bobinski
Legendary Member
- Location
- Tulse Hill
I hope to have a crack at the CVR race tonight just to post a time up Box for the segment challenge.
Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
First, if you can get enough races in and can identify a strong rider by name, mark them for the duration of the race. Second, use zwift power's live tab to help identify if you're in the lead group of qualified riders or not. Finally, know yourself and your course. At this point I'm pretty sure that I can judge myself on the KISS flat TT courses as well as the Volcano 7/8 lap KISS races and if I'm riding well I'm going to be competitive.Well done
It’s difficult to know where you are in the race, three times I thought I was way down the list and finished with 2 golds and 1 silver.
“Keep going as you never know” is the moral of the story.
Now I just need to start repeating that on the courses with climbs! I'm setting PBs pretty regularly (Box Hill last night), but not sure if I've got enough left to hang onto a group in a race situation.
KISS EUR today. Greater London Flat I think was the course. Given that I've mostly been climbing in Watopia the last few months it was no surprise I'd never been on the flat parts of the London expansion from several months ago. It's definitely flat. Probably less than half the climbing of the Volcano CCW course (over the course of 2 and 7 laps respectively).
Identified a couple of marks before we started. With around 80 riders it was a bit crazy at the start, but a big lead group of ~20-25 formed reasonably quickly. I didn't notice any C riders getting up the road away from the lead group. Both my marks were in the lead group as well as one more that I recognized once the group formed. Simple plan from there on. Stick with the group until the sprint. Don't chase anyone except those 3 marks and only if the group is likely to split with one of those 3 in the new lead group.
Folks seemed mostly content to ride with the group. One of the original marks did go off the front hard and there were B riders that looked like they might be within reach and one other from the big group started to chase. So I joined and chased him down as well, but just sat in once I caught the little group. The bigger group caught us not terribly long thereafter.
About 2 miles from the finish I lost the wheel in front of me and next thing I knew I was 3 seconds behind that wheel and another 5 behind the lead group. Nearest to me was ~15 behind. And that was all she wrote. I hit the gas, but I couldn't sustain it long enough to matter. My marks finished 1st, 4th & 7th of the qualified riders with a 2 second spread. I finished 10th ~35 behind.
I should have paid more attention when I was chasing the little group with one of my marks in it -- not to the little group, but the big one behind me -- there just wasn't going to be a big enough gap for him to get away as the big group must have accelerated (probably with me pulling some of them). Hard to know how much it took out of me, but certainly seems like wasted energy.
Second, when I got dropped, I probably should have realized I'd faded to the back of the group earlier and thus should have hit the gas earlier to get safely into the middle of the pack and avoid being on the wheel of the next to last rider in the group to begin with. I'd been in that position a couple times and was able to up the cadence slightly and safely get back into the group. Mental lapse for a few seconds and poof...
Still a good race though. While I haven't been racing as much as I'd like since Oct, it doesn't seem to have had a huge negative impact. Probably taking tomorrow off, then hitting the KISS EUR again on Thursday.
Identified a couple of marks before we started. With around 80 riders it was a bit crazy at the start, but a big lead group of ~20-25 formed reasonably quickly. I didn't notice any C riders getting up the road away from the lead group. Both my marks were in the lead group as well as one more that I recognized once the group formed. Simple plan from there on. Stick with the group until the sprint. Don't chase anyone except those 3 marks and only if the group is likely to split with one of those 3 in the new lead group.
Folks seemed mostly content to ride with the group. One of the original marks did go off the front hard and there were B riders that looked like they might be within reach and one other from the big group started to chase. So I joined and chased him down as well, but just sat in once I caught the little group. The bigger group caught us not terribly long thereafter.
About 2 miles from the finish I lost the wheel in front of me and next thing I knew I was 3 seconds behind that wheel and another 5 behind the lead group. Nearest to me was ~15 behind. And that was all she wrote. I hit the gas, but I couldn't sustain it long enough to matter. My marks finished 1st, 4th & 7th of the qualified riders with a 2 second spread. I finished 10th ~35 behind.
I should have paid more attention when I was chasing the little group with one of my marks in it -- not to the little group, but the big one behind me -- there just wasn't going to be a big enough gap for him to get away as the big group must have accelerated (probably with me pulling some of them). Hard to know how much it took out of me, but certainly seems like wasted energy.
