STW Zwift Racing League – Spring 2022

Sorted now!

Hi Robbo @robbo1234biking

I know I’m late to the party, but Tuesdays I am now available – or rather the wattbike is, as my better half has finished her winter race series.

83kg, 309 W FTP if I could be a late joiner?

not too concerned about handicap etc as I’ve missed the first race, and might not make the last either.

dont think i will make Race 1 (bloomin daughters 5th birthday!) but i am hoping to make the 2nd race, albeit with a belly full of birthday cake! 😀

frustratingly the first race i think i would have missed since the series started.

Doubt I’ll make tomorrow as I’m in that there London

I’m going to try and make it tomorrow, might not be full on from me, see how the back goes.

I see a few of you did one of the routes this morning, which bike is looking to be the most suitable, Road, Gravel or MTB?

Double header night tonight!

Jungle circuit to start with (if you aren’t used to this then the MTB is definitely the way to go – even the stock Zwift one will be better than a road bike). There will be sprint points available for the fastest lap.

“Jungle Circuit” Route Details (Watopia)

Then we head to Makuri and Spirit Forest – the jury is still out on which bike to ride for this between Gravel and MTB and I think it will come down to how you want to race it – what your strengths are etc. The lead in is tough as we have to get up the climb before the segment starts although having done the Jungle Circuit first I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t get a peloton protest and a gradual group climb up the hill!

“Spirit Forest” Route Details (Makuri Islands)

If you haven’t done a double header before the pop up will come up with a 30 min countdown 10 mins into the first race (the 2nd race kicks off at 20:10). Don’t click on it until you have crossed the finish line and then you will head to the pen of the second race (or do a cooldown if you want first).

Looking forward to it tonight. I’ve never race spirit forest.

My streams for tonight should be;
https://youtu.be/fY-8dJo3pXM
https://youtu.be/nlON3PkMWd0

Should be a hard couple of races. Don’t forget the Jungle Loop has a long lead (~4km) before the loop actually starts. Then it’s up, over the rope bridge and then mainly down….

Just “bought” a gravel bike for tonight….
Hope it’s worth it

shhh

I’ll just use the MTB, sort of like a throwback to the first series. Might not do the second race as I have an early start in the morning but will see how I feel after the first race.

Oooof that was a wounder!
See for PT.2!

That did not go well.

Well that was demoralising.

Managed to keep up with the pack for a good 45 seconds and despite me still putting out around 400w the same thing happened again, you all just seemingly found another gear and pulled away. It’s very impressive to watch but I don’t know how you all do it.
I’ve also seemingly got an issue with my Kickr. As soon as I’d got about 2 minutes in it was dropping all the resistance for a second randomly but regularly, gave the same feeling of a chain slipping or snapping. When the resistance came back it really messed with my cadence, made it very hard on the climbs. I have noticed little drops in the power graph at the bottom of the screen when training but the resistance stayed the same so put it down to an issue on the game side, it’s probably an issue my side by the looks of things. Still got an FTP increase of 3w to 235w out of it though.

Not doing Race 2B as that one knackered me out and I have an early start for a long day at work tomorrow. Hope you all enjoy it!

Not as demoralising as Zwift locking up while cooling down, probably lost my result from race 2
I was P10 just popped J Donnelly and C Charles, gutted …

Apologies RJ, don’t mean to dismiss your issues!
It’s strange, I had the same issues with not being able to hold wheels when I first started using Zwift, I have no idea what changed.
The only thing I can put it down to is putting myself in one cat lower than ZP said for a few events. I was getting dropped line a stone in B so there was no way that was my cat.
Dropped to C and did a few events, not just races but more social stuff and it just gave me a confidence boost and I learned to ride in pack and hold a wheel. I’ve naturally drifted back to B and can get on a bit better.
Try it and see if it helps…
Good luck, it’s quite good fun when it comes to you. Never easy though (the puddle on my floor is testament to that)

@sturdylad, you might still appear on zwiftpower (?)
Anyhow, serves you right for battering me up that hill

Bastard connection loss.

