Zwift, my journey, my weight and my fitness.

Other than a couple of sprints tomorrows session will be fairly relaxed I think. You should be able to do SS session an still do the group ride with little impact. You don’t have to compete the sprints either.

The site has now corrected/updated to show next week on Out and Back Again.

On a hilly course we can still work together – and all we can do is the best time we can manage as a team on that course – that’s good enough for me.

yeah, obviously I will try my best but I don’t really care where we place 😃 It’s just a laugh, innit? (Unless we win, that would be awesome 😂)

So I’m up for the course with the Volcano climb. (I actually don’t mind that one, I prefer it to say, Box Hill – I think because it doesn’t have the steep bits)

You always have the option of cranking down the difficulty which makes the climbs less “climby”

Other than a couple of sprints tomorrows session will be fairly relaxed I think. You should be able to do SS session an still do the group ride with little impact. You don’t have to compete the sprints either.

Ok thanks.

Actually I have a rubber-banded club ride 9-10am so I may do my SS then and use this as some extra miles, as I only have MTB (the lockdown version) on Sunday.   I already has an invite from Weeksy (thanks!) so have accepted. See you all there, I’ll add STW to my name for tomorrow.

Great effort on the TT guys, I’m in awe that you can sustain those numbers for so long.

Hoping that all your legs are mince for tomorrows group ride and I might have a chance of keeping up with you all. 🙂

We had a nightmare. Not sure if we had the drafting bug for 1 rider but it took until after the start finish to bring it all back together trying to slow front riders and bring back people who dropped off to help. We had 6 out of 8 left at that point. After that it went well enough but a few were fried at that point.
About 100 seconds behind your team 44:18.

Out and back should be good for you Weeksy. Yes the Volcano will be hard but your power will benefit everywhere else. Even if you do big pulls for the first half hour and get as far up the Volcano as you can after that dragging them then pull over.

At least up the volcano you can actually see what WKG everyone is doing and it makes sense rather than on the flat and you have to remember how much everyone weighs.

At least up the volcano you can actually see what WKG everyone is doing and it makes sense

yup, lack of a watts readout sucks!! They should have one instead of the distance readout during races (or at least have the option to swap it, distance is useful occasionally to see if people are lapping you I guess!)

ALSO for the next TTT 2 of the 3 guys wearing black helmets need to choose some more distinctive headwear 😂 apart from them, it was easy to tell everyone in the group apart!

At least up the volcano you can actually see what WKG everyone is doing

Does drafting actually work up hill?

They should have one instead of the distance readout during races

Distance only shows on the main screen name tags doesn’t it? On the side bar it’s time which is pointless. Distance I find quite helpful in the TTT but it only seems to show to the riders behind you.

ALSO for the next TTT 2 of the 3 guys wearing black helmets need to choose some more distinctive headwear

*Looks for rasta hat *

Hmm jerseys might be a better bet for something easily distinguished I’ve only 2 choices of head gear and I don’t suppose glasses would be very obvious

Drafting does work up hill but the effect is less due to speed. Gradients up to 4/5% are very draftable.

Does drafting actually work up hill?

it definitely works on shallower climbs where you’re still moving at a decent speed. I’m sure I read an article on this recently but can’t find it now.

Did find a ZI article though that mentioned the draft effect is increased for groups of 4+ (good news for TTT!) which also talked about the “sticky draft”, which is something I’d forgotten about. (Basically there is a range at which you can hold a wheel, not a single wattage so e.g. you might ride at exactly the same speed if you were drafting at 200W vs 220W, so it’s worth experimenting to find out exactly where the low end of the range is!)

Hmm jerseys might be a better bet for something easily distinguished I’ve only 2 choices of head gear and I don’t suppose glasses would be very obvious

Hair colour/style? I’ve grown attached to the “swarm of bees” look now 😂

Harrumph.

Now displaying the “ginger mess” hairstyle so I guess I’m having a mid bike crisis and reliving my student days.

I hope you’re happy…

Anyone doing to tour for all?

What is going on with the categories now?! Can you go in whichever category you want?!

The peer pressure on Weeksy right now!

@robbo From what I can see the races are still the usual categories, the group rides are multi category and have 2 options, A is a longer group ride, B a shorter option.

Is rubber band on the group rides? Might do some of my recovery rides if they are

Do I need a specific Jersey for STW rides before I take the green one? :p 😉

@ Robbo No rubber bands, don’t be fooled by the term “group rides”, they are basically races, everyone goes off full tilt and keeps going.

@ Kryton its the yellow and black stripey bee jersey

, everyone goes off full tilt and keeps going.

That’s not true, only DrP does that

@danger talking about the tour for all group rides not the STW group rides.

Also doesn’t magneto try and stay up with Dr P?! 🙂

Dangeourbrain, we are talking about the Zwift Tour group rides, not the STW ones.

True about DrP though 🙂

Damn – too late!

Ah makes sense.

I was thinking earlier though it would be good to rubber band the group rides and just not mention it to the front group.

