Zwift Team Time Trial, Thursday

I’m planning to make tomorrow folks but, as things are getting back to normal this will have to be my last week of pre 7pm starts as it’s a bit too tight round work if I’m not away bang on 5pm.

There is a 19:40 kick off time isn’t there? Is that too late for people?

I know a few have struggled to get home in time recently etc so might be an option.

There is a 19:40 kick off time isn’t there? Is that too late for people?

I would be fine with that if it means more people can join in!

I think moving to a later time is inevitable as people’s routines get more and more normal. 6.30 was perfect when we chose it, but that was at the height of lockdown.

The later times are 7pm and 7.40pm. I’d be happy with either. Maybe we could try 7.40 next week?

At the moment, we have 6 on the list : dangeourbrain, mrhoppy, phil56, robbo123biking, me and zilog.(mrhoppy you need to change your team from BRT in zwiftpower settings, rider name)

Any other takers? 2 laps of Harrogate at 6.30pm. Join category A here: https://www.zwift.com/events/view/1055240

I doubt I’ll make it at the moment – my trainer started making an awful grinding noise in yesterday’s race. Let’s see what elite tell me to do…

Ah sorry forgot to update. I got a team bump this week so racing against you in BRT Jupiter.

I’m in for 1830 tomorrow. Can’t do any later times this week. What with the pen delay it gets in the way of drinking wine. Paino.

Savoyad – what is the difference between the pens? Looking at the Wtrl site there are 20 teams in pen a and 10 in pen c.

Pens are:
A – Latte (no higher than B)
B – Mocha (no higher than C)
C – Espresso (teams with any A+)
D – Frappe (no higher than A, or 3 Bs)
E – Vienna (Ladies only teams)

So that empty looking pen is for Espresso, the teams with A+ riders. We are sometimes Latte, sometimes Frappe – it depends who shows up from week to week. That gives us a choice each week, but I have to make it in advance. So basically I’ve tried chopping and changing between pens A and D to shorten the delay. It doesn’t seem to have much effect though.

The advantages of A/Latte is it starts 3 minutes ahead of D/Frappe AND we’re more likely to catch other teams than be caught in that group. That’s why we’re there for now. If D gets emptier (I do look each week) we could move back.

Makes sense! Almost as complicated as my handicap system! Cheers for sorting.

Details for this evening:

Our start delay is 5.5 minutes. So in the start pen by 18:30, and we’re off at 18:35:30

The startlist at the moment is:

dangeourbrain
phil56
eat_more_cheese
zilog6128
robbo1234biking

I’m pretty sure my trainer is not rideable. So unless I hear otherwise from elite in the course of today I’ll be missing this week. There is still space for others to join: category A here https://www.zwift.com/events/view/1055240

Good luck, I’ll be cheering you on.

Ta!

Good luck, I’ll be cheering you on.

live stream with commentary? 😃

For the avoidance of doubt – I can’t make it as my regular cyclocross group has scraped up a team, so I’ll see you on the road.

We are team Radish (don’t ask), wave as you pass, I think we go a bit slower than STW went last week, and I haven’t ridden since last thursday either, so there will be creaking of bones – have a good one

Ant

live stream with commentary? 😃

The only problem is that the entire potential audience for that, except me, will be riding. Maybe I’ll provide commentatary on the discord channel. I imagine you’d all appreciate that.

This is going to be tough to hang on tonight!

Are you actually logging in to watch Savoyad?

The only problem is that the entire potential audience for that, except me, will be riding

DrP twitch streams his rides and I can’t imagine anyone but DrP wanting to watch it back!

Sorry folks, doesn’t look like i’m going to make it. Just about to lock up at the office now so chances of making the start line are very slim.

Good work making it back in time DB! **** me that was hard work. Phil, you are the spawn of Satan. Thanks though 🤣 defo would’ve bailed on those last couple of hills if you hadn’t been behind me ranting like an angry PE teacher 😂😂😂 sorry, “encouraging” 🤣

Yeah I cut it pretty fine, I was trying to pace my ride home to get in with enough time to log on but not bugger my self on the way. As it was I managed it about spot on though I did worry I’d be in thermal bib tights!

Good effort all, I enjoyed that sort of, I definitely need to have a proper look at my turbo though as the resistance seemed very low again, how much of that is the mental aspect of stepping off a nobbly tyred full suspension bike onto the thing though who knows!

That last 5k was fun 😂. Couldn’t get on the Discord channel. Did I miss the invite or is there a STW channel I can dial into every week? Paino

The links expire. Try this:
https://discord.gg/wq2pYe

Damn that was hard but good tonight. As you say zilog Phil cuts a good line between being encouraging and pushing you to the limit!

Power PB for 46 minutes from 255w to 272w so a massive jump for me! Broke my PBs on every single hill as well.

