Been thinking about tonight’s race and all in all well pleased.

Stayed with the big front group at the start, but saw everyone using their power ups and panicked so didn’t have my feather for the KOM.

I’d not managed to recce the route but knew I needed to be right near the front going up the KOM to be able to stay with the fast guys, but it was not to be. I was gapped so ended up pushing as hard as I could hoping for points, but you get nothing for 10th.

I eased up over the top and waited for the 2nd group on the road, which was 10 to 18th ( good idea about the screen shot I’m rubbish at remembering names) and this is where the race completely changed for me. It felt too slow [1], but fast enough that I couldn’t get away, so just a case of wheel sucking as much as I could, and watching for an attack.

I tried a test attack @ 7km to go but everyone came with me, but fortunately I didn’t go too far into the red.

Sprinted to 15th with only a couple of seconds between the group. After trying hard last week when we ended up being separated by about 1 second as long as I was with the group I would have been happy.

Looking at zwiftpower, it has me down @ 200w, so I always feel like I’ve done well looking at other people’s power outputs on the results.

Mentally the pleased bit comes from thinking about the 1st STW race, which wasn’t that long ago, where I was blown out the back within 10 secs of the start, and now I’m getting in with the fast group @ the split when the hammer was put down, even if it was only for 10 seconds. It’s something to work with 😉

Anyway cheers again all, thanks again @robbo1234biking, and well done @sayoyad for another win.

Sorry for the rambling nature

[1] That sounds wrong but I don’t know how else to put it

Edit: rewarded with an FTP increase 219 -> 225, starting to get back to where I was last year

Also, according to Strava I’ve done the route 2 minutes quicker, so must try harder next race.

P

@snotrag – yes, that’s me. I’d have been a good minute slower if we all hadn’t worked together so well, just annoyed my legs gave up just before the finish sprint.

My legs are a bit sore this morning, where do I claim for replacements under warranty?

I enjoyed last night. Seemed to have a good mix of terrain. I hung around the 10-15th positions for the entire race with familiar faces.

I had a good final sprint to the line and finished 12th on the road.

@robbo1234biking i seem to not be showing in the GC w Handicap results?

That was my favourite race yet I think. There was a lot happening – the race was all over the road, big swings in people’s fortunes, amazing individual rides. I enjoyed being in amongst that.

I started the KOM at the back of the group and gauged myself against @paino (and felt no guilt about that 0.1s gap haha) but I didn’t realise @benman had started so far back. He must have rampaged through the field to bridge groups, class ride.
I had to focus on the sprint once @paino had dropped back, but (sorry @nixie) I misjudged how soon it was so I sat in for too long. Then I put myself in a deep hole going too hard too long at the sprint, @nixie pushed just too hard for me to hang on after and @paino beat my time anyway. Aargh.
The gap was 32s when I rejoined the chase group, and with @nixie motoring along the catch seemed unlikely. Once recovered a bit, I tried to pull as hard as I could, and @phil56, @karnali and @robbo1234biking were very active on the front as well. The group was big enough to move quickly, we rolled along nicely and the gap came down fast in the tunnel. Amazing effort from @nixie to ride solo like that for so long though. He’d have made it with the standard 1-lap finish line.
The finale was aggressive – @phil56 doesn’t let anyone let up and will punish you if you do, @benman wanted to go quite long, @nixie was never getting dropped. And we didn’t really know where the line would be drawn…
Amazing rides (amongst others) from @benman, @paino, @nixie, @paul-s and @robbo1234biking. The top three is looking tight overall as well. Can’t wait until next week.

@v7fmp. I will sort that out for you!

Racers Racer Poll

Voted. Not for myself tho 😉

Good race, earned enough drops for my 1st bike upgrade, went for the zwift areo. I expect I’ll be right at the front in the next race 🤔

As usual I found myself clinging onto the front group, with a few of the fast boys like @phil56 and @nixie eventually getting a gap on us. After that it was just about holding on for dear life, especially up some of the bumps. Later on I was feeling quite pleased to be in a group that was reeling in the likes of @paino and @savoyad.

A bit surprised when after seeming so comfortable putting a lot of effort into the group, @robbo1234biking dropped off the back near the end. But I was soon feeling it myself too with that final little climb to the finish leaving nothing in my legs so ended up at the back of the sprint as @Paino, @karnali and @Mahowlett accelerated away.

