Zwift, my journey, my weight and my fitness.

Entries are open for next week’s Team Time Trial at 6.30pm on Thursday as usual.

Enter category D here: https://www.zwift.com/events/view/822309

Then, if you haven’t ridden with us before, append (STW) to your Rider Name in zwiftpower settings.

It will be, um, 2 laps of the Harrogate UCI Course. This is my favourite course riding solo. It’ll be an interesting challenge together but we genuinely did an OK job on the hills of Out and Back the other week. The following four weeks will include Greatest London Flat, Waistband and Tick Tock so the flatlands will be back.

I’ll be back with a more precise start time on Weds evening.

We took 44:13, which was 39.27km/h.
That put us 286/530 overall, and 30/147 in our category (which this week was Latte). Those are pretty satisfying numbers.

wow, that’s pretty good! Is that our highest placing so far? (Think we normally ride in Frappe though cos of the A riders?)

I have signed up for next week even though the course looks pretty tough. Weather forecast is a bit cooler which should help. Yeah we stayed together ok on the hills, except right at the end. Good interval training closing the gap though I guess 😂

Yeah we usually tick into Frappe.

Top 20% eh? We’re almost starting to get the hang of this!

Harrogate is going to be interesting, I don’t think there’s a flat bit on that course and for me it’s very difficult to ride what’s on Zwift instead of the roads proper since I know them well and the hills kick in different places.

Nice results lads, If you go over 3 Bs or a single A you end up in Frappe.

So I’ve been pulling you into a much tougher cat without actually helping that much with the result 😉

I’ve entered – thanks again for organising Savoyad.

Entered ta – is showing as magnificent 8 for the route. Beyond its not Harrogate I’ve no idea what that means

I’m out for next week, same reason as Weeksy. I’ll just hold you back on the course.

Oooh, I get home advantage.

How many laps?

Well I’m from and grew up in Wharfedale but that course is no good for me 👍😂

Just done the ‘D’ route of Stage 5 of TforE and it felt pretty good all things considered. Another tiny notch up on the FTP and for the first 6-7km was part of a nice group but just couldn’t stick with them.

I am deeply impressed with how Zwift gives a sense of working together in a bunch – really does work well.

Had a fan running as well which made a huge difference to how I felt. Still a long way to go of course but I feel pretty good post ride today as opposed to dead the last couple. Still tired but in a ‘that was worth the effort’ way as opposed to ‘why did I bother putting myself through that’ feeling.

but that course is no good for me 👍😂

I don’t think it is that course.

I’ve had a look at magnificent 8 and it looks like it should suit your almost-a-lanc heritage 😉

I’m debating whether to race at 17:45 with Dangerbrain in the Crit race…. i’ve already been out today and am out tomorrow too… but it’s tempting.

You fancy it Dog ? He’s in B and i won’t be a DQ so have gone in B with him too.

Oh dear, I’ve got company now. Big boy pants it is.

(we’ve a taker in cat C too by the looks)

I’m thinking of getting the carbon bike out of the neighbours garage !!!

I’m thinking of getting the carbon bike out of the neighbours garage !!!

Don’t you think you’d be better off nicking one from further away? I mean your neighbour will surely know it was you within minutes?

Don’t you think you’d be better off nicking one from further away? I mean your neighbour will surely know it was you within minutes?

It’s OK, he lives in Canada and can’t fly back 🙂

In that case just knock the wall through. Take the number off the door and pretend it’s always been one house when they return.

I’ve entered the 17.45 to make sure you guys aren’t slacking!!!

Ah drat I mean, yay!

Just so I know how close to the bike the bucket needs to be, am I racing against you or with you?

I’ve never done a short race like this before – so I honestly have no idea what to expect. I assume we just go flat out from the start?!!

Well, sorta yes… you’ll be 500w off the line, settling into 300-330w for the rest of it… peaks and lows throughout the distance, some attacks, some rests… i’ll basically be trying to find and hold the lead group, which essentially will contain both you and danger. It depends how many rogue 5w/kg idiots we get in as to whether we’ll be holding that group.

I’m racing against both of you… but based upon what we’ve seen, i’ll be hanging on for as long as possible until i die…

I’m deffo getting the carbon roadie out now !!!

