very well done!

i did the midday one 700ish in the pen, knew there was going to be a lead in, didn’t know it was going to be up the KOM! if you look on zwift power, it always actually has the length of the race inc any leading, so was expecting 20 miles, was in a large group covering 30th to 50th and had a 20-30 second drop out, streams of people passed me settled back into another group back in 90-100th, lost about 15 places the last time up the KOM, finished 116th,

Had one of my best races of all time yesterday. It was on the New York Laguardia circuit, which is event only, so you can’t ride it in practice.

Went off hard, hoping to hang onto some of the faster guys… Some escaped but we were right at the pointy end of things. Sitting in a group from 26th-38th overall, out of 80 or so riders…

The course was mostly flat, which suits me, i quickly worked out the compression and kick points with small inclines that needed attacking with a spurt… the HR was doing OK, 3-4 laps in.. Group still holding and me sitting pretty in it… the odd rider dropped, the odd rider got caught…. by lap 6 the efforts were getting to me and over the line there’s a small kicker just before it “If i get dropped here, i’m bailing…..” my HR was 175 which is over my max work zone…. But i hung in with 4.5w/kg up the hill… which is over 400w for me…. Recovered on the next 2km, which suits me… Sadly the PUs were not coming to me and i was on my limit still… but it’s a short lap…. Coming towards the line again for lap 7… “if i get dropped i’m bailing….” but even though 2-3 broke a little gap, we still had 8 or so together and soon pulled them back…. We’d caught a few and dropped a few, so we were now 22nd-29th overall….

So it continued, my HR climbed but i kept in there… From here on in it seems my average HR was 176 ! That’s waaaaay over my comfort zone.

By now though I’d worked out which gears, where and when… So i hung in again….. Up to the line, 2 guys kicked harder than me but i left 4-5 others behind me who must have been pushing harder than i was.

I think i got 23rd overall… which was brilliant for me. Zwiftpower has me ‘LIVE’ at 14th, but i don’t believe that was the case, so it must ignore the riders who are not registered etc.

2mins 20 down on the winner.. which i’m more than happy with

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=97333

But overall, was an exciting and fun race

Anyone know the “park perimeter loop” ?

Fancying a bit of a spin at 9 tomorrow but looks short – is it also flat ?  Sounds like a nailed-on sprintfest

Edit:

IS THIS A RACE?

No, it’s a personal challenge against the distance and the clock. Some Zwifters will ride the event like a race but there is no winner of the Tour of New York

hmmm, may need to think again – fancied a bit of a do at least

Not flat, has an incline mid way, but nothing hard for you.

Cheers weeksy, wondering about “the chop” instead now – never done one of those.  Guessing they’re shit unless there’s a big turn-out, though

(I see the route profiles on ZP now – durrr)

Finally joined zwift as I can’t ride properly till the neck brace comes off (7 weeks). Only doing gentle riding but nice to be on a bike even if it is indoors. Running a smart trainer (elite direto). Any tips/suggestions?

Chop is ideal for you in B as the Bs seem to have the most fun and chat. They’re invariably quite a decent size group and get a proper move on.

Thanks. Really don’t want to be pushing too hard at the moment (also in back brace, T11 3 column fracture and occipital condyl 5 weeks ago). FTP at best was about 305, weight is about 83 ish). Might give it a go in a lower group first and see how I progress.

Stevego,

Just had a wander round really to begin with, get your legs moving, enjoy and grab the odd wheel. It’s fun doing events, but if you’re half as competitive as most of us, you’ll get sucked into it very very quickly.

The going too hard is my worry, it is tempting to push hard but counterproductive to healing properly. Used sufferfest for training, and had been planning on the pioneer race in NZ this year, they have held over our registration till next year as I’ll still be in the brace come the race.

stevego, there’s loads of stuff on there that’s not full-on racing – and then there’s just bimbling round on your own which can be any effort you want, obv

Or be like me; join the chop race and have your avatar take a wrong turn after 100 yards

Bah, going to work early instead

Good luck guys, I’ll just continue the bimble for the moment, otherwise I’ll give in to temptation and I shouldn’t really be leaning over and changing gear too much while going hard, extra strain and all that. Look forward to exploring some new tracks on it.

