Lots of people aren’t registered on Zwiftpower (as I am finding out). Makes it a bit frustrating as you can be in a large field but in ZP there are only 4 of you showing after the race. Most people upload to srava though and the flybys help to give you an indication of where you came and how you performed. Prob more useful than ZP!

The Chop in half an hour. I will be D tonight. Say Hi on your way past….

Good luck mate…. I’m resting today and planning on a KTM ride for lunchtime instead.

Just started my second joyous journey through the 4 week FTP booster this year. If i manage to add another 15W like last time & drop another 5lbs i will have hit my target of a 25% improvement in power to weight, which might actually see me crack the top half of the results sheet in my local cx league.

Since doing some ‘proper’ structured training i have a new found respect for anyone that has a family & job & still wins bike races.

That was feral. Half of the D’s should work in flood defence. There was more sandbagging than there would be on the East coast of the USA.

Just did a 5-lap of the Volcano crit course. It was brutal – large field of what must have been incredibly fit people. Fitter than me anyway. Dropped by the first group at two laps, latched onto the next but then we all got caught by the 3rd group on the road. Had nothing left at the end either. Time for a few days off I think.

Lol and lol. Both made me laugh there.

Sweet baby Jesus, what did I do that for?!

Put the kids to bed and the only race in the next hour was the WBR Friday 13th race. 57k, 13 laps of the volcano crit course. My legs weren’t feeling the freshest but ended up in the front group, went off the front a couple of times but it’s kinda hard to get your head round a breakaway with 40k to go. This Dutch guy was looking really bloody strong, Bob Stolk. I was thinking that we’d wait til there were ~3 laps to go then have a dart off the front and see if we could stay away. Best made plans and all that, we went off the front with about 7 to go. We had 4 seconds, 10 seconds, 15 seconds. Bugger, looks like this might stick but we’re both going to have to work bloomin hard.

Turns out, he’s a bit of a unit at 85KG, and averaged 372W for 1:17 😮 I was struggling to hold his wheel for the last two laps but thought I might have enough in the tank for a little sprint but went too early, i got about 12M on him but he pulled it back and did me by 0.33s!

I am now KOM on the 13 laps of the volcano strava segment haha 😀

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=86739

That’s a massive effort. I shied sway from a 7 lap race as I thought it too much! So a 13 is epic.

Bloody virgin media won’t connect to zwift tonight.

Did the first base race again tonight. Similar course and distance to last weeks so makes for a decent comparison to a week ago.

There was about 20 or so riders in the field. There was also another STW rider – skywalker?

I tried to keep up with the lead group but failed miserably. I then dropped back and rode with another rider for a bit but they eventually got the better of me and I was about 30 seconds ahead of another group. They caught me but then I managed to get away with another rider from that group, he was able to drop me but I managed to stretch out my lead from the last group to about 50 seconds.

I ended up getting a PR on the final sprint

Numbers wise I was up 0.1w/kg on last week and all numbers increased. My HR was also the lowest average of the 4 races I have taken part in so far so hopefully that indicates some fitness gains. My power numbers seem OK so a decent weight loss should see me be a lot more competitive. Just got to keep going.

Innsbruck KISS race for me tonight – up over the hill, should be tough and a completely different kind of race I suspect!

Nice one Robbo. Keep up the work !

I’m trying out the new Scott today on the turbo for the 10:15am short race assuming my meeting has finished by then. Intersted to see how it rides/works.

Wonder how long it is going to take me tonight to complete the course!

Managed box hill in 11 minutes. This climb is about 1 mile longer and a lot tougher so guess it could be 25 minutes for each climb! I was able to manage to hover just below 300w for the climb but don’t think I could maintain it for the whole thing.

I am going to let others go if they rush of at the beginning – for me the challenge tonight is completing the course if I manage to catch anyone on the climb that is a bonus!

Did the Kiss EU wake up C race this morning – 1 lap of the lutscher /lollipop course so I thought I’d have time since it started a bit late for me (5:55) given school run, etc

Race start was fine – a few Cs shot off but I got in a good group of Cs and Ds. The climb was a grind as it should be, managed to drop most of my group in the last third or so as it gets flatter. My lard means I then gained a load of time on the decent and then… It took me up the climb again. Hadn’t looked properly at the route and had assumed it was just back to the main, flat start / finish. Muppet.

Didn’t have time for another ascent (and had done my legs in assuming it was just one ascent) so just let it there. Need to find some shorter one lap races that start about 5:30.

robbo – FYI at around 2.7w/kg I do the innsbruck climb (the one where you turn left to start the climb) in around 30 mins which is a bit quicker than the Watopia epic kom for me

Ouch nemesis sounds tough! The Mrs is out tonight so no hurry – will just do what I can. The climb is categorised as a CAT 2 so may struggle with the second ascent but it is all good exercise! Wonder how many will turn up to the race as it is such a tough course.

Bit of a daft race that one… Was trying out the new bike, which went well… but the Cats were ridiculous. The other Cs didn’t drop below 3.5w/kg and were showing at the end with the Cs ahead of me averaging 4w/kg ! I mean seriously ! Times and segments were good… but i spent most of the race sitting on some other blokes wheel. He was trundling along at 3.6w/kg average, so what the hell…. just sat on him to the end. It was a great start to the race, but wasn’t my best time ever for the 2 laps.

Rest day tomorrow as up at Silverstone.

I actually find climbs easier. Well not easier but I generate power better on them. I struggle to get a good, consistent, high power output on the flat. Haven’t quite worked that out yet – on the flat I like to spin and I think I generate power better at lower revs like when climbing.

