STW Zwift Race Series 3 – Winter

I think I need to learn to push my self harder, got to the top thinking I could have given more. First tt for me though so I’ll know for next time, if there is a next one.

@funkybaj – you’re most welcome 🙂

@robbo1234biking – you me given me paino’s sprint points in the results page…

That was definitely type 2 fun, managed to hold ftp for flat bit, then upped power to try and average 300W up the hill, which seems to have worked out nicely.

My FTP has gone up 22W off the back of that to 280. Which is good. And bad…

@robbo1234biking my final time for race 2 has calculated wrong, it says 1:01, I’m sure I didn’t take that long even with the handicap added 🤣🤣🤣

Must say that was fun in hindsight…at the time it wasn’t! 🤣

Really enjoyed the TT, my first one and I think we should have one every series! Well done for organising as always Robbo

@jimdoubleyou apologies have modified that so you and mjhes2 are equal on points

@oopnorth – I have updated the time but no points still I am afraid

@tpbiker apologies I have corrected you into the B cat

Lots of FTP increases tonight – I think I have them all covered. Will hihglight on next weeks handicaps where an FTP increase has happened so you can double check then.

Well that was interesting, and apart from a couple of outliers it was very close. After the handicaps, from @undarra in 4th place to @nixie in 41st, everybody was no further than 11 seconds from the person in front.

Like most, people I did the first bit at about FTP and ramped it up from 272W to 305W for the hill. So the “good news” is an FTP increase from 270W to 275W, which is always a nice surprise for us over 60’s, and the bad news is despite that I still only came in mid field and scrapped just 2 points.

Comparing this to other races where I’ve done a lot better, I think my main skill is managing to just cling onto a group of faster riders and letting them do the work for me. Here I was relying totally on my own efforts so I didn’t do nearly as well.

Well done to everyone, and see you next Tuesday.

@straightliner & @funkybaj – pleased you liked the messages – I always like to encourage the faster riders as they blow me out of the water 😆

Like your comment above, funkybaj ….straightliner came past me like a bloody missile!

Mixed feelings on that one tonight, like @stumpy01. I knew the course but should have recce’d it again as I feel I could have pushed the last KM a bit more. Still, managed a slight FTP increase to 254 @robbo1234biking but just felt there were a few more Ws left by the end. I guess that’s common on such a short effort. Credit to Robbo for the handicapping as there’s some very close times and not the massive gaps I thought there’d be. Good job!

Man, I’m so sorry I missed that !

Did someone say I can do it another time ?

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

( 🤣 )

Congrats Phil. Looks like win by 8s. 👏

But still didn’t get a single point!!

370w average, well above FTP – another FTP increase and not a single point!!

Seriously Robbo???

I was caught out by the pretend start too! Rookie error.

I felt a bit hard done by too. Not quite in same league as you Phil but, 3rd highest HR in the field, ftp increase, so I was digging very deep, and still ‘nil points’. 😢😢. Never mind. I’m hoping the handicap is slightly less tough on me on the next course.

@phil56 sorry about that. You still have more points than me in the series though!

I just didnt perform very well tonight – going to take a day off tomorrow and hopefully be back stronger for the TTT on Thursday evening. Havent had a day off the bike for 11 days so could prob do with a rest day. Performed at my FTP though so it wasnt awful!

More finishers than last week as well – 59 finishers which is great for a TT on a MTB!

oh….and my wife beat me!!!!

She’s giggling in the kitchen and I can hear her going ‘6 points – how many did you get Phil??’

Cheers Robbo enjoyed that in a sadistic way and I got a point yippee

3rd highest HR

Maybe there should be a competition for high heart rate? 😉 I think I averaged around 178.

Anybody else using a Tacx Flow? Mine only seems to lose Bluetooth, (assuming that’s what’s happening) on climbs during races when I’m feeling strong.

A bit of a Google suggests they can overheat with low cadence and reasonable power.

Anybody else have this?

Another disappointing show. Averaged 328W but just felt like I had nothing extra to give. Last season could ‘happily’ climb at 350W for 20mins. This time round I’m struggling to get much over 300. I suppose the effects of COVID childcare having hit my saddle time meant a reduction in form. Some sterling performances though tonight. Didn’t even manage a single point despite over FTP performance, so cap doffed to those who smashed it!

Proper lol @phil56, she must be loving it!

That was horrible, I thought I was doing alright pacing myself on the flat, then I got to the climb 🙁

I’d done it once before but couldn’t remember just how long it went on for, ever and ever it seemed.

Still, they’re all flat courses from now on, right? Right?

Thanks to all the people that gave me ride-ons, seemed to keep coming all the way up the hill, thanks folks.

Would like to have returned the favours but was trying not to notice cramp creeping into my left calf.

See you all on the road to rack and ruin.

That was tough. Robbo Zwift has upped my power again to 235. The series is certainly teaching me how to suffer properly.

Just recovered from doing the 2000 Richmond TDZ stage 2 with DrP (again, did it yesterday, meant to do the Harrowgate event) after Bologna.

@robbo1234biking My FTP needs to increase again after Bologna to 280W. Forgot to check with you before tonight that you saw my post last week after stage 1 at Jungle increasing me to 271W and I’m more than happy for you to retrospectively use it for my stage 1 time handicap.

Tomorow will definitely be an easy day after those two rides tonight!

