Zwift Chat

[CXRAndy]

Got up early for a sneaky crit city with racing score. My score has dropped putting me at the top of effectively the old D cat. However with 20s to go for the race there were only two of us at the start.

I apologised to the other rider and waited for something else.


The next desirable event was Pinarello event this time using racing score rather than C cat. 18 riders, so enough for a proper race

I was ranked right at the top my RS 413, cut off 415.

The event was a little more relaxed in overall pace, but the hills were attacked slightly harder than my last race. My HR was 10bpm average lower.

Here is the last two climbs to the finish


View: https://youtu.be/-dWPrGfK7Nk?t=2014



I placed 3rd on the road




But you always take the better result

RS 424 which is odd given, I've got more points than the two who finished in front of me on Zwift. One of them being a B cat

 

[alex_cycles]

Got up early for a sneaky crit city with racing score. My score has dropped putting me at the top of effectively the old D cat. However with 20s to go for the race there were only two of us at the start.

I apologised to the other rider and waited for something else.


The next desirable event was Pinarello event this time using racing score rather than C cat. 18 riders, so enough for a proper race

I was ranked right at the top my RS 413, cut off 415.

The event was a little more relaxed in overall pace, but the hills were attacked slightly harder than my last race. My HR was 10bpm average lower.

Here is the last two climbs to the finish


View: https://youtu.be/-dWPrGfK7Nk?t=2014



I placed 3rd on the road




But you always take the better result

RS 424 which is odd given, I've got more points than the two who finished in front of me on Zwift. One of them being a B cat

View attachment 744271

Well done. Looks like you had fun there.

I had a good result on Thursday in the same race. As a Sapphire, I beat 5 Emeralds and a Ruby. I was curious about why this could be, so I had a look at all their ZR.app profiles and they all have a fairly flat "handicap" chart with a low bias and not strong sprinty power. Pursuiters, TTers and All-rounders all except one Puncheur with a fairly low bias of 6 (but his 2nd best metric is 20m).
So I think they are in my ZRS group because they lack the short power punch. So on that course we are well matched. When it gets more climby I think I'll find it harder.

This makes sense - ZRS seems to be based more towards flat/rolling than climby ability (my impression). So it will be really interesting to see how Cyclopathon goes in the coming weeks as we dial in more climbiness.

 

[CXRAndy]

Well done. Looks like you had fun there.

I had a good result on Thursday in the same race. As a Sapphire, I beat 5 Emeralds and a Ruby. I was curious about why this could be, so I had a look at all their ZR.app profiles and they all have a fairly flat "handicap" chart with a low bias and not strong sprinty power. Pursuiters, TTers and All-rounders all except one Puncheur with a fairly low bias of 6 (but his 2nd best metric is 20m).
So I think they are in my ZRS group because they lack the short power punch. So on that course we are well matched. When it gets more climby I think I'll find it harder.

This makes sense - ZRS seems to be based more towards flat/rolling than climby ability (my impression). So it will be really interesting to see how Cyclopathon goes in the coming weeks as we dial in more climbiness.

That's odd, you spotted that

I beat two B cats who had poor 5, 15s power, but really good 20 min power compared to me.

 

[alex_cycles]

That's odd, you spotted that

I beat two B cats who had poor 5, 15s power, but really good 20 min power compared to me.

The 20m will hurt on the mountainous weeks (week 4), but probably a bit on the hilly week 3 as well.

But we should be OK this week we've got 6x 1-minute punchy climb to do. Should suit me quite well as long as we get some respite on the descent.

 

[CXRAndy]

I was predicted to get silver , the guy who came second was predicted to win. So pretty accurate

 

[CXRAndy]

Hi Alex, saw your FTP attempt. I wondered why you didn't get higher heart rate compared to racing. You were 20bpm lower than max.

You gave an explanation of racing spurring you to higher levels and steady state not doing it for you

 

[Whorty]

The 20m will hurt on the mountainous weeks (week 4), but probably a bit on the hilly week 3 as well.

But we should be OK this week we've got 6x 1-minute punchy climb to do. Should suit me quite well as long as we get some respite on the descent.

I'm hoping my ZRS reduces enough this next week before the hillier rides. Should be below 350 by next Tuesday

 

[alex_cycles]

Hi Alex, saw your FTP attempt. I wondered why you didn't get higher heart rate compared to racing. You were 20bpm lower than max.

You gave an explanation of racing spurring you to higher levels and steady state not doing it for you

I think in all honesty I didn't have it in me today. I did 46 miles outside yesterday and that probably wasn't ideal preparation for such a thing.

I needed some TSS though so thought I'd give it a shot. I also screwed up by not realising that route I picked didn't have a 20-minute climb - it was only 16, so by the time I got to the top and realised I was going back down again I just decided to quit the effort.

I never even looked at the HR though (I never do - I ride by feel). I think for such a thing I either need ERG mode on, to be fresher or to have someone to chase.

Bottom line, if you rank all my races on ZP and sort by 20m Watts, the top 20 are all in 2024, so I know I'm moving in the right direction.

I do think there may well be something in the conflict between aerobic and anaerobic though. I just don't think you can be super-good at both at the same time and anaerobic is so much fun

Destroying everyone at 8.5 up Leg Snapper is way more fun than edging away from someone for 20m up a mountain.

 

[Whorty]

Destroying everyone at 8.5 up Leg Snapper is way more fun than edging away from someone for 20m up a mountain.

This

 

[Cirrus]

Did the stage 2 Pinarello power race today, group of four of us managed to stick together for most of the race, bit of a sprint at the end, which was fun😂

 

[alex_cycles]

Did the stage 2 Pinarello power race today, group of four of us managed to stick together for most of the race, bit of a sprint at the end, which was fun😂

I'll try and catch that one later in the week. Easy day today because I want to go all-in tomorrow in Cyclopathon.
5 laps of Castle Crit. So 6*45-60s climb punchy fun.

 

[CXRAndy]

I'll try and catch that one later in the week. Easy day today because I want to go all-in tomorrow in Cyclopathon.
5 laps of Castle Crit. So 6*45-60s climb punchy fun.

Yes I'm doing morning event. I have a youngster in my group who will be quite a handful, light and big sprint power. The other fella does huge miles

 

[Whorty]

Did the stage 2 Pinarello power race today, group of four of us managed to stick together for most of the race, bit of a sprint at the end, which was fun😂

I just did that too - started off in a group where I was 140th on the road, finished 143rd on the road lol

In ZwiftPower I'm 110 out of 116. Despite being dropped by riders with a ZRS in the 2nn region my score is still 360 - Zwift clearly think I have potential

 

[CXRAndy]

I will try and do Pinarello stage 2 Thursday/Friday. Wife's away, and she has given me all the housework 🤣

 

[Whorty]

I will try and do Pinarello stage 2 Thursday/Friday. Wife's away, and she has given me all the housework 🤣

This stage is in NY, not my favourite courses but at least doesn't go on those horrible glass roads. Didn't have any legs today, was dropped by lead group within 90 seconds. Lots of moaning in C race that many riders were above cat numbers and cheating - no idea if they were, I was about 2 miles back

Despite being beaten by lots of riders with a lower ZRS score than me (some in the 200s, I only had my score reduced by 6 points which seems odd. I may need to do a lot more races to get my score to the correct level