Zwift Chat

[steverob]

After a lot of back and forth with WTRL over the week and getting different answers at every turn, I finally was allowed to race for my team despite being a C. Ended up coming 18th - was dropped at the sprint at the end of lap 1 but was over 30 seconds ahead of the next pack at the time, which ended up being enough of a gap to solo the remaining distance and still finish 5 seconds ahead of 19th.

Didn’t help that the saddle on my Atom kept dropping because the quick release was malfunctioning. Tried my best to fix it whenever there was a downhill but it wasn’t easy to do and keep pedalling!

Did manage to get 4th at the Jarvis sprint though - no-one seemed to have raced the course before as the start line location seemed to be a mystery to everyone else except me, so I used that to my advantage and got a good head start. A few guys (including a team mate) did pip me on the line, but for a self confessed non-sprinter, I’ll take it. Video of just the sprint is below:


View: https://youtu.be/FHEiVWHs2L0?si=tZLYQwkFIXFwfgLH

 

[Legs]

We absolutely crushed that under Paul's stewartship. And I managed to get downgraded to C. A perfect race 😂

You also took FAL on the first climb (and first on one of the sprints), which isn’t too shabby for a big lad!

Although we are legitimately within Cat limits, and definitely not trying to game the system to stay within them, it does feel as if we are punching down a bit in this division! It’s definitely good for the morale to have a nice spell of being competitive. We don’t have it all our own way, and there are other strong riders (including one chap from 3R who has been first across the finish line in all of the last three races), but in these points races we’ve been very consistent, and that’s what counts.

We’ve had excellent DSing, too, which has really helped - some of the other riders tonight were doing inexplicable things with their powerups, for example - but @bridgy ’s guidance was invaluable.

 

[Whorty]

After a lot of back and forth with WTRL over the week and getting different answers at every turn, I finally was allowed to race for my team despite being a C. Ended up coming 18th - was dropped at the sprint at the end of lap 1 but was over 30 seconds ahead of the next pack at the time, which ended up being enough of a gap to solo the remaining distance and still finish 5 seconds ahead of 19th.

Didn’t help that the saddle on my Atom kept dropping because the quick release was malfunctioning. Tried my best to fix it whenever there was a downhill but it wasn’t easy to do and keep pedalling!

Did manage to get 4th at the Jarvis sprint though - no-one seemed to have raced the course before as the start line location seemed to be a mystery to everyone else except me, so I used that to my advantage and got a good head start. A few guys (including a team mate) did pip me on the line, but for a self confessed non-sprinter, I’ll take it. Video of just the sprint is below:


View: https://youtu.be/FHEiVWHs2L0?si=tZLYQwkFIXFwfgLH

I wasn't allowed in this week for our league despite everyone else from last week who had been promoted being let in. Probably because they all raced 3 previous weeks but I missed the first TTT week.

I wanted a live stream that Phil put up, looked a perfect course for me. The sprints were half @rsed contested, I could have had a field day The team didn't need me though, we won the week, won the league, and it was champagne all round.

I'm focusing now on trying to lose a couple of kg before round 2 starts and we get thrown to the lions in C development.

 

[steverob]

We finished 3rd on the night which means we're looking likely for second in the league. We won't be re-doing our TTT as our time was about as good as we think we could have got it (plus one of our powerhouse riders from that night isn't available next week) but there is a small chance that the team in third could catch us by trying again. However if they manage to beat our time, then they deserve to finish above us in the league frankly.

 

[mjd1988]

You also took FAL on the first climb (and first on one of the sprints), which isn’t too shabby for a big lad!

Although we are legitimately within Cat limits, and definitely not trying to game the system to stay within them, it does feel as if we are punching down a bit in this division! It’s definitely good for the morale to have a nice spell of being competitive. We don’t have it all our own way, and there are other strong riders (including one chap from 3R who has been first across the finish line in all of the last three races), but in these points races we’ve been very consistent, and that’s what counts.

We’ve had excellent DSing, too, which has really helped - some of the other riders tonight were doing inexplicable things with their powerups, for example - but @bridgy ’s guidance was invaluable.

I think it is the benefits of having the smaller cat limits even though they are far from perfect (in fact I could race in C as it stands). It is great fun being at the pointy end

 

[Legs]

I also feel a tiny bit guilty about us Euros effectively hijacking the Americans’ team!

 

[bridgy]

We absolutely crushed that under Paul's stewartship. And I managed to get downgraded to C. A perfect race 😂

That's crazy that your Cat has dropped DOWN from B to C, having just raced incredibly hard and come 2nd in a very competitive B Cat race - good old Zwift and their category systems!

