STW Zwift Race Series 3 – Winter

That was my best ride in all the series so far…but I only got 5 points. I can only empathise with @phil56 now!

Finally got a good start and stayed with the front group for a decent amount of time before dropping into a group with Baron, oblongbob and andeh. I felt strong but didnt think I should attack too soon so stayed with the group thinking we would catch chipps. He managed to hold out though – at one stage it went down to 4 seconds but he brought it back out and managed to hold out. I sheltered in the group when I could but also took some turns on the front.

Great effort from Lee to bridge across to us. I didnt realise you dropped out again and had to catch up again! Thought the group behind would catch us but the gap seemed to stabalise in the last 3km.

Got to the final lap and I was a bit worried I would get dropped so worked hard on all the climbs. I knew going into that final corner up hill was the place to attach so I hit 500w and pushed over the top of the climb trying to save something for the final sprint in case I needed it. As I crested the climb I hit an aero power up and the gap grew to everyone apart from oblongbob and then I kind of coasted to the end forgetting to actually sprint the sprint section!

Really enjoyed that course – might look out for a race on their at some point!

well done to @savoyad on the win on the road and the outright win – not sure if that has happened before or not – will have to check back!

Any FTP or weight changes let me know so I can get the final handicaps done!

Edit: @slowpuncheur sent me a 30 min race warm up which I did and it seemed to work! so thanks for that 🙂 Was a bit worried it was a trick but pretty happy now!

@dandasbike @slowpuncheur cheers, I had my doubts that I was going to make it across! Looking at Strava took about 5 minutes to make the initial catch (before getting spat and having to go again), impressed myself with the power and heart rate I managed to sustain (best 5 mins). It was the motvation of Robbo’s beacon combined with the prospect of the no-mans-land rewind of shame back to the group that kept me going. 😉

I’d had ideas similar to @mahowlett but just can’t seem to get such a good effort out at the start. Better warm up needed I guess.

Once again, great fun (and pain) and thanks to Euain, Itsonlymelee, Scaredypants, P Tunstall and Fordo for working together and keeping us moving along. I managed to get an aero power up for that final sprint which definitely helped the last effort to the line, although I did use it a bit too early.

@itsonlymelee – that was a great bridge over to the other group – I thought for a while you’d got stuck in no man’s land and we’d sweep you up, but no, you dug in and made it.

@Chipps – well done for holding off that group by yourself for so long and congratulations on the engagement too!

@robbo1234biking – thank you again for organising. As mentioned above, it’s been a great opportunity to work hard on something physical in the midst of lockdown and with the race and the camaraderie (or heckling) on here, makes Tuesday nights good fun.

Awesome effort chipps. Thought we’d reel you in but you hung on.

Robbo, you seemed to be going well. I almost felt a bit bad about that finish. Your effort on the last climb was great, but I just managed to hang on, followed you in before nabbing it on the sprint. I think you knew the game was up in the last couple of hundred as you seemed to roll in.

I.Onlymelee, your bridge to us was impressive. We kept you in no man’s land for ages, but you kept on keeping on.

Thanks to everyone, especially Robbo and our wee group. I was low on enthusiasm this afternoon but it’s such a great way to get a sweat up on a Tuesday night.

Another learning experience for me. I was hanging on to a far-too-fast group until the first trip to the volcano. Spat out the back and then I spent too long on my own not quite decided if I should try to catch up again (no chance) or relax a bit. Did neither and was just happy to get picked up by imonlylee, scaredypants, fordo, straightliner, p tunstall. Was really survival from then on. No chance was I going to follow itsonlymelee on his epic bridge.

