Zwift Team Time Trial, Thursday

Yeah my HR was lower too, I think due to reining myself in on the pulls by having a target rather than just going full chat 😂 Worked well in the sense that I still had a bit left at the end.
I think we got REALLY lucky on the overtakes as we didn’t have a plan, almost lost a couple of guys off the back with the first one. Maybe we should suspend the pulls as we approach the team to pass, to conserve energy, then push through from the back as we have done before and everyone go hard, so we all get past as quickly as possible? Then when through someone strong needs to take the lead immediately so we can make a gap, and those who need to can rest up.

Nice rides all round. @rj2dj your race report is a good explanation of why we tried to set your expectations beforehand…

More STW that was actually a pretty hard course to experiment on – lots of not really flat, not really a climb. The next two weeks it will a lot easier to put a plan into practice I think. Then after that it goes lumpy (NY ground level roads), still much easier to plan for than today but by then you’ll have it dialled in.

Tech issues are so frustrating. WTRL posted on facebook that they are working with zwift to get some event-specific improvements, which would be a massive step forward. We had a phantom rider in our team yesterday (it was weird, we were riding with a gap at times and trusting he was in it) and I’ve seen the “stuck in the pairing screen” thing in several places recently. It’s getting less reliable as a way to keep pedalling in the start delay but it’s a bug that can really only get noticed in this particular event.

Yeh that overtake (which killed Haloric) caught me out I am afraid. It might be worth splitting the responsibility for the person calling and having someone else keeping an eye out on the teams in front and behind. We weren’t catching them that quick but all of a sudden we just seemed to pick up pace and flew up behind them.

@nixie what software do you capture with? I’m finding that OBS kills the discord overlay (completely, not just fails to capture it, but not always immediately), so I have to choose between recording or seeing the overlay. I’ve run everything as admin and enabled the overlays setting in OBS. No luck.

They have added 2 more zones for next week so think we will be zone 11 for the 7.40pm race next week.

@robbo1234biking. That overtake nearly finished me off too. I’d just done a turn and got to near the back and then had to sprint as everyone accelerated. In hindsight I should have flagged the group we were catching but I was just concentrating on hitting 300w. So I think a separate person scouting for overtakes is a good idea.

@savoyad that’s good news that Zwift are working on the start. 12 mins with no pedalling is ridiculous given the pairing screen option is so flaky.

The problem is whatever they are working on won’t necessarily be the start @slowpuncheur. It’s the obvious functionality to tackle. But the wider context of the comment was actually the recent issues pulling through results/splits.

@savoyad I’m using OBS studio. Currently only streaming. I don’t think I enabled any overlay settings in OBS. Zwift is running windowed. I do have a fairly hefty zwift PC (running max resolution with everything on while streaming and discord).

The problem is whatever they are working on won’t necessarily be the start @slowpuncheur. It’s the obvious functionality to tackle. But the wider context of the comment was actually the recent issues pulling through results/splits.

Indeed much more likely to be forced team jerseys or switching on draft for TT bikes. You know something you genuinely can’t live without.

Indeed much more likely to be forced team jerseys

Appropriate seeing as @slowpuncheur struggled with this last night… 😉

Wait now, what now? I was stripy kit on my screen. Check my strava pic. Just Zwift being zwift again I guess.

Edit. I can see I look all wrong on your screen grab on strava. What were people thinking! 😳

At least your socks looked ok on both screen shots! Weird how Zwift does that. I would have mentioned it in ride but was too busy trying to remember if it was a 30 sec pull or 1 min pull!

Indeed much more likely to be forced team jerseys

@robbo1234biking
defo time to mention the custom STW jerseys, what with the race series being more popular than ever and regularly fielding 2 TTT teams now! 😃

Did you change kit in the pen ?

I think if you do that you are more likely to look inappropriately clothed to others. I think it can also happen with a bike change too.

If you think about what is happening, when you arrive in the pen, zwift tells everyone your kit and bike, but if you change either, it has to tell everyone again, and I think that does not happen reliably.

I would all for a different kit – quite a few stripy riders last night.

We’ll need a baggy short option though 😉

@haloric. Yes I did. Given I had 10 minutes from the meetup prompt to the start of our effort I thought it was a sensible use of time. At least it wasn’t trying to send me to Harrogate like it did on Tuesday

Not sure the STW kit will happen – at least not in the near future.

Although the race series appears to be successful on its own right getting your own kit requires a much higher profile. This could be done one of two ways (neither of which I am sure we have the appetite for).

1. Organise large group rides that would be open in the calendar – this kind of happens with Sunday Hills but would be a more formal arrangement that would require ride leaders and sweepers etc and would regularly be getting attendance in the 100s. Im not sure we have the critical mass on the forum to achieve this without it becoming a burden. A lot of the chat on the group rides is a bit strange as well (even compared to our normal banter).

2. Put the race series out to the wider zwift community. The last series had a total of 80 riders registered. Beyond 100 and the handicap system would become too much of a burden for me to implement so this would be feasible for a wider zwift series. Then it just becomes a normal race series and loses the community feel that we have around the series.

It may be that there is enough interest from the forum to make these things happen but I think there are about 50-100 regular zwifters and if you look across the zwift posts then it is normally around 40 users who a regularly commenting.

I could start a thread to what the interest in in expanding this possibly.

Interesting that a number of complaints on FB today that the draft effect was missing in some teams of for some team members, in some experienced teams who know what they are doing.

