STW Zwift Race Series 3 – Winter

Don’t say sufferfest!! Just cooling down after the ‘Easy session to work on your endurance’ as Zwift put it that tuned out to be an easy run-in followed by a near-20 minute set of step-downs that kept me on my redline all the way to the end. Got a few hours to recover but I fear it might effect me towards the end and definitely for the sprint.

No pain no gain 🥵

Urgh! Really not feeling it today, this is going to be hard work later.

Can relate to the posts above about stress, lockdowns, homeschooling and such like.

I’ve only been on Zwift since about December but Tuesday evenings STW race is always something to look forward to.

I’ve picked up a groin injury (trying to dummy children on wet grass!) was having to be careful about big movements. Seems to be ok on the bike for normally pedalling (managed a 2 hour session including oh my crit smash race half an hour after doing it). Haven’t tried to sprint though. Flip side is PT had no leg work whatsoever today so I’m hopeful that means my legs will be fresher than they have been. We shall see :D.

Stream for tonight!

Nothing to see here! Right worked out what setting I need to change but can’t change it via youtube studio!

cool…
I MAY have ordered a green screen!!! Was meant to arrive today, but no sign of it!

Will have a good setup for sunday!

DrP

A green screen? So that it’ll appear that you’re halfway up Ventoux?

Can we make requests for what you should have on your green screen @DrP for Sunday? I’m going for The Spielberg classic Duel

…or Benny Hill

I COULD superimpose an mp4 file on my live stream!!! But… Will just play about with having plain ol’ me gurning as I ascend for the umpteenth time!!

DrP

Dinner done, feeling knackered and a bit headachy, hopefully will perk up in the next 30mins or so before getting ready.

DrP wouldn’t it be cool if you could green screen the view from your rear cam as you plod up so the real you in front of the virtual view behind you.

My legs feel like they’ve already raced so that’s not a great sign for tonight’s fun and games.

Having a shocker at work so not going to make it tonight 🙁 have fun everyone

Trying to watch live but can’t seem to get on DrP’s or Nixie’s streams! Ah well, hope the pain isn’t too bad all.

Shite..sorry…
the old streaming software just went live VIA the OBS studio stuff…

THis new one i actually have to click via youtube.. whoich i didn’t….

Which is a shame, as it was a great race!

Curse you nixie, with that Draft right at the end!!

DrP

My stream only logged 7s for some reason. Grr. Very annoying as that was fun and close racing. Must have failed to start it properly.

Didn’t think I was going to let you get away did you DrP 😋

Yeah, really annoying, as that was some of the closest, most fun racing we’ve had!!

DrP

Always such hard work these things!

Absolute burnt myself out early on trying to keep up with the pack I was aiming to be with.

But then settled in with a great group from 25th-32nd. Cheers all.

@savoyad – great race Adam! Congrats on the win

Well done all, great fun as always

That felt very cagey, every climb was max effort and then coasting waiting for the next attack.
S.avoyad awesome bridge and great win. I thought about trying to go with you until I noticed your w/kg, no chance would I have been anywhere close…..I was secretly waiting for your internet to drop again!

Great race everyone! Fair play to you guys out front, managed to stay in the lead pack until the climb on lap 3 then got dropped and nothing left in the tank to get back to the pack

A couple of electricals, rolled in nearly last with A Clowes catching fast, I’m assuming by the speed he was catching he also had an electrical or two.

That.
Was.
Painful.

Was ok in a group of 4 around 40th until lap 3. Started to drop off the back going into the volcano, went to put a quick spurt in and nothing happened. Lefs were completely empty. Spent the rest of the race just spinning the pedals as I had a good 45-50 seconds back to the next rider who then caught me with half a lap to go, tried to hook into the rear of them but again nothing in the legs.

Need to make sure I’m fully fresh for the next race as that has a lot of climbing in it.

Ow…

Tried to stay with the front lot, then remembered that I can’t do that, so slowed down, then realised that I might as well ride on my own until I got caught – cue three laps on my tod while holding off a pack of four riders at eight seconds. That was harder than I intended!

