Zwift Chat

[mjd1988]

Bloody hell is racing tough!

Decided to enter the race version of Stage 1 (2 laps of Classique) tonight just to see what it was like. Also because I hadn't taken an FTP test since coming back from injury (and I knew my old figure was waaaay out of date anyway), I thought this was the least boring way of doing a flat out 20 minute effort.

Knew from looking at the sign-ups on ZwiftPower that there were more than a handful of Cat C's racing in D, so figured that I'd not be able to hold them, but went full gas from the start just in case and by the time we were through the tunnel, I found myself in the third group on the road - probably 10-12 strong. First group of about 6 had flown and were not going to be caught by anyone, but the second group of about 8-9 remained just tantalisingly close for the entire race, usually between 3 and 10 seconds away but never seemingly catchable, yet they could not shake us completely either.

Had to use a feather power-up on the Northumberland Ave and Whitehall rises to stay with my group (because I was the heaviest of the group) - almost lost touch with them on the Strand on the first full lap but thankfully got back to them entering the Mall. Had another feather on the final lap, but thought I'd save it for the final sprint - that was a mistake. Halfway up Whitehall, I saw our group start to splinter as it turned out we were finally catching the group up ahead. About 5 of them bridged and latched on to the back but I reacted too late and missed the split - I was towards the back of our group when I noticed to be fair, so not in a position to really do anything about it. No matter what watts I put out down the Strand, they were now disappearing rapidly with the extra draft effect and I didn't want to be in no mans land between two groups with the sprint coming up, so backed off.

The remaining 6 of our group then fought it out for 19th place and I deliberately started my sprint late and passed everyone literally on the line, edging it by less than one hundredth of a second - the times of myself and the guy I beat were listed as identical, but I was given the placing ahead of him. And I'd pushed so hard in that final KM (to be honest, I had done for the whole race, but ESPECIALLY that last bit) that after crossing the line I thought I was about to throw up. I didn't, but it was mighty close!

ZwiftPower has me finishing 4th once non-signups and sandbaggers were eliminated. 3rd place was someone in the group ahead of me that I didn't latch on to, but the other two were way ahead of that; however all three of them are listed as riding over 3 w/kg, so I'm claiming a moral victory! And Zwift bumped up my FTP to 231 watts (I'd deliberately set it low before starting the race in order to force it to update) which was only 4 watts below my all-time high and a good 10-15 above what I'd believed I'd been riding at recently.

Well done, and cracking write up!

 

[bobinski]

Bloody hell is racing tough!

Decided to enter the race version of Stage 1 (2 laps of Classique) tonight just to see what it was like. Also because I hadn't taken an FTP test since coming back from injury (and I knew my old figure was waaaay out of date anyway), I thought this was the least boring way of doing a flat out 20 minute effort.

Knew from looking at the sign-ups on ZwiftPower that there were more than a handful of Cat C's racing in D, so figured that I'd not be able to hold them, but went full gas from the start just in case and by the time we were through the tunnel, I found myself in the third group on the road - probably 10-12 strong. First group of about 6 had flown and were not going to be caught by anyone, but the second group of about 8-9 remained just tantalisingly close for the entire race, usually between 3 and 10 seconds away but never seemingly catchable, yet they could not shake us completely either.

Had to use a feather power-up on the Northumberland Ave and Whitehall rises to stay with my group (because I was the heaviest of the group) - almost lost touch with them on the Strand on the first full lap but thankfully got back to them entering the Mall. Had another feather on the final lap, but thought I'd save it for the final sprint - that was a mistake. Halfway up Whitehall, I saw our group start to splinter as it turned out we were finally catching the group up ahead. About 5 of them bridged and latched on to the back but I reacted too late and missed the split - I was towards the back of our group when I noticed to be fair, so not in a position to really do anything about it. No matter what watts I put out down the Strand, they were now disappearing rapidly with the extra draft effect and I didn't want to be in no mans land between two groups with the sprint coming up, so backed off.

The remaining 6 of our group then fought it out for 19th place and I deliberately started my sprint late and passed everyone literally on the line, edging it by less than one hundredth of a second - the times of myself and the guy I beat were listed as identical, but I was given the placing ahead of him. And I'd pushed so hard in that final KM (to be honest, I had done for the whole race, but ESPECIALLY that last bit) that after crossing the line I thought I was about to throw up. I didn't, but it was mighty close!

ZwiftPower has me finishing 4th once non-signups and sandbaggers were eliminated. 3rd place was someone in the group ahead of me that I didn't latch on to, but the other two were way ahead of that; however all three of them are listed as riding over 3 w/kg, so I'm claiming a moral victory! And Zwift bumped up my FTP to 231 watts (I'd deliberately set it low before starting the race in order to force it to update) which was only 4 watts below my all-time high and a good 10-15 above what I'd believed I'd been riding at recently.

Great write up mate. These big group races in zwift really do give us all a chance to compete on our own terms. Sounds like you had a corker and congrats on the placing and new ftp.

 

[steverob]

Yeah, I enjoyed it despite feeling so rough after crossing the line! I rarely enter races cause I feel I’m a little out of my depth - most of the time I go on Zwift I’m either riding solo or occasionally I’ll do a sub-2 group ride (usually with PACK) as that’s about what I call my spinning pace as compared to my effort pace of 2.2-2.3. This race turned out to be almost 2.6!

And as I check the ZP results again this morning, it seems they’ve WKG’d a few more riders and I’ve now been promoted to the win! I’d love to think the sprint finish did it, but it looks like the group I beat all weren’t registered with ZP so it says I won by 30 seconds (guessing that was the next group back).

