Team BKool CycleChat

[bobinski]

Small world. I know Angus - we used to be neighbours. Saw into him at the weekend at the CX. Nice guy.

Bloody hell! It is. And he is. Really looked after us last year.

 

[Monte]

Post up here @Monte when you're planning to do Goat 4 ..... I might pop in to cheer yo on a little ... not too much, just a little

Was hoping to have a try this evening, had some distractions... maybe later on Wednesday evening around 8,ish

 

[bridgy]

I see the Chaingang League has now officially closed - well done to AAAC for the well deserved win! Just 51 seconds between us after nearly 3 hours racing though, which is great - I'm really happy to get so close to you AAAC!

I see it was even closer between Bill and Turbo Tommy - 6 seconds!

I'm sure you would have been higher up the league LBHIFI if you hadn't had those issues you've been struggling with - hopefully now resolved?

Well done everyone - lots of personal battles and big improvements all the way up and down the league

Thanks Bill for setting up the league - looking forward to what you have in store for us for December.....(I think!)

 

[AAAC 76C]

I see the Chaingang League has now officially closed - well done to AAAC for the well deserved win! Just 51 seconds between us after nearly 3 hours racing though, which is great - I'm really happy to get so close to you AAAC!

I see it was even closer between Bill and Turbo Tommy - 6 seconds!

I'm sure you would have been higher up the league LBHIFI if you hadn't had those issues you've been struggling with - hopefully now resolved?

Well done everyone - lots of personal battles and big improvements all the way up and down the league

Thanks Bill for setting up the league - looking forward to what you have in store for us for December.....(I think!)

Cheers Bridgy, you certainly made me work for it.
I look forward to the next challenge. Perhaps a few more rolling stages and less outright climbing?

 

[bridgy]

I don't know if you've sorted the chaingang rides for next month yet Bill, but I have a suggestion for you which I think would be interesting to include at some stage in the chaingang as something a bit different from the norm. It's a ride I did last night - a bit of uphill at the start and then mostly downhill after that. But the downhill is usually not too steep so to get a good time you'd still have to work hard to keep the speed up - lots of spinning! It just struck me while I was doing it that it would make a good/interesting league stage at some point. I wasn't going full pelt and it took about 35 minutes - http://www.bkool.com/bkoolSessionHistory/showSessionSummary/3264992

 

[gbrown]

So what's the proper way to set up a league re-run these days, particularly if it's a ride that repeats in the league?

I'm thinking specifically about the Banff ride from the handicap league. I couldn't do the ride live and when I went to do it later with ghosts, I couldn't ever set that up as a league ride. So I did it out of the league. I just went to do a short league run with no ghosts so that Geoff could transfer my out-of-league time into the league.

Pretty sure a league stage does need to be current, at least at the point you schedule it, for it to be marked as a league session. If you then ride it late, it comes up for acceptance with a flag against how late it is.

So long as you don't complete a league session, it will always come up for acceptance by admin, marked as incomplete. Then the admin can add seconds to the time as part of the acceptance.

Your incomplete ride of Week 5 stage is currently awaiting acceptance, please can you post a link to your out-of-league session and I'll attempt to make the adjustment!

Geoff

 

[gbrown]

The next Handicap Chase is 2016 Banff GranFondo S3

Next run is 8pm (plus Start Time) tonight, Tuesday 29th November 2016.

Start Times (Handicaps) are as follows... (when underway time equals or exceeds the given Start Time).

If anyone else wants to take part, can they let us know a competitive time for the stage, or failing that their fitness level and who they usually finish close to.

Your handicap is based on your previous times, and is used to generate a Start Time.

Like golf, the higher the Handicap the more assistance you get, so the earlier the Start Time.

Your Handicap is reduced slightly if you have only completed one chase, and reduced more if you have completed none (and your time is based on doing the stage outside the handicap format). Therefore you are rewarded for completing the handicap chase once, and rewarded more for a second one, as your time should more closely reflect your current potential.

Finally, the Handicap is also reduced slightly for those who are furthest behind the fastest time, as they have more chance of significantly improving their times. The front runners will always struggle to improve their times much, especially after a couple of runs, so they need the full Handicap to stay competitive.

This algorithm has developed across several stages (and previous Chain Gang rides) and closed the bulk of the field from around 10 minutes to around 3 minutes, and hopefully future runs will close it up again slightly.

It is always likely that the win will be taken by an early starter who improves significantly, which is probably a good thing as it improves motivation. It is also possible that any significant under performance on previous bests will result in trailing in at the back, for even the fastest riders. I don't think this can be helped. However, so long as the bulk of the entrants finish close together it should make for a more entertaining session for the majority, and make the format worthwhile.

