Team BKool CycleChat

[AAAC 76C]

Doing upper body work AM.
Anyone up for a blast at 17:00 BST

 

[Bored Man]

Doing upper body work AM.
Anyone up for a blast at 17:00 BST

As I generally perform 200 watts below you mr AAAC bloke, I'll do what I do most Saturdays and go to the pub. However before I go, I'm going to prep my Chris Carbonman for seat-stay repair..

 

[AAAC 76C]

As I generally perform 200 watts below you mr AAAC bloke, I'll do what I do most Saturdays and go to the pub. However before I go, I'm going to prep my Chris Carbonman for seat-stay repair..

Odd defo says the 8th on my PC.
I'll snap shot it later.

PS: Going to be pub was the downfall of my career both on and off of the bike.

 

[BILL S]

Doing upper body work AM.
Anyone up for a blast at 17:00 BST

I'm up for a blast @5pm. You got a specific ride in mind? Whatever it is, it can replace the usual re-run that we usually do. Ideally something about 45 mins and flat.

I'll be setting up an April Chaingang league to start next week, and will be putting more effort into ensuring that the rides are flatter and not too long. Some on the last league were quite unpleasant in length and hilliness so going to try to improve things from now on. We need to get the numbers up so better rides should help hopefully.

 

[BILL S]

It's different in several subtle and some not so subtle ways isn't it?! I've had a few goes on Zwift now and the more I use it the more it makes sense - always hard adjusting to something new, and I'm so used to Bkool now!

I haven't experienced some of the issues you did Bill - my power figures are lower than in Bkool not higher, and probably much more realistic. Flats and downs in particular apply much more resistance than in Bkool. I have experienced problems with a long lag in response to my increase or decrease in power though which is annoying and I hope can somehow be fixed.

The races aren't as much fun as our chaingang races at their best I don't think. It's much harder to see where you're placed and there's non-racing riders all over the place to further confuse things! Also, it's good racing against people you've got to know and have personal friendly rivalries with! This might improve with time as there's talk of closed races etc.

I've done a Cat B and Cat C race. Cat C I could probably be in the mix for the win, but in so doing I would exceed the watts/kg limit for the category and be disqualified from the results! Cat B, I was placed midfield and if the first race is typical, would stand little chance of staying with the leaders - I'll have to do more on other courses though to be sure.

I'll reserve judgement on the more leisurely non-racing group rides which seem very popular on Zwift as I haven't done this yet, but it's clearly something we haven't really mastered much on Bkool! I'm not yet convinced these appeal to me though - if I want to do a low intensity ride I still think I'd prefer a scenic video ride on Bkool and going at my own pace, rather than a group ride at a set speed but i'll give it a try some time.

As I have a year's subscription left on Bkool (and my wife likes it!) I will probably do both for the time being, and if we can drum up enough numbers for another league I'll try to join in. Failing that, if Bkool run another version of the Winter Cup at the very least we can maybe arrange to ride those stages together to continue our rivalries and/or work together as a team!

Well the Cat races sounds good but I never found anything like that going on, not that I probably put enough effort in to getting to know the setup with Zwift. Regarding my power over-read, I think that day I just had one of those superpowers similar to what I was gifted on Thursday, so I don't think that'd be a problem. I think it's like you said about all the riders there just riding around and the difficulty in knowing were you are in relation to others that caused me to be put off the most. Possibly it's about getting used to it or just personal preference, but I found myself finishing my weeks trial and 50km, firmly in favour of bkool. If however some of the splitters can dig up some good race leagues and/or if Zwift come up with some better or alternative race format then perhaps I'll revisit with a months subscription to re-evaluate.

 

[Daddy Pig]

I'm up for a blast @5pm. You got a specific ride in mind? Whatever it is, it can replace the usual re-run that we usually do. Ideally something about 45 mins and flat.

I'll be setting up an April Chaingang league to start next week, and will be putting more effort into ensuring that the rides are flatter and not too long. Some on the last league were quite unpleasant in length and hilliness so going to try to improve things from now on. We need to get the numbers up so better rides should help hopefully.

I may join for a take easy ride, but still need to do wc events.
Just did stage 16.... kept up with you and aaac for about 17km then backed off as my hr had been over 180 for most of the ride and was hammering at 189! Not a good idea as first ride in nearly 4 weeks!!!

 

[Daddy Pig]

It says it finishes on the 9th DP... that's some catching up to do...

Would you like me to do a few climbs for you?

You did offer to climb some hills for me..... can I cash them in for stages 12, 13, 14 and 15?

 

[AAAC 76C]

I'm up for a blast @5pm. You got a specific ride in mind? Whatever it is, it can replace the usual re-run that we usually do. Ideally something about 45 mins and flat.

I'll be setting up an April Chaingang league to start next week, and will be putting more effort into ensuring that the rides are flatter and not too long. Some on the last league were quite unpleasant in length and hilliness so going to try to improve things from now on. We need to get the numbers up so better rides should help hopefully.

I fancy doing stage 11 again as a TTT two or three up

 

[BILL S]

I fancy doing stage 11 again as a TTT two or three up

Funny you should say that AAAC, as I've just been looking on the WC results to see where we might improve and came up with stage 11 too . I have no idea if I'll get a superpower this time but if so, maybe we could close in on Pep's and Jacob's time a bit.

 

[BILL S]

I may join for a take easy ride, but still need to do wc events.
Just did stage 16.... kept up with you and aaac for about 17km then backed off as my hr had been over 180 for most of the ride and was hammering at 189! Not a good idea as first ride in nearly 4 weeks!!!

You fancy stage 11 at 5pm?

 

[BILL S]

I fancy doing stage 11 again as a TTT two or three up

I've got it set up with Pep's and Jacobs ghosts. See you at 5pm for the warm-up.

All welcome.

 

[AAAC 76C]

I've got it set up with Pep's and Jacobs ghosts. See you at 5pm for the warm-up.

All welcome.

I have HID stood by with a defibrillator.

 

[AAAC 76C]

I see we clocked 53kph on stage 16. A bit unreal!

 

[Daddy Pig]

You fancy stage 11 at 5pm?

I can try and help, but may need @AAAC 76C 's wife with the defib though!!!
I can try the first few km and see if I can give you some assistance.
It would be a good idea if a plan was developed pre run, such as sit on xyz for the first x km and then try and break free.

 

[Bored Man]

You did offer to climb some hills for me..... can I cash them in for stages 12, 13, 14 and 15?

April fool...