STW Zwift Racing League – Autumn – 2021

Not looking forward to that course, will really show up my lack of stamina and power.

You can thank me all later for making sure none of you are last each race 🤣

cheers for last night chaps. I managed to stick with the lead group on race 1 all until about the last third of the the final lap. was a proper lung burner, but good fun.

I started with much less enthusiasm on race two, which dropped me back a bit. I struggled up the first hill, but then got into a rhythm and managed to put a half decent effort up the final two.

all good fun!

Looking back I enjoyed those, albeit my legs probably didn’t think so at the time.

In the first race, I was hoping to nab the prime but wasn’t sure when that would happen. @savoyad I saw your numbers go red as well so knew I had to keep pushing to the line. Like a few others, I was surprised the group held together and expected it to fracture in the last couple of laps. I was mentally preparing for an effort to join (not sure my legs would have coped though) and then on the last lap I was tucked in behind Robbo but similarly misjudged where the finish line was and was left clutching at rear wheels. As someone above pointed out, if a few of the other fast riders had been there, I’m sure we’d have split up more but it was quite nice to be in the front group for the whole ride for a change.

Second race I had a crack at the hills although the shallow/flat section at the top of the first one is quite annoying and drags on just when you think you should be nearing the “top”. There was a lot of relief to tuck into the group on the flat section for a bit of a rest. I also thought there was another short sprint at the top of the long drag (turning left) so in an effort to save a bit of energy for that eased off on the final climb. As it turns out, the course doesn’t go that way! Well done Robbo, I’m not sure I’d have stayed with you anyway. Moral of the story is to udnerstand exactly what’s on the course rather than making it up as I go along.

“I just wanted @gingerflash to stop chasing me at the end.”

I was less chasing you and more looking over my shoulder at the group behind.

Once i crested the hill, and you were about 7s ahead, and the group was about the same behind me, i think we had probably all accepted that that was where we’d finish.

BTW – does anyone else still find themselves coasting through the corners in the crit race, thinking i can’t pedal round a 90deg bend at 55kph?

“under perform relative to the calculated handicap”
I’m just focusing on the on-the-night result, which is where the fun is.

BTW – does anyone else still find themselves coasting through the corners in the crit race, thinking i can’t pedal round a 90deg bend at 55kph?

Almost every damn time!

coming down the big mountains, heading into a switchback at 80kph, I have to just shut my eyes.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1La3WIPQUrOIv7FQHkJ_SSKDJsRoQPgCCR8RtR15TrC0/edit#gid=1544776402

Handicaps are up early this week. I have taken the decision that if you havent taken part in the first 3 races that I wont do a handicap. This saves me time as each person takes a couple of minutes a week in admin time. Fear not though – if your name is in red but you still want to race drop me a message or post on here and I will do a sweep up of handicaps before the race on Tuesday. Deadline is midday on Tuesday!

Cheers

Makes a lot of sense Robbo, bit of luck I might actually make the 12th!

@robbo1234biking sorry to be a pain, but my ftp has gone up to 258w

All sorted on the master spreadsheet @mahowlett

does anyone else still find themselves coasting through the corners in the crit race, thinking i can’t pedal round a 90deg bend at 55kph?

No but after spending a lot of time on Zwift back in January and February it took me a while to intuitively remember that in real life you have to steer and brake! The first ride IRL after the Rapha Festive 500 and another challenge back-to-back I ended up riding through a small hedge I was so used to not steering at all.

@reluctantjumper. That sounds like my son when I am towing him! He forgets to steer and brake and when we get to a corner he just goes straight on!

Hoping to finally make a race tomorrow. Work has conspired against me so far.

@jamesoz I have done a handicap for you tonight.

So race time tonight.

There are actually 3 sprints tonight (2 chances on the marina sprint as we start in the pens, plus the Ballon and Pave sprints) plus the Aquaduct KOM.

No where to hide on the course tonight – it is relentless – but will be over in 35-40 minutes for most people!

“no where to hide” feels like that every race I do LOL

Awesome sounds utterly Grim!! 😀

Hi @robbo1234biking finally did a ramp test last night, new FTP = 262 and weight down to 67kg.
No worries if this is too late for tonights handicap!

Thanks

Tom

Hi @robbo1234biking can you ping me a link for tonights race.