Geoff

 

[BILL S]

I see the Chaingang League has now officially closed - well done to AAAC for the well deserved win! Just 51 seconds between us after nearly 3 hours racing though, which is great - I'm really happy to get so close to you AAAC!

I see it was even closer between Bill and Turbo Tommy - 6 seconds!

I'm sure you would have been higher up the league LBHIFI if you hadn't had those issues you've been struggling with - hopefully now resolved?

Well done everyone - lots of personal battles and big improvements all the way up and down the league

Thanks Bill for setting up the league - looking forward to what you have in store for us for December.....(I think!)

You're more than welcome Bridgy. Yes, well done all for some impressive performances and close racing in The Chaingang and Mountain goat leagues. Some excellent improvements too.

Well done AAAC on both your wins. I glad Bridgy was there to make sure you suffered in the process. Admin have decided to make it a little harder for you in Decembers league with some flatter and some more downhilly rides. Mountain Goats still steep but a little shorter to help those of us who can't keep out power going for so long.
Both December Leagues should be live by tomorrow.

 

[kipster]

I don't know if you've sorted the chaingang rides for next month yet Bill, but I have a suggestion for you which I think would be interesting to include at some stage in the chaingang as something a bit different from the norm. It's a ride I did last night - a bit of uphill at the start and then mostly downhill after that. But the downhill is usually not too steep so to get a good time you'd still have to work hard to keep the speed up - lots of spinning! It just struck me while I was doing it that it would make a good/interesting league stage at some point. I wasn't going full pelt and it took about 35 minutes - http://www.bkool.com/bkoolSessionHistory/showSessionSummary/3264992

I did a session last night, fairly flat, lake Garda. It took me about 32 minutes with some effort. It would make a good chain gang. I'll post a link later when I'm near a computer

And well done those who did the leagues. I only did one goat stage and lost motivation. The session last night was hard to start but I soon got into liking it again, hopefully late afternoons at work don't get in the way.

 

[BILL S]

I don't know if you've sorted the chaingang rides for next month yet Bill, but I have a suggestion for you which I think would be interesting to include at some stage in the chaingang as something a bit different from the norm. It's a ride I did last night - a bit of uphill at the start and then mostly downhill after that. But the downhill is usually not too steep so to get a good time you'd still have to work hard to keep the speed up - lots of spinning! It just struck me while I was doing it that it would make a good/interesting league stage at some point. I wasn't going full pelt and it took about 35 minutes - http://www.bkool.com/bkoolSessionHistory/showSessionSummary/3264992

Thanks for that Paul. As luck would have it, I was unable to get my pre-programmed in Chaingang League to publish due to bkool coming up with an error, and I read your post before inputting it again today. We are therefore racing the above ride this Thursday. Looks nice and downhill so everyone get your 60t front rings on .

 

[Daddy Pig]

You're more than welcome Bridgy. Yes, well done all for some impressive performances and close racing in The Chaingang and Mountain goat leagues. Some excellent improvements too.

Well done AAAC on both your wins. I glad Bridgy was there to make sure you suffered in the process. Admin have decided to make it a little harder for you in Decembers league with some flatter and some more downhilly rides. Mountain Goats still steep but a little shorter to help those of us who can't keep out power going for so long.
Both December Leagues should be live by tomorrow.

Hi @BILL S . I saw the December goats was available today and rode it this morning. Any chance this can be included as a ride in the league... really don't want to do that again as that was really tough work!

 

[BILL S]

Hi @Daddy Pig. Are you in both leagues? I know I've recently added you to one of them but can't remember which. If you're in the goats I can easily add your ride once it goes live as long as you do me a short dummy ride from the leagues tab.

 

[Daddy Pig]

Thanks for that Paul. As luck would have it, I was unable to get my pre-programmed in Chaingang League to publish due to bkool coming up with an error, and I read your post before inputting it again today. We are therefore racing the above ride this Thursday. Looks nice and downhill so everyone get your 60t front rings on .

I'm in! First chaingang ride for me so glad it's an easy one.

 

[Daddy Pig]

Hi @Daddy Pig. Are you in both leagues? I know I've recently added you to one of them but can't remember which. If you're in the goats I can easily add your ride once it goes live as long as you do me a short dummy ride from the leagues tab.

Hi Bill. I joined the goats and the chaingang. When do I need to get the excuses in as I read that this is standard procedure!

 

[bridgy]

Oh, great Bill - I hope I won't be regretting that decision!

@Daddy Pig - there's no such thing as an "easy" chaingang ride. Not if you're doing it properly