Team BKool CycleChat

[berty bassett]

i can't believe the difference that changing tyres makes ! i had a 28 with winter tread on as i thought there would be more grip to stop it slipping when i stand up - perfect logic i thought ! but changed to an old 23 continental tonight pumped up to 125 and it felt so much better, showed higher watts even though i didnt feel i was working so hard- well ,till the end when that hill came from nowhere and someone flew pass me !!

 

[AAAC 76C]

Great race everyone and fantastic to see such a good turn out.

Bill, for once I was totaly unable to look back much to see what was going on as I spent a good deal of time starring at my feet telling them to keep going.

 

[AAAC 76C]

i can't believe the difference that changing tyres makes ! i had a 28 with winter tread on as i thought there would be more grip to stop it slipping when i stand up - perfect logic i thought ! but changed to an old 23 continental tonight pumped up to 125 and it felt so much better, showed higher watts even though i didnt feel i was working so hard- well ,till the end when that hill came from nowhere and someone flew pass me !!

Grip is pretty much proportional to surface contact. On a dry road a slick will give more grip that a tyre with tread.
Thread is only needed off of the metaled roads or in the wet to pump the water out of the contact area neither of which exist on a turbo.
In these conditions tread will only give you one thing - drag!
I assume you have the metalised turbo roller as I think its only the first classics, like mine, that have the smooth black coated roller on. The ribbed metalised roller should give you all the grip you need.
As I said before on a turbo you want a skinny high pressure slick, the skinnier and higher pressure the better.

 

[Schlecks Chain]

Hello. I've requested to join Mountain Goats. My username is Schleck's Chain. Would it be possible for someone to approve me? Thanks!

 

[Noah Street]

So I spend the best part of an hour doing my pan in and for almost all the ride I'm the one or two positions in front of Baldo Mero and then a few hundred meters from the finish he's in front of me and beats me by 3 minutes! How does that work (no offence Baldo, I easily believe you well and truly beat me but the 'in stage' timing does not appear realistic).

 

[BILL S]

Hello. I've requested to join Mountain Goats. My username is Schleck's Chain. Would it be possible for someone to approve me? Thanks!

You're approved SC

 

[AAAC 76C]

Hello. I've requested to join Mountain Goats. My username is Schleck's Chain.

Make sure you have a chain catcher fitted, wouldn't want any incidents now!

I would have stopped to help you put it on last time but you might have got a two minute penalty like Richie lasy year.

Regards Alberto

 

[BILL S]

Great race all . I think we were 4 guys at one point, working together in a group after the powerhouses up front, and actually managing to stay about 1:50 behind for a longer period.
Bill, we had a good fight to the finish line , but I just couldn't maintain my sprint all the way and had to stop 50 -100 m before the line .

Lars. This must be one of the very few times I've beaten you to the line in a live race. I was close to giving up shortly before the end as I had little fight left in me. However, I see that I got to the end using less w/kg than you so it looks like I drafted for longer and perhaps freewheeled longer down the hills. I think I got just the right slingshot to get ahead close to the finish and it almost seemed like you were done at that point, but then the seconds between us started closing fast and I had to respond quick the speed you were catching me. Fortunately for me the line was very close so I was able to borrow the power to make it only just!

 

[bobinski]

How would anyone feel about rolling starts to chain gang races? 5 minutes say, or a fixed distance? Allows for a bit more of a warm up, time to make adjustments to fans, gears, err, tackle I think it would also be a nice way to involve new members by giving them the chance to lead us off.

 

[RickB]

How would anyone feel about rolling starts to chain gang races? 5 minutes say, or a fixed distance? Allows for a bit more of a warm up, time to make adjustments to fans, gears, err, tackle I think it would also be a nice way to involve new members by giving them the chance to lead us off.

Funny enough I'd already been considering this as a plan as I thought it might encouraged more drafting or group work but decided it probably wouldn't work out. Anyone doing the stage on their own would have an advantage and I think everyone wants to do set the best time they can. Once we hit 5 minutes for example as a group it would just all go mad as usual anyway.

