Zwift Chat

[Whorty]

I wanted the pace to be strong before the the first climb, trusting it would put Carl/Steve in the red zone. I was gob smacked how fast Pete/Michael disappeared up the climb. Then Carl caught me two thirds the way up. It was then I closed my eyes and just powered for as long as possible. The elastic had snapped

I thought you were waiting up for me Michael. I knew you would drop me once we got to the leg snapper.

The little extra speed was welcome to extend the gap to Carl/Steve .

I'm hoping my new freeware screen recorder has done a decent job it's rendering at the moment

Thanks everyone for taking part 👍

Had a connection failure just as I caught you on the 'snapper. I thought I'd timed it perfectly to get a few metres on you over the top then stay with you the next lap and hopefully attack on second time up. Only dropped for about 3 seconds, but no power on the 8% slopes of the climb and I was suddenly 5 seconds behind, and your extra watts on the flat I had no chance to latch back on so I figured it would be a more useful ride to sit up and wait for Steve and we could do a 2 up TT around the course until the last 500 metres.

I know what caused the drop - I forgot to charge the HRM, so when it lost the initial connection it dropped all the other connections too. It then must have had a little juice as my HR was stuck at 72 for nearly a lap when I lost connection again, but at least this time the power stayed on and I could still pedal. I was with Steve but couldn't see him. I tried to keep my power even and hoped if the connection came back then Steve would still be close ... strangely I think Steve could still see me

A good workout trying to TT with Steve who puts out more watts than me. Was hard for me to stay in front so had to work quite a bit.

Thanks for organising @steverob and for the company

 

[CXRAndy]

That explains my quick gap Carl 👍

Next time mate

 

[bridgy]

Yeah I had great plans of a 245W steady effort, but once there are people to chase, all that goes out the window
Bit frustrating to be 5s out of the points, but I made up for it on the sprint. (Trying to secure the overall sprint jersey for the 3 seasons).

Now I realise why I seem to have avoided races with 20 minute climbs for so long 🥴.

I couldn't stay with the front 10 on the KOM so no segment points but quite happy with my climb - 19:45, 320w, 4.05w/kg.

Finished 14th - I did have a bit of a go at the sprint inspired by your efforts @alex_cycles and I was 5th for a bit - but I guess there were lots of good sprinters behind me so that didn't last!

View: https://youtu.be/necmiwf5ok8?si=BgCFMdiw_C_B5xus

 

[Whorty]

That explains my quick gap Carl 👍

Next time mate

My own fault for not charging the HRM ... it's happened to me before. When it runs out of battery it brings the connection down. You'd have probably dropped me anyway on the flatter sections as you're much stringer than me, but shame to lose your wheel like that.

Was still a fun ride though and a good workout so not all lost

 

[mjd1988]

Now I realise why I seem to have avoided races with 20 minute climbs for so long 🥴.

I couldn't stay with the front 10 on the KOM so no segment points but quite happy with my climb - 19:45, 320w, 4.05w/kg.

Finished 14th - I did have a bit of a go at the sprint inspired by your efforts @alex_cycles and I was 5th for a bit - but I guess there were lots of good sprinters behind me so that didn't last!

View: https://youtu.be/necmiwf5ok8?si=BgCFMdiw_C_B5xus

Well done!

Very glad I didn't enter my league, most of top 10 finished the kom in 17.10 or less and the worst 20 min w/kg was 3.9, which is significant better than I have ever managed so I would've crawled home alone

 

[steverob]

A good workout trying to TT with Steve who puts out more watts than me. Was hard for me to stay in front so had to work quite a bit.

When I got dropped I decided that I was still going to try and give it a full effort for the rest of the course (set a PR on the Snapper 1st time round by 3 seconds according to Strava), so when you sat up for me, while it was tempting to slack off a little, I was still trying to push and keep it in Zone 4 as much as possible. This meant that some of the time you were on the front, some of the time it was me, but I was never going to attempt to pull away from you - that would have been self-defeating. The only time I really eased up was when I had a draft van powerup and on those moments I'll admit I did sit in and let you do all the work!

As I said during the race, on both times you had connectivity problems, I could see your rider on my screen and it was varying in power as well (e.g. not stuck at the same wattage all the time), so whatever the issue was it was only affecting things at your end.

At the end when you asked if we were going to sprint, I was too tired to type by then, so I just gave you a ride-on and hoped you understood that I was okay with that. You went a lot earlier than I was expecting and I did keep it reasonably close for a while, but I couldn't hold those sorts of watts for more than 10-15 seconds and you were still flying when my legs finally said no.

 

[mjd1988]

Now I realise why I seem to have avoided races with 20 minute climbs for so long 🥴.

I couldn't stay with the front 10 on the KOM so no segment points but quite happy with my climb - 19:45, 320w, 4.05w/kg.

Finished 14th - I did have a bit of a go at the sprint inspired by your efforts @alex_cycles and I was 5th for a bit - but I guess there were lots of good sprinters behind me so that didn't last!