Well done all on the FTP increases! Some great performances there. 👏👏

That was mega tough as per usual. Having had one test at pacing the effort over this course last week, decided to just try and add a bit more onto the flat part. Notably I tried to get upto speed quickly at ftp then ease off to 280 then hit the lower slopes over to get a flying start. That but went well but I really hadn’t left much in the locker so was suffering big style towards the end of the steep drag past the arches. Add to spin seated for a while at a much lower effort and then go again when it eased off. Felt like I was going to tank at the 16% but just about survived.

The final figures make it look more plain sailing but I was really on and off and struggling to keep a steady pace. Averaged 290/300 up the climb and 354 over the KOM. So kind of to plan but just didn’t feel good at all at the time.

Zwift power still as my best 3 race ftp at 293 but going purely off this race my FTP increased to 303 finishing after finishing with a 319w. average so dragged up another 4w. Can you increase Robbo please.

finishing amongst the top spots is getting harder all the time, it seems the only way to do it is go above ftp every race. I’m going to be pro by summer at this rate thanks to Robbo. Lol.

Congrats to Julie and a host of new names finishing at the top of the leader board, always a tough one for Robbo to work the handicap for a 20m race with so many unknown quantities.

@tpbiker like several others I increased my ftp almost every other race through series one and two, especially after the shorter or hillier races. Just going all in on the climbs chasing the likes of savo, JR and Ian helps with that. Plus personally I use always shy away from the hillier routes solo and for races, I’ve had no choice in the series and joined the lads at the weekend for some torturous routes which as helped build some form but also to understand my limitations better.

@robbo1234biking I got an increase in FTP to 221

That was hard, I somehow had enough left to overtake someone right at the finish line but couldn’t do anything when chipps and a few others went past me on the climb.

Really enjoyed tonight in a suffering kind of way, I think my pacing was a bit off as I had to really dig in over the last couple of Km. My FTP has gone up to 328 which is a pretty big jump from the last race. I think I’ve gone up nearly 80w since November, mustn’t have been trying hard enough 😆

Think we are up to about 15 FTP increases tonight! Seeing as it is pretty much a ramp test it isn’t surprising!

Some of you will move up a cat as well but I will do that when I work out the handicaps for next week.

@scaredypants join me on Saturday 10am. I’m jumping in to a TT then see how I stack up against everyone’s times, since I missed tonight’s race.

So it’s FTP increases all round – looks like Robbo’s race series is getting us fitter!

So how are you all working out your FTP increases???

My average for this 18 odd minutes was 311watts…

Looking on strava AND ZP, it hasn’t changed my FTP.
In fact, ZP still estimates my FTP as 284 in my profile… Strava flashed up a few months ago it was 292…

Looking back at my ZP races I can clearly see my race wattage climbing and climbing (for example – I did a crit last year where my average power was 3.8w/kg… I could easily get 4.4w/kg Now!)…

However, the numbers haven’t seemed to have changed in my profile…
Meh…

DrP

@DrP I think it’s because for a lot of us mere mortals it was a 20min+ effort 😉 so Zwift is using 95% of new best 20 min efforts as new FTP. I got a message just as I was closing (after the Strava save screen, or mebbes before, I was still hurting).

Well first ever stw race, thanks for organising, should have ridden the course before, poor start going straight off the line, and under FTP on flat and only a couple if watts over on climb, so not a great performance but I can do worse next week with poor drafting skills and little race craft 😆, a tt was probably my best event with someone a few seconds ahead the whole way to chase down.

@DrP for me Zwift flashed up a message at the end of the ride saying ‘Oh Yeah’, you’ve increased your FTP 346 to 348, and it seems to automatically update the FTP value in your profile.

I don’t think Zwiftpower automatically updates, but that could be wrong.

@phil56…

So even though your ride was under 20 min, it still worked out an ftp change?

Hmm….

Maybe I’ll do a ramp test or 20 min ftp in a week or so!

DrP

Dr P, I don’t think my ZwiftPower numbers are updating properly either. I can’t be exact on when they last changed but neither the race Category or the number for watts or W/kg for 15secs through to 20 mins seem to have changed in a while.

Zwift is using 95% of new best 20 min efforts as new FTP

Yes, this. I also checked what Zwift said on Intervals.icu and it estimated the same new FTP.

So even though your ride was under 20 min,

I guess Phil warmed down for at least a few minutes after the TT so that would have given Zwift a 20min best effort.

This is what happens if you get a new FTP in a ride.

https://zwiftinsider.com/adjust-your-ftp/

As this week was an individual time trial if anyone missed it and would still like to suffer I am happy to accept a time from an official event to be counted for the GC. I cant award any points but may keep your GC hopes alive. In an official event the result need to be done on a MTB still.

I mentioned I my earlier post, Zwift seems to take 95% of my actual race (19 minutes) to calculate my ‘new’ FTP. I did warm down, but at a much lower power out put, and if I look at my best 20 minute effort on Strava (race + first minute of warm down), the FTP calculates at 304W

Weirdly… At the end of the ride I got the “Oh Yeah! We’ve detected an increase in your FTP” message, but it didn’t actually tell me by how much like it has done in the past. Had to go into my profile afterwards to find that out.

ZP hasn’t even logged an attempt at a new FTP for this race – guessed because the race itself lasted less than 20 mins.

I’m sure zwift uses more than one benchmark to auto detect ftp. It definitely picks up 95% of 20 minutes. But also at least one (unpublished) % of a lesser time, 10 or 12 mins maybe can trigger it. Not a whole range of possibilities like intervals.icu etc but at least one alternative. It’s difficult to reverse engineer what it’s looking at from rides on this course though where there will be lots of coincidences in data because of the nature of the effort.

Zp on the other hand definitely only cares about 95% of 20 minutes.