Zwift Team Time Trial, Thursday

Don’t I need some kind of stw tag or something?

Either way I’m now entered.

It’s also very easy to pedal by mistake with muscle memory whilst waiting for the start time, I tend to get off and do some mild exercise/eat a donut whilst waiting.

if you go to the Pairing screen from the menu then you can pedal and it won’t move your avatar!

@tpbiker

Yeh sorry you do you need (STW) after your name in Zwift and on zwiftpower. Your zwift power looks OK but you might need to put a space between the tag and the 7783 and the two names have to match I think.

I don’t think you Zwift name is relevant to the results, only the ZwiftPower name is relevant. Hence they do not have to match.

You will see lots of people in the event with no tag (because its the Zwift name on screen).

https://wtrl.racing/ttt/TTT-Rules-and-Info.php

Things are not going as planned here. Looks like I’ll be home a bit after 7pm so I might make the line this evening, I may not. Depends if I need to do exercise to shake off the early start and 7 hours in a van or just eat dinner and slump really.

I won’t be making My debut tonight fellas, started with a minor cold on Monday which has grown steadily worse and feeling more chesty, don’t want to push my luck.

Hopefully recover over the weekend ready for Tuesday.

Mrs told me she’s got a late shift for the last race of the season so either I miss the race or don’t take my daughters to their dance lessons. I gently mentioned it to them but at their age the world revolves around them and they don’t understand the importance of a online bike race series. Hopefully the dance studio only hav8ng opened two weeks ago might have to shut again before then. 30 kids in a room dancing, coughing and sweating doesn’t seem right does it when not one of her friends or mine can enter our garden or house.

I’ll join in if there is a space left?
I’m registering with Zwiftpower shortly.
Retrorick (STW) is my zwiftpower name, i think?!

Yes, @retrorick there is space. The instructions for new riders are just above (http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/zwift-team-time-trial-thursday/page/6/#post-11396532)

I ‘ve just updated both so my zwift power profile now has a space between 7783 and (stw)

Looks a hilly course tonight.

Ok. Zwiftpower name for me is Rick M 1254
I think i’ll have to add the (STW) bit.

Zwift name is now Rick M 1254 (STW)

I’ll familiarise myself with the race rules.

I’ve added the (STW) bit to my zwiftpower name. Took me a while to spot the settings tab 🙁

OK, updated start list for tonight (everyone’s STW tags in this list are correct):

@tpbiker

@phil56

@zilog6128

@haloric

@robbo1234biking

@retrorick

PLUS I think @dangeourbrain is threatening to join in as well (as I read his message, his definition of “things not going as planned” in Cambridge seems to be the opposite of the rest of his TTT team).

If you think you entered but you aren’t listed above, check your STW tag.

To confirm: start time is 19:40 plus 6 minutes

See each other in the pen!

Is the ‘bumblebee’ Jersey the one that is called basic 1, yellow and black stripes?

Yep that’s the one! 🙂

his definition of “things not going as planned” in Cambridge seems to be the opposite of the rest of his TTT team

No it means the same. Today’s long job is now another trip or two next week

Just back to the office, going to sit it out tonight. Naff day and just fancy feet up and a beer when I get in.

Started my warmup. I think I’ve been able to sort out the discord app and I’ve found a microphone.

Great ride! Sadly lost retrorick during a pass… Phil did drop back but it didn’t work out. Hopefully won’t discourage from another go, they are the hardest part to get right as a group & the rest of us have had a fair bit of practice now! That’s actually one of my favourite routes as the hill is not too long and there’s a nice few seconds to recover on the down.

Managed to hang on with enough encouraging !, thanks all.

Sorry we lost retrorick, he was right with me as we approached that group, not sure whether he got sucked into it or lost power. Big groups rock, we need to get to 8.

There is a ‘push to talk’ setting on Discord which I find quite useful. I’m currently wearing two sets of headphones – bone conduction for music and inner ear for Discord, plus a sweat headband and glasses – must look a right mess, but still loving it.

Currently 34th out of 112 by the looks of it, nice work.

Ant

Thanks all. Enjoyed that again this week. Just need to sort out the warm up really. Seems to take 5 mins to get into it. I know you can spin on the pairing screen but doesn’t feel the same as a decent warm up.

We actually got faster up the climb each time we did it which I think was down to working out how to do the climb as a team.

The worst bit was the climb coming out of the town or whatever it is before the rollers. That was only gentle but couldn’t get a good rhythm on it. Changed my cassette on my turbo and have slightly different ratios so might just be me getting used to it.

Struggle with the pacing of these races, I shot off the front a few times on the hills but I wasn’t putting in any more effort than I was on the flats.

Also, I’m watching the distance between the riders and the gap is 2 meters one second, then 10 meters the next…I’m not sure if it’s a zwift bug or something but the gap doesn’t seem to grow gradually like it does usually

I saw you lot on my phone app this evening and started up zwift on the pc to see what you were up to but you weren’t visible on my screen

What’s with the “pass” comments ? Do you have to smash past to make sure the other team doesn’t get on your wheels or something ?

