Zwift spins

CramCycle

Hooray, nice climb in the middle of the sprint race this week, excellent. I can make one last hurrah to get upgraded.

dahat

CramCycle wrote: »

Hooray, nice climb in the middle of the sprint race this week, excellent. I can make one last hurrah to get upgraded.

Hmmm, might try something on this hill you speak of.

CramCycle

dahat wrote: »

Hmmm, might try something on this hill you speak of.

Apologies, 2 hills, or more correctly, the same hill twice.

EDIT: They seem to have changed routes again, so it is the same hill 3 times, but a different hill to the one they had yesterday.

Either way it is a 2km climb fairly early on, looking at Strava, your looking at between 12 and 15 minutes a lap. with that climb heading for about 5 to 7 minutes of the lap. It certainly should string out if anyone pushes hard on the climb.

dahat

CramCycle wrote: »

Apologies, 2 hills, or more correctly, the same hill twice.

EDIT: They seem to have changed routes again, so it is the same hill 3 times, but a different hill to the one they had yesterday.

Either way it is a 2km climb fairly early on, looking at Strava, your looking at between 12 and 15 minutes a lap. with that climb heading for about 5 to 7 minutes of the lap. It certainly should string out if anyone pushes hard on the climb.

It will be definitely worth shaking it up on the second lap with a few shelled on the first one by nature. All depends on the size of what is left on lap 2.

dahat

Cycle Ireland Sprint race review....

Destroyed by Cram Cycle on the climbs, no more to be said.

Well done lad, guy that won nabbed me once or twice in a gallop.

CramCycle

dahat wrote: »

Cycle Ireland Sprint race review....

Destroyed by Cram Cycle on the climbs, no more to be said.

Well done lad, guy that won nabbed me once or twice in a gallop.

Cheers, I actually took your advice. I wasn't feeling great before the race so when we hit the climb I just paced it full belt and chased any breaks. We had dropped a few on the first climb, I rested on the descent and kept up the power over the flats. The second time up the climb was tougher, two lads kept trying to break away and one of them did. I hammered upto speed on the descent and closed him down and we dropped a good few more. Last time up, I tried to stay near the front but I was getting put back and crested it around 10th. 4 or 5 were making a break so I hammered it and caught on. Down to 4 we managed to drop the VGC lad in the last few km (I always end up against him in sprints so glad we rode him of our wheels).

Made one error in the sprint and misjudged it, went too early, dropped one but the other lad came round and I just couldn't raise the pace anymore so I'm a bit annoyed I didn't recover for another 10seconds and give myself a better chance, amateur mistake.

Weirdly the results on Zwiftpower are not what was on screen on Zwift but cest la vie.

CramCycle

Looks like its the same climb again tomorrow, and bar the descent from it, very little room for recovery, like there are a few drops but its almost not worth trying to stay off the power as if anyone decides to go, it might be hard to rev up again. Annoyed to see I am still B despite my attempts to get upgraded for the final race of the league. Looking at Strava, I am estimating a B lap at between 35 and 45 minutes, closer to the 45minutes

dahat

The lighter lads will have a field day then tomorrow. I can't see how I'll be involved at the business end unfortunately, a top 10 will be a huge result for me.

All notions of retaining B grade abandoned as each climb will require near max 5 min efforts. This will be a test how much I can truly suffer.

It will be a long 90mins that will require copious amounts of caffeine.

CramCycle

Well that went badly, up near the front but first time up the major climb I went from top 10 to about 30th. Looked at the dots and realised that there were already 3 groups, small but putting in distance. I tried to get back over but the legs were having none of it. I had a slim chance of bridging over but once they made the summit before me the chance of making contact again was gone. In a role reversal from Thursday, dahat dropped me Scar dropped Mufasa in the Lion King. I think I suffered psycologically as once i seen the young lads with 12w/kg I just felt the legs go dead. Anyway, I held onto the 3rd group who were intent on no breaks, but group 2 had 30 seconds on us before the end of the 1st lap and over a minute by the 2nd time up the climb. It was a group of about 15 so I decided to put on the power to see could we break it up a bit but they all held in. One A rider we picked up provided a good carrot to follow everytime he went off the front. Most of the riders were ones I raced on Thursday night, so I hoped they suffered like me as well. We were getting close to one guy up the road and alot fo the groups were clearly just trying to rest so 5 of us (including the GCA lads) started keeping the presurre up, and we took 10 seconds out of him in the last km. We split the group in the final 2.5km so only 6 of us together coming into the final km. We also seemed to drop the A rider in the final km. My sprint was definetly weaker but it felt manageable, I had it in my head to get top 25 at this point and I crossed the line 2nd in the sprint, barely holding of a rider beside me who just couldn't get that last little bit to get past me. I was trying to hold back as I had no idea how long I could hold a sprint, one guy pushed a little and I bit, tore off at 250m to go. Thought I messed it up but only one came round me. Glad this is over though, this was deeply unpleasant.

dahat

Cycle Ireland RD 12.