Good fun though. Cheers.

@reluctantjumper – maybe it’s yr connection ?
have a look here: https://zwiftinsider.com/how-to-fix-ant-dropouts-in-zwift/

I’m aslo sure I’ve read that you need to set your power source to NOT be the “FEC” variety, if you get a choice – leave that connection just for the controllable resistance

Tired tonight, legs definitely feeling recent rides and efforts. Dragged my way round the first one, didn’t have much energy for the second so thought I’d drop back and ride with a friend who’d joined, only to find he had dropped out by then. Oh well!

Well done to everyone, that first race just broke up on the climb as expected and there was little to be done to close the gaps.

I managed to upload to Strava, from a recovered file so here’s hoping!!

Am I wrong to say I enjoyed that? Had a nice gentle spin between races and felt reasonable in race 2.
Only 1 double per year though thanks!

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.

Anyone help out with the fastest lap of the Jungle? Zwiftpower is only showing about 10 riders as completing a lap which isnt right!

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

Race 2a – Jungle Circuit

Overall Race Winner
1. benman
2. savoyad
3. nixie

Overall Race Winner (with handicaps)
1. Paul-S
2. J-R
3. karnali

Fastest Lap of the Jungle Circuit
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Race 2b – Spirit Forest

Overall Race Winner
1. Nixie
2. Savoyad
3. Crazy Harry

Overall Race Winner (with handicaps)
1. Savoyad
2. J-R
3. Yanboss

Overall Standings
1. J-R
2. bails
3. Paul-s

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.

well please with the first race as i’ve been feeling about 80% for weeks now, and tonight was the first chance i’d had to race and actually fee like having a go. 2nd race bought my gravel bike and then zwift not responding, it let me in just after 8:12 so had a deeply unpleasant ITT round the course. thanks for the organisation Robbo.

@robbo1234biking looking at the Strava top 5 for the Jungle Circuit today:
1 Ben M 12:49
2 Aron B 13:07
3 Rob B 13:11
4 Paul T 13:12
5 Ian M and Southside J joint: 13:16
7 B Clark 13:17

Savoyad was faster than Ben for the jungle lap. He had the jersey after the finish.

Bloody Hell they were tough!

First race felt good and gave it the beans.

2nd race just couldn’t keep up during the road bit at the start – legs like jelly and ended up with S Copping and I working together most of the way round. He slaughtered me on the run in to the line. Need to work on my sprint power for sure.

Oh, and apologies for my “chicken” joke – if anyone’s kids were watching them ride 😬

Oh, and apologies for my “chicken” joke – if anyone’s kids were watching them ride 😬

Too busy thinking up jokes to warm up again for the second race (That’s my excuse anyway). Definitely didn’t have the legs to keep up with the bunch on the road bit at the start.

I am gobsmacked to be top of the overall standings, however briefly it may be.

My benchmark in a race is currently @Paul-s because he gets a minute or two on me in the handicap but last week he beat me on the road as well as the handicaps. So in the first race when the peloton split on the climb I pushed hard to take some time off Paul’s group and keep the small group I was moving as fast as I could – even though I burned a few matches and didn’t have much left at the end for the sprint. It was partly successful – I got about 30 seconds on Paul but not enough to make up for the handicap.

In the second race I focused on going hard up the first climb to get an early gap on Paul and this seemed to work well. I soon ended up in a small group of @yanboss and @benman – who I think we could only keep up with because of an unfortunate bike choice. At the end the last climb benman was able to pull away and I hid behind yanboss for the last minute so I could get a lucky win on the sprint.

Next week’s race plays to my “strengths” but unfortunately I can’t participate, so I am sure we will have a more deserving rider at the head of the overall standings.

This was the one I was not looking forward to. I had no idea about bike choice and ZwiftInsider was giving me feelings of doom if I got it wrong, swap bike/gravel/MTB. I decided to go MTB on the line, which seemed to be the consensus, and let the die roll.

The short format suits me quite well, it means the legs complainand want to die, but I can do a Jens Voight on them until the end, which doesn’t work on the longer races where I end up crawling the last 1km.

