STW Zwift Autumn Race Series 1

I’m on the fence between my normal Tron bike or a TT bike. Don’t really want to have to iTT though.

I’ll be needing all the draft I can get haha!

I’ll be needing all the draft I can get haha!

I feel like I’ll be offering a similar amount of draft to a 747 so feel free to borrow as much of that as you like. Regrettably I expect I’ll also be at the back for the same reason.

Still at work so it will be a last minute jump on the bike once home, great preparation as always!! 😉

Whoops! Hadn’t even considered bike choice. Figured as long as I wasn’t on an MTB it was much of a muchness.
Marginal gains, I suppose.

Currently not sure I’ll be joining in this one, which I will be gutted about. Wife has had to take her sister to hospital for an iron infusion. Was supposed to be done ages ago, but still dragging. I’m looking after our daughter and fingers crossed my Wife will be back…

Fuelled up on salad, Pizza Express Salami pizza and two chipolatas, so will be in peak form…if I make it 🙄

Righto..i’ll try and get the twitch stream working…but my laptop is being crap at the mo…

I think for the benefit of the fans, I’ll go laptop/twitch and risk instability on the connection, rather than ipad/stability!!!!

DrP

Well my Wife has saved the day and arrived home, so my pizza and chipolata race fuel will not have been wasted….

Right, getting ready to saddle up.

I’m actually nervous…. I’m racing people I “know”!😐😆

Top class warm up as always. Good racing all.

Ffs… ipad it is.. sorry…

Drp

Well, my meeting over ran, so I missed this weeks. Hope everyone has a great race.

Laptop crashed as soon as we started. Sorry guys. Will have to let me know how the start went. I am following the race now but don’t know how the dodgy start affected things.

Really sorry about that. Pretty disappointed right now!

Robbo I hate you 😉

DrP made a great save on the start.

Don’t worry about the start robbo. Lessons learned and all, just go from the go next time.

Crashy laptop aside that’s a pretty awesome effort. Must have been the best part of 60 riders there.

Have a well earned beer on me.

Edit, as per nixie. Good save drP

Oh.
My.
Word.

Haven’t felt like that for ages, it truly is autumn now.
Ace fun though! Loved it. Shame about the laptop Robbo

Cheers boys, I think…. 🥵

That was ace!
Chuffing siri kicked in when I put my left earpiece in… lost zwift for a second, and dropped out the pack! Was a fun chase back though!
3.7w/kg average….!

Really sorry laptop wouldn’t boot…odd hr monitor/Bluetooth issues 🙄

Good effort all…

DrP

That was a hell of effort, you had the Irish flag Right? You so nearly got back on too

I was at front at start but got group swamped. I then sat in at 3w/kg and just hung in group with fast C’s, I knew Zilog would kill the climb but no way I was going that deep so early so just grabbed a bunch and pulled Oop north back in. Then waited for sprint.
Arm was sore but legs ok, but couldn’t stand up to sprint so just rolled in with power.

Great racing people you know as always

Wasn’t me with the Irish flag… i caught OGG for a bit, then caught the chap with the Irish flag 900m from the line… tried making a sprint finish but was too early and tired, and he nipped past just before the line! Bravo chap!

DrP

Yeah the climb was the key point for me, I figured if I could make it up that with a faster group then they would drag me all the way to the finish. Was at my limit from that point till the end though! Great riding all & top organising!!

Proxy tacx wouldn’t pair with computer, so paired the phone, was 5 mins late so just pedalled hard for for 26k as I couldn’t see the screen with the phone in my hand. I think I saw OG for a bit.

That was great fun – I got an 11w ftp increase out of it !

Please don’t settle for go-from-the-start – the road position makes such a terrible start for some and not everybody actually starts at the same instant – as an apple tv user I’ve been in meetings where there everyone has a 50m head start and you can’t get back on, a rolling sub 2.0 until someone says go is much fairer

Awesome race their folks, from my vantage point I have no idea how close it was…barely finished.