I am always impressed about how economical a rider @mahowlett is – although Zwiftpower shows I put out higher W/kg and average W, he just seems to make more effective use of the power he produces. I guess I just need to get better about tactics and riding smoothly in a pack.

I have missed all these but I am kinda interested if you guys do it again.

Some questions though:

I use Zwift with a 12 speed mountain bike, how much will that hold me back? Is it even worth trying to race with this set up?

My FTP is low compared to you lot, 187 when I tested a few days, does that mean I am going to get toasted by you all?

I use Zwift with a 12 speed mountain bike

I only use 3 or 4 gears out of an available 10 when racing. The smart trainer does the gradient/resistance changes.

My FTP is low compared to you lot, 187

Depends how much you weigh. If you are ←60kg you’ll probably win the handicap race.
If you are 80kg you probably won’t win anything but will have a good time at the back.

I’m 75kg with a FTP of 267.

Managed to hold the front bunch for longer than expected, think got separated after the volcano.

Ended up fighting for the hotly contested 20th place with Declan/Simon/Joe/Owen.

Somehow in the desert Declan pulled away and despite our attempts at a half-assed TTT stayed away. We got a hurry up from the chasing bunch of Stumpy/Neil Arnold near the end of the desert, and I got red mist and tried to catch Declan but eventually got hauled back in, and we four manned it the whole way to the last 1k, where we still managed to not catch Declan.

Respect to all, ahead and behind.

Managed 20th on the road, and 12th for average power. Going to have a brew and a few biscuits while I think on that.

Call for riders! Does anyone fancy joining the STW TTT team? Everyone welcome, esp people who ride this series. Every Thursday, 7.40pm.
This week it’s 3x Watopia Hilly. We put out two teams when it’s busy, one team when it’s not and the rules favour mixed ability teams, so everyone is “good enough”.
The thread is here: https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/zwift-team-time-trial-thursday-evenings/page/8/

Come and join us?

Zwift with a 12 speed mountain bike

Won’t that spin out on the flat? (purely down to the front chainring size)
Doing a quick test on my road bike on Tempis Fugit I can’t go much faster than 35km/h in the 34T chainring (spinning at 105rpm+)

Enjoyed last nights race, I’ve improved my starts (which I had been doing completely wrong) which has meant keeping with the front group for a bit longer and then hopefully finding someone with a similar power output to work with/hang on to!

Finally logged in!!

My plan last night was just to hit the KOM hard, and then chill in the pack somewhere. I’ve got a ‘spirited’ club ride tonight so wanted an easyish Tues.

That was going well until we absorbed @paino and @savoyad into our group, and then caught @nixie. Tried to drop a few riders from the group in the last 5k, as I’m no sprinter, but couldn’t shake @savoyad and @nixie. Looking forward to it finally getting hilly next week. Well done on the win @savoyad, strong work.

I use Zwift with a 12 speed mountain bike, how much will that hold me back? Is it even worth trying to race with this set up?

Won’t that spin out on the flat? (purely down to the front chainring size)

That’s my experience. Last year I had a top gear of 50/11, this year 48/11 and I have far less gears left to use on the flat. Did try my hardtail on Zwift with 11/42 cassette and a 32t chainring and I was out of gears just pooling around in the top-end. Even playing with the difficulty setting didn’t help. Gearing doesn’t make a difference for training in ERG mode but for racing it really does help to have road gearing.

@J-R I don’t think it’s efficiency, I think the biggest difference is the obvious one – you’re 20cm taller than me, Xwift insider reckons that’s going to cost you about 20 watts at our usual race pace – https://zwiftinsider.com/speed-tests-height/ which is a pretty big difference, enough that if we produced exactly the same numbers and were the same height, you’d beat me pretty consistently I think.

@savoyad I should be back to TTT after this series, I’m normally at running track with my son on a Tuesday, but he has had a couple of months off, once that restarts I’ll struggle to race after, I tried it once but a hard track running session, 40mins drive then 2 mins on bike before the off wasn’t the best. So I’ll shift to TTT on a Thursday.

Zwift insider reckons that’s going to cost you about 20 watts at our usual race pace

I hadn’t thought of that. It’s good to know it’s not me spending too much time on the front of the group – I was doing my best to avoid that!

