I know i’m the only one who does my other rides etc, but that’s been my format so i’m sticking with it.

Went out yesterday and had a bit of a Ridgeway ride.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/HxVpbX]2018-05-16_06-29-16[/url] by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

Overlooking Wantage way. Ended up at White Horse Hill in Uffington… Jeez i’ve only done it once before and it didn’t get nicer on this attempt… Eeeeek. Hard that. But cracked on and ended up on the Lambourn road, which was fine with me as it meant i could head towards home, i was 55km in at this stage and i’d been taking it pretty easy.

I was planning on stopping in Great Shefford for water and food, but as i reached the junction, 2 roadies were there heading in the direction i was planning. Oooops. That’s game on and chase on isn’t it ? Caught them within 1/2 a mile and on a little kick i took the lead. I assumed they’d fall off the back but about a mile later, they were on my wheel… I went a bit harder, harder… I was now cracking on (Strava tells me later it’s my 2nd best ever times, despite being on the 29er and having ridden it plenty on the road bike), but still they were there… 9 miles later we went our separate ways… They’d sat on my wheel for all of it. LOL.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/HxVotV]2018-05-16_06-28-44[/url] by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

In a weird twist of fate, we were chatting near the end of it at Woodspeen and it transpires one of them lives in the same village as me.. which considering it’s not a big village and i’ve never met or seen him before is quite weird. I thought i knew all the active cyclists in the village.

The section after that was horrific really, i’d gone into the red with them and cooked my legs, but i was still 20km or so from home. It seemed into the wind mostly too. But it was sunny, warm and nice. So i plodded home at a very easy rate of speed and got home eventually. 90km in with 1000m of climbing, far from ‘epic’ but a decent day all round really 🙂

Weeksy – was a great day for a ride yesterday,bit mean yours was interupted by wheel suckers but sometimes its nice to have that bit of competition mid ride.

Well it has finally happened, i did the wbr 3 lap flat route and stuck with the A group all the way and was in the bunch sprint at the end. The race started very fast and it took me nearly all the first lap just to get the lactic out of my thighs from the start but i eventually settled down. Stuck with them and attacked every hill which was keeping me close to the front so managed to get several 2 second micro rests. I knew i would have to go hard on the last hill after sprint bridge so went full on and crested in 3rd so then just went hard to the line with a cheeky sprint at the end. I finished 8th overall in the race but won GOLD in B by nearly 3 minutes! I think i am going to dip my toe and join the cat A riders for a while and see what happens.

Also in that race was E Bradbury of JLT condor who put on a mind boggling turn of speed. He was taking phone calls mid race so dropped back from the group by about 20s. We had just gone over the hill in the tunnel so pretty much only half a lap left to go when he let rip. In  only half a lap he gained the 20s and won the race by 45s!!! He just went past us in a blur and continued smashing out massive numbers, it was incredible to witness. No idea who he is but i am sure somebody here will have heard of him

It is just astounding in all walks of life the difference between the Pros and normal humans. Used to see it a lot on track on motorbikes… they’d disappear like you’d stalled.

Funny though isn’t it… people see ‘us’ and think we’re super fit and really quick…. but in reality we’re just fodder and the fast guys wouldn’t even warm up at our pace.

p.s. Give A’s a go… you’ve done amazingly since we battled in Cs.

I enjoy your write ups mate, it’s your thread anyway 😉

Did the CVR race again last night, for the last 2 weeks that’s the only Zwifting I do, what with it being nice out and all.

I’d been getting a load of flak from the Draft lot for my turbo being rather generous in a sprint so i’d decided, with it being Wattopia hilly this week that i’d try something a little different. First lap and I didn’t get much of a chance to do anything! The guy i’m racing went straight u pthe first climb like he had a rocket up his arse. As a group we reeled him back in on the descent with his team mate just sitting in.

At the back end of the first lap i got away and put about 15 seconds into the group, they caught me again at the top of the climb 🙁 My heart rate was sitting at 187 at the top, my average for the race was 180, it hurt reeeeal bad.

3rd lap and the climb was still being lit up, Draft were trying to break me 😛 I was 4 seconds down at the top of the climb, some random pulled me back on (thanks!) and the other team Draft rider sat into our group with the leader 3 seconds off.

