Mooman and MrHoppy I’m signed up!

Need to practice my drafting and try and not go to hard to ruin myself for the next couple of days, but see you there.

Good man .. in B?
Not sure if A start separately?

Watopia Pretzel this morning that’s quite hard going, done now completes the tour for all.

Tomorrow’s Sunday Hills will be interesting I’ll see how I feel on the first climb done 12000ft of virtual climbing in 7 days now.

Well Ant and Phil, you two gave me a beating there!

Was feeling really strong until the rollers, gave it a quick dig off the front, didn’t take, eased off too much and spat out the back of the group of twenty-ish,

Then managed to drop the chain trying to make a last ditch attempt to re-catch the draft but you were already 10-15 seconds ahead so can’t really use the mechanical as an excuse!

Good work-out none-the-less

Unlucky Kelvin – it helps if you’ve raced that course before because you know when it ei surge or psuse. Did you start with A or B?

I noticed Phil56 in the group – sitting on wheels like a pro👌
I was expecting him to take me at end on sprint – but on the last little incline out of tunnel I think he missed the break .. I just about managed to stay with the break to sprint to 2nd in B cat (1st on ZP) with Phil5- getting 3rd B cat (2nd ZP) .. result!

I though you were 1st on the road Mooman?
Yeah, I missed the break up the tunnel and couldn’t summon the strength to fight back on – partly because I thought you were the only B in front of me and I had over a minute on the next one behind – psychologically I just couldn’t find the resolve!! In the end I sat up and just maintained the gap for the last 3k.

It was a last minute decision to enter – I’ve been in the garage bleeding a brake all morning and progressively making it worse! I decided to put the tools down do something different to take my mind off it!

Zwift Companion showing me as second with V.Temprano taking 1st B and the overall win too I think; they started sprinting as expected 400m from end, I tried to give what I had left and managed just under 6W/KG but those around me were pushing 7+w/kg to sail past me.

Yep started with the A’s. Even soft pedalling the last quarter came in with 4.2, problem for me on a course like that is 4.2 is 273

Something that’s interesting to me but I can’t quite understand is I seem to be able to do 20 minutes at 300 ish on the Alpe/Innsbruk KOM but put me anywhere flat or rolling and i’m maxed 275-280.

Surely your max is your max?

@dangeourbrain

Is it going to be a Road to the Sky start?

Something that’s interesting to me but I can’t quite understand is I seem to be able to do 20 minutes at 300 ish on the Alpe/Innsbruk KOM but put me anywhere flat or rolling and i’m maxed 275-280.

I think with climbing the power may be higher as you find a nice cadence rhythm – with the flat races your reacting to the surges and cadence typically stays higher, so your heart rate is typically higher and its not so easy to find a tempo tapping out higher watts as you can when doing a sustained climb like the Alp.

I’m the reverse, I can do 300w on a flat 20 min but I can’t do it uphill

@piemonster

Ideally yes, there’s a group ride on for fire and ice but that will be tight time wise for me to the make 3 sisters so… Assuming other people are happy to do so, I’d like to do road to the sky and just “ride with” since I can’t do that as a group ride and it cuts off the waffle at the beginning. Down side is it won’t be a group ride so not obvious who is who on the map and no group chat.

I’m fine either way mind, just need to take care not to bury my self on the alpe trying for a pb or anything daft

I can’t believe you are doing the Alpe then the 3 Sisters Brian…haha!
I was dead after my Alpe yesterday.

All the best mate and don’t worry, we will pull you up the 3 sisters hills if you need it…although I’m sure you will be pulling us.

See you in the morning.

Something that’s interesting to me but I can’t quite understand is I seem to be able to do 20 minutes at 300 ish on the Alpe/Innsbruk KOM but put me anywhere flat or rolling and i’m maxed 275-280.

Surely your max is your max?

What power source do you use @kelvinshuffle? The turbo or something on the bike? I have a pedal PM which is generally good but can give me inflated numbers on hills outside. I think a slight gradient is considered a good thing for a ftp test, but bigger pitches can over-read (at least in my case).

