Zwift Chat

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bridgy

Legendary Member
Location
Cheddar
So we went to Derby Arena last night. There were about eight boys and eight girls, and the session was from 6pm to 8pm. I'm super proud of how Andrew did, in spite of him being one of the least confident riders there. It was very much an introductory track skills session, and I think he was unnerved by how twitchy the bikes handle at low speed on the bumpy infield concrete. He got up to riding on the pursuiters' line, but I think he was a bit freaked out by the speed and other sensory goings-on (he's autistic), so wasn't prepared to ride fast enough for the bike to become stable or rideable on the banking. He had a little bit of a tumble (he wasn't the only one), but got back on and stuck with it. I don't think it would be fair to say he'd fallen in love with track cycling, but we'll have a few confidence-building rides in the lanes before the next session, which is in three weeks' time.

Thant's great Tim! Do they use fixed gear bikes for the kids? Even that can take some getting used to if they've never ridden a bike without a freewheel before, let alone everything else. It's great to give the kids the opportunity to try that out though!
 

Legs

usually riding on Zwift or up steep hills...
Location
Staffordshire
Thant's great Tim! Do they use fixed gear bikes for the kids? Even that can take some getting used to if they've never ridden a bike without a freewheel before, let alone everything else. It's great to give the kids the opportunity to try that out though!

Yes, of course they're fixed!

One of the best bits of riding I saw all evening was when one of the kids pulled his cleat out of the pedal, but managed to slow the bike down sufficiently with his other leg to to get down onto the cote d'azur and the infield to clip back in.

I used to commute on fixed and it was a pain pulling away from traffic lights to synchronise clipping in while the pedals were turning - but it's easier to trackstand on fixed than a freewheel!
 

Whorty

Gets free watts from the Atom ;)
Location
Wiltshire

bridgy

Legendary Member
Location
Cheddar
One of the things I noticed since I started back doing Zwift races is that the starts are nothing like as hard as they used to be. Maybe I am in lower pens, but I find most starts almost comfortable.

100% agree - generally definitely not as hard as they used to be. I'm assuming with time everyone's realised they don't have to go QUITE as hard as they used to assume! That's why that race last night stood out!
 

13 rider

Guru
Location
leicester
Did Alex Friday smash again today ,the 1st race is an all out smash no draft lap of Crit City which is basically a power test and I've been targeting 300w for the duration which I've yet to achieve and today's came in at 299w ☹️. I did nearly kill Alex watching his video as he was desperate not to lose velo scores by being beaten by me 😁. The 2nd race I was made to regret a jokey comment about newbies doing the work to which the newbie went to the front and did 5+ w\kg and dropped me 🤣. A long sustained effort to close a 20 sec gap just to arrive at the bottom of the climb to be dropped again 🤣. Chat will be turned off in future races
 
Location
Oxfordshire
100% agree - generally definitely not as hard as they used to be. I'm assuming with time everyone's realised they don't have to go QUITE as hard as they used to assume! That's why that race last night stood out!

I think a lot of it is the transition away from power categories as well. Used to be if you were sandbagging you coud get away with massive power before the start line that never counted on ZP.

It's much nicer all round. Why kill yourself right at the start of a long race? Stupid, really.
 

13 rider

Guru
Location
leicester
The last few Fridays I've being doing Alex smash races in the morning and club ladder races in the evening ,I thought I got a night off tonight but a late drop out and I'm called up ,quick warm up legs feel terrible not looking forward to Spinfinity in New York . Thankfully a relaxed start My Job was to pace the Brooklyn bridge climb which I managed to do dropping 2 of there riders and keeping our team together , Their strongest rider dropped to help the others so I and another teammate kept the pace on until their strongest rider had to chase back alone burning matches leaving 5 against 3 , with 2.5km to go that strongest rider went for it and I was the only 1 who could close the gap he kept trying to drop me but somehow I hung on , I kicked at 300mts he hung on for 50mts before thankfully he blew up and I somehow won and did my 2nd best 20min power despite racing this morning no idea where that result came from and the team won 😁
 
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