Don’t worry about handicap, I’ve been Covid’d since I came back from holiday so not been able to ride. I did a test ride last night and seemed ok, so will use tonights race as an FTP test.

Cheers Paul

@robbo1234biking I’ll be there tonight barring natural disaster, sorry missed first 3

Saving my legs for Minehead at the weekend, so no crazy racing tonight for me

@jamesoz I have done a handicap for you tonight

Thanks! Actually home at a sensible hour today.

Well, I had a feeling this might happen after that race…

Just weighed myself and i’m 78kg now as well (raced at 80 tonight) looks like the training plan is working 😀

Good race! Nice group, broken now!

Fell apart at the line, could if had a minutes rest.
Need to get a hang of keeping constant power in a group and not sweating on the phone and wasting power ups.

Thanks for that, good to be back, I think…

Thanks Robbo and everyone. Bit of a different feel tonight with some of the faster lads back and driving the pace on the front.

I tried a dig with @Savoyad on the Viaduct KoM but realised my legs were struggling. Didn’t manage to make it properly back into the first group so eased a bit to join Robbo, Andeh, R Kennerley, Jim Doubleyou and co and tried for the sprints instead. Andeh was certainly pushing me hard for those in our group.

Well done Savoyad on the win!

@robbo1234biking – not as impressive as @scaled up there, but my FTP has gone up 4 to 289 after that.

Flat ish course so game plan tonight was to try and stick with a few of the CatB lads. Thought I was going to vomit after the first 2 mins, but eventually it calmed down and I found myself in a group of 4/5. Think we picked up a couple more on the way round but TBH I was hanging on for grim death most of the time. The steeper rollers nearly spat me out the back at the end, then I miss timed the sprint.

Few things to work on, but all in all pretty happy with that…

Well, I felt very out of my depth at the sharp end tonight. That was a tough session, but the flat course flattered me. Thanks for the tow savoyad, mhowlett et al. Really pleased with managing to hold on. Had nothing left for the sprint though.

Robbo – ftp is up to 298 😢.

On the plus side, the new trainer works well, no cranks broke and I didn’t bleed everywhere, so a massive improvement on the first one of the season!

Thanks again Robbo

Followed my usual game plan of clinging onto the faster boys for a tow as long as possible, but having made it back on at the first split, I was spat out the end at the second split in the lead up to the Aqueduct KOM. I put in a big effort at the top but was too cooked to catch the small group ahead – including @karnali and @tomnavman. @Straightliner was just behind so I slowed a bit for him to catch me so we could work together, but he backed off too and I realised I’d have to go solo.

So the next 15 minutes to the end was an individual TT to the finish, just trying to stop the group behind catching me. @Straightliner, @robbo1234biking, @jimdubleyou were steadily reeling me in but I managed to hold on by a few seconds in the end.

Very impressed by @mahowlett tonight. On Zwift Power we had almost identical W/kg, Nominal power, etc – but he was safe in the front group and finished 1:30 ahead of me. So he must be doing something right, compared to me. Chapeau, Mark.

FTP increase for me too, 242 to………… 243!! 🤣

Settled into the second group after the initial blast, think there was 5 of us for a long time? Really on the edge of what I could keep up with, was on the verge of death around the viaduct and was resigned to dropping off the back any minute, but we seemed to settle a bit more and I just about hung on.

Great job everyone, I’m not sure why I enjoy it, but I do! 😜

Thanks for everyone for taking part in the series!

The results are provisional in case I have made any mistakes. Please let me know.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1La3WIPQUrOIv7FQHkJ_SSKDJsRoQPgCCR8RtR15TrC0/edit#gid=1334036094

Race 4 – R.G.V

Overall Race Winner
1. savoyad
2. scaled
3. paino

Overall Race Winner (with handicaps)
1. oblongbob
2. mahowlett
3. bails

Sprint Points (Marina)
1. Straightliner
2. savoyad
3. Scaled
4. Phil56
5. Paino

Sprint Points (Pave)
1. Straightliner
2. andeh
3. savoyad
4. mahowlett
5. kirky72

Sprint Points (Ballon Reverse)
1. Straightliner
2. andeh
3. savoyad
4. jonnysartin
5. kirky72

