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Done.
Numbers are growing - we are on 8 riders now.
Anyone else? Join A here https://www.zwift.com/events/view/1744993
If you're lurking but not riding this week, it'll help me plan teams if you say so...
Done. Don't mind which team I'm put in.
I've signed up, sorry it's late. Don't mind missing out if there's one full team and no spares.
I did a TdZ ride on there the other day; that's a faaaast course and I'd be tempted to put the heavier, hi-power riders in a group together if folk want a good result.
(I don't consider myself to be one of ^ those - even on my best day I'd have struggled to hold the STW train for the full distance last week. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to ride with a fast group but I alsmost definitely would have to pull the ripcord early - doesn't bother me at all; I worry more about slowing the group than being dropped)
Incidentally, the TdZ ride I did yesterday was using their new drafting/spacing algorithm. I liked it a bit better - felt more like real riding as you couldn't "ghost" through other riders so have to move round them. I think it might have changed the sticky draft too, though instead you'd put your nose into the wind earlier when coming to the front
Was still bloody hard to get back if a gap developed to a group. Actually, possibly worse (I wonder if they've toned down the sort of vaccuum you get behind a group too)
Will be interesting if/when they release it more generally
With no race on a Tuesday and with working from home and it being school half term I am completely thrown this week and thought this morning was race day! Unfortunately it is only Wednesday. The lack of difference between the days seems to have got to me at last
@savoyad I am going to give myself a week off this week, back for the next one though!!If you’re lurking but not riding this week, it’ll help me plan teams if you say so…
12 riders so far - team selection might depend on who else signs up. I'd like to post teams today.
So....LAST CALL for the TTT on Volcano Flat, tomorrow at 7.40pm
Sign up to category A here: https://www.zwift.com/events/view/1744993
? @zilog6128, @mbs, Jack, @nixie, @karnali, @dangeourbrain, @retrorick, @benman (I realise some of you have already said/implied you won't be here but I can't remember who/when etc; I realise I've missed other people who might need a nudge, don't be offended, sign up!)
EDIT zilog i've seen your post now
I'm out this week, normal squad is running. Will be dying in espresso 🤮.
Sorry @savoyad, given the way work is going this week I can't commit so will say no at the moment.
@savoyad not for me this week, tour of sufferlandria instead 7 stages seven days, it's proving hard work. Should be back next week
Teams for tomorrow:
STW
@phil56
@benman
@paino
@munkeymadness
@scaredypants
@rj2dj
@yanboss
MoreSTW
@w00dster
@trolo1234
@slowpuncheur
@robbo1234biking
@drew
@haloric
There is still space in both teams if anyone still wants to sign up. Cat A here: https://www.zwift.com/events/view/1744993
I'll post time delays when I get them, hopefully this evening.
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Here are the details for pulls on MoreSTW tomorrow night. We will be reducing the target to 280-290w as this is a long TT and we will be out there another 10-15mins more than last week. For w00dster and I we will start with 60s pulls but as this is at our FTP we may increase these to 90s as required to cover others or as people tire towards the end.
If we feel good after two laps we will up the target to 300w.
If you arent on the front when you are doing your target pulls dont worry too much as long as you are doing the wattage. If everyone else backs off you will get to the front.
@slowpuncheur - Overtaking monitor again?
@w00dster - do you want to do the pull calling this week?
Course is pretty much flat - 2 areas to watch, coming out of the undersea tunnels and going into the volcano.
Cheers guys - any other suggestions welcome!
Thanks Robbo. Happy to keep eyes peeled. What I learnt last week is that when there are two groups ahead of us, even say 4-5s apart, that is enough space for a quick breather which is far better than trying to blast through both in one effort and be left in bits afterwards.
Even if the first group we pass catch us, we can lose them in the second group as we accelerate (if that makes sense?). We need to conserve enough to guard against the second group hitching onto our wagon. This is where a Mario Kart turtle shell PU would come in handy!
More than happy to leave you to it Robbo, worked well last week.
I’m also happy to do longer pulls or to step in for guys if you need to stay in the pack a bit longer. As there’s a smaller number tomorrow be good to finish as a full group, feel free to yell if you need the pace reducing.
