I'm carrying 2kg extra, my HR is a bit high, and my mental game is off too. All that said, even with form I don't know how long I could have held on. The pace was 49kph with nowhere to rest. I've punished my legs with some Lactate Shuttling 😆

Hi Eric, good to hear from you. Welcome back.

Cheers, Lee. I had a fun workout in the end and more time at VO2Max than usual. I think on ZP I was actually 14th so got that wrong in the commentary.

Thanks, Mark. Yep the HR was a bit better than expected, maybe 10 bpm higher than normal. I was supposed to have some cam footage too so you could see the pain, but hadn't actually pressed record. Even though I didn't hold the first two groups I was quite please with my 60 min power. Plus, I got a good amount of time at VO2Max.

Thanks Thomas, the legs were ok. It was more of a mental thing, I was regretting not going deep enough into the climb, and then surrendered. I needed that recovery time to regather and find a new purpose. Once found, It was fun chasing and hopefully has worked as a good primer. We almost chased them down, but I ended up without the group so backed off, then after pulling us back for a second time, I decided I had done all I wanted to.

😮 Thanks for sharing the link! 👍🤗

Happy to help, James. This one was a memorable race - they don't all go like that. I've got plenty of what not do do's as well. Feel free to pop into our discord group for Zwift related chat. You'll find plenty of help on your goal of reaching 500, the link's on ZwiftyZwifters YT page.

I think they had connection issues going on, they kept disappearing.

I was in HCT last year when Kaboom didn't have a team entered. Also because I do club ladder, I tend to keep HCT in my name more than Kaboom. But I'm in both teams. I would ride ZRL with both, but were in the same division and time slot😆

@ yea that’s what made me ask as see your top of the league, 👍🏻

thanks Marco. I agree with all of that. Mistake's were definitely made. Going over the crest, I thought it might come back together so kept the anvil and ended up self sabotaging. I didn't realises we were so quick up the KOM though. That's great, I also got a 15min PR

oh and losing even 1-3 kgs I notice a difference in speed.

@@pasqualified Yep, taking about flat routes with a few bumps here and there. e.g. Watopia Flat route. When climbing at speeds below 30kph, gravity becomes the dominant opposing force, power-to-weight ratio in this scenario is important for sustained climbing. Interesting that you notice a speed difference at 1kg. That's the difference between a carrying a full water bottle and riding without one. I was only 3% faster at 10kg lighter. Do you know how much faster you are with that weight difference?

I don't think they do. There is so much focus on wkg and the forums are full of complaints about losing to lower wkg riders (without factoring in absolute power or torque) Stable power is great for an iTT or Hill climb, but what if you need to accelerate. How many riders can produce 100Nm of torque at 80 to 100rpm? But yep, you're absolutely right about climbing. If the road turns up for any sustained duration, then wkg wins out. But caveat, it depends on the length and gradient of the climb. A heavier rider can carry momentum through a short bump.

Absolutely. And that was a 10kg difference between riders. 1 or 2kg is going to be negligible. Just remember, 🍕🍕🍔🍔🍟🍟🌭🌭🌮🌮 won't help you set a PB on the Alp Du Zwift. 😄

@@stevej_on_a_mtb But if someone like me would lose 25kg, from 90 to 65 it would be a little more, but on the flat not worth it. I would probably be flying up those hills though, but thats another story.

@@ptp1969 could you still hold 600 watts for a minute at 65kg. 💪

@stevej_on_a_mtb I have no idea how many watts you lose when dropping weight. But I am afraid I wont be able to ever check. 25kg is a bit much ...

LOL.

it shouldn't really have any impact on wkg. But it might feel different. Let's say you are cycling on a flat gradient at virtual gear 15 (ratio of 3.0) . With a low mechanical gear setup, say 36tx 36t you only have a gear ratio of 1 and the freehub/flywheel rpm is the same as your cadence. The trainer can't make the freehub spin any faster (it has no motor). So to create the feel of gear ratio of 3, the trainer has to compensate by increasing the electromagnetic pulsing, which resists your force and gives you something to push against. Some people describe this as pedalling through mud. Let's say you were in mechanical gear ratio of 50 x 17. You now have a ratio of 3, and the freehub is spinning at 3x cadence. This is what the virtual gear wants you to feel. Therefore the trainer does not need to provide extra magnetic resistance (other than the base level resistance for flat gradient) So it comes down to preference, do you prefer the feel of mechanical resistance or electromagnetic resistance. By the way, if you have vibrations in the larger chainring, you could try replacing it as it might be worn. I replaced mine on a previous bike and it made a big difference.

