We generally post up on here when we're planning to ride to see if others want to join the same race. In ZwiftPower, join the 'CycleChat' team and you can see there too what races we've joined.
There is a Cyclechat group in Strava too that could be worth joining, as we tend to use this to look at race segment times. I think @kipster (Paul) is the admin of the Strava groupEverybody seemed to enjoy the Hare & hounds races would it be worth considering joining an official Hare & Hounds event on Zwift and just enter via your category group.Yeah two things can cause that - one is time made up in the sections at the start and end not covered by the Strava segment, and the other is if someone doesn't quite start at the exact time they're scheduled to go. There are ways around it (I have a few ideas!) but they all mean added complexity which I think will mean more to go wrong (let's face it some people can't even work a stopwatch properly)
As it happens I did take a note of my meetup time - took a photo on my phone of the screen at the end showing the time. If everyone did this it would be good, but I suspect a good number would forget to do it or something! My stime for the meetup was 37:42 vs 33:39 for the Strava segment - most of this is the fact there's a nearly 2km lead in from our spawn point to the banner on this course. This varies from course to course obviously, but yeah there's quite a bit of "lost" time there.
It's far from perfect but we're working with a system not designed for what we want to do so there's always a balance to be struck between keeping things a simple as possible at the expense of accuracy and making it more complex but confusing people as a result. I'm sure we'll keep tweaking and improving things though
You forgot to mention you were last until you started to pump up your tyres and started taking steroids.To add to this @Joffey , when I first joined this motley crew I was always last. Way, way back. And for handicaps, this meant I'd be off first whilst everyone else was still down the pub. Over the last few years though I've improved loads. I'm not going to be at the front with the speedsters, but I can at least compete now mid table and we have some great battles there. Real good 'fun' and a great way to get fit
For me, as a slower rider, the real positive of the handicap races was that I'd see other riders at some stage during the ride so I never felt alone (if you know what I mean). Whereas, with a normal race, once the flag dropped the next time I saw anyone else was when you'd stopped at the side of the road with your bad knee.
We generally post up on here when we're planning to ride to see if others want to join the same race. In ZwiftPower, join the 'CycleChat' team and you can see there too what races we've joined.
I've just applied as well - more than anything just to see how uncompetitive my times are on some of these stages compared to the rest of you!
You forgot to mention you were last until you started to pump up your tyres and started taking steroids.
Yes, Cyclechat Turbo Club on Strava
I'm sure @kipster will accept the invite when he picks up the request.Both done
Only change I'd suggest, is instead of each of us keeping our own start times we instead take our start from the rider in front of us .... let me explain ....
You've all missed my point about time keeping and that is we join an official organised hare & hounds event and the timing is already organised for you in your allocated category pens.
Firstly, the clock doesn't start until you begin riding, so the timing is personal to you and not for the meet-up as a whole. We saw this on the first run on Tuesday. So, that rules out the option of not using a stopwatch.