Thanks Robbo. I must say I’m more than slightly relieved at us reducing the target power this week as I was wondering how well I’d cope with the longer distance. Looking forward to it now.
@savoyad I'm having my vaccination at 8.30am tomorrow - I'm assuming that eleven hours later I'll be OK, but I guess there's a possibility I'll be a bit subdued!
That's excellent news @phil56 whatever its impact on the TTT!
Do you know which one you are having? I think the consensus is Pfizer gives you a sore arm, AZ you might feel a bit under the weather. If you can't ride, so be it...
Jack has also signed up yesterday, but is not in the list for some reason.
@Savoyad - I don't know which I'm having, but I'll ask in the morning.
It's a double edged sword - on the one hand I'm glad to be getting the vaccination, but the other hand I don't like being in the age group that qualifies for this second wave!!!
@haloric that's strange as I thought I saw Jack yesterday but when I just checked I cant see his name in the entrants list.
Great @haloric. He'll ride with MoreSTW. I'll post updated teams with those time delays.
(I still can't see him on the app or the WTRL site or zwiftpower though.)
Ill update the pull list but he will slot in after w00dster and before you for 30 second pulls.
Just literally got a phone call from the surgery asking if we were free this afternoon and if so would we like to come and have our jabs. Is the Pope a catholic, do bears s##t in the woods etc. etc.
@wOOdster missed your post while I was writing mine(it takes me a while). Cheers for the kind offer, may take you up on that at some point.
OK, updated teams / start delays:
STW - delay 11.5 minutes
@phil56
@benman
@paino
@munkeymadness
@scaredypants
@rj2dj
@yanboss
MoreSTW - delay +5 minutes
@w00dster
@trolo1234
@slowpuncheur
@robbo1234biking
@drew
Jack
@haloric
I think everyone's tags are already set.
<reads list>
Just to reiterate what I said before, as I'm the weakest on there by some margin I think:
Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to ride with a fast group but I alsmost definitely would have to pull the ripcord early – doesn’t bother me at all; I worry more about slowing the group than being dropped
The workout will do me good and I think I am improving after my second-wave laziness due to busy work stuff but still not up to an hour of this.
Phil, please cajole all you like but please all remember, I do not want anyone waiting for me when I drop off
Did a ride of the loop tonight, and I was surprised that for a flat course there were some surprise little ramps. Not enough to cause huge problems, but enough that both groups will want to remain vigilant through them, and perhaps a little flexible depending on who ends up on the front. I think I briefly saw 8% at one point!
At least 11.5 minutes delay might be enough to remain vaguely warm!
Jack and I just did two laps tonight on a TDZ catchup ride.
Can't say I'm looking forward to 3 laps.
haloric, those catchup rides (I believe all of them) have that new drafting algorithm and I think that makes the ride a bit harder and slower as a result. Will still be a long long grind tomorrow though, even with the "old" draft
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Updated pull list for MoreSTW including Jack. I have it printed ready for tonight anyway
Ok - if there's space I'm available and have just entered this evening's race.
Hi @mbs - yes there's a space in MoreSTW. @robbo1234biking will update his planning to fit you in.
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Updated pull information @mbs 60s pulls at 280-290w. Will go through it all in the pen before hand
Everything looks set to me.
It's loooooooong. Don't go out too hot.
The trickiest sections (I think: tunnel exit, switchbacks, volcano ramp) wouldn't get any attention in another week. But they do get tougher to ride as a team as you all get tireder!
A rider from my CX league is big on DS for Zwift - there are some notes on this weeks course on his website. Doesn't tell you much you don't know but it might be useful for you budding DS'ers.
For a flat course that was bloody hard work. I’ll look at the power data later but ZP has me averaging 302W and Strava thinks it was higher than average effort...my legs agree with Strava. After a pretty dubious start we motored along nicely with some great pulls by everyone. Fantastic overtakes too. I think it was probably all the passes which killed me! Great work by @Scaredypants too, didn’t think you actually wanted to draft given you kept disappearing off the front!