KOM Points (Aquaduct Reverse)
1. savoyad
2. paino
3. kirky72
4. phil56
5. scaled

Green Jersey Standings
1. straightliner
2. savoyad
3. andeh

KOM Standings
1. savoyad
2. straightliner
3. phil56

Series Top 3 (including sprint/fastest lap points) Best 6 race points counts
1. mahowlett
2. scaled
3. bails

Jeez! That was a tough one!
Was hoping the lead Blob would break into something I could cling onto and was pretty much ready to give up when a small group formed I managed to stick with.
RM, J Donelly, Jannesen and me. We worked pretty well together although I think RM was doing a lot of the heavy lifting at the front. 👍🏻

I knew it was gonna be a tough one. The bloody rollers seemed to go on forever.

What???? I won!!!🥳 (…with the handicap). I’ll bask in the glory and try to ignore the slight nagging feeling that my ftp was slightly low…I was just following what my Garmin told me, honest! Maybe I hadn’t pushed myself to destruction at any point over the summer quite to the extent these races do. Suspect that’s the first and last time I’ll take the win now my ftp has gone up a bit. Maybe it’s karma for the calamity that was race 1.

Cheers Robbo ,thanks for organising.

Bit of a tactical one for me tonight, as usual I wasn’t going to win, and with it being a fairly flat course there was a chance of a pretty big group finish with opportunities for those with big handicaps to make big gains. The opportunity for me was that if I could get in the front group and stay there, I could then put try to put as much time time into anyone in groups behind (with special attention to J-R as he’s just behind me on GC w handicap), I wouldn’t be racing against those in whatever group I was in only trying to make as much time as I could. So until we had a small lead group I put all my effort into catching every break and staying with the first 2 or 3 guys, staying off the front as much as I could and resting as much as I could elsewhere. Once we had a small group, I hung in for a few miles watching the gap to those behind grow, then hit the front at around 5 miles to go and pushed as hard as I could for the next 3 miles keeping the pace as high as I could, just making as much time as possible on those behind and ignoring the coming and goings of the rest of my group as they took turns, just ensuring the group pace was as high as I could. After that I just hung on as best I could for the twisty section and watched everyone in the lead group sprint past me at the end. 🙂

RM, J Donelly, Jannesen and me. We worked pretty well together although I think RM was doing a lot of the heavy lifting at the front. 👍🏻

We shared the effort, it was also worth re grouping after the viaduct. It is sometimes hard to tell who is at the front of the group, I think we occasionally see different views to who is at the front?

I’m surprised I didn’t get a FTP increase, ah well, maybe next week 🤔

Good race tonight, tried to hold on to the front as long as I could and then it got split at the aquaduct KOM… Got a good group of 4 of us together working well all the way to the line. I need to learn to save something for the final sprint!

Despite doing a ramp test yesterday, ftp has gone up to 270

On a related note – when looking at Strava on the app after the race, does anyone else want to shout at it when it informs you that your relative effort “was lower than average”? No, it’s bl**dy well not – it might be shorter but I think you’ll find there was a lot of effort going in. It was even more noticeable on the Bologna circuit when you’ve put in a hard effort to get up the hill and it sits there showing you’ve done a ride like a bimble in the park! Grrrrr!

Well that one completely destroyed me!

Was left for dead at the start as usual but this time I had jmd12 for company, working together to at least keep our speed up a little bit. that was until the viaduct KOM where I really struggled to keep up and dropped back immediately after. So finished last again.

I really need to get some fitness and stamina back as I was regularly keeping up with quite a few names in a good group around the bottom 3rd of the group last time. Now those same names are finishing multiple minutes ahead of me. Lots of training required.

There was a lot more action on a pretty featureless course than I anticipated this evening. And that was a superb race from @mahowlett and @oblongbob – riding the handicaps perfectly to deserved 1st and 2nd place. Congrats to both of you.

Early in the race I put in a couple of pretty big early efforts intended to slim the large front group down, and then after chasing the KOM points over the aqueduct I hoped a yet smaller group might pull away. But although it was a race of attrition, and numbers did decrease each time, those two just wouldn’t go away!

The front group did eventually splinter towards the end of the twisty rollers near the finish, when @phil56 and @scaled burst off the front together and forced a chase, so we all arrived at the end after with some little gaps and tired legs. These races are basically go from start to finish.

Thanks again @robbo1234biking.