Zwift Chat

[KingstonGraham]

Another epic race today - middle of the day, so pretty sparse. Hit the climb with two others in C cat... Ended the climb all alone 3 minutes behind one of them, 3 minutes ahead of the other.

Lonely ride to the finish but went up to 444 zrs so a pretty decent workout.

 

[Whorty]

Just done my 1st zwift race since March ,I'd definitely forgot how much they hurt . The zwift event on Jurassic coast so out the pens over the rollers to Titans . Start wasn't as manic as I remember but as the pack all got together the pace really ramped up tried to hang on over the rollers but got spat out the back at about 3.5km which was disappointing. Was all alone for a while a group of 2 pulling away up Titans and a group of 2 slowly closing from behind . Settled into in my own pace until the 2 caught me from behind then jumped on the wheel. This group was basically pulled along by 1 guy Milardvic from Serbia we slowly caught a few stragglers and the group grew . I hung on until another rolling section with 6km to go when me and another guy got spat . We rode together to the finish despite the odd attack from both sides it came down to a sprint which isn't my strength and I could tell the guy has heavier than me comparing w/kg so I presumed he had more power but the sprint is slightly uphill which is in my favour. He led it out and kicked at 250mts and I just hung on and rolled him on the line 😁 much to my surprise I held 9 w/kg for the final push which is big for me . Max power of 666w so a beast of a sprint . Definitely lost zwift fitness or race craft on the plus side my zrs has gone down to 383 so I'm now below a cat limit in one of the ranges . 38th if 47 on the road 30th of 33 on zp

Same, did my first race today since April. I'm 87kg so 2kg heavier than then (mostly muscle as been at the gym daily pretty much), but extra weight isn't my friend when cycling
Lost the pack straight out the pen, don't have that top end power to sprint out yet. Managed to claw them back before turning into Titans. Where I was dropped as soon as the road went up!

Like you I then ended up with the odd rider from there all the way to the end. I was trying really hard to keep my watts above 200 average for the whole race which I just about managed. I was pleased with that as gives me a base at least to work from.
I was with 3 others at the sprint finish. I ramped up, hit 700 watts for probably 2 seconds, then totally blew up
I think I have a lot to work on over the winter to get some fitness back.
Great to see you back too

 

[13 rider]

Same, did my first race today since April. I'm 87kg so 2kg heavier than then (mostly muscle as been at the gym daily pretty much), but extra weight isn't my friend when cycling
Lost the pack straight out the pen, don't have that top end power to sprint out yet. Managed to claw them back before turning into Titans. Where I was dropped as soon as the road went up!

Like you I then ended up with the odd rider from there all the way to the end. I was trying really hard to keep my watts above 200 average for the whole race which I just about managed. I was pleased with that as gives me a base at least to work from.
I was with 3 others at the sprint finish. I ramped up, hit 700 watts for probably 2 seconds, then totally blew up
I think I have a lot to work on over the winter to get some fitness back.
Great to see you back too

Still trying to work out wether I enjoyed the race or not 🤣. I used to hate the rollers in titans grove then found a way to ride them and hang on back to hating them again 🤣. The thing I found strange I seemed to have lost zwift fitness but produced probably by best sprint unfortunately is was for 37th place

 

[Legs]

I'm doing a Velos Klick 1km TT race on Zwift tonight, which should be fun for just over a minute. Gonna have my work cut out against this fella!
View attachment 787315

He was just doing tonight as a sighter, to see whereabouts the start line is in relation to the gate etc. I think times are taken from the gate… 🤔

 

[CXRAndy]

Is that a 1 min event?

 

[Legs]

Is that a 1 min event?

Yup.

 

[alex_cycles]

Anyone noticed the new ZRL FAL point scoring regime looks quite a lot like a better way of implementing SBP?
Just sayin' like... I think this will be fun. Will encourage everyone to push at the sprints.

 

[steverob]

The only thing I'm not sure on is that it makes FTS pretty much irrelevant. Based on a 60 rider event (as my TTT was yesterday), that means coming first across the line at any sprint is worth 60 points and there are 6 sprints, so potentially 360 FAL points maximum (for A & B it's even higher as they do more laps). But there's only a total of 60 FTS points in the whole race and that would require you to get all of the top 5 positions for both sprints.

Also I believe that the finish line points are the same as a single FTS, making them not really worth very much either in the scheme of things.

Race 4 is going to be even more lopsided as there are 7 sprints and 3 climbs in total.

 

[Legs]

The only thing I'm not sure on is that it makes FTS pretty much irrelevant. Based on a 60 rider event (as my TTT was yesterday), that means coming first across the line at any sprint is worth 60 points and there are 6 sprints, so potentially 360 FAL points maximum (for A & B it's even higher as they do more laps). But there's only a total of 60 FTS points in the whole race and that would require you to get all of the top 5 positions for both sprints.

Also I believe that the finish line points are the same as a single FTS, making them not really worth very much either in the scheme of things.

Race 4 is going to be even more lopsided as there are 7 sprints and 3 climbs in total.

