STW Zwift Racing League – Spring 2022

Hmm….. hmmm…hmmm….
Gravel bike the whole way?! I dunno!

DrP

robbo1234biking

…As this is the last race of the 2021/22 season…

Say what? There’s two more after this one, isn’t there?

Unsure about bike choice for this evening….I suppose it depends if you’re in a group or on your own as to whether you swap?
I was debating gravel bike all the way round, but I think they take a real hit on the road.

Yes there are two more races.

What that should have said is ‘the last race series of the 2021/2022 season’. i.e. we should hopefully be back in the Autumn for the 2022/23 season (I always like to caveat it as you never know when Zwift might change there mind on community events etc!)

https://zwiftinsider.com/crr/

Is this the most up to date info about rolling resistance?

I think this is:

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

This is the trouble – Zwift fiddle with things in the background and then a lot of the info on Zwiftinsider becomes out of date and I dont think he goes back through and corrects old articles.

Lock in the World Bicycle Relief bike, Rob?! 🙂

Is this the most up to date info about rolling resistance?

says at the bottom the last update was Dec 2019, so probably not!!

Interesting about the new Gravel wheels making them more similar to the MTB in terms of rolling resistance… but you’re (according to that first link) still looking at approx 36W disadvantage when trying to keep up with a road bike on the road at race speeds! Which is substantial… so I guess probably a swap to the MTB for the Jungle Loop is still the fastest? (not a particularly stress-free proposition on an ATV though 🤣) with Gravel still being worst of both worlds, maybe?

Had a quick Google but couldn’t find any recent, definitive opinions either way!

Lock in the World Bicycle Relief bike

out of all the unlocks on Zwift, this is the only one I really want. Got about 9 levels to go though still!! (And maybe the googles as well @ lvl 47 😃)

I think road all the way or swap to MTB for Jungle (and tough it out for the last pavement section).

Tonight’s stream;

Have fun chaps…

Weather holding out here so I’m going off roading IRL!!

DrP

so titans grove then the jungle – spicey.

Definitely don’t change back again if you do a bike swap in the jungle, it’s only a short climb out past the Jungle start pens, then it’s downhill to the finish by the sea plane at the bottom. If you change Gravel bike may be better than the MTB to help with that final bit of tarmac.

Good luck all!

The question is who dares roll the dice on an apple tv remote assisted swap.

Zwift are so hopeless, they give you lots of bikes, but make it very difficult to use them.

A fixed time interval to do a swap once you are stopped to a hotkey bike would be fair to all, and be interesting for strategy.

I am probably going to have to sit this one out. Caught a cold over the weekend and not finding it easy to breathe, certainly not at the capacity required for these frantic efforts.

On the topic of bike choice, I was probably going to go with a road bike for the whole thing. Swapping bikes never seems to work as the slow-down, change and speed-up never seems to offset  the time loss for sticking with the bike you had. Gravel bike might be an answer, although think there is too much time on the road to see any real benefit. Sure there is a Zwift insider article that will let you know the best bike/wheel combo.

Hi Guys

Sorry late withdrawal no internet, was looking forward to tonight, I think first one I’ve missed

Good luck all.

Neil

Sorry I didn’t duck out earlier, been a bit grotty all day but hoped a sit down after work would see me perk up prior, instead I sat down and fell asleep!

Hope the race went well folks!

Server fallen over at work just as I approached halfway 🙁

Cheers all.

Blurgh….

Server fallen over at work just as I approached halfway

Hope it didn’t land on anyone

Got to the bottom of the hill and then I started to miss my family, my friends, and mostly my dinner.

Been under the weather for a few days so just bailed, although if I’d know woodiwoodwood just ahead was gonna bail, I might have crawled up.

First event to not finish, disappointing.

Yes, Blurgh….

Well that was tough once again. However, I was rather lucky and that ended up being my best result, perhaps ever.

Due to a moment of incompetence coming out of the undersea tunnel I thought Nixie’s surge was just one of those moments. What I didn’t realise was everyone else was going to go too!

The gap quickly went out past 10seconds, but on that nasty climb past the seaplane it looks like the group broke apart and I managed to get a bit closer. Sadly I couldn’t close the gap before the jungle and then just gambled and jumped on to a MTB. Turns out it was a fortuitous decision and I managed to catch the group ahead on the long descent and then keep it going on the climb out, with the group splitting and just B Clark keeping me honest. I toyed with the idea of staying on the MTB but hopped back to a road bike in the end, finishing safely on my own.

Interesting, I wondered if anyone would swap! Very tempted as the chasers were about 40s behind when we got to the dirt roads but it’s just too big a gamble on ATV 😂

Ta for Stumpy & Lister dragging me round most of the way, just couldn’t hack the pace up the 2nd jungle climb! Still, it was a relatively long course & I made it further than usual before flagging so pleased with that 😆

Please give me some nominations for Riders Rider!

