were you guys A cat?

Kelvin is A cat; I was entered as B cat today .. but unfortunately been bumped up to A cat following the race!

The 18:55 42KM USA Cycling Race League by Indoor Specialist tomorrow anybody??

They set the different cats off at different times for that one don’t they?

No idea. Its a nice route. Nice flats out; the volcano climb to split the groups, another short power climb to shake it up a bit more .. and a flat run in to finish.

Hard work that – every lap up that cobbled climb I was absolutely on the rivets hanging on! I was determined not to get dropped up it on the last lap, but the effort left me completely done and I had no sprint left at all

Well done on the A cat upgrade Mooman

I was finding it harder to stay with front group from about the 8th lap up the cobbled climb; it was taking me longer to get back to the front of the group each time.
I think it was lap 11 that Kelvin and I lost the front group – just a case of sitting in with a group then .. no chance of getting back on, and nothing to chase.

I am well below the average W/KG other A cat 71kg riders push out, I only manage 4w/kg on a course that suits – and on my best day; so wont be long at A cat.

The virtual commute this morning was the “Big foot hills” route, 70km of up and downs, volcano being the highest peak.
Would be good for a Sunday Hills ride at around the 2 hour mark and the group should keep together mostly.

I did the Big Foothills last week and thought the same oop north. Plenty space between climbs to regroup.

KevS mentioned DD trainers and power meters. I had an unpleasant shock recently. I use a Tacx Flow Smart which is fine but I also run a 4iiii crank power meter which I pair with Zwift for power. I’ve been getting back to a decent FTP (for me) over the last 6 months or so but have seen bigger jumps recently. I thought this was maybe because of racing on the TFA and just more time on the bike. However, it appears on the pairing screen, Zwift defaulted back to pairing to the Tacx which over-reads by maybe 10-15%? Of course, I haven’t calibrated it in ages as I wasn’t using it for power – except I was! I guess I should pay more attention when Zwift starts instead of running about for bottles and towel etc.

I’ve also been bumped into B Cat by ZP- I did 2 TFA A races (A and B Cat) and struggled. Any idea how to correct this? If I do more races in C Cat but stay under 3.1 w/kg will I be OK and will ZP reclassify me as a C in the future?

Good effort Craig, my commute ended up not being a TT but an extra hour in bed. I’m absolutely shattered this week, too much sun I reckon.

I was going to take a look at one of the hilly London ones for this week as we did watopia last and it’s nice to mix up the scenery as it were

Out by 15% that’s brutal, I’m clinging to the DC rainmaker review where he said it was
More accurate at slow speeds and most of my best efforts have been set crawling up the Alpe!

With Zwift power they don’t expire for 90 days I don’t think?

Just going to have that extra 15% from somewhere! I’d rather have a competitive race in C Cat than be spat out the back of the group in first 10km of B though. Riding with the stragglers is no fun or incentive. I think as long as your calibrate the Flow regularly you wont find much of a change when you move to a DD trainer. I’m looking at a Core as well.

@Dangerbrain, no problem mixing it up Brian, was just putting it out there for a future option whenever!

Probably a good idea to have a rest day, I do that every few days otherwise my legs are useless and become tired.

I figure I’ll head out for a ride this evening instead so I don’t feel completely lazy…

Just waiting to find out if I’m due on the office tomorrow or not before I arrange a commute for the morning.

Big foot hills sounds like a nice plan certainly, might give it a bash next week, if nothing else we’re going to run out of new hilly routes fairly quickly, especially ones not in watopia

Anyone doing the WKG race (innsbruk) tonight… 200ish i think…?

I’m in for it – quite enjoyed the race yesterday!

DrP

I had a shocker last night. Hung in with the C pack for the 1st 2.5 laps then gave it some poke up the climb and my legs fell off and the group ride away from me and I got stuck in a bit of a no man’s land ahead of most of the Ds and behind the C’s.

Got to the end as a mess to find the buggery bastard trainer dumped the belt inboard I guess at the top of the climb when everyone went away. Ho him, I’ve had the dispatch notice for the Kickr Core come through which should be turning up end of the week hopefully. Get rid of the Zumo once it gets here and I can get back on it properly then.

Might need to go for a pootle outdoors over the next few days instead.

Anyone doing the WKG race (innsbruk) tonight… 200ish i think…?

Last week the winning time was 14 minutes and last place under 17 minutes, looks bonkers

What i learnt from the crit race yesterday is that you actually need to warm up to quite a degree!! not just ‘pootle, then ride’, because as soon as the flag goes, it’s ON! I found the first few minutes really hard, and then warmed INTO the race…

If I can mimic that with a warm up, I should be good!

Plus… it’s only 15min of pain round the Innsbruck lap eh!

DrP

I’m up for a short Crit type tomorrow if anything suits, tonight doesn’t work as I’ve been In the woods today and am now 4 beers into evening and sitting in pool relaxing.
Tomorrow though, I’m all over it.

I’d rather have a competitive race in C Cat than be spat out the back of the group in first 10km of B though. Riding with the stragglers is no fun or incentive.

Yep – I feel your pain. There is a huge gap between just getting into a category .. and being involved in the race.

Anyone doing the WKG race (innsbruk) tonight…
What i learnt from the crit race yesterday is that you actually need to warm up to quite a degree!! not just ‘pootle, then ride’, because as soon as the flag goes, it’s ON! I found the first few minutes really hard, and then warmed INTO the race…

Too short a race that. Will try for the 18:55 42km race .. rest then tomorrow.

