STW Zwift Racing League – Spring 2022

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=1334036094

Race 3 – UCI Worlds Innsbruck

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

Overall Race Winner (with handicaps)
1. yanboss
2. robbo1234biking
3. bails

Innsbruck KOM Forward
1. Savoyad
2. Crazyharry
3. karnali
4. yanboss
5. robbo1234biking

Innsbruck Sprint Forward
1. ajaydoubleyou
2. straightliner
3. slowpuncheur
4. sturdylad
5. zilog6128

Overall Standings
1. yanboss
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.

I thought the time trial wan’t until week 5!!!

3 minss of flat in a big group followed by a 25 min TT up a big hill slowly going backwards from about 10th to 17th, my power dropped off after 25mins and I was in no mans land with @Stumpy01 being 15 or so secs behind me. I hoped thata he would catch me up and we could work together to pull back the group in front, but was not to be.

I glued myself to his wheel and tried to lauch for the sprint but no power left so became a Klingon, until he opened up for the finish @ 300m to go. I managed to pip him on the line to salvage a little pride from another average effort. I need to work at being able to hold my power for > 25 mins, however saying that it was above FTP, and my overall figure hasn’t changed for the past few races 228W, so perhaps I need to work at getting more power so that I don’t have to kill myself so much early on in the race.

Well done the winners and commiserations to the losers.

Over 1/2 way through & its close at the top of the points race. 7 points cover the top 3, 22 points top 7 if you want to back a long shot 🙂

P.

@dangeourbrain – Kickr Core, bought new November 2020.

I really enjoyed that, was good to chase a few folks down on the hill but still 2.5minutes down on my pb up the climb.

Overall though a fairly good consistent ride for me so pretty chuffed over all.
Didn’t have the legs to stay with @ayjaydoubleyou or @sturdylad for the sprints but happy to have held on to you both for the rest, thought you’d drop me on the leg snapper or as soon as I dropped back from a pull on the front through town.

Had an offer of a tow in to the sprint from Brian which I was too slow in my attempt to accept

I don’t think it helped that my message took a lot of rewriting due to sweaty touch screen so by the time I sent it out was about time to start leading in. Think I missed my timing because you both ended up about 8-10m back crossing the start line, looking at the results though it doesn’t appear to have hurt!

@reluctantjumper does it have a decent app of its own to try it on? I’ve had similar problems with my elite on zwift but never an issue on the elite app.

There are two things which seem to cause issues with mine on zwift…

I mentioned the pairing – for some reason zwift detects two versions of the trainer for resistance (I think, bottom right anyhow) if it’s not set exactly the same as the other entries it does what you describe.

Also zwift doesn’t like things pairing in the wrong order. If I pair my HR monitor before the trainer it does exactly say. I need to check it pairs power and cadence first and second (doesn’t seem to matter which way round for those), then resistance third & HR last.

In my case – and a lot of others when I was trying to figure out what was wrong – it was absolutely a zwift issue not hardware.

Well, I really enjoyed the start bit on the flat! Then ended up on my own up the hill. I just couldn’t catch Paul on the descent, it didn’t seem to matter whether I stopped pedalling and tried to get the super tuck or pedalled hard all the way down. Reeled him in on the flat a bit and the caught up the leg snapper. I want really sure whether he let me catch or I was managing to do it on my own merit 😁

We were a bit cagey on the flat. Paul seemed happy to sit, so I used the time to try and recover.
I figured I wouldn’t beat him in the sprint so tried to jump him with an early attack. It didn’t work, although I thought for a moment it had 😆

FTP increase so can’t grumble…..only 3w from 240 to 243 but that is going on the right direction!

Sorry to hear your trainer woes reluctantjumper. Do you have the same issues when doing the workouts or free rides? It definitely sounds like a glitchy Zwift issue rather than an equipment problem.

Zwift can be weird @reluctantjumper. Lots of us have been there. You held the group when it mattered today. I’d focus on that. Someone’s suggestion will fix the trainer.

