I might, but not now I’ve seen your numbers. Ha ha ha.

J/K mate.

ToW Stage 7 yesterday:

I definitely pressed on too hard on the first climb of the Pretzel (around 380w), and was feeling it on the second climb.

Not sure if I was too ambitious to try to stick with the front-most group, but stayed with them most of the way on the way to the radio tower, but being a heavier bloke I was never going to match most of them on the steep section.

I’m definitely a steady state rider, and the kicks on the way down from the Epic KOM in both directions always play havoc with me.

Went into the second accent with slightly heavy legs, but decided to maintain 7th place, so sat at around 340w to keep the 50 second gap in-front and 1 min gap behind. The top couldn’t have come quickly enough.

The run into the finish was a struggle, but managed 7th out of a field of 77.

There was one guy who just took off from the start, and was way ahead after the radio climb, but just disappeared off the leaderboard never to be seen again.

2 hrs 14 mins which is 7 mins off my best. Obviously paced it better before.

Stage 6 today:

Went into the ride with the aim of beating an hour. As it was only one accent I figured I could keep a fairly high effort up the reverse epic kom, depending on how my legs felt from yesterday.

Great prep for the ride was wandering around Newby Hall near Ripon, carrying everyone’s paraphernalia, and a picnic that weighed a ton (mostly water as it turns out). Didn’t really eat or drink much all day, so reserves were a bit low at 6:50pm.

Set off with the front group of about 8 riders. We soon started to split as soon as the climb started. I think I went into it in 7th place. Just switched off concentrating on anything else, apart from maintaining 380w+, which I managed reasonably well. Looked at position after the radio tower, and was in 2nd! How did that happen?

I was pretty spent by then, so just wanted a steady effort down. As yesterday, the kicks before the tunnel were damn awful. Reserves were running low by the time I got to the bottom, and as a result I dropped a couple of places. The first guy to go past put in a massive effort to chase down the leader who was over 30 seconds ahead of me. I was then caught at 3km to go, when I slowed when he dropped a drafting boost. O don’t think he was impressed and shot off at 5w/kg. Ta, ta, no way was I able of chasing. With 1km to go I had another rider at closing in, but must have found something in the bottom of the tank, and opened out to over a minutes lead.

4th place: 57 min 54 secs

Jumped off the bike and inhaled a very large portion of risotto. I’m still really hungry and am resisting eating everything in the fridge.

Now waiting to find out what my final position was in the Tour. After stages 1-5 I was in 156th. I reckon that I’m about 200th which I’m very happy with.

Definitely starting more endurance training now.

There is a cycling challenge in the office on Thursday as the Tour de Yorkshire is coming past. Greatest distance achieved in 10 minutes, with the chance to win a £40 Wiggle voucher.

“Nath- amazing how fast your fitness has returned. You should be well pleased”

cheers CH.

Results: https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=56924

Although I must confess I cheated a little bit, no I didn’t reduce my height/weight or even use the vortex instead of the 4iiii power meter. I was fuelled by carbs…. Been in pain all week with my stomach (stress induced) so I decided to have a few days on carbs as it wouldn’t hurt and to reset. Seems to have done wonders for my cycling, but I’ll be back to no carbs tomorrow.

FTP was 284 in Feb/March at 74kg, Thursday night KISS TT took it to 310 and Saturday nights race saw it up to 312, strava is predicting 324 at the moment and it’s normally bang on. I’m currently 70.4kg so looking at circa 4.5-4.6w/kg, well happy with that if it’s right…

Did a tough mudder yesterday was Ok but i never run anywhere so was worried about the legs. Finished OK with headband for the turbo. Used it for two hours of 200W around just over half of mega pretzel. Legs felt great. Different muscles. Glasses stayed on and relatively clean and dry

Back in for the fun and Zwiftracing games 🙂

WBR 2 lap Classique.

Started off REALLY well…. Over the first bumps on the other start finish and all going OK.. Along the river and it was still all good. Onto the first climby bit and i held the bunch, about 35 of us, but then on the run along from there to the hairpin it split, one guy went to bridge and i tried to go with him but nope, no good. Needed more than i had.

So i settled into our small bunch of 7-8 and going over the line it was OK… Onto first lap proper and the pace was high, but not impossible… Up towards the turn for the flat course and down past the monuments i hit the Feather on the kick up horseguards and held my place, sticking in about 420w i was OK and onto the run to the hairpin again… All going OK and over the line, starting the last lap.

