back to Zwift racing,

just had a frustrating race, 10:16 Lamp Chop (B) Volcano CCW, was going great, big group for 4 laps, controlled by the leader, no one got gapped, but then we got caught by the A’s with 2 to go and it just exploded the group as people tried to cling onto the back of the A group, which strung everything out, i chased a group for about half a lap but just couldn’t bridge, data from one of the top 3 showed they did the last 2 laps at 330w or so, no way i can hang onto that, so let them go, slipped back into a smaller group with a mix of b’s and c’s , 2nd in the sprint for nothingness out of the 6 or so of us in B

29/58 in B

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=212204

also did the 13:10 Yorkshire Power Up Tour: All-rounder Stage, 2019 UCI Worlds Harrogate Circuit, 2 lapper, didn’t race it, just spun round, its not a course ill be doing much of, clearly helps if your a 60kg Japanese bloke, of which there were many

Seems to be 90% uphill somehow. I’m not playing on that one either.

I quite like the Yorkshire course, hard work but at full pace it destroys me. Solo parenting over weekend so might try one of the Yorkshire races as feel the need to bury myself and still come last.

Just been on zwift for the fist time in ages – did* a workout

Has reminded me to get subs sorted again for autumn/winter

(*Failed to complete – erg mode is weirdly slow to react on my setup, maybe the slow connection to the garage. Got the death spiral twice and went the other way once, 120rpm and still way down on required power. Left me a bit battered all the same)

It’s an evil course. I did a 3 lap race of it last week. Died so many times and to top it off its an uphill sprint to the line! Did enjoy it though.

was going to trainer road this morning but the lure of a race got me, did the 3R Innsbruckring Flat Race – 4 Laps at 11 this morning, with a follow forum member (don’t know your username), can normally get over the hill in touch with the group for the 1st lap but was too strong this morning, ended up in a good group of 6, it had splintered early on in the first lap and we had a decent gap to the rest of the B’s behind, picked up a couple as they dropped out the main group, couple quit, nearly got dropped on lap 3 down from the hill had to gap 10 seconds to pull them back, all together for the bunch sprint, and i mugged myself by not peddaling through the line, thought i had them all but 1 but got rolled on the line, lesson learnt

4/7 on ZP – fellow forumite 2nd, but in a different race with the front group for most of it

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=222063

I don’t think I’ll manage to finish the power up tour – rode some of the course in real life today though 🙂

Just did my first ever ramp test. Stalled at 460W giving 331W FTP. Fairly happy for first attempt. Now need to better it.

Not done a race report for a while. Had a bit of a quiet patch while our loft bathroom was being rebuilt and I couldn’t get near the zwift bike. That resulted in a bit of motivation loss. Starting to get that back now. I’ve done a couple of team time trials recently which are damn hard but really good fun.

Wife is away this weekend so plan was to do lots of turbo miles. Started with ramp test and over the mountain on Friday, race last night and planning to race a hilly route tonight if something suitable is available.

Last night’s was 6 laps of the volcano. You can tell zwinter is coming as a reasonable field of 65 turned up. My plan was to sit in and go hard with 1km left. That went out the window straight away when for some reason I exploded out of the pen. Normally I do the least possible here but went of like a rocket.

After the fast start I decided to switch plans as there was still quite a big group and double draft was on. In the team time trials we have found moving up from the back gives you a big speee differential as you hit the front. I tried to use that in the run up to the switch back ramp around the volcano to pressure the group. First three laps I did that and hit the climb at 8-10 wkg. First lap it split the pack into two groups (unfortunately both big so gap closed) and the other two it strung everyone out enough that we started to drop 2 or 3 each lap.

Lap 4 I mixed it up and attacked on the short dip just before you re-enter the volcano towards the finish banner. Again this caused a split and a few more off the back. Lap 5 I tried attacks in both places hoping to soften people up with the first and gap them on the second. Didn’t quite work as the effort was starting to kill my own legs.

The late lap attacks had shown I could get a small gap on the dip and hold it for a while so lap 6 I tried this again. Got caught on the slight rise just after entering the volcano and didn’t have enough left to sprint effectively. Came out fourth on ZP though annoyingly was showing as third on screen. A good race overall though and very enjoyable. It’s rare that I can be the one forcing the pace/attacks as normally I’m just barely hanging on.

Not done a race report for a while. Had a bit of a quiet patch while our loft bathroom was being rebuilt and I couldn’t get near the zwift bike. That resulted in a bit of motivation loss. Starting to get that back now. I’ve done a couple of team time trials recently which are damn hard but really good fun.

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=222342

I’d love to be able to race like that !!! Great stuff !

Thanks. My aim for this winter is to be able to do it more often and still have enough in the tank to sprint properly. Going to need some proper training though.

Anyone else done four of those Power Up Tour events?

Just about managed three different ones today to make it four I finished this week, but I missed the start of one of them (but these events have late join allowed).

But when I finished the fourth today, I didn’t see anything pop up to say I had unlocked the “prize” kit, which requires finishing four events.

Any ideas? That late join not counting?

