STW Zwift Racing League – Spring 2022

Since I’m working away at the moment, I’m hoping to find a spare Wattbike at the gym in Warrington. Otherwise, is a no go from me tonight.

I’m away on holiday so no start line for me. Good luck to everyone starting.

hoping ot make tonight but depends what timme i get back from run training

Not gonna make it either. Have fun all

Looks like I might be the only one racing – apart from Robbo! Not looking forward to it as I haven’t been racing for 2 weeks so I am expecting it to be painful.

I’ll be there 🤣

It’s the Alpe…it’ll be painful! I’ll be enjoying it too. Not entirely sure if I’m ‘rested’ or ‘out of form’.

Well, apart from ending early due to cramp in both legs that was good fun! Kept with the main group for a few minutes despite not putting out any more power than normal, (must be down to a fully functioning turbo trainer), felt good even after dropping off the back and was settling in nicely for a big effort up the Alpe until the cramp started. Damn you DrP for that tough session last night, although more my fault for thinking I could do it and the race back-to-back after nearly 3 weeks off 🤣

Great fun as always though for the season and looking forward to hitting the autumn one with a decent summer’s fitness, thanks @robbo1234biking for organising it as usual.

Thanks for everyone for taking part in the series! Hope you all enjoyed it. This is the last race for this season. Hopefully see you back again in the Autumn.

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

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SYEJq-_k2w-I3LUIgg6hoi5LAb7angXxiRasZfjvPE4/edit#gid=1334036094

Race 6 – Tour of Fire and Ice

Overall Race Winner
1. Vanilla83
2. Yanboss
3. Robbo1234biking

Overall Race Winner (with handicaps)
1. bails
2. stumpy01
3. jamesoz

Overall Standings
1. Paul-S
2. Yanboss
3. Robbo1234biking

Sprint Standings
1. Paul-S
2. Yanboss
3. Robbo1234biking

KOM Standings
1. Savoyad
2. Crazyharry
3. Straightliner

Final Combined Points Standings
1. Savoyad
2. Straightliner
3. Robbo1234biking

Final GC Standings Best 6 out 7 race points
1. robbo1234biking
2. yanboss
3. slowpuncheur

There are 3 prize winners:

Overall: Paul-S
Combined Points: Straightliner
Rider’s Rider: To be announced!

Please vote for the Rider’s Rider of the Series/Season on the below link. I will announce prize winners tomorrow evening to give you all a chance to vote.

https://linkto.run/p/IN49225G

Nominees are:

Yanboss
Vanilla83
Nixie
Ogg

I know Stumpy was nominated but he already won a prize for his shit jokes and I have 3 days of them IRL in May

I have set up a GoFundMe for people who have enjoyed the series. This time around we are raising money for Diabetes UK. Slowpuncheur has been a regular in this race series from the start. On Fathers Day last year he ended up taking his son to hospital as he wasn’t feeling well. Many hours later they were delivered the news that his son is Type 1 diabetic. His son has adjusted well to the changes in life and continues to do everything he wants to. Diabetes UK helps his son and others like him through investment in Diabetes research and support for other Diabetes sufferers. I know there are also others on the forum who have diabetes or close family members with diabetes.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/e3732-stw-race-series-fundraiser?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_campaign=p_cf+share-flow-1

Please dontate if you are able to and would like to show your appreciation for the series.

After not spotting the initial break on the first little hill I had to burn a few matches to get back on, so when the next acceleration came up the hill to the bridge I just couldn’t stay on the fast group. Soon @stumpy01 and @jamesoz caught me and I settled in with them to the Alpe where I soon found I couldn’t quite stay with them. But I was rewarded by catching @paul-s who had dropped off the fast group, and desperately fought for nearly 10 minutes to keep just a few seconds ahead of him. Of course allowing for handicaps Paul will be deservedly well ahead on points but it was a painful game of Cat and Mouse.

Thanks for organising this all @Robbo1234biking – I am almost looking forward to next Autumn and another series.

Cheers @robbo1234biking thanks for organising what’s been an enjoyable series, looking forward to the Autumn series gives me something to aim for over the summer.

Thanks again and have a good Easter.

Great race!

Cheers @robbo1234biking for organising everything again (and for setting up the break tonight)

Congrats @Paul-S and @Straightliner on your prizes!

Found that much more enjoyable (and did much better!) than I feared! My “plan” was to almost burn out keeping up with a faster group to make up time on the flat and then cruise up the climb. But, when we finally got there the Alpe part was much shorter than I thought it was going to be, so if anything I was actually able to up the effort slightly for the climb (still got immediately dropped though 😂)

Great race series, thanks all, well done to the winners! Look forward to resuming in the Autumn!

Cheers all was ‘fun’.
I had no plan as I’d spent the time I should have been checking the race, pissing about with old Amiga games on an RPI.
Had no clue about the lead in and wondered why the pace was subdued at the start.
Was 4ish of us for a while, struggled not to either drop off of overtake. The lag is quite annoying.
Was pleased to see the Alpe at the end as despite my less than ideal BMI, I go well up the Alpe.
My phone decided to auto darken so I couldn’t see the time gaps or the names of those around me. I guess @J-R was one.
I pedalled up the last section with the rear view to not get caught out at the end. Could just see @Stumpy01 so kept pushing till the end.