What happened to Martin? Was he being a naughty boy?
Well, the curse of the TTT strikes again "Your estimated FTP has increased by *tadaaa* ... 1w "
I suppose they all count and hardly surprising after towing you lazy losers round for an hour (sadly I can't find a "bollocks" emoji, so you'll have to imagine it)
Believe me paino, none of my fleeting moments on the front were intended !
Weird night again in terms of my setup - had LOADS of lag periodically throughout the night but it wasn't even constant. Worst was when you lot blew rigth past me after my false start* ; I was doing 400-500W as soon as Phil said "pedal" and nothing at all was happening to my avatar for ages - literally 10 seconds before speed picked up
*yeah, my false start - again. I was just about to get back on the bike when my avatar shot off in pursuit of some other lone rider on-screen. This time I saw it happen: display showed me at 2000 Whaaaats! I have never, ever been above 1200 and that was when I first started on zwift and was doing sprints from fresh to get some badges 🙄
Every now & then all your names disappeared from the list on my screen but I could still see you and I looked like I was right in the bunch - then sometimes Phil'd say "close the gap" when I thought i was right in there. Think I need to read up on that setup article about ports or whatever (my connection is good generally and did a speedtest straight after which was absolutely flying and low "ping")
Anyway - massive thanks to everyone in the group for (I'm sure) holding up for me. Honest, I'd have been happy to drop off. Legs are already sore; not looking forward to tomorrow
Phil - hope you're still OK after yr jab. You sounded like you weren't even breathing on the mic so I assume all was well
Beer
Bed
For a 'flat' course that is surprisingly hard work! By the end of lap two I'd given up trying to pull and resorted to clinging on.
Qapla'!?
I think it went well for MoreSTW. We did 3 or 4 overtakes that went really cleanly and I dont believe anyone overtook us! That was a tough course though - the last lap seemed pretty long! Turns seemed to work well again - a couple of tricky places but think we dealt with them well.
Nest week we are in New York. Will be even more challenging as it is quite an undulating course!
Well done guys 🙂
Another enjoyable ride. Really good to finish as a squad. Again looking at my power record i spike on the descents. Think I need to concentrate more as small gaps appear and its an effort to stay attached. Was it the new drafting mode last night? If so I liked it although did a few times get stuck behind even when generating >4w/kg and had to sprint to break past. Looked a good ride by more stw. Stw = 52.13, morestw =55.49.
Sounds like both teams did well again - it was pleasing on such a long course to get everyone to the finish together. Big shout out to @scaredypants for digging in when it would have been much easier pull the rip cord - well done mate and thanks for sticking with us. I'm not surprised you were feeling it afterwards @paino - you were really strong on the front last night, big efforts just when we needed them.
Another great effort from everyone #starttogetherfinishtogether
We lost Martin who had some sort of battery issues but was good to see Haloric at the finish line last night.
Cheers Phil - you made it sound so convincing - "2 more kilometres ... and then we've only got 10 to go" (I clearly wasn't thinking straight at that point !)
Munkey, I don't think it was the new draft unless they've altered it again already - main difference seemed to be it keeps rides apart laterally, so you can't really ride "through" someone any more. I think that was still happening last night
Not as sore as expected this morning. Perhaps I'll just man up next time 🤐
I think they're still tweaking the draft maybe, got a little bit ghosting last night but we noticed a couple of weeks back that we were being spread across the road more quickly if we got too tight.
For a relatively flat course that last lap was a long one!
MoreSTW beat us (BRT Jupiter) by 5 seconds, damn you. But hey you were running 4 Bs this week to our 3 so we were only Latte.
Hard work again but very rewarding. Legs felt very tired at the end but don’t feel too bad this morning. Thanks for organising us Rob and to the rest of the team. Next week does look tough, 35km long with 420m of climbing thrown in for good measure.
I did bail briefly but managed to man up enough to get back on, but was on my limit most of the way. Fortunately none of the rises were very long, so didn't lose contact there.