Scaredypants – i cant believe that was you. I was in the race and saw a rider going left instead of right and thought i was imagining that. I then realised that you werent on the rider list but hadnt twigged. Sorry but i did laugh at that poor unfortunate soul who only raced for 10s!

there were 2 of us – that made it slightly worse as I initially thought maybe we were 1 and 2 in the bunch (yeah, riiiight !).  Was some cheery bantz coming from the A pen (I think) 😀 – least someone was happy

Scaredypants – you are only as good as your last race and technically you were leading that so thats a result.😀

Also there didnt seem to be any leaders in the B group or people with fingers that could type. Not a single message in the entire race, it was as dull as dull can be.

It was a seriously fast A group, i am glad i wasnt in that.

Midday Tour of New York, big night on the ale Tuesday night watching Glasvegas lead to a write off of a day yesterday, felt leggy at the start, in and out of groups, into the last 6/7km, feeling better, should probably warm up more but i only had a short window to ride, a familiar name pops up in the group of probably no more than 10 of us, assume its a local, wasn’t going to let him go so fought to stay with the group, he’s a skinny little thing (15kg less) so did me on the final hill, but only by 2 seconds, decent ride

Also there didnt seem to be any leaders in the B group or people with fingers that could type. Not a single message in the entire race, it was as dull as dull can be.

Wouldn’t have been me – my keyboard’s on a rickety old music stand and pretty hard to reach, too.  No way I’d be typing while racing hard.  I wonder about voice recognition …

It was a seriously fast A group, i am glad i wasnt in that

Kim Little (well, “a” Kim Little) took a MTBing KoM off me a few years ago so he must be really fast 😉

Dirtyrider, are the ToNY rides good fun? – I ducked out of this morning’s ‘cos it sounded like it might turn out to be a processional bimble

its deffo a race at the pointy end

Scaredypants – i did the ToNY straight after the chop race and they are pretty rapid if you want them to be. I was obviously pretty leggy after the chop and only 5 mins between races so no rest but it was still pretty full on and i was way down in 60th. I reckon even with fresh legs it would have been too fast at the front. Equally you can bimble along and still be with a nice big group.

**** me – that was the fastest starting race I’ve ever done

WBR at 17.05.  Apparently it was doubledraft as someone mentiuoned in the start pen.  I said (presumably they were all laughing behind their monitors) “so it’ll be a bunch finish then ?”

I started at 400ish as I always do – and found myself at the wrong end of a strung out full-on hammer session.  “Sprinted” at about 700 for 30 seconds and caught the back of the bunch but that turned out to be at least the 3rd bunch.

Actually was a good bunch of about 4 of us, with another 10 or so just behind.  We all snuggled up and that group was there until about 2k to go when we started to drop folk.

Bit of a sprint in and I did about as well as I could expect on that – one guy went a bit early with an aero and 2 of us tailed him.  The other guy caught him on the line but I didn’t

… err, except that ZP thinks I beat them both.  Why’s that ?

(there was a v short drop out on my screen early on; everyone else disappeared and I was a bit further back in the bunch when they reappeared.  I wonder if ZP has ignored the 2 seconds of my absence and just taken it off my overall time somehow)

I’m in fr the 10:10am with Blader today. The chances of anything coming from Mars are about the same as me hanging in his group 🙂

Well that went about as I expected. Darn them small inclines

Where did we drop you Weeksy? That had some truly brutal attacks on each lap, i think we dropped Bigfoot on lap 2 when it went a bit crazy for far too long. I was about 3 seconds away from giving up trying to hang on when it just came back together but i was bang on the limit. Last lap was just hanging on from well before the sprint and the last hill required a feather and 550w just to hang on to the back end of the bunch. I was in the bunch sprint at the end but had no sprint left so i ended up about 2s behind overall winner i think,havent checked yet.