@@stevej_on_a_mtb wow thanks for the great explanation ive been searching the web for hours now and couldnt even get close to this precise information. I'll take all that into consideration and try it out myself. Very much appreciated!

@@stevej_on_a_mtb god damn ive been searching the web, forums, talking to peeps for hours and couldnt even get close to that precise information that you provided here. Thank you a lot! I will take that into consideration when testing the zwift play the next days. But i got a slight gutfeeling i'll prefer the mechanical-bigger (Louder :( ) option more.

😆Its not watt power, but when. There's a couple of pinch points on that route where I need to produce sustained 30s to 1min anaerobic power at about 160% of FTP. So I made sure to take every opportunity to rest on the downhills and in the draft. 1st person view really helps me judge momentum and the speed of riders around me, if I'm moving too far forward I ease off. I think my normalised power was 312w and I was above VO2max power for 25% of the race.

Yep, its one of the great things about Zwift, that you can casually bump into pros of his calibre and ride along sharing the virtual experience. Although I was likely suffering a little bit more than him on the jungle climbs. I wasn't sure whether I should say hello, but I expect he has messaging turned off anyway.

Thanks Marco, when we grouped up with him I was frantically trying to start the screen recording in case he sprinted.

And that was one heck of a sprint you put in. Nice one.

Thank you kind Sir

I was watching the gap to my team mates behind and encouraging them to get back on, but at the same time I couldn't let you get away. Earlier on, I wasn't sure whether to close the gap or sit in with you and Jesse. In the end I went to close it, but didn't have the stamina which allowed Jesse to counter over the top. Fun but tiring race mentally and physically. 😆

@@stevej_on_a_mtb Yeah, on the last lap I was definitely keeping an eye on that gap and had to spend some energy to not lose too much time. Got pretty close towards the end.

Thanks, looks good. Will try and do a few.

Thanks Thomas, yep that little bump was a now or never moment. Arctic did great. He was just behind me going into the last time up the leg snapper. The pack attacked it hard from the bottom. I was trying to build power, but didn't go orange quick enough. I was closing in on them by the top and was so close to locking on to DFS wheel.

😄thanks, yep wasn't sure about the finish. I started the sprint, then had second thoughts and we were auto-braked on that final corner so I was able to sprint again. More luck than planning.

Damn, you and the green ninja went at it... orange for so long. Amazing!

@@doomguyzwifting we had some recovery time once we were on our own. Although he almost got the jump on me in the cave. With your raw power, you should try giving some of the more rolling courses a go in Cat A.

@@stevej_on_a_mtbyeah I think I should. Problem is, cat A pens are often empty 😢

yep, I got away with that. It was amazing how quickly the speed I dropped when I eased off. It was more out of necessity though.

It certainly made for an entertaining race. was concentrating so much to stay in the draft

Thanks, Alan. Having to concentrate on those attacks whilst also steering to staying in the draft made it surprisingly good fun. I think it helped mask the pain - until the climb.

yep and you can choose your chain line. I'm still using a 9 speed cassette with virtual shifting. It means I can ride indieVelo too

You would think I would be used to it be now, I just didn't have it in me the first time over to keep pedalling.

Thanks Lee, my 5 min power has really come on in the past couple of months.

I think so. 😀 So many times I wanted to drop from the group to stop the pain and it was touch and go through the desert as the As finally broke away. I was able to recover and went for a longer effort. I like camera 3 for judging momentum, but had no idea how close you were until you came roaring past before the finish line.

yep, I did too. One slipped away with the front As early on, but we bought him back at some point.

I hope so, I mentally gave up around that bend thinking we had we had 300m more climbing to come and I might be able to recover enough to power through the banner. If I had taken note that the road dipped down to -4% around that corner I think I would have found the watts to stay attached,

it certainly cost me some places. I was able to bridge when we got back to the flat and caught some stragglers for 11th, but it was all fairly needless. "Shut up legs" 😆

thanks, a couple of laps too many for me to hold on. Watching it back, it looks like I just needed one more push to stay in the group, but I just couldn't find it.

yeah, hadn't noticed the differential was that big. It could be the updated physics reacting to my gear selection and cadence, I started the sprint mid ~85rpm and wound up to 115rpm. I also had nice draft when I applied the torque

@@stevej_on_a_mtb yeah you definitely had better draft benefit when you accelerated, I was relying on the single wheel in front and a bit far off it

He was using the crest of hills and sprinting hard over the top to pick up speed. But the route is so punchy its not too hard to bring solo riders back on the next small climb.