For the first time this series I actually felt good! Was surprised to see such a big gap opening to the second group as I didn’t actually think we were smashing it. My plan was somewhat ruined by the complete lack of decent PU’s until the 3rd lap. Fair play to @Nixie for the sprint win. Still well pleased at 11secs though..that equals my pb with a road bike! Backup plan was to see what damage I could do from the sprint to launch an attack on the final lap, unfortunately the group of 4/5 behind me didn’t look to have splintered. Not sure what Zwift timing was up to as it was saying I was holding the group at 8 secs, even up the volcano climb, that was, until @Savoyad and @Benman ripped past me. That was enough for me to call it a day. Still pleased with my performance tonight, seems to be going in the right direction.
And, I got the Tron. Get in.

Felt a bit jaded for the last few days and pretty odd today somewhat like DrP described with on and off head aches especially during exercise.

Seems to be struggling with the fast start this week and felt i needed to have a big dig at the first sprint even though I was tried from the effort to that point. Two things were on my mind, first that it would be the best chance of getting some sprint points. also I had convinced myself that Nixie was going to blast through the sprint keeping the power on up the following climb to form a break away. It didn’t quite happen that way but maybe it shook a few off, this was repeated on each lap.

I ended up hitting it hard from the Essex through the sprint and into the volcano then trying best to recover. There ware a few good attacks mostly from Nixie that were tough to catch back on and the constant efforts made it impossible to try and chase Savo down the last time through the Esses. Coasted a bit towards the end and recovered just enough to catch Woodster then Phil in the sprint but didn’t have anywhere near enough to get near Ian and Nixie.

Amazing stuff Savo, tremendous effort to pull away at the tail end of that effort.

Shattered at the end, could barely bring myself to climb an extra couple of hundred foot to finally nab the concept bike but just about managed it then quickly jumped off.

Well, I enjoyed that! Obviously. Thanks @robbo1234biking for great route choice, and everyone for giving it a proper community feel as always. I love this series whether it’s going well for me or not.

It was a great race to be part of – very cagey at the front as @w00dster said, with a bit of attrition out the back but less action off the front. It had a very different dynamic having @phil56, @nixie and @benman as part of a bigger lead pack rather than ahead with us as a chasing group.

I’ve never “raced” the esses that way before – I’ve been through plenty (in two bridges, reverse hilly and figure 8 for example) but they don’t tend to be decisive or even particularly interesting on those routes. I started the race anticipating a group finish (not necessarily the front group!) getting away from me in a flat sprint over the bridge. And it only dawned on me on about lap 3 that the esses could be so selective, possibly in my favour, in the finale. That’s why I dug so deep (@w00dster noticed) to bridge across to @benman’s wheel when he made his inevitable move last time through the volcano.

@paino got a pretty big gap out of the sprint into the last lap, and he’s well capable of maintaining it, so I did think the race might be riding away from us at that point: certainly had anyone but especially @nixie, @phil56 and/or @benman gone with him I think that would have been it. The size of the group was against him though.

I had a lot of recovering to do when I got onto @benman’s wheel. But I tried to do some work (@paino having just showed the difficulty of staying away from that group!) rather than simply sit in. I had my heart broken in the TDZ the other day when the guy I was in a duel with dropped a feather on the final ramp to leave me behind…I was sneakily planning to do that to @benman out of the esses…when he turned out to have a feather too! At which point I stopped seeing the screen and went all in and it worked.

Is anyone’s stream fixable?!

Hi Ivan I don’t think it was me might have been Neil Daniels who,I caught half way round the last lap. Solo,ITT again but good fun as always.

Thanks Robbo for your time and organising and to all the winners good efforts all,round.

Neil

Gah! I think that was my best effort so far, but I had two wi-fi drops. The first took ages to sort as I’ve never connected my tablet to my phone wi-fi before so had to root around in the settings.

I’ve got no idea what happens to the race when the app is minimised (any idea?), but when I re-connected i had lost over 30 seconds to SFigg…
I was bloody livid so think that gave me a bit more oomph.
It then went again about 15 mins later while going through the volcano but I managed to connect to the house wi-fi without too much problem.

Felt like my hardest effort so far and I hoped to have come a bit further up the results but still right down at the bottom. I’m not sure if the wi-fi dropouts affected it or whether i just need to get a LOT fitter!

