STW Zwift Race Series 3 – Winter

Feel like it’s going to be a tough slog on the MTBs tonight … 60 minutes ish?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iii4nWgioTU

https://youtu.be/iii4nWgioTU

YT is weird..it’s just the text!!

no stuff!

DrP

EDIT – OK..yours just isn’t working!!!!

Weird. Though at least its not working for you either with my links.

Enjoy this evening folks, a quick 10 minutes to see if I’d gotten over Sunday tells me a race this evening would be a very bad thing to do so I’m going to take the hint and rest.

Managed to have dinner nice and early ready for tonight, but I feel absolutely drained after work today, apparently I’m top of the charts for fatigue on Crickles after today’s update! 😆

Paying the penalty for a relatively big week last week with at least two other effective workouts besides the Bologna TT.

If I get anywhere near my 20mins MAP later, either my Direto is faulty, or I need to give a blood sample for drug testing.

I’m out too, family commitments and wine. But mostly wine.
I’ll be checking out DrP’s feed at the pointy end (assuming Nixie has ‘effed off up the road). Enjoy. Catch some of you Thursday for the TTT.

Righto… for zwift working after laptop reboot!
Just warming up…
Also set the streaming software to use my nvidea gpu, rather than the cpu… should make the stream quality better/smoother….

Legs feeling tired…AND I’ve set the turbo to 100% difficulty, in prep for ‘you know what’ to see what it’s like!

See you all in a bit..

DrP

Be careful downhill @DrP. 100% I think makes downs more difficult to stay attached.

Ah, OK…
Well.. I’m pop it back to 50% for the race!

DrP

🤮 that was hard.

i’ll echo that…!

i made a nice bridge v early on at the start, just before the Jungle loop… but then as we crossed the jungle line, you, phil, and the other bigger boys made a break that me and the others just couldn’t make up…

I tell you, it feels MUCH harder on MTBs doesn’t it!

DrP

Spent.

That was savage. The milder weather meant the garage was too warm and I was fighting cramp for the last 5km 😖

Ouchie. That’s all for now…

Sounds nasty. Nice ride again.

I think Phil and I could of have closed again at the end if we had pushed but instead we both got very cagey.

Ooof, these races ain’t easy are they.

Found a group after the road climb, but then Euain and Lee shot off up the jungle climb. Thanks to Robbo and Jack for sticking with to the finish.

Still trying to breathe…legs failed me with 2km to go after repeated efforts to hold onto the group. That was just me holding on all the way round with huge efforts up that hill to the jungle.

That was the hardest one yet I think! 260w average all the way round.

That was hard, feeling a bit 🤮

@robbo1234biking. Thanks for the heads up about @benman’s Dad!

@nixie that’s was I was worried about!! I was keeping a close eye on your power and times. I know how strong you guys are on the flat.

Thanks for the company to the little group of 4 that I was with for most of that. Another good race to the finish, think I timed it just right. It was hard though!

Computer said no, ended up using the mobile, no warm up and not enough resistance, so ran out of gears. Sat in a small group of striped blobs with no real idea of the elevation or names and pushed the pedals for an hour, cheers all!

That. Was. Agony.

Got stuck out on my own in 35th and just didn’t have enough in the tank to catch up with the next small group so dropped back with the 3 behind me then gave it absolutely everything to the line for the last 300m. Beat @jimdoubleyou by 3/4 of a bike length then collapsed on the bike as my heart tried to escape my chest!

An absolute **** of a race to do on the MTB’s. Same time next week!

I think that was the most attacking race I’ve done on Zwift, not just people getting shelled out the back but a group of 5 or 6 just putting digs in everywhere and getting dragged back, people going over the top etc -it was brutal!

Big thanks to Rob as always and everyone in the group I was battling with. I think I’ll be able to say I enjoyed it in about an hour or so!

