STW Zwift Racing League – Spring 2022

I did yes. Used the specialized bike and enve wheels. Did not get dropped by the MTBs like before.

@reluctantjumper I’ve had Bluetooth issues with my kickr. Works perfectly on ant+ but Bluetooth it’s either perfect or constantly drops the connection. It was so bad I’ve given on up on Bluetooth.

Thinking about it the 5 first across the line (with Savoyad and Ben swapping positions) must be the 5 fastest laps as we hit the start of the lap as a big group. Savoyad def had the jersey at the end and the time difference between him and Ben so small.

First race – I enjoyed the casual pace at the start as I thought it would help come the second race. When we hit the hill with Nixie and Ben in the field I knew my tactics from last week werent going to work but I ended up in no-mans land between the front 3 and a group of about 5 behind. I decided to ease a bit on the hill to drop into the group behind as I wasnt going to catch the front runners. The group jostled a little but mostly tried to draft on the run in. I went for a long range attack and ajaydoubleyou came with me dropping an aero. He came past me and I managed to get a good draft before using my own aero and getting back in front just pipping slowpuncheur on the line. Was rapidly catching Nixie (who I think backed of) but he must have realised and got to the line first. New best 1 and 5 min power so pretty happy with that.

Second race – Legs felt awful at the beginning. I seemed to be one of the few who chose a MTB so wanted to stay with the front group until the climb which I managed but it took about 10 mins to really feel the legs again by which time 5 or 6 riders had gone of the front. I settled into a group with slowpuncheur and vanilla83 and was worried when we hit the road as they were both on gravel bikes so I thought I might get dropped but hung on until the climb again. The climb ebbed and flowed and at the top slowpuncheur and I managed to gap vanilla83 by about 30m. I tried going long again but slowpuncheur had me this time on the line.

That was a huge gap by the end so congrats @savoyad on getting a win on the handicap race! I really didnt think we would be out there that long on the second race – when we got to the second road section and we were 17 mins in I wasnt looking forward to the finish!

Definitely the hardest double header @robbo1234biking has crafted. I hope it keeps that title.

I spent most of both races with @nixie but they were otherwise totally different to each other. Race 1 we were the chase as @benman opened up a big gap on the uphill section, 12s and out of sight. I managed to bridge across on the run in and caught him with about 800m to go. Had nothing left for the finish though. Race 2 we were the lead group and opened a good gap (enough for the handicap win? That’s a surprise). Half the race was the lead-in and zwiftinsider calls a big detour a “bypass” for some reason (is that what made you shout what? @haloric ?). Anyway I couldn’t outsprint @nixie either. So 2x2nd on the road.

Thanks @robbo1234biking for organising and for eliminating @benman from contention in race 2. Bit late for zwift geekery now…but I’m off to get those gravel wheels.

Also my legs really really hurt on the ride to work this morning.

I bought gravel wheels when I bought the bike – sort of assumed I “had” to (and I’ve got way more points to spend than I can make sensible use of – ’til they create a hidden motor for a few million !).

I assume they maybe did make me a smidge faster but seemed fairly closely matched to power v speed against whoevr had one in my group in race 2 – maybe they had ’em too

and zwiftinsider calls a big detour a “bypass” for some reason (is that what made you shout what? @haloric ?).

No, I had no idea where I was going, all junctions are a surprise. Last night was an endless uphill gift that kept giving.

It was the group 10 seconds back deciding to work together to ‘pull some places back’ that was the cause of much sadness.

@scaredypants I had the bike but not the wheels.
Wish I’d spotted them as well now!

Oh well, it was fun. Despite hardly being able to walk last night I feel pretty good this morning!

OK from Nixie’s stream (thanks Savoyad) the 5 fastest laps of the jungle were:

1. Savoyad
2. Benman
3. robbo1234biking
4. slowpuncheur
5. ajaydoubleyou

So I will sort out points on the spreadsheet and update accordingly.

