<Tommy>
Illegitimi non carborundum
- Location
- Camden, London
Isn’t double draft well, double the draft? I guess it isn’t from the way you phrased it... I should probably know this stuff by now...
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Isn’t double draft well, double the draft? I guess it isn’t from the way you phrased it... I should probably know this stuff by now...
Good luck to those in TTT I imagine it’s all going on now!!Good lick in the various TTT teams tonight chaps
I raced this afternoon. Went into it thinking it might be a fairly easy ride as there were only 5 C's registered on ZwiftPower (2 of whom were B riders) but in the pen there were 20+ riders (14 C's in the final results in ZP). The 3R races are interesting in that whilst cats have their own pens, all cats are visible, so if you can blast it then it is possible to latch on to the fast boys and girls, if only for a short time!
Tim joined me in the race and our plan was to try to get on the A&B train and see if they could pull us ahead before a little group formed. This kind of worked; we both made it to the leaders but Tim said he lost concentration for a few seconds and suddenly he was out the back. I luckily managed to hold on all the way to Northumberland Ave. climb but then was spat out right at the top, losing a wheel. I did manage to find a couple of B's to surf behind, and then 5 minutes later we swept up a few C's - looking on ZP live I could see that our little group had the top 3 C riders, so as long as I held on I'd be sure of a podium spot.
Was a cagey ride with attacks on the climbs up Whitehall, but no one got dropped on the 6 laps. I could see on the right that Tim was in a chasing group and slowly pulling us back in (i think they had a few Bs too) - this made the last 2 laps interesting as we were trying to save energy for the sprint whilst trying to keep Tim's group at bay.
In the end we hit the last lap with a lead of about 35 seconds so it looked like we were safe .... now for the final push. We all managed to get up Whitehall together, so I was recovering and thinking of doing a long attack from 0.6km out when someone beat me to it and attacked 0.8km outI got briefly caught in a sticky so by the time I broke through that I was 5 seconds down. I just couldn't close the gap to the leader, leaving me in 2nd. Chap who came in 3rd probably got surprised by the long attack as he was a few seconds behind me.
Excellent workout, and thanks @Ketty for the companyAlways nice seeing a team mate in a race.
Was great to ride with you Carl, albeit for about two miles as like you say I thought I was riding at blob pace but I changed music on iPhone looked up and then I was only about 5 seconds off the back but that was it. Dug in and smashed the next 50min to finish up 5th in CatC.
I pushed up the climb/slope each lap to keep the pace high and managed to split the pack every time, reducing it by half and dropping other CatC riders. I also contested my first real sprint and came 4th out of the 9man pack so happy with that.
Only noticed you were riding as I scrolled through the events - was glad I did, better than gardening in the rain!
Easy - don't get dropped
. In fact it should be easier not to get dropped as there's more draft, so no excuse really 
steverob
Guru
- Location
- Buckinghamshire
Had some fun riding with the new Pacer bots this evening. The A and the C bots were active when I logged on, so thought I'd go with the C, plus it was doing Tempus Fugit and I didn't really fancy any climbing anyway. Had a bit of a false start when I started riding, only to find I was spinning at 120+rpm with hardly any watts in return - found the gear shifters on the Wattbike weren't being recognised (and it had defaulted to the lowest gear available), so had to re-pair them in the app, then quit and restart Zwift and re-join the ride, but I got there in the end.
There was a good crowd around the C bot (or Coco Cadence as Zwift wants us to call her/it), never less than 10 riders and at some points probably over 20. Despite it being advertised as riding at 2.5 to 3.1w/kg, it never deviated from a steady 2.6 all the way round. However I only had to do 2.1-2.2 to keep up - either this is because the bot isn't getting a draft like all the other riders, or possibly because of the flatness of the course, someone like me who's on the heavier side, puts out a lot more watts. I think it may be a combination of both, but the second is maybe more likely as I did see other riders having to put out higher numbers than me to stay in touch (though still only ~2.4).
There was a good crowd around the C bot (or Coco Cadence as Zwift wants us to call her/it), never less than 10 riders and at some points probably over 20. Despite it being advertised as riding at 2.5 to 3.1w/kg, it never deviated from a steady 2.6 all the way round. However I only had to do 2.1-2.2 to keep up - either this is because the bot isn't getting a draft like all the other riders, or possibly because of the flatness of the course, someone like me who's on the heavier side, puts out a lot more watts. I think it may be a combination of both, but the second is maybe more likely as I did see other riders having to put out higher numbers than me to stay in touch (though still only ~2.4).
So we had double draft and power-ups enabled on the TTT tonight, and used MTBs to ride the gravel of the Jungle circuit. It was great fun!
