 3 days

Cheers Robbo for organising roll on November,   the break gives me enough time to do the Z A hopefully, well done to all the winners and everybody that raced.

might join some Sunday hills, enjoyed the last one.

andeh – that new bike worked out for you then!!

Garmin said the same to me – “overreaching” apparently!

uper close on the GC between you three!

Cat C was less so, Kirky monstered that one. 😂

As for my race I enjoyed working in that group. I think most attacks got chased down. I did think Ivan had made it but it petered out. When weeksy dropped of my wheel I was concentrating on him and dropped myself but I managed to get back on. Think I went to far into the red though. On the last lap I planned to go before the underpass but everyone caught me on the hill back up and then I just got enveloped and lost the group. Oh well! Was great fun again.

20th overall! I’ll take that with me missing the volcano race. Much better result than I hoped for.

Great series Robbo, thanks so much for organising it.

does everyone think ‘there is no way everyone is suffering as much as me right now. .

That’s exactly how I’m feeling every race, just about hanging onto the group who all seem to be comfortably spinning along conserving their energy for a mega sprint.

Well done to the winners, very well deserved. Looking forward to next time.

@robbo1234biking as much as I want those 47 points, I did not finish level pegging with Kirky 😂 think I was actually 1s behind Oop North according to the pop up after the finish

So is the Thursday TTT just like that race today? I imagine it is….

Well done to all who “properly” did the series and to robbo for dreaming it up. I did one and that was hard enough; respect if you did the lot.
Hadn’t realised there was collection involved – sorted

I’ve had an absolute blast. Thanks Robbo and well done everyone for the racing and the charity!

Felt good tonight, been trying to spin a lower cadence so tried to keep it <90 while spinning and it seemed to have the desired impact. I think I got lucky on the first climb and destroyed myself to keep touch with the front group, gambling that they’d cool their jets after the rise. When Nixie and Phil went hard I half considered chasing, but as I was only just clinging on, and didn’t recognise any immediate handicap siblings in the group, I thought better of it. There were a couple of times I thought we were making up ground on Phil, but every time we edged close he zipped off. Think it was about 4s at one point. Thought I’d be a smart arse on the kicker out of the tunnel before the line and try and do an early sprint. No idea what I was thinking, I’m no sprinter, the group was rapid and I pretty much supplied a handy lead out.

Chapeaux to Kirky and whirld1!

Didn’t you just get 19 points today Zilog?? Or am I missing something?

The 47 points were for race 1, according to the results page.

Big thanks to Robbo for all the effort going into getting this series organised – its been great fun to be part of this series and has really given me the enthusiasm to get more involved with Zwift with regards to online racing and general training..

Big thanks also to all the other riders taking part – its been fun reading both the in-race banter and also the post-race gossip…

Look forward to seeing you all in some future racing or the social zwift rides as well

Regards – U.z.

@zilog6128 – according to the results thing you finished level with kirky in the first race. the 47 points was for that one, not this race.

So as Robbo said, come join some of the social rides, the more the merrier! I can’t promise crazy wattage like this series but we do have good banter.

One arranged for Saturday morning if you can make it, details on the zwift meetup thread.

Thanks Robbo for organising the series. I enjoy racing on zwift, but having a regular race series with the added forum banter has been brilliant.
I’ve seen a good increase in my fitness, so assuming I don’t get picked for the zwift academy I’ll be back for series 2.

Maaaan that was tough! The whole series but especially that final round. Thought I was up for it today but as soon as the legs started turning just really wasn’t feeling it at all for the first lap or so. Lost the lead group early on and saw @tpbiker and @Phil56 disappaear into the distance and so my GC dreams disappaear with them. So I dug deep and hung on for dear life to the second group until my mojo started to come back.

The whole group I was with started coming strong, with everyone putting in a shift at the front, and we started to take a few seconds out of the lead group in the last couple of laps could and could see we were about 40 seconds be. New I had a about a minute in hand so if I kept that gap to where it was I ‘should’ be safe on the GC. Absolutely blitzed  that last few hundred metres to the finish just to try to make sure.

What I have learnt is that that flat courses are not for me, Really struggled on RGV, Volcano and Paris. Hills are better 🙂

Massive congrats to Robbo for organising this race series

Massive congrates to Kirky72 for winning the overall

Congrats to everyone else for great racing.

Didn’t you just get 19 points today Zilog?? Or am I missing something?

derrrrr!!! 😂 shows how knackered I am lol, just saw France at the top of the page!!

I only got one pic today as too hard racing.

derrrrr!!! 😂 shows how knackered I am lol, just saw France at the top of the page!!

Haha I have to go and have a shower before I do the results as when I get off the bike I am just a mess! Need some time for the brain to start functioning!

handicap was bang on in our little group tonight, few of us on 15min handicap and we pretty much raced each other to the line. i finished 10th and ended up 9th with the handicap added. thanks again its been really enjoyable.

Yep well done to all involved. I may have wheel sucked my way to 2nd in gc and 3rd in handicap but at no point came close to winning a race!😂

What I am happy with is my consistency. Only 10 watts average difference between all my races, and for the flat courses my power was within a couple of watts every race. But the key thing is I never got dropped from the lead group in all the races, although came close a few times. If you have my lowish power and get wrong side of a split there is no coming back, especially if there are no hills to make up the gaps.

I reckon if you throw in a tt and a mountain stage next time the overall results may look substantially different.

Congrats @Kirky72 on the win. Great work 👏.

My legs are so tired now. They don’t even want to move to the fridge for another beer!

I was considering a spin in the morning but right now my legs are so stiff its hard to walk 🤣🤣🤣
I’ll see how I feel when the alarm goes off.

Well done to @kirky72 and the other prize winners…well deserved!
I reckon your handicaps will be a lot different in the next race series 🤣

That was hard work again!

When Nixie and I got a break I was hoping he’d stick around for another lap so we could grow the gap a little, but when he sat on my wheel up the drag on the third lap I knew exactly what was going to happen! I couldn’t back off because that would allow the chasing group to get too close and then I’d be sunk when he went – as it was it left me with a 20k solo TT trying to keep the gap on the chasing group with just 15 seconds to play with.

On the last lap I had make a massive effort up the drag to build the gap back up – it had dropped to only 5 or 6 seconds and I knew that wouldn’t be enough for the final sprint if they got organized. I managed to get under the Arc for the final time with about 12 seconds and that was just enough.

I averaged 334w and had absolutely nothing left when I crossed the line – totally spent and it’s taken me quite a while to recover. That’s a lot of effort for 30th place!

Congrats to @Kirky72 and the other winners and to everyone who took part and made the series the success it’s been.

Thanks for everything Robbo – it’s been emotional!

Was watching you TT a lot of that have phil.

No draft, that must have been ruddy hard to say the least.

I thought you were going to be caught, so well done for holding them off.👍