Zwift Chat

[Del C]

Got both those jerseys, so happy with either. I've also got a lovely dark blue Prudential RideLondon jersey, but I don't know if anyone else has that - think it was a prize for completing a London route at one point, so if you missed that, you wouldn't have a chance to get it again probably.

I would volunteer as road captain, but it's probably better I don't - as I don't have a push-to-talk function on my headphones, the channel would be filled with me wheezing away and gasping for air for an hour! In last night's DBR race I was experimenting with speech to text on the Companion app for my PMs to Joffey, and that worked quite well, but of course those wouldn't be much use in a team functionality.

I wouldn't worry about that.

That's standard operating procedure for TTTs. I've spent the last 2 weeks listening to grown men wheezing on my TTT rides!

 

[Del C]

Del,
You have way too much time on your hands but I am glad you do👍

Currently racing Cat B in the 3R Wahoo at 19-40 tonight but it’s quite late , darn flat and may look for something earlier.

How do you fancy being our Road Captain?

I thought you may have said you were doing this for your ZSunR team? Worth having somebody who knows what they're doing!

 

[<Tommy>]

I do notice Box Hill mentioned in there lol. And I think the Innsbruck UCI course takes in the mountain. But there’s some good events there. I’m not that averse to Box hill as its a nice 7 minute grind. It’s the short sharp hills that get me Like Libby Hill. I did surprise myself in a weekend Race which was 3 times round Innsbruckring I held the frontgroup on 2 of the 3 laps then lost the wheels just at the summit on 3rd lap. Finished 13th out of over 100 starters so I was happy with that.

Yeah I think two hills in a 7 race series sort of sets a tone! There’s a handful of quite big but very powerful guys in the zsun team so it’s a proper test to try and stay with them. I’m hoping I can hang on as much as possible in the flat stages and gain a bit up the hills.

I always think you’re going to be strong up those short sharp hills Alan because you’ve got a good bit of snap to your power.

 

[<Tommy>]

How do you fancy being our Road Captain?

I thought you may have said you were doing this for your ZSunR team? Worth having somebody who knows what they're doing!

yes leave bob in charge of the stop watch. Can’t see that going wrong

For the record me and lee probably shouldn’t be trusted either

 

[bobinski]

Really looking forward to this now. Can anyone else here the jaws music?!

Da dum..... da dum....





























Da dum da dum da dum dadumdadumdadum!

aaaaarghhhh!!!!!!! 🦈🦈🦈🦈

I am not. My fastest time by over a minute was in a CC meet-up where I managed to hang with the fast boys long enough to make a difference to my time without affecting the outcome. We’ll do well to break 46 min. If I have learnt anything from last weeks ttt it’s that the group MUST stick together for as long as possible. We began to lose one and slowed to allow them latch back on and all we did was slow our time. The other 2 who planned to burn and drop actually stayed in with new ftp’s and we were faster for it. So you Inglorious B’s! 😁, let’s keep the overrated soon to disappoint A ( cough) team at bay and see if we can catch those brave C’s and D’s 👍

 

[Joffey]

Got both those jerseys, so happy with either. I've also got a lovely dark blue Prudential RideLondon jersey, but I don't know if anyone else has that - think it was a prize for completing a London route at one point, so if you missed that, you wouldn't have a chance to get it again probably.

I would volunteer as road captain, but it's probably better I don't - as I don't have a push-to-talk function on my headphones, the channel would be filled with me wheezing away and gasping for air for an hour! In last night's DBR race I was experimenting with speech to text on the Companion app for my PMs to Joffey, and that worked quite well, but of course those wouldn't be much use in a team functionality.

@Ketty Only has DigiCamo2 so it looks like we may have to use that one anyway

I cough a lot when riding so I'll do my best to mute myself on Discord (if I can get it to work lol)

I'm happy for anyone to be Captain so you can have my vote if you wish @steverob

 

[Brendan Parker]

TTT Rules for Friday

About the event

Although we are calling this a TTT, it's really more of a hybrid between a TTT and a Hare and Hounds event. A pure TTT would just see each team head off at 1 minute intervals and ride as fast as they can. We've put in 3 minute gaps to add a chase element and if it all works out perfectly (it won't), then all teams will be close together as we near the line. Hopefully, that will add something that's both competitive and social to the event.