I don’t know why that would be – like you say your max should be your max. I can’t really picture how the strain gauge works on a PM, or if it’s particular to a pedal-based system like I have that is more susceptible to changes in the biomechanics of the pedal stroke.

All taken off a cheap wheel-on Tacx Flow, so it might just be that being inaccurate in recording.

Also saw this which accords with Mooman’s comments about cadence and pressure on pedals

I’m fine either way mind, just need to take care not to bury my self on the alpe trying for a pb or anything daft

I don’t think there’s much danger if I’m along 🙃

For anyone not riding up massive hills tomorrow there’s the ZHR hare & hounds at 1800 if they fancy building an STW presence.

#doubledraft as I believe the yoof say.

I’m on the Road to the sky start point

Crazy people!

For anyone not riding up massive hills tomorrow there’s the ZHR hare & hounds at 1800 if they fancy building an STW presence

I do like a Hare & hounds race👍
Will be doing an outside ride this morning, and hopefully make this later .. not the nicest course, and not many entered at moment; could turn into a very gentle plod until the A cats pass.

I do t think chat is working for me today

I assumed you were just working too hard to type pie.

Thank you all for coming along. That was hard work but the company helped.

Great effort all, especially pie for beating me on the alpe. Grrr.

That was excellent, cheers for organising.

Just need to find 36 seconds from somewhere for the Alpe.

Cheers all, need to eat now though. 50k of fasted riding in the hills is a bit much for me.

That was good enjoyed that good fun, takes my climbing for the month to just shy of 31000ft! most I ever done in a month. Looking forward to trying my legs out on some welsh trails when the reopen.

Great ride all. Thanks swavis for keeping me going up the KOM. I thought I might catch you but didn’t quite make it. Looking forward to next week.

Yeah I enjoyed it today even though my legs weren’t quite there.
Cheers for organising 😎

Your welcome and it was a surprisingly good turn out for Sunday am.

@forge your monthly climb figure is about the same as my total 😂 looks like more doubling up for me 😢

Just need to find 36 seconds from somewhere for the Alpe.

Shouldn’t be hard, I averaged about 250w on each section until about turn 3. A few minutes shouldn’t be over difficult to find if I’m not planning on more riding afterwards.

I don’t normally do that sort climbing in month just with lockdown been doing more indoor work than normal tend to average 21000ft a month.

I wouldn’t normally have done the Alpe mid week, Watopia Pretzel yesterday and then Sunday Hills, I’d have put something easier in there but needed to finish the Tour For All and I enjoy Sunday Hills as it’s a good fun way to start the day.

Thanks again all and Brian for organising! I’m now in DIY hell so I’d rather be climbing that Alpe right now haha

Great ride as always and riding with you lot makes me push harder. I can’t wait for a beer later.

Any plans for a meet up tomoz evening?

Not me mate sorry. As I seem to have the master list I’ll happily arrange as see you boys off but not riding as I’ve got a woods ride on Wednesday so tomorrow is rest day

If Weeksy fancies a day off organising (and a well earned one) there is the WKG Critty Critty Bang Bang race at 6.20. 14 laps so 25km ish and 250m climbing, we could get some bees in the different categories. I’m entered in cat C.

Crit suits me .. B cat here. But will probably have to join A cat because these flat short blitz type races always exagerate your W/KG

Well, if there’s a race, mmmmm

Cheers for the commute invite @dangourbrain. I might make it if my son gets up early in the morning. If not I am going to do a route later on in the day. Got my eye on doing either London triple loops or Watopia big loop.

Or doing that race Robbo. Let’s see how many trophies we can get.

Well, I won’t be.

I’d be up for that Crit! Normally a C but will enter as a B as I got coned on my last trip out to Crit City 😂 it’s pretty flat and there’s #doubledraft so it’ll feel even shorter than 25km! Might be a mixed start I.e. all cats go off together rather than seperate races?

How long will 14 laps take? I have done 8 lap crits before. It’s a possible. Ride in the morning won’t affect it either way.

Mid pack C is about 3 minutes/lap so I’m thinking around 45 minutes.