@robbo1234biking Glad the warm up helped you. Now, can you delete it from your files? 😉

How was the wobbleboard @kirky72?

Oh and I wondered if anyone else had directions for Harrogate route turns popping up at ransom points? Properly did my head in!

Great race – found myself struggling up the first climb and had to try to climb a couple of groups on the flatter bits. Did OK and ended up in a great group (IOMLee, Euain, dandas, slowpuncheur, straightliner) and we were rolling quick enough that only a complete loon would try to get away – oh, bye Lee !! 🙂

Was pretty close to my max sustainable effort all around and when I unleashed my sprint at the end it was apparently already in the shower, since I couldn’t close/gain at all on the others

Got off the bike and walked in to find my tea ready on the table and, oh look, a beer in my hand. Turned out nice !

That was hard work, signed up yesterday, racing today. I even had a goal of not coming last, but failed it, at least I can recycle it for the next one.

P.

(for anyone who wishes they had a stream of this – if you’re using a windows PC you can press “windows”+G to get a game-recoding function so you can record your own race and hope that others have done the same. I didn’t; wish I had. You need a decent amount of free space but seems to work fine)

also I had convinced myself that Nixie was going to blast through the sprint keeping the power on up the following climb to form a break away.

I’d actually forgotten about doing that in London. Mot quite fit enough currently.

Is anyone’s stream fixable?!

Sadly no. From the next one I’m going to record locally as well as stream as a backup.

Soo annoying I messed up the stream… looked to see if it was stored in the pc… alas…nope…

At least I know what went wrong for future events!

Off to bed now.. Will do a write up in the morning!

DrP

I was bloody livid so think that gave me a bit more oomph.
It then went again about 15 mins later while going through the volcano but I managed to connect to the house wi-fi without too much problem.

I was a couple of places ahead of you after my electricals, once you drop back a couple of times and are nowhere near People of a similar pace to you, you’re knackered.

After watching the Avatar casually pull up, like it’s going to light a gitane or take a selfie, whilst everyone zipps past, it’s hard not to give up, smash the smug bastard with a clawhammer and throw the trainer in the pond.
So fair play for carrying on after a drop out.

Hi Ivan I don’t think it was me might have been Neil Daniels who,I caught half way round the last lap.

Watching that gap steadily decrease over that last lap was properly demoralising as I knew I could put out enough power to keep you at bay normally but my legs wouldn’t go above 200w so was a sitting duck!

I was with IvanDobski’s group at the beginning but crapped out as they were chasing towards the next group but lost touch going into the volcano. Once I’d backed off a bit that was my racing done, just a painful cruise to the finish.

jamesoz

After watching the Avatar casually pull up, like it’s going to light a gitane or take a selfie, whilst everyone zipps past, it’s hard not to give up, smash the smug bastard with a clawhammer and throw the trainer in the pond.

To be honest, I am not sure what happens when the wi-fi drops out. Yes, you lose all other people on the screen but the route continues & the resistance seems to change etc. I rode for a short while with my avatar happily plugging away before realising there was no one else on the screen & the positions list had disappeared.
But what I experience might not be what the ‘race’ experiences, I suppose?

I had to minimise the app on the tablet to access the wi-fi settings, so was unsure what happens while that’s going on.
I dunno if the app continues to run in the background. Would be easy enough to try on a free ride I suppose.

I just plugged the log file into zwiftalizer & there’s a load of connection attempts at around 7 mins in which I think is when the problem occurred.
Depending on where the neighbour’s router is in their house, it might be close enough to pick it up in my garage. I might ask if I can try it just for Zwift stuff….

We are hoping to get our hall, stairs & landing decorated this year and part of the plan now will definitely be getting an ethernet put in the wall from the dining room where the socket is through to the hallway so the router can be stuck in the centre of the house. I can then run another ethernet from there into the garage & will be able to run Zwift all wired-up.