Nixie did technically come in 3rd but he wasn’t racing for points last night

I reckon I messed up on bike choice in the second race. I waited until the pen to make a decision & it seemed like there was a lot of mtbs there still so I decided to stick with it.
But, when the race started I really struggled to keep up on the first road section & realised there were a lot of gravel bikes around me.

I’m gonna be buying myself a gravel bike & some of those gravel wheels for sure!

@nixie – worth knowing, will get an Ant+ dongle sorted asap.

rj – I’ve also got my ANT dongle on an extension lead, sitting just by front wheel as that’s where I’ve found it seems to work best

you were rather quiet last night @stumpy01 🙂

Especially during the second race!

Think I’ve lost my mojo at the moment. Could not get motivated again last night. I think it’s coming home from work at 6 and snaffling my tea, then that gives me various belly troubles for a bit and I just don’t feel like it.

Really must pull my finger out next week and get on it 😤

robbo1234biking

you were rather quiet last night @stumpy01 🙂

Especially during the second race!

There was a lot of talking, but it was all in my head.
Most of it went along the lines of….well this is tough….why not stop & take a couple of beers with you back into the house?…..nope, only a few more mins stop being so pathetic…..just get to the end…..but those beers look very appetising…..and the legs are so very tired….I wonder if there’s any chocolate in the cupboard……or perhaps a pink doughnut….

You know. The usual. :oD

Think I could do with 10%+ more power or 10% less mass! – or ideally both 😉
First race myself and @jimdoubleyou dragged each other round was good to have some company as I tend to lose focus and drop off if I’m on my own, we were starting to close on @bails towards the end
Second race we had a little group up the first climb but I was pretty close to my max heart rate for most of it and got dropped close to the top – @Paul-S, @bails and Andy hovered 10-30 seconds in front of me for the rest of the race but I just couldn’t get back on but it did at least give me a target to chase.

Here are the handicaps for tomorrow.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SYEJq-_k2w-I3LUIgg6hoi5LAb7angXxiRasZfjvPE4/edit#gid=1421604983

@Robbo1234biking

A friend of mine has recently joined the forum but can’t post for 8 hours as a newbie!
He wants to join us in the races.

Can you keep an eye out for @mikeyg1974 and send the invites over for him too?

Thanks

JB

Ive sent the links on to him so hopefully he should get them now.

He’s signed up!

Definitely won’t be on the start line as I am in Morzine.

Should have bought a bike, not a snowboard…

Good luck to all.

“2018 UCI Worlds Course Short Lap” Route Details (Innsbruck)

here is tonights course – on the plus side you dont have to ride it 7 times like the pros! The negative is that once is more than enough.

Once you get down from the hill the leg snapper will decide the day.

KOM and Sprint points available tonight

Strangely looking forward to this evening, I have an odd liking for this course, I’ve no idea why mind!

working a late tonight – thank god !

Hmmm. Last time I did this route was Sept 2020 which I saved as race 2/6….so was that the first race series?
Not sure I’m looking forward to it!

Yeh that was the last time I raced it as well looking at it.

Check out the KOM holder – 9min 41 secs, 124bpm average, 175w average, 46 kmh – what a load of bullshit! Making the most of the meetup bug by the looks of it as his mate and him hold the top two positions from the same ride.

Im not going to win anything tonight so aim is really to set a new PB up that climb and then just see how things settle after that.

i have started to commute to work (first time today) and i dont think i will have enough in the tank to race in this series anymore (not without major regret the next morning), so i am going to gracefully bow out.

I might make one or two more if the weather turns and therefore i drive to work. I suspect when the winter series starts again i will be all over it.

its been a blast chaps!

cheers

It is an oddly enjoyable (but painful) course. I guess it benefits from a good lead in, a reasonably constant hill and then some recovery before that evil little ramp back in town.

No idea how legs will be, but I’ll give it a go.

Eta – dead last. :sad face: the figures don’t lie.

Don’t think I’ve ridden since last Tues, and am recovering from a harsh 10k cx run on Sunday so may not even make it up the hill.

Will do my best bimbling at the rear.

I’m planning to make it tonight but have no real expectation of it going well. Had horrible DOMS over the weekend and not felt like I could ride. Hoping it will clear when I warm up.

