Zwift Chat

[CXRAndy]

Sorry Phil , I thought if I could encourage the other heavy rider to go flat out we might drop the bunch and get a small lead. Only problem was, he had private Zwift setting, so I couldn't hide my tactics 😂.

You did very well to jump on and control the pack. After that it wasn't really worth trying to get a small lead, burn some matches. You very quickly dropped me and the others, apart from the powerful leader.

Great ride from you, well done with PB👍

My objectives quickly changed, seeing how far I was behind -dont come last.

I was 30 secs behind as I crested the climb. I only hit 63.9mph compared to over 70mph on the TT bike.

I set about chasing down the rider in front gradually clawing my way back, rested as I let him take me to the finish, sprinted to take him. Sauce was very useful for me to see my speed compared his, gave me spirit to keep going.

Here is the video, slating on the chat, climb and chase to finish


View: https://youtu.be/BbmszkkmGCc

 

[alex_cycles]

Cyclpathon tonight Hurt !!! . Andy shot out of the gate in an attempt to drop the lightweights me included but I jumped on as soon as I could as it was a small group numbers were in his favour , Eventually it settled down and a couple of others got back on and no more attacks before the climb which did surprise me. Round the bend and onto the climb and 1 guy went from the bottom I just settled into my pace and slowly dropped everyone else . Pb up the climb by 1min 4 secs but I am at my lowest zwift wait . 30 odds secs behind the leader and 50 odds secs clear of 3rd . Annoyingly on the downhill I was trying to maintain speed and still rest and while not concentrating I hit 99kph( I've yet to do the 100)😕. At the bottom 35secs behind 3rd was now over a min behind but 4th was 4 secs behind I was paranoid about them getting together and closing the gap so had to press on for the whole race . Never really made any inroad into the leader but thankfully when 3rd and 4th got together they seemed to cancel each other out so I hung on for 2nd ,which was a surprise as I only just got promoted up . My best w/kg for 20min at 3.4 so I'd probably be a B in the old Cats this figure is helped by my lower weight , Average power is up among my best but not the best

Well done. Sounds great.

 

[CXRAndy]

I'm edging towards the lower category, dropped another 4 points tonight, after my stellar performance 😁

 

[alex_cycles]

I'm edging towards the lower category, dropped another 4 points tonight, after my stellar performance 😁

I lost 23 this morning and went below 550. Technically I could race down a grade next week, but two of the guys who beat me today could also so there isn't a lot of point. There was a race last Sunday I might have entered if I could have been below 550 though, so maybe his coming weekend if I don't mess it up before then

 

[CXRAndy]

I lost 23 this morning and went below 550

That's because of your poor cursing

 

[13 rider]

@CXRAndy ,that's an impressive chase back down the climb ,Ive been racing Lorenzo a lot and he's always at the pointy end but like me he got promoted last week .The guy who won is 81kgs !! That's impressive climbing . He must have been a late sign up as he wasn't on the zwift power sign up list when I checked before the race.
My zrs is going the other way I'm up to 380 ,I'm now worried another good result puts me over 400 when the parameters change next month

 

[alex_cycles]

@CXRAndy ,that's an impressive chase back down the climb ,Ive been racing Lorenzo a lot and he's always at the pointy end but like me he got promoted last week .The guy who won is 81kgs !! That's impressive climbing . He must have been a late sign up as he wasn't on the zwift power sign up list when I checked before the race.
My zrs is going the other way I'm up to 380 ,I'm now worried another good result puts me over 400 when the parameters change next month

In these narrow pens only 100 wide going up or down one makes very little difference. As you've no doubt spotted, there'll be someone in each pen who can do 4+ w/kg anyway Last month up Epic we had two Japanese drop-ins who blasted up Epic at 5.0. No choice really but to let them get on with it and race the people who ARE on your level

In other news it looks like @steverob may be in an unassailable position now even if he DOES miss next week

 

[steverob]

5th out of 8 on Zwift, 4th out of 6 on ZP. Pack stayed together at a reasonable pace until the final km of the flat (which isn't so flat) at which point the two B's in the race (one not on ZP) started to push and everyone spread out. Still managed to keep fairly close to them until the gradient hit double digits at which point I went into TT mode, whereupon I set myself a wattage target and tried to keep to it regardless of what was going on around me.

The two riders I'd identified as being potential rivals both overtook me early on, gaining a gap of about 12 seconds in the first half km, but I pegged them back to about 5 seconds as we went through the chicane. On the really steep stuff, the Belgian guy started to increase the gap but the Foudre rider couldn't keep up with him and I eventually caught him halfway up that bit and dropped him as we hit the easier gradients. At the top I was 16 seconds behind the Belgian, but 22 seconds ahead of Foudre.

Put down a bit of power for the first part of the downhill - on screen Zwift has me doing well over 64mph, but Strava says I only managed 63.1, which still isn't bad with a normal bike and Alpinist lightweight wheels. Unfortunately it didn't catch me up any, although I did reduce the gap to about 12 seconds on the first part of the flat. However he also had a target to chase ahead of him and slowly he started to pull away again, finishing 30 seconds up (and 2 secs down on the guy he was chasing). I finished a minute ahead of Foudre in the end.

 

[CXRAndy]

@CXRAndy ,that's an impressive chase back down the climb ,Ive been racing Lorenzo a lot and he's always at the pointy end but like me he got promoted last week .The guy who won is 81kgs !! That's impressive climbing . He must have been a late sign up as he wasn't on the zwift power sign up list when I checked before the race.
My zrs is going the other way I'm up to 380 ,I'm now worried another good result puts me over 400 when the parameters change next month

He was dropped by the fast start, so took him a little while to overtake me on the climb. Enough to just stay within my grasp on the return.

Your climbing was uncatchable on 15% gradients .

I was checking Steve's ride, he actually had a slightly better climb than me, but I had a stronger return.

 

[13 rider]

Cheers Andy ,gravity is my friend going up especially as I lose weight but I'm jealous of yours and Steve's top speed coming down when gravity is your friend , I've now hit 99kph 3 times without ever going over the ton 😭

 

[alex_cycles]

Cheers Andy ,gravity is my friend going up especially as I lose weight but I'm jealous of yours and Steve's top speed coming down when gravity is your friend , I've now hit 99kph 3 times without ever going over the ton 😭

I got 102 today on a Pinarello Dogma 2024 with Enve 7.8 wheels. I did push an 800 Watt+ sprint to get going on the supertuck though - and pumped it up once or twice more.

 

[CXRAndy]

TT bike gives an extra 10kph , but like Alex you've got to give it the beans to get going

 

[13 rider]

TT bike gives an extra 10kph , but like Alex you've got to give it the beans to get going

I've dragged a TT bike up the radio tower and Bologna and failed 😂 there the other 2 times I've hit 99

 

[steverob]

I sped up my video as it was a bit boring

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9P7ywI0jqss

At the end of the ride, Zwift increased my FTP to 260W (from 256) and my zFTP is up to 267 (not sure what it was before) which I think puts me right on the cusp of the C pace group.

 

[CXRAndy]

I've dragged a TT bike up the radio tower and Bologna and failed 😂 there the other 2 times I've hit 99

You could ride up with a lightweight bike and do change on the flat oval to a TT. You need to be going flat out on the flat top section, carry the effort into the descent and then super tuck