We’re now in places 27-35 and i’m holding on OK, but as we hit the small 2% my HR is 176 ! Ouch, that’s over my limit and into the red zone… but OK, lets see what we can do. Down towards Horseguards and i’ve got a feather to use, but the pace is high ! hit the kick and climb into the red, more red… .180…181… oooops ! thats me toast…. but over the crest i’m sort of there… we’ve got a small split of 5-3 and i need to bridge it to stand a chance. Somehow the draft and my big legs kick in and we’ve got back to 1 group.

800m out, 1 guy Sissins i think kicks at 7+ and i think “nah not for me….” so i sit in the bunch, about 350m from the line we all go a bit… some more than others, some less… I’m one of the less..

But not the least 🙂 The other C in our bunch was behind me and not able to close.

Whether we were the front Cs, i don’t know…. but we did well.

Time will tell how well or badly.

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=57547

It bumped my FTP to 280 or so as well. 🙂

Looks like a comfortable win in the results Mr Weeksy and bob on 3w/kg

Good ride Weeksy, time wise you was top third of B group so good effort.

No hilly races today that I can see, so looks like a flat race it is 😯

+6 on CVR rankings for it, I’m rarely convinced that the efforts I put in are fully portrayed by the points lol.

I set a new max HR of 183! But it’s better than -6 lol

Whoop, 10pm CVR again tonight and it’s 3 laps of something flat! Not feeling the freshest but should be good to sit in the bunch and sprint,. Only slight issue might be if ODz, X or Draft turn up mob handed and keep lining up attacks.

I watched the 2pm earlier and ODz just kept throwing bodies off the front, it looked brutal.

Looks like a comfortable win in the results Mr Weeksy and bob on 3w/kg

Maybe time to move to B 🙂

Nah, not really. Whilst I’m getting close to my B power again, riding the 29er I’m still not there. Sure on a 24 min course I can, but not a 40 min course that’s for sure.

Just going to enjoy alternate days of racing and resting/recovery for a while and have some fun.

So the no carbs thing didn’t work, it’s really hard to get back on it!!

Lined up for the KISS race at 8pm feeling fairly positive, only had 2 mins warmup due to train delays though. It was London loop reverse so up fox hill, and it’s really not far from the start line. About 2/3s up the hill I was with the lead bunch then bang, my stomach went into cramp spasms. Spent the rest of the lap with two other guys but then going up fox hill again one of them seemed to launch a wattage bazooka and was suddenly 30s ahead before I knew it. Tried to attack the other guy while keeping the pace as high as I could tolerate but he just sat on my wheel and went round me on the sprint.

Highly disappointed, back to Keto diet tomorrow with a really bland diet to see if I can get my stomach back under control, it’s come at a time I was really making cycling progress too 🙁

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=57584

I wrote out a big race report then accidently pressed back 😠.

No hilly option so 2 laps of greater London.

First in B’s but bumped up to 5th in A’s due to average power. An A got off the front at some point without being noticed. The rest had a bloody close sprint to the line

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=57568

CVR Report from last night (Zone F, A bracket), it’s taken me this long to write it as i’m absolutely spent.

In my head these flat courses suit me, I know that i’m heavier than most of the people that i’m racing against thanks to Zwiftpower and that over about 20 seconds I can get away. The plan, such was it was, was to sit in the bunch for 40km then sprint for one 😀

The attacks were constant with the pace not really dropping but I was fairly comfortable as long as I didn’t hit the front. I figured I had this right up until the point where eeeeeeeveryone else disappeared. WiFi had dropped out on the laptop, crap. crap. crap.

