Zwift meetups and social rides ?

Change of plan this weekend going to try and finish my month cycle target tomorrow and get a decent rest in before starting again in April, not planning to ride Sunday now. Have a good virtual ride Sunday.

Is there still interest in finding a team event for us to dabble in, without the commitment of zrl?

When @dangeourbrain explored zrl, I think we concluded the principle of us racing as a team was good, but the demands of zrl were too much. So…maybe we could try the “paceheads race”, assuming they run another series in April? The admin looks like the kind of thing we were hoping for.

Short series, Sundays, 9am, unlimited starters per team, top 3 finishers per team score each week, and you can do unlimited rider changes from week to week. They encourage multiple teams if you have enough riders.

The last series was 3 weeks long, and was Innsbruckring, London Loop Reverse and Roule ma Poule.

We could enter one team, and just ride whoever is available from week to week. Or an A/B and a C/D team if there’s lots of interest and to maximise scorers in each team.

It looks like a standard entry in the zwift calendar (anyone can enter etc). But it’s not. It reminds me of @robbo1234biking’s approach in a way – the real competition is administered off-zwift at paceheads.com and the event is ridden in category A (but it’s not just for cat A riders, they just hijack that pen for their competition).

Thoughts?

I think this thread is home to the likely participants plus I’ll tag everyone who participated in the thread where we decided against zrl – paging @dangeourbrain, @scaredypants, @robbo1234biking, @w00dster, @oopnorth, @paino, @mrhoppy, @zilog6128, @kryton57, @ivandobski, @retrorick, @haloric, @oblongbob, @twisty, that was at https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/stw-zwift-wrtl-race-series/

@savoyad not heard of that before so will have a look but yes, def interested in team race and sun 9am works great!!

EDIT: I’m sure the concept is simple enough but is there a page that explains it in English?!

I should have posted links.

Actual website (in German): https://paceheads.com/paceheads-race/
Last week’s results (you can see how deep “category A” goes here, it’s clearly a real thing): https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=1914647

There’s no guarantee of future series, but it’s been going for months so I assume it’ll start up again soon.

I’m up for that if I ever get away from my bloody desk, though historically Sunday has been real ride day (obviously that all went to poo over the last 12 months!)

Yeh Sundays should work for me. Wife is now working Sundays at the vaccine centre so real life rides on Sundays aren’t an option. 9am is a good time as well as nothing opens until 10 (when they are allowed to open). Assuming they are fairly short races and I can distract my son with youtube for long enough I should be good!

I could be up for some Sunday morning races, especially when the wife’s working, may not make the all though so sounds perfect that we can dib in and out.

I’d be up for the sunday 9am races too…. put me down..

DrP

Showing an interest here too! Do I pile weight on and become a lazy C or get my arse in gear and compete in B? Hmmm.

Hmmm. Often tend to have stuff on at the weekends, but I could well be up for that Paceheads race thing, if it takes off.

Oooo just seen this, interested as Sunday is usually a ride day. Put me down.

OK, this is promising – already looks worth persisting with.

I’ll keep an eye on the paceheads site and if they announce a series I’ll get entries sorted, post links here, and get it off the ground.

Keep declaring your interest if you have any. We can pin down the details (how many teams basically) when the time comes. It should be fun.

Thanks for that Ian, quite enjoyed it and glad to see we both managed to muster a PB up volcano KOM. Very sad that you pipped me by a couple of seconds again though. I think a 7 minute flat effort is possible as I really had to lay off a couple of times just to recoup before the final push. Maybe next Tuesday if I make the race instead of venturing out doors.

Was great as always.. but you vanished at the end..? Pc crash?!

DrP

@savoyad definitely interested, that’s a good time for me just depends week to week what family us doing, but that could finish off my cycling week nicely with a fell run later on in the day

No I stayed on and finished the route Ian, actually cooled down over another 5 miles, although I was kicked out of the game in the companion app again just after the KOM. I coasted down the hill around 35/40 seconds behind you and didn’t push on to catch up as I was knackered from the climb.

I’ve had this a few times recently were I’m kicked from or can’t get back into the game mode on the phone app. So no commas or use of power ups. Was annoying last weekend when I carried the same feather for 3 or 4 laps of London/box hill.

