STW Zwift Autumn Series 2

At no point during that race did I feel any better than “a bit ropey”.

I think that short steep climb is the worst to race in zwift, too short to settle into a rhythm, too long to go for it all the way – I hate it!

Also I think there should be more than 5 points places awarded for the sprint section… top 8 sounds a bit fairer…

That did not feel good. Struggling for power and couldn’t hold it for long. Felt awful at the end!

Once I got dropped by the cat C folk (didn’t take long 🤣) I spent the rest of the race in an ITT.

Think I nicked some points in the sprint though which is nice 🙂

Edit: also thought I was having a heart attack at one point (perceived effort 10/10 hrm said 105) then I realised my strap had slipped…

Sorry for going for the sprint – I felt a bit of a knob

You did great mate, first 2km I just hung on your wheel hoping to catch riders, but felt I contributed after that.

Trust me, I’d have raced you to the line if I had it.

The other thing was, I lost the rider list so I couldn’t see what I needed to put in at times.

That ending was the closest I’ve come to vomiting on Zwift 🤣🤣🙈

Felt good the first 2 laps but that big climb at the far end of the last lap got me…I got spat out the group and couldn’t get back, i was doing 3.6w/kg and just dropping back.
Then I saw i was getting caught by Declan, Ivan and the rest of their group so I just put all my effort into a solo TT just to make it to the end, almost 2/3rds of a lap.
I was sying at the end but managed a final sprint to hold on to my place.

I’m dead…

Hmmm results may be delayed – Companion app is not playing ball!

Got that wrong tactically tonight but gave it my all. Not done that circuit before and it doesn’t seem to suit me, good race though and I got the holeshot too, some points for the that surely??? (Fordo197)

Well that was evil. Had a power out again but ultimately I think my FTP has definitely dropped.
Was solo for ages, resisted dropping back to the pair behind , I tend to go backwards if I drop my pace but relented, they caught, I stayed with them for a bit and as predicted I fell off the back then caught and passed one at the end.

I had a reasonable start, went into the red power figures for a few seconds, slowly got dropped, settled into a nice pace, caught D.Drysdale, tried to take turns on the front. I used my feather at the beginning of the steep climb, N.Arnold then joined up and took D away from me 😭. I spent the rest of the race all alone trying to keep the gap between myself and K.Stumpy as big as possible. In the last km I passed Poop who was cruising to the finish line at a steady pace. Quite enjoyable. 😃

Well done Robbo and Zilog on that last lap…I just couldn’t hold it. Think I blew myself trying to catch Andeh

@oopnorth was glad to see you drop behind on that hill as I knew we had the same handicap 🤣🤣🤣 sorry 😀 Storming ride from Andeh though given our handicap was 4 minutes on him! He was well out in front and we were chasing him down for ages!!

So, I probably shouldn’t have done that, but managed to resist chasing the lead group for too long, then made my way round with RM and N.Arnold and chased the sprint each lap. Managed third I think. Felt a bit out of sorts, not sure if is covid symptoms kicking in or just my usual excuses! Thanks for another great race Robbo.

Erm, ok. I’m gonna have to ask, how does everyone else know where the finish line is? ‘Cos it clearly isn’t that bloody great orange banner across the road at the end of lap….!

I got caught up in that melee on the steep climb on the third lap. I had been in a group with Weeksy, Craig and others and we’d been steadily catching Robbo’s group. It all blew apart on the climb, I thought i’d latched on to Robbo (and others) as I went over the top but got caught in someone elses draft and lost a second or two and then OopNorth and I were left in no man’s land. I managed to keep going but that was a tough last eight mins on my own trying to catch the group and not get caught.

Oh, how I’ve forgotten the “pleasure” of these races! 🙂 Cheers everyone, good to be back at it!

Also, didn’t see any sort of “Go go go” message at the beginning. Was I lost in the excitement?

It’s the blue banner somewhere near the finish line on the last lap. The distance counter is normally correct.

That was friggin hard, New York is a real beast of a track. It’s relentless!

I felt great to begin with and managed to keep on the front guys for a while, but the endless little surges just blew me up. Got plopped out the back with Kirky and someone else, only to be dropped by them after another 5km or so. Ended going solocozyolo for about a lap before the oopnorth/robbo group wound me in.

That route just leaves no time to recover at all, its either up or down. 450m vertical by the end!

I’ve got a feeling my handicap may be a little low, but my weight/ftp hasn’t changed since last time….ghost in the machine?

