Zwift Team Time Trial, Thursday

nope 🤣 … well volunteered though 😃👍

Hahaha. It’s way too stressful, I’m not surprised you got met by silence. When I do it, I forget what it is I am supposed to do at about 7 or 6 on the onscreen countdown, and then a bit later I usually get muddled about what the time delay actually is and start doubting myself whilst we are sat there waiting. @phil56 said “I’ll do the time if you like this week” one time back in April and he’s still doing countdowns to this day!

In fact (motivated by the fact I got it wrong earlier as well as this) I’m going to put tonight’s delays into the chat in discord so they are there right in front of us all I think. I’ll probably get that wrong too.

Wouldn’t be that hard for the start clock to count down past zero, I’d have thought
That’d be a big help

Great ride STW, shame about losing Ant & Martin, was looking almost professional at one point:
Passing a team on a hill always tricky though! 2nd lap was much tighter, really good. Looks like MoreSTW had a fast ride!

Excellent start – we were ripping along I thought, but then disaster – a stretched out overtake half way up a hill, with the other team at a similar pace, I was near the rear trying to get through as bumble bees started to come back towards me, out of the team we were passing, but they were not us, so that was a slight pause.

As I hit the crest I couldn’t see Martin behind me any more in the rider list, so tried to press on and catch the rest of the team, but all I succeeded in doing is pulling the whole team we passed along with me, they were not interested in backing off. When I did catch up I dumped them all on the rest of you and died in a ditch.

Dragged myself out of the ditch as Martin caught up, he and I double teamed to the end, went through at least 4 teams.

This is the proper passing procedure

Wow, eventful ride for us

Lost Mark out of the gates and dithered a bit before pressing on – sorry about that, all a bit weird but looks like you got on to team STW so well played sir !

We passed a BRT team quite early on but they seemed to have a real trick on the downs and caught us again. We rode on, dropped them and then the same happened again – I think they must smash it over the top and then go for a supertuck or something. Maybe nixie can tell us the secret technique ?

Climbs – **** me !!
We went up the massive steep one, me gasping like a landed bloody fish over the top and then somebody says “here comes the steep one”. WTF-F ??? 😮
Must learn to climb (or weight-dope !)

Thanks for towing me round boys – was on my limit for very large parts of that and haven’t matched that sustained power in the last 18 months

Belter from MoreSTW. No idea about times but thought we worked really well as a team. Shame we lost @Mahowlett in the pen…looking at Zilogs screen shot you made it into the STW team no bother. Nixies advice was good, was giving the draft from the back of the group a go, it really helped get to the front of the group. Trying it from second wheel was actually harder! Anyway, we must of done alright as we kept Phil fairly quiet!

Edit-if that was you @scaredypants who said you were on the limit it didn’t show! Good effort

Enjoyed that. Pretty tight group all the way around. STW = 47:36. MoreSTW =45.52

Cheers all. We started of well but seemed to catch teams at the wrong points and one of them was dressed as a bumblebee so that added to the confusion. Sorry to ant and Martin think you got caught up in an overtake.

Wall was as bad as I thought. Put too much into it on the first lap as again we caught teams but when we went over the second smaller hill I lost the wheel and doing 300w couldn’t get back on so thanks for waiting all!

2nd lap was much better as you say!

Comms was better on the whole I thought – everyone contributed and at times we did manage to get in a line! Not the best course to try new tactics on perhaps!

Oh and discord with the overlay worked pretty well this week!

I think we paced that just right, MoreSTW. That’s a very hard course to ride as a unit like that yet we never properly split. And (hesitation at the start, and a bit of a tangle with the BRT team aside) I can’t think of anywhere that our group could have done it faster, together.

And yes, on normal roads when the group is pushing on, I think one thing to take from what nixie said is that 2nd wheel is a place you shouldn’t go forward from.

Robbo, how do you overlay discord ? I tried and could have a text window open but couldn’t see the speech icons/names at all

@scaredypants it is in the options but you can move the overlay around once you opened it up. I think it defaults to top left corner so is over the power box.

https://www.howtogeek.com/663465/how-to-enable-and-customize-discords-in-game-overlay/

I think I used this guide but there is a screenshot a couple of pages back to show where you click to move the overlay around.