 

[bobinski]

Funny enough I'd already been considering this as a plan as I thought it might encouraged more drafting or group work but decided it probably wouldn't work out. Anyone doing the stage on their own would have an advantage and I think everyone wants to do set the best time they can. Once we hit 5 minutes for example as a group it would just all go mad as usual anyway.

I thought it was such a good idea I didn't bother to consider the negatives

 

[gbrown]

Funny enough I'd already been considering this as a plan as I thought it might encouraged more drafting or group work but decided it probably wouldn't work out. Anyone doing the stage on their own would have an advantage and I think everyone wants to do set the best time they can. Once we hit 5 minutes for example as a group it would just all go mad as usual anyway.

Rick,

How about another Handicap race, I'm happy to help set one up like last year's if you would like?

If you pick a suitable stage from the recent leagues that was well attended we can get some representative times, then I'll knock up my spread sheet to apply a handicap percentage and give the staggered start times.

I can't join in the race, but could give help getting riders away on time, and might try and record it using Windows 10's game recording feature, if I can get it set up!

If the handicaps are judged right then everything closes up for the last few kilometres and there is plenty of opportunity for drafting and sprinting mayhem at the end. There can be the odd person who's handicap is too generous and they get too much of a lead, but the majority will still arrive in the final stages at the same time.

Last time I adjusted the handicaps for the re-run, and found it worked best if the strongest riders had the chance to just overhaul the largest handicaps, but of course they had to shake off anyone the got past, which got increasingly difficult as they got towards the front!

What do you think?

Geoff

 

[RickB]

Rick,

How about another Handicap race, I'm happy to help set one up like last year's if you would like?

If you pick a suitable stage from the recent leagues that was well attended we can get some representative times, then I'll knock up my spread sheet to apply a handicap percentage and give the staggered start times.

I can't join in the race, but could give help getting riders away on time, and might try and record it using Windows 10's game recording feature, if I can get it set up!

If the handicaps are judged right then everything closes up for the last few kilometres and there is plenty of opportunity for drafting and sprinting mayhem at the end. There can be the odd person who's handicap is too generous and they get too much of a lead, but the majority will still arrive in the final stages at the same time.

Last time I adjusted the handicaps for the re-run, and found it worked best if the strongest riders had the chance to just overhaul the largest handicaps, but of course they had to shake off anyone the got past, which got increasingly difficult as they got towards the front!

What do you think?

Geoff

I'm up for that - say we aim for the Thursday night after the Jan league ends?

last time I recall I had the Realtour trainer and it was Alpe Duez wasnt it? Think I was on your tail at the finish but just couldnt catch you! Must have a think about what recent course would be good for it.

 

[Baldo Mero]

On yesterday's ride I found it impossible to pack with the riders that were around me. There were a couple of riders, I recall a Noah and a Jon, possibly Insomina (sorry if I don't remember right) that were hanging around but they seemed to jump forward and back constantly so there was no way to get close to them and draft. One of them, Noah, was jumping several minutes ahead and back in time. He arrived before me but his final time is listed behind. Why is this? Were they using the "pulsing" style that you have been talking about? Again, if the classification is ordered by W/Kg there are some anomalies difficult to explain by team draftings or strategies. Obviously in my case the vortex handicap is involved and I lost time in the descents as always (I made 3,3 W/Kg and should be around the top ten in the W/Kg classification, but ended 16th), but that is more difficult to explain comparing between Bkool pros, isn't it?. It seems impossible to get to the bottom of these variations... Anyway, thanks rickB for hosting the race, it was fun!

 

[theboxers]

Will be sneaking in to watch later, I'm still trying to recover from this mother of a virus...

I think I am finally at the stage where I can do some proper . I may not be as quick as I was before Christmas, But I'll slowly work my way back up to it .