Next weeks race is the Tempis Fugit TT. If you are unable to make it (as I know some school holidays start next week) then feel free to take part in one of the many TTs that run on there every week (there is one tomorrow night at 19:00). You need the Tempis Fugit TT course and it is 17.6km. As long as you do it by 19:30 on Tuesday and let me know your time then I am happy for that to count. Please only do that if there is a geuine reason as it would be good to still get a good turn out on the night.

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 4 – Dust In the Wind

Overall Race Winner
1. nixie
2. savoyad
3. vanilla83

Overall Race Winner (with handicaps)
1. vanilla83
2. yanboss
3. straightliner

Titans Grove KOM
1. Savoyad
2. Straightliner
3. Robbo1234biking
4. Vanilla83
5. Phil56

Overall Standings
1. yanboss
2. Paul-S
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.

Good ride again all.

That was a tough one, I think I predicted to @mikeyg1974 exactly when the break would go and sure enough it did.
The second group were pretty much powerless to do anything about it.
A group of 5 or 6 stuck together nicely until the latter stages then it started to thin out leaving just 3 of us. Oh yeah and I forgot, AJW, very timely switch to the mountain bike, you went past our group like a missile.
Paul T, Southside, and I started a bit of cat and mouse for the last few km, or at least that’s how it felt to me. I was hanging on for grim death but for once timed my sprint (I was lucky and saw the finish tape in time!) well and pipped them for 8th.

Great ride as always though.

There must be a flat course soon?

Cheers for organising again Robbo.

Well that was fun – managed to stay with the group up Titans Grove and actually got a decent time up there. It settled after that and as Straightliner said came apart on the sea plane climb. THere was a group of about 4 of us going through the jungle when straightliner came flying through. I decided to change to the gravel bike as I started dropping of the chase for him.

I was 40 seconds back when I got going again. Ajaydoulbeyou was about 10m behind me but I managed to stay in fron ant caught up the 40 seconds before the end of the jungle climb to yanboss and phil and managed to put about 10 seconds in before it changed to tarmac again. I stayed on the bike and managed to keep the 10 second gap near enough to the end. It was 8 seconds on the line which puts me 1 second behind yanboss in the GC!

Good race – the different tactics made it interesting and i would argue that was tougher than last week to be honest! Unsurpringly i got an all time power best for 1min46 seconds on the titans grive climb of 468w!

Well that was lonely.
My game plan was to ride my climbing bike, stay with the/a pack up the KOM, and through to the sharp climb after the sea planes, where I would climb at my own pace, then switch to mtb and go for it in the jungle.

What actually happened:
Did the hard work up the KOM, was only a second or two back at the top, but missed the draft and watched 8 of you head off into the distance. Did most of the descent at 400 watts in an attempt to get back on. Caught up, but trying to recover in the rolling terrain of titans grove led to me losing you again in a moment of lapsed concentration.
It was a lonely ride to the seaplanes, watching the time gaps to those in front get bigger despite most of the time showing .5 to 1 w/k lower than me.
Four or five guys behind me so I was trying to time my climb to let them catch up, hoping to get a recovery tow along and down to the jungle where I would make my attack in the dirt.
Swapping to the mtb cost me 14 seconds. Admittedly I was attacking, but after the rope bridge I had gained those 14 seconds back on the group and had put similar into them again.
Caught robbo just after the cave as he was stationary, seemingly having switched to a gravel bike. He soon disappeared off in front again.
I caught Phil56 quite literally at the point it switches back to tarmac. Where I decided to switch back to road bike for the climb and subsequent descent.
14 seconds of zero watts seems to do wonders for my recovery as I was able to claw back almost 10 of those on the uphill riding at a power that my legs had refused to do only minutes before in the jungle.
Crossing the tall bridge I could see Phil in the distance, I prepared myself to be a Slovenian descending god. I channelled the last of my energy into a 800w few second sprint at the top of the climb to get my speed up to over 70kph and then settled into an aero tuck. I watched the seconds drop down but then disaster… the finish line was not at the bottom of the zig zags, but half way! I finished two seconds off Phil.

🤣

Sorry @haloric hope you feel better soon.

I think I need to stick with you in the future.

Ugh, not at my best for that race – but still a great workout and enjoyable in a weird way.

I ended up in the second group after the break, but when @Paul-S said “let’s work together” I realised I had 2 mins extra handicap to make up for, and when as fast as I could up the big hill past the bridge to split the group. I ended up with @slowpuncheur and @sturdylad. Despite the hard work of just hanging onto slowpuncheur as he kept attacking I was feeling pretty good towards the end. So I was just about to wind up the power to pass sturdylad then drop my Aero PU when I realised I had totally miss timed the sprint and the race had finished with sturdy getting a well deserved win in our mini contest. And I only had a 1:40 gap on Paul, so he trounced me in the points – again. Well done lads, and to the winners out front.

