Zwift Chat

[bridgy]

Well Tim, Bram and I did the re-run of the TTT in the ZRL last night to finish off this round (Michael was on parental duties!)

We went into it with an outside chance of going from 5th to 1st and winning the league - but we'd have to finish 1st for the TTT and hope for other results to go our way. This is how the league looked going into last night's race (we're Lightning Velo in 5th):

3R in 1st and Atom in 3rd chose not to do the re-run but Coalition did - which made sense because like us they had the potential to jump to 1st overall if they won the round.

We started with a full roster of 6 riders but after only 8km two of our team couldn't hold on so we were down to four riders for the remaining 18km . The four were me, Tim, Bram and Maxence from France.

Anyway, we put in a massive effort (my HR averaged 180!) and managed a time of 36:34 which was 23 seconds quicker than the fastest time in R1 - great! Unfortunately Coalition recruited some monsters (one of their guys AVERAGED 338 watts!) and massively improved their time to an impressive 35:23 to take the stage win - fair play! That meant Coalition jumped to 1st in the league on 29 points and we ended equal on 27 points with 3R (who dropped 2 points due to us and Coalition knocking them down to 4th for the stage). We placed 3rd though because 3R had higher total finishing points which is the tie breaker.

One last sting in the tail was Tim got a code 7 for doing too many watts (💪) and so our points for the stage were halved - but this didn't actually affect our finishing position of 3rd place anyway. Here's the final table after the re-run TTT:

Looking forward to the next round, assuming I stay within Dev B limits! Unfortunately I assume we've lost Tim now though and he'll have to take his rightful place in the dragons den of Open B category next time - good luck Tim!

 

[Legs]

Had we been able to field Bram, Michael, Paul, me, Maxence and John in all four events, I’m sure we’d have won the league by a country mile. We were untouchable in the second points race and, in the first, we came third without Bram or Paul and with Maxence injured from having run a marathon beforehand. Our TTT was good, but it was difficult to stop the formation from getting ragged when we were down to four so early on.

But it would have been mean-spirited to have barged into the LV team and completely displaced them (although I got the impression that DS Cleave was secretly delighted for any excuse not to ride!)

Brilliant team spirit and a fun way to spend some Tuesday evenings!

 

[steverob]

In our D1 league, four teams (but not us) re-did the TTT and two of them beat our (previously 1st place) time, while the other two did not, although they did both improve on their original time. This knocked us down from 2nd to 3rd in the league, but considering we were a team thrown together at the last minute and only had 7 riders at the start, I think that we did really well.

The team who won the league very nearly screwed it up however. They had a terrible result in the initial TTT, then went 1st, 1st, 2nd in the remaining rounds, so they were really entering to defend their lead and probably only needed to get 5th or 6th in order to seal it. However they went all out for the win and one of their riders went massively over limits (2.81 w/kg) and got a Code 7. Under the previous rules the whole team would have scored zero points, which would have meant throwing away their lead and finishing second in the league, compared to if they'd not competed at all and took their original result which would have still (just) got them the title. Luckily the rules were changed last time out and it's only a 50% point penalty and that was enough to keep them in first.

 

[Whorty]

I'm definitely back in (old) C cat fully! Glasgow Crit, a race that always suited me; surge and recovery. Wasn't sure how I'd do, half expected to get spat out the back quite quickly but managed to hang on, lap after lap. I didn't push hard the last lap, didn't want to risk increasing my ZRS too much Well chuffed.
Lowest watts and w/kg in the lead group too, my lazy wheelsucking style did me well

 

[alex_cycles]

I've been stuck in TT bike upgrading hell. Nearly there. Just 5.5 hours left to get level 5 on the Cadex. It really makes you realise how much fun drafting with Pace Partners or even just a bunch of free riders is. Solo TT biking is quite boring, but at least we have some double XP routes to do at the moment and new route badges to grab.

I wanted to get the TT bike fully upgraded for the next round of ZRL. Looks like I should comfortably manage that now with just 3-4 more sessions. Then it'll be time to work on the Aethos, probably. Sprint workouts up the Alpe - here we come

 

[bridgy]

I've been stuck in TT bike upgrading hell. Nearly there. Just 5.5 hours left to get level 5 on the Cadex. It really makes you realise how much fun drafting with Pace Partners or even just a bunch of free riders is. Solo TT biking is quite boring, but at least we have some double XP routes to do at the moment and new route badges to grab.

I wanted to get the TT bike fully upgraded for the next round of ZRL. Looks like I should comfortably manage that now with just 3-4 more sessions. Then it'll be time to work on the Aethos, probably. Sprint workouts up the Alpe - here we come

Wow, well done Alex! I just got to level 3 before doing that TTT re-run on Tuesday so I still have a fair way to go to get to level 5, but like you I'm using the TT bike instead of riding with pace partners when doing zone 2 rides and warm ups/warm downs etc.