Did the Viking Valhalla 100 at the weekend, my first time with a “fence” – hallelujah for that addition, kept things nice and flowing at almost the advertised w/kg.

Good race today for me

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=223150

Not a course that suits in any way for me, but I put a shift in and worked hard. Can’t do much more than that.

weeksy – I think I’ll have a go at that one too later!
I’ll report back 🙂

Was that draft enabled weeksy? Seems odd for a iTT. Evil course for a TT.

Sunday night i did a repeat of the Yorkshire Power Up Tour: Sprinter Stage, much the same as last time, a touch slower, big group of us stayed together, less splintering on the downhill section after the lap marker, need to pay attention at the end, missed a jump, some people were still getting feathers

8/41 on ZP – 4th only 3 seconds up the road

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=223990

this afternoon, managed to squeeze in an hour before the school run, did the 14:00 Team Dimension Data Zwift Academy Race: Climb, finished up the volcano spiral climb, 36km of flat, was quick at the front, got dropped lap 1 up and into and through the volcano, tagged into a group with initially 6 i think, the front group more or less stayed together throughout, 1x C fell off but it took ages to close down the 45 seconds to him, think he was doing 3.6w/kg solo for an age, then when we caught he kept surging off the front, a couple kept trying to go with him, but we always pegged back, told the group not to chase but they kept at it, so did some little attacks off the front when we pegged them back knowing full well id get dropped on the climb anyway, the climb was about trying to stay away from anyone closing, 1 got me, a 55kg Chinese rider (shortest and lightest in the field) who ended up above B limit anyway

like weeks said “Not a course that suits in any way for me, but I put a shift in and worked hard. Can’t do much more than that.”

6/11 in B

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=224024

Was that draft enabled weeksy?

Nope. All on TT bikes with non draft

weeksy – I think I’ll have a go at that one too later!
I’ll report back

Good luck!!!!

That was hard work! 19/45.

First time in ages I’ve actually scored some improvement points too (all 0.83 of them :))

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=223153

Surprised myself with a bronze in C in SZR iTT Autumn Racing league. 29km, no drafting so no real racing. Just plodded round listening to some music and got my first trophy 🙂
No doubt next time I log on to gloat I’ll find myself bumped to 4th place.

EDIT: I dared myself to refresh the page and its turned to gold. Might have a beer

Another nice C victory in the KISS EU race tonight! Predictably, I got shelled on the first kicker. These NYC crit courses are quite similar to IRL around here I’d say. Climbs- but generally short enough to blag it with moar powerz!!

Anyway- lap 1 and blag I did not, and with them *just* out of reach and still doing 5.0w/kg, I eased off then nearly missed a group of 4-6 in no mans land!
With 5 laps remaining and being the fatty, I decided to go on the offensive each time up the hill and use any power-up to attack. Once or twice I’d carry it on over the other side and get a gap.

Eventually we whittled it down to 3 and then another TFC rider came back from up the road. I decided to help him out by attacking as much as I could to force the others to chase. Once or twice I’d get 10 or 15s up the road but by the last lap we were back together. One guy went early and I covered it for the TFC guy so he could sit in. That nearly cooked me! I had planned to go at 0.7miles but sadly was still recovering. By 0.5 I thought now or never and soon had 30metres on the group. HR was over 190 but I hoped I could hold it and fortunately I did. Top C and two of the group were B’s which was nice.

I’m noticing more and more the insane figures of riders after races. I often have a little check how STWers have done, for example yesterday one of our lads got an 8th in C in the Zwift app results (obviously totally different in Zwiftpower i imagine). Then looked at the other riders above him, most were 4+ for the race.

The more races i see, the more i see that too. If you’re a true C, it’s rare you seem to get races like Crosshairs yesterday where you’re battling proper Cs.

I think it just comes back to the W/kg metric and how unsuitable it is for grouping folk together.
With the KISS races being mass start at the minute, it becomes totally irrelevant. The first climb does the work of sifting everyone into the right group on the road for that day and then it’s game on! To be fair, every race I’ve done this year has been the same with constant attacks and stuff in a small group.

As I get ever closer to buying a smart trainer a question for the STW Zwifters

Do you always race or do you take part in group rides?
No way I’ll be up for racing but the idea of a virtual group ride does appeal

I’ve been doing some group rides recently, not so much for the social aspect, but for completing the Zwift Academy 2019 Challenge. Sometimes I might do a group ride simply because of the course, as some routes are event only. There’s plenty of group rides going on through the week, but you can always join a race/TT and not care about the result.

https://zwiftpower.com/ gives you the events shedule with a filter, but it’s easier to filter IMO through the Zwift Companion app for Android (iOS too?) by event type and W/Kg.

50-50 for me depending on mood/plans.

Pretty much always race but I’ve set myself a target on making A+. That’s going to mean training.

no racing today, however, i did jump on the scales for the first time in a couple of months, and I’m down 2.4kg from June, which was a nice surprise, I’ve changed nothing diet wise, i guess its come from simply upping the volume/intensity, so profile updated!