I thought @ayjaydoubleyou had a dropout as he fell backwards on 0W, but was quickly disabused as about 30 seconds later he tore past on his MTB and ultimately got over a muinute on us – very impressive.

@Straightliner
.. then just gambled and jumped on to a MTB. Turns out it was a fortuitous decision and I managed to catch the group ahead on the long descent and then keep it going on the climb out, with the group splitting and just B Clark keeping me honest. I toyed with the idea of staying on the MTB but hopped back to a road bike in the end, finishing safely on my own.

You came absolutely storming up to us on the MTB and I had to put everything I had to cling on up the climb on the road bike – you kept jumping 2 or 3m seemingly at whim and I’d have to bury myself to get back on.

That started with a crap warmup which dictated the early part of the race as I tried to finish warming. Titans grove was just a stay in touch effort saving the matches till later. I gave a little push out of the underpass as why not 😜. The interesting thing here is watching the relative power. As I accelerated before the ramp and pushed past at speed most who responded needed to hold 1wpkg or more than I was going up.

My plan was to go for a break up the climb then try to stretch it through the jungle. It seemed to be work till savoyad suddenly ‘lost’ a load of time. I was certain that meant a bike swap and seemed to be proved right as the gap quickly started to drop. Instead of a rest going down I needed to stay well above 4wpkg and on the short tarmac sections in the waterfall needed to push. It wasn’t enough and he rapidly caught then gapped me. At this point I thought it was all over. Then his power dropped just as Ingot another wind. From 8s behind I closed before the junction and then sat biding my time till the tarmac came back. Once the surface changed it was time to open the taps and thankfully I pulled away again.

A very enjoyable race, thanks robbo. That sort of course is my favourite (I’d have happily done the full route).

Hi Robbo,
Can I nominate J-R for the backstabber award please 😉. I wonder what happened to the ‘team’.

P

🙄

Well I really enjoyed that one!!
Fairly quickly got spat out of the group on the lumpy section at the front. I dunno if it’s the way I ride them, but my power always seems delayed on them so I surge on the hills but everyone rides away. Then the power kicks in on the screen and I catch up a bit. It’s like there’s too much lag in the power I’m actually putting out being recognised by Zwift.

Anyway, soon asked into a mini group with Zilog & C Charles. We were working well together but ended up dropping Zilog on one of the hills. I then assumed that C Charles was gonna bide his time and then smash me, but noticed he was occasionally dropping a bit and then having to surge back. I kept the effort up and slowly managed to eke out a gap. I then kept the effort up to try and create enough of a gap to be safe and that seemed to work quite well.

Coming towards the line I was closing on P aul as he’d swapped to the MTB. Not enough distance to catch though! 😆

@stumpy01 in the rollers surge down and hold it on the way up. If you time the surge right you use the group draft to gain speed that then pays back in the next up.

Great, cheers Nixie I’ll give that a try!

That really was a lot of fun. There’s a dramatic difference between the different bikes in different places – just not quite enough to bridge the gap between me and @nixie it turns out…

I rode the KOM just hard enough to secure the points, then sat in the front group between there and the seaplane climb. I was almost caught out by @nixie’s surge (even though he always does that there haha) and had to chase back on from being marooned with @straightliner – who had ridden titans perfectly and was unlucky to be tailed off like that at that point.

It broke up on the seaplane climb and @nixie really pulled away over the bridge and up past the windmill. I got to the dirt 2nd on the road – 20s behind nixie, and 20s ahead of @phil56. So I took the chance to switch – to the gravel bike + fast wheels. It went OK (screen time is not real time!) and I got going again 40+ secs down, and now basically level with @phil56, blasted back off a bit too hard but eventually settled into a chase. Took time steadily out of @nixie and eventually caught him on the jungle climb. But that wasn’t enough – I knew I needed to leave him behind – and I was starting to crack. Bravado got me 10 secs ahead, still not enough, and he eventually caught back on. As soon as the tarmac came back he disappeared again for the win. I could see @straightliner and @vanilla83 moving through the field behind, but we were all over the road by then and I held on grinding up the last climb for 2nd.

That course really worked in that format @robbo1234biking. Nice choice. Good wins @nixie and @vanilla83. Comedy handicap gap between @yanboss and @straightliner for 2nd as well. And look at the GC between @robbo1234biking and @yanboss! Tiny margins all over the place.

@savoyad when you came past you still showed as riding the Tron on my screen. That nearly crushed my attempt to chase before it got going.

Thats intersting Nixie because I thought the same. When he stopped to change bike him and Phil were about 10 seconds ahead of us just past the jungle fork. I thought he was picking up Phil to get a chase group together and the he zoomed away from Phil on a tron bike as I could see the wheel glow in the distance.