Team Trial Info for this week… Entries are open. Everyone is welcome.

Thursday, 6.30pm, 2 laps of Sand And Sequoias (42.8km total).

Enter CATEGORY D here: https://www.zwift.com/events/view/938647

I’ll post more detail (especially if anyone new joins us) and a start delay later in the week.

I did the 5pm etape too (thanks for the “ride on!” in the warmup poopscoop). I didn’t see a gap open up the whole way round, it was just draft draft draft from start to finish, a never ending peloton.

I got bumped to Cat B afterwards. I have mixed feelings about that – it’s nice to progress, but I need to push on now otherwise I’ve just swapped the fun of being at the top end of C for the less-fun of being at the very (and I mean very) bottom end of B. No more little cups on zwiftpower for me for a while anyway. And it means the TTT will less often ride as a latte rather than a frappe (but Phil and Danger lurking on the boundary of cat A is probably more significant than me for our categorisation…).

@tpbiker your TT was a great ride, congrats. You were pushing cat A numbers there (and not far off the podium times in A). You can filter for TT events on different courses in the listings in zwiftpower and zwifthacks. I think the companion app does it too but the 3rd party sites seem better somehow.

Where do you get the fixture list @Savoyad?

It’s here https://wtrl.racing/WTRL_events.php click on upcoming. It sometimes changes a little (gets easier than predicted, like when 2 laps of the Magnificent 8 became just 1 a few weeks back).

Yes, thanks for pointing out that the descent will be as complicated (as a team) as the climb next week, you are quite right. S&S is a fun course. I’ll be doing 2 lap races of it twice this week. It’s a smart choice for the TTT.

There are a few threads on the zwift forums complaining about weird behaviour since the last update. Dangeourbrain sounded completely bewildered at one point yesterday.

That was a good ride. I hate passing other teams (and being passed) but I handled it a bit better than previously this week. The long drawn out pass cost us some time still.

We finished in 54:57, 40.6km/h. And overnight we are in provisional 95/149 in Frappe and 181/399 overall.

Next week is Sand and Sequoias twice, so 42km with the rolling Titans Grove KOM. It’s not steep, but it’s really irregular so that’ll be a nice challenge to stay together. It was showing 3 laps this morning, which would have been madness. I’ll get an entry in when they open.

I don’t use it. It seems an outdated approach to things. A lot of people seem to like it though.
You should try searchforsites.co.uk before paying for britstops I think.

I just wrote and somehow lost a reply to Tim. @dangeourbrain’s is better than my effort though, so what he said basically. Your name is definitely fine.

@tpbiker there’s one more spot. You are very welcome to join us.
There’s some slight admin hassle first time. It’s easy enough. But don’t do it at 6pm tomorrow…

First, enter the race. We are in category D here: https://www.zwift.com/events/view/922808 . The TTT doesn’t use the categories in the normal fashion, so enter D whatever cat you usually ride in.

Secondly, you need to tag yourself as a member of the team in zwiftpower. Go to zwiftpower –> zwift profile –> Settings, and add (STW) to the end of your Rider Name. There’s no need to touch your rider name in zwift itself. The magic happens in zwiftpower. Your zwiftpower profile might need activating properly to do this. Instructions are here: https://support.zwift.com/en_us/connecting-to-zwiftpower-SyldRc_4H

Thirdly, get access to the discord server so we can communicate. Click here https://discord.gg/jmvdUa We use the STW voice channel and it’s best to set up Push to Talk otherwise everyone hears you panting for an hour. I use my phone with earphones. I’m not sure what the others do. Anyway, if this doesn’t work, don’t panic. It’s better with than without though.

Finally, know what you are doing at the start of the race! It’s a bit weird. Enter the pen like normal, by 6.33. But when it says go, do precisely the opposite. Stop pedalling. Otherwise you cross the start line prematurely. Instead, sit there and wait for our start time. Tomorrow that’s 3.5 minutes after GO!, so 6.33.30pm. Someone (Phil) will count us down over discord. THEN you can go!

After that, just pedal along. We try and stay together. You’ll get the picture pretty quick.

It’s way simpler than I’ve made it sound. Maybe see you in the pen?

Some TTT details for tomorrow.

Our start delay is 3.5 minutes. So we must be in the pen by 18:33 and then we are off 3.5 minutes later at 18:36:30. Phil, can you do the honours with the stopwatch?

The start sheet looks like this at the moment, 5 riders:
phil56
dangeourbrain
ljarch
zilog6128
savoyad

I think @IvanDobski threatened to think about making it 6 of us at the last minute. So there are still 2 or 3 places if anyone is keen to join us. Sign us is still open, category D here: https://www.zwift.com/events/view/922808

Let’s use discord as normal.

See you all in the pen!

Yep, availability is a real issue now. Stocks are returning I think, but it’s still affecting price as trainers are still scarce so there’s very little competition. So if you don’t plan to ride until the winter, maybe wait?

There’s no Elite model on your shortlist. How come?