We got past every team in front of us on the road as well so must be good. Not sure how many we started behind though.

@mrhoppy. Sorry I missed your message it came through when I had already gone past!

@twisty shame your PM wasn’t working tonight.

Well done, it looks like you did an awesome job today.
Sorry I missed it, timing is always tight for me on Thursdays and it didn’t want to connect via the companion app or with my new ant+ dongle, restarted the app and everything connected straight away.

I flagrigated myself with an FTP ramp test.

Congrats, that’s a great ride. Gutted I missed it. You’ve taken 2 minutes off our last ride on that course. We’re weirdly consistent on repeat courses, independent of personnel, so that’s quite the margin.

@zilog6128 thanks, I’m in. See you next week.

I don’t know what triggers Zwift to take the automatic photos but this summarises the race pretty well…300W on a 6% downhill slope!

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You guys were flying, and EETC had made a right mess of our team. By the time I’d typed it you had caught up 10secs on us.

That was a great effort last night – sorry if the berating got a bit much – hopefully it was still fun!
I do think one of the keys to keeping the overall pace up is reacting to any gaps as soon as they appear – 1 or 2 seconds can be closed quickly with a bit of effort and a wheel to follow, but once it gets out to 4 or 5 seconds it can usually only be closed by the group slowing down.

It was fun making that many passes as well!

No Phil – I think you got it perfect actually! I am enjoying the team aspect to this. I haven’t done a team sport since I stopped playing Rugby 10 years ago so it has kind of filled that void for me. I try a lot harder when I am working for other people so it helps me push on. I think I averaged 300W at least up each hill which is above my FTP so cant complain at that.

Was especially motivating catching that group in the last 800m or so – forgot there was that hill just around the corner!

I do think one of the keys to keeping the overall pace up is reacting to any gaps as soon as they appear – 1 or 2 seconds can be closed quickly with a bit of effort and a wheel to follow,

I was trying to work on that a bit last night. It was actually pretty hard work sitting in last or penultimate wheel but then responding and trying to fill it when I saw a gap opening. Hard to judge it right so I didn’t just shoot right through but fell in front of the right rider also the up and down from 200w to 500w and back is very strange for my legs!

It certainly seemed to work better than my usual approach of falling back to pick people up though.

It’s not an easy course for any of that though as drafting up any sort of gradient is (seemingly) really poor on Zwift on comparison with the flat sections – of which there are very few in Yorkshire – you just don’t seem to stick to the rider in front at all.

It was a good run though thanks folks.

Have we had any thought on time for next week’s?

That was a great effort last night – sorry if the berating got a bit much

nah I was kidding, it was appreciated 😃 wouldn’t have dug as deep otherwise, as it was we still finished off the last couple of hills at a reasonable pace! Great to chase down all those teams as well, and that we managed to pass them all smoothly as a group rather than getting into a muddle!

Didn’t think we’d catch that last team, but then Robbo got back on and ignited the afterburners! Had to push 400W just to catch him.

Think we got it bang on with the formation last night. At worst there was a 2 second split on the climb-and we did well to get the power off to reform. Absolutely no point in splitting the group up.

I’ve put an entry in for the 7.40pm race this week. I hope that change is OK with people , although I’m happy to revisit it – straight away, or after we see how it goes for people over the next few weeks.

Enter category A here: https://www.zwift.com/events/view/1068230

The course is 3 laps (=35km) of the Astoria Line 8 in New York. That’s the flat roads in the park – it rolls a lot, but no proper climbs this week.

Cheers Savoyad that time works for me.

Did you get your turbo sorted out?

Did you get your turbo sorted out?

Not exactly. It’s in bits, and I have a couple of 24 hour waits for adhesive to cure ahead of me.
I’m pessimistic about making the Tuesday race but optimistic it’ll be ready in time for the TTT.

It’s in bits, and I have a couple of 24 hour waits for adhesive to cure ahead of me.

What did you do?!

In for Thursday evening. Companion app says Harrogate again?!

There’s just three of us on the start list for now (me, @zilog6128, @eat_more_cheese).

Any other takers? Note new time (7.40pm Thursday) and sign up to category A here: https://www.zwift.com/events/view/1068230

(or if the new time is an obstacle for you, speak up!)

Also changes are afoot. The official announcement doesn’t mention it, but the promo piece on ZI (https://zwiftinsider.com/zwift-racing-league-announced/) seems to suggest that the TTT will be somehow incorporated into the new Zwift/WTRL racing league. Full details on Friday I think.

@savoyad pretty sure @eat_more_cheese said after the race yesterday that he wouldn’t be doing the TTT this week unfortunately!!

@zilog6128 – ah yes, I remember him pondering that on the race thread now (here it is!).

Definitely need more riders then… any takers?