What to do? PEDAAAAAL, i knew the group would be trapping along still so i’d just have to do what I could to keep up while I was troubleshooting. Reconnecting to the wifi didn’t work, tried that twice, laptop track pads dont work when they’re wet. Checked my phone and there’s 11% battery left, no charger in the garage (and i’m on call for work) sod it, wifi hotspot on, i can’t even see zwift onthe screen cos it minimises when i click anywhere and i’m connected to the hotspot.  Back into Zwift and there’s the group about 40M in front of me and not hanging about, it was like one of those ‘stop the music and keep singing’ challenges 😀 I managed my second best 1 min power of 8.1w/kg and was suffering badly. I had no matches left so just set fire the the box in the hope of getting back onto the group.

after hitting 190bpm I was back in the group and back to plan A!  Long story short flat, fast get to the red carpet and my main rival Greg Leo goes off the front with just a bit too far to go (it helps that i knew he was feeling like crap and had a knee injury) and I did him in the sprint, favorite quote from the commentators “This was a 41KM race and he led for about 2M of it”

https://www.facebook.com/cvrworldcup/videos/1459251774179172/  1:08 for the sprint 😀

Can’t believe you even got back let alone smash it! Well done

That’s awesome! Well done 👍🏻

Sounds like some great racing guys and really good race reports. Some very scary figures and watt bombs going off, thank god you lot work during the day leaving me to tackle the retirement lot.😀

I had a right battle today which had a “small world” moment at the end. I did a 1 lap of greatest london loop which pretty much covered all the nasty steep ramps and roads and up Leith Hill. I was in the lead group of A’s and 1 other B so i knew i was in for at least silver. I had plans in place to see if i could drop the other B but it seemed we both hatched the same plans as i dont think we were ever more than 2 secs apart. I hit Leith Hill doing over 5w/kg and stayed that way for what felt like forever but that was just too much to maintain so dropped down to about 4.2. This was brutal and never ending and we were stuck together but i was at 176hr and my max is only 183, i just made it to the top (6:25 kom). I needed to get oxygen in and lactic out on the descent but i had to pedal a fair bit to stay in touch. No chance of losing him on the steep ramp in the tunnel so it was going to be a sprint and my hr was too high so i decided i was going to have to leave it late and hope for the best. The other B decided otherwise and went with 0.6miles to go, there was no way i could follow so tried to tempo at 450w to see if i could stay close and hope he gassed out. He was out of sight so i just decided to try a sprint with whatever i had left which was nothing more than 540w! He was slowing down though and i was catching but my legs started to spin in squares and the line was in sight. I tried again but it lasted about 3 secs and he picked up a little and crossed the line and i was just 0.81s behind, another 100metres and i reckon momentum would have had me ahead. Great race and a SILVER and it turns out he is a member of a cycling club just 7 miles away from my house,small world.

After reading the latest reports I almost don’t want to post this as it is nothing on that scale (well done to guys!).

WBR 1 lap London Loop.  Entered B. 32 at the start and I decided to have a crack at seeing how long I could stay in the lead group.  That was 1.5k.

Then I ended up in no mans land (again) so set my self a goal to stay over 200w on the flat to Box Hill.  Managed that and then got caught by a group of two at the start of the hill.  Stayed with them the whole way up and was just outside my PB at the top.  Passed them both on the second wee hill and then decided to flog myself down the hill to see how long I could hold them out.  They caught me at the escalator and I managed to get another lead there.  Then they passed me again.  I was 210-220w to the finish and just a few metres back.  I ended up 15/15 in B with a 3.3w/kg average with a time that would have got me 2nd in C.

For some reason I am filtered out of the results for using Zpower and not wearing a HR monitor.  I have a smart trainer so I am not sure what is going on there.  Overall though pretty happy especially with keeping my pace up (for me) on the flat as I spent most of that on my own.

8:30 London 6 Laps

Went off too fast, still had weekend in my legs and I’ve not been sleeping and I’ve been eating crap.

All of the above meant I was very sub par, still burn’t a few calories away…

Did a 30 min pootle this morning, i was waiting for the world to wake up, so just cruised round. Legs were heavy as hell but wanted to crack on for a bit. After i’d done some other stuff and a bit of work i jumped on Zwift just before lunch. Saw there was a Tour de Cure… 4 laps Volcano CCW. A course i like so cracked on. It was advertised as 2.0 on lap 1 with 0.5 increase for 2 laps and then a final after party race lap…

Went into last lap sitting just behind the lead, usually with these if you pass the lead before the line it’s instant DQ. So went off with the bunch, only 20 or so of us but we were sticking it in ! Pace was high. Had a great battle all the way to the line, but lost a few riders on the climb to the line, but passed a couple of riders in the last 25m which is always nice. Weirdly i can’t  see any others apart from 1 fella in the results.