(think I buggered my recording) 🙁

Big thanks for organising, my zwift took over 8 mins for me to join do everyone was at least 1min 30 down the road when I started!!🤦‍♂️ Pleased to make it back to mid pack by the end, it’s tough knowing your going hard and making no ground, there’s always next week

Good little group we had in around 20th position, Paul, Nick, etc…some continual digs going on and kudos to those that had the little dig going into the volcano…that killed it for me as I’d done a couple of hard efforts trying to get back on previously, out of the jungle and in the Italian village.

Well done all…I’ll sleep well tonight.

Aargh. That was probably the best I’ve ever ridden. But, as predicted, I ended up sat on the floor cursing my trainer before the end – but not too swearily. Never mind. I was really aiming to get back in contention in the GC in category B but I’m out of that now, I’ll think of some other goal in the next week.

I had a plan, I even told @robbo1234biking what it was earlier. I didn’t expect to have to execute it twice, but somehow I did. It was to get on the @phil56 / @nixie side of the inevitable split, and stay with them as long as I could, preferably until the end. It worked on the seaplane climb, then it only came back together into the jungle. But then I managed the same trick again at the far end of the jungle. I had imagined that making the selection would be the hardest part of this, but I can now confirm that they race each other at the front, and it was not the chariot-ride to the end I had envisaged. I did my best to cooperate with Phil once we were a pair, but I don’t really have the necessary firepower to be a participant rather than a passenger that far forward in this field. Then it went wrong approaching the volcano.

Good race though. Thanks all.

That’s really tough on MTBs – in fact they are all tough on MTBs.

Had to burn some matches on the climb out of the tunnel because my group was being dropped, and so
the matchbox was empty on the climb to the bridge and all the fast boys got away.

Managed to hang in a very select group with @jonno and @munkeymadness , as usual just about clinging onto the back while they did the work – and constantly thinking is this the point I just give up and drop off the back. But luckily I somehow did cling on to the bitter end and got towed across the line quicker than I deserved.

Well done @w00dster – about the same FTP and W/kg as me but you held on up the hill with @kirky72 and the quick group when I just could make it. And of course Kirky is just getting better and better each race – the days are long gone when I could hope to finish in his group!

I had a plan

that was my plan too. It worked very effectively for the first 3km.

In positive new, I’ve fixed my laggy streaming issues so the race video works well!
For some daft reason I’d previously been streaming all the other races using the CPU to process the video… completely ignoring my dedicated graphics card!
Much better now..actually wachable!

I’m gonna neck a recovery shake..have a shower, then leap into bed!!!

Top work all those who pushed hard today….

oof!!

DrP

My god that looked hard just watching from my cosy couch. Started watching Nixie’s feed then jumped to DrP’s. After the initial superb catch of the lead group just before the
Jungle, it didn’t surprise me to see Adam and Phil show everyone a clean set of heels on the climb, with the other 2 then powering away from DrP group. The bit that really separated the men from the boys was the climb back out of the jungle, after the bridge..just when everyone had clearly had enough that long 3% drag had the chasing group well and truly beaten! Great win again from Ben, good chase from the next groups down the road. For once, glad I wasn’t there 😁

That was easy, nice steady roll out and gentle pedal up the first incline. whats all the fuss about.

on a more serious note thats the closest I’ve come to vomiting within the first half hour on a bike.

had to give it the kitchen sink up the first sharp climb to stay in touch with the lead group. crested with Ian and hung onto him as we gradually caught up to the lead group. Pleased to see we had fractured from the rest of the group. eventually myself, Ian and woody were separated on the climb out of the jungle. a small gap opened om front of me and I purposely put no effort in to close it down knowing Ian and woody were behind me. glad to see they don’t pass me and latch on so we formed a mini group which I still struggled to keep with as the upto and over the last climb o must have been way over ftp for the first 20 or 25 minutes.

glad if the cruise down towards the volcano and that we managed to maintain a gap to the group behind us. thought we dropped woody as we entered the volcano but he valiantly caught back on and then Ian left us for dead with a suprise sprint for the line. so much harder to accelerate to catch on the mtb especially after 45 minutes of thrashing yourself.

shame whatever happened to savo as he put an amazing effort in again to climb out of the jungle with Ben Phil and nixie.

erm thanks again Robbo for putting us through the mangle.

