Cheers all. I have got the start of Race 2b updated to 20:10 as well to give a bit more time

Bump for the Monday evening crowd and hopefully everyone who has requested has been sent the links for the race series.

No links for me yet.

Now you should have! Thought it was strange earlier that you hadn’t signed up!

Hi Robbo – can you sign me up please. Hopefully the new arthritis meds will have done the job by then! FTP and weight to follow. Cheers.

Robbo – Can you send me some links over please.

Not sure if it’s too late to update Robbo, but I’m now 85kg and 295w.

86 kg and 292 W. Thanks @Robbo1234biking

@Robbo1234biking could you send me the links please?

All sorted hopefully!

Yep, thanks

Weight down 69kgs … hurray
Power down 228w … booo

P.

Sign me up too please 🙂
86kg 264w

though the ramp test I just did says 249w <shrug>

Handicaps are live for Tuesday

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SYEJq-_k2w-I3LUIgg6hoi5LAb7angXxiRasZfjvPE4/edit?usp=sharing

Anyone struggle to get onto Zwift tonight? Could connect via iPhone app but MacBook said it couldnt connect to update server and then said my login was incorrect. I vaguely remember this being an issue before and can’t remember how it was solved

not that it matters but I presume I should be a C not B cat

Well tonight we are back in the pen!

“Wandering Flats” Route Details (Makuri Islands)

3 sprints tonight (although 2 of them are pretty long for a sprint!) and we get to see the City and Countryside in Makuri.

Enjoy everyone, I’ll be missing this one due to ongoing back issues. Hoping it resolves itself soon, as I am missing gym and biking.

@robbo1234biking sorry for the super late message, but could I get the link for tonight please? 65kg and 284W

That’s not so good giggsmaster, been a couple of weeks now hasn’t it?

Aye, it’s starting to pee me off a little. I can actually walk now, but can’t really bend or lift anything.

I’m very hopeful I can get back on the turbo by next week, keeping my fingers crossed that the rest is doing some good.

The little gains I have made in the last month through these races and the TTT has been a waste now, back to square one!

Looks like I’m not going to make it tonight :(. Hope you all have a good race.

No point pushing it and doing more damage @giggsmaster, better to come back late than early and have to rest it again.

Hi robbo, can you sign me up please. Not sure on my FTP but about 295W these days and (sadly) 80kg. If my FTP change as a result of racing, as has happened in the past I’ll let you know. Nothing like the incentive of a race to push your FTP up. Will join the one tonight if I get the link.

If you happen to see thiis in time. Robbo, please can I have an invitation to tonight’s ?
(Unlikely to make any of the others)

optimistically 275W and sadly 79kg, if you care – please don’t include me in the standings unless it’s actually easier to do so than to leave me out

Oops nearly missed it!

Zwift crashed for me and couldn’t get back in time so missed the start. Really annoyed!

I was helping Jnr with his homework and got carried away!
1915 I realised and it was a mad rush to get any warm up!

Great 1st race though, that hill was just too much, I think I felt every one of the extra KG I have put on in the last 2 weeks.

Great break away, timed to perfection and that was it, the second group were pulling well fighting for 3rd place at the end I think.
One of these days I’ll learn to read the course properly and not think I’m able to pull off a 400m sprint!!!

Great ride guys, see you next week

Chapeau Robbo!

Great ride guys and what a win Robbo. Loved the course and will ride it again.
Thanks for the pirate jokes , used them already and got a laugh!
Hope to join next week but Tuesday night mtb training starts soon .

Don’t know what to make of that.

The good: I have a FTP increase to report, 232w which is a 10% increase since the last series!

The bad: You lot just buggered off as usual after 30-40 seconds. I thought I had a chance to hold onto the group for the first 30 seconds but then everyone just went up a gear and pulled away despite me going balls-out. That meant the rest of the ‘race’ was yet another solo TT, which is really getting depressing now if I’m honest. I’m producing much more power than previously, a little bit lighter and my stamina is massively better yet I’m not getting any result to show for it while doing these races.

Sorry for being all negative but the fun in all of this was the racing and jostling that the first two series had for me, partly down to me being fitter but also to there being a lot more riders who were around my level so there was tactics and the like going on. Will have a think over the next few days on whether I continue with the other races, which is no way a reflection on the effort that Robbo puts into these or anyone else. Reading all of your stories of what happened each race at the front and mid-pack is great but it just reminds me of what I’m missing out on.