Never made the selection after the first climb which was savage disappointing as the rest of the course was grand. G1 kept pouring on the gas to keep the gap that when it went to 45 secs I backed off and decided to to try "win g2". This group wasn't overly keen on chasing down the leaders which when I looked at the names It was clear they wouldn't be able to get the 1min gap back.

I tried to drop a few on the second time up the climb but no joy. Cram appeared on my screen at 16 secs back so had hoped he would get back on to have a Boards 2up but not to be unfortunately.

I may have nicked a top 10 or just outside it which tbh was all I expecting from today.

Overall a great series & happy to be prominent on the leaderboard each week I raced. Going forward I may ship the classic series and choose something more to my skillset.

CramCycle

I just looked at next week, flat 3km, uphill for 7km, downhill for 6km, flat for 9km and then repeat that hill again. It will be one of those races where you know if you have a shot at exactly 10km in, your either at the front or your not. So you can bow out early and just get a spin in. I am hoping I can do enough to get upgraded to A over the week, its really bugging me that I can't get up.

dahat

CramCycle wrote: »

I just looked at next week, flat 3km, uphill for 7km, downhill for 6km, flat for 9km and then repeat that hill again. It will be one of those races where you know if you have a shot at exactly 10km in, your either at the front or your not. So you can bow out early and just get a spin in. I am hoping I can do enough to get upgraded to A over the week, its really bugging me that I can't get up.

Max gradient? Anything over 10% finds me out pretty quickly.

Just find a flatish crit and go balls out to hang with A lads, that would get you upgraded I reckon.

CramCycle

dahat wrote: »

Max gradient? Anything over 10% finds me out pretty quickly.

From Velo viewer
Distance:7.4 km
Average gradient:5.4%
Maximum gradient:10.4%

Crocked

CramCycle wrote: »

I just looked at next week, flat 3km, uphill for 7km, downhill for 6km, flat for 9km and then repeat that hill again. It will be one of those races where you know if you have a shot at exactly 10km in, your either at the front or your not. So you can bow out early and just get a spin in. I am hoping I can do enough to get upgraded to A over the week, its really bugging me that I can't get up.

Do the Critty Critty Bang Bang on Tuesday evening. It's on the crit course with mixed cats, so just hang onto the A lads should get you over the limit. It can be hard to get upgraded if you are on the cusp and racing in a one cat race as you won't generally have to go over cat limits to stay with the lead group.

CramCycle

Crocked wrote: »

Do the Critty Critty Bang Bang on Tuesday evening. It's on the crit course with mixed cats, so just hang onto the A lads should get you over the limit. It can be hard to get upgraded if you are on the cusp and racing in a one cat race as you won't generally have to go over cat limits to stay with the lead group.

Club league on Tuesday evening so alas it won't happen. Don't worry though, I am not trying to stay in with the lead group, I am trying to burn them off. Sometimes I can, sometimes I can't. I did like the way sprint CI races were mixed as it made you work harder but they seem to have gone the way of the longer races and have split the groups up now.

Encrypted Pigeon

Hey all, I am just after joining zwift and so far finding it really motivating. I have a question about selecting routes as it is bugging the hell out of me how I am meant to get it to work. If I select a map then a route with x km and x m climbs I want to try and free ride (as in at my own tempo), I hit back and then "Ride". However I just seem to be thrown on to the map, I don't see nothing on my map, no directions, no start/finish, km left or anything, am I missing something? Thanks.

EDIT:

To answer my own question, it seems you just select the route and ride it without any manual direction changes, I hit a banner towards the end and got a badge . Pity they couldn't make it a little more intuitive, like km to go on the interface. Maybe that feature will come down the road.

Ride on!

dahat

Anyone to join the weekly CramCycle vs Dahat CI sprint race tonight?

JimmiesRustled

dahat wrote: »

Anyone to join the weekly CramCycle vs Dahat CI sprint race tonight?

You not in A yet? :P

dahat

JimmiesRustled wrote: »

You not in A yet? :P

I've been exposed as a B racer only last few weeks!