That was brilliant. Got the wrong side of the first split through not paying attention, but them managed to get some great pulls around the course between groups, thanks Neil for first half and Martin for the second.

Martin loved the vanishing act. I was impressed it put you back in exactly the same position with me wheel sucking.

That was the worst yet. After the first 15 mins I couldn’t sustain anything above 240w and by the end I was struggling to get above 200. I suppose riding every day this year and a cat B interval ride yesterday didn’t help. Well at least that’s my excuse. 🙂

Cheers R obbo another slog Mtb definitely feel harder good little duel with A Mitchell,,Dobski and Bailey nip and tuck right up to the line all taking turns on the front.

Neil

P.S Hope the floods aren’t to bad Chipps.

Well I turned myself inside out again, which is generally my aim. But I really need to understand the whole physics of the game better not to mention race craft. Downhill on your own at 66kg is pretty futile lol

Determined not to get left behind at the start again so went off plenty hard to momentarily find myself at the front for a second, “this can’t be right” so eased a little next thing I’m back in 40th or something and gaps are forming lol.

Thought I’d could catch a group ahead on the early climb at only 5 seconds so pushed on, but didn’t manage it and so went back to the group with Robbo, Jack, Euain and funkybaj – but that was pretty much my matches burned.

Did manage to stay with Euain as we broke away from the group and then just spent the rest of the race hanging onto him before knobbing him at the end by going just inside 1k and holding (just about) to the line.

Lots to learn, but thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks Robbo and all who raced. And thanks again Euain for towing me round (sorry for dicking you at the end after sitting in for so long). 😉

Got breath back now…

As expected, got dropped from the bigger boys group coming out of the tunnel. Managed to stay in a reasonable group of 4/5 through the jungle, but got dropped on the climb again (no surprises here so far).

Worked at FTP +5/10% up the hill and managed to catch a wheel as we went past the windmills. Caught a couple more on the way through then @reluctantjumper on the slopes before the volcano. Saw a group behind with @ivandobski so all put a shift in which kept us away I think.

Tried to go at 600m but they weren’t having it. Did ok in the sprint but couldn’t overtake.

Average power was 1 below new ftp from last week so I know my level now.

Definitely type 2 fun, but also massively motivating each week so thanks again to @robbo1234biking for organising. This is the highlight of my week 🙂

Thanks everyone for joining in tonight. Another tough but good race!

Onto the results. These are provisional in case I have made any mistakes. Please let me know.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QPxMGqez2VsN-4mD17f90t06NzqSLMMoGe4cUEK1E3U/edit#gid=1928068157

Cat A:
1. benman
2. nixie
3. phil56

Cat B:
1. w00dster
2. kirky72
3. J-R

Cat C:
1. drew
2. v7mfp
3. oopnorth

Cat D:
1. lewisdeacon
2. crust
3. jmd12

Overall Race Winner (with handicaps)
1. drew
2. w00dster
3. v7fmp

Series Top 3 (including sprint/fastest lap points)
1. kirky72
2. w00dster
3. msjhes2

Green Jersey Race
1. Nixie (10)
2. Seabass (6)
3. Paino (4)

Next week is a fat tyre crit with 8 laps of Downton Dolphin. There are lots of crit races each week so plenty of opportunities to get a good recced if you want one.

Dont forget to have a go on Repack Ridge as well. The leadberboard is currently:

1. Dangeourbrain
2. Jamesoz
3. Nick

For those interested in joining with more STW Zwift fun(?) there is a TTT on a Thursday evening:

Zwift Team Time Trial, Thursday

Thanks Robbo

Cheers Robbo. Great but brutal race again. Cheers to t.rolo and the rest of the group for a great effort and for the tow! Was so glad to get to the windmills on the way back as my mass could then help me get a rest on the downhill. Great finish. Chipps made a bold early sprint for the line, but was chased down, leaving us all eating rolo dust as he dropped the aero boost and s.copping just pipped me on the line. Was sure I held it…surely a photo finish there!