Kind of ‘enjoyed’ that, i.e. not actually enjoying it all, but now looking forward to the next one! Plan was simple. Don’t let Phil get too far up the road. No idea when the split happened but there were just the 4 of us with 2 30 seconds back. Nixie took the sprint with a huge effort miles out! Massive power. Don’t know if he waited or we caught him, but we worked well as a group, until making a complete arse of the finish sprint. Think Tim and Phil had given up by the time the blue banner came into view!

@Zilog6128 I’ve no idea how we have the same handicap as you always beat me in these races, today I was looking for you from the start and did everything I could in the first half lap to keep with you and the lead group, then it settled down.

@Straightliner I tried to keep with you and I’m sure we could have maybe got back on but my legs just didn’t have the speed once we were out the draft. Good effort!

@paino I wasn’t expecting such a gap after the sprint. I tried to stretch it out for a bit but it wasn’t working as I couldn’t maintain enough power to open the gap. Kind of just let it close after a while. It did look like Phil was trying to bridge at one point.

Thanks all for the first race. Was a evil course tonight I have to admit. The little punchy climbs are really tough and you go into the red 4-5 times a lap which adds up!

Anyone who is new to series thanks for coming along. There are a few quirks. For the finish keep an eye out for the blue banner or your distance countdown bar under the drops bar as this is correct. It is normally a little past the official start finish lines.

And remember this series is the best 5 results so if you miss a race due to family commitments, zwift drop outs etc it isnt all over.

So onto the results:

Cat A:

1. Nixie
2. Phil56
3. Tlr

Cat B:

1. Paino
2. Garry Lager
3. J-R

Cat C:

1. Andeh
2. Robbo1234biking
3. V7mfp

Cat D:

1. Jimdoubleyou
2. Whirld
3. Poopscoop

Sprint Top 5 (and therefore green jersey holder)

1. Nixie
2. Paino
3. Oblongbob
4. Garry Lager
5. Mahowlett

And the overall race winner with handicaps applied:

1. Andeh
2. V7mfp
3. Giggsmaster

With the sprint points added the top 3 for the series is as follows:

1. Andeh
2. V7mfp & Paino
3. Giggsmaster

Link to the full results: These are provisional in case I cocked anything up. Let me know if I did!

Next week we head to France for a whole different world of pain!

For those interested there is a TTT on a Thursday evening:

https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/zwift-team-time-trial-thursday/page/20/#post-11460181

And for those stupid enough to join us a group of us are attempting the four horsemen route on Saturday morning at 7.30 (google the route :-S)

https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/zwift-meetups-and-social-rides/page/82/

@oopnorth – Zilog has this amazing ability to hang on a couple of metres back and just hang on. It is great in the TTT less so when you are racing with him!

@savoyad – I dont have you on the results but I am sure you were ahead of me on the road at some point. Did you have a drop out or something?

I really enjoyed that after my initial frustration at the start. I don’t know if it’s my turbo, or inability to hold a steady position, but I was doing >200w and struggling to catch the swarm. I put a short effort in and seemed to overshoot so backed off, fell out the back just as Robbo announced Go Go Go…

Must try harder next time to get in amongst the group.

Race was great though….I had a few people to chase and managed to overhaul 3 people I think.
Next up the road was TM who I’m guessing is retrorick based on the comment above. We seemed to hold station and I couldn’t make a dent on the gap to him.

I liked the course. I think my brain copes better when there are frequent changes of terrain.

That was tough as usual. Made more so by yo yo ing before the start only to leave a gap to close to the lead group, and to hammer 350/400w to catch up. Just in time for the climb!

Decided to go hard as I could for the climb rather than get split and have to chase the lead down again, worked okay but left me in dire need of recovery which just didn’t come.

I kept closing the gap for myself but seemingly doing the hard work for a small number of us that were struggling to cling on. Got to the point once Andeh was behind me and there was a gap in front I just let it go and didn’t close it down. Thinking we could make a small group and finish just behind without the same risk of burning out. Turned out the small group was just two, me and
Andeh. Tried to maintain a small gap to the lead and a clear gap to the chasing group behind but we didn’t seem to maintaining good pace.

I could see Parkinson was closing on us gradually so worked out he may just catch us at the climb, so I went for it to try and open a gap between me and Andeh and jump on the back of Parky which world a treat and we started to gain ground on south side Jonny and his small group. On trouble is he was really laying down the power and I put too much into the climb again so got dropped with around 30 seconds to Andeh and a minute 10 to Zilog, up north, Robbo.