Allo all… I’ve pinged out a double header invite for Sunday morning… 23km of flat French roads.. both clockwise and anticlockwise….
40 min to do the first.. then join the second meetup!
Bish bash bosh… 2 routes done!

DrP

Might be involved in an egg hunt with the kids first thing but will try to join if I can!

I’ll try and make at least one of them, cheers 🙂

I dont know what about to yeh second part Ian. I jumped off the bike as my lap top started to run a a virus update so I lost the game images from the TV.

I then accepted the meetup but it joined the original French course. I had another meet up notice which I accepted for new york.

After joining the meetup for NY the clock ticked down from 8 minutes towards 5 then back up to 15 minutes. I waited patiently then completed the course. Pretty mind numbing riding that one solo in a virtually empty world. on the plus side I managed to grab the jerseys.

Hey Kirky!
SOrry about that…

I went on to finish the French route (as i needed the badge).. took me back up the climb again, as the route finish was atop the KOM!

I’d changed the route for the second one as discussed…but maybe cos it was near the original time, Zwift got confused? I pushed the time back from the original one too…
I’d finished the route in France, then joined in NY… and it was just me!
THought your PC had gone kaput… and I left with about a minute to go before the ride started! I couldn’t be bothered with the route solo!
You must have been in a parallel world meetup!!

DrP

Just done the stage 2 tour of Watopia this morning. As per usual my intention was to have a steady tempo ride but I made progress through the group and eventually lead approaching the Epic Kom so things got interesting. I didn’t go balls out on the epic as I knew I had the radio mast climb to look forward to. However I was in a nice group which encouraged me to PB the climb. I thought that I took the radio mast slowly as I also lost a few places sliding down to 15th however I managed to also PB that.

I caught the wheel of a couple of riders on the descent and we gradually caught a few others each time swelling our group size. finished in 8th averaging 297 watts I’ve the 1.05hr. Somehow I managed to get a slight FTP increase up-to 319w from 317 which was most likely due to a 334w average up the epic climb.

New PBS, 2 minutes decrease on the epic.
50 secs radio tower climb.
Mighty 1 sec better on Titans

I quite like muir and the mountain, but would be better without the mast climb.

Not quite the loosener I had planned ahead of tonight’s spin and sprint but hopefully have something left.

Catch you later if you can make it.

@DrP any thoughts/plans for Sunday hills this weekend. My wife is working the weekend so I’m in doors ride wise.

I was thinking of ticking off everything Bagel, it sounds like a pretty tough hours worth of riding.

https://zwiftinsider.com/route/everything-bagel/

Still need some of shorter routes like mighty metropolitan, knickerbocker forward, lady Liberty but they maybe too short and the multi meet seems a bit tricky.

I knocked off four of the New York routed this morning 5 or 6 times up the glass KOM over the rides. High line is misleading route, seems short on paper but had a long lead in that takes you up the KOM auto start from the down hill and finish after you have climbed it for the 2nd time.

Only have everything bagel, mighty metropolitan and grand central left from NY I’ve made a meet up for everything bagel to help me along as it isn’t a world tomorrow. I don’t expect many if any takers. If my legs feel okay I may do the other two as I don’t have any plans for the day.

Cheers for the invite all being well will be riding outside tomorrow.

I did everything bagel a couple of weeks ago, not really in a rush to revisit it, soz 😆

Edit, it wasn’t actually that bad…

Thanks for the invite but I’m gonna be looking after my daughter while my Wife meets some friends for a socially distanced brekkie.

I struggle with the NY routes. Not really my cup of tea.

Just seen your invite John, sorry won’t be making it as I’ve just done the longer Tour route, legs haven’t got bagel in them as well 😉

Enjoy the glass bridges!

I got a bit fed up of the glass bridges yesterday, 6 times up to the KOM.

There was no takers and the world wasn’t being used and was deserted, so once it was apparent there were no late joiners I dropped out.

Instead I completed both the Lutscher routes while Innsbruck was in use. After yesterday I started to feel a bit jaded the 4th time up the mountain but got there in the end.

Only 3 NY a routes left to complete all route badges.

Well new laptop = Ultra Graphics

Theres definitely a notable improvement.