Good ride tonight, I didn’t get chance to ride it beforehand, but at least skimmed the route video so new about the hill at the end. I managed to stay in contention in the sprints as I expected it to all break apart, but it regrouped after each one, at least I think it did on the last one, and so it was going to be the hill that separated everyone, I managed to stay in the 2nd group and lukily had 2 feathers so that helped.

messed up the sprint a bit, I dropped back to get a run up, but left it too late, still very happy with 7th, and possibly a sprint point ( but I’m not holding my breath on that one )

Thanks Robbo, and well done to all, Robbo for the win, and John for beating me on the line, even though I won on MY screen 🙂

Roll on next week.

P.

That went about as well as it could have gone.

Got dropped from the lead group on the hill (how do you say “quelle surprise” in Japanese?) but managed to not blow completely – don’t think our little sprint for 14th place was too far behind the front pack.

Might have grabbed some sprint points too which will be nice if it is the case 🙂

Edit: @reluctantjumper keep going mate – maybe do a few more pickup races in the week so you can get better at holding higher power for a minute or so at the beginning. Took me ages to build that up.

Well that was a baptism of fire! The group split more than I expected in the early bit if the climb and I couldn’t find the right gear to chase back on seemed I need to be somewhere between about 7 where the effort to claw the gap back was about 5-10rpm too high for me & 8 where was just a bit too grindy to make ground.

Made a couple of decent pulls to get back on when the group split earlier but they just took a bit too much out of me really.
Think I made a reasonable stab at all of the sprints too.
Spent most of the climb trying to reel a small group in then Doug Drysdale, finally got him with about 800m to go but hadn’t got anything left for the fight for position on the road. Maybe should have played cat and mouse a bit more once I got into the four but the final charge is never my forte any how.

Great ride, all and thanks as ever Robbo.

Ohh and I set a new FTP of 301 which is the first time I’ve been over 300 in about 18 months so reasonably chuffed with that, though obviously not with the inevitable additional handicap.

Thanks for everyone for taking part in the series! Hope you all enjoyed it.

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=1254292192

Race 1 – Wandering Flats

Overall Race Winner
1. robbo1234biking
2. Savoyad
3. yanboss

Overall Race Winner (with handicaps)
1. bails
2. mossimus
3. Paul-S

Tower Sprint Reverse
1. Straightliner
2. Yanboss
3. Jimdubleyou
4. slowpuncheur
5. savoyad

Alley Sprint Reverse
1. savoyad
2. straightliner
3. slowpuncheur
4. J-R
5. yanboss

Country Sprint
1. robbo1234biking
2. savoyad
3. straightliner
4. J-R
5. Slowpuncheur

Green Jersey Standings
1. Straightliner
2. Savoyad
3. robbo1234biking

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.

@reluctantjumper

Might sound daft but when are you starting, are you waiting for zero or pedaling hard from 5-10seconds to go?
It’s always hard holding on at the beginning (even back a few seasons when the start inevitably meant me sodding off up the road solo every time) but yoy need to be out of the blocks hard to hold the bunch, trying to ride into the draft from behind will absolutely ruin anyone that early on.

Do you do much other Zwift racing? The draft physics changed a while ago now and need a lot more practice to get right (I’m still pants at it) but it’s hard to practice then outside of a fairly evenly matched race so might be worth living up a couple of crits (as they’re short and hard so really reward or punish good Zwift technique) in the right category if you can?

Thanks Robbo and awesome riding on that course – looks like you rode it to perfection. Do we have a new Pogacar in our midst? 🙂

I forgot how hard these races can be, although I was pleasantly surprised the lead group stayed together for so long and didn’t splinter. At least it meant more time practicing my yo-yo drafting technique.

No FTP increase for me, but I did achieve one long term goal – I got the 1.21Gigawatts badge which has been eluding me for a long time.

Thanks all – great “fun” (yes, stumpy, the “” are for your jokes 😜 )

Just didn’t have it in me to hold on up that hill, despite holding a feather right from the start and randomly using it at just the right point.  Great work Robbo

@reluctantjumper – stick it out.  If you made it to 30-40 seconds you were probably really close to hitting the first lull in the pace.  It doesn’t feel like it because the speed of the pack+draft means it keeps pulling away but nobody* just smashes on at full gas beyond around a minute.

(I assume you know to start your race power 5-10 seconds before the “go”)

Interesting – all that grovelling at the back of the TTT must be teaching me something.  My Whaaaats were way down on what I was expecting.  Not even an FTP jump

@reluctantjumper – I for one really hope you keep going with it Neil.

It’s not going to be long before Robbo adds in some hills, and normal service of you leaving me for dead is swiftly resumed 🙂

Cheers All! These races do make for a far more exciting Tuesday.

Pleased the jokes went down so well!

I’m not sure what happened on the hill. I think it was lack of race tactical awareness….one minute it was all tickety boo and the next I was on my own with everyone thundering off up the hill.
Not steep enough or long enough to reel anyone back in.

Great race though and well done Rob!!

Dare I look at the results?! 😁