 

[bridgy]

Just signed up fo A at 6pm. See bridgy already booked his place.

Yeah I'm signed up for the 6pm but it's also being run at 6.30 and 7pm so if time ends up being tight I might change to one of the later ones - hopefully not though

 

[Norry1]

@Norry1 how is the training with the coach going? Noticing any significant improvements?

Cheers for asking. I don't like to bore people.

I am getting on really well with the new coach (started 30 December) who writes custom workouts for me and explains what we are trying to achieve. He was concerned about the amount of high end stuff I was doing and moved me to a higher proportion of Zone 2 but with lots of low cadence work, some sprints etc. He is less concerned about my top end numbers and more concerned with resilience, repeatability especially as I target the longer races/events. He has looked at the National Masters Championships and advised that the top end of the 60+ are mainly Cat 3 with a few Cat 2 and if I want to be competitive, I need to get to Cat 3. Made me think!

Having said he is not concerned about my top end at the minute - this month I have set my best ever max power, best 5-15 second power and last week my best 20 minute power (297W) so I am pretty pleased. I'm also down to my lowest ever weight (11st 6.9lbs today) and am well ahead of my 2019 January fitness so I am pretty satisfied how things are going

He is an interesting chap as well. Irish National Champion in his age group and he wrote the Story of the Ras.

 

[Joffey]

Friday at 6pm for me - giving the legs (and arse) a good break after London!

I'll be on Zwift tonight so I'll try and send some Ride Ons for those riding Innsbruck!

 

[CXRAndy]

Cheers for asking. I don't like to bore people.

I am getting on really well with the new coach (started 30 December) who writes custom workouts for me and explains what we are trying to achieve. He was concerned about the amount of high end stuff I was doing and moved me to a higher proportion of Zone 2 but with lots of low cadence work, some sprints etc. He is less concerned about my top end numbers and more concerned with resilience, repeatability especially as I target the longer races/events. He has looked at the National Masters Championships and advised that the top end of the 60+ are mainly Cat 3 with a few Cat 2 and if I want to be competitive, I need to get to Cat 3. Made me think!

Having said he is not concerned about my top end at the minute - this month I have set my best ever max power, best 5-15 second power and last week my best 20 minute power (297W) so I am pretty pleased. I'm also down to my lowest ever weight (11st 6.9lbs today) and am well ahead of my 2019 January fitness so I am pretty satisfied how things are going

He is an interesting chap as well. Irish National Champion in his age group and he wrote the Story of the Ras.

Those are great numbers for such a lightweight

 

[bridgy]

Cheers for asking. I don't like to bore people.

I am getting on really well with the new coach (started 30 December) who writes custom workouts for me and explains what we are trying to achieve. He was concerned about the amount of high end stuff I was doing and moved me to a higher proportion of Zone 2 but with lots of low cadence work, some sprints etc. He is less concerned about my top end numbers and more concerned with resilience, repeatability especially as I target the longer races/events. He has looked at the National Masters Championships and advised that the top end of the 60+ are mainly Cat 3 with a few Cat 2 and if I want to be competitive, I need to get to Cat 3. Made me think!

Having said he is not concerned about my top end at the minute - this month I have set my best ever max power, best 5-15 second power and last week my best 20 minute power (297W) so I am pretty pleased. I'm also down to my lowest ever weight (11st 6.9lbs today) and am well ahead of my 2019 January fitness so I am pretty satisfied how things are going

He is an interesting chap as well. Irish National Champion in his age group and he wrote the Story of the Ras.

Wow that sounds great progress! I think I need to do similar - more longer zone 2 rides to prepare better for longer rides - but my problem is having the time to fit them in.

By the way, I just saw the link to your blog in your sig and read about your Ventoux ride from a few years ago - great write-up and helping to get me even more excited for July!

 

[Norry1]

Wow that sounds great progress! I think I need to do similar - more longer zone 2 rides to prepare better for longer rides - but my problem is having the time to fit them in.

By the way, I just saw the link to your blog in your sig and read about your Ventoux ride from a few years ago - great write-up and helping to get me even more excited for July!

Yep most of the science seems to say lots of Zone 2 and then when you train hard, train REALLY Hard

Ventoux was awesome. I must start blogging again - not done it for ages.

 

[bridgy]

Looks like TDZ stage 2 is a very similar profile to stage 1 - except for the fact there's a nasty short, sharp climb repeated 3 times during the "flat" part (lots of opportunities to get dropped by your group!), and the hill at the end is over 2km longer, but with the same average gradient as Leith Hill = about 7 minutes more climbing for me. Can't wait...

 

[Brendan Parker]

Small update when you log on so allow a bit.

 

[CXRAndy]

Is that Kleiner Klugel little 400W bump Paul?

 

[Freelanderuk]

1:15;48 for my TdZ stage 2 ,companion app has me down for a sprint jersey and KOM jersey, bloody hard and going to have a rest day now

 

[JuhaL]

1:15;48 for my TdZ stage 2 ,companion app has me down for a sprint jersey and KOM jersey, bloody hard and going to have a rest day now

Was it similar experience as stage 1 ?. I tried to save some energy an stage 1 so i can recover well enough till stage 2. I try to keep up same performance tomorrow what probably means close of 1h23min what was my stage 1 time. Might take few min longer too.

 

[bridgy]

Is that Kleiner Klugel little 400W bump Paul?

Kleiner Hügel yes - a nice little 1 minute 400w effort needed after 4k, 14k and 23k!