Registering for the event

@bridgy will be sending out the Meet Up invite for 19:00 this Friday - 15 May at 19.00. Accept the invite as normal and you're in.

Join the Meet Up as normal. The teams are colour coded in my table and @kipster has set up 4 new Discord channels for us to use. Thanks Paul. More about Discord below.

Teams are as follows:

• Yellow is the A/B group
• Red is the B group
• Green is the C group
• Blue is the D group

Even though this is a TTT, we'll all be riding normal road bikes. TT bikes don't work in TTT events as they don't allow drafting and therefore the team can't work together.

I've not checked the Zwift garage, but it would clearly be good if each team could wear the same colour jerseys, especially if there are Yellow, Red, Green and Blue jerseys.

Starting the event

After we've joined the Meet Up, the countdown to 19.00 will continue as normal. Then we start to ride as follows:

• At 19.00 the D group start riding and leave the Meet Up start point
• At 19.03 the C group start riding
• At 19.06 the B group start riding
• At 19.09 the A/B group start riding

Don't forget to stop pedalling if you're in the C, B and A/B groups at least 15 seconds before the 19.00 Meet Up start time, otherwise you'll roll off at 19.00, make a false start and screw up your finishing time on Strava. If you want to keep pedalling to stay warm, then go to the pairing screen on Zwift. You can do this by using the A key on a laptop. On an Apple TV select Menu and then the pairing screen. You can now happily pedal away without your avatar moving. It's best to do this after 19.00, so that you can set any timer you are using first to count down to your team's start time.

Don't forget to give yourself enough time to stop pedalling before leaving the pairing screen to make sure your avatar remains stationary and then exit the pairing screen to return to the Meet Up start point.

There are 2 ways each team can ensure they all leave together at their start time:

Either, use the way my TTT team does it in the WTRL event. Nominate one of your team as the Captain. The Captain uses a stopwatch or mobile phone timer to count down to their group's start time. They give a 30 second warning, then count down from 10 seconds and then shout Go (as many times as you want!) when their timer reaches zero. Obviously, for this to work you all need to be on Discord.

Or, each rider sets their own timer and watches the Zwift screen and all riders try to leave at the correct time with the rest of their team mates.

If everyone doesn't have Discord access. we will have to use a combination of the above methods.

Racing

Once a team is on the road, the idea is to try and keep the team together for as long as possible. The simple reason for this is that the team will move faster as a group of say 6, than a group of 3. This is actually part of the challenge and fun, as it requires the faster riders to help the slower riders and challenges the slower riders to push harder to stay with the team. Again, using Discord to communicate and keeping a watch on where your teammates are is part of the challenge and fun!

When one team catches another team, the slower team should not try to tag on to the faster team and draft them. They should allow them to pass and allow them to gain a small gap to allow both teams to keep riding as separate teams. Likewise, if a rider gets dropped by the faster team as they pass the slower team, that rider should not try to stay in the slower team and draft them. They should back off enough to let the slower team move ahead of them. This latter problem can happen if you don't pass with enough power and get caught in the 'sticky draft' of the slower team.

During the race, it's likely there will be points where individual riders may be struggling to stay with their team. Teams will then have to decide whether to pace a rider back on to their group, or whether to ride on as a smaller group and let the struggling rider go. This is normal for a TTT event and again its easier on Discord to agree what to do, rather than trying to bash out "Please go on. I'm dying" on your keyboard whilst the struggling rider is, er....... dying! Apart from having Discord, it's a little easier if you have a Captain to make that call rather than trying to organise a real time vote via your keyboard!

By this process, you may arrive near the finish line with less than your full team intact. Remember, it's the time of the 3rd rider across the line that decides the finishing order of the teams, so it's not wise to arrive at the line with less than 3 riders in the lead group of any team.

Finishing positions

We'll have to use a Strava segment to decide the finishing times for individual rider times and team positions, where the team position is based on the time of the 3rd rider across the line. I think this segment will work having ridden this course last Saturday. The segment name is Figure 8 (Zwift Insider verified). It's one of the Hidden segments:

https://www.strava.com/segments/12118421?filter=overall

I could gather the data and publish the individual rider times and team finishing times and positions, or maybe our master statistician @peterob would be happy to do his usual excellent job? Thanks if you're willing to do this Pete, but if you don't think you'll have the time, just say and I'll collect the data and publish. Of course, it will help if each rider posts their finishing time up here at the end.

