vEveresting… hmm..thinking thinking…. Also – you be the DJ!

best of luck, will pop along for ONE climb 😃

Suffering from a couple of badly placed saddle sores at the moment, probably helped on by the festive 500 and subsequent saddle time, I’m trying to prevent them from going full on cyst mode.

So I’ll see how I’m going by feb 8th, if it’s better I’ll join for 2 or 3 laps.

How will you go about it, can you make a meet up for the alpe alone to avoid any unnecessary lead ins? I’ve never managed to grab the light wheels yet so that would be an added bonus.

Good on you for trying it and hopefully you can avoid any mechanical or physical issues.

Judging by your usual musical choices you wouldn’t like my preferences so won’t mess up your playlist with them.

Good luck DrP. I will also join you for an ascent. Get @savoyad to update the Discord general text chat on that day to DrP’s vEverest attempt. It worked really well for people joining later in the day on mine and @slowpuncheur PRL ride to keep the chat going and people to encourage you otherwise.

^This. Anything to distract you and kill a few minutes really helps 5 hours in.. @Kirky72 I think you should add to his Spotify list. Variety is the spice of life and all that.

OK, a text channel and a voice channel are both in place on the STW discord server. This is because meetups – and therefore the meetup chat – (if you do it as a meetup) are only accessible to joiners for the first 30 minutes. You’ll need longer.

Here’s a current invite https://discord.gg/6bkAZ9Ez but it’ll expire tomorrow so I’ll add a fresh one nearer the day.

Good luck @DrP. I’ll try and join you for one of the earlier ascents.

Cheers all.. Kirky..
I’ll probably make it a ‘road to sky’ meetup to start at 7am, then just keep doing laps.
I believe you can ‘join a rider’ when you log onto zwift, so you would actually start next to me wherever I am..

You could keep an eye on the live stream (which is a few seconds behind) to see where I am, and join mid descent for example, then ride up…. or whatever…

And yeah, stick any old music on..

I’ll even had some podcasts on the go too i suspect.

I’ll have a play with discord – thanks savoyad!

Good on you for trying it and hopefully you can avoid any mechanical or physical issues.

Yeah… the turbo should be fine.. I’ll rub brufen on my knees (got dodgy lateral ligaments that can flare from time to time) and likely take pain killers through the day!!!!!

DrP

I’ll rub brufen on my knees (got dodgy lateral ligaments that can flare from time to time) and likely take pain killers through the day!!!!!

You should prob see a Doctor about that and not self prescribe 😉

… and that is how sad the State of Humanity became…

Riding up and down same hill. For 12h. On turbo trainer…

😀 😀 😀

Cheers!
I.

How do you all manage to sit on a turbo for that long? Now way i can get past 1.5 hrs without my arse going utterly dead.

join mid descent for example, then ride up…. or whatever…

I’ll keep an eye out and join you at turn 3 to the top, then I can help you back down the hill…how’s that sound?? 😉

How do you all manage to sit on a turbo for that long? Now way i can get past 1.5 hrs without my arse going utterly dead.

at least with AdZ you get a decent amount of time at regular intervals where you can just jump off & get a rest/stretch etc while your bike rides itself back down the hill!

@Blackflag I found a rocker plate has really helped on my setup. That little bit of movement from side to side seems to work for me. I did 5 hours the other week with no saddle soreness.

I will upload a phot of ALL the saddles I’ve recently gotten through!!
Currently settled ona Specialized power shorty saddle!
Ergon… Fabric… Brooks… all on the pile of ‘numb nadgers’!!

My new turbo (tacx neo 2t) also rocks a few degrees, which is nice.

I find the hours can fly by with zwift.

Lets see how this attempt goes, and whether I feel the same!!

DrP

Just googled rocker plates. Hmmmm….

Might see if i can cobble together a DIY version.

Just as random q…
What w/kg are you going to be aiming for? (on the climbs)

Very tempted to join you for the whole thing, but just wanted to see what sort of fitness level I’d be pacing against :).
It’s one of those masochistic streak things that I’ve looked into, and never really set as a goal for myself.

I’m average fitness ~89kg, 260W FTP (~3w/kg).
Don’t want to set myself up to never be able to keep up 🙂 .

Just googled rocker plates. Hmmmm….

Might see if i can cobble together a DIY version.

there’s a FB group for DIY rockers. It was on my (very long) list of projects for ages… then I saw the Wiggle/CRC/Lifeline one was on offer for £250 which was just cheap enough to justify buying rather then spend the time building one! Really pleased with it.

@scar4me…

I’ll probably aim for max 3w/kg I guess….

Likely lower seeing as I’ll need to keep it up…

Do join!

DrP

(edit – just seen that’s your FTP level there… erm.. see how it goes.. I’ll be honest.. I’ll be sticking to my own pace for something like this. I know it sounds arsey perhaps, but for long endurance things, I’m loving people popping in and out, but TBH, I shant be waiting for anyone IF I@m above their pace… if you see what I mean..)

I’m not convinced I could stay with you even when you’re in lap 7.!

@DrP completely understand.
It’s a personal thing anyway, just wanted to see if it was worth me trying to keep up 😀

Will see how convincing the wife goes and make the call.
If I were doing it I’d probably be aiming to hold about 2-2.5w/kg for it.
Will just have to see.
It has definitely got me thinking about it!