Stumpy, look at mesh WiFi systems. Should sort your issues.

My plan was the same as every race – cling onto the fast boys and hang on for dear life. It worked for nearly 3 laps, but inevitably I got spat out the back on one of @nixie‘s attacks. I’m impressed how @w00dster and @savoyad manage to just find that bit extra to stay with the fast boys when I can’t, although our numbers are so close.

I then eased off for @jonno to catch me and was relieved to see he seemed perfectly happy to drag me round at a fast enough pace not to loose too much time to the front runners. I’m sorry to say I repaid his kindness with a sprint over the bridge which dropped him at the finish. Unfortunately I had to do it to avoid loosing any more time to @w00dster and @kirky72.

As painful as ever, but thanks @robbo1234biking and everyone else. And sorry @jonno.

I wonder if something has been amiss lately with Zwift, Monday i was doing a Crit (i know, surprise !), in the holding pen with 40s to go everyone disappears and there’s me and 1 bloke…. 10s to go they came back…. Then 3/4 way round the lap they all disappear, i held on at a decent pace hoping i’d still have them when it came back. It was out for 40s or so and i lost 8-9sec. Not massive, but as they were drafting/grouping at 3.4w/kg i wasn’t going to close that gap down that’s for sure. I lost them again about 4 laps in for 20s this time, but by that case i was hanging rounding waiting for Gr2 to catch, happily once they caught i didn’t have any issues. It’s been months since i’ve had any dropouts.

@J-R once I got dropped by the front group on the volcano climb for the second time and couldn’t catch up again (think it was lap 3) I just try to ride a constant pace to the end trying to minimise time losses. I did try to follow when you went for the sprint but nothing left in the legs. Seems to get out sprinted every week.

Good ride anyway, enjoyed mixing it at the front for a bit while I could.

Roll on next week.

well that was a close call for me last night. Had a few technical gremlins (which i never have), managed to power down and power up again, got into the starting pen with 25 seconds to go.

Started pedalling like a mad man to endure the insanity that is the first km. Cant we all agree to cruise at the start, my heart and lungs would appreciate it!! 😀

After that i settled into a group with Manwarning, Zilog, Rolo, Liddington, Jenneson, Atkinson, and it felt like we all put in a solid effort. Its hard to tell if folk try a breakaway or if you are so knackered on some of the short sharp hills that they naturally pull away.

Still leading the Cat C GC, so pleased with that. One more race to go!

Firstly, I’m still really pi$$ed I didn’t click ‘go live’ on youtube!!
I’m using a different OBS software, which is ‘simpler’ so should use less PC processing and lead to sharer streams.. but my OLD software would automatically ‘make’ Youtube go live via the software..this new one you stream to YT..THEN have to make YT golive.. sigh

which is anoying, because that was actually a pretty nail biting race!

The power from the off was pretty high – it felt like i was having to hold higher power (like, 350-400w) for a loooong portion of the first lap.
Also, the likes of @chipps and @robbo123biking were right up there at the front end for most of the first lap too!
I’ve never ridden this race route, and couldn’t remember the esses from open rides, but knowing that the tactic on the first 2-3 laps was likely going to be for the front bunch to simply try to hold high powers until teh group thinned out, I kinda knew/hoped there would be no fast breakaways too eary, thus i’d have a chance to scope out the route..

I figures the esses were a case of keeping power, with the final hill that leads into the brigde being a possible divider. Also, the climb into the volcano could also be aplace to make a break…

It felt like Nixie tried a few breakaways on lap 2 and 3, mainly on the esses..but phil and myself, and a few others, saw it and caught up.

Paino’s rapid braekaway after the sprint section (on lap 3??) had him 8 seconds in front all the way through to the volcano, but the lead group caught him – good effort dude!

On the final lap ben adn sav made a cracking break – not sure if they stuck together, or just powered down to break away? Once they were gone, and i’d missed the gap, i simply don’t have enough power in my legs to make a bridge once the gap is over, say, 5 seconds…!