Second, when I got dropped, I probably should have realized I'd faded to the back of the group earlier and thus should have hit the gas earlier to get safely into the middle of the pack and avoid being on the wheel of the next to last rider in the group to begin with. I'd been in that position a couple times and was able to up the cadence slightly and safely get back into the group. Mental lapse for a few seconds and poof...
Still a good race though. While I haven't been racing as much as I'd like since Oct, it doesn't seem to have had a huge negative impact. Probably taking tomorrow off, then hitting the KISS EUR again on Thursday.
bobinski
Legendary Member
- Location
- Tulse Hill
Rivet hard. For me at least when on the flat. I can hang on in the draft at about ftp or higher but if dropped that’s it.
Missed the start of London 8 race by 5s last night and had to chase to second group. I tried to drag the group at 250-270w but they wouldn’t or couldn’t and so we didn’t bridge to the group in front. 19s became 2min plus. 2 regular chain gang riders in that faster group. One finished 8th. I set a personal best lap time despite easing off after Box. Chain gang guys didn’t set any pb’s. I am pretty sure they have been faster on a CG lap.
Missed the start of London 8 race by 5s last night and had to chase to second group. I tried to drag the group at 250-270w but they wouldn’t or couldn’t and so we didn’t bridge to the group in front. 19s became 2min plus. 2 regular chain gang riders in that faster group. One finished 8th. I set a personal best lap time despite easing off after Box. Chain gang guys didn’t set any pb’s. I am pretty sure they have been faster on a CG lap.
bobinski
Legendary Member
- Location
- Tulse Hill
I've managed to get Zwift and TR working together with 2xAnt+ dongles paired separately to each simulator. It does seem to help distract from pain TR inflicts upon its user
And there’s me thinking you might have another go at Box...
Whilst it seems obvious - most of us seem to forget this fact
JoeyB
Go on, tilt your head!
- Location
- Fareham, Hampshire
Make sure you do the advanced spin down from the wahoo app, then enjoy
I did the SZR Winter Series race last night a 6pm. It was 4 laps of Watopia flat - so quite long at 40km. There were also over 100 starters in my C category. This series also don't allow powerups, which I think I quite like.
I officially came 10th and therefore get one point
I was more pleased though by beating my previous best hour power (248 vs 239 before) and my FTP on Zwift moved up to 255. Weirdly I also had a bit left for the final sprint and beat a few riders (although 2 in my little group beat me).
As CXRAndy has noted, improvements tend to come after a TrainerRoad block. I'm on the second block of Sweet Spot Base Medium. I'm treating myself to roughly a race every 10 days as well.
Oh, and welcome @JoeyB
I officially came 10th and therefore get one point
I was more pleased though by beating my previous best hour power (248 vs 239 before) and my FTP on Zwift moved up to 255. Weirdly I also had a bit left for the final sprint and beat a few riders (although 2 in my little group beat me). As CXRAndy has noted, improvements tend to come after a TrainerRoad block. I'm on the second block of Sweet Spot Base Medium. I'm treating myself to roughly a race every 10 days as well.
Oh, and welcome @JoeyB
I did the SZR Winter Series race last night a 6pm. It was 4 laps of Watopia flat - so quite long at 40km. There were also over 100 starters in my C category. This series also don't allow powerups, which I think I quite like.
I officially came 10th and therefore get one point
As CXRAndy has noted, improvements tend to come after a TrainerRoad block. I'm on the second block of Sweet Spot Base Medium. I'm treating myself to roughly a race every 10 days as well.
Oh, and welcome @JoeyB
I'm in the second week of 'Sustained Power Build', I'm after some improvements for Majorca in March, although the VO2 MAX workout today was really tough, I had to reduce the difficulty a bit. I treat myself to the segment challenge efforts, but box hill on Monday as another VO2 MAX effort, I'm not sure two in a few days is a good idea. The next session is over/unders!
Breedon
Legendary Member
- Location
- Long Eaton, Nottingham
I've just finished the last block of sustained power build, so im going with the build phase of sweet spot at high volume 
we'll see how it goes but i should do a ftp test as i haven't done one for a while 
.
we'll see how it goes but i should do a ftp test as i haven't done one for a while .
