@robbo1234biking Another one with excuses for being late, life a bit upside down as house move not going as I’d hoped. Will make as many as I can hopefully. Not had chance to do an updated test so I’ll go with the FTP at the end of the last series/according to intervals (which I’ll be nowhere near I’m sure).
For anyone not sure of their FTP who thinks it might have changed significantly since the last series, it might be worth dropping the FTP value stored in the Zwift profile settings by quite a bit before the race tomorrow (assuming the links arrive – eek!).
This won’t affect anything during the race, but as the London Classique route is virtually flat you could treat it like a time trial & Zwift will (hopefully) give you an updated FTP at the end of it. It won’t be perfect, but perhaps more representative than a 6 month old number?
@stumpy01 do you mean dropping it low enough that you would definitely go over that figure for 20mins of the race and therefore zwift give out a new FTP figure as it had gone up from that? Didn’t realise zwift did that if manually lowered
@karnali – yeah. Exactly that. Drop it to a value substantially lower than your FTP & it should give you a new FTP at the end of your ride. I assume it works in any kind of ride environment (free-ride, race, group ride, workout etc.)
I had a new FTP update at the end of the TTT last week (by a whole 2w 🙂 )
Another disorganised person with a poor excuse for being late – erm, the dog ate my homework.
I’d like to apply for my usual position of fighting for lantern rouge as I need to get off my arse and put some effort in rather than cruise around on sub 1.something rides.
Right hopefully everyone should have a PM with the links for the races. Race 3 and 3b are on the wrong date – zwift should correct them but the entry should still count and move with the event.
Am I the slowest rider then as I don’t have a handicap?
For this course yes but this may change depending on the nature of the course (and as I am sure you will improve). Get in a draft on back of a group though and you have a good chance of scoring some points.
I’m likely to be cruising more than i’ll be racing tonight, my plan will mostly be riding it with my mate Crust…Whilst the fitness from the racing may be useful (WOULD BE), the fatigue factor of flat out in the race wouldn’t be. So i’ll be mostly doing 200w with the slower of the groups.
Stupidly I did the Wild Boar event in the FOD on Sunday, my first ride outdoors for over 6 weeks. Choosing the longer route was a bad idea as I regrett d it about a mile after the split with the medium route! Was fine yesterday but my legs are rather sore today, should be interesting later anyway!
Braaaap!! I’ll be going flat-out. Still be at the back though, in all likelihood 🙂
I haven’t done any racing since the short Crit Crusher races earlier in the year so will probably be a bit rusty, but it’s all good. I might even get better at drafting if I manage to find a group & learn not to constantly yo-yo.
I’m looking forward to it and the weather seems to have cooled slightly so the garage won’t be stupidly hot!
Racing on the Direto as well, whereas last series I was using my Flow Smart wheel-on and never quite sure the calibration was right.
I’m still suffering/recovering from a blasted non-COVID resp infection…
i’m pathetic, so MAY come for the fun… or might just do a z2 leg spin and watcha movie…
Gutted… fed up being ill around this time of year~!!
@stumpy 01 me too – upgraded from a Tacx flow to a Kickr Core, only tried it twice so far but it ‘feels’ much nicer.
Looking forward to it, back end of the pack but some names i recognise and like last year I expect/hope my FTP to climb ovet the course of the 6 weeks and I can get some points on the board.
@nixie – I have connected to the Direto with ANT+ when using the laptop (with a USB dongle) but it’s much easier to use my tablet, so I tend to use that.
I think it has ANT+ built-in but it always connects via bluetooth and seems pretty reliable.
@snotrag – yeah, pleased I went with the direct drive – much nicer than the wheel-on. I got the Wiggle deal on the Direto so it was ‘only’ £500 with 12 months interest free. Hard to refuse.
I can’t remember who pointed me at the deal – it was either Robbo, oopnorth or slowpuncheur.
@stumpy I think BT does not exhibit this issue however if you ever go back to ANT+ you will probably get sticky watts and cadence when using FE-C for power and cadence (controllable is fine). The numbers are better and ERG performs better when using Ant+ PWR for power and cadence.
@nixie – I have to confess I don’t understand what all that means. I have never really paid attention to how the devices connect, so long as they do so.
Do you mean if I go back to Ant+ FE-C, changes in power & cadence data won’t be instant?
What do you mean by ‘controllable is fine’?
And what is Ant+ PWR? A newer Ant+ protocol?
I have noticed using the Direto in workouts that the power takes longer to adjust to changes, such as going from recovery to the next effort, when compared to the old Flow Smart. But it also takes longer to come back down afterwards so the actual interval time remains virtually unaffected. I think if doing 10 second sprints or something it might be a pain but once I got used to it, I haven’t had any problems.
Ant+ FE-C is the newer version but with the direto appears to have a bug in it. Sticky watts is where the power reported by the trainer stays high when you stop pedalling. If you look at the power graph here you can see it happening on the purple line https://zwiftpower.com/analysis.php?set_id=156668. On the first and last peak the purple line stays flat and high instead of immediately dropping. THis is essentially ‘free’ power as I did not product it.
Adjustment during ERG mode on the direto is not the best, it can take a while to change. I found it has improved after changing how I connect, perhaps because the turbo is no longer chasing a false reading. I can now get nice stable intervals where historically the turbo would trash around trying keep the power in the right place. Sprints are best done with ERG disabled as it does not react quick enough.
By ‘controllable is fine’ I’m talking about the 3 connections on the pairing screen, if you look at my pairing screen in this video you can see Cadence, Power and Controllable as three elements on the screen. All three are connected to my Direto but two are using the old Ant+ PWR protocol “Elite PWR” and the controllable is using the newer Ant+ FE-C “Elite FE-C”. Connecting like this gives good control and more accurate readings.
We aren’t talking a huge issue however definitely something to be aware of, if only for what appears to be better ERG performance like that.
Interesting @nixie as I have a Direto too and have experienced some of those issues, (although I like the idea of “free power” 😉 ). Once I’m back up and running again I will have a play with swapping to Ant+ PWR on power and cadence.
Ah, @nixie – gotcha! Thanks for taking the time to post such a thorough explanation.
Free power, you say….ahem. It sounds like something I am definitely not interested in…. 😉
When I get back onto using the laptop, or buy a dedicated Zwift PC I’ll have to remember to investigate that. Although if I get a Bluetooth dongle rather than Ant+ I guess I don’t really have to worry about it & just keep connecting via bluetooth.
gingerflash
It’s going to be a bit congested at the back of the pack
Sounds great! I kept ending up in no-mans land last series struggling round on my tod. It would be nice to have a few people to tag along with.
I usually find myself in a nice group going at my “I think I can hold onto this” pace, thinking I’m going to do well, until the result of my group all hit 12w/kg for the last five minutes and they just disappear over the horizon.
I am an extreme diesel. FTP isn’t terrible but I have no top end whatsoever.
@oopnorth glad it may be of help. I know of at least one other direto user with evidence of this occuring.
@stumpy01 no worries. If your building a zwift PC a lot have built in BT now anyway. My motherboard certainly supports it. I don’t use it as I have a number of other things connected by BT and it messes with my headset when the headset is taking music from my phone.
I’ve got a 85k ride planned tomorrow so obviously planning to go all in :D.
Hoping to join if I can get the kids off to bed! How do I join, I clicked the orange plus buttong on the link and it turned into a blue tick, will I now see the event in my Zwift app? Can’t see it there at the moment!