So teh race was on for third… After powering through the volcano, trying to make a break on the climb into it, the bunch caught up again, and there was a tight fast group of me, nixie, phil, kirky, woods ( and a few others?) making our way through the esses… I had a feather which i knew I could deploy on the final sharp climb… trouble is it’s about 900m out from the finish line, and I can’t really hold sprint power for that long.. but i tired!!
I made my way through the group on the final climb, feather helping… and was in the lead over the crest and down on teh lead in to the bridge…

I smashed the power down on the left hander at teh foot of the descent, and gurned for my life!!

I could see Nixie was a handful of meters back, but we were both pelting it so i felt confident I had a good pace that he wouldn’t be able to overtake..
until the git dropped a draft PU with 100m to go, and just crept past!!!

Good use of the power up there!!
I came in afraction of a second behind him for 4th across the line…

Was a hard race, 299w average for 42 minutes… sweat pouring off me (as was a LOT warmer last night)…. great fun!!

DrP

After that i settled into a group with Manwarning, Zilog, Rolo, Liddington, Jenneson, Atkinson, and it felt like we all put in a solid effort. Its hard to tell if folk try a breakaway or if you are so knackered on some of the short sharp hills that they naturally pull away.

Yeah I was thinking similar, I wasn’t sure if people in that group were attacking the short climb in to the volcano or just lumping in a few extra watts each lap.

At one point I thought we may be able to gain on the next group down the road, but that was a fanciful idea and the gap stayed at 30secs ish.

I was goosed at the end but had an aero powerup so gave what little I had down the ramp and across the bridge.

Yeah I was thinking similar, I wasn’t sure if people in that group were attacking the short climb in to the volcano or just lumping in a few extra watts each lap.

attack! Ha! In my case, I was desperate not to get dropped on that climb, but ended up putting out a few too many watts everytime, so always stormed aggressively to the front 🤣 certainly nothing left to make a break at the top though!

TRolo made a few attempts to get away, and did have a gap of a few seconds for a bit before reeled back in, which was brave I thought as it was only lap 2 I think! Didn’t seem to particularly wear him out though as I think he still won the sprint finish out of our little group!

It was a great course though, loads of places for an attack, so you had to keep on your toes the whole time really.

Certainly for me I was increasing the power on the climb to be near the front ready for a break to form as I was hoping the group would split on the later laps as I know I don’t have enough power to win the sprints.

But I think the biggest split was 2 secs so never really worked.

It was trolo almost getting away that prompted me to make sure I was at the front on the climb.

Very enjoyable as always but slightly frustrating at the end when I was unable to deploy the aero power up I’ d picked up at the end of lap 3 and managed to exit the Zwift screen instead just as we were coming down the ramp towards the bridge. B####y Apple TV remotes! Did anyone in my group (Atkinson) see what happened to my avatar? By the time I’d gathered my wits and and got the Zwift screen back up I’d lost quite a few seconds on the run in.

I didn’t recce last nights course and after having a cold last week I only spent 1 hour riding since race 4 so I was a bit worried how I would fair. But that was probably the best I have felt racing on my new turbo, maybe the enforced rest was a good thing! The start was fast, seemed to have to put in the big effort for longer, ended up in a group of 4/5 of us for a couple of laps until the group behind managed to catch us. Then I just concentrated on not getting dropped out of the group and hoping I would feel ok towards the end of the race which I did, maybe could have gone a bit harder.

Gutted there is only 1 race left now I am starting to feel comfortable on the new turbo.

managed to exit the Zwift screen instead just as we were coming down the ramp towards the bridge. B####y Apple TV remotes!

I’ve recently started using ATV and the remote seems like a total recipe for disaster so I leave it far out of reach 😂 You can deploy powerups easily via the companion app (I have a phone mount on my bars) and if I really need to use the Zwift UI I can use the Remote app on my iPhone.