And by later in the year there may be reliable info on other choices – maybe even dc rainmaker reviews of the Xplova Noza and that one which powers itself but used to be very unreliable but has now been redone (I can’t remember the name). EDIT – Jetblack Whisper, there’s a new version around now.

I’m not convinced they’ve published the weight yet – Reviews all say TBC, Shimano’s own site says nothing, and retailers are listing either the weight of the 42T option or no weight at all.

Maybe @epicsteve will get his scales out?

It’s the middle of summer and as warm as it ever gets here – why is this even a question?

Not all the time…here’s Scout Moor on Monday afternoon:

I wore shorts over bib tights.

You can check your likely speed range here: https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL

TTT entries are open (sorry, I entered at the weekend and forgot to post here…) for Thursday 6.30pm.

This week it’s 3 laps of Volcano Flat, 37km.

Riders, enter CATEGORY D here https://www.zwift.com/events/view/922808

I’ll post our start time when they are published…

A T5 Beach might be the best purchase with those requirements and that budget (assuming you don’t mind a pop top).

Would have been appropriate this week

Ok, decision made: TTT IS OFF TONIGHT.

Enjoy the sunshine. See you next week for Volcano Flat.

If Wiggle use them for their returns (which they do) and their terms and conditions don’t rule it out (which they don’t) I’d just go for it.

I’m going to ride outside today.

If numbers do dwindle too low, don’t worry I’ll get an entry in so normal service can resume next week.

Here’s the info for this week’s TTT.

Thursday, 6.30pm. 1 lap of the Magnificent 8. We have done this course before, and it was a 44 minute effort. It’s mainly flat (round but not up the volcano, round the desert) with one climb up the Reverse hill in the middle.

Riders, sign up to category D here: https://www.zwift.com/events/view/907622

I’ll post exact start times later in the week.

We got some full size rechargeable clones on amazon. One works perfectly. The other works most of the time but sometimes has an annoying right press which won’t go away until you disconnect and reconnect it. It’s rare, and happens from the beginning rather than appearing mid session, and we think probably worth the saving.

The slide off sides are a way of converting to smaller controllers (joycons) which you need for some games, and which my kids prefer for some games when they have the choice. But we don’t need extras of that style – you’ve already got two…

It’ll be fine. And I know what you mean about availability/price right now. But bear in mind that’s basically the new price for an entry level road bike of that kind of spec (with shiny, more up to date components) in Halfords/Decathlon etc so if you can find stock somewhere, something similar but new would probably make more sense. (Sora went up from 8 to 9 speed in 2009, which is how I’d be dating that bike with no further info.)

Where are you looking at the results?
They will be forever wrong on zwift.com as far as I know.
Zwiftpower doesn’t know teams’ start delays (or categories) to start with. Some data pulls back through eventually from the WTRL results site – it definitely updates the category to your coffee class after the fact. I think the times on there get corrected for start delays at that point too.
The results are accurate on the WTRL site (live, then once they appear finalised – they take a while to fully process, and sometimes, like right now, they go down just after the race has been done). Once that’s back online, fairness will be restored.

I’m sorry I missed that. It was a great ride (within a minute of another PL invite).

Weeksy don’t be so hard on yourself. When the gap opens, it opens unbelievably fast (I’ve seen this more times than you in this format!). I find it different to a “normal” race because there’s no point where the group is at all relaxed – more fatigue, more chances for that gap to open, the gap is always to a group going full on . Get that bike back out of the bin.

The webcast was all frappe and up, mainly Vienna and Espresso. But kelvinshuffle was there in the youtube chat nagging them – unsuccessfully – for updates on stw/latte (thanks Kelvin!).

The entry is in for next week – 29km of Magnificent 8 which has the reverse hill near the start, then lots of flat to the finish. Back to our normal 6.30 start time. I’ll put all the proper info in a separate post.

TTT Premier League final details:

Event start / in the pen by 6.15pm.
Our start delay is 1 minute, so we are off at 6.16pm. Phil can you handle stopwatching?
The usual discord channel for comms
Interested spectators might catch a glimpse of the STW team on the Zwift Community Live stream here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jSr5hxRbc8

Tonight’s line up is:
phil56
tiger6791
weeksy
ljarch
zilog6128
IvanDobski

I can’t ride tonight (aarrggh I’ve known this since this morning), so I can’t sign off with “see you in the pen” – but I’ve sent some bios over to the organisers, and I’ll try and catch the stream on my phone.

Good luck lads, enjoy your moment!

thanks weeksy, can you dm me a one sentence bio?

You’ve changed the question. I’d stick with crank. The convenience difference between crank and pedals gets smaller the more you think about it.

They are very good. But they are also still expensive. And MTB has lagged way, way behind Road (although this might be the year the gap begins to close).

Add Favero Assioma to your list. I’d look at DC Rainmaker’s buyers’ guide. I won’t reproduce it, even in highlights, here.

OK, I have accepted the premier league invitation and withdrawn us from the normal TTT race this week. The event start is 6pm, I’ll confirm our exact start delay nearer the time as usual.

The entry link is… a secret. I’ll message it to each of dangeourbrain, phil56, tiger6791, ljarch and zilog6128.

