Not long now. Anyone else doing it this year?

I did the EdT in 2017, 2018 and 2019. Wasn’t going to do any more but this route tempted me. Never done any of these climbs before.

Can I join in too please. I had been in on one of the earlier leagues so we are following each other. With luck I’ll manage to join in more than just a couple of the races this time.

Steve Ross STW
Weight 70kg
FTP 234

Thank you!

Weirdly, I got an email from Strava telling me I’d lost a KOM. I have never held a Strava KOM in my mediocre life, let alone Tempus Fugit on Zwift which was the one I (it wasn’t me!) allegedly have now lost.

Yes please sign me up too. Many thanks for all this Robbo.

I might even make it to one of the races this time. But if not at least I’m still helping boost the numbers.

It was a fantastic effort, very well done DrP!

I have avoided telling you I’ve had another stupid FTP increase up to 286w as I’m not going to make it on Tuesday anyway (loaning my turbo to a mate so he can try Zwifting for the first time). Will watch on Dr P’s YouTube though.

Have another stupid question. This time about my FTP.

I did a ramp test back at the start of the Winter race series and it came out at 212 watts. Since then three trips up big Zwift hills have bumped that up to 242w, 266w and now 286w. So I am obviously able to put out a significantly more wattage out the saddle and stomping on the pedals with uphill resistance than I can while staying sat down on the flat.

I don’t do races because there’s no way I am actually a mid-to-high B cat (75kg puts me at 3.8 w/kg). Putting a lower FTP on Zwift feels like I’d be cheating, and I have no idea what to actually lower it to anyway.

Do you know of any way to balance this gap between flat v uphill FTP levels? Or any specific training I should be trying to do to focus on increasing my performance on the flat, if this is even possible?

Many thanks in advance.

Dagnammit. Another FTP increase from this mornings TdZ climb. @robbo1234biking can you please update my FTP to 266w. Many thanks.

Just wish I could hold anything near that level on the flat rather than just on hills!

I only have two on the clock, one for the thread and one for the wings.

61/62. Gaaahhhh!

And as I haven’t got the paper in the bin one, I will swap the answer with (what I think) is the stupidest, hardest to get one. Clue: there are TWO answers for the birds sitting outside the left-hand window.

Thank you!

Thoughts are with you gnusmas.

Can anyone confirm if “out of the frying pan into the fire” is an answer, and if so what the actual text they’re wanting?? Many thanks.

Yes please add me too. Never used the MTB in Zwift yet but will give the Repack Ridge challenge a go. Thank you Robbo for all your work on these.

Bugger. A wee trip up Ven Top yesterday and I’ve gone from a comfortable mid C to a scraping-the-bottom B. Apologies for being the cause of a lot of changes to your spreadsheet Mr Robbo.

Steve Ross STW
FTP 241w
Weight 75kg

@robbo1234biking A wee update to my numbers if you’ve time to update the sheet.

Steve ross STW
75kg, 212w.

Many thanks!

That’s fab news! Can I sign up to the remaining races please Mr Robbo? I was signed up to series 1 so we already follow each other. I really need to find out how to reset my Zwift power and do the ramp test as have had a bit of an enforced lay-off that has lost me both a bit of kgs and a lot amount of watts since then. May as well use the existing deets as I’ll be in no way challenging the mid-pack.

Steve Ross STW
80kg, 253 w

My planning for tomorrow is to have got hold of a USB extension cable in the hope of no drop-out in connection (to add to the usual hope of making it to the start at all). If it works I might even make it to the end. Wish I had some new legs too though.

Well I did better than last week. Last week the turbo bugged out in the start pen, this evening it waited until halfway (after I’d been dropped from the group I was in, and also passed at high speed by the following group). Never mind. Good ride while it lasted.

I was looking forward to that. Even bought the SL7 frame and some jelly babies for the job. Clock hit zero, I’m spinning away but not moving. Zwift still had my cadence showing but power had dropped out. Oh well. See you next week.

While we’re sharing Zwift Insider links, if you want to recce ride the Innsbruck route you can hack your way in… https://zwiftinsider.com/world-tag/

And because it’s empty you can collect all the jerseys on the way round!

Where were all these people for the Team Time Trial?

In my defence, I did finish fortieth out of forty-five last night (and fourth-last after the handicap applied). Hardly the sort of help needed in a TTT.

I am hoping to improve next Tuesday if I can find my lucky socks.

Yup, and thanks from me too. Hopefully I can learn to be ready at the start for the next one. When countdown stopped everyone scooted off while I was still stationary. Pushed to catch up, just as I got there and slowed everyone powered off. Chased again but never got near. Enjoyed it all anyway. Rode with Mr Stumpy1 the whole way (Svlad a.k.a. Steve).

