STW Zwift Racing League – Autumn – 2021

Yeah, gonna need some handicap assistance this week, that was painful. Loads passed me I think 🙁

@nixie if you do a Bologna TT during the next week I will use the time for the GC (same applies to anyone). I cant count you in the points but as it is an individual challenge I can use the time

Can basically give the same ride report as gingerflash above, although I quite enjoyed it!!

I’d forgotten about the hill, got half way through it and was giving it the gas so I could empty the tank before the end, very nearly emptied my stomach. Good fun though, some of you lads are proper rapid!

Well I’m counting that as a win for me as I actually finished!

I managed to stick to my plan for the ride, just under FTP for the flat section then at FTP for the hill then empty everything for the last 2-300m. It worked too, pretty much collapsed on the bike as I crossed the finish line 🥵🤣🤮

No FTP increase and my average for the whole race was only 6w below the current FTP so I think I’ve got a lot of work to do, both on my weight and power.

As predicted, legs not quite there for that one but stuck at it. At least it’s relatively short!

I was about 15w above ftp on the flat and about 35w above on the climb.
96% of max HR for almost 17 minutes.
Awful when I was doing it but feels good now.

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=58956244

Race 2 – Bologna TT

Cat A:
1. savoyad

Cat B:
1. Gingerflash
2. kirky72
3. BS (Straightliner)

Cat C:
1. yanboss
2. feed
3. stumpy01

Cat D:
1. Lewis Deacon
2. DD (Straightliner)
3. reluctantjumper

Overall Race Winner (with handicaps)
1. DD (Straightliner)
2. Gingerflash
3. retrorick

Sprint Points (The Mall)
No sprint points for this course

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

KOM Points
1. savoyad
2. Gingerflash
3. kirky72

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

Cheers Robbo! Holy crap. I am pretty pleased with tonight’s race.

Sound like a **** but I felt like I had a bit more in the tank heading towards the end. I completely misjudged the distance left and had a bit more left to push. When I realised it was too late to do anything about it really.
My own stupid fault, but pleased with how I did overall.

Well done all. Some good scores on the doors!

Went conservative on the flat then pushed up the hill. Not sure what’s going on but felt much easier than last week.

@robbo1234biking Thanks for organising. New FTP of 287 according to zwift

Looks like my 2 mile real world ride earlier paid off 😂.
I started off easy, sitting on a wheel until the bottom of the hill where I was able to ride up at a pace I could just about maintain. Pity my hrm is broke at the mo, last time I used it one of the press studs detached from the band.

Thanks for organising Robbo, that’s the closest I’ve come to throwing up on Zwift forgot how steep the end was and seem to go on for miles!!

Hells bells there’s some quick times in there! Well done all.

I managed 19.15 in the 7pm ride if you don’t mind chalking me up for the gc robbo.

I made a school boy error and upped trainer difficulty to 100% in the hope it’d push me into bottom ring for the climb rather than the usual desire to be somewhere between the two. In practice it saw me slamming up the cassette on every little upslope on the first few k and spinning out on every down. Whilst it did force me into the small ring for the climb I just ended up stuck at the top of the cassette to grind up the climb a few teeth short of where I’d want to be really then spinning like mad and dumping loads of Watts every time the gradient dipped below about 10%.

On the upside though I got the Tron bike at the end, which was a nice reward.

I always get an FTP increase in this race – @robbo1234biking, up to 285. That’s not going to help my handicap!

That wasn’t as bad as last time on the mtb’s. I was aiming to go slightly under FTP on the flat and slightly over for the climb… ended up doing the opposite. Felt fine on the flat, but on the climb my HR was hitting 97% of my max, so I had to back off the power. I still had the highest average HR and I’m not a spring chicken anymore. The finish came quicker than I remember from last time and I had power left in my legs. So at least I know my legs are ok, it’s my base fitness that has dropped.

After nursing a slow burner of a cold and being on my feet for most of the fay today. I wasnt really sure of what to expect or even if Id make it through the warm up.

However as with all races and previous series once the race starts i give it the beans and empty my tank. these races really seem to drag out a big effort.

I picked a TT bike so tried to make the most of it with a big effort at the start (opposite tactic from my previous race here) but then felt it best to recover slightly before the climb proper. it it hard but after the drag up the viaduct i thought it got easier and totally forgot about the 16% section. my chain came off after the short flat bit after i had gone back into the big ring for a short time. somlost some momentum but the plus side was i had a mini breather.

happy with my time all things concsidered and was actually 1.24 quicker than last Januarys race, was that on the MTB? 48 seconds quicker on the KOM. Weirdly I keep thinking im miles off the fitness from last winters series but maybe not.

Massive well done to the lads who went sub 17minutes, amazing effort. Some big numbers all around and jusy as well for some it was sub 20 mins so didnt lead to a FTP increase. maybe those just other 20mins saw an uplift.

Well that was interesting 500m to go and my bb sheared off at the drive side so I finished the race with one leg…

Spent the rest of the evening slowly working the rest of the shell out of the frame using a notch and screwdriver!

Woah, good effort Lewis!

I was excited that I smashed my time from the last race….but we were on MTB….oh. Still, went alright, did the under/over job but tapered off on the 2nd half of the climb. HR monitor is glitchy as anything, but I was tickling max heart rate for a big chunk of that.