Other cat C or cat D riders are welcome to join us. Ask in here for the link. This would be a good moment for ivandobski and dknwhy to return to the fray if they see this.

Our team tactic will not change because of the fancy context – let’s bounce around like lottery balls as normal, and aim to get the whole team over the line together.

If for any reason we aren’t going to make it I have until 7pm Weds to move our entry back across to the normal race. Or if we end up short of cat Bs we’d need to persuade weeksy or trail_rat to step in. dangeourbrain are you going to make it on time for 6pm do you think?

That’s all. Back to normal service, hopefully including weeksy, next week.

Yep, last week’s team could obviously ride together again:
dangeourbrain B
phil56 B
tiger6791 B
ljarch C
savoyad C
zilog6128 C

with two spaces left for C or D category riders. That might include e.g. ivandobski (and looking further back, dknwhy).

Assuming all three of those B’s ride, it would exclude weeksy and trail_rat (and kelvinshuffle).

Um, we have qualified to ride in the TTT Premier League this week. I have to accept or decline our place by the end of tomorrow. Shall I say yes?

Two things to bear in mind…

– We’d have to ride in Latte class this week, so a max of 3 B riders. Normally we don’t pay any attention to the composition of the team, and I like doing it that way. We just ride in whatever formation enters. And normally it doesn’t matter because we get reclassified into the appropriate category for whatever combination show up on the start line. But for this week only we’d have to pay attention (realistically that means phil56, dangeourbrain and tiger6791 who rode us into this position in the first place) and it would matter for once because in the PL you get a “DNQ” rather than reclassified if you don’t ride with the right composition.

– It’s a sightlier earlier start than usual – 6pm instead of 6.30pm. Can everyone make that?

It’s broadcast on zwift community live facebook/youtube, but let’s be honest I don’t think that Latte gets much attention (last week’s broadcast is still up to take a peek at). And I’m supposed to supply a bio of each rider but we can come to that later I guess. The course is confirmed now, it’s 2 pan flat laps of Tick Tock, total 36km.

Thoughts?

Everyone is being very helpful here, but only dangeourbrain’s post will save your eyesight.

The spout on a small bottle of stans is as good as a syringe and once you have the small bottle you can just reuse it forever.

Is your niece anti-windows? Have you asked her what she would prefer?

No wonder I unhitched on the last lap. That was our best result yet. Great ride.

The entry is in for next week.

6.30 on Thursday. Enter category A here: https://www.zwift.com/events/view/889027

The website always goes haywire at this time of the week – at the moment in different places it says Watopia Hilly Reverse and/or Tick Tock – but I think it might actually be Watopia’s Waistband when the dust settles.

I’ll post this again with concrete news on the route early next week.

6 now, tiger6791 has joined us.

OK, TTT info is here for this evening….

Our start time is +9.5 minutes. So in the pen for 18:30, then once it says “GO!” we don’t go until 18:39:30. Phil will handle the stopwatch and shout go. (is that OK Phil?).

There are still places in the team. Enter category A here https://www.zwift.com/events/view/868219 and append (STW) to you Rider Name in Zwift Power.

There are five of us on the start sheet at the moment:
ljarch
dangeourbrain
phil56
zilog6128
savoyad

See you in the pen.

How did it go weeksy? You got any legs left for a TTT later?

@stumpy01 has it – you have to use third party sites to search the listings properly. zwift has some pretty weird functionality gaps.

As well as zwiftpower there’s another good search interface at https://zwifthacks.com/app/events/

That’s the one trail_rat. No probs Garry.

The TTT entry is in. 6.30pm on Thursday. It’s 3 laps (27km) of the Hilly Route Reverse in Watopia This isn’t actually as hilly as it sounds, and (don’t listen to Garry!) it definitely doesn’t go over the epic KOM. It does go up the original non epic “Watopia KOM” but backwards, which is up the long drag we’ve ridden a few times together now (at 30km/h) and then a fast descent down the steeper side. The rest is just lumpy.

Enter here: https://www.zwift.com/events/view/868219 – category A this week
Tag your rider name with (STW) in zwiftpower settings.

I’ll be back with a start time on Weds.

OK. We have – for the first time ever – a full house of 8 riders on the start sheet for tonight, all correctly tagged and entered. Here’s the plan:

– Dress as bumblebees. Ride a road bike. Try to look distinctive.
– Comms will be in the STW Voice channel on discord. I think everyone has access to that. Push to talk is better, less panting etc.
– Join the event before 6.30pm. We’re in category A this week, which starts on the dot. Late joining doesn’t work.
– Stop pedalling just before it says “go” at 6.30, so you don’t roll over the line before our start time. Don’t “go” when it says “go”. Sit there and wait until our start time, which is…
– … +4.5 minutes this week, so we’re off at 18:34:30. We will confirm who on the line but someone will do the timer and count us down to start together.

I think that’s it. The eight people are:

phil56
trail_rat
dangeourbrain
tiger6791
weeksy
ljarch
savoyad
zilog6128

See you in the pen.