Unfortunately the TTT still hurt quite a lot despite the upgrades

 

[alex_cycles]

Wow, well done Alex! I just got to level 3 before doing that TTT re-run on Tuesday so I still have a fair way to go to get to level 5, but like you I'm using the TT bike instead of riding with pace partners when doing zone 2 rides and warm ups/warm downs etc.

Unfortunately the TTT still hurt quite a lot despite the upgrades

Apparently half the "gain" on the flat time for TT bikes is in the level 5 aero boost It's an expensive game too. The best bikes cost 1.9 million to fully upgrade through level 5.

 

[bridgy]

Apparently half the "gain" on the flat time for TT bikes is in the level 5 aero boost It's an expensive game too. The best bikes cost 1.9 million to fully upgrade through level 5.

I've got LOADS of drops - good to have something to spend them on!

 

[alex_cycles]

I've got LOADS of drops - good to have something to spend them on!

Yes indeed. Still hovering around 6 mill here, so it's good to have something to use them on. I was nearer 10 before they brought out the bike upgrades and all the new wheels

 

[Norry1]

I have 19 million

 

[Legs]

Apparently half the "gain" on the flat time for TT bikes is in the level 5 aero boost It's an expensive game too. The best bikes cost 1.9 million to fully upgrade through level 5.

I'll start on the TT bike once I'm finished on the S-Works Tarmac (just got L4). How many hours do I need to do to fully upgrade the Cadex Tri? I'm not fussed because I can do all of my workouts on it, so the lack of draft won't affect me at all.

In a way, though, I don't really want to upgrade the TT bike because, although it'll make/keep me competitive relative to other people, it'll skew my times on courses I've ridden before and give me a false impression of improvement. I can see that it's in Zwift's interest to mask ongoing deterioration in people's performance (considering that a large constituent of their demographic is MAMILs whose aerobic capabilities are waning year-on-year...) so that they don't get demoralised with the platform.

 

[N0bodyOfTheGoat]

I got caught out last week by not realising that upgrade prices increased with higher stages. Stages 1&2 were both 200k drops for the Dogma F '24 iirc, so I assumed 3 would be too, meaning I could also just about buy the updated DT Swiss 65 wheels.

Except stage 3 was 350k drops and the scramble was on to gain enough drops to upgrade, which because of the stupid design, had to be done using another frame so distance covered was put towards another upgrade (you lose progress above an upgrade goal if upgrade isn't purchased in that Zwift session).

Just about got stage 3 for the Dogma F and now have the most aero gravel Aspero ~3Km from stage 1.

Didn't renew sub for October in the end, trying to get out instead and trying MyWhoosh on bad weather days, will see if Zwift have drastically altered the insane decay next month (allowing decay if rider doesn't do ZRS races, while they could be doing any other Zwift activity including WRTL and ladder races).

 

[bridgy]

I'll start on the TT bike once I'm finished on the S-Works Tarmac (just got L4). How many hours do I need to do to fully upgrade the Cadex Tri? I'm not fussed because I can do all of my workouts on it, so the lack of draft won't affect me at all.

In a way, though, I don't really want to upgrade the TT bike because, although it'll make/keep me competitive relative to other people, it'll skew my times on courses I've ridden before and give me a false impression of improvement. I can see that it's in Zwift's interest to mask ongoing deterioration in people's performance (considering that a large constituent of their demographic is MAMILs whose aerobic capabilities are waning year-on-year...) so that they don't get demoralised with the platform.

Total hours to fully upgrade a high end TT bike to level 5 is 40 hours.

If you're concerned about the upgrades skewing your previous results you can always upgrade the next best TT bike instead and keep the Cadex Tri (assuming that's what you did your previous times on) at base level, and then pick and choose which one you use depending on whether you want all-out performance (in a ZRL race or something) or you just want to ride a familiar route and compare times?

That said, Zwift are always tinkering with things anyway that can affect your times aren't they? It would only take some kind of general adjustment to the rolling resistance or whatever and your old times will be affected anyway. They've also completely changed the performance of particular bikes at times so this could happen (e.g the Tron bike). So I don't know how much faith you can have that your old times will ALWAYS be relevant anyway, separate to the whole upgrade thing. Same can happen for segement times on real world roads to be fair - road layouts can be changed, roads can be resurfaced etc and make older times you set irrelevant.

 

[ColinJ]

Didn't renew sub for October in the end, trying to get out instead of trying MyWhoosh on bad weather days

Training Peaks keep offering me a month's free trial of TPV. I will sign up for that. I still have a Zwift free trial to use as well.

I expect to be using the smart trainer a lot more soon as the daylight hours reduce and the weather worsens.

 

[Legs]

Total hours to fully upgrade a high end TT bike to level 5 is 40 hours.

That doesn't sound unreasonable. Most of my rides are workouts so I should be able to smash that out in a few months.

Totally agree re: Zwift nerfing the other parameters. I don't mind having my performances flattered! It's certainly less pronounced by than the technological flattering of IRL cycling. I've just spent a couple of hundred quid lightening my hill climb bike, so my performances this year aren't really comparable with my equivalent times in events last year. Of course, that's further obscured by weather conditions and other variables...