Well done on the TTT result guys. I’ve been doing them (shifts allowing)for the virtual team I ride for, WKG, since January. It’s taken us a few races to get it dialled so it’s nice and smooth. We generally set off at a half decent pace (but not to much to put yourself into the red straight away) then we take 30s turns on the front before dropping back for a breather. If one of us is struggling they shout up and miss a turn or two to recover(ish 😁) changing your first name on Zwift to have a number on it (1-8, depending how many are in your team) helps you know when it’s your turn on the front.

Dr P needs to start showing us he’s a man and can play with the big hitters, not just sodding off at the front at 2.5w/kg but being there when the 300+w watt monsters start hitting the tempo. Then he can truly be on of the protagonists of the stw tempo club.

Well done on the TTT result guys. I’ve been doing them (shifts allowing)for the virtual team I ride for, WKG, since January. It’s taken us a few races to get it dialled so it’s nice and smooth. We generally set off at a half decent pace (but not to much to put yourself into the red straight away) then we take 30s turns on the front before dropping back for a breather. If one of us is struggling they shout up and miss a turn or two to recover(ish 😁) changing your first name on Zwift to have a number on it (1-8, depending how many are in your team) helps you know when it’s your turn on the front.

Yesterday was mostly 1-2 riders dragging us along and the rest of us wishing we could get to the front to take a turn. We’re more a bunch of riders being a team in spirit but not necessarily in talent

If we tried this at INEOS, several of us would have been sacked by now

I was definitely cowering behind Phil’s awesomeness yesterday 🤣

Be nice to get @DrP in on some TTT action.

If we tried this at INEOS, several of us would have been sacked by now

That’s true, none of us has crashed yet.

(well I have, but that was metaphorical)

Right I’m going to go have a look at this volcano climb for half an hour since I’ve not done it before and it seems as good a test as any of whether my trainer has stopped making every bump in the road into the North face of the eiger

Sub 10 for it you need.

I’m expecting sub 9

Sub 10 for it you need.

I’m expecting sub 9

This evening unlikely. I’m officially done for the week so it’s Friday wind down. Since there’s no opportunity for a pub stop I’ve got a beer to keep me company and I’m commuting home in my jeans.

I’m not even wearing my hrm. I feel like such a rebel

I just did my ERG Training Ride on the Out and Back Route, there’s a lot of flat before you get to the Volcano climb,

I actually think the Volcano descent and the final shorter (but steeper) climb after the Volcano will be the trickier bits to keep together on

That’s going to be horrid for TTT

Really selling it…

Yeah I know. I think if we all knew the course inside and out it wouldn’t be so bad but it’s a lot of short kicks which will just tear us apart as a few of us just kick off the front every time.

I’m up for it but it will be carnage I think. (I would be up for it mind because whilst I’m not “a climber” I quite like climbing).

I’m expecting sub 9

8.06, I was disappointed not to get sub 8 but was too hot as I wasn’t really planning on hitting it at all so really not dressed for the effort.

Hoping to join you guys this morning, what’s the format? Is it just a group pootle or all out mash fest? I’ll try and bumblebee up too

Today is short 6km laps…

1 lap on one lap off sprint for the line, then re-group…. Should get 4 sprint efforts in for the hour. Best sprint wins 🙂

It’s all about the re-grouping and waiting really for the others. Some guys will pull out 10-15-20s gap on the sprints, so need to slow down. But most do.

I’ll sit on the back of the group and roll through the sprints, then pick up and stragglers and tow them back to the next bunch up. We’ve used this format before and everyone really enjoyed it.

After about 45 mins i’ll give everyone the choice between a final sprint, or a tempo session … Last time, they chose sprint, but today, who knows 🙂

I’ll likely stay on and ride for another 45 mins afterwards on the same layout.

8.06

See this is kinda my point, i think i’m right up in the near 10 mins mark. edit: checked and i’ve put in a 9:01 but i don’t think that was mid events for sure, more likely an effort on a particular day. My other 2 closest times are a 9:59 and 10:01.
edit edit. Average power for that, 302w and a max of 397. That’s pretty much an FTP effort for me there.

So even if i COULD do a 9:01 i’m then still 1 minute behind… that’s a ridiculous amount of time for you guys to lose because of me.

Weeksy. Did you see my not on the other thread. Richmond will be busy today as it is a guest world so you might want to change to London.

that’s a ridiculous amount of time for you guys to lose because of me.

We’ve to get there and back as well which I suspect will break me.

Some weeks it’ll suit some it won’t. Be nice to have you along but if you don’t fancy it just ring cow bells at us down discord this week. 😉

edit: checked

How did you do that? Strava? I’ve not linked my zwift as I didn’t see much point, if it’s got actual use I might do.

How did you do that? Strava? I’ve not linked my zwift as I didn’t see much point, if it’s got actual use I might do.

Yeah I looked on ZP to see which event it was as I knew the name, Vatterundan or whatever it was, that told me the date I did it, I then looked on Zwift. That then found me the volcano segment which was up in the 11s as I was cruising it. But I can then see all my times etc for my PR