Still struggle to hit the front at the right time - get nicely in position at 2nd wheel with 10 secs to go and then get swamped and struggle to pull through smoothly, requiring a lot of burst effort that then causes the on-the-front-effort to fade too soon.
Both Jack and I were broken at the end, but don't feel to sore today, so general fitness might be improving.
Can’t get postimage to display the icu data clearly...ah well. Didn’t realise both teams were Frappe, fair play to MoreSTW that was a cracking time for an ‘almost latte’ team!
Ant, try staying nearer the back, so when it’s your turn to go to the front you only need a smaller increase in power, use the draft effect to slingshot you to the front.
I find it harder going from second wheel to the front, need to put in a bigger dig from there to get past the front man, but from the rear it’s a more gradual increase closer to the amount you want to sustain.
I enjoyed last nights ride. I tried to stay mid pack/rear of the pack, when gaps appear I try and get in the middle and bring things back together.
On one of the climbs was at the back making sure we all got up, this was fairly on so everyone was fresh....I wasn’t paying enough attention as I got gapped, had to put in a 30s effort of about 350 watts to get back on.
Also noticed Tom was in front of Drew, a small gap appeared and Drew was smashing it at 4 w/kg to bridge the gap, then it was his turn to get on the front!! Felt for you then Drew!
Another strange one, myself and Robbo were at the back of the group just coming into the tunnels (2nd lap I think). It was Robbo’s minute at the front, we were both going in excess of 300 watts but couldn’t get through the group, was a bit weird! Either everyone else increased their power at that time or some weird
oddity of the Zwift physics.
Yeah, we saw you doing that tactic, it did seem as if you can shoot too far off the front and leave a gap, but with the right amount of practice that seems more viable than what I was struggling with.
I would like to try the 'sink and sprint' technique on one event, where you are in a fixed per-determined line, and drop right off the front at the end of your turn quickly, and sprint back on to the back. If you overshoot the back, and end up somewhere in the line, thats your new position in the line, and you stay there.
I imagine its quite hard to do, and requires everyone is able to hold their spot in the line, keep an appropriate gap, and not overtake, which also requires a comfort level that I don't generally feel.
I think if you were not trying to set a record time and ran it at comfort level we could all handle, it could be quite a thing. I imagine you need a flat course to practice on.
The 'problem' I have is trusting that the rest of the team is not going to get away without me by accident, so I end up putting in more power to be in the middle of the bunch, rather than stretching the line out and taking a breather.
It was Robbo’s minute at the front, we were both going in excess of 300 watts but couldn’t get through the group, was a bit weird! Either everyone else increased their power at that time or some weird oddity of the Zwift physics.
Yeh I noticed that too. I try not to worry too much and just keep to the pace if I can. I figure it is a zwift oddity as long as everyone else around me isn't trying to hard I hope the overall group effort works!
I’d forgotten about that wOOdster. I may have been muttering under my ever diminishing breath at that point 🙂
Either my turbo likes the warmer weather or the pace was a bit slower this week. Managed to rest in the pack and put some pulls in on the front. Just as painful at the end! I have no idea how you lot can all speak at after the finish
I've entered two teams for this week's TTT at 7.40pm on Thursday.
3 laps of Astoria Line 8 in NYC, 34.9 lumpy kilometres. This course is a tough test of teamwork. We've done it a couple of times before - including, iirc, our first ever STW TTT outing.
Enter category A here: https://www.zwift.com/events/view/1793937
I'll get teams sorted by the end of Wednesday if I can.
BUMP.
Just 5 riders so far. Welcome to any readers who followed the link from the race thread. Anyone is welcome to join us. There's loads of info earlier in this thread, but just sign up and I'll post all the necessary info again ahead of Thursday. Basically Thursday, 7.40pm, mixed ability teams.
Enter category A here: https://www.zwift.com/events/view/1793937
(the categories are used differently here; we all enter A together regardless of our category in a normal race).
@savoyad I'm hesitant this week as I've developed a bit of a niggle in my knee so might take a week out. Near constant effort in a TT might not be wise. I'll confirm in the morning but if slots are full by then, so be it. Don't keep it open for me.