Christ, dunno about you lot but I felt horrible tonight. Uncomfortable, proper gassed, turbo felt laggy, I could barely sustain 80%ftp….it’s that lockdown fatigue I tells ya.

Cheers Robbo (with yer big crown) and whoever else was towing me round there, I had nothing to give, sorry. Chipps was putting in an amazing effort to keep ~8s out from us the whole race, props that man!

Managed to stick with @ivandobski all the way round, amassed quite a group in the end.

Left my aero too late on the final climb and a few got away, tried my best but no dice. Think I lost a couple more seconds on cat C GC so that’s (wild) dreams of a top 3 smashed as climbing is not my strongpoint!

Whaaaaat? No stream from the pointy end of the race to catch up on? That’s become my post-ride entertainment. Damn, sounds like it was a good ‘un too.

Interesting and very tough race for me. Still more work needed on keeping a decent position towards the start, but ended up with fordo somewhere in the 20s I think, until we were joined by a few others (Euain, Jules, Scaredypants and I think P Tunstall) hung on with them for a bit before deciding to go all in and have a crack at the group up the road, who were about 10s I think.

Damn nearly killed me catching them, and as soon as I did I eased off to be caught out and spat out the back by a few seconds so had to do it again! Then it was just holding on with the group (Robbo, Andeh, Dpuglas and Daniel Baron I think). Got caught out on the last incline before the finish so wasn’t in the sprint (wouldn’t have had anything anyway). Looks like Douglas just pipped Robbo from the ZC results.

THanks again everyone (special mentions to Robbo obv.). This really is a strange kinda compelling fun.

Well done @savoyad great battle. Kept hoping you were going to blow up, but you destroyed me in those last esses.

Oh yeah and Robbo’s golden beacon is great when he’s in the next group up the road, proper motivating haha!!

Had an internet disaster, loads of dropouts and a blank rider list so had no idea who I was racing with. Spent 1st half of race in a group of 4 in about 34-38th position, we Hohenzollern got joined by another group and we pretty much stayed together until the final hill of the Esses.

Looking at results seems I was with @jimdubleyou and @ivandobski amongst others.

Hell of ride from you lee, that was some bridge to get over to robbo n crew, I deffo didn’t have that in me.

When’s the next one? 😵

Managed to stay with a group just out of my league. The only way I can still be in the group going through the volcano is to go full steam from the bottom of the slope and try not to lose the bunch as they go past me at the top. I wasn’t trying to get away, I was just trying to stay with. Kind of missed the last rise before the finish, but was just holding on anyway, so happy to cruise in.

Jack just missed the break to the group I was in and finished just behind, whilst threatening to catch the whole way. As a stronger, younger lighter rider riding next to me, it goes to show that if you just misread or miss a break, you are in a world of trouble.

Bluetooth dropped out a minute before the start and was left on the line. Very annoying as I was feeling quite good tonight.

That was tough, decided I would try to stay with the front group for as long as possible at all other costs today. It was a struggle and had to work hard as I was dropped off the back a few times in quick succession, right until the sprint at the end of the first lap, needless to say I had nothing to give, and despite my best efforts couldn’t quite make it back to the tail of the group.
At that point it was a fair few seconds back to the second group with Chipps and Robbo I think, so it wasn’t worth waiting. So I was stuck with a four lap solo between groups 1 and 2. My only company being CrazyHarry for a few seconds as he fell out of the fast group a little later than me, but he must have broken himself pretty badly as he was clearly struggling, think he got a second wind a few minutes later though. Pretty chuffed that I increased the gap between me and the second group, think it was about 40 seconds in the end, but unsurprisignly the gap between me and the first group just kept getting bigger and bigger, I think it was around a minute ten in the end. So pretty happy that I dug in and hung on, a good result for me I think though.