The start was fun. But not for long. I don’t like that big hill. It’s really inconsistent, but still seems to favour the TT approach. I was struggling with the pace that @karnali set on the opening ramps (I think he was too in the end) and definitely couldn’t respond when @nixie rode away. The race on the road was won in that moment. @crazyharry rode across a gap and joined me and @karnali on the climb, and then clearly wanted to push on a bit. I was uncomfortable following him, but told myself to get to the top, recover, and race on the legsnapper. That worked OK. We were back and forth together on the descent and then rode into town together. No gap is ever big enough with @crazyharry chasing you, so I went really really hard at on the first section (to get a gap) and the top section (where time seems to slow down) in the hope that I’d get enough time to discourage a chase. I think I had ~13 seconds over the top – but nothing left to counter if he did catch me – and I was anxious about holding it all the way to the line. Nice riding @yanboss and @robbo1234biking not surprised to see you grabbing the top placings in the handicap contest. Did you go past @karnali on the descent? And great climbing @nixie, I think your buffer was so big in the end that it cost you a sub-20 on the KOM?

PS – zwiftalizer has gone all fancy, but I’m sure it’s a good resource @reluctantjumper if you upload the log file to see if you are suffering connection dropouts or not.

Top Tip: Try not to text a message on the descent off the KOM when you’re sitting in a group of 4 people. Once you’ve corrected the fudging predictive text and look up, the group with have buggered off. Great riding @dangeourbrain, @sturdylad and @ayjaydoubleyou, I couldn’t quite reel you back in. Tried on the legsnapper but left nothing for a decent sprint. Frustrating. Some strong rides at the front end again.

I did wonder what happened to you there, the most disappointing bit is I think you were dropped precisely because you were pedaling as it looked to be on one of the steep bits where the tuck takes a lot of effort to out do.

That said I can’t say I was too disappointed to see you go as we’re usually there abouts on the handicap!

Ayjaydoubleyou put in a cracking turn up the leg snapper which certainly helped keep us clear and on the flat ish run through town you’d have had to have been super human to close a 40sec gap on your own, that said you did a bloody good job keeping it from going out much more.

I think yanboss and robbo put a few seconds into us once we cleared the top of the climb, about half way up I’d had visions robbo might not be insurmountably far in front, that changed when I saw his time for the kom pop up on the leader board and knew how far I still I had to go.

I enjoyed that though it hurt. Today was the first time since the middle of last week I’ve not hurt all over. The warm up went well and the run in to the hill was a nice and gentle. I had a half idea in my head to use the climb as an ftp test but nothing firm. At the start of the climb I just sat with anyone near the front until things started to stretch out. Then it just seemed to be the right time to up the power and see what happened. As the gap started to open it was time to go all in. The rest of the climb was painful as I stared at the gap trying to make sure it was growing. @savoyad and @crazyharry seemed to have periods of going harder then dropping off and u was lucky enough to get around a 50s gap by the top. It was then just a case of hanging in to the steep sections for a rest.

Through town was again a case of watching the chase and keeping my numbers above theirs. @savoyad’s charge up the leg snapper worried me for a minute but in the end the gap was big enough that I could hold on.

@savoyad yes missed the 20 minute mark and was a minute or so slower than my best (though I’m several kg heavier now). Without any draft though I’m happy with that time.

I dislike hills.

Lots of ‘type 2’ fun though.

Thanks Robbo

Thanks All

Best part of a Tuesday.

I enjoyed that…sort of. The climb was tough but worked with a good group and got a wee gal at the end. The descent was a massive relief. The super tuck kept me narrowly ahead of the three chasing me (j. Jordan, C. Charles and another – sorry, I have a crap memory for these things!) without having to do much. Backed off on the flat and got caught…it was inevitable I’d be dragged back by those three, better sooner than later. I got a wee gap on the little climb and thought I could hold it to the end. Then realised j Jordan was actually just preparing for an almighty sprint effort. Flew past me at silly speed – I had nothing for the sprint. I think he broke himself on that as I managed to sweep past and hold on to the end.

Robbo – my FTP has gone up to 291. I’ve no idea what value you actually had for me, but it had taken a big tumble previously when I was laid up with arthritis. Heading in the right direction now (or wrong as far as the handicap goes).

A good race for me I think although unexpected. As others have said a fairly gentle start meant that the initial slopes of the hill werent too bad but the group soon stretched and I ended up in a group with yanboss and vanilla. We stuck together up the climb pushing each other but no real gaps appeared above about 1 second. We hit the top together and there was a half sprint for KOM points with yanboss taking the fastest time in our group. The descent went fine but towards the end vanilla just seemed to drop of for no reason (he was going along fine) but I think our additional gravity assist may have helped us and the gap grew really quickly. Having checked the stats afterwards it was a bit like an unfair scrum with us having a fair bit of extra weight over him! We caught karnali somewhere between the bottom of the hill and the legsnapper.