I find its a balancing act of warming up and not taking anything from legs. I used to do 15 minutes and have a few efforts to warm HR up to 160-170bpm .. but sometimes misjudged it and took that little poke out of them for the race.
Good 10-15 mins warming HR to 130bpm seems to work best for me now.

It’s a bit geeky but I created a specific workout to warmup for Zwift races. It is 10 mins long and alternates 1 min at 50% ftp and 1 min at 60,70,80,90,100% ftp. I found just riding around wasn’t helping much so I put it in erg mode and do that workout. You can add a couple of 10 sec sprints as well if you want.

@dangeourbrain. The commute club invite you sent us for Tuesday not Thursday…

Ha I never noticed that, I just accepted…

BC warm up is good – despite the accompanying video:

https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/knowledge/article/izn20160113-Ask-the-experts-How-to-warm-up-for-a-cycling-race-0

I use it for racing and like the way it’s cadence based. Warmup is v personal though, big mental component in finding what works for you.

Going to get on that Innsbruck lap later if I cook dinner in time. That climb looks like it will be a tear-jerker.

Its worth remembering too that like real racing – its the fast full effort starts that take a while to get used to no matter what the warm-up routine is.

Good luck Ant on the 1855, I should have held out for that one ended up doing a 2 laps round Yorkshire (same route as the TTT tomorrow)

The front A group went off like something bonkers, the B group never really got going and me and three others got caught in a no-mans land where we all knew we were never catching the lead group but didn’t want to ease up enough to get caught.

Putting it down as research for tomorrow.

Thanks Kelvin – just hoping that my food stays down! maybe a bit too much before a race!!

Entering as an A cat for this race seems pointless; the front group will all be pushing 6-7w/kg for the first 3-4km … then settle into 4.5w/kg for the rest; I won`t be able to even get close to that, and would find myself in no-mans land with chasing B cats closing me down before the top of the volcano.

So knowing it will be a DISQ on results, I shall enter B cat and at least get to ride with a fast group most of the way … getting dropped on the sprint at end of course!

Amended!

Right… the Innsbruck lap is at 1957…

I`ll try to get a live stream up HERE… if it doesn’t work, then the laptop has gone kaput again and I’m on the ipad!

DrP

I’m too drunk

Who’s gonna organise drunk crits on turbos, see who can manage not to puke…

Lol deffo not me

Well that went tits-up.

Struggled to get to 300w to go at the gun … could barely push 400w then to try and get up towards the front of the group … just about managed to get on to the back of a very long stretched out front group; my 400w was dropping like the bottom had fallen out and I was getting dropped from front group within 1km!

Struggled around to finish, and averaged 3.2w/kg … day off tomorrow!

Innsbruckring was a good blast – misread things a bit thinking it would go crazy from the gun, which it did but things settled down quick. No need to push the pace when the fat lads (me) are getting shelled on the legsnapper. This duly occurred, although I rode it solid with a sneaky feather p/u – but seemed to pay the price coming down, couldn’t push. Grabbed a flying DrP’s wheel as he passed and we rode it in at a decent lick in a small group. Got 19/25 on zp, pipping DrP in the sprint (or what passed for one, legs were mashed by this point) – 12 and a half mins all in.

Was always going to be a tough circuit for the heavy rollers, but the lad who won B was 89kg, so clearly it can be done if the testes are there. Should have tried to press the pace way more from the gun, in hindsight, made the climb a crime scene – blood, guts, and pieces of pancreas strewn across the road. Probably wouldn’t have worked but going in steady was a guaranteed fail.

@Dangeourbrain – had to pull out of the commute tomorrow, I need to be in work very early doors as I have to do a conf call to Australia.

I’ll be on the next one, have a good one.

Going to struggle to Zwift this week I think, need to get some running in as well as some other riding too. Next week be good to do a commute ride 👍

So who is up for Sunday Hills?

A couple of suggestions for this week:

Big foot hills – no big hills but lots of little hills so you still collect over 600m of climbing, Might be a good option for a longer ride but without breaking our backs (think a few people are feeling a bit tired). Will be a 2 hour ride though.
https://zwiftinsider.com/route/big-foot-hills/

Surrey Hills – not very exciting route to be honest. I find the surrey add on a bit of an afterthought and Watopia is much more interesting.
https://zwiftinsider.com/route/surrey-hills/

Bigger Loop – one big hill and decent mileage. Prob around 1hr 30 mins.
https://zwiftinsider.com/route/bigger-loop/

I’m good for Sunday, happy worth any of the above really.

I’ve not done any of the hilly* London bits so will certainly pick Surrey up at some point.

Big foot hills might be a good choice to keep folk together a bit more than usual as there’s a lot more flat stuff and the smaller hills won’t break us up so much. If we go that route though I’ll pop an 8am start in if that suits as it should see us finish nearer 10 which I think think probably suits more folks than a bit later for both.

*being a northerner I’m well “aware” there are no hills in “The South”

Big foot hills with a start at 8 suits me!

I’m good with any of them, did Big foot hills yesterday and it took just over 2 hours on my own, with the group it should be quicker.

Surrey hills is alot of climbing one after another but nothing too bad, again took around 1hr 50mins.

Bigger loop not done yet but on my list to do very soon.

Invites sent for Sunday hills

Then not so swiftly ammended to an 8ish start in place of a bit later given the distance. Oop and pie I see you’d accepted so double check the time 😉

I’d be up for Sunday