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=58338

I managed a 5:43 lap for the volcano which was 1s under my best ever lap. Doesn’t move me up the STW list much, but was a good bit of work. Average of 305w for that lap according to Zwift, i’d have said it was higher ! The segment for 2nd half is showing 345w average and the climb up into the finish was 340w…. So happy there, some decent numbers 🙂

Good work all, you moved up to the A’s yet Blader? 😉

@weeksy 326W 5 min power, nice numbers indeed!

I’m having a serious bout of can’t be arsedness and i’m worried that the summer is going to pass me by if I don’t give myself a kick up the arse. Baby is due on Saturday, new bike some time next week.

Exciting times ahead scaled (father of 2 headstrong girls here).

Rode into work yesterday 18 miles and then took part in a charity cycle challenge as the Tour De Yorkshire was passing the office. 10 mins on a spin bike to see who could cycle furthest. Basically a challenge to see who could spin the fastest for longest. Zwift must be paying off cos I won. Yippee £40 Wiggle voucher coming my way. Managed to ride 10.48 km, even with having to stop twice due to my foot coming out of the toe straps. Next furthest was 10.15km.

Have a saddle sore now though.

Riding/pootling from York to Scarborough tomorrow morning with a couple of mates to watch the TdY.

well done all of you lot.  I feel a bit lazy/guilty

Can’t remember the last race I did – well before I had my hernia op in early December though

been a slow process since then but I’m coming back up; best 20 min power has been 275 or so this year, compared to 335 last June and probably a little bit stronger than that when I did the FTP plan just before the op (didn’t finish the plan so never did a new FTP), so I’m still a way off

I’m expecting to dump zwift this month and just enjoy the long, hot, dry summer outside instead (!)

See you in September, with my racing pants on 😉

Some great reports and racing, well done all.

Did 3 laps volcano yesterday. Fast out the gate as usual but the first lap was tediously slow with barely 2.5w. Pretty much everyone together so I pushed the second lap to around 3.7 -4w which broke it up quite a bit and made a couple of attacks on third lap which resulted in a group of 7 for the last 4km. Coming through the tunnel I was deciding whether to go long or wait for the sprint and missed an A and B rider jump off the front. By the time we reacted none of the others seemed to want to chase so we settled for the sprint which I managed to take for 2nd in B and 3rd overall.

This morning I had the chance to race after a good night’s sleep and legs feeling ok. Turned out to be a bit of a waste really.

3 laps jungle, my favourite loop. Not too fast out the gate for a change, and only 19 in the pen.

On the lead in 4 A’s hit the first climb hard and put in 20 seconds to the rest of us (happens every time, I need to be ready one day!) Me and another B were together with the rest already 30 secs behind. We were going well when I guess the other B had a drop out as he was showing 0w. I eased up but he didn’t seem to be going again for 30 odd seconds. Now I was in no man’s land and still 5km of the lead in still to go. Ahead I could see that 2 A’s had been dropped a little and were only pushing 3w, but were 40 secs ahead. I decided to see if I could bridge over. If it failed I could just wait up for the rest of the field. Pushed around 4w for the 5km and caught them as we passed the start finish line. The other A’s were 35 secs ahead. I messaged the 2 A’s I had caught to say if we worked we had 3 laps to bring them back. I took the front and pushed but each time I eased off or flicked the elbow they eased and sat behind me. They had no interest in chasing. If I slowed to 2.5 they slowed to 2.3 and stayed behind. With 2.5 laps to go I wasn’t dragging 2 A riders all that way so as we hit the long climb I ramped up and pulled a gap. I increased this to 20 secs and just matched there watts. After a lap one of them kept surging to catch but I pushed hard over the bridge and increased to 30 secs. This resulted in the surging A to quit and disappear. Over 2 laps to go, slowly increasing gap to the A behind and slowly losing the 2 A’s in front. 2 lonely laps later cruised across the line for B win and 3rd overall. Disappointed that I didn’t really get a race.

See if tomorrow is any better.

On a side note, does everyone use fans? 6 weeks into zwift and still don’t have any.

I only had a small window of time yesterday due to car washing. So jumped on a WBR 4 lap Richmond flat.

Really like this course usually, so was looking forward to it.