Anyone use a gaming monitor for Zwift? Kinda thinking of leaving a monitor in place and just plugging the laptop in when needed.

Hi Shaun

I use a dedicated monitor for Zwift, I leave it in place and just plug the laptop into it, it works well. I also have Ultra graphics, it’s great on a bigger screen.

Next stage is a tv mounted on the wall….

Anyone use a gaming monitor for Zwift? Kinda thinking of leaving a monitor in place and just plugging the laptop in when needed.

That’s what I do… it’s not specific gaming monitor, but nice 24 inch 4k LG thing.

It’s nice having a separate full screen for zwift, and the lappy running spotify/stream stuff etc..

DrP

EDIT – that of course should say lappy SCREEN running the other bits.

Rejoice! Finally got my hands on an axle for my Tacx after 6 months of having one on order with Garmin. Sigma had one in stock when I randomly checked on Wednesday. Ordered and arrived today. Fitted and ready to go. I have a 1 month free trail for Zwift. I’m starting with almost no fitness these days, what can I jump into for 60-90 minutes at a steady pace?

Hopefully this is the beginning of getting my fitness back.

Finally got my hands on an axle for my Tacx after 6 months of having one on order with Garmin…I’m starting with almost no fitness these days, what can I jump into for 60-90 minutes at a steady pace?

Does your Tacx turbo (or your bike) have a power meter and does the Tacx have two-way interactive so that it can do ERG workouts (where generally on a road bike you select the 34T chainring and middle sprocket of cassette, start the workout and the turbo adjusts resistance to match the power required for the interval)?

If it does, I’d suggest you do “Ramp Test Lite” unless you are confident you could hold more than 250W for 1min (in which case do “Ramp Test”), where after a warmup the power requirements start at 50W for 1min and increase by 10W every minute (standard Ramp Test starts at 100W and increases by 20W every 1min).

This will give you a ballpark initial FTP to use in other workouts and you can pick any route you fancy, as the resistance you feel while pedalling is independent of the route gradient (the speed your avatar travels at will be affected) in ERG mode.

Typically, either test including warmup and cool down will take approx 30-40mins.

For “freeride” mode, if your Tacx will adjust resistance according to gradient, the bigger Yorkshire loops are a bit of a rollercoaster with longer ups and downs, while something like Sand & Sequoias on Watopia will start you off on the flat used for a lot of TT events and then through the short inclines rollercoaster through Titans Grove.

Thanks for the info. It’s a Tacx Flow Smart trainer, and I don’t have a power meter.

I’ll get it set up this weekend for some benchmark tests.

So…. initial impression are…. it’s a bit s#*t. UI is awful. Took about half an hour to connect to my tablet (iPad). Finally connected to my trainer, but wont recognice my HRM. Trawled online and tried everything such as disconnecting the HRM from any other device. It works on everything else apart from Zwift. I’m guessing it must be iPad related then. Anyone had this issue? I have a standard Garmin chest strap HRM which is ANT+. Hoping to try again tonight for my first proper ‘ride’.

I have a standard Garmin chest strap HRM which is ANT+

iPad has no way to connect via ANT+, so that is never going to work!

Yes, the UI is shite. You get used to it.

Fair enough. I might just use the Tacx app, that picked it up no problem. Not sure why Zwift can’t take the HRM from the trainer like the Tacx app.

You don’t need HRM to get started. While you’ve got the free trial, just open up Zwift, choose a world to ride & give it a whirl. You can sort routes by distance or elevation, so it’s quite easy to find something suitable.
I’d start in Watopia.

I think you’ll need a bluetooth HRM for an ipad. You can get them for around £20 from Amazon or ebay. I’ve got a Magene one which works really well & is comfortable.

I used to have a Flow Smart until recently. It works well, but cannot replicate every gradient change as it will only replicate up to about 6% I think.
To get round this, you can go into the settings while riding & change the ‘trainer difficulty’ setting. I think this defaults to 50% so I’d leave it there for the time being.

Thanks stumpy. I’ll give that a go tonight. I know the limitations of the Flux, but not overly concerned about that. As I’m recovering from injury and not done much riding for 6 months, I was hoping that using an HRM will give me more accurate track of improving fitness.