Well a total discord disaster for me, sorry about that, had it set up on my phone beside me and it connected ok, I thought it was a bit quiet in the pen, but wasn’t too bothered until close to the start time by which time it was too late. Realised a few seconds before start that something was wrong, but figured I’d just watch for the bumblebees to start rolling then join them. except I didn’t see anyone move, and by then it was clearly past the start time, rolled over the banner in the hope I’d spot you on the map and be able to catch, but still couldn’t see anyone, then I relaised my phone had connected to my bluetooth headphones upstairs, hence the silence. So changed my tag and waited for the STW group instead, few seconds to go I switched my fan on, and very quickly realised I couldn’t hear discord over my fan, so i had to ride pretty much without it, could just about hear if someone was talking just couldn’t hear what was being said, so I just had to do the best I could, not blow off the front and not fall off the back, That probably made my pace a bit up and down, which doesn’t help the others, and also meant I couldn’t contribute to the pace of the group as much as I should have. The race itself went ok, the hills certainly didn’t make it easy, but we mostly kept it together, and we had a strong finish. Hopefully next time I’ll get discord better set up, and a flatter course will help us work together better.

Hope it hasn’t put you off @mahowlett. The oddities of the format mean there’s always a risk of this kind of thing happening. I’m glad you managed to join up with team STW. The results system has now moved you across into the right team, with the right time (we can ignore the TAG! flag etc). It does mean STW moved across to frappe though. Never mind.

@scaredypants robbo gave you the official answer on discord. my unofficial answer is that the overlay only appears about 50% of the time, and when it doesn’t it’s always in awful circumstances to figure it out (just getting a bit cold in cycling kit, fan blaring, can’t quite reach the keyboard, hobbling around on cleats, phil shouting “2 minutes to go” in your ear, children asking why you aren’t even on your bike yet because they just saw it flashing “GO” on the screen). To be fair, it works every time when I test it sat at my desk. Not so reliable in the actual event. I suspect (because I’m not changing any settings) it’s to do with multiple displays and the order I open the apps in…

Moving on…next week is a very different kind of challenge. And probably better suited to trying out some more organised riding if you are inclined to that.

The team entries are in. I’ll post the entry link as soon as it appears.

Hope it hasn’t put you off @mahowlett. The oddities of the format mean there’s always a risk of this kind of thing happening. I’m glad you managed to join up with team STW.

just a question of some improved kit for Discord I think! I’d definitely recommend a decent bluetooth headset (or just ‘phones with a decent mic)

next week… I always find flat courses pretty tough as there’s no descents to have a rest on! Should make it easier to stay together though and hopefully make any passes easier.

https://zwift.com/news/12434-race-recon-greater-london-flat?enableFeatureFlags=new_cancel_feature,missions,locale_es_eu

It is this course in reverse next week BTW – 2 laps!

We passed a BRT team quite early on but they seemed to have a real trick on the downs and caught us again. We rode on, dropped them and then the same happened again – I think they must smash it over the top and then go for a supertuck or something. Maybe nixie can tell us the secret technique ?

I’ve just watched this back. We all got by, but never actually gapped them in the pass. So we all descended Cornwall Road (both teams, us and BRT) as one big blob. Initially we were the front 5, them the rest, no gaps though. They didn’t so much catch us as some of them rotated to the front of that combined group. Half way up the next climb, we managed to get past the next team (Glasgow Tri) better than them, and we got away as a unit again. But when we hit Pot Bank Wall they smashed past us, by surging at the base and then pushing 1, maybe 1.5 w/kg more than us all the way up. Not something we could have matched I don’t think. After that they just rode the 2nd lap quicker than us.

We must have gone out quite hot, especially considering we hesitated over @mahowlett, to take 30 seconds out of them so early.

There was some supertucking, but it didn’t make a difference – one of them supertucked but within our joint group, the rest rode the same watts as us throughout that tangled up bit.

savoyad
I’ve just watched this back

Not that I particulcarly want to but how have you watched it back, Adam? Do you record the rides?

Oh, and RELAX everyone; I think I’ve worked out the overlay thing (hadn’t relaised you set voice & chat via totally separate menus)

We must have gone out quite hot, especially considering we hesitated over @mahowlett, to take 30 seconds out of them so early.

