Zwift Chat

[Venod]

but my Wattbike was on the lowest gear on anything above 7%

Like Zwift you can adjust the resistance, in program, but I don't know if the ride still counts towards the challenge, and I don't know if it means you use less power or if its like Zwift and just give you lower gearing but you need the same Watts to progress.

 

[CXRAndy]

Like Zwift you can adjust the resistance, in program, but I don't know if the ride still counts towards the challenge, and I don't know if it means you use less power or if its like Zwift and just give you lower gearing but you need the same Watts to progress.

I would presume it has a similar speed calculation from derived power meter

 

[Mo1959]

Like Zwift you can adjust the resistance, in program, but I don't know if the ride still counts towards the challenge, and I don't know if it means you use less power or if its like Zwift and just give you lower gearing but you need the same Watts to progress.

Looks like you’ve got to leave it at 100% for the challenges. I’ve found out you can go into the Wattbike settings and pick a 30/46 and 11-36 set up. I think I’ve set that now so hoping it translates across to Rouvy. I’ll find out on the next ride.

 

[steverob]

Because I'm really sad, I've got an Excel spreadsheet of all my split times on the Alpe (I might have shared this before). Here are six of my last ten efforts, expressed as minutes ahead of 50-minute pace. Interesting how all of my fastest four efforts have converged around Bend 6 to Bend 5 (no more than 5 seconds apart at Bend 6). Bend 4 to Bend 2 is where it gets really grippy!

@Legs Any chance of you sending me a copy of that spreadsheet, or at the very least your 50 minute target time splits for each bend? I'm planning to do the Alpe this weekend and finally see if I can beat the 75 minute barrier and it would be good to work out what my time checks should be.

I've come close before - was ahead of target up until about Bend 8/7, then my watts started to fall away (in retrospect think I'd gone out too hard), eventually dropped below target time at Bend 3 and by the finish I ended up 2 and a bit minutes down. It was still a PR though, so I wasn't too upset.

 

[13 rider]

@steverob ,if you fancy an event going up the Alpe this week's zwift hill climb club is on the Alpe ,just the timed climb counts so steady run in at whatever pace you like then everyone basically TTs the climb .events roughly ever hour

 

[steverob]

Yes, I did see those events - it is my intention to do one of them but haven't decided which time slot yet. I looked at the Robopacer ones as well, but my target time falls almost exactly between the C and D bot times, so the Hill Climb is a better option for me.

 

[Legs]

@Legs Any chance of you sending me a copy of that spreadsheet, or at the very least your 50 minute target time splits for each bend? I'm planning to do the Alpe this weekend and finally see if I can beat the 75 minute barrier and it would be good to work out what my time checks should be.

I've come close before - was ahead of target up until about Bend 8/7, then my watts started to fall away (in retrospect think I'd gone out too hard), eventually dropped below target time at Bend 3 and by the finish I ended up 2 and a bit minutes down. It was still a PR though, so I wasn't too upset.

Yep, sure, I’ll see if I can find a way to send it. I manually input the segment times from Strava.

 

[13 rider]

Yes, I did see those events - it is my intention to do one of them but haven't decided which time slot yet. I looked at the Robopacer ones as well, but my target time falls almost exactly between the C and D bot times, so the Hill Climb is a better option for me.

Try a pick one with the most riders not for draft but to have people to chase up the mountain , As only the timed hill section counts you can get better riders pootle to the bottom and chase you which can be extra motivation . Be warned don't try and hold off a 37kg A cat rider on a climb like I did 😂,

 

[steverob]

I'm aiming to go up at a steady pace of about 220-225W (a pace I know I can maintain for over an hour) for the first six or so bends and then see where I am based on @Legs time checks at that point and decide whether to dial it up or down from there. As I said, my worry is to go out too fast, so that's what I want to prevent happening this time round.

1:15 is the official target, but anything under 1:17:24 is a PB.

 

[Legs]

As a word of caution, my time checks are, as I mentioned upthread, based on constant speed so they don't take account of the varying gradient. If you get to Bend 20 by 9 minutes, you're on target by way of linear speed, but because of the steepness of the lower slopes, you're clearly quite considerably ahead of a constant-power effort. For constant power, you're probably best starting off at the power dictated by the Chung formula (3.5min + 180 kg/W ~ 245W for you, Steve), and taking it from there if you feel you've still got gas in the tank for later.

 

[steverob]

As a word of caution, my time checks are, as I mentioned upthread, based on constant speed so they don't take account of the varying gradient. If you get to Bend 20 by 9 minutes, you're on target by way of linear speed, but because of the steepness of the lower slopes, you're clearly quite considerably ahead of a constant-power effort. For constant power, you're probably best starting off at the power dictated by the Chung formula (3.5min + 180 kg/W ~ 245W for you, Steve), and taking it from there if you feel you've still got gas in the tank for later.

I've taken your numbers, adjusted them using my own segment PBs for reference, made other some small changes and think I have now come up with some decent target split times: Bend 20 by 10:05 (15 seconds down on my PR where I went out too fast), Bend 15 by 20:40 (about 30 secs down), Bend 10 by 36:10 (still 10 secs down), Bend 5 by 56:20 (now 40 seconds UP on PR) then hopefully the finish line by 1:15:00.

If I'm missing those goals at each split, then I've got further sets of targets for a PR or a 1:20 ride that I can drop down to.

 

[13 rider]

Out of curiosity @steverob what AVG w/kg you aiming for ? . I really need to do an alpe this week as I've done all the hill climbs this month and I'm in 27th place ,was hoping I could claw back time with a longer effort but there's already 12 efforts under the hour in C Cat with people doing 3.5w/kg my current Pb is 69 mins

 

[CXRAndy]

Out of curiosity @steverob what AVG w/kg you aiming for ? . I really need to do an alpe this week as I've done all the hill climbs this month and I'm in 27th place ,was hoping I could claw back time with a longer effort but there's already 12 efforts under the hour in C Cat with people doing 3.5w/kg my current Pb is 69 mins

You should be able to go sub one hour Phil. My best time is 60m30s at just shy of 3.2W/kg. Never been near that since

Anything over 3.2will get you sub hour

 

[steverob]

I'm starting at 2.3 w/kg and have no plans to change pace before the halfway point - after that I'll see how my legs are feeling. Two weeks ago I did Ventoux (to the Chalet, not the very top) and was able to hold 2.2 for 90 minutes and not feel like I was about to die, so I'm optimistic.

 

[Legs]

Good luck to everyone ZRLing tonight! KOM is gonna hurt! 💪