We modified our tactics from last week. We stayed with one guy at the front doing a minute turn and then dropping back to rest in the draft, while a new guy moved forward to lead the group. Last week we tried to get a rotation going in a pre-set order of riders. This week we varied it so that people shouted over discord when they were ready to take the next minute, and it seemed to work better, with the stronger riders taking a bit more of the load, but the weaker ones still doing their bit.
So, how did today's new features affect things. Well the speeds on gravel were noticeably slower. The double draft seemed to keep the group together better on the flats and downhills. The climbs were generally ok, a bit more stretched out but never so far that we lost any riders. The one thing that was noticeable with double draft was that the rider coming off the front had to slow to let the new leader come through, otherwise the sticky draft made it really hard for him to get past.
Power-ups were a bit harder to work out. We'd had a tip off that the aero power-up was a good one to play on the descents. Let a rider with an aero get to the front, play the power-up and then everyone else drafted him. Hard to say that it really worked. We played 2 in a row in the first descent, but they're over so quickly that I couldn't really say I noticed a clear advantage. The feather power-ups were good for taking the lead on the climb and the truck was helpful when you wanted an extra bit of rest.
A few people thought the new features would take the edge off the racing, but I thought it worked well. Not sure how well it would work if they were used on a flat, fast road course but a nice bit of innovation that didn't detract from the event.
We're currently sitting 66th out of 113 in Frappe class with a time of 49.37.
Those of you who've been talking of joining the fun, such as @mjd1988 and @Ketty should give it a go. It can get addictive.
We modified our tactics from last week. We stayed with one guy at the front doing a minute turn and then dropping back to rest in the draft, while a new guy moved forward to lead the group. Last week we tried to get a rotation going in a pre-set order of riders. This week we varied it so that people shouted over discord when they were ready to take the next minute, and it seemed to work better, with the stronger riders taking a bit more of the load, but the weaker ones still doing their bit.
So, how did today's new features affect things. Well the speeds on gravel were noticeably slower. The double draft seemed to keep the group together better on the flats and downhills. The climbs were generally ok, a bit more stretched out but never so far that we lost any riders. The one thing that was noticeable with double draft was that the rider coming off the front had to slow to let the new leader come through, otherwise the sticky draft made it really hard for him to get past.
Power-ups were a bit harder to work out. We'd had a tip off that the aero power-up was a good one to play on the descents. Let a rider with an aero get to the front, play the power-up and then everyone else drafted him. Hard to say that it really worked. We played 2 in a row in the first descent, but they're over so quickly that I couldn't really say I noticed a clear advantage. The feather power-ups were good for taking the lead on the climb and the truck was helpful when you wanted an extra bit of rest.
A few people thought the new features would take the edge off the racing, but I thought it worked well. Not sure how well it would work if they were used on a flat, fast road course but a nice bit of innovation that didn't detract from the event.
We're currently sitting 66th out of 113 in Frappe class with a time of 49.37.
Those of you who've been talking of joining the fun, such as @mjd1988 and @Ketty should give it a go. It can get addictive.
mjd1988
Guru
I definitely think I will.
I just hate the jungle circuit and was off today so thought I'd tackle ventoux while I had a chance (not much to say other than the route is ticked off) as I'm reading a Jeremy whittle book about it at the minute and felt a bit silly not tackling the virtual version.
Is the series carrying on indefinitely?
Every week on Thursday.
I think you'd actually have enjoyed today's ride. I was a bit sceptical about using the Jungle, but it was good. Our whole team thought it worked well today.
If you want a ride let me know and I can put your name forward. We had spaces tonight in 3 of our teams.
Brusgaard
Über Guru
- Location
- Skive, Denmark
For those liking to get punished, 2 new DBR leagues start next weeks:
<Tommy>
Illegitimi non carborundum
- Location
- Camden, London
I’ve had quite a busy week and haven’t been keeping up to date so maybe I missed it. But we were going to have a cyclechat race next Tuesday unless it’s been called off. Are people still up for it? I haven’t seen it mentioned. If so could you let us know today so we have a chance to get it set up in time. If not no worries.
BurningLegs
Guru
I prefer the look of that to the 3R league @Brusgaard
The Sufferday league looks good “longer and harder routes” which is good for my riding style. Times aren’t great though.
The Sufferday league looks good “longer and harder routes” which is good for my riding style. Times aren’t great though.
Brusgaard
Über Guru
- Location
- Skive, Denmark
The times (or was it the "sub 80kg" routes
) are not great for me either in the Sufferday League, so I will give that a miss (again). 
Brendan Parker
Veteran
- Location
- essex, england
This looks tough 🤪
Tempted by the Monday league - Irish league finishes this Monday so timing quite good. Looks interesting with so many hills etc so should get a good workout.
Shame the Saturday league isn't in the afternoon as I'd be tempted by that too, but morning riding doesn't work for me
Thanks for sharing