A short attack on the legsnapper meant that karnali dropped back and yanboss and I mustered up the effort for a sprint. I think i just managed to pip him but the times tumbled as those further back got in some good sprints and no sprint points were forthcoming.

I tried to make it hard on the gentle uphill running in but I think yanboss and I are pretty evenly matched. he timed his aero really well and managed to cross the line 0.5 of a second in front of me. Well done yanboss for the good contest which I think landed us a decent points haul and him the win and thanks vanilla for the contest on the climb.

Well done everyone.

2 fairly flat weeks coming up now!

Well I don’t think I’d done that route before or not for a long time, that hill took longer than expected!! As I’m starting to feel a bit better generally decided just to go hard on the hill and see how long I lasted. I know I’ve got even less sprint than normal with no ability to produce a top end effort at all at present. Legs were cooked with about 2 km if climb left. I was surprised robbo and his group didn’t catch me on the descent, then I had no buildings showing so the legsnapper kind of appeared and surprised me, I had nothing left do just crawled up and along to finish. Once again thanks for the organisation.

Do you have the same issues when doing the workouts or free rides? It definitely sounds like a glitchy Zwift issue rather than an equipment problem.

Workouts are fine from the trainer perspective in that it holds the correct power but Zwift registers the momentary drop in power and cadence data, visible on the graphs on the bottom of the screen. Haven’t done a workout on ANT+ yet so that’s the plan tonight if I have the time. Free riding has the same issue as in the races, resistance drops on Bluetooth and not gradient adjustment on ANT+. Just want to get to the bottom of this and get it fixed as it’s really hurting any enjoyment and benefit I’m getting from these races or even just badge hunting. At least I can do the workouts as it’s only a blip inf the graph and the odd star that fails to register, I’m still getting the benefit in the old legs and lungs!

Sorry to hear about your IT issues @reluctantjumper. Hope it gets sorted with the advice here. It was great to see you in the bunch off the start last night. Some said it was an easy-ish run into the hill but the initial start was as brisk as ever – don’t think for a second you only made it because it was slower week. See you next week.

@reluctantjumper some thoughts that may (or not) help

Do you have an alternative device you could run zwift on (iPad, iPhone, android phone, tablet, other laptop, apple tv). If you do does the same thing happen? If it does then would point to a trainer issue, if not a pc issue.

What else is the pc running? Can you turn everything else off?

Is the pc and trainer close to your router (i.e. is there interference from a much strong WiFi signal). If you know how can you change the route WiFi channel to one at the other end of the channel range.

Does the pc have an external WiFi/BT antenna, if yes can you move it closer to the trainer.

At 18 months old the trainer is still in warranty. Have you raised a ticket with Wahoo?

Could you install the RGT trial and see if that works (again trying to localise pc, zwift or trainer as the issue).

What is your PC spec like? Could you try with zwift running at the minimum settings to take the load off the PC.

@oblongbob – yep, i went all in for the sprint with whatever my legs could muster knowing that after that it’s relatively flat and I could at least plod along. I watched you go past and couldn’t even manage an attempt to hang in your draft.

Came into this race much better prepared this week. Modified my warm-up and didn’t eat so much right before so felt pretty good. Rolled out with the main group but then missed the fact that a few riders started to string out at the front at the start of the climb. Was feeling strong so kicked on and started to pick a few off eventually catching @karnali and @savoyad – @Nixie had already disappeared to far up the hill. What then ensued was a battle of attrition with @savoyad – I tried to grind him into submission and several times I thought I’d manage to drop him but every time he kicked and got back and then sprinted really early to beat me to the KOM (although @Nixie should be top of that KOM list @robbo1234biking). I then pedalled all they way down the hill where as @savoyad demonstrated his racecraft saving energy and slip-streaming where it made sense so by the time we got back into the town he seemed to be able to manage his effort much better than I could. Again basically just tried to grind out the highest power I could muster but could not create a gap and when we hit the leg-snapper @savoyad just flew away cracking out 11w/kg up most of the climb and despite my half-arsed effort to stay with him last 15s in that climb alone. At that stage new I was finishing third as no-one behind me that looked likely to catch up, and unlikely to make up 15s on riders as strong as the 2 leaders. Again pleased with third – best I could muster.

