STW Zwift Race Series 3 – Winter

I’m raring to go! The flat is too long I’d rather get it over with, the hill is too long I need something shorter to punch up, I get bored and usually dropped (not always in that order) in London, @nixie’s all bullish and hasn’t even mentioned the damage his afternoon workout did to his legs yet, @phil56 called me a scrawny kid and hashtagged his intention to break me (and now appears to be threatening to keep going even if/when he vomits), @kirky72 has tired legs from lots of miles which is the traditional precursor to him riding away from the lead group of Bs up a long hill, I’ve been (ahem) rounded up to an A, @w00dster and @DrP must be salivating at the prospect of this hill and whatever happens in the first 100km or however long that drudgery lasts I’m not going to ever see @benman again once we cross the river anyway…

But I don’t care. I’ve been snowed under with work, and seeing @robbo1234biking’s golden beacon has become my happy place. I can’t wait to see @dangeourbrain launch off the front the moment we get inside 36.1km to go, that’s when we know the race is on. See you in the pen!

😀 that about sums it up. No leg damage today, arms are ruined but don’t need those. Later I will be regretting that bullishness.

Getting spicy at the front end innit?? 😉
I might just sack this race off, crack a beer and eat pizza whilst watching the feeds to see how it pans out live…sounds more fun than suffering up that hill!

See you in the pen!

Good banter on here this afternoon. 2 minutes between the first 4 on GC with the option of their worst time being omitted…It’s pretty open. I’m tempted to double screen and watch @nixie’s feed whilst enjoying a civil little spin with the mid-pack boys. If I was a betting man, I’d say benman, DrP (sandbagging today I see), nixie, phil then kirky.

@robbo1234biking he’d better bloody not. This is my last chance to put some points on the board this series and whilst it’s [ahem] not exactly been stellar [/ahem] from me this time out I’ve managed to avoid nil points in both previous series and I’d very much like to keep that going!

@savoyad I’ve no idea what you mean, it’s not my fault the rest of you don’t understand you’re supposed to sprint out of the gate, it’s like you lot have never watched bmx racing before. That said I’ve still not got the hang of pumping my turbo.

If I was a betting man, I’d say benman, DrP (sandbagging today I see), nixie, phil then kirky.

Clearly I’m going to win by a county mile… I mean, I’ve been doing ALL the hill training!!!

I’ll give it my best tonight..my focus is going to be on a structured warm up to loosen the knees and thighs (which, all excuses out on teh table…are FUBARed!!!)..
My guts are still feeling HORRIBLE after eating loads of oats and clif bloks and shite on Sunday!! Honestly, my goal tonight is going to be not shitting myself before teh subway 😀 (after is fine..weight loss innit)

See you all there!!

xxx

DrP

@slowpuncheur ah damn is the GC only 5 best results too, I’d kinda assumed that was just for the points/handicap results?

I was eyeing up your current 23 second GC lead as about all I can ‘try’ (ha) and aim for this evening for top 10 GC in ‘B’. Not very likely, but good to have ambitions 😉

What will more likely happen is I’ll finally manage to go off what I deem as hard enough and then blow pretty quickly before deciding it was actually a z2 ride I needed this evening anyway and pootling home.

nothing wrong with Nil points, i’m hoping to score a point at some stage in some series!!

after eating loads of oats and clif bloks and shite on Sunday!!

I told you you should have eaten sushi or something afterwards. All that burger grease won’t have done you any good. 😂

nothing wrong with Nil points,

You know there’s a forefit right?

GC is sum of all 6 races!

Just the point ms that are decided on the best 5 out of 6. So all to play for there Lee (although I would suggest if you don’t want to die on the hill you don’t try a 5 min bridge first!).

Cheers Robbo and sound advice too haha

Ah thanks. It seems a long while ago that I read the rules/scoring system.

So… all I need to do then is sit on the wheel of the fella who thinks a five minute suicide bridge for about 11 secs on the GC is a good idea:) See you later @itsonlymelee.

Hopefully won’t sit in the pens for over 5mins tonight with pairing issues! 😆

Stupidly I did my best 2min effort since 22nd September just before dinner last night, at the very end of TDZ stage 8 having been doing a very steady z2 ride until that point, for nothing more than the hell of it. Admittedly I’d been at work earlier that day, but my god, I really was like death warmed up all evening and today’s day off work has been a complete write-off besides a pootle for some groceries.

Absolutely no idea what to expect from myself later, really wish it wasn’t going to be a ~75min race!

So… all I need to do then is sit on the wheel of the fella who thinks a five minute suicide bridge for about 11 secs on the GC is a good idea:) See you later @itsonlymelee.

You’re not the only one thinking that… though my legs don’t feel like they’ll be anything like fit for trying to keep up with @itsonlymelee.

arh..it’s kicked me out and won’t let me join the race..
help..