Have you done many long rides (like 12hrs+) @scar4me? That seems like it would be more important than what your ftp is. I mean the more fitness the better, but the mentality of pressing on when you’re 8 hrs in and really want to stop is what will determine success or failure. That and experience of sitting on the turbo for a long time.

added a few track for you. Good Luck!

@Garry_Lager I’m novice when it comes to long rides tbh.
But if you never try you never know.
And even if I fail the first time, I’ll learn a lot about how\what to do better the next.

@Garry_Lager I’m novice when it comes to long rides tbh.
But if you never try you never know.
And even if I fail the first time, I’ll learn a lot about how\what to do better the next.

Yeah that’s true, something to be said for just buying a few biscuit boosts and getting the show on the road. Let the chips fall where they may.

OTOH, a half-everest is something people do to see how they match up to the challenge. Get the trainer comfort dialled in, see if the vEverest is realistic or is going to need some more prep etc – there’s a lot of discussion of half-Ev on line so you can see how others got on.

Riding up and down same hill.

That’s the weird thing. From what little I understand about it, you don’t actually ride down the hill.

I shant be waiting for anyone IF I@m above their pace… if you see what I mean.

@drp do we need to wait for you if we’re just popping in or is it acceptable to try goad you into racing 😂

you can goad me all you can!!! The change in pace will be ‘exciting’ I guess!!!

DrP

Hmmm if only I thought I could manage to hold a pace these days which would actually be enough to do that!

@scar4me my advise would be to get some of the long Zwift routes likes Uber Pretzel or even full PRL ticked off first. Full PRL in particular was nearly 6 hours for me and messes with your head in as much as its laps of a circuit – so a similar thing to aVEverest attempt. Base fitness, on the bike comfort and fuelling in that order.

…meetup chat – (if you do it as a meetup) are only accessible to joiners for the first 30 minutes. You’ll need longer.

Only just noticed this… Very good!!!

DrP

Also you can’t just turn around in a meetup can you? So you’d have to pedal out until zwift turned you round (radio tower in liklihood 😉)

@DrP unless your happy to listen to anything make sure you have a remote to change the song. I listened to your play list the other day. It’s a wide range of music! Good luck.

I’d like to join you for one or two ascents. Will the meet-up need an invite?

@DrP

I’ll join in at the latter stages for a lap and maybe 2. It might push me on and would be interesting to see if I could do more than the usual 1 lap.

Good luck!

So the road to sky route FINISHES atop the AdZ.. so I guess if I did a meetup of “road to sky”, and rode to the top, I can then just freeride wherever after I’ve finished the route, right?

And I’ll ping out invites for the meetup…
But you can basically join another rider at any time with the “ride with” function…

DrP

so I guess if I did a meetup of “road to sky”, and rode to the top, I can then just freeride wherever after I’ve finished the route,

you probably want to check how Zwift sends the data across to Strava – as I understand it you need Strava to show a single activity? Does Zwift ‘crop’ your ride at the end of a ‘meet up’ and send that to Strava as an activity?

https://zwiftinsider.com/everyday-ron-veveresting/

I think whenever I have continued riding after a meetup it stays as one activity. The only time I get two activities is when I leave riding to join an event in the pens. Should be easy enough for one of us to try though.

It’s just occurred to me we’re all over thinking this – all he needs it to put his old PM on and he’ll be done sub 1hr anyhow.

I did a vEveresting in the summer on the AdZ. Assume you’ve got a direct drive turbo (as the hall of fame rules require this)? My lowest gear was 36-28, which is a bit of a grind on the steeper sections – so a bigger cassette would be wise if you prefer to spin.

The Alpe is the most efficient way to do it – and the sectors help break it up (not sure I’d fancy Ventoux for this).

Pace-wise, it’s tempo all the way. Somewhere just below sweet spot if you want to do it as quickly as possible or slightly easier if you want to make it more pleasant (I aimed around 85% of FTP I think, which was slightly ambitious but I just about pulled it off on average, with a minor crisis around the 5th ascent). Having people join you is a welcome distraction too (Garry Lager did the honours for me at my worst point).

One of the less obvious things is that you should u-turn straight after the finish line/start line. If you want to eliminate the Race-to-the-Sky lead in in from your time then use the “ride with” option and join someone who has already ridden the lead-in (I didn’t know about this, but read that the guy who just set the record logged in on his wife’s account for the lead-in so that his time didn’t include it).

I was told it was quicker to switch to a TT bike for the descent, but it’s pretty marginal so I got bored of doing that half-way through.

Cheers @Rod for that..

I believe i’m running a 34/50 up front, and 11-28 at the rear..

I was actually toying with sticking an 11-30 on the Gravel wheelset, so last night actually bought an ultegra 11-30 cassette, which I’ll stick on the turbo for the VEverest attempt, then pop onto the gravel wheelset!
I’ve no need for 11-30 during normal Zwifting..

In honesty – it’s all a bit ‘daft’ having to have the turbo at 100% setting, because as has been pointed out, it’s basically a virtual gearing.. you could get ‘over it’ but simply having a 32 up front etc etc…

In fact… One could even simply stick a MTB crankset up front (nicked off another bike) with a 32 tooth wonky ring… hmm….

DrP

I think 34/30 should be a reasonable bottom gear. I guess the 100% rule means you have to experience the full grind effect of a real climb (and stops people just TT’ing it at 0%!) – the main plus point is that it takes some pressure of your backside when you’re having to put a decent amount of force through the pedals 🙂