It’s not the first time that’s happened – I’ve personally had it twice, on one occasion I may as well have riden a TT bike, draft simply wasn’t there, on the other it’s been a rendering and reporting issue best I can tell in as much as I did draft but I had to be about 10m *in front* of the other riders on screen. The visual simply didn’t match up with the physics.

We’ll need a baggy short option though

and camelbaks, that would be awesome 🤣

Team entries are in for this week – 2 laps of Greater London Flat, 28.9km, Thursday 7.40pm

Riders sign up to pen A here https://www.zwift.com/events/view/1695225

Enter as early as you can and I’ll get the teams done ASAP.

its a short fast one this week. Cheers Savoyad – all signed up.

Yep signed up, ta!! Could be a good one to practice the pulls again – but I think we need to decide on a strategy for any overtakes (us or them!)

A lot easier on this course though. Blob up a couple of seconds behind, surge past and then likely start the pull order again. Would be harsh on the guys doing 120% 30 seconds pulls to surge past a team and then go straight into a pull so need to be mindful of that.

Being overtaken is a bit easier. Everyone just eases and then we continue the pull order we were in before the overtake happened. Just need a designated spotter on the overtake front (both ahead and behind) as when we were on the flat we were flying and caught them a lot quicker than I anticpated. Luckily less terrain issues to consider.

Bump.

We’re on 10 riders at the moment, a few regulars not (yet?) on the list for 2 (more!) laps of London…

Sign up to category A here: https://www.zwift.com/events/view/1695225

We’re on 10 riders at the moment, a few regulars not (yet?) on the list

Was just about to throw my hat in then

for 2 (more!) laps of London…

Ah yeah. About that.

As much as I’ve no inclination to ride in London again, ever….I’m in.

not in going for a nice run in the forest at lunchtime instead, need a few easy days, then I’ve a tough 7 days from sunday then couple of days off and back to the next series and hopefully TTT’s again and in a better place to handle 2 hard efforts

I seem to have convinced myself to do the TTT again this week with a local club. It being flatlands that are well suited for my largeness probably helped.
I initially didn’t realize that WTRL determines the club tag based on primary team rather than the username so I was signed up under STW for a while – I hope that didn’t cause any confustion.
Good luck all.

Hi @twisty, hope you’re well – no, no confusion caused! (There’s already always a rider with your (real life) name signed up early and riding in our zone every week, he confuses me sometimes…)

Interesting read if you are bit nerdy. :^)

https://zwiftinsider.com/nearby-zwifters-disappearing/

Teams for tomorrow:

Team STW, +19 minutes, (I know, but just wait until you see the other team!)

@phil56

@paino

@dangeourbrain

@benman

@munkeymadness

@rj2dj

Team MoreSTW, +21 minutes

@w00dster

@slowpuncheur

@trolo1234

@robbo1234biking

@zilog6128

@drew

@haloric
Jack

I can’t explain the daft start delays. They added zones this week, so I hoped for less waiting around.

SORRY Adam – pls can I play too ?
Don’t mind which team – hoping I’m decentish on the flat but I’m no Phil

(no worries if I’m too late, obvz)

(( adding an @savoyad ))

Yes you can @scaredypants. Ride with STW. (This would have been just the same if you hadn’t showed up late, I’m not punishing you.).
There may yet be one more latecomer to add to STW as well…

cheers (probably) !

For MoreSTW here is the plan for tomorrow evening:

300w pulls (or as close as you can make) for either 60secs or 30secs as per the table below.

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@w00dster – would you like to call the pulls on the front this week?

@slowpuncheur – would you like to be overtaking monitor? When we are approaching another team or another team is approaching then highlight it to everyone else.

The route involves two laps of Greater London Flat – there are a couple of minor hills but nothing that should disturb our paceline and there is no need to blob at all for any hills.

The route starts in the pens and has a lead in before we hit the main circuit. On the lead in we go onto Northumberland Avenue which is the steep(ish) hill. We need to be wary as we approach it who is in the lead as we dont want people in the red having to hit the climb hard. Lets play it by ear and see who is there as we approach.

Overtaking other teams

If we are coming up behind another team blob up together when the previous pull ends (w00dster will call this), woodster leads through the overtake, I will pull next for 1 min to allow for some recovery, then resume the order from the previous pull prior to the overtake. If anyone is cooked by that, then they can skip next pull but make us aware.

Being overtaken

Hopefully we wont be overtaken (we are actually the last team to leave our pen) but again @slowpuncheur will highlight if someone is about to overtake us. In that situation we all just east of and who evers turn it is next will take up there turn once there is a 2 second gap to the passing team (approx 20m).

We did this route back in December and the two teams for 43:07 and 43:21 so we have a good target to aim for.

Plenty of time to work out any nuances in the pen before hand! Going to be a long wait – with recent issues I would suggest that we dont use the pairing screen to keep warm but it is up to individuals what you want to do.

Keep the comms going if you have any issues.

I may well gate crash again if ok?

Of course, @nixie, ride with STW.

Both teams are now full. I’ll post both line-ups again in my next post.

Team STW, +19 minutes, so in the pen by 19:40 and off at 19:59

@phil56

@paino

@nixie – sort your tag

@dangeourbrain

@benman

@munkeymadness

@rj2dj

@scaredypants – check your tag

Team MoreSTW, +21 minutes, so in the pen by 19:40 and off at 20:01

@w00dster

@slowpuncheur

@trolo1234 – change your tag

@robbo1234biking

@zilog6128

@drew

@haloric
Jack – check your tag

Good luck. That’s a good frappe and a good latte. I’ll try and follow on zwiftpower live if it’s working again.