Had to TT a lap and half on my own to try and keep a gap behind me and impossibly close on those in front. Managed to finish within a minute of 3 or 4 in front, and a minute in front of Andeh which may be enough as I think he normally as 30 secs on me, but not sure on the latest handicap diffs if that’s enough or not.

Tough course for a race that one.

Yeah Robbo…I found myself thinking many times “stop leading the group, stop pushing the pace, they are just using your energy!” Haha I need to learn to sit on.

Cheers Robbo, ace fun as always!

Seems weird but could you just check my handicap is correct, generally seems a lot lower than last series. I don’t want to take a win if it’s all squiffy 😉 I should be about 76kg and 265w.

Thanks for arranging as always robbo!

I did as planned and bimbled around. Spent a fair amount of time watching you guys in the front blobs, thinking “oooh, those watts,that looks painful”….. whilst pooling along at around 150w myself.😄

Broke a mental rule and did a little out the saddle sprint to the banner. Still only around 500w though.

Hip feels ok so far but the test will be tonight in bed/tomorrow to see if it aches like a bugger.😁

Great ride all, see you all next week!

@andeh – I have you at 250W and 77kg. Thats puts you up a cat and prob reduces your handicap…

I will prob need to rejog the results in that case

I enjoyed that. Kind of. My laptop battery went about 35 mins in, so my absence from the results is correct @robbo1234biking – I was a DNF. I assume I just vanished into thin air (@j-r, @tpbiker, @garry_lager?).

I was dropped twice in the first half of the race – once (while the lead group was still quite big) @mahowlett pulled me back on – thank you! And a bit later I worked with @garry_lager to get back in the group. That course is really brutal.

I went to my desk and watched the lead group finish on @nixie’s youtube stream. It was great – @nixie put in two huge efforts to win, one 1.5km out (which wasn’t quite enough, it came back together) and another at the finish (which was enough). And I can vouch that @tlr was totally caught out by the gap between the arch and the blue finish. I was shouting at the screen for him to keep pedalling!

savoyad – I dont have you on the results but I am sure you were ahead of me on the road at some point. Did you have a drop out or something?

Thks Rob, great race – find that track v hard.
I was in a small group with Savoyad on the road, and he disappeared sometime round the start of lap 3, so I guess a dropped connection?

Well done Poop! Remember little steps…best to take it easy and still enjoy it, the results will come in time. You don’t want to take 1 step forward and 2 back…

This was the sprint results time. Kind of hard to do a screen shot with 1.5km to go and your doing 280W. I then had to keep an eye on it in case anyone put in a later burst after I had crossed the line!

‘Next up the road was TM who I’m guessing is retrorick based on the comment above. We seemed to hold station and I couldn’t make a dent on the gap to him.’

Yeah that was me ahead of you. I knew we were close on the handicap so when you appeared behind me on the ranking screen I tried my best to keep it that way 😂😉

I wasn’t even thinking about the sprint as it would have cost me a place, especially on the last lap. By that time it was hard enough keeping energy to get to the line and hold off the following hounds, sprinting would have taken everything I had for little reward.

Thanks for the invite, I think.

That was damn hard work and all to miss a point by one place 🙁

And yet, I’m looking forward to the next one.

Nice one, Robbo, cracking series.

Ye fair play robbo top work 👏

Was good to be racing again, well plodding along at the back. Tried to take it easy near the sprints to target them and hope to get some points but non this time. Good racing everyone, and cheers Robbo once again.

I decided to see what lap 3 would bring before having a crack at the sprint. When I got there it seemed worth a punt and then maybe I could try and stay clear from f.stw and D.Fee and go for the finish but when I actually started sprinting it seemed to take forever for my on-screen watts to register.

They did kick in eventually just as I eased off so I had a brief spike at about 600w but not a full sprint by any means. Just as well really because any break for glory would have been an abject failure!

Thanks Andeh for letting me know. I have updated the results:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1iTgJtFVOo3QzWHBY8iS-D2s2a52AB3awdMBMRtyWpNM/edit#gid=1020386797

Overall Race Top 3 with handicaps applied was:

1. v7mfp
2. giggsmaster
3. tpbiker

And the top 3 for the combined points total:

1. v7mfp
2. paino
3. Giggsmaster