 

[bridgy]

You also took FAL on the first climb (and first on one of the sprints), which isn’t too shabby for a big lad!

Although we are legitimately within Cat limits, and definitely not trying to game the system to stay within them, it does feel as if we are punching down a bit in this division! It’s definitely good for the morale to have a nice spell of being competitive. We don’t have it all our own way, and there are other strong riders (including one chap from 3R who has been first across the finish line in all of the last three races), but in these points races we’ve been very consistent, and that’s what counts.

We’ve had excellent DSing, too, which has really helped - some of the other riders tonight were doing inexplicable things with their powerups, for example - but @bridgy ’s guidance was invaluable.

Yeah without going on about the flaws of ALL the category systems Zwift use (as we've done that to death already!) whatever the system used there will be upper and lower limits and depending on where those limits are, and where you are personally you'll sometimes find yourself enjoying it at the very top of your category and sometimes will be getting battered at the bottom of your category! So let's enjoy it while it lasts!

That said, using 8 categories rather than 4 really does help - it would be too many categories for everyday racing, but works really well for mass participation events like ZRL

 

[bridgy]

I wasn't allowed in this week for our league despite everyone else from last week who had been promoted being let in. Probably because they all raced 3 previous weeks but I missed the first TTT week.

I wanted a live stream that Phil put up, looked a perfect course for me. The sprints were half @rsed contested, I could have had a field day The team didn't need me though, we won the week, won the league, and it was champagne all round.

I'm focusing now on trying to lose a couple of kg before round 2 starts and we get thrown to the lions in C development.

The tricky sprint on this course was the Jarvis Sprint immediately before the KOM - go too hard into the sprint and you risked getting dropped on the climb and tactically you're better off remaining in the front group if you possibly can. So a lot of people did half-arse that particular sprint but for good reason!

 

[Legs]

The tricky sprint on this course was the Jarvis Sprint immediately before the KOM - go too hard into the sprint and you risked getting dropped on the climb and tactically you're better off remaining in the front group if you possibly can. So a lot of people did half-arse that particular sprint but for good reason!

I think this was my downfall - I hit my highest power of the race in that sprint on the third lap, took second at the prime, then got shelled at the top of the climb. The trickiest part was that the road kept going uphill after the climb banner and that bastards people were then dropping their burritos.

I really think if we'd raced it as a scratch race we'd have finished 1-2-3-4.

 

[Whorty]

The tricky sprint on this course was the Jarvis Sprint immediately before the KOM - go too hard into the sprint and you risked getting dropped on the climb and tactically you're better off remaining in the front group if you possibly can. So a lot of people did half-arse that particular sprint but for good reason!

That happened in our race too - some pushed too hard first time through the sprint to then get dropped on the climb. Our team had 4 in the lead group and they all sensibly cruised that sprint then pushed on the climb to put out some pain on the sprinters.

 

[bridgy]

That happened in our race too - some pushed too hard first time through the sprint to then get dropped on the climb. Our team had 4 in the lead group and they all sensibly cruised that sprint then pushed on the climb to put out some pain on the sprinters.

Yeah, and further exacerbated by the flurry of Burritos just after you crest the climb (nice one WTRL organisers!) making it even harder to re-attach to the group if you're struggling!

 

[alex_cycles]

Yeah, and further exacerbated by the flurry of Burritos just after you crest the climb (nice one WTRL organisers!) making it even harder to re-attach to the group if you're struggling!

First time through I crossed the KoM banner in 4th, caught up to the guy in first whose burrito was just ending, then stayed in his draft while dropping my burrito. Nobody passed me during that burrito
And being at the front or near it, I barely got burritoed on lap 1.
Different story on lap 2, but still. I hate that PU though. Should be illegal.

 

[Legs]

I binned my burrito every lap because (apart from the last lap when I knew that there was no-one behind me), I didn't want to do any 'friendly fire'! I quite enjoyed the chaos caused by other people letting off their burritos, though.

 

[bridgy]

First time through I crossed the KoM banner in 4th, caught up to the guy in first whose burrito was just ending, then stayed in his draft while dropping my burrito. Nobody passed me during that burrito
And being at the front or near it, I barely got burritoed on lap 1.
Different story on lap 2, but still. I hate that PU though. Should be illegal.

Yeah I agree - especially as 90% of the time I think people aren't actually using it tactically but just randomly dumping it and causing havoc behind them!