CramCycle

looks like tonight will be a proper flat FTP test. I done this course on Tuesday with my club league. There is one bump that is about 300m. Depending on how others attack it, you might need to power over it. The first 2 times people sprinted over it, the last two times they just paced up it and I flew off the front by digging deep for about 30seconds. You carry a bit of momentum from the slight descent beforehand so don't rest as you approach it.

Also the run in takes what felt like ages. Also, there are no rest bits, don't even dream of attempting a super tuck on the one bit where its possible as youll be swarmed and dropped.

Biggest issue tonight is going to be the humidity from commuting today, I'm down a kilo or two and my piss looks like undiluted mi wadi

dahat

Try having 2hrs to do before hand, I'll be like a raisin come race time. As always these races are a bonus so let's see what happens.

The course looks fine & should be fun, 300m dig is fine, no probs getting back on if needs be.

Macy0161

Encrypted Pigeon wrote: »

Pity they couldn't make it a little more intuitive, like km to go on the interface. Maybe that feature will come down the road.

I doubt it to be honest, as I'd often select a route I've completed, and then not follow it or complete it and do extra at the end. There's whole "rebel routes" as well.

If you're hunting badges, always worth checking zwift insider for the "lead in". I've been caught a few times on that - Innsbruck which is a guest world tomorrow is a particular bugger for this - Lutscher it's nearly 11km lead in, and you have to do the climb twice to complete the route!

Zwifthub lets you (manually) track your routes, and gives the link to zwift insider for each route.

CramCycle

dahat wrote: »

Try having 2hrs to do before hand, I'll be like a raisin come race time. As always these races are a bonus so let's see what happens.

The course looks fine & should be fun, 300m dig is fine, no probs getting back on if needs be.

I was too lacking on water and air, humidity was so high the fan done nothing except cook me like a rotisserie chicken. I hung in the top 10 for most of it but after that last dig up the hill I struggled to hold 12th. A load of riders went early which was the error O made on Tuesday. Opened up, half arsedly, at 250m to go and it was probably 250m too late. Clawed back 6 places but alas not even close to enough. Where did you place?

dahat

CramCycle wrote: »

I was too lacking on water and air, humidity was so high the fan done nothing except cook me like a rotisserie chicken. I hung in the top 10 for most of it but after that last dig up the hill I struggled to hold 12th. A load of riders went early which was the error O made on Tuesday. Opened up, half arsedly, at 250m to go and it was probably 250m too late. Clawed back 6 places but alas not even close to enough. Where did you place?

Ah 10th I think, went too early & had a few on my wheel but had no legs even if I waited. You flew past me in the gallop, fair play. I gave alot on the last dig so that was me done there.

Think I need a ice batch after that now!!!

Seems I may have been wrong on the A race being slower,not sure.

CramCycle

I thought you were ahead of me to be honest, I'd seen you tear off where the road went red And your right we were close to a minute faster with higher average power throughout the Bs

dahat

I was surprised at the amount of Irish lads there there, I was hoping for a soft race.a

Next week I might reverse the days training to see if I can grab another win.

CramCycle

Congratulations on the win dahat, couldn't get on in time myself.

dahat

CramCycle wrote: »

Congratulations on the win dahat, couldn't get on in time myself.

Thanks.

You'd have done well here too, a pity.

It was a steady enough race with two off up the road early for the KOM & sprint. The gap went out to 2mins plus at one point but with that descent and a reasonable group both were picked up eventually with the last remaining guy caught at the bottom of the descent which would have sickened me if I was away that long.

Once I was there off the climb I was confident of getting a decent result. I even resisted the temptation to go early for once. When the sprint started I left a pair get a few yards to have a target, head down & went 200 out. Initially I thought I didn't win but even Zwift listed me as the B winner ,happy days.

All I need now is a road race for some juniors to destroy my confidence.

buffalo

Weepsie wrote: »

Ye should all give RGCycling a go. It's a bit more rooted in realism.

No boosts, it will slow you down on a corner and reduced power no matter what your putting out, drafting kinda works well..

It has a limited user base, but could easily organise a private race on it if people wanted. (Even on a virtual local route)

Orwell are running the men's Stephen Roche GP on RGT tonight, if anyone fancies a race that requires a bit more nuance than Zwift. The women's race is on Zwift.



https://www.orwellwheelers.org/events/stephen-roche-gp/1336-virtual-stephen-roche-gp-2020

eeeee

Why aren't both the women's and men's races on RGT or Zwift?