You’re not kidding ! I remember looking at the WHAAAATs and thinking I’d last about half a lap

OK – it’s 2x Greater London Flat (forwards, not reverse as previously advertised…I don’t think that even exists). 29 very flat kilometres. But unlike the Tuesday night race the other week, I think (?) it will have the lead in. Thursday, 7.40pm as usual.

Riders – sign up to category A here: https://zwift.com/events/view/1323707 (category A whatever you normally ride).

Signed up! Thanks for staying on as Team Manager even though you can’t ride anymore!

We’re on 5 riders at the moment – so plenty of room for others, especially if we are to maintain our run of putting out two teams.

2 laps of Greater London Flat, Thursday 7.40pm. Sign up to category A here: https://zwift.com/events/view/1323707

I’ve signed up, but like last week I’m 50/50 whether I can make it. Kids are at athletics until 7pm, 30 min drive home doesn’t leave much time for getting ready.
Obviously if there’s 8 I’m happy to make way for a guaranteed attendee.

https://zwiftinsider.com/wtrl-ttt-86/

Some info on this weeks course

9 entries so far. More riders welcome – sign up to category A here:

https://zwift.com/events/view/1323707

(it’s category A regardless of your usual category, it works differently here…)

I’ve signed up for tonight’s race.

Can’t do tonight I’m afraid, I’ll be at work eating mince pies. Enjoy.

I’m unable to join in tonight. Got to take my dad Xmas shopping.

@savoyad Apologies Adam, but I now can’t make tonight’s TTT – family issue I need to attend to.

I think this will be first one I’ve missed – I hope it doesn’t cause any problems.

Phil – shame you can’t make it but hope your family stuff gets sorted.

That’s a really good run to be the first one you missed. Look forward to seeing you back next week!

Ahh drat. No Paino and no Phil means I really need to bring my good legs today!

Enjoy the mince pies Paino.

Hope it’s nothing serious Phil and all gets sorted.

No worries @phil56, you’ve had quite the run without missing a week ! I hope you get things sorted.

I’ll post teams/tags shortly. There will be room for more riders, so if anyone still fancies a ride, category A here: https://zwift.com/events/view/1323707

“ohhh a perfect 8 of us”, oh I’m not on that list ”
I’ve never noticed before how annoying not being grouped with riders I’m following is on Zwift.
(possibly not 8 of us and I’m just not following everybody)

I think there is 11 @dangeourbrain

How was the Dirt ride @savoyad – any tips for us?

Let’s go with:

Team MoreSTW +10 minutes so in the pen by 19:40, off at 19:50, Discord TTT (MoreSTW)

@w00dster – change your tag!

@scaredypants

@trolo1234 – change your tag!

@haloric – sort your tag!

@mbs – change your tag!
(**@w00dster is a doubt for the start. With 5 riders, it’s the 4th whose time counts; with 4 riders it’s the 3rd whose time counts).

Team STW +17 minutes so in the pen by 19:40 and off at 19:57, Discord TTT (STW)

@dangeourbrain

@yanboss

@munkeymadness – change your tag!

@mahowlett – sort your tag!

@robbo1234biking

@zilog6128

Yes I have a tip: the ramp after that sudden right onto Northumberland Avenue (3.6km, at the end of the lead in) and the climb out of the subway (twice, 14.9km and 26.7km) are the bits where staying together can be hard. I’d go for @haloric and @robbo1234biking pacing their respective teams up there on the grounds that I’ve witnessed both do a good job of that in recent TTTs.

Back to the big delays I see. Can’t you enter us fit the wrong time zone again savoyad? Seem to recall that worked out well in the end. 😉

The good thing about that middle of the night time zone is you are guaranteed short delays if you actually ride there AND you get gifted short delays if you ask for a late move to another time zone. Can’t lose.

Great ride! Very little in it between the two teams. Obviously one of the easiest courses to keep it together, and we only did 2 passes, but thought we (STW) were pretty tight! I even managed a couple of feeble turns on the front 😀 Some good turns from everybody, and only noticed a few “dead spots” where no-one was pushing it.

14 seconds between the two teams, that’s a close one. Good fair team picking there.
MoreSTW also very tight. Thought everyone did excellent to hang in there, we only overtook a couple of teams, but each time it was a nice clean overtake. Enjoyed that a lot, agree that the course helped keep things together.

By heck that was hard work. You lot have certainly got fitter over the last few months.