DrP

EDIT..phew…back in..

Zwift is very jerky today.

That was crazy at the front. Literally!

That was awful.

Bloody good work there though Harry, I’m impressed you made the bridge to the front group, let alone then not only holding them but actually taking the win.
And by hell on your numbers! Did you buy DrP’s old pm?!? 😅

Plan A(stay with A/B group for more than 5 mins): failed
Plan B(split C group at underpass): failed
Plan C(try not to lose too much time up hill):jury is out…

That hurt, got 3 whole extra watts on my ftp though 😉

Edit: as always massive thanks to Rob for organising this. It really is the highlight of my lockdown week. Enjoyed it so much I might even enter a crit 🙂

3 watt gain here too, 221 to 224 . I felt it as well! Pleased with that though, 34th is my best finish yet. Really good group with Jimdoubleyou and pals.

That was equally terrible and enjoyable.

Had issues with my trainer early on, was stuck on a certain watt output no matter what I did. Plugged in an ant+ stick and it sprung in to life. Had lost the group by then though.

Picked up some others and then had an enjoyable ride with about 10-15 others around 35th onwards, picking riders on the way.

Actually put some effort in the sprint for the first time ever, racing with @straightliner to the line. I may even have picked up points!

The rest seemed to go on forever and then put what effort I could up the hill.

Thanks all for a great series and to Robbo for organising. Not sure what I’ll do next Tuesday evening.

What a disappointment – turns out my mouth was making promises my old body couldn’t live up to!

It all started OK, and I had a few digs off the front as advertised, then I followed @nixie on the sprint thinking we might push on a bit from there, and suddenly I get a really sharp pain in my right calf – so sharp I early fall off! A few minutes gentle pedalling and it eased a bit, but just couldn’t put any real pressure through my right pedal – what a rubbish end to the series.

Ice and elevation on the sofa now – along with a real petulant sulk!!!

Loved it. First race that I have not been dropped in the first km and then managed to hang with the Euain, robbo, chipps and many others group all the way to the hill although it basically killed me.

And a 1 watt ftp increase!

Robbo you’re a very bad man! That was horrible!

Thanks to everyone in the big group ~36-50th to keep it all moving along through London otherwise I think I may have given up on the first lap.

P. Liddington you’re also a bad man for drafting me on the sprint 😜

Quite enjoyed that. Went backwards on the hill due to being a fat git but was ok til then. I think the Robbo group thought they were going to tootle along to Keith Hill and because I knew I had no chance on that I felt obliged to make them chase a couple of times. Sorry lads. 🙂

Ouch!

Struggled to keep with Pewsey on the flat, we got caught by a juggernaut just before Keith Hill and part way up my cadence and power went into freefall. Seeing Robbo’s golden beacon getting closer rallied my legs for a final ~1.5Km effort, not that it gained me any positions but I was worried about those just behind including Bailey.

Thanks for series organising Robbo and thanks to those who pushed me to my limits!

Nearly missed start, joined pen and caught my ant+ cable dongle, losing all pairings… Quit and rejoined with countdown on 15secs. Didn’t even risk bringing mobile to pain cave after last week, hence no chat etc from me in race.

I think I’ve furbarred my quad muscle…I am having problems with stairs.

That was horrid…so fast through london I gave it everything I had to keep with the group and even bridge gaps at times. By the time I hit tower bridge I was failing and went off the back…I wasn’t hopeful for the hill.

Hit the hill and I got a dropout, everyone disappeared and I had to jump off to reset the wifi on the laptop. That lost me at least 30 seconds.
Jumped back on with Robbo and Andeh 45 seconds ahead…I used Robbo’s beacon as a target and went for it, also watching the big group behind as they closed in fast. That gave me extra incentive to keep them at bay and by the time I hit the flat I was 17 seconds back on Robbo. Not enough tho but didn’t get caught either.

By god that hurt…couldn’t have done more. Well done all.

That was brutal but great fun. Dropped from the front group fairly quickly and stuck in no mans land for a while before being caught by the Chipps, Robbo et all group. Knew I just had to stick with the group and reign in anyone who attacked off the front until the hill where being light would help… made up about 3 places on the climb to 14th overall.

Strange race. I felt pretty good through London, drafting in the front group trying my best to follow Kirky and Southside, anticipated most sprints and surges, was feeling confident until going through the tube section where I had nothing. Moved to plan B which was hold on for dear life. I expected to ride the 13 min climb at a fairly steady 290 to 300 watts (over ftp but achievable), struggled to hold 260, so was doing 10 seconds stood up 20 seconds seated, power was all over the place, stood for most of the really steep sections. Kirky and DrP disappeared into the distance and I tried to match their w/kg but no chance. Fortunately Adam started to come back to me, his power looked similar to mine, 3.5/6 w/kg for a bit then a surge to mid 4’s for about 10 seconds. I used Adam as my motivation and mirrored his surges.