Looks like the results are messed up as it has me as a non finisher!

Tired legs for the 3 lap hilly, not quite quick enough to hang on up the hill out of the tunnel. Came 4th in the WBR race that finished 15 minutes before the hilly. Good to see some familiar names in the race.

I went on the slightly steeper incline before the village, I stopped and looked at 50w for a minute, then saw 2 C’s had been dropped and were only 19s ahead and pushing 2.5, so caught them in the roller coaster, then it was just me and 1 C and tbh I didn’t have the spirit for it.

Weeksy, Did you finish the race as it also has you as a non finisher?

Bigfoot, that race was far too fast for a second race of the day, well done you though that was some effort.

No Blader, it was my birthday today and family day out so I decided not to kill myself for a fairly irrelevant final position and bailed on lap2. My legs are glad and I’m not groaning now when getting ready to go out tonight.

Happy Birthday fella, have a great night out. Here are some flowers and birthday cake 💐🎂

rode outdoors today, which was a novelty, 2 laps of pines, both sub 40, and about 90 seconds of my best from about 4 years ago, happy with the progress over the last month

however, everything is a smashfest and not sustainable, not got the time really for any long rides, apart from making time, whats the best option here?

Depends on your aims.

Being strong for Spring is a normal aim for racing or just enjoying daylight and warmer days.

Sweetspot sessions of an hour to hour and a half.

Not looked at the Zwift FTP builders for a while as I use Trainerroad for that but pick and FTP builder should help you.

4 hilly circuit laps – I’m shagged

I’m not that heavy (78 currently) but I climb, comparatively, like a housebrick.  Think I need to commit more but the gamble is I totally destroy myself; was bloody close to that on laps 3 and 4.

Well winters here so I’ll be back on the zwift 🙂

I actually went to a zwift/Wahoo evening  do in Bristol a few weeks ago and had many a free beer and pizza and got some nice water bottles as well.

if they’re visiting your neck of the woods well worth going.

Jungle loop race today after logging in too late for a STW battle

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=97158

Cracking race, lots of climbing for me but hung in somehow in a group of 11-12 of  us on the long incline of the jungle section. Managed to use my aero on the bridge to keep me in the group and recovered on the descent.

Flat section was ok and nearly lost it on the snakey bit up towards volcano flat.

On the 2 kickers leaving volcano I was fine, then hung in up the last bit to Watopia flat. Down to the line one guy blew us away but I sat in, 275 to go I hit the pedals getting a half decent 600w, which got me 5th in group and 55th out of about 145 starters. Dead now

Good work Weeksy.

I did the Jungle circuit yesterday (3 laps). Burned 9/10ths of my matches to stay with a group on the climb up to the circuit and held on until 2 miles from the end but then got dropped. It doesn’t always work but I think it is worth putting in a big effort early on with the aim of staying with one of the front groups.

I agree 100% on flat circuits, not the case on hilly ones for big blokes though.

Nah – It’s just the same for the hilly circuits. Jungle circuit is a classic – if I can stay with a bunch up that first hilly climb, over the bridge and up to the circuit itself then chances are I’ll be fine for a lap or two………………………………. and I’m a couple of pounds/stones over my ideal weight.

Did the Danish Bike Riders race today, up the KOM climb and finish up the Alpe. Not enough of a warm up for it, and in a freezing garage, and couldn’t stay with the leaders at the top of the KOM hill. Rode with the next group until the foot of the Alpe and then it was just a TT to the summit. Caught some of the lead group, eventually finishing 10th out over 200 starters.

Nice work indeed.

WBR 3 laps of the ‘flat’ course yesterday. First zwift ride after two weeks knocked out with person-flu. Hung on to finish 60/110 or thereabouts (thanks weeksy for the ride-on), but would’ve gladly climbed off after one lap, had it not been for the fact I knew I had to get back into the regime again and shake off the feeling of post-illness lethargy.