Cor that was hard… thought i was going to get dropped from the bell. Managed to claw across a few groups and finished 20th.

Still too early to say if I loved it or hated it. Great series again Robbo.

That hurt and really needed some deep digging towards the end. I need some rest.

Well done everyone, times at the top of the leaderboard suggest that was all quite close at the sharp end.

Thanks to the group between ~20 and 28 for working well together on the early hills and flats. I’d have been bailing if it hadn’t been for holding on to you after the first ride out of the seaside village.

@robbo1234biking – thank you again for a brilliant series of different and challenging courses, and to everyone for giving it a go and making the post ride analysis lots of fun

Absolutely buried myself on that one, just happy to finish the series on a relative high note!

The usual thanks to @robbo1234biking for organising it all but a special shout out to everyone who’s given me encouragement throughout. Especially @giggsmaster and @stumpy01 who have unwittingly stopped me chucking in the towel a few times in each race with little messages, massively appreciated guys.

I suppose it’s time to think about the next series.

My legs were sore today and I ate too much, that was nearly a killer half way up the reverse epic.

I couldn’t really workout how that was going to go. The start was gentle enough and @savoyad kindly towed me to second in the sprint (as I popped out of his draft at the last second). S Bach tried their luck off the front for a while. Didn’t seem much point in chasing but tried to keep the group within 10s as I suspected the mass in the rollers would close it down.

Titans grove was stay in touch with the aim of making others work instead of rest going down. This seemed to work and two of us ended up off the front. To start with it didn’t look like it would come to much but slowly opened to 10s then 15s. I was expecting @savoyd to close at the bottom of the epic reverse then disappear up the hill but he seemed off colour after @paino took the points on the first two segments.

Up the reverse epic I was just trying to get away slowly and keep my numbers above the second place rider. Too much food meant managing the effort.

Thanks again for the races Robbo. I’ve really enjoyed them. 👍. Well done to all the series winners.

Oh I suffered on that one. Hung in with the usual crew for the first part and for some reason tried to follow @Piano up the Titans Grove Reverse hill, but underestimated how long it was and burned all my matches plus the matchbox and my fingers. After that I just managed to cling onto my group again, but most of them had plenty more in the tank when it came to the Epic KOM so I was soon dropped by the likes of @djflexure, @sp and @DRiley (who came from miles behind and shot up the hill like a rocket). Well done boys and to @Paul-S for what I assume will be an unassailable points win.

And thanks again @robbo1234biking for another great series.

Right..all showered and fed now!!

Cheers all for a top race; it’s been several months away from racing so i feel I’ve kinda lost my race craft a bit! Legs strong, but wasting energy like a noob just punching away and not using the pack dynamics!
Oh well… you gotta (re)start somewhere!

Was a fairly good bunch at the front all the way through to Titans Grove climb… i zoomed ahead then blew up a few hundred M from the top… 4 or 5 chaps passed and then I spent the whole of the descent/other half of titans playing bloody catch up! Managed to mix stomping and spinning to catch the group, and then cruise through to the foot of the climb…
Nixie and one other pushed ahead on the first climb to the bridge… their 12 second gap grey to nearly a minute by the end… Savoyad and myself were hopping back and forth, but he eventually pushed ahead as my legs tired and I was struggling to top over 300w for the last 2kn of the climb…
Once I saw he’d grabbed a 15 second gap when the incline shallowed to the final finish, I just cruised over the line!

Horrible horrible fun.. I love it!

DrP

well that was tough, had my booster yesterday afternoon and i was exhausted early afternoon and was not going to bother racing. Pizza pulled me through but did not help with the below. Thought the epic was never going to end was just pleased to finish. Worst bit was the booster gave me a funny stomach and some of my farts were really rotten.

Great series Robbo many thanks. Will join some of the the club rides, need to work on sprinting.

Well done everyone

Thanks for everyone for taking part in the series! Time for a well earned rest for everyone before the next series begins on the 11th January.

The results are provisional in case I have made any mistakes. Please let me know.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oxAKc92qCMD5s-Odc4kCjngmxE15jED9erVq0PKq5CY/edit#gid=1628366731

The best 6 points scores count for each racer and this is taken into account in the final scoring.