I'm not sure that FTS scores are going to be irrelevant, because the points difference between the FAL positions is so small. It's foreseeable that, if a breakaway of 4 or 5 were to get away and mop up all of the points through a race, their FTS scores may be quite close, and FAL (with bigger scoring gaps and the potential for one rider to pick up multiple placings) could be the differentiator.

What it does do is eliminate the viability of the 'get dropped and smash the segments' tactic as exemplified by Michael, Carl and me in this ZRL race a few years back...

 

[steverob]

I take your point about reducing the ability to smash the segments while cruising around at back of the race (or "doing a Hivey" as the C's and D's know it!) and agree that this is a good thing; I just wonder if they've taken it too far the other way?

The last time ZRL had a race with 8 sprint segments (as A & B will have next week), this was the split of FAL, FTS and Finish points according to ZwiftInsider, based on the scoring system at the time:

And here's the same chart for next week's race, assuming a 60 rider field:

(the FTS wedge is 1.9% by the way)

 

[Whorty]

The only thing I'm not sure on is that it makes FTS pretty much irrelevant. Based on a 60 rider event (as my TTT was yesterday), that means coming first across the line at any sprint is worth 60 points and there are 6 sprints, so potentially 360 FAL points maximum (for A & B it's even higher as they do more laps). But there's only a total of 60 FTS points in the whole race and that would require you to get all of the top 5 positions for both sprints.

Also I believe that the finish line points are the same as a single FTS, making them not really worth very much either in the scheme of things.

Race 4 is going to be even more lopsided as there are 7 sprints and 3 climbs in total.

Must say, I won't be wasting energy trying to get a FTS. Much safer to keep the energy for staying in the pack and getting over the climbs (although my current fitness will almost certainly see me dropped the first climb we hit)

At least being in a big team I'm hoping I'll have at least one team member in any group I end up in

 

[Whorty]

I'm not sure that FTS scores are going to be irrelevant, because the points difference between the FAL positions is so small. It's foreseeable that, if a breakaway of 4 or 5 were to get away and mop up all of the points through a race, their FTS scores may be quite close, and FAL (with bigger scoring gaps and the potential for one rider to pick up multiple placings) could be the differentiator.

What it does do is eliminate the viability of the 'get dropped and smash the segments' tactic as exemplified by Michael, Carl and me in this ZRL race a few years back...
View attachment 787415

Ooh, the good old days I loved smashing those sprints

Did make it slightly farcical when someone came in last, minutes down, but scored more points than those finishing at the front of the pack.

 

[alex_cycles]

The only thing I'm not sure on is that it makes FTS pretty much irrelevant. Based on a 60 rider event (as my TTT was yesterday), that means coming first across the line at any sprint is worth 60 points and there are 6 sprints, so potentially 360 FAL points maximum (for A & B it's even higher as they do more laps). But there's only a total of 60 FTS points in the whole race and that would require you to get all of the top 5 positions for both sprints.

Also I believe that the finish line points are the same as a single FTS, making them not really worth very much either in the scheme of things.

Race 4 is going to be even more lopsided as there are 7 sprints and 3 climbs in total.

Finish points are the same as FAL and FTS IS completely irrelevant now. This from WTRL site (updated this morning, wasn't there yesterday)

Points Races​

ZRL Points races require a great deal of strategy and teamwork. Unless otherwise specified, ALL segments that a race transitions through are included for scoring. The majority of points available during a race are very much focused on the segments (intermediates) and there are various different types of rider points available as detailed below.
Segment/Intermediate Scoring:
First Across The Line (FAL):

• ALL riders score points based on the order they cross the finish line of each segment per lap.
• 1st place on EACH PASS receives a number of points equivalent to the number of riders starting the race.
• EXAMPLE: 70 riders start: 1st place = 70 points, 2nd place = 69 points and so on down to 70th place = 1 point.
• If a race features multiple laps, each pass of each segment has its own points allocation.
• FAL points won by Riders who do not complete their race or who are disqualified do not cascade down to other riders. The points are effectively removed from the race and do not count for anyone.

Fastest Through a Segment (FTS):

• The overall 5 fastest times recorded on each segment score.
• FTS are not 'per segment per lap per rider', they are 'per segment per time per race'.
• The top 5 times per segment per race score as 1st=10 Rider points, 2nd=8 points, 3rd=6 points, 4th=4 points and 5th=2 points.
• If a race features multiple laps, a rider could record mulitple times that appear in the overall top 5 for that segment and therefore scores multiple times.
• FTS points won by Riders who do not complete their race or who are disqualified do not cascade down to other riders. The points are effectively removed from the race and do not count for anyone.

Finish Line Points (FIN):

• Awarded based on the order of race completion/finish (at the finish line).
• 1st place receives a number of points equivalent to the number of riders starting the race.
• EXAMPLE: 50 riders cross the start line: 1st place = 50 Rider points down to 50th place = 1 point.
• A rider MUST cross the finish line to be awarded FIN points.

Podium Bonus Points:

• Awarded to the top 5 finishers in each race.
• These are awarded as 10 points for 1st place, 8 points for 2nd place, 6 points for 3rd place, 4 points for 4th place and 2 points for 5th place.
• Podium Bonus points are in addition to FAL, FTS and FIN points

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