@phil56 yeah, I think this race is only 20 something minutes so the pace will be faster than normal. If you’re near the top of your category limit normally you might need to enter the one above!! Don’t know if this race has power-ups, but if it does you get LOTS of them as the laps are short. Ghost or Buritto are especially useful for making moves, think this course is pretty flat (not actually raced it before!)

2020-05-22_05-06-41 by Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

wowswer

Last (and only) time I did a crit I got spat out on about lap 6. Front of the group was holding about 350-400W which, even if I could hold on to it, would have put me into a DQ any how.

The only thing I can add to the above is get in a bit early. I was a late comer and getting through the pack to pick up the front group off the line ruined me.

yup, i’ll be first on line 🙂

Oh goody, Dog is in to give me a pasting too !!!! need to bring my A game here.

lost it on lap 6 down the kicker…. lost group and tried to hang on, i had 58s to Dogs group, but lost it on the rollers on final lap and they caught me, couldn’t stay with them. bum

3rd on the road Phil. Bloody good effort for a first run! (edit: 2nd on zp)

Well done all. That was (type 2) fun.

You were in that lead group a fair while Steve, by lap six I was still showing 350w average to hold in there.

My cat c didn’t go brilliantly, was cutting it fine to make the start on time but made it with a couple of minutes to spare so thought I’d change my jersey.

AppleTV remote was it’s usual shit-fest so I missed the start and had to start putting the power down whilst still in the menus which wasn’t ideal! Got sorted and found I was in the second group on the road which is usually fatal but some of us actually got back in touch.

All was going well-ish until the last couple of laps when I got no power-ups other than points so started to fade off the back a bit, kept it together until the last km then blew and ended up 14th on the road with a 303w average.

(2nd on ZP)

I was happy enough with most of my performance. I was in trouble the lap before and needed a wheel, but then where it drops down the hill I seem to lose too much momentum trying to grab a breath of two, I then lost the wheel.

The carbon thing was nice in some ways but I missed the familiarity of knowing what gear and when, but it gets the power down well enough.

Beer now

Lol that’s 5w more than me!!!

Well I was winning that Cat B race for the first 500-750 metres 😀😂👍

Hung onto lead group for about the first half then got broke into a smaller group. Unfortunately the other guys in the smaller group were scared of the wind so we got swallowed up by the larger chase.

Then it was just a case of ride and chat as we were 20 places back.

I ain’t a B Cat rider that’s for sure 👍

Zwift fictional FTP went up to 296w so that was nice

Couple more like that and Phil’s gonna be A Cat

That was fun! It really is pretty much flat out all the way and watch the moves like a hawk!
Happy with the result – I thought I get DQ’d – 365w/4.2wkg.
Put my FTP up to 344!

Well done everyone – it was good to see STW names popping up on the screen!

Zwiftpower are only interested in 95% of your 20min effort, if that’s under 4.1W/Kg, you don’t get DQed from B… Definitely not something I need to worry about, even at Crit City! 😆

I got DQ’d at Crit from my last race in C 😂😂

DQ didn’t show up until a few hours later though

I ain’t a B Cat rider that’s for sure

There’s got to be someone in that 2nd group!

Pace slackened off in the last 2 laps which is good. I didn’t dip under 350w until lap 7 which would have seen me DQ’d up to A and believe me tiger, if you think you’re not a B I’ll be so far off the pace in A everything will be an ITT!

8th on ZP which surprises me though. Was struggling to hold the group a few times and had to chase back on.

Oh and bloody first aid bonuses laps 2 through 5 didn’t help!

Well I was winning that Cat B race for the first 500-750 metres

We’re you the loon in grey that shot off the front?

Yep

700-800w loon sprint start😂👍

Out the blocks like Leeeeeeeroy!! Jenkins!

You’re a decent B mate, not a race winner yet but deffo a decent B.

Hang on.. 🙂

weeksy

I think you’d kill D if you didn’t go out too hard.. I’d say you’re a decent C…. not quite a race winning C at the moment, but up the sharp end i think

Posted 2 weeks ago

weeksy

You’re a decent B mate, not a race winner yet but deffo a decent B.

Posted 59 minutes ago

Cool! in 2 weeks I’ll be a Cat A

Not a race winning Cat A but come on…. 🙂

Lol exactly. Top C is an average B.

All I’m saying is the Weeksy magic worked for me…

weeksy

The guy you beat into 2nd was quite well ranked too, i don’t see you in C for very long.

Posted 2 months ago