Discord

@kipster has set up 4 new Discord channels for us, following the Yellow, Red, Green and Blue team colours.

Each team can log on to their own colour channel, and use Discord to coordinate their departure time and tactics during the race.

One small piece of advice, which I've found more important during a TTT. Either keep the volume of any music you're listening to low or turn it off during the TTT. I've been using bluetooth earphones. They're good and I can hear and talk to the rest of my team, but they don't do a great job of cancelling background noise. In the end, I decided that knowing what my team was doing was a bit more important to me than sharing my Spotify playlist with them.

Latest table is below. Give me a shout if anything is unclear, or you have any questions.

View attachment 521659

Cracking work @Del C Thanks

 

[Del C]

Had a look for Red jerseys for the B team. These are the only 2 I can find.

What do you think team. Back of the Fluoro 2 looks mainly pink with blue stripes. Back of Basic 5 looks pretty much like the front.

Initially I thought Fluoro 2, but I'm warming to Basic 5.

 

[Aleman]

Team D - do we all have access to Basic 4 or DigiCamo 2? And if so what do you prefer?

I was rather hoping for Bike'nBeer

Who are we thinking as Road Captain?

Don't look at me! Forgive me Father for I have sinned, it's been over a year since my last race
Going to head down to the shed now, and set up discord ... And fit some brakes to the tandem

 

[<Tommy>]

Maybe rather than colours just go with a kit everyone has and likes?

 

[<Tommy>]

I am not. My fastest time by over a minute was in a CC meet-up where I managed to hang with the fast boys long enough to make a difference to my time without affecting the outcome. We’ll do well to break 46 min. If I have learnt anything from last weeks ttt it’s that the group MUST stick together for as long as possible. We began to lose one and slowed to allow them latch back on and all we did was slow our time. The other 2 who planned to burn and drop actually stayed in with new ftp’s and we were faster for it. So you Inglorious B’s! 😁, let’s keep the overrated soon to disappoint A ( cough) team at bay and see if we can catch those brave C’s and D’s 👍

When I did a race with zsun ttt one guy seemed to want to make a point of shooting off up the road to show he was strongest. Alternatively I did ttt with our own @AAAC 76C and he made a point of using his strength to help the rest of the team. Maybe the strongest needs to be the ultimate team player, and the guy who isn’t feeling so strong needs to not let pride get in the way and say when he’s struggling rahthercthan take big turns and kill himself?

 

[peterob]

Shouldn't anyone who takes part and finishes the race at least get one point? Otherwise (especially for the D's) you might as well sit at home if you know there are more than 13 other CC riders taking part?

You're right that points were only being rewarded down to 13th place. This was ok for the initial race or two when there was a smaller field. But in order to provide points/competition for all riders now that we're having larger fields, I have increased points for placings down to 18th. I hope this is ok for everyone.

Points are now rewarded as follows:
1st - 25 points
2nd - 20 points
3rd - 17 points
4th - 15 points
5th - 14 points
.
.
18th - 1 point

So you have a better chance of more points in a smaller field

The new points system has had a bit of an effect. Updated table shown below......

 

[Joffey]

I was rather hoping for Bike'nBeer

Don't look at me! Forgive me Father for I have sinned, it's been over a year since my last race
Going to head down to the shed now, and set up discord ... And fit some brakes to the tandem

I did ask if we could be the red team so we could wear that jersey

 

[Joffey]

You're right that points were only being rewarded down to 13th place. This was ok for the initial race or two when there was a smaller field. But in order to provide points/competition for all riders now that we're having larger fields, I have increased points for placings down to 18th. I hope this is ok for everyone.

Points are now rewarded as follows:
1st - 25 points
2nd - 20 points
3rd - 17 points
4th - 15 points
5th - 14 points
.
.
18th - 1 point

So you have a better chance of more points in a smaller field

The new points system has had a bit of an effect. Updated table shown below......
View attachment 521701

Much better but could I make a suggestion that if your username starts with J and ends with Y you get 80 bonus points?

 

[Del C]

I did ask if we could be the red team so we could wear that jersey

Aha.

I think we could claim that. You have to use an unlock code. I'm off to investigate!!