Oh, and…

Struggle with the pacing of these races, I shot off the front a few times on the hills but I wasn’t putting in any more effort than I was on the flats.

might you be way lighter then the others ?

I had an ‘enjoyable/hard’ race.
During the 1st lap I was trying to pace myself and recover a bit when in the group.
Right at the end of the first lap when we caught/passed the team in red i had a connection drop out so I was riding an empty course on my own for around 15 seconds. When everyone re appeared i was 15 seconds down ☹️.
I had a stitch at that point anyway and I doubt could of kept up for the rest of the race!
I think I did ok for the 2nd solo lap.
The 3rd lap had a few more racers around so I did my best not to draft them.

You are pretty light compared to everyone else I think tpbiker!

Scaredypants – when you pass the other team is supposed to ease off but it doesn’t seem to happen much so you have to make sure you are a group and then accelerate hard together to get past as a group. Normally means a hard 10-20 second effort to get past and then you need a bit of a gap out the front.

might you be way lighter then the others ?

yeah looking at the stats on wtrl he must be the lightest by far! Have you not noticed dropping people before on the hills when racing @tpbiker? 😂

Right at the end of the first lap when we caught/passed the team in red i had a connection drop out so I was riding an empty course on my own for around 15 seconds.

yeah you dropped back real quick! Feel better that we are blameless at least 😀

Have you not noticed dropping people before on the hills when racing

Yep, but I’m usually having to dig deep to do it. I’ve ridden the ttt with you guys before and the climbs seemed far easier this time out, whilst the flat bits didn’t. Just seemed a bit odd.

The entry is in for next week. 7:40pm on Thursday.

3 laps of Volcano Flat Reverse, 37km in total. This is a new course for this event, but I suspect it will be a fast one.

Sign up to category A here: https://www.zwift.com/events/view/1092711

I’ll be back with nudges and eventually a start delay later in the week.

bump. still noone signed up for this Thursday…

I am up for it (just registered). Should be easy to keep the group together, however if we’re doing well then there’ll be lots of overtakes which might spell trouble!!

I’m working a late shift in Thursday so I’m unable to join in. I should be able to join in a week on Thursday tho 🤪

I thought I’d signed up, sorry- anyway, I have now

Hopefully I’ll be back this week, will see how tomorrow goes.

I am in as well. No hills this week really!

Ready to roll, signed up.

I might be broken but I’m in.

Ok, a couple of questions….in the off chance I get to join…

Discord – are you using this through your phones on the app or some other way? I play music through my headphones whilst riding, does using Discord prevent me doing that?

Bike – which bike is allowed? I’m guessing road bikes for drafting, what about Tron bikes?

Warm up – Do you all warm up prior to getting on the start line, then stop and wait the 6 minutes or so, then go when the race starts?

Just for info, I’ve not fallen out of love with it as such, but the problem in my world is that unless a rider like me is 100% on my game, it’s a killer. I don’t just mean tough but crazy impossible tough. I know you guys will tow someone back but the issue is, being right at FTP from the first few mins just to hold the wheel means even if you tow back, it’s still too much to then hold it.
That, added to the fact that my 100% has been 85-90% of the best me, it’s just not fair on either of us.

OopN seems to be better than me on the hilly bits so I think he’ll do a much better job than me.

I’ll hopefully be back next week. Did I mention I’d bought a new bike 😄.
I’ll be happy to make up the numbers try hard and be dropped out the group at some point en route.
For discord I used a mic plugged into the pc. I think the mistake i made with it last week was when the call for radio silence/mute was called for I disconnected my link rather than muting so I was unable to communicate my zwift dropout problem and tell everyone my problem. Not that it was a problem. 👍

@scardypants @oppnorth – Hope you do decide to join us for the TTT this week.

The way we approach the race is very much as a team, with the emphasis on helping each other and finishing together – we really don’t care about where we finish, so if we need to back off the pace to hold everyone together we absolutely will.

A couple of pointers if you do decide to join in;

Don’t worry about taking a turn on the front, especially early on. If you feel compelled to, then leave it until you’ve got a sense of how you’re managing your energy.

If possible don’t just sit at the back – it’s better to be one or two positions forward until you get used to pacing in the bunch. If you’re at the back and a slight gap opens you can drop off really quickly.

If you do drop off, the sooner you get back on the easier it will be. A short sharp effort will close a 2/3m gap, but once it gets beyond 5m it requires a monumental effort

If a gap does open up that you can’t close don’t give up! We’ll slow at the front and someone will drop back to give you a wheel to follow and close the gap.

We normally catch and pass slower teams, and when we do it’s critical we bunch up and pass through them quickly and together.

If you can get some headphones with a mic, then Discord really helps. Mute the mic or the heavy breathing swamps the channel, but do shout out if you need help, a change of pace, or if you just want to hurl a little abuse!!!

Hopefully see you Thursday

Wasn’t there recent talk about a B squad?