Zwift Chat

[Peter Salt]

Wow. Was that the most fun CC race ever or what? Decent pack, surges, breakaways, pursuits, and after all of that: A sprint finish!

Congrats for taking the win @mjd1988!

It was a dead heat for 2nd on my screen, @Legs - but I think you deserve it on account of staying in front for so long

Kudos to @Whorty for clinging on and helping to bridge!

And, as always: Thank you @steverob for taking the time to organise. What a lovely event it was.

If I had fresh legs: You boys would have no chance

 

[steverob]

You can see the video from my perspective here (I forgot to switch cameras to anyone else)

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEFf22ft-h0

But this way you do get to see me catch back up to the pack in the first 5km, and then lead-out Alex at the end!

 

[steverob]

Actually earlier on when we were riding together I was trying to take turns, but you kept riding through me. I guess you were riding a steady pace, but if you don't back off a bit you never get the benefit of any draft.

I'm not good at that part of drafting (and this goes for both Zwift and IRL). I slow down too much and then tend to get gapped, so then have to accelerate to catch up except I'm now more likely to push too hard and go straight through the pack and then I repeat that cycle until I'm knackered. Much easier for me to keep to a rhythm and let Zwift take care of the drafting via it's washing machine style constant churn of riders - leaves me with a lot more energy left.

 

[Legs]

Looking at the power figures the pack leaned on Tim for leading most of the way

I felt I needed to put in a little bit of work on the front when we got back to the flatlands to stop you catching us while we were doing Z1 sillybuggers, @CXRAndy ! You were really tanking up to us and I didn’t want to end up fifth!

That said, my normalised power was 324W and I clocked a 369W 5-minute CP, while the three behind put in what must have been quite an organised chase and then freewheeled down Titan’s Grove. Ah well, it was worth a try!

 

[Whorty]

Wow. Was that the most fun CC race ever or what? Decent pack, surges, breakaways, pursuits, and after all of that: A sprint finish!

Congrats for taking the win @mjd1988!

It was a dead heat for 2nd on my screen, @Legs - but I think you deserve it on account of staying in front for so long

Kudos to @Whorty for clinging on and helping to bridge!

And, as always: Thank you @steverob for taking the time to organise. What a lovely event it was.

If I had fresh legs: You boys would have no chance

I had to work so hard to hang on up the climb, totally in the red, was convinced I'd be dropped.

Then I thought if Tim attacked up that last climb into the dessert I'd be dropped, hence why I went on the front and pushed the pace, to try to stop an attack. But that was it then for me, I was just hanging on and another attack I was gone for good.

Surprised myself again that I managed to chase down the early attacks ... my sprint and recovery is improving.

 

[Whorty]

I'm not good at that part of drafting (and this goes for both Zwift and IRL). I slow down too much and then tend to get gapped, so then have to accelerate to catch up except I'm now more likely to push too hard and go straight through the pack and then I repeat that cycle until I'm knackered. Much easier for me to keep to a rhythm and let Zwift take care of the drafting via it's washing machine style constant churn of riders - leaves me with a lot more energy left.

I good way to practice is the pace partners ... I rode with them a lot to practice drafting. Really helped me.

 

[IrishAl]

Great race guys. Thanks @steverob for the organising! From my perspective I jumped on the bike with around 60 seconds to go - all my plans to leave work nice and early and get a decent warm up crumbled as usual! Regardless the start was fairly friendly paced - I missed the memo that said @Legs would try an early break, but that got the heart going. I had a dog then in the flat hoping that someone (@Legs if I’m honest) would bridge and my dreams of riding off into the sunset would become reality. Nope - no takers and half of my (small box of) matches burnt in the process. Elastic snapped for me early on Titans then I couldn’t hold @CXRAndy’s wheel on the descent and stuck in no mans land chasing Andy but getting nowhere - in my mind Andy your ride was ride of the night as you held the power so steady and as a solo rider limited the gap to the front field the whole way to the end.

I noticed Alex and Steve closing in so eased off a bit but Alex put in a dig which I followed. Then the fun and games as I tried to sit on Alex’s wheel as Steve closed in - twice. Fair play both of you. My legs are goosed now. Great workout.

 

[Legs]

… I missed the memo that said @Legs would try an early break, but that got the heart going.

Hey, that was totally at @Peter Salt ’s door, that early one! Glad that it calmed down and we mostly stayed together to the Desert Turn.

I think if I’d managed to react earlier to your move at the foot of the climb, @IrishAl , the others would have marked us down. I need a bit of gradient to make the moves stick!

 

[mjd1988]

I was going to say ... with you and me in the group, does anyone expect anything less

I was very glad you were dropped, especially with Tim having burnt a lot of matches and Pete having already raced.

I knew Peter would go early and my top speed would hopefully eventually catch up at some point, thankfully Tim gave me a bit of a lead out

 

[Legs]

That was a lot of fun! Thanks everyone 😁
Are we having a bit of a break now for the ZRL Finals? Rather looking forward to Fox Hill 😁

 

[Whorty]

I was very glad you were dropped, especially with Tim having burnt a lot of matches and Pete having already raced.

I knew Peter would go early and my top speed would hopefully eventually catch up at some point, thankfully Tim gave me a bit of a lead out

In my head, I figured that I had a half decent 1 minute left but that was it, so I was looking to go with 1 km to go, and hope I could hold you off .. but Tim's attack did for me so instead of kicking off my asthma to still come 4th, I sat up (I was sensible for a change, having already had the one on the last hill .

 

[alex_cycles]

Here's the second part of our cat and mouse game @IrishAl


View: https://youtu.be/88FMnSBsj3Y

 

[IrishAl]

Here's the second part of our cat and mouse game @IrishAl


View: https://youtu.be/88FMnSBsj3Y

Balls - I had a bigger gap on you two with 1k to go than I thought. 😃

 

[steverob]

That was a lot of fun! Thanks everyone 😁
Are we having a bit of a break now for the ZRL Finals? Rather looking forward to Fox Hill 😁

There are two schools of thought here. One, we delay the last two rounds for three weeks until the ZRL Finals are over. Or two, we carry on next week but move them to a different day like Thursday. And I'm not just saying that because for the next two weeks my WFH days are Thursdays honest... 🤔

 

[CXRAndy]

Thursdays are good for me Steve, 7pm ?