Well that was unexpected!!!

I was 3rd place coming into the final race with @Yanboss & @Robbo1234Biking being on form and I wasn’t expecting to beat them tonight even with thte handicap.

It didn’t start well, I didn’t manage to eat in time so cooked and planned to eat after, this resulted in me tear gassing myself wilst frying the chillis, which meant I was struggling to breath 2 mins before the start, but fortunately when the flag dropped my breathing was back under control.

With the diminished pack I wondered if there would be a break-away, and my plan was to stay with the leaders ( or try to ), and it worked but needed a big dig into the red to do so. I saw that @J-R had missed the train and would be kicking himself 🙂

Then the hill started, I knew I couldn’t keep with the others as I would just blow up, so sat at my FTP for the entire climb. @J-R managed to claw back 30 seconds, but by the time he did we were only 1.5km from the finish. I burried myself and got within 2 seconds within a few hundred meters, but he held me off at the line.

The game plan worked and I managed to beat the top 2 on handicap time, but didn’t think it would be enough to clinch the championship, but looking at the results it was so close, and I only won by the Drop your worst result, sorry @Yanboss.

Congratulations to all @Straightliner, @Savoyad, @Robbo1234Biking etc. Commiserations to the losers, and thanks again to @Robbo1234Biking for all his hard work setting this up.

Paul

Cheers Rob!! Great series again.

Tonight was brutal.
Lost the front group on that initial burst but was realistically only just hanging on at that place so was best to settle into my own rhythm. got into a good little group and we reeled in J-R.

The hill just turned into every man for himself and it was just a case of grinding up it.

Well done to everyone who made it to all the races and to the winners.

My plan is to not work away on a Tuesday for the Autumn Series, also, get some training in the Summer!

Good race guys. A little sparse for obvious reasons but a good hit out. I suspected the group would splinter on the seaplane climb (it always does) so I was pleased to manage to stay with @robbo1234biking and @yanboss. I thought we had gapped @Paul-S but he came back quickly and I think that’s where he cemented the overall handicap win. Well played. We held about a 40s gap through the jungle to @stumpy01’s group behind until and eventually we hit the bottom of the Alpe. I had nothing to play for really so when @vanilla83, Ian and Rob started putting out big numbers, I decided not to kill myself and ride at tempo. I say tempo….. I still got Strava PR’s for every sector! The gap behind was going out to a minute behind and then my chain started slipping in the middle of the cassette. Putting it in the big ring helped but the last few KM’s were a sweary wrestle. At the same time wife and child 2 come home and start 1. asking me how my day was, 2. attempting to feed me haribo 3. asking when I’d be done, and 4. other stuff…. My responses were perhaps a little curt. I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking that when all you can focus on is a power and HR number, it isn’t easy to remember what needs packing in the car for the weekend at the in-laws 🙂

A deserved and hard fought victory for @vanilla83 – kudos for a huge improvement through the season. Similarly, congrats to @robbo1234biking for his worthy GC overall win. Just rewards for the efforts you have put in this year and last and again…your efforts in organising the whole shooting match are very much appreciated.

Whilst understandably, the fields have been smaller than during ‘the covid years’, the racing has been just has competitive and really enjoyable. I’m ready to spend more time on the trails and roads now but will look forward to Autumn. Til then, I think you should all just chill, eat lots, drink and don’t train 😉

Once again, huge thanks to Robbo for organising this series. Sounds like last night was fun in a typically odd sort of way, and well done to everyone competing.

It really feels like there have been considerable improvements by loads of people through entering these events, let’s hope we all can enjoy a good summer to make the most of those and then come back to more painful silliness in the autumn.

A deserved and hard fought victory for @vanilla83 – kudos for a huge improvement through the season.

Thank you. The Zwift training plan that DrP suggested doing is definitely making a difference

phew – I suffered with inadequate cooling last night, need some bigger fans for when the temp in the garage gets over 20°
Had a weird start as everyone else vanished with about 1 second to go and then reappeared a few seconds later (by this point I was swearing at the wifi…) pushed it at the start knowing I’d get dropped as soon as we hit the inclines – wasn’t expecting it to split quite so early though.
Worked with Rolo through the jungle and then just tried to pace myself up the climb (which was easier after I reduced the trainer difficulty from 100%…)
Need to clean the trainer mat and bike today!

Sorry I forgot to post it last night but here is an update on the winners:

Overall Winner: @Paul-s who as he has already won a prize kindly agreed to donate it @yanboss in second place

Combined Points Total: @savoyad who has he has already won a prize kindly agreed to donate it to @straightliner in second place

Riders Rider: @Vanilla83

Well done all the winners. I will be in touch to sort out prizes! Thanks

ah thanks very much everyone! 🙂

Congrats again to the other winners!

Thanks again @Robbo1234Biking, top 6 were seperated by a minute in the last race. @Slowpuncheur is right I think managing to get back onto the lead group at the top of the seaplane climb got me the win. The lack of the A cats meant that it slowed down just enough, and that can be seen in the end results where the faster boys suffered in the end positions.

P.

Round of applause to Robbo who having raced on Tuesday then waded through a half vEverest (Everest Base Camp-ing) session yesterday! Chapeau indeed!