That was really awesome!!!
I honestly thought I was hoping to die tonight, and nearly bailed for lasagne at the OH’s!!

Thankfully did a good structured warm up for 40 odd minutes, but even there was struggling putting out over 250w..

However, there really is something about the ‘race scene’ that just pushes aside pain and discomfort, and really makes you go for it!

Was really pleased the front bunch seemed happy to cruise around at a decent pace..yeah..Nixie and Savoyad made the odd charge, but didn’t amount to much..

So sorry Nixie and Phil blew up/injuries after the sprint…

Bravo to CrazyHarry for the break and sustained charge (but only if your turbo IS legit!!!)..

There was a large push group of us heading over the bridge, into the subway, then it fractured a bit early on in the climb…. About halfway up Benman gently pulled away… leaving myself, Kirky, and Savoyad to battle it out…

Kirky and myself pulled away ahead, teasing each other with a. Little charge..rest..charge..rest…
We basically leapfrogged to the top, then as soon as the flat crest came, we both charged (judging by the power in the right column) but i was a few meters ahead, and stayed there….

I’m sat here rewatching my YT feed (and drinking rum) as it’s actually v close and fast paced racing!!!

Cheers again Robbo for such an amazing series….

Not sure if I’ll be around for the next one..Tuesdays is my ride IRL day, and am missing shredding the gnar!!!

DrP

Well that was the first race for some time where my avatar hasn’t stopped for a break. Power was all over the place, no actual drop outs but lots of sudden drops, nice to be part of a big group for a change!

That properly hurt!

Did my usual getting dropped at the start then thought I’d found a small group to go with through London but the pace was too low for what I wanted. Realised too late so had to do a 10 minute TT to grab onto the next group up the road around 45-50th and then keep up just below threshold to gain loads of time from the draft. Gained me well over 5 mins over the original group I was with so definitely worth the effort!
Hit the bottom of the hill feeling good but my legs were rather burning by then so the climbers just buggered off into the distance with me basically spinning up at just below FTP, about 20-30w below where I wanted to be but there was a big gap to the next rider so it wasn’t losing me anything except time. Was really struggling as my Prodigy playlist ended with 1km to go but Spotify automatically queued up Mescaline which isn’t my favourite track of theirs but the tempo and energy boosted me across the line.

I am now a sweaty wreck and don’t want to look at the turbo trainer ever again! Robbo, you are evil.

When does sign-up start for the next series 🤣

I left a piece of my soul about 3/4 up Keith Hill if anyone found it just pop it in the post please 👍

@danielcbaron – I think my turbo hit that, at least I had a 10sec Bluetooth dropout…

I really wasn’t looking forward to this one; maybe the banter was getting to me and I was fully expecting to be dropped in the middle of west London. But once it started it went about as well as I could have hoped. Being realistic I was never going to match @Kirky72 and @w00dster on Keith Hill, but I managed to hold onto the group through London even after a few surges like The Mall sprint and they kindly towed me round to the hill. I was very surprised to see @paino somehow hadn’t made the cut.

Once there the A group disappeared pretty quick and I settled into reeling in @munkeymadness and pacing with him up the hill. I’m sorry to say that just like last week with @jonno, I had enough in reserve, and an Aero powerup, to drop him at the start of the sprint to the finish – it had to be done but I still feel quite bad about it Ian.

PS I was very impressed to see although I was somehow 90 seconds ahead of @nixie, just a few minutes later he’d reeled us in and shot up the hill so fast I felt I was going backwards.

Once again thank you to everyone. It’s great riding against the same people every week and especially to @robbo1234biking for pulling it all together.

That was proper tough. The plan was to try and stay with Jack in as large a bunch as we could hang with. I got fractured off the bunch at 30th and ended up 48th. Felt like dropping out but backed off a bit qnd it came back, around the same time Jack died off. Did my best to keep the pace up. As a bunch of about 15 I tried to get a TTT line sink/sprint going but there were no takers, we could have been proper flying !. Slowly we hoovered up every straggler until the bottom of the hill and the front of the bunch was 30th I think as we hit the bottom.

Then it all went a bit black and the goats disappeared after fresh grass, and I slogged up as best I could followed by Ivan. P.aul went past at 4w/kg at some point – must have had a blowout somewhere. Bit worried that seemed to be stopped before the line when I got there, and was not in the results I saw – but was defo before me.

Thanks for all the fun Robbo, looking forward to the next ones ! (cough,wednesday,cough).

Ooof that hurt, as usual. But was great fun, as usual.

Quite the big group around Robbo’s beacon thrashing round London with little let-up. Had a little go early on to see if it would be split but I don’t think we lost anyone for quite a while, despite DazH’s efforts going off the front.