4 hours? Is it today? I thought it was tomorrow! Is today tomorrow already?

let’s see how badly we all do

well i guess someone loses

I managed to get a total of two points yesterday. Bet you all can’t lose better than that.

Hi all. Got a question about the trainer difficulty. Hope it makes sense.

I normally keep the difficulty at 100% because, well, why not. Gives a bit of variety. When I have the difficulty lowered to 20% it’s a nice, steady output, but it’s also much lower power than I can maintain at the higher difficulty with the associated higher resistance in the trainer. Not usually a problem as I don’t do races. But now that I’ve put my name down for the STW Autumn race series I’d like to make a proper go of it.

So my question to you is this, what do you set the difficulty at for events/races? And do you have it low because you can put good power out on the flats (and the low difficulty flattens the whole route) or high because you’re better on uphills?

As Scaredypants said up there, I would at best be an occasional taker-parter but would like the chance to join in if/when I can.

Steve Ross STW
80kg, FTP 253.

Thank you for this!

Thanks guys, I’ll look into those.

Ooh ooh ooh, I have a stupid Zwift question!

I’ve seen that folks lie about their weight but can’t get my head around why. Shirley it just falsely up’s their W/kg and so makes them have to race in the higher class of race than the one they should be in, no? Or does Zwift actually make whippets faster and chubsters slower, everything else being equal?

The reason I ask is when I joined I put in the weight I was at the time – 85kg. Having weighed myself again yesterday it turns out I’ve lost 5kg somewhere along the way. So does this mean I’ve been cheating myself and been slowed down and I’m now going to effortlessly zoom up the Alpe?

No I don’t do the races so it is of hee-haw importance to anything. It was just a general wonderment.

Apologies if this has been asked/answered over the past few hundred posts, but I haven’t checked for myself.

So, so far one Formula 1 race is off, others are at risk. One of the Six Nations games has been cancelled, the rest of the competition is in doubt. The UAE bike race, the Paris marathon and the Qatar Moto GP have been cancelled.

Is anyone willing to wager on this being worry-mongering, or is it the first few flakes of snow before an avalanche of large-event cancellations world-wide?

You see I’ve signed up to the Etape du Tour in France in July and want to know whether or not to bother training.

Do you love running? Really? Are you sure? ‘Cos only 8% of runners actually love running. Most of us just tolerate it.
https://www.runnersworld.com/uk/news/a31014592/strava-why-we-run-survey/

I only own one mountain bike. I bought it over 7 years ago, second hand. I have no idea how old it actually is. It has 26″ wheels and 27 gears. It also has cable brakes because I don’t don’t how to fettle or fix hydraulics.

In the intervening years I have bought four road bikes.

Not quite the same, but a couple of decades ago as a young chap I looked at the new fangled ‘cordless’ phone in the house and thought why, if we can wrangle things around to be able transmit someones voice between the baseset and the handset wirelessly, can we not do the same with the battery power?

Wireless power! Think of the possibilities!! Why has nobody ever thought of this before??!?

Turned out someone already had thought of it. Over a hundred years ago. Hey ho. But I still think it’d be a good idea.

International Space Station due to dock next week
https://www.lego.com/en-gb/product/international-space-station-21321?cmp=Shop-GLO-Ideas-SOC-Jan-20-21321Reveal-POST-FBOrganic-21321Reveal-SH-LEGO–SHOP

In the gym.
With other fattos.
I’m so ashamed.

Stuck on 88.

Was there not a code thingy on here where we could hide answers behind a spoilers box?

Primarily roading. Audaxes (audii?) and sportives and stuff leading up to the Etape du Tour in July.

Gosh there are lots of very impressive runs on here. I did a parkrun on Saturday. Not my best time but I did beat some other old people.

3 pairs of cycling shoes depending on bike/pedals being used.
2 pairs of running shoes, one for road one for off.
2 pairs of old running shoes for gyming, one pair at home one under the desk at work.
1 pair of old trail running shoes used for MTB’ing on flats.
1 pair of brand new still-in-box running shoes bought in the sale waiting for the current pair to retire.
2 pairs of walking boots.
1 pair of approach shoes.
1 pair of golf shoes.
2 pairs of posh work/Wedding/funeral/bar mitzvah shoes, one pair at home one pair under the desk at work.
3 pairs of non-posh shoes.
1 pair of slippers.

So I’d say I’m normal, except maybe for the golf shoes.

I thought I was pathetic until I read this thread. Keep up the low work my friends.