I’m another no show tonight – will be on the way home from a work trip, probably back just in time to see the live stream. Someone is doing a live stream I hope?

Hope you’ve all got your fans ready for tonight?!

Someone is doing a live stream I hope?

I am yes (ignore the title its the right one).

Hope you’ve all got your fans ready for tonight?!

I’ve broached the subject with both my kids and even mentioned Nixie’s cool live stream but they could not be less bothered. I’m gonna make one stand next to me ringing a cow bell:)

Hope you’ve all got your fans ready for tonight?!

Came home to find the flat was rather toasty thanks to the strong sun so currently airing it to get it as cool as possible!

slowpuncheur

I’ve broached the subject with both my kids and even mentioned Nixie’s cool live stream but they could not be less bothered. I’m gonna make one stand next to me ringing a cow bell:)

I’ll line ’em up…..you erm, knock them down?! 🤣

I think that might be me out of the series unfortunately. The turbo trainer just point-blank refuses to work correctly so there’s no way I can hope to do anything constructive. I thought it was all going too well when I appeared at the front and stuck with you all…

Apologies if I was distracting anyone from their race, I was having a proper hissy fit at it not working. Knocked my water bottle over, threw my towel at the wall and may have hurt my wrist punching the handlebars!

I had a quick play with the settings and tried two rides after leaving the race. I can get it to work correctly on bluetooth but then I get regular complete losses of resistance, similar to a chain slipping, that completely throw out any cadence I have going. On ANT+ I still have regular resistance drops but it doesn’t react to changes in gradient. It just sticks at whatever gradient I was on when I start the ride. Completely useless and incredibly annoying as I’ve just started to get a decent level of power and fitness back thanks to these races and DrP’s encouragement to do the Build Me Up plan. Will have to leave it for tonight and do a bit of searching online for any similar issues that other people have had. If the trainer is dead after only 18 months then that is pathetic for a premium product that cost me £700.

That sucks RJ, had similar frustrations, well still do occasionally when my zwift just locks up an I lose the ride. Robbo suggested its an issue with the processor in my laptop, known to play up with Zwift. I have to put up with it as I can’t afford another new laptop!

Great race tonight, three of us battled it out for the last three spots in the top 10.
Some great riding together at the top of the summit to benefit from drafting down the other side.

See you next week, and in the mean time I look forward to the race reports! 🙂

What trainer do you have @reluctantjumper?

Thought I was going to hate that course. Tried to stay roughly in my handicap position up the climb. Had a sudden second wind combined with the realisation that in zwift I want to descend with a group, so managed a burst of power for the line.
Three of us stayed together through the town which was good because I’ve done short Innsbruck loops and soloing round those city streets is misearable.
Had an offer of a tow in to the sprint from Brian which I was too slow in my attempt to accept. I think I got the sprint anyway by 0.05 over Jules – unless anyone later came and claimed it?
Then finished up with a halfhearted run for the line with dead legs watching John B pull away from me

Thanks all, that was about as painful as I’d imagined. Legs not yet recovered from the weekend, but seemed to find a sort of loose group on the way up covering positions 12-18 or so. Sadly it split up a bit just before the top, with D. Drysdale powering off. I’d expected our group of three (J Donnelly, J Orsborn and myself) to quickly make up ground but it took until town to catch you.

My cunning plan was then to keep all of us together so I could get some drafting for the sprint, but we split again so that didn’t work either. Accepted that I may have to give it what I could and then hang in there until the banner.

Well done to the guys at the front, seems like another punchy race.

a sort of loose group on the way up covering positions 12-18 or so. Sadly it split up a bit just before the top, with D. Drysdale powering off. I’d expected our group of three (J Donnelly, J Orsborn and myself) to quickly make up ground but it took until town to catch you

That was a bit of a killer for me. Was getting random numbness in my left Quad (hangover from my broken pelvis in November).
Was hard to keep steady power.
Congrats on out sprinting me at the end. I had nothing.
I did get an FTP rise from I think 305 to 313.
Still weigh shitloads though.