The climbing was upon us quicker than I expected and got caught a bit. Fair play to @tomnavman and Mark Howlett for nailing the climb and getting clear. I had no oomph left really so was just trying to keep a good rhythm, managed to catch Trolo eventually but I could see D Drysdale just a few m behind me for a lot of it so was expecting him to cruise by. Emptied myself for the last K, chuffed to bits with 17th on the road.

As many others have said (and I have said many times) cheers Robbo for all the effort organising, a shining light in otherwise monotonous, repetitive weeks – a golden beacon you could say 😉

Now to catch up on the streams from the pointy end.

That was amazing. It was just such a good race to be part of.

I was gutted when @crazyharry said his numbers were wrong, because that’s exactly the kind of racing I associate him with (he’s the master of bridging between fast groups and somehow pushing on further) and I thought we were watching a proper return to form. What’s the verdict @crazyharry?

I tried to cause some trouble from time to time (I went full on up Northumberland Ave and opened a comedy unsustainable gap, sprinted out of the subway, put in a a random surge on a corner somewhere), hoping it might at least split the group and set up a smaller battle on the final climb, but it’s so hard to tail off anyone from that lot, @drp and @kirky72 sidle back up to you and then it all regroups.

The presence/absence of @nixie, @phil56 and @paino makes a noticeable difference to the dynamics of the group I think. The pace eased off a little when they dropped back (@phil56 I am very familiar with the experience of sofa-petulance after these races…!) which meant we could recharge a bit for the climb.

I just went all in on the climb – I resolved just to stay at the front (of our group; crazy harry was long gone) as long as I could, knowing full well that it was impossible to make it to the top with @benman. I managed for a while, we got a gap and I felt what it’s like to be slowly pulling away from others on a longer climb. It went OK until it didn’t basically – eventually I cracked, he scooted off over the horizon and I was grovelling when @kirky72 and @drp came back past me. That left me struggling to hold my gap over @w00dster so (Paul you got this the wrong way round haha!) I resolved to stay ahead by surging whenever he seemed to surge. If he had caught me, I’d have been seeing @j-r and @munkeymadness before long i knew it,.

And I noticed @karnali putting in a good time on the climb leading a charge which almost brought (what remained of) our groups back together.

@robbo1234biking the series is a triumph. There’s something really special about regularly riding amongst and against people whose style/strengths/preferences are becoming familiar, your race design is superb, there are so many competitions within the competition that everyone is always on their toes. Massive kudos to you.

Well that went better than expected, maybe even than hoped.

I managed to pootle out of the gate and camber up through the field early doors rather than disappearing off down the road in the first 5 seconds. Stayed with the front group until the first split. Unfortunately I was the wrong side of that when it went and the chase rapidly broke into two small groups.

Tried to make the jump to Harry’s group but just got stuck in the middle, sat there for maybe a minute making tiny ground on the three riders about 10 seconds up front and staying similarly clear of the next 3 or 4 so fell back with them.

Not long after Harry made to catch the front group and after that my small bunch slowly reeled the other two in.

By the time we picked them up we were around 40 seconds down on the front group. We made a few pulls but I don’t think there was the appetite and or legs for burying ourselves pulling it back, then they hit the sprint and the gap jumped.

I tried to pull Paino on for the sprint but he missed nixie anyhow.

Then something very very odd happened and the gap to Phil and nixie started to come down.

We eventually pulled them in they made a couple of short stabs off the front but got pegged back then put in a decent pull. I bridged on but no one else came with me, I thought about it for a few moments discovered the body was not willing and fell back to a less ambitious station. Luckily the gap between me and the chase was about the prefect size for me to cough up a lung and then start again without missing completely.

An uneventful ride out to Surrey then saw my earlier efforts take their toll as Martin and Paino (who actually vanished for a bit) gapped me fairly convincingly early on the climb. Snook followed at about half way, then tom Baker disappeared up the road like he was on a Sunday stroll.

I could see Mark closing in slowly and kept looking at the distance wondering if I could hold him off, I was glad to cross the line 6 or 7 seconds ahead.

All in all, pretty pleased with that. My best race in ages.

That run in to the climb went on forever and then I misjudged the climb, thought it went up pretty much straight after the tunnel so I let the group pull away thinking it was about to break up anyway and then everyone would settle in to their individual pace.

Anyway, it turns out that was bollocks and the group vanished up the road without me. Not that it made much difference in the end, I was struggling to keep it above 200w so cruised up what felt like the world longest hill and the summit couldn’t come fast enough.

Got a new FTP on the run in though which probably explains the lack of power in the climb.

Although I hated every second of it, I also enjoyed it, or will think I enjoyed it later tonight anyway, so thanks all and esp Rob for the whole series.