Gutted there is only 1 race left now I am starting to feel comfortable on the new turbo.

there’s still the TTT and various ad-hoc meetups/races! The series will return too after a brief break! (and obviously normal Zwift rides/races but it’s not quite the same now being only up against randoms!)

nixie

Stumpy, look at mesh WiFi systems. Should sort your issues.

Sorry – kinda getting away from the racing aspect of this thread….

Yeah, in an ideal world I would look into this but it’s not a cheap solution & if I can I would prefer to wait for a wired ethernet cable whenever we get round to re-decorating.

Annoyingly, I bought a new wireless extender last year which plugs in under the stairs on the house-side of the wall adjoining the garage. It was rock solid for ages & very rarely drops-out on free rides & during the morning workouts I’ve been doing with Rob.

I wonder whether something on the network is causing some kind of reset/glitch to the network because I think this has happened 3 races in a row now & it always seems to happen a similar time in to the race.
I should dig out the log files, throw them into Zwiftraliser & look for a pattern.

I might experiment with just using the wi-fi hotspot on my phone for these races although that will mean no companion app connection – probably not a big loss.

Maybe a little off topic, but what kind of training load are the fast group doing?

I wonder whether something on the network is causing some kind of reset/glitch to the network because I think this has happened 3 races in a row now & it always seems to happen a similar time in to the race

This is the time your wife puts Netflix on after getting your daughter to bed and sitting down in the lounge!

My AppleTV is hardwired in but still relies on the companion app to a certain extent – I may be the only one in the house who knows how to log into the router and make devices priority devices for the bandwidth!

Mornings are a lot less busy so I don’t know if that has an impact. Zwift are quite keen to blame local drop outs but def seems to have more issues at busy times!

@stumpy01
I got a linkseys velop mesh wifi… I went for the 3 node one..currently only using 2 nodes, with one in a drawer for when i get a house…

It’s great.. not cheap, but you get really good coverage AND easy control (i.e I can jsut ‘kill’ the net to my kid’s devices on demand, or on a schedule!!!!)

Maybe a little off topic, but what kind of training load are the fast group doing?

Do you mean what kind of training programmes?
So I’m by no means the fastest, but happy to admit I’m reasonably fit and fast enough…
I’ve never done a ‘proper’ training programme – i did the zwift academy when it was on, and found that great.. My fitness and race finesse has increased by the racing here, TBH.

I’ve always been happy to challenge the pointy end of races just on a background level of fitness, and from jsut riding lots (cycle to work, cycle all over etc)..
One thing that really does help is being reasonably powerful, but also lightweight. My normal weight is around 70KG… when I bulked up in the gym i got to 74kg… at the moment i’m pushing towards 68kg for my vEveresting attempt..

DrP

@zilog I had the companion app open on my iPad and was stabbing the aero button for all it was worth but nothing was happening. I should probably have just let it go but then reached for the ATV remote in desperation. I didn’t want to waste the perfect power up!

I had the companion app open on my iPad and was stabbing the aero button for all it was worth but nothing was happening.

sweat on the screen? I always wear an 80s style headband for Zwifting to prevent this as otherwise my phone gets covered in dripping sweat and is unusable!! 🤣

Maybe a little off topic, but what kind of training load are the fast group doing?

Have been doing 5 hours a week over three sittings. The Tuesday race, TTT Thursday and oh my crit Saturday obliteration. Also doing a once weekly PT session. It’s not been enough though as my power seems to be dropping. That gives Wednesday, Friday and Sunday as rest but new plan is to drop to one rest day and add some lower power rides on two of those days.

@nixie

I figured out where my stream went wrong…
In the YT studio settings, i didn’t tick the ‘automatically start stream’ which goes live as soon as YT received data from OBS…

This video is actually really useful!!

Also, @robbo123biking any chance at all the next series can be on a different day?? maybe a wednesday? Just to mix it up, and when the nicer weather comes about it means I can ride with fwends again!!!!

DrP