Thanks again Robbo!

Thanks @robbo1234biking. I need to do a 20 min effort so if there is a suitable event I’ll post my time.

Some fast times there 😃, well done.

I hate TTs. I wanted to get this one right though after I messed up the pacing last time (when we were indeed on mtbs @kirky72… but you rode harder today).

I targeted 300/350 and rode 302/348 so executed pretty much to plan. This course is a killer tactically though, I think slower on the flat might have paid off still.

Well done @straightliner @gingerflash and @retrorick in the overall, this course hurts.

There’s a fast Fridays, at 6pm on (not surprisingly) Friday nixie off that suits you. I think the 6pm Friday races are the thing I miss most about working at home. I guess I’m just weird.

Sounds like a shocker, Lewis! Hope you got it sorted.

Good result! 👍🏻

Savo, being so close to your plan just underlines that youve become such a machine.

my numbers are very similar to your 308 flat and 349, you must be a bit lighter to gain 40 secs on me.

If only i could shed some timber, i managed a little for a while but finding it hard and just entered a working enviroment where cakes seem to be the currency.

Have to say, I enjoyed that in a strange kind of way. When reading up on the route and “best” bike on zwiftinsider they suggested best approach for a TT is to do it as over\unders ftp. So tried doing 1 min over as much as possible and 1 min on or only slightly under. The overs gradually got less over and the unders got more under as the race went on 🙂

@robbo1234biking Zwift upped my ftp from 270 to 278 🙁

@feed the suggestion is under/over, 1 of each on this course. Under on the flat, over on the hill. Basically what Savoyd and kirky did.

New ftp for me 287, despite the one leg effort, can you update please

@robbo1234biking

@robbo1234biking i seem to be missing off the spreadsheet mate

Scaled = Kai Barrett [STW]

Just checked Strava, pre lockdown I was nearly 1:30 faster over that course

@scaled – you are on there. Race 2 Row 15 – you got 23 points. You wont show up on GC as you have to compelte all the races for GC

@dangeourbrain – I would add your time but you didnt race last week so you are out of GC anyway! 🙂

@dangeourbrain – I would add your time but you didnt race last week so you are out of GC anyway! 🙂

I removed the superfluous bit 😉

Just checked Strava, pre lockdown I was nearly 1:30 faster over that course

I was 1.35 faster on the hill in January, in a mtb ffs 😂

Cheers man, that’ll teach me to look at spreadsheets on a mobile!

@savoyad sadly it’s not me who did well on the course, it’s someone I know who has joined in so they get appended with my username for reference. I didn’t score a point (oh, woe is me…. goes off to cry in the corner 🙂 )

Well done everyone! Emptied myself last night, really happy and got 6th and good points.

I always seem to over-perform in the TT (I did well last winter) which I guess maybe as I dont do any other Zwift racing so I’m not so hot on the tactics/drafting side of things.

Enjoying having a bit of focus for the week too, I’ll not call it ‘training’ but I needed something to build on.

@robbo1234biking little win too!

81kg.

well i had a bit of a nightmare start…. entered the pen/conveyor belt. Saw someone was talking about which TT bike to use, so panicked and thought i would quickly buy one. By the time i had spent my drops my race had already started… a few seconds in and i realise my fan wasnt on… jumped off the bike jabbed at the buttons and got back riding.

Only to realise i clearly pressed the wrong button and i had no fan…. Lost about 10-12 seconds (which would have put me about half a dozen or so places higher after handicaps). I then got on the pedals whilst ringing my wife to come down and turn my fan on……

But after that drama i settled in and just went at it. I always get duped by the couple of false summits, just when you think its levelling of it turns a corner and gives you more burn!

But a weirdly enjoyable miserable 20 mins.

Roll on next week!

OK handicaps are live for the double header on Tuesday.

Good luck all. During the first race the button for hte second race should come up. Dont click on it until you have completed the first race! Then you should be able to head to Richmond!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1La3WIPQUrOIv7FQHkJ_SSKDJsRoQPgCCR8RtR15TrC0/edit#gid=1421604983

New trainer inbound from Garmin, so hopefully see you all on the start line this week!

Sadly I can’t make it this week, my first week of actual physical work following a year and half of WFH and Teams sees me pulling a 12/10PM shift on Tuesday.

Love a crit as well, not sure about a race directly afterwards mind you. Good luck everybody.

I’m gonna try to make this race…
Too soon after the snip to go on thy MTB in real life, so will try to flog myself for a bit on zwift!
Feeling v tired and unfit, but will do my best!
Think I’ll drop my FTP in the zwift app, to let it ‘reset’ during the crit….

DrP

How do you do that Ian, I might do the same to recheck FTP in my next crit.

I think you just put a low figure in (manually)…
Like, if i pop 200w in (old ftp was 301) then if I give it beans on Tuesday, it’ll adjust the ftp to 95% of Tuesdays race figure

DrP

@drp That might not work this week, because you’ll be riding for less than 20 minutes in each race. zwiftinsider still says the zwift auto ftp is based on 20 minute power. I thought they updated it to a curve, making it look at shorter durations as well, but I can’t see that confirmed or documented anywhere. (It doesn’t really matter, it will definitely work next week anyway)