The race split earlier than I thought that it would, and as usual I missed the split, @ayjaydoubleyou nearly dragged me back on, but I lost his wheel and had to ease up and let the next group catch up. The group of 5 of us @Straightliner @joedilla, Chris Charles, & scaredeypants. It stayed that way until the end, where for a change, I timed the sprint to perfection and beat @Straightliner by about 0.05 secs 🙂

The 2nd race was different, no gravel bike in the garage so that made the choice easy :-(. Again lost the 1st group, but @Ogg dragged me back to a couple of other stragglers @bails & @ayjaydoubleyou, who were both on gravel bikes. We managed to work together pretty weel, although I’m sure it was everyone just putting down feelers to see who was weak. @Ogg was the one who got caught out but he valiantly held the 8-10 sec gap for pretty much the rest of the race. I was the next as @Bails went for a long 1km sprint to the line. The MTB was toast, I pushed to the end, for a poor result ( for me ). I will be buying a Gravel bike before we come back.

Well done the Winners, commiserations to the losers, thanks to all, esp @Robbo1234Biking

P

blimey, it’s all worth it when the payoff is so huge:

Your estimated FTP has increased by 1w

@chrischarles – I def think you pipped me in race 1 as well as by miles in #2 for what that’s worth

Hills are not my forte, and this wrung every last bit of effort I had.

Competing for the much cherished 23rd-ish place with the usual suspects, was pipped in the first race by @woodiwoodwood, which was a bit rude as I’d let him be in front for nearly all of the last 5k.

Quite touched in the second race that @giggsmaster thought I was chasing him, when all I was doing was trying make @woodiwoodwood behind believe I was not almost dead, having already put a 10 second gap in once to see it disappear while was reaching for a water bottle as he resurrected himself.

Totally trashed – roll on next week.

Game of two halves for me. Different strategy but the result as last week – did a structured warm up but my legs just felt dead for the first 10 mins for the first race, lost the main group and by time I got it together I was nigh on dead last and in a short race like this not really enough time/distance to claw much back. Not sure if it’s a physical or psychological thing – both last week and first race of this week, I mentally gave up but then went through a sort of mental reboot and it all came together.

On the upside, the first race acted like a proper warm up and the second race I felt amazing. Could have eaten all the weatabix in the world and not stayed with @nixie and @savoyad, so third was the best I could hope for.

That was enjoyable @haloric it’s nice to be able to at least try to keep up with you.

I had a mass panic as the results loaded for the first race that you’d pipped me at the line.

But you left me for dead on the second race – resurrection was not on the cards, limping to the line.

At least Robbo has selected a flat route next week and not 500m of climbing… 😱

Congrats to the winners 🏆

Cheers all

Race 1 did not feel good. A late dinner and very little warm up made for a bad legs. I was very glad the pace stayed lower to half way up the hill. When Ben M got a gap I missed the opportunity to follow and then could not break away from savoyad. Legs would not support the power required.

Race 2 I was feeling better. The first climb resulted in a much stronger effort and the legs felt much better. With just the two of us out front it got really cagey. I tried to make savoyad dance to my tune and made repeated attacks before climb 2. Attack and wait for him to have to burn bigger numbers to catch while I was backing off, then go again. The final climb was comfortable to start with. Savoyad tried a few attacks but they were easy to spot, his avatar always gets crazy legs before the power numbers appear on the right. The last one I was able to draft then power past and away for the win. Much happier with that though my legs now feel dead!

@scaredypants – all the issues I can find online relate to an Ant+ connection where I’m using Bluetooth. One option I’m going to try is actually going to Ant+ for just the turbo as it gets worse if I use my wireless headphones so I’m guessing it’s an interference issue. Will have a look at the FEC thing too as never heard about that.

Did anyone buy and use the newish custom gravel wheelsets at Jungle, for a substantial time gain over standard gravel wheels?

All About Zwift’s New ENVE G23 and Roval Terra CLX Gravel Wheelsets