Also apologies to Welch chap Mat, the “mmm” was a result of sweaty fingers on the screen, not a reaction to seeing your butt up ahead

That got a little speedy at the go. Stuck to my plan of attacking as soon as it settled. I was very glad when charlierevell decided to jump the gap and make it stick, don’t think solo would have worked. Then was pretty much a game of alternate pull hard and try to stay on his wheel.

I tried to escape with around 1k to go but it wasn’t happening leading to sprint cat and mouse. We both got surprised with the blue barrier being before the finish line and he reacted quicker to take the win.

Great first event Robo. 👏

I used phone and BT too today for first time in event. Did a spindown and was happy. Made power and seems more responsive than ant+

Just missed the split over the climb and ended up in weeksy’s group. I kept trying to split it whenever I noticed someone drifting back but it didn’t work – ego like wiggins, legs like biggins! Went for a relatively long sprint which worked out OK because the finish was 100m earlier than expected.

Great racing though and thanks to robbo for organising and DrP for stepping in as race comissaire!

That group was doing great until we hit the aqueduct and it split over the top, I tried to catch the lead split but couldn’t get on, I ended up in no mans land so I held up a little to catch the following group cos I didn’t fancy a TT.

That was awesome…just flat out all the way, some fast buggers on here.
Thanks for all your work Robbo, shame about the crash but you created a good event!

Well done all!

That. Has. Hard.

Well done everyone, and thanks Robbo for sorting! Rolling start worked well once DrP took over (chapeau btw)

Yep that was a good one, got dropped at the aquaduct and was in noman’s land till DrP caught me about 3k from finish – I was happy to a get a bit of a draft for a few hundred metres!

Enjoyed that, went with the tactic of try and hang onto lead group as long as possible, just about managed to hang on until the end.

Expected all out sprint at end didn’t really happen, think we were all a it surprised by position of finish line.

Ha I noticed you trying to split it Ivan on that last run in before the snakey bit, I kept getting towards the back and having to power to catch on…was good fun.

No idea where zilog’s group came from there, I’m sure you guys were over 30 seconds down with about 1k to go then at 700m you swamped the three of us lost in the middle.

I lost touch with the front group on the down slope from the viaduct and that was my race done really.

By heck can I tell I’ve done nothing but eat and drink for a week.

Thanks Robbo (and Dr P) for stepping in at the start. Enjoyed it in a painful sort of way, managed to avoid the split at the viaduct and then lost a couple of lengths at the end of the riverside bends and had to tail in behind the group. Really good idea to get us all together!

Was caught wrong side of the split right at start and had to put out close to 6 watts per kilo for a min odd to bridge the gap. By the time I got back on I was broken and for the next 20 min just hung on for dear life.

When is the hilly climb as flat races ruin me..

Found my trainer issue, had checked the calibration and the Tacx app kept hold of the connection so the computer couldn’t connect.
Grr.

Great fun all thanks. Well done robbo and all

Well done for organising that Robbo.

Hesitated at start, then ended up on my own for most of it. Good fun, roll on the next one.

OK so thanks everyone for turning up. I have 45 riders over the line according to the results panel. Thanks DrP for stepping in at the start. I will set some deputies next week. Sounds like everyone had fun and some good efforts out there.

Fastest 3 A’s (also fastest races to complete the course)

Charlierevell
Nixie
Laughgov

Fastest 3 B’s

Garrylager
mossimums
J-R

Fastest 3 C’s

Kirky72
haloric
mrhoppy

Fastest D’s

Poopscoop
whirld1

After the handicap is applied the top 3 were:

Kirky72
zilog6128
trolo1234

Full results for race 1 are here:

Link

I will use the iPad next week. The handicap has evened out the results – sounds like there was some good racing. Will see how it all works next week.
Off to Innsbruck next week – one for the climbers!