It had all just got back together by the sprint so i had a dig and settled in for some more pain, i still had 8 seconds on the climb, i knew i needed a fair bit at the top and still had 8 seconds, 1:49 on the last lap, not bad 😀

So it’s simple right, just keep doing more w/kg than who ever is on the front of the group 8k to go and 22 seconds,that’s not enough, is it?

Well, at the line i still had 2 seconds in the bank 😀

4.8w/kg for the race 180avg/190max and a new ftp. All in all a completely different race to anything that I’ve ever done, I can certainly say I’ve never spent so long at those heart rates.

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=60052

It is just astounding in all walks of life the difference between the Pros and normal humans. Used to see it a lot on track on motorbikes… they’d disappear like you’d stalled.

You ever ridden a mountain bike with a motorbike racer? A few of the guys in the superstock 1000 series ride MTB and and the bike skills are insane. They’ll drag a mate out who’s not ridden a push bike in 10 years out occasionally and they’re buzzing your tyres on a technical descent.  Absolute nut jobs the lot of em!

You ever ridden a mountain bike with a motorbike racer?

I was a motorbike racer 😉 So were most of my mates…

But no, not proper ones 🙂

180 average and 370w …. **** !

Scaled – great write up but not as great as those stats. That is very impressive and many leagues above me, your ftp is just about my best 5 min power on a good day with a tailwind.  Its safe to say that when i join cat A i will be bottom of the pile but the only way is up.

Edmund Bradbury. He’s a bit quick.

Thanks njee20, i knew i recognised the name. No shame in being beaten by 45s then (we wont mention he was taking phone calls mid race and warming up, he was probably tucking in to a full english as well). He only beat me coz he is 20 years younger than me 😉

@weeksy – They look like they were racing? 😆

When I was heading to hillingdon in full kit on my racing bike I was drafting boris bikers, grannies, buses and got a large tow from a e-biker for a few miles.

@scaled –  Those numbers are fantastic, chapeau. Out of curiosity what setup are you using for power, trainer or pm?

Apologies for the massive write up for such a small race!

First race for a while and first race on the low carb high fat diet, the EVR race (Cat D), eight laps of the volcano.The start pen seemed unusually quiet, though I fairness there were only four D’s. Do they pen people in different pens, as I launched off the line I was at well towards the front, but within a few metres a swarm of faster riders flew in from the right hand side?

One of the D’s (a Portuguese chap) shot off like a scalded cat, clinging to the coat tails of the B/C group, no doubt, whilst I found myself in TT mode. I could see the other two D’s just behind but took the decision not to wait for them and tried to get into a rhythm putting out around 2.1 – 2.2 W/kg. Once we hit the volcano I notice one of the Ds is catching me quite quickly, pushing 2.7 w/kg. When I check on zwiftpower later he’s only around 10kg lighter than me so latching on was always always going to be tricky and that proved to be the case. That definitely left me in TT mode so it was head down and push on. Getting out of the saddle for the small climbs showed I have absolutely no peak power today (probably diet related) so I just try and keep it steady. Over the next 2/3 laps the D who had lead from the start drifted back to me and then sat firmly on my wheel, I had a feather and so used it on the climb to the finish line. The Portuguese rider stayed with me up the climb, but drifted off when I kept the power high up the drag to the line, ha 2^nd position!

About 2/3 distance and a large pack of A’s and a couple of B’s came flying past. As the second group (B/C) starts to catch up I notice they are dragging the Portuguese bloke with them, bang, a couple of minutes later and he’s 10 seconds in front, WTF!

OK, head down and same again, steady power and no silly sprinting (each one was taking longer and longer to recover from). Towards the end of lap 7 and I get back, this time I don’t give him the chance to sit on my wheel and there’s soon a comfortable 10-15 seconds between us. That gap is maintained for the final lap, though he looks to make some gains up the finish hill (oh no you don’t!) and I flop over the line second in D.

On the whole I’m really pleased with that, didn’t explode, got an FTP increase from 219 to 227, all my laps were between 7:13 and 7:30, and neither of the last two were the slowest. The slightly more distressing part was the 3 minutes between myself and the C group/first D and the shambolic lack of any top end. I’m hoping that comes back over the next few weeks. Checking zwiftpower later, the first guy in D put out exactly 2.4 W/kg and an average power of 234W.