Also please vote for you favourite racer on the below link!

Racers Racer Poll
Ok here are the 4 nominations for racers racer

1. Savoyad – lighting up the front of the race with multiple attacks and keeping everyone on their toes
2. retrorick – For attempting to win on a MTB and looking inspired as he opened a 10 second gap
3. stumpy01 – FOr general good nature in spite of adversity
4. reluctantjumper – for shear bloody determination and always putting it on the table despite having to ride on your own at times

Voting closes tonight at midnight!

https://doodle.com/poll/7w7nn4t8ic9s7isr?utm_source=poll&utm_medium=link

Race 6 – Climbers Gambit

Overall Race Winner
1. nixie
2. C Donnelly
3. savoyad

Overall Race Winner (with handicaps)
1. bails
2. C Donnelly
3. drew

Sprint Points (Watopia Sprint Reverse)
1. paino
2. nixie
3. savoyad
4. DrP
5. yanboss

KOM Points (Titans Grove Reverse KOM)
1. paino
2. savoyad
3. nixie
4. scaled
5. DrP

KOM Points (Epic KOM Reverse)
1. benman
2. nixie
3. savoyad
4. DrP
5. karnali

Green Jersey Standings
1. paino
2. savoyad
3. straighliner

KOM Standings
1. savoyad
2. nixie
3. benman

Series Top 3 (including sprint/fastest lap points) Best 6 race points counts
1. Paul-S
2. drew
3. bails

Combined Sprint and KOM Points Total
1. paino
2. savoyad
3. Straightliner

STW have kindly donated some prizes so I will be in touch with the overall series winner, winner of the combined points competition and the racers racer to organise this. Well done all!

I have set up a GoFundMe for people who have enjoyed the series. This time around we are raising money for The Firefighters Charity which provides support to Firefighters and their families during tough times. This is a cause close ot my heart as my Dad has been a Firefighter for coming up to 50 years. My Dad was ill a number of years ago when I was pretty young and the charity helped by giving us a few days away as a family after spending a lot of time in hospital. They do a lot of good work for Firefighters and families supporting them through tought times.

https://www.firefighterscharity.org.uk/

https://www.gofundme.com/f/stw-race-series-fundraiser?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_campaign=p_cf+share-flow-1

I have put some events up for the next week in the STW Zwift Club. Even if you arent in the club (message me if you want to join) you should be able to join the events from the link in this thread:

Official STW Zwift Club

That hurt.
I wanted the combined sprint/KOM points title and although it was a tall order I thought it was possible. But I got beat by riders who were just better than me in each department today.

@paino forced me into a difficult decision by taking a 6 point lead at the sprint and then dropping back before titans. I was pretty lucid at that stage, and I decided staying forward and attacking from the fast group was a better bet than a one to one up the titans climb. I was wrong. I didn’t budget for what I think was an all time power best from @paino up there. Chapeau (and a confession: I even used a feather). That sealed it really, and deservedly so.
I was a bit less lucid after that. Partly broken mentally, partly tired. I knew I had to win up the Epic to sneak into a points tie, but I couldn’t see a way, let alone ride one. @nixie and @donnersrider sneaked ahead a few seconds on the approach, which suited me. I was never going to “charge across the gap” (@nixie!) but I thought I could sneak across if I stayed in touch early on, and if we got to the top close together it would be a handy advantage. But getting back in touch was a tall order anyway. And I could see @benman lurking ready to make his trademark climbing move further back. I gave it my all. It helped having @drp and @scaled for company, I anticipated 18:30 and 4.3w/kg and (riding to feel, not numbers) that’s what I got. It just wasn’t to be. Congrats to @nixie for a well crafted win on the road, @benman for an exquisitely paced climbing win and @paino for outriding and outsmarting me in my main target. It’s a pleasure to be involved in this kind of racing! Looking forward to trying to get in the mix for something in the next series.

Cheers  Robbo thanks for organising another super series, that was bloody hard tonight don’t know what happened at the start but everyone shot off like it was a sprint and I ended up 30 odd place so just pootled  round as I knew I would slowly catch some up as i went along.