Thanks everyone for joining in tonight.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QPxMGqez2VsN-4mD17f90t06NzqSLMMoGe4cUEK1E3U/edit#gid=607126857

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

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

Cat B:
1. savoyad
2. kirky72
3. w00dster

Cat C:
1. v7mfp
2. haloric
3. Haloric Jr

Cat D:
1. jmd12

Overall Race Winner (with handicaps)
1. savoyad
2. w00dster
3. J-R

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

Sprint
1. nixie
2. paino
3. straightliner
4. kirky72
5. savoyad

Green Jersey Race
1. nixie (32)
2. paino (30)
3. benman (6)

The Queen stage approaches next week. A bit of a longer race with some distance on the flat areas of London before nipping across to Surry and fighting up Keith Hill with a summit finish!

Dont forget to have a go on Repack Ridge as well. There is only 1 week left! The leadberboard is currently:

1. slowpuncheur
2. driley
3. robbo1234biking

@itsonlymelee that was a great ride to sit in our group then attack on the last lap. I saw you sitting in no man’s land, thinking we’ll catch you back so fair play for bridging up to Robbo’s group. We had a decent group with scaredypants, jules, fordo, me and drysdale (apols for forgetting forum names).We took about 20 secs out of Robbo and Andeh and I thought we’d get to them by the end but solid rides all round. Great finish on the esses. I went too early, only to see jules Jordan pass me like a train in the sprint. Good race.

Zwift threw a wobbly on me just after I joined the race pen 🙁

ANT+ pairings on the PC cable/dongle all good during warmup, then lauched Companion App as I joined the pen, Zwift then decided to ditch the ANT+ and only allowed Bluetooth through the app.

After several minutes + of trying to get ANT+ working again, I gave up and went with Bluetooth for a solo TT of sorts and finally left the pen.

Legs felt really heavy, ~250W on the flat felt hard work, the motivation of trying to reduce how many aliens would lap me helped coax a bit more out of then for a final race 20mins of ~281W. Surprised my moving power average was 275W for the ~48mins I was moving, matching my recent best from STW race 3…

But Zwiftpower is saying my total time is 53min6secs, so I was messing about trying to get pairings again for an age! 😆

My plan tonight was repeated attacks and a single attempt at the sprint. I spent most of the race hanging out at the back of the group then pulling through at pace at different points on the lap. I was also looking for anyone drafting me that I could drop from the group by sliding a second.or so back then jumping the gap. Nearly got @mahowlett doing it and at one point @phil56 was in the right place but closed before I could try it (not that I’d expect him to be dropped just have to burn matches).

No one seemed to want to play with the attacks and try and break so I kept letting the pack close in again without to much of a fight. The repeated have changes did seem to whittle the group down over the laps (sorry @chipps, think you’d just got back on when I launched one attempt). The sprint I was really happy with, don’t think I’ve been under 12s for a while on a road bike let alone a MTB.

The attack after the sprint on the last lap by @paino was great, wish I’d been following his sprint as his lead was so big two off us might have stayed away.

Finally well down @savoyad on the win. Well played 👍.

I managed about 20 seconds in first place off the line which was a nice surprise. Then spent the rest of the race in a fight with three others for ~35th. I think it was Jim and Ivan’s group of 4/5 that joined us near the end and we then had a sprint to the finish but I’d given too much already and couldn’t get past the person in front of me

I really enjoyed that.

Funny that @jimdoubleyou said he managed to stick with me – I would have described it as me struggling to wheelsuck him and Neil Arnold(?)!

I went out a bit fast then settled in to a group which steadily picked up more and more riders. On the last lap I had an aero power-up which I wanted to use at the finish but decided that the group was likely to split on the climb to the volcano so used it there, got to the top first then recovered in the draft.

The last riser was just a touch too far, I lost a few seconds over the crest but timewise I don’t think it made a difference to the handicapped results.

Had a very brief wi-fi drop out and a less brief choking fit after bridging a bit of a gap on about lap 4 then trying to have a drink. I lost the group for a few seconds and thought that was the end of that but luckily the pace eased a bit and I could get back in – the mrs thought I was dying.

Thanks all for the racing and again, especially Rob for sorting it all out.

Edit – and I’m bringing Dry January to a close to celebrate.