Went off with A/B boys and happy in there for the first 3/4 of a lap, but the pace was just too hot for me… So i was dumped out…. I sit and wonder as always “should i have pushed a bit more…” But in honesty there wasn’t ‘more’ left, so i just went with it.

At this stage i was 50s clear of 6 riders behind, so just sat at about 220w and knew they’d catch me. Their lead 2 riders were putting out 3.4w/kg and i knew i wasn’t going to hold them off for the best part of 4 lap. As they got to within 20s, the lead guy had pulled out 5s on them and was putting out 4.2w/kg, as he closed i thought “OK, leave him to it….” and waited for the 5… Upped the pace as they closed, it’s always REALLY easy to miss the bunch as they come past and if you miss it, you’re done.. But i got on and sat..

The rest of the next 3 laps was pretty uneventful, i simply sat in and waited, waited, barely spent a second on the front, but as the lead Chinese fella was sticking out 3.6w/kg for most of it, there was no way i was going to take turns.

Down past the roundabouts i was in absolutely prime position, but it went badly…. As we rounded 400m to go and down to the hairpin, 4 of them just had more than me… they kicked, i kicked but their kick was harder than mine and i struggled in for 4th in the group.

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=58584

Decent result overall of 2nd in C which i’m cool with. Sadly, i don’t really know how… but it was -8 CVR  points… i thought i’d get a couple back for that one, not lose more…. Damn… Ah well… all good training 🙂

On a side note, does everyone use fans? 6 weeks into zwift and still don’t have any.

Yes. It’s not just comfort, your performance deteriorates as you overheat, which you will. I use a bloody great floor fan for general cooling, with a smaller, more concentrated directional fan pointed more at my head/shoulders.

Some people also use either fan with a remote control or an electrical socket with the same to allow them to tweak the fan as they warm up / cool down.

So without reading the full 225 pages is there a STW group(s) to join somewhere? Hoping to pick my new turbo up today and have a spin about later on.

Answering my own question, found the STW team on Zwift Power.

Is anybody actually reading these looooong write ups?

I’ve been reading a few of the more recent ones.

Did 7 x 1000w sprints on the London loop today.  You know when Zwift goes blurry at the end of an interval? That x 10.

So I went and got a fan (cheers) and thought it can’t be that different but not was I wrong.

Did the 2 laps greater London and settled into the second group of mostly B’s. 3 B’s up the road. They were 40 seconds up. Pushed on but as per usual no one else wanted to help. Made a break for it and one came with me. I sat on 4.5 for almost a lap and bridged over.  Held in the pack until 8k to go and launched an attack, again one went with me and we pulled 15 seconds with 3k to go. Managed to beat him on the sprint. I felt fresh and got an ftp increase to 268 (was 180 7 weeks ago).

My average due to the bridge was 4.2 so Dq’d in results.

Feeling ok I thought I’d do another race so jumped on the world league or something thinking it was another London flat but turned out to be 2 laps of Fox Hill!! Finished 9th in A’s with achy legs.

Loving the fan 😂

LOL that’s one of the more bonkers write ups… I thought Tiger was a bit nuts, but he now has some competition 🙂

Well done, cracking results and FTP increase.

Is anybody actually reading these looooong write ups?

I do… Honest…. Some days it’s the only reason for opening STW forum.

Me too. I enjoy reading what others are doing. I always seem to learn something.

Today I learnt if i buy a fan I can race twice in a day!

Today I learnt if i buy a fan I can race twice in a day!

I’ve got a fan, but once in a day is plenty for me !

Fair enough – I guess I just used to not reading anything on forums over half a dozen lines or so.

big fan of Zwift though … and my 20” fan🙏

Did you all do FTP tests? Or do you just use a value calculated from riding around?

Did you all do FTP tests? Or do you just use a value calculated from riding around?

Neither for me. I don’t do ‘training’ via the App in any way, so the FTP figure is of no significance to me.

Of the people who do, 99% from what i’ve seen on here do FTP tests to get their figure.

I did an FTP test at the start of using zwift because I had no idea but then just used the race figures (I do a time trial every now & then to get rid of drafting and just crack on).

I suppose a proper test would be better (it works you pretty hard before the test to make sure you’ve not kept any extra anaerobic power up your shorts) but I CBA – hardish warm up and then a TT as said.

Unless you’re good at pacing and riding hard I’d bet that your first FTP result will be about 10% down on the real thing.