Thanks again Robbo roll on January!!

will be up for some Tuesday climbing fun!

Neil

Think I need a new hilly race strategy. On the flats it works to push push push off the start to hang onto the front group as the tow is really worth it.

Overdid it trying to hang on up Titans, failed (I know just how you felt @J-R ), kept going to try and catch Phil. We didn’t really manage to get going together so I arrived at the bottom of the epic KOM tired, on my own and with @robbo1234biking in a group only 15 s back. Is that the sound of a tiny violin I hear?

Managed to sort myself out for the last section to end up only 4 s back on @robbo1234biking and Phil. Great comeback after last weeks final hill @robbo1234biking and thanks again for another great series. And to everyone else, you all help make the suffering seem fun!

@robbo1234biking is too modest to rave about his ride tonight, so I will.

He started with a 40 seconds deficit to @j-r in the cat B GC, and faced a course which – on form, and history etc- didn’t look like promising terrain for closing that gap. But he smashed it – got ahead into the front group early on, started the climb with a good gap and then produced (I think?) an all-time best 20 minutes up the climb to seal it. Top racing.

And of course, congrats on creating and maintaining this series Rob.

Robbo  are all the results correct as under the Gc cats I’m top C that can’t be right.

Neil

I enjoyed the race series and the races I was able to enter. Cheers Robbo.

Don’t vote for me on the racers racer poll 😉. I didn’t 🤣. The MTB was the best choice for the dusty trails tho 🤪

Thanks all for the racing. I think I enjoyed that tonight.

As Savoyad said I realised I was 40 seconds behind @J-R in the GC and was otherwise in no mans land in the other points competitions. I didnt really think I could manage to beat him as he is a better climber than me.

Early plan was to just stay in the front group. I had a gel as we descended from Titans Grove but didnt feel great on that flat section before the main climb. I was with djflexure but couldnt seem to muster enough power to get in front and do a pull! Everytime I seemed to get in front I would drop back behind him.

I had 1min 10 on him at the bottom of the climb and thought it would be touch and go to hold that. During the early stages of the climb the gap didnt really grow (I think he was about 6 places behind me). Then I started to see a couple of 2.9 w/kg on his numbers – only briefly but I thought he might be struggling. I managed to keep the power down. I was aiming to stay between 300 and 330w for the climb. The gel seemed to kick in as I started to feel quite strong.

I didnt mention it before the race as I didnt know if he knew what the gap was and was aware that might spur him on. I was surprised at how strong I felt on the climb, managing to catch @yanboss and drop @djflexure. @Phil56 seemed to be pacing me whether he meant to or not! Paino caught us and a briefly hung on but he did get away in the end.

Well done all – really pleased with my progress on this series. Its a month to the next series. I could possibly try and lose some weight to get more competitive with the front lads….but its xmas isnt it!

I am limited by how much I can compete in the sprints I think as I have gravel gearing and the 46 tooth seems to top me out at about 800-850w. Not sure it is worth the money to change the crankset to try and win sprint points.

Dont forget there are two options next week depending on what you like doing – sprint or recover or sprint up the alpe!

@neilarn2 – pretty sure it is right! You have to complete all the races for the GC so it rewards consistency.

Showered, fed, kids in bed, and still exhausted. That was a great finale, and with me missing last weeks NY race the pressure was well and truly on from @Savoyad. Had a sneaky peak last week to see him get all the points up for grabs, so wasn’t looking forward to tonight, a course playing more into his hands than mine.

I’d written off the big climb from the get go. Maybe a 5th place at best would have given me a token number of points, but damage limitation if anything. So really had to throw all my beans at the sprint and Titans. Started the sprint waaay earlier than usual, but the pack was nicely spaced so pulled out a decent time, and thanks to @nixie with second it pushed @Savoyad’s point tally down a tad. Then had to make the decision weather to stay with the big boys at the front or conserve some energy into Titans. Looking back there were some powerful guys @J-R @karnali @Paul-S amongst others, so settled back the hr and joined them. Best decision I made, no massive surges meant I was able to give Titans my all (sorry @J-R). Absolutely ruined by the top but pleased to see I’d beaten @Savoyad by the narrowest of margins.