I was going to wait until tomorrow to get back to racing but couldn’t contain my excitement.
Stumbled on the Dirt Cup Series starting at a time and day that suits so I might try and do a bunch of them.
Nice steady start in Cs as the categories are split except for 3 who took a flyer but ignored them. 2 dropped and the other was 5wkg by the end.
Sat in on the flat around Fuego then it kicked off on the first ramp towards Titan Grove which split the front group. Sat near the front until the main climb then put a big dig in to try and break it up then another smaller one nearer the top but nothing doing other than hurting legs hopefully. The next little climb is too little unless you are going to throw done a lot of watts so sat in for a sprint. Unfortunatley seat had lowerd itself by an inch after straightening beforehand (excuse). 1 rider took off with 700m to go but was pulled back by 300m and got my nose almost to the front but pipped for 5th place (4th on ZP).
Pretty happy as it wasn’t a suffer fest of hanging onto As and Bs and I put a 1minute power PR for Zwift races. Also well within Cat C category limits at erm erm 3.187WKG :0)
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=223829

Good write up.. I miss my good C form 🙂

had a great race this afternoon, did the Team DiDa 4 Lap London Classique at 2pm, wasn’t going to do one at all, did the 3 Lap UCI Harrogate job yesterday (31/84 on the app) and legs felt a bit cooked,

anyway back to today, hard out the gate as usual, settled into a group of 13, no one went out the back, got feathers for the first couple of laps which helped when it goes to a short 5% at one point, 4km to go i was dead, but managed to hang in, 2 A’s went with 1.5km to go, think a B went with them, they only got 4 seconds down the road but it was enough, another B went with 0.5km to go, and i decided to follow, another 5m id have had him, finished 0.08s behind him, held off anyone behind, finished 5th overall on the companion app and 2nd B in ZP

super happy with that

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=225437

Good reports both.

I did the WTRL team time trial last night with BRT. I’ve been under the weather with a cold so didn’t quite go to plan. Course was 2 laps of Harrogate. PB prior to the event was 19:50ish but as a team we were aiming for 19ish laps. Got off to a great start as we nailed the launch and were formed up with 20s. Up to the KOM was nice a tight but from then on it went a bit wrong for. I was the dead weight up the KOM but some super support on discord got me to the top with the group. Rest of the lap was a blur as I attempted to recover and also do some work. Lap 1 came in at 19:10 ish so super fast for me.

Lap 2 started and I was doing ok. Top of the drag I was starting to lag and dispite a huge effort on the next 2 ramps I had to admit defeat, drop off and leave the remaining 6 to it. Cruised to the end and tried to support them on discord. They put in a huge job but unfortunately missed 2nd by 9 thousands of a second!

I was gutted to have failed to get to the end with the pack. However last night and a previous TTT now make up 2 of my best 3 20 minute efforts. They are so hard but at the same time great fun.

Awesome race with fellow STWer. It was Tempus Fugit, so mostly flat and shortish at 19km.

We both went off in lead group, but a bunch of As flew past and i thought “we’re not staying with them” but they eased and the blob brought them back. The next 12-13km flew by as i was pushing hard, seeing 174, 175, 176 on the HR, right up at my flat out effort… But i managed to stay in there, so did my STW buddy… It was a group of 15-16 i think. With about 5-6km to the end it all went off, a bunch of As split, then some Bs split after them but don’t think they made it, I’d already decided if this happens i was sitting in my group, not kicking, i was seeing 177bpm now and finding it hard. A little 1% false flat saw me change to a gear lighter and increase cadence which helpd…. So we sat in our group of 5-6 with the distance ticking down. With 700m to go we were together and on 550m i wound it up, i don’t have a sprint, but sometimes i have a kick… I could only hold it till 350m to the line though and my fellow riders all went past me, including the STW guy 😀

bit of a bummer, but got an FTP increase to 275w, which was nice… I don’t do FTP tests and i knew i was WAY less than 295w i previously set, so i dropped it a few weeks ago to 255w to see what racing gives me… I’m happy at 275w for a short term effort, it gives me a target anyway.

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=224845

Nice write up Weeksy, I enjoyed that, was clinging on until the end, thanks for the lead out :). I may be getting a dq as I seem to have gone over cat limit.

I am still recovering from a broken collarbone so have also lowered my ftp setting a bit. Prior to break I was bordering on a bump up to B, hoping to hold off being chucked into B as I only get decent results in C over the flatter short stages. Have previously tried a few B races and just end up getting shelled out the back on the slightest incline and then riding solo. Guess losing some wait would help with that?

Well done guys!

Average 270watts / 3.17wkg

That’s showing for you currently, so you should be ok. But once today’s race is applied, you may be a B. I think they’re run overnight.
You’ve got enough power for B yes, but as you guess, weight is the issue. Like myself.
But I reckon you need 10kg off to be a decent B. I know that’s unrealistic in my world that’s for sure.

great stuff!

7 laps of Yorkshire UCI course tomorrow anyone? 😆

Think I’d rather ride in the heavy rain for ~5 hours than suffer that saddle and leg torture!