Team BKool CycleChat

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bridgy

Legendary Member
Location
Cheddar
What does everyone prefer to do next?

New Chaingang league similar to the above or take a break/concentrate on the Bkool Summer Cup? I don't mind either way.
I'm not on the Bkool enough at this time of year to do both the and the Bkool summer cup, so if there's a new chain gang league I will probably try and join in that. Leaving each stage open for the duration of the league worked well for me and others who often missed the live races (lots of tempting real world rides at this time of year + holidays etc!)
 

CXRAndy

Guru
Location
Lincs
I probably won't make many of the live rides this being a busy summer re family events and holidays. I will try and keep Up to date as much as I can. I am piling on the weight and need to keep it on check
 

<Tommy>

Illegitimi non carborundum
Location
Camden, London
Apologies I've not been around much lately. The long stretch of decent weather kept me in the great outdoors, then a brief trip to the states has meant I've done very little cycling the last couple of weeks. I've not dared weigh myself since I've been back. A combination of American portion sizes and (mostly) my own gluttony have done me a severe misjustice!

My turbo / comuter bike needs a bit of TLC but hopefully I'll have a tinker tonight so I can join in the BKOOL fun tomorrow. I reckon my handicap may also need to be tinkered with a little Geoff, but I'll save my best excuses for my post race winge tomorrow!
 

<Tommy>

Illegitimi non carborundum
Location
Camden, London
I probably won't make many of the live rides this being a busy summer re family events and holidays. I will try and keep Up to date as much as I can. I am piling on the weight and need to keep it on check

Judging from strava results it looks like kipster's putting in more miles than the rest of 'team not red' combined this summer! Still, the added weight should help us on the downhills :thumbsup:
 

AAAC 76C

Large Member
Location
LIVING THE DREAM
I've just worked out that I am getting closer to an actual bkool rating. My ftp is currently below what an Am 1 would be for my weight. To step up, to Am 2, I need to generate 263+ watts (it was, iirc, something like 278 or so). Since Christmas my ftp has gone from 190 odd to 233.

So what, at Christmas, looked like a mount Everest of a climb, a 50% increase in power. Is now beginning to look like a mount Snowdon, difficult but doable.

As the weight comes off I will benefit from the double whammy of easier climbs and higher ratings for the same power output. But I want to keep improving the power, if I can, as the weight ebbs away, triple whammy ^_^.

The other way is to get older and the required watts come down.
 

AAAC 76C

Large Member
Location
LIVING THE DREAM
What does everyone prefer to do next?

New Chaingang league similar to the above or take a break/concentrate on the Bkool Summer Cup? I don't mind either way.

Bill, I will be doing all of the Summer League, if I can, just so I can moan about it a bit more.
The rides really push me to my limit but I should have enough left to give the Chain Gang league a go so long as it is run on Thursday and Saturday.
I don't mind using my old FW to its best in the Summer League rides but I don't feel right competing for the GC in the Cycle Chat leagues with the FW advantage I have. When I get over paying for fixing the car, and it goes on because now it's new discs and pads all round and two front tyres, and paying for our holiday I'll be looking a buying a new Pro and then I can do Zwift as well!
 

BILL S

Guru
Location
London
Wow. that was a struggle but I think I got the new league set up. It was really hard to find rides that would hopefully not trigger the full stops so we can all compete as evenly as possible. I liked TheBoxers suggestion for the format so went with that. 3 main rides with 3 sprints set 2 weeks apart, but we can easily run each of them two Thursdays in a row + Saturdays. I think in future I'll look for possible rides in advance so they're ready to program in when the time comes. Any suggestions will of course be welcomed.
I ended up having to use previous rides I've/we've done that I know won't cause us problems. So it's two from the league we've just done and one from the summer cup. The 10 or so rides I tried (which looked good on the search) all turned out to have gradient changes that would have brought some of us to a halt.
Should be good to go tomorrow sometime.
 

AAAC 76C

Large Member
Location
LIVING THE DREAM
Wow. that was a struggle but I think I got the new league set up. It was really hard to find rides that would hopefully not trigger the full stops so we can all compete as evenly as possible. I liked TheBoxers suggestion for the format so went with that. 3 main rides with 3 sprints set 2 weeks apart, but we can easily run each of them two Thursdays in a row + Saturdays. I think in future I'll look for possible rides in advance so they're ready to program in when the time comes. Any suggestions will of course be welcomed.
I ended up having to use previous rides I've/we've done that I know won't cause us problems. So it's two from the league we've just done and one from the summer cup. The 10 or so rides I tried (which looked good on the search) all turned out to have gradient changes that would have brought some of us to a halt.
Should be good to go tomorrow sometime.

Respect
 

BILL S

Guru
Location
London
Bill, I will be doing all of the Summer League, if I can, just so I can moan about it a bit more.
The rides really push me to my limit but I should have enough left to give the Chain Gang league a go so long as it is run on Thursday and Saturday.
I don't mind using my old FW to its best in the Summer League rides but I don't feel right competing for the GC in the Cycle Chat leagues with the FW advantage I have. When I get over paying for fixing the car, and it goes on because now it's new discs and pads all round and two front tyres, and paying for our holiday I'll be looking a buying a new Pro and then I can do Zwift as well!

Yeah, I'll be doing the summer cup too, and having a moan about it as well. If nothing else it should be good for the fitness as it pushes me to the limit too. Bit like chaingang rides.
 

CXRAndy

Guru
Location
Lincs
Thanks again Bill and Geoff for the work you do.

Both Tubo Tommy and CRXAndy in the States? A mini British Invasion. What state were you in ? I don't mean drunk or sober I mean like New York or New Jersey. Both apparently newer versions of British areas.

I am in the Bahamas which is a stones throw from USA. It feels like Florida mainly with so many Americans here on holiday
 

<Tommy>

Illegitimi non carborundum
Location
Camden, London
I was mostly in Boston Randy. I wasn't really there long enough to travel around as much as I'd of liked to which was a bit of a shame as I'd never been to the east coast before. But still managed a fair bit of sightseeing.

The Bahamas Andy. Sounds very nice!
 

LBHIFI

Veteran
Location
Liseleje
I put up a new Handicap league for August for those still keen to take part.

There are 5 courses, one a week, Cheddar, Chapel Fell, The Shelf, Haytor and Rundlestone.

I have used the previous results on each stage, and added a fudge factor to the Handicap algorithm to compensate for lower power when the gradient slackens off, in an attempt to keep things as close as possible, throughout the field.

First run is tomorrow night at 8pm, as usual. I've set an alarm on my watch/phone to remind me!

View attachment 137262
Hope to be there tonight, and hopefully with a pair of BePro pedals ( power meter ) to compare this time.
 
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