Matt

Just done stage 5 of amgen tour and out of 229 i managed to finish 13th. I could have finished higher but on the big climb either my network or zwift had issues and everyone disappeared for about 3 mins. I was towards the front but by the time they all came back i was in 30th but at least i was back in the race. I quite like these stages as the fields are huge so you can ride and have a bit of banter with others.

me too, but 5 min slower and 75th place. Which isnt bad for a lump of lard

p.s Matt, hell of a report!

Second day at race school for me. Lesson 1 don’t do all the work pulling a group back together when you don’t know the course. Did the EVR Europe race on Watopia figure 8 track ( https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=60931). Seemed to be sticking in a nice big bunch, or so I thought till the first climb when a group split off the front. I spent the next 15k trying to get the other two riders I’d ended up with too help reel in those who fell of the leading group. We had picked up 2 or 3 riders before hitting the 6% climb. Suddenly a couple of my companions lit the power up and disappeared. I could generate enough power but not yet keep it up. They very rapidly disappeared 30s down the road. I ended up riding with one other guy to the end. Afraid at this point I went lazy and mostly drafted him before blasting past in the last two hundred meters. FTP was up again though I had to wait five minutes before attempting to walk downstairs. Despite a new phone the companion app dropped out several times so a ant + HRM is on the shopping list (anyone used the decathlon geonaught one?).

I was so CLOSE. Just done last stage of Amgen tour and i was with the lead bunch but hanging on for the last mile. I was in for the bunch sprint so shut my eyes and with only a bit left in my legs hit the pedals. I looked up with 100 meters to go and i was in 1st but my legs gave out and i got pipped at the line by 3 others, i finished fourth out of 160 with avg of 300w for the race, so bloody close.

Actually i finished 5th,only 0.83s behind winner

Not a race report. Speaking to a person today that works for a UK cycle clothing distributor. He said that sales of winter cycle clothing have been lower than previous years … and it’s been attributed to Zwift; less people bothering to go out during the wet/cold winter months and choosing to Zwift instead.

Another friend said that he is not organising track sessions this Autumn/winter; instead looking to arrange regular Zwift events … Zwift still quite new, so is this the way things are going?

is wet winter riding a thing of the past??

is wet winter riding a thing of the past??

It is in my world yes.

If I gave up wet winter rides I’d only ride outdoors for 3 months a year.

I keep running into other Cat D’s who can hit the 2.4W/kg limit bang on the nose!

Two laps of London hilly reverse tonight, some Italian chap puts 40 seconds into me on the first time up Fox Hill, but I manage to drag it all back by horseguards and stretch out to 35 seconds by the bottom of the climb second time round. That’s got to have given me a chance!

Nothing doing, this bloke from Bury was not flying up the hills. Although I only lost 9 seconds on the first time up, my opposition took 11 seconds off his first lap time and beat me by 80 seconds. Try as I could on the way back down I could only close to 45 seconds. Ah well, another increase in ftp, for consolation.

Matt

I was planning to do that race till a damn windows update took 30 minutes to apply!

You’re getting better all the time though mate, it’s only a matter of time 🙂  PAtience and hard work will see you right 🙂

I’ve been outdoors in this weather so Zwift hasn’t had a look in

Ouch, that hurt….  Although as always, only right at the end.

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=61192

6 laps of Classique. That’s LONG for me these days, i generally only do short races now. But this one fitted my timeframe so i jumped on it.

Pace was decent, without being insane. If i commentated on our race it would be quite boring.. We had a group of about 25, then 23, 21, 20, each time with 1-2 riders getting dumped at the top of Horseguards Hill. I was right there until about 1.5km to go. I stayed in there up Horseguards, but was just about losing the front of the group, but a couple of guys came back past me who’d lost the wheel on the hill and dragged me back to the group.

Sadly though as we took the last hairpin and down to the funny gazebo thing, i lost the wheels and that was the end of things mostly. They pulled away by 1, 2, 3…. 4, 5….GRRRRRR

I then bimbled the last 800-900m on my own.

