Zwift Team Time Trial, Thursday

Great effort from Team STW tonight – from the start to the finish line, including up the climb, you could have covered all six of us with a blanket! We passed four teams I think, really crisp passes as well. Time of 35.30 isn’t to shabby either – great effort guys.

I joined on an MTB as hadn’t changed from Tuesday. Swapped whilst in the pen and the bike changed for me, didn’t feel any harder than usual so assume it just didn’t update the graphics on your screen. I’ve missed Phil’s excellent race control the last few weeks whilst in the other team, love it.

Hi all. Two teams are entered for Thursday 7.40pm. The course is Watopia Figure 8 Reverse, 30 rolling km. It’s a great course making its first appearance in the TTT.

Enter category A here: https://www.zwift.com/events/view/1500887

Also: as discussed briefly above, changes to the entry process are on the horizon. WTRL are moving away from zwiftpower tags in favour of dedicated team entry links, which combine entering the event with connecting riders with their teams. This will mean we need to change process, because linking event entry and team allocation this way will mean I’ll no longer be able to browse the entries to see who is riding and allocate teams. It will mean a very simple google sheet and probably a need to commit a bit earlier each week than at present. No change yet, but be warned and watch his space.

I love this course. Really enjoy pushing on the two hills.

This video is pretty good as well.

https://zwiftinsider.com/how-to-ds-a-ttt/

The spreadsheet could be handy if we are to be more organised but our blob approach does work. Could show where we went wrong doing standard length pulls as well before xmas rather than person specific pulls. Also says to start 3 seconds before the official time. Blob up on the climbs as we do and set a w/kg that everyone can keep.

Interesting as well as Phil does most of this whilst still riding the course with us! Basically we just need another Phil.

Entered 🙂

Hi all. If you have arrived here via @robbo1234biking’s link in the race series thread, you are very welcome to join us. We usually field two teams each Thursday evening and the event rules favour mixed ability teams. Just enter the event (link below), and I’ll post all the info first timers need. Or ask if you have questions. Or browse the thread, it’s getting long now but the basic info appears a few times.

We have 7 riders signed up for tomorrow so far. Plenty of room for more. Sign up to category A (everyone, it’s not done by w/kg for this event) here: https://www.zwift.com/events/view/1500887

We’re on 9 riders. That makes two small teams…

… unless more people join in!

7.40pm, figure 8 reverse, sign up to cat A here: https://www.zwift.com/events/view/1500887

If it helps, we have short start delays this evening.

Keen to give this a go but can’t do it tonight, will try to keep next Thursday free, I’m on a teleconf so might log in and just watch!

Don’t mind backing out if you want a big team. Looks like I’ve got a snowman building day today anyway!

@savoyad I’m going to be free on Thursday nights for the foreseeable as lockdown’s put the mockers on our Thursday night running group. So I’m tempted. ZP has me as a ‘C almost B’ (although @robbo1234biking has already bumped me to B for the race series -thanks!;). It’s a course I like. How close to FTP do you typically get? I did an under overs session last night so not exactly rested for it.

I’ve signed up for this evenings race.

I had to bump myself to B for the series as well @slowpuncheur! But I would imagine you would be about 90-95% of FTP as an average. As it is your first one just hide at the back to get used to it. You will be strong on the (admittedly short) hills tonight.

Could resist @robbo1234biking.:) See you later on.

@paino numbers have swelled (11 and counting) so we’re definitely better off with you than without if the snowman making leaves you with enough energy.

@nick great. If you do watch tonight, it’ll make more sense if you listen in on discord as well. you can join the server here https://discord.gg/74JFwwdG and you’ll see the voice channels in use. You’ll need to join the event to see the riders I think, but at least I know you don’t intend to ride so I won’t allocate you a team.

@slowpuncheur that’s good news. there’s no typical intensity. it’s a very good workout, but there’s a few ways it can turn out (and you generally have control over which!). If you pull on the front the whole time, you’ll get a new ftp. If you spend the whole race practising your minimum-power drafting successfully you’ll be comfortably sub-threshold. Have a look at the w/kg on old zwiftpower rides at the breakdown for all the riders in the team (stalk @phil56’s profile for the most complete set, click through and filter STW, and bear in mind there are usually two teams nowadays, you’ll see). You’ll be fine though. Try it and see!

Everyone interested, sign up here: https://www.zwift.com/events/view/1500887

I’ll post some teams around lunchtime.

@zilog6128? is jack riding @haloric? @w00dster? anyone else?

Thought I’d already signed up? I’m in anyway…..

Yes, Jack will be in – signing up now.

Depending on how productive my afternoon is I may have to cry off this evening.

I’ve lost half the day due to the weather so really only just starting work 😕

Will see how the day goes but it’s looking likely to be a late finish.

Teams for this evening:

Team STW, tag (STW), discord TTT (STW)
start delay 3.5 minutes, so in the pen by 19:40 and off at 19:43:30
riding in frappe

@benman – sort your tag

@phil56

@paino

@w00dster – sign up, and check your tag

@munkeymadness

@yanboss

@dangeourbrain

Team MoreSTW, tag (MoreSTW), discord TTT (MoreSTW)
start delay 4 minutes, so in the pen by 19:40 and off at 19:44
riding in latte

@trolo1234 – change your tag

@mbs

@slowpuncheur – tag your rider name IN ZWIFTPOWER (not zwift) by adding (MoreSTW) to the end.