I could then only really sit back and hope the likes of @nixie & @benman were going to turn it on, and they didn’t fail to disappoint. Was half watching Ben’s usual trick of sitting a way off the top guys only to pass most of them on the way up….great climb! With the likes of a lightweight @DrP motoring and @karnali giving it some there was no way I was even going to make the top 5, but tried to maintain 300W to the top. Ruined, battered but grateful of the points. Massive thanks to Robbo, also great competition in @Savoyad, an outstanding rider who gets my vote for riders rider.
Brilliant series.

Cheers Robbo, well chuffed with that.

First off all massive thanks to Rob for organising! Another great series with some real variety.

That was brutal tonight – the start was an absolute shocker. Seemed like a higher pace for longer than normal.
I ended up in a good bunch and we seemed to work well together until the epic KOM and then we just splintered into an every man for himself!!
I need to up my game as normally the hilly courses seem to suit me, but this series it hasn’t really worked out like that.

@reluctantjumper – serious respect man! It’s a real bugger when you end up on your own on these events. It’s how I used to spend the earlier series for much of the time.
Happy to give any encouragement I can to keep you turning the pedals. Just keep smashing it!!

Huge thanks to @robbo1234biking for another great series and congratulations to all the various winners. I take these races far to seriously and being retired had the time to watch one of the academy rides on YouTube and even take some notes (I know, I know) so had a very good idea of what was coming up at each stage which really helped in pacing my effort. My main aim was to overtake @J-R in the handicap standings and was aware that with one result being dropped I needed to be within 2 min 50 seconds of him at the finish which I managed to do. I actually quite enjoyed that.😊

Eww, dislike that way up the Epic KOM, it feels endless. Think I’m still recovering from lurgee last week, as I found that a lot harder than I thought. Still, was OK, just struggled to maintain a rhythm up the climb. Had a nice little yo-yo competition with @Straightliner upto the line though.

Thanks again Robbo, another cracking series.

I’ll echo @stumpy01 comments, @reluctantjumper. The little bit of encouragement definitely helps. I nearly gave up on the TTT a couple of weeks back, but @phil56 kept me going with his repeated enthusiastic words.

That start to the race tonight put paid to my plans of hanging in there for a few minutes to try and put some time in to some of my rivals, it was just too hard to hang on.

Ended up in no man’s land, sandwiched inbetween the two Neils. Thought I was catching @neilarn2, but it wasn’t to be. Even though he now admits he was taking it steady, I need to up my game me thinks!

Thought I was never gonna drop @haloric in the last kilometre, I nearly gave up but just saw a couple of meter gap opening up, so had to push to make it stick. Good effort.

As always, well done to all the winners and thanks again to robbo.

I didn’t realise I had some targets in my back in this one – so well done guys.

Looking at my numbers there is nothing I could have done to keep up with @robbo1234biking or @drew. I had dropped 20W on my FTP after blood donation last week and was hoping to get some of that back this week, so was disappointed to see no recovery.

By the next series I’ll be back to normal form and able to make it a harder fight to gain time on me.

Happy Christmas to all the STW racers.

That was never going to be an easy one. I hadn’t managed to recce the course so was going in blind, something I was going to regret.

My lack of riding before the races started meant that I was unfit and had dropped to Cat ‘C’ for the start, but as the season has gone on and my fitness has come back I’ve finally been moved into ‘B’, which is why you’ve won the ‘C’ @neilarn2, well done, I always felt like I was a bit of a ringer 🙂

Anyway back to the race the fast guys just rode away at the 1st sprint, which came out of nowhere, see above about the recce, but I managed to sit in the 2nd pack with 9 others. I was feeling good so made a token effort on the Titans climb, but as usual everyone came with me, so then just waited for the Epic KOM whee I would blast away and leave them for dead.

This happened, only it was in reverse, the last 7km were pure torture and I just went backwards and the legs had nothing in them. So I just tried to stay with those overtaking, failed, tryed again, failed etc until it was finally over.

Should have recce’d it, I won’t make that mistake again. My legs haven’t done that before and this was shown in the stats, 20 watts down from last week.