Hi Savoyad,
I've been talked into signing up so I'm in for this week. Username Taylor Third.
Cheers
great @speedstar. I see you. I'll allocate teams later today (hopefully!) and post all the required info then.
Awesome thanks!
If numbers don’t add up for the two team option I wouldn’t be too disappointed taking a sabbatical.
Have entered but really not feeling it today.
Will bump Jack and @mbs
If the numbers are low and there is one good team, happy to sit out.
We're on 8 signed up (maybe 10 with @mbs and Jack). Any further takers?
There's a queue to sit out if we get an awkward amount (!) but two teams still seems doable to me...
Cat A here: https://www.zwift.com/events/view/1793937
I can’t ride tomorrow night now I am afraid. My wife is volunteering at the vaccine centre and got given a afternoon/late shift and isn’t due to finish until 20.30. Although I can ride in theory as my son will be in bed having to use discord means I can’t hear him if he needs something and it isn’t fair on you guys for me to drop out of my son needs a drink or something! Hopefully back again next week.
I’m sorry but I’m going having to give this a miss this evening which is a shame as it looked like the numbers were picking up. I’ve woken up with a sore and stiff lower back after doing some work at my son’s house and it definitely doesn’t feel like I’m going to be able to work it off at this point.
Hi - I've signed up for this evening's race.
Entry lists are inconsistent! @munkeymadness are you planning to ride?
We're on 7, 8 or 9 depending which list is right...
Sorry, I should be showing on Zwift event list now.
I’ll put my name down @savoyad if needed to boost the numbers up.
Ain’t done the TTT for a while, as my fitness isn’t up there at the mo, dropped to a CatC.
I'm a bit confused because lists on wtrl and zwift don't match. Let's assume the game itself knows the truth. @giggsmaster you've missed the boat this week I think. Sorry, I don't like doing that.
Anyway just one, full, team. Ride as...
MoreSTW, start delay +2 minutes, so in the pen by 19:40 and off at 19:42
@paino - change your tag
@mbs
@haloric
Jack
@phil56 - change your tag; it's @speedstar's first TTT
@scaredypants - change your tag
@speedstar - add a tag, see below! ask questions if you have them.
@slowpuncheur
- you need to append your team name in brackets to your zwiftpower rider name. Go here https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=1793937 then settings top right, then for My Name put your rider name with (MoreSTW) on the end. e.g. "savoyad (MoreSTW)" no quotes. This changes it for this ride only. No need to change elsewhere like zwift itself.
- make sure you join the event by 19:40
- wear the bumblebee jersey and ride a road bike (NOT a MTB tuesday people! and NOT a TTT bike.)
- the start is a bodge. When it says GO, you MUST NOT GO. In fact, you must be stationary (zero watts) on go, so stop pedalling in advance if necessary. Then sit tight for the teams allocated start delay, which is two minutes this week. THEN you can go, all together. Don't be fooled by people who go on go, or teams who go earlier than your departure time. Wait 2 minutes. There will be a countdown on...
- discord is used for comms. join the STW server here https://discord.gg/K5ynw4J9 and you'll see the TTT team voice channel over on the left. It is a lot more likely to go smoothly if you use it...
- I'm sending you out as MoreSTW because that team has the shorter start delay
This course is difficult. There's no routine, no rhythm, no memorable terrain, no way to stay off the front when the course decides it's your turn etc. It's just lumps, forever. Try and have fun!
Sorry about formatting. I didn't mean to do that. I'm not going to try and fix it!
No worries @savoyad, I’d probably be hanging on the back anyway.
At least it means I can get on Zwift early and not have restless legs in bed. 👍🏼
@savoyad - just to be clear we'll use the MoreSTW discord channel - is that correct?
Yes. Better to make a choice. That can be the choice: MoreSTW TTT discord channel.
Good luck guys!
Lol should be interesting! Any ground rules to be aware of eg time at front etc?
Phil will look after you @speedstar main thing for your first one is getting used to working in the group and staying together etc. Don't worry too much about trying to do pulls on the front at least for the first half. Once you feel more comfortable you can push if you want but the course lends itself to working as a blob in any case.