@robbo1234biking

@haloric
Jack

It’s reverse figure 8, so
– straight into the esses: awkward to stay together, but early so still fresh
– reverse KOM: stay together, there’s a long way to go
– full CW lap of watopia flat: this is a long flat(tish) section where time is won and lost. careful in the esses when your minds start wandering ahead to…
– forward KOM: needs no introduction
– ocean tunnels home: more boring than the other way, but welcome at this stage!

If you want to ride more organised, the big opportunity for that is between the two climbs of the KOM, that full lap of the flat. There are other times it works, but that’s the main sustained bit.

We are now drifting into a one frappe/ one latte setup each week. Speak up Bs and Cs if you have preferences (esp negative ones!) or not about which you prefer to ride. It’ll mean mixing it up from week to week but I’ll try and satisfy most people most of the time…

I’ve signed up, there’s a tick next to my name and Zwift has added it to my calendar. I just Unticked and selected it again.
Zwiftpower is also correct (this week!)

I’m unable to help slow down a team this evening. I have had to send my trainer away to be looked at under warranty to see why the Bluetooth connection doesn’t connect to the app provided by the manufacturer.

@slowpuncheur you are on the discord channel already aren’t you? If so you need to join the right voice channel. Hopefully you have some headphones you can listen in on as a minimum. I will do a countdown to us starting. Stop pedalling one minute before the start of the race and I will let everyone know when we will set off 4 minutes later.

Thanks for sorting Savoyad.

I totally dropped @slowpuncheur in at the deep end there didn’t I? Here’s the background to robbo’s advice:

The start procedure is a bodge, as there’s no way to set teams off at intervals, so you have to BE STOPPED when it says go, wait for your team’s designated start delay, and then GO. The organisers tidy the results up. Today, for MoreSTW that means waiting for 4 minutes after GO. Don’t pedal during that time or you’ll roll forward. Go when robbo says go (or, if there’s a comms failure, at 19:44:00 when you’ll see everyone set off).

@w00dster I still can’t see you, but I trust you.

Just checked Zwift Companion from another device and wasn’t listed as going, selected it from that device so hoping you can see me now….
With regards to Latte or Frappe, personally doesn’t matter to me. I’m not there to win medals, just have fun and a good workout.

@savoyad and @robbo1234biking. Thanks. I think I’m sorted for ZP now understand the start procedure. I guess I’ll be directed to the event 5 minutes before as usual (at 7.35?). I assume I can use the Tron bike? Most importantly, what jersey and how high can I have my socks?

Forgot to say, I’ve got the Discord channel and headphones with a mic. Not sure if it’ll work on push to talk but at least I’ll hear you.

Bee jersey. No socks. Tron is a good choice.

Normal event join – I wouldn’t leave it to the last min as sometimes it can be busy and people don’t get in the pen in time. Checked your zp profile. The moreSTW bit needs to be in brackets.

I’d sort of decided to give these a miss for a while but am now finding it harder to resist the urge to sign up. I’ve failed miserably in taking part in the race series so far and am missing not joining in a Singletrack group event. What’s more it would give me an excuse to have that post ride beer I’ve been denying myself all weeek. I’d probably be loitering somewhere near the back of MoreSTW for most of the time but if that’s ok I’m happy to put my name down.

Hi Drew. Sign up! That puts MoreSTW up to 8. Put a MoreSTW tag on your ZP name.

Ok, signed up. Just need to change my tag and lose the socks.

I’m going to cry off folks, still got a good couple of hours work I need to do but I need a break so going to jump on and clear my head and legs shortly then back to the grind stone 😕

Trying to convince my Dad to join MoreSTW for next week. I’ve got him on ZP today, so thats the first step…

It’s good to know I’m joining the MoreSTW fold when the entry criteria has been extended to people’s Dads!:). In fairness, if you share the same cycling genes with your Dad @benman he’ll offer more than I will.

It’s good to know I’m joining the MoreSTW fold when the entry criteria has been extended to people’s Dads!:). In fairness, if you share the same cycling genes with your Dad @benman he’ll offer more than I will.

His Dad flew past me up the jungle hill on the first series race!

Hope those rides went well.

The wtrl/zwiftpower link is down so the results are all over the place. It’ll be fixed…

Great ride from MoreSTW – blanketworthy (as Phil might say 😀) right up until the 2nd KOM when it all went to pot 🤣 Tough one though… the team in front were really strung out which didn’t help and then the team we’d just passed (I think) came steaming through again. Ended up playing leapfrog with them for the rest of the race, unfortunately I didn’t have the legs at the end for a final pop at them. Great workout though!

Another great effort from Team STW – stuck together like glue again!!
Great ride chaps!

The forward KOM with traffic is our nemesis.

That was tough, was close to throwing the towel in with 12kms to go. It was about 20 watts above my FTP for the first 25 mins before it then settled down to just below FTP.
The first 20 odd minutes just seemed to be slow motion for me, trying not to look at the time gone and how much of the course we still had to do!

I just did one of these, although not for team STW. But I was told that if you want to keep pedalling after the barrier drops but before your team start – go to the pairing screen. You can pedal but you won’t move.