View: https://youtu.be/necmiwf5ok8?si=BgCFMdiw_C_B5xus

You paced the climb really well

 

[bridgy]

You paced the climb really well

On the climb it started out with me thinking "this is actually OK, I feel really good, I could go harder but I'll pace myself", and then at some point it suddenly flipped to "aaaargh I can't do this, when will this ever end" - and there was still half the climb to go!

 

[Norry1]

On the climb it started out with me thinking "this is actually OK, I feel really good, I could go harder but I'll pace myself", and then at some point it suddenly flipped to "aaaargh I can't do this, when will this ever end" - and there was still half the climb to go!

That's about how it should be

 

[alex_cycles]

Now I realise why I seem to have avoided races with 20 minute climbs for so long 🥴.

I couldn't stay with the front 10 on the KOM so no segment points but quite happy with my climb - 19:45, 320w, 4.05w/kg.

Finished 14th - I did have a bit of a go at the sprint inspired by your efforts @alex_cycles and I was 5th for a bit - but I guess there were lots of good sprinters behind me so that didn't last!

View: https://youtu.be/necmiwf5ok8?si=BgCFMdiw_C_B5xus

19:45 is great. Well done. It's a tough one isn't it?

 

[alex_cycles]

And as if DRS mountaineering yesterday wasn't enough, today is Chasing Wallone - 12 laps of Glasgow Crit at 1030.
I'm going to see how long I can hang onto the A pack. I wonder how many times I can stay with them up the Clyde?
Ideally twice more than the rest of my category would be nice to give me a decent lead.

 

[Whorty]

When I got dropped I decided that I was still going to try and give it a full effort for the rest of the course (set a PR on the Snapper 1st time round by 3 seconds according to Strava), so when you sat up for me, while it was tempting to slack off a little, I was still trying to push and keep it in Zone 4 as much as possible. This meant that some of the time you were on the front, some of the time it was me, but I was never going to attempt to pull away from you - that would have been self-defeating. The only time I really eased up was when I had a draft van powerup and on those moments I'll admit I did sit in and let you do all the work!

As I said during the race, on both times you had connectivity problems, I could see your rider on my screen and it was varying in power as well (e.g. not stuck at the same wattage all the time), so whatever the issue was it was only affecting things at your end.

At the end when you asked if we were going to sprint, I was too tired to type by then, so I just gave you a ride-on and hoped you understood that I was okay with that. You went a lot earlier than I was expecting and I did keep it reasonably close for a while, but I couldn't hold those sorts of watts for more than 10-15 seconds and you were still flying when my legs finally said no.

Same. I was using the ride as a good workout once we got together. I was having to work really hard to stay in front. Not my normal riding style do good to practice.

Re the sprint, that was quite late for me. I don't have a 1000 watt sprint at the moment but i know I can hold something ok for 30 seconds. It's why i was winning sprints last year - not letting the mega watt monsters explode for 15 seconds, by going early and holding on.

Is it climbing next week? I may be washing my hair 🤭😎🤣

 

[alex_cycles]

Same. I was using the ride as a good workout once we got together. I was having to work really hard to stay in front. Not my normal riding style do good to practice.

Re the sprint, that was quite late for me. I don't have a 1000 watt sprint at the moment but i know I can hold something ok for 30 seconds. It's why i was winning sprints last year - not letting the mega watt monsters explode for 15 seconds, by going early and holding on.

Is it climbing next week? I may be washing my hair 🤭😎🤣

This is what I’ve come to realise. Particularly for FTS sprints, entry speed is king. Hit the start line at top speed, which means ramping up at least 200m before the start line, and ideally drafting through the pack towards the end of the ramp-up.
It does mean you turn a 15s sprint into a 30s effort, but it certainly works if you get it right.
Takes big cahones to hang 2s off the back before the ramp-up though 🙈

 

[Whorty]

This is what I’ve come to realise. Particularly for FTS sprints, entry speed is king. Hit the start line at top speed, which means ramping up at least 200m before the start line, and ideally drafting through the pack towards the end of the ramp-up.
It does mean you turn a 15s sprint into a 30s effort, but it certainly works if you get it right.
Takes big cahones to hang 2s off the back before the ramp-up though 🙈

Always been my tactic in the ZRL races ... start from the back as you say takes confidence but the way Zwift drafting works the slingshot gets big speed through the pack. I've found holding a 7 w/kg sprint for 30 seconds is better for me than an 11 w/kg for 15 seconds.

I watch the distance countdown ... I know once it hits 500 metres to go then I'm within 45 seconds of the finish line. That's my signal.

 

[Whorty]

Just noticed next Tuesday goes partway up Mont Vonteax ... 1100 metres of climbing! Isn't that the same as Alpe Du Zwift
Will be a very slow plod for me. But I think I'll set my difficulty to 100% as I climb 'better' at 100% as it's easier to keep power on the pedals.