Racecraft 1 – Shear bloody-mindedness 0

Nixie isn’t on the KOM list as he was racing for ‘fun’ and isn’t included in the points competition (at his own request) as I think he could only make a few of the races this time round.

I put him as the on the road winner as there arent points awarded for that (although there might be a change to that for future series!)

I put him as the on the road winner as there arent points awarded for that (although there might be a change to that for future series!)

Any particular incidents that make you think that’s needed? 😂

@nixie – PC is a decent spec that is also 18 months old. Easily runs Zwift at 1080 resolution and never had any lag or slow loading. Will try it on my phone though, see if that changes anything. I live in a block of flats with lots of Bluetooth interference (hence why switching to ANT+) and the computer is connected by ethernet to the router. Going to try a few things over the next few days and see what makes any difference. Hopefully get it all sorted for next week’s race.

Definitely change the controllable trainer setting from the FEC protocol as it defaults to that I think. That helped me. Its probably been said before but a USB extention cable to get your dongle near to the trainer is an easy win. Why there isn’t a hard wired option for most trainers, I have no idea.

Why there isn’t a hard wired option for most trainers, I have no idea.

@slowpuncheur you realise if there was in order to work with zwift it would need to be internally routed under your floor boards , blindly, with no guides, through multiple glands each only thick enough to take a single core of the cable, then reterminated to an apple TV only plug don’t you?

Are zwift cables directional? 😆

Probably, but only so that when you put it in the other way around they can tell you, with much fanfare, that they’ve released new cables as part of the recent update

Only to then take away 10% of the cables performance after you have bought it.

I enjoyed that a lot. Form seems to be returning so could stick in our group of 3 up the hill. Think I manage the consistent efforts much better and given I was never going to hang on to the front runners all the way up the hill I didn’t kill myself trying (like usual).

Took several goes to convince Zwift to do the aero tuck downhill. Power and cadence showing zero on the screen but my man is just sat up chilling while Robbo shot off. Just about managed to peddle back on at which point we were flying!

Great battle with @Robbo1234biking, I think another 20 metres and you would have had me.

And now for the bad news, FTP back up where it was before Christmas at 309W. So that’s the last you will see of me at the top of the handicap leaderboard!

@slowpuncheur – I get a non-FEC option for two of the connections but the controllable one only has an FEC option. I’ve tried all the different combinations too with no joy. Had a solid hour playing with the settings this evening and had to give up as I was getting so frustrated with it not working at all now, not even on Bluetooth.

So as to avoid clogging up this thread I’ve started a separate one, sadly looks like I will be unable to continue with the races to to technical issues.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SYEJq-_k2w-I3LUIgg6hoi5LAb7angXxiRasZfjvPE4/edit#gid=1544776402

Here are the handicaps for tomorrow night. The event should finish on the downhill or just onto the flat by the sea plane after a lap of the jungle. Its a very bumpy course!

Hmm… weather will dictate if I race tomorrow…. what’s the bike choice then….

DrP

Having upset the MCL in my right knee snowboarding I’m going to have to bow out of the series.

🙁

Damn, got a short notice bit of away work.

Enjoy!

The event should finish on the downhill or just onto the flat by the sea plane after a lap of the jungle. Its a very bumpy course!

I suppose the one thing about this week is it doesn’t really play too anyone’s strength 🙂

Hmm bike swap or not….

should be there tonight. Have missed a few due to actual real mountain biking in the dry and sun!

Nixie… what I was wondering…
I THINK if I did race, I’d have tron then swap to mtb…. even if it takes 30 seconds to swap, the MTB is DEFFO at least 30 seconds faster ….

But…swap back after the loop? Hmmm…

DrP

Can everyone have a think about who they would like to nominate for the Riders Rider of the Series. As this is the last race of the 2021/22 season I am happy to take nominations from across the other 3 series if there is someone who has been a consistent performer or always lit up the races. The only caveat being they cant have won before (they can have been nominated!)

Past winners from this Season are:

woodiwoodwood
reluctantjumper

I THINK if I did race, I’d have tron then swap to mtb…. even if it takes 30 seconds to swap, the MTB is DEFFO at least 30 seconds faster ….

Is it quicker if you are in a group though? And you might want to check as I dont believe a MTB is quicker around the gravel anymore!