Two laps of London flat for me last night; https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=61284 . Did not go well! Got dropped by the lead group around the start of lap 1. Tried to go alone for the next 6-7k before realising I wasn’t going to make the ned doing that. Slowed up a bit to allow the group of two that were 25s back to catch up and then tried to stay with them. That was going fine till around 3/4 of the way through when one tried to get away. The resulting power spikes I put in to keep up shifted the turbo forward far enough that I pulled the power plug out of the wall! Arrghh, Lost the best part of 2 minutes fixing it and getting going again byt which time the the next group was only 20s behind. I was knackered by now, gave up trying to keep them behind after about 1k and instead opt to stay on their wheels. One sprinted early though I was confident I could out power them so let them go as as too knackered for that effort. Put in a big spike with about 300m to go and dropped the rest of the group. Just didn’t catch the early sprinter though and finished ever so slightly behind them.

On the plus side the decathlon Ant+ HRM has sorted the HRM dropouts (which was especially good as the companion app would not connect at all last night). FTP up again.

Have noticed that my power graphs jump all over the place compared to others that are much flatter. Poor technique??

Two laps of London Flat for the fatties tonight for me as I’ve not been out on the bike for a couple of days, I was sceptical what I’d be like as although I’ve been riding I’ve very little Vo2 Max stuff and it’s all been base miles and I’ve put a couple of kilos of pure chub on.

With this in mind I ramped down and entered as a Cat ‘C’ anyway got onto the lead group and was happy hanging with the ‘B’s and one ‘A’ who soon was off the front and just pulling out time (turns out he’s some Danish Elite rider that rides for a team)

So I just hung with the lead pack for 2 laps, put a little dig in to break it up and soon it we’d snapped the elastic on some of the pack and it was 5 of us out in front.

Bit of cat and mouse and then a sprint down The Mall, I thought I’d got 3rd overall but looks like it got nicked by less than a gnats nadger pube. Oh well 4th overall but I’ll be DQ’d for being a big fat sandbagger 🙂

Zwiftpower doesn’t seem to be updating

No more CVR rankings, just as I was heading back to Elite. Website says it will be back once the GDPR stuff is sorted.

Whats that all about bigfoot?

Is the cvr rankings the one you now see at the top of the zwiftpower page when you have logged in? My ranking says i am 58th in B.

i won a gold today but it was a pretty small field. It was a bunch sprint so i was quite surprised i won that given my max was only 800w.

my wahoo cadence sensor doesnt seem to be registering correctly on zwift, keeps saying i am doing over 150rpm. Logged a called with zwift as it seems to work perfectly fine when out with my elemnt. Anyone else having trouble?

http://www.cycligentrankings.com/

The rankings on zwiftpower came after the cvr ones, although I never really understood the cvr points after I got -1 for finishing second in the A’s.

“my wahoo cadence sensor doesnt seem to be registering correctly on zwift, keeps saying i am doing over 150rpm. Logged a called with zwift as it seems to work perfectly fine when out with my elemnt. Anyone else having trouble?”

Might be a coincidence but I did a couple of laps around greater London yesterday including the Mall sprint section twice. First time I cruised through at roughly 170w in about 15 sec. Second time I cranked it up and was hitting about 420w by the end and was slower!

My overall distance and time seemed about right though. My cadence was what I would have expected although I have had the odd crazy reading in the past.

Ate too many Tunnocks Wafers and felt guilty so jumped on the Watopia lap 5 mins late.

Bit of bantz as I tried to haul my virtual fat avatar up to the radio mast.

After an hour of sweating like a ……. in a ……….. I Think I made a dent into #wafergate

oh and wasn’t sandbagging this one as I was late could only join as a C or D no idea why? But as there was a massive climb C worked

Tiger, was that the KISS race? (https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=61666). I also did that one but in B. First time up to the mast for me. Damn that was hard! First mid field finish though (had some frustration with mother decline to work out). Seems I’m ok at climbing as I overtook a fair number of riders on the way up. New peak power in the sprit and FTP up again.

Yep KISS race I assume I was / you were the other STW in there 👍😀

I was yes 👍

Great average w/kg! I reckon if we got organised a Team STW race working together as a team could be fun! Would have to be flat though 🙂

Have noticed that my power graphs jump all over the place compared to others that are much flatter. Poor technique??

Or intermittent tyre slippage. Or comparing your power graphs to folks using, say, Wahoo Kickrs with power smoothing enabled – use a Kickr on ERG mode with Sufferfest for example, and you get weird, near perfect power output that’s clearly totally unrealistic.

ZwiftPower is down till 1st June.

Will our results still stand??

Well we can all claim gold’s while its down :D.