In other news I’ve seen that I generate more power than Adrian Timmis. Trouble is that he literally weighs half of me 🙁

Holy ebikes that was a fast race. 3 laps of Innsbruck with a massive field made for a rapid race. I simply cannot get my head round how quick the A group goes up that hill. I was leading the race at the foot of the hill so nailed it to the top with an avg of 527 watts! and i still got dropped like a brick. I ended up in the second group on the road wich was a mix of A and us lead B riders the next 2 laps required a 500w avg up the hill to stay intouch. I was in the bunch sprint finish but didnt really have any power left so it was a very one pace sprint for the line. I ended up 4th in B and only 0.93s behind the winner. The overall winner of the race beat us by 2 mins!

527 watts! 😯

What Scott is it Weeksy?

Nemesis – it was brutal, i was nearly in full sprint mode for the duration of the hill and still got left behind. I do weigh 79kg but still it disheartening getting dropped when you are sprinting up a hill.

edit: suffice to say it was a pr up that bloody hill.

Suspect there’s some serious weight doping going on…

So what time in the climb did that get you?

Good work blader.

Nemesis – I am with you finding it easier on the hills. Being a portly person when I haven’t actually got to drag my mass up a (real) hill I find I am able to generate power better which I thin translates into better performance on hills with Zwift than I would manage in real life. Going up Box Hill at the weekend I was overtaking a lot of people which surprised me but like you suggest I can put a lot of power down on hills but sometimes on the flat I find myself spinning along at 160w. That also seems to be when I drift of on races as well.

According to strava, Kleiner Hugel segment (aka that bloody hill) was done in 51s,avg 19.8mph, avg 527w, hr avg 171.

51s! 😯 😉

Some big efforts going on there. Well done all.

@blader1611 That sort of speed up the “small hill” does seem to be standard for leading B. My best effort @53s has pretty much the same power and I distinctly remember it getting all too like a sprint on every lap. Is it just me or does it steepen just before the top

@roboo1234biking Just beware you are going up the hill twice in that event. It finished at the top the second time. Like you I did initially find I could climb quite well. I find it easier to get a sustainable rhythm around 65rpm out of the saddle. Been working hard of spin climbing as well recently as it can be less tiring on the muscles. Remember though your game weight does have an impact on your climbing so your are still in effect dragging your mass up the hill. I think the climb segment is called ‘Tacx T2058.94 2018 World Championship Innsbruck – Main Climb’ on strava. Seems to start immediately after turning left once over the motorway. Took me 21mins flat out (327W avg) and 24mins (274W avg) when trying to keep the heart rate down. Obviosuly your going the other way tonight but should give you an idea of how long it will take.

I’m going to attempt to get onto the 7.40 Wahooligan series event again (assuming child cooperation) on the not so fun ‘Greatest London Flat’ course. Not much in the way of hills tonight then. If not I’ll be targeting the same KISS race.

Point to note on Zwift segments in strava is that the ‘Zwift insider verified’ ones are the best to use ime as they’re pretty spot on compared to the in game timings. Others like the tacx ones I’ve found aren’t consistently the same.

Good point, I didn’t see a verified one in my strava feed for just the climb. Only appears to be one for the whole course.

What Scott is it Weeksy?

Scott CX bike with 28 Conti GP4000s fitted for now.

https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/new-bike-day-crosshair-special-scott-speedster-10-cx/

@nixie yeh I realise that the game will slow me down but in terms of real life tiredness in comparison to climbing it in the game I think the game is easier it is just the speed that is adjusted. This is prob because I hav a tacx flow which tops out at 6% so you find a nice consistent rhythm and the avatar just adjusts speed according to the gradient there after. So you don’t get the real life tiring that you would get. Apparently going up this side it is tougher as this is the steeper side! Looking forward to a mountain top finish though! 🙂

Got back on it last night for the first time since about March and was well and truly wiped out.  I didn’t adjust my FTP, then went straight into an hour long training session.  FTP has now been scaled back in a bit until I go through a proper build up again!

@nixie regarding the waholigan tonight I believe it’s a time trial, so a full honest ride without people sitting in all race 😊

My PR on the innsbruckring “little” hill is 48 seconds. For me as an A rider is probably 95 % flat out sprint. My average was 7.6 wkg and although I have been dropped many times on this hill I did stay in the group in this race…until we crested the top and I eased off, only for the group to keep going hard down the other side. I had nothing left so ended up joining the group behind anyway 😂 48s puts me 248th out of 66000 on strava so I would say your 50-52 seconds is still bloody good going 👍

For reference I’m 65kg, best time up Tacx T2058 was 19:18 @ 304w avg (4.7wkg) with the second lap dropping to 21:00 dead.

7.6w/kg… i think i’d have to weigh about 35kg for that !

Just realised that ‘that bloody hill’ isn’t the innsbruck big climb 😳

Suddenly 527w makes sense. I’m not a million miles off that, just weigh a good bit more…

LOL 527w up the long one, hell that’s up in Froome territory surely?

Well, exactly!

@didgy2 damn I’m going to suck then! Where do they publish that it is a TT?

I’ve also noticed that many do not slack off on the little hill after the top. You think you;ve stayed on when suddenly they are 10s down the road. Same for the short lump before the second half of the descent.

@nemesis 😀 527W up the monster hill would be quite something!

At 90 Kg I despair at the W/kg you lot put out. Yes i could loose a bit but I am never going to be in contention.

Back to trials if I were not afraid of the falls at my age.

Bugger………………