A quick question about the results and scoring…

I’m obviously back-of-the-pack, and very much a newbie when it comes to racing. However, I would have thought that if I’d ridden the race I would get a point, even if I came last? The way it currently is, I get the same as someone who hasn’t ridden, which seems a bit, well, disappointing

I’m sure there’s a good reason, and I know Robbo’s been doing this for aaaaages but it seems a bit odd. Can anyone explain this to me please?

i think its the top 29 that get points (after handicaps), so if you fall outside of that…. nil point.

Maybe in the future series Rob could extend the points to the top 50 (although we dont currently get 50 riders) and maybe the sprints to the top 10? It might then gives more folks an incentive to ride and make the points a little tighter?

And thats not me bashing the current setup, as i think this series is so well formed and run! Just food for thought.

Please don’t think I’m bashing the set-up. The effort that goes into running these things is very much appreciated.

I just wondered that’s all.

However, I would have thought that if I’d ridden the race I would get a point, even if I came last? The way it currently is, I get the same as someone who hasn’t ridden, which seems a bit, well, disappointing

Wait till you win a race on the road and still get the same number of points as someone who hasn’t ridden!! You do at least have the opportunity to get fitter (which you will), get used to racing (which you will) and move up the field into the points.

Oh, but then Robbo will increase your handicap – he’s cruel like that

I run our local junior triathlon club, pre covid we used to run a mini series of events and the chap that did the reuslts based his points system on the time gap from the winner. This seemed strange to me at first but instead of giving 100 to winner and then 95 to second 90 to third etc, a percentage was worked out on time gap. So first got 100 if you finished a second behind then you may score 99.5 points etc. Not suggesting it is used for this series as I think that @robbobikin1234 does an excellent job of organising this series and i really appreciate the work he does

Great race the other night…… I couldn’t of messaged earlier in case of PTSD symptoms.

Looking forward to Tuesday!!

Can anyone recommend a phone bar mount for ZwiftCompanion? Google5 – so small form factor.

@wally

https://www.wiggle.co.uk/lifeline-sweat-net-smart-phone-holder

I get the same as someone who hasn’t ridden, which seems a bit, well, disappointing

You could also argue that if you get points for just showing up each week, you could net more points than someone who has scored points but has to miss races due to injury.

Yeah it’s crap slogging your guts out for zero points, but that’s racing and it makes any points you do earn, more worthwhile in my eyes.

(not that I’m biased being injured after my first few points of the series, definitely not that, never).

I’ve managed to give myself a dose of Patella Tendinitis after last Tuesday, I knew I was giving it all!

Hopefully it clears up, it’s nasty. It’s the right weather for R&R at least currently.

@wally

Blu Tack has seen me right for 4 years 🤫

@wally

I’ve got one of these although this is a different brand.
Has been fine for well over a year.

Phone Bike Mount

That’s not great news snotrag! Hopefully it’ll clear up quickly.

I’ll be dipping out of the rest of the series, caught covid last week and whilst I seem to be out of the worst of it, I’m definitely not up for racing.

Bad news jimdubleyou although recovering from Covid is more important than STW race glory!

I think there’s another series in the New Year so better to recover ready for that, than do yourself mischief while still getting over it.
Hope it’s not hit you too hard.

Hope you recover soon Jim.

Handicaps are live for tomorrow nights race now:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oxAKc92qCMD5s-Odc4kCjngmxE15jED9erVq0PKq5CY/edit#gid=1669834368

Paul S for the win!
Using my analytical skills 🤔.
I could do with checking out the course profile.

It’s very lumpy!

I’m off work today with some horrid sinus/throat thing, but hopefully it’ll blow away before tomorrow evening.

retrorick

I could do with checking out the course profile.

I did a reasonably spirited effort round the course on Saturday. Kinda wish I hadn’t and just gone in blind! HA HA! I concur with andeh – it’s lumpy!

No @Savoyad will win, I’m going for the Points. If I win the series it can go along side the chess trophy I won when I was 11, but I’m sure tat I can throw it away in the last 2 races :-).

Although I am hoping that the more climbing nature of the course will suit my lightweightedness.

I did a recce at the weekend as well: Is the finish at the top of the 2nd climb, if so then there is onlly 1 sprint. Am I correct?

P.

Yes we finish around the top of the second climb depending on where the magical banner is (could be just before the crest or just after!). Maybe first to the finish could let us know!

my lightweightedness.

Just how light are you 🤔.

I’m going for the Points.

All 50 should be possible!