@Piano, That’s the first time I’ve been called powerful “Looking back there were some powerful guys @J-R @karnali @Paul-S amongst others”

As the others have said, Huge thanks to @robbo1234biking for organising, and well done @Piano and @Savoyad for their wins, I think @drew, @bails and @v7fmp will be the ones to look out for next season.

But very pleased with my win, I’ll get the fiz out and spray the turbo…but that would be a waste 🙂

Thanks all, it was fun in a secondary pleasure kind of way.

Paul.

Right time to announce the winners (well you know two of them already!) as the voting has now closed.

Overall Championship Winner: @Paul-S

Combined Points Total: @paino

Racers Racer: @reluctantjumper

Well done guys!

Thanks everyone and Robbo in particular.

Can’t believe I was first yesterday (with handicap, obviously!), but I’m happy with that and third overall, especially as I missed two races due to illness.  I didn’t see the FTP increases that I have in previous series, but think I got better at just hurting myself for 45-60 minutes, and learnt a bit more about when it’s worth pushing and when it’s just pointless pain, so made better use of the (not huge) power that I have got.

There’s something about a long climb that means I can dig really deep and grind up it, while I struggle with more up-down-up-down courses so I made up a few places on the climb yesterday, like I did in Bologna, but it was just a shame I lost the front group so early on.

Thanks again Robbo, I really find these useful for getting through the long, dark winters!  Donation made

cheers for last night everyone and the entire series. 7 hard fought races!

I was doing fairly well last night until the final big climb, i just couldnt create sustainable power past my FTP, so felt very slow. Clearly rollers and short climbs suit me better than the long grind.

Pleased with a 4th overall (handicaps), 5th in GC and and 3rd in GC with handicaps.

Whilst i have had no FTP increases this series, i certainly feel like i can sustain power for longer and the high energy starts dont feel quite so brutal as before.

Will be a nice couple of weeks off before we start again in January.

Congrats to all the winners. 🏆🏆🏆

Disappointing series for me, with technical issues in one race (a crit, my favourites) and Covid for the last couple.

Back stronger next time. 💪

Wow, can’t believe some of you lot voted for me! All of the others seem much more deserving in my mind.

Suppose that means I’ve definitely got to do the next series and more importantly improve 🤣

If anyone fancies a series to keep the legs turning between now and the next STW one then we (Team Electricspirit.co) have a 5 race series running through to 4th Jan, first round was last night but it’s best 3 from 5 so ok to skip the one.
It’s private invite only but as long as Robbo is ok with me posting on this thread I’ll add the links for you all.

reluctantjumper

Suppose that means I’ve definitely got to do the next series and more importantly improve

We’ll be watching 😂

Hi Doug – happy for you to post up the links.

Just wait until you see what course Doug’s race is on next week…

Yeh just seen. Wonder how keen people are for a repeat experience 🤣

Good stuff, full details are on our Facebook page, or in this doc for the non-Facebook crew.

Entry links.
Invitational: 19:30 GMT
Constitutional: 19:30 EST

14th December, Round 2, Mountains, Climber’s Gambit (28km)
Invitational: https://www.zwift.com/events/view/2422280?eventSecret=8d1ee088193a3d8f02f7
Constitutional: https://www.zwift.com/events/view/2422294?eventSecret=8d1ee088193a3d8f02f7

21st December, Round 3, Gravel, Road To Ruins Reverse (30km)
Invitational: https://www.zwift.com/events/view/2422297?eventSecret=8d1ee088193a3d8f02f7
Constitutional: https://www.zwift.com/events/view/2477617?eventSecret=6a41de99440f41b836ee

28th December, Round 4, Puncheurs, Ocean Cliffside Lava (19km)
Invitational: https://www.zwift.com/events/view/2422316?eventSecret=8d1ee088193a3d8f02f7
Constitutional: https://www.zwift.com/events/view/2422319?eventSecret=8d1ee088193a3d8f02f7

5th January, Round 5, Sprinters, Champs-Élysées, 2 laps (16km)
Invitational: https://www.zwift.com/events/view/2423022?eventSecret=82ad505b7e1825d50f9b
Constitutional: https://www.zwift.com/events/view/2423024?eventSecret=8d1ee088193a3d8f02f7