Zwift Chat

[Norry1]

Excellent. That's encouraging. Certainly judging by the four 50+ Cx races I did in 2022 some of those guys were beasts.

I'm racing in the British Cycling National masters Road Race next weekend in the 60-64 Age Cat. 3 of them are Cat 2 racers, 10 are Cat 3 and the rest are Cat 4. Gonna be tough. Oh and it is 60 miles and 4,500 feet of climbing

 

[Randyberlin]

I've just remembered I was 55 when I set myself "The 60 Challenge" which was to increase my cycling Power Max's every year until I was 60. I managed to achieve this and am keeping this personal challenge going. Happy to report I have hit All-Time Power PB's at 4 levels this year (just 16 to go).

Before. / After

Hey, Who is that young dude next to you with that sweet TI bike?

 

[CXRAndy]

Crit racing in Harrogate

Low key affair, small attendance .I was ranked No1 ZP

Within 1 mile, the contenders were off the front, pack down to 7. I could tell almost right away it was a weak pack apart from two Japanese riders who were able to fall back then come back to the lead. The pack whittled down to eventually 4.

With the final climb I launched my attack dropping everyone, but not really getting away, between 1-3 secs lead. I was caught by one of the riders with a short distance to go-new max HR 182 ! - where I needed a micro rest before another rider gaining fast. I mustered a second sprint to finish 2nd on the road- promoted to gold. Winner was a B cat in D race

Video starts at my attack.
View: https://youtu.be/_DE75YeTiR4?t=1624


Bad news I've been bumped into next category.- not so worried, I've raced these before and end up middle pack for results. Maybe categories might shift again

 

[CXRAndy]

What a race yesterday mens road.

 

[CXRAndy]

Women's road race was fantastic too 👍

 

[Randyberlin]

Women's road race was fantastic too 👍

An Alaskan! She just started riding a bike in 2017.

 

[CXRAndy]

An Alaskan! She just started riding a bike in 2017.

Hi Randy, yes I heard that on the commentary. Former rower, sheer juggernaut of power. She looked far more powerful than Kopecky in the chase. Then she just blasted by and rode them off her wheel. Awesome 👍

 

[mjd1988]

Hi Randy, yes I heard that on the commentary. Former rower, sheer juggernaut of power. She looked far more powerful than Kopecky in the chase. Then she just blasted by and rode them off her wheel. Awesome 👍

Yeah the presence of mind to know if she left the group of three behind, all of them are thinking of I chase I lose all hopes of a medal to those I drag with me, but if I stay in group I can sprint for silver. So effective

 

[mjd1988]

Did one of those race score races with everyone tightly packed into loads of races.

4 a riders out of 6 on a hilly course, feared the worse but only two went away at the end of second reverse kom of whom one was a B and I stayed with the others for the sprint so looking purely at that, it worked pretty well

 

[CXRAndy]

It's coming together the RS categories. Just wish they would speed up merging Zwift and ZP results

 

[alex_cycles]

I also did one yesterday. Hilly reverse x2 is quite hard on the legs. I had nothing left for the finish. Came 14th on Zwift, 13th on ZP. (vELO prediction was 12th so that was very close). But after the race my ZRS went just above 580 to 581.25. Overnight it has adjusted to 579.78, which means I am still JUST eligible to race in the <580 group. The 580-1000 group is not very appealing

 

[CXRAndy]

I also did one yesterday. Hilly reverse x2 is quite hard on the legs. I had nothing left for the finish. Came 14th on Zwift, 13th on ZP. (vELO prediction was 12th so that was very close). But after the race my ZRS went just above 580 to 581.25. Overnight it has adjusted to 579.78, which means I am still JUST eligible to race in the <580 group. The 580-1000 group is not very appealing

Watched your YT. Strong group, you were on the limit

You'll smash it in the <580 group

I'm going for stage 2 punchy this afternoon after my new piece of equipment is delivered

 

[Whorty]

Went outside yesterday - bike serviced by a local chap from Trowbridge cycle club the other day, made a big difference. Less squeaking and new chain. A bit a breezy but a few PBs despite busier than expected traffic.

 

[13 rider]

1st ride on zwift for a month ticked off another new route Glylph heights, it felt harder than I thought it should can't make my mind up if it's the month off or a complete alteration of my zwift bike set up. Swapped from best bike which was 11sp but is has been upgraded to 12sp so instead of buying a spare 12 speed cassette and already owning a spare 10 speed cassette my old Defy is now my zwift bike which has very different gearing to the TCR . Does physical bike gears make a difference on zwift

 

[alex_cycles]

1st ride on zwift for a month ticked off another new route Glylph heights, it felt harder than I thought it should can't make my mind up if it's the month off or a complete alteration of my zwift bike set up. Swapped from best bike which was 11sp but is has been upgraded to 12sp so instead of buying a spare 12 speed cassette and already owning a spare 10 speed cassette my old Defy is now my zwift bike which has very different gearing to the TCR . Does physical bike gears make a difference on zwift

I found the first year I did Zwift, that when I took 6 weeks off indoor in the summer I came back and had what felt like no power. It felt really hard. Looking into it, it transpires that you are working slightly different muscle groups on indoor riding. If you think about it, with outdoor you have a lot more movement. You can stand up on a hill and rock the bike, getting a LOT more arm action. You also turn the bars and tilt round corners, so you have a lot more movement.

On a static bike you have a lot less. So since then I decided to always try to not have long breaks away from indoor in order to keep it all going. Seems to work well. I don't notice it being any harder after a week off, but more than two weeks I would think I might.

It quite likely also depends on what kind of efforts you are doing outside. e.g. If you're doing endurance work only outside, your indoor sprint won't improve from it. (But that's kinda obvious ).