Lofty Goals, Poachers, and Changes

trplay

Zen MBB Master
The teams have been announced for the team time trials on Thursday night. I must admit it was nice not having to recruit for racers for the first time. Team High Speed Low Drag is coming to the gate with lots of experienced racers this week . Expectations for High Speed are high indeed. The elusive goal is for the first all-recumbent team to make history by qualifying for a Premier League invite as the target.

High Speed's little brother, Team Low Drag is also elevating their goals to move up in the Mocha Division and to pass a team this week. Easier said than done, but lots of scheming in the strategy shack is going on to make this happen.

The Flamingos and Unicorns will continue to impress with recumbent riders Connie and Maria as the only lady recumbent participants in the TTT. Rumors have it that HQ wants to move these two into the High Speed Team to fill out the roster and give this team a boost in performance. If High Speed doesn't reach their goal soon don't be surprised to see them try poach these girls.

Speaking of poaching, Benphyr Knou has vacated the mighty Bees leaving Cruzbikes highest wattage producer Chris Cooper as the only recumbent rider on the team. Don't worry about those Bees though. They are stacked with a powerful and full 8 person squad. Ben has moved over to that "Any Team Poachable" group (ATP) where he will race with team ATP Radon.

Another interesting development this week is Jason Perez and Larry Oslund will race together for the first time ever as they team up on ATP Argon. We are seeing a trend where our faster Cruzbikers are learning the ropes under the Herd umbrella and then moving to the more performance oriented ATP Group. Of course, Jason can't get enough of this racing stuff so after the zone 7 Argon race he will suit up with ATP Oxygen and race in zone 8. This is great experience for our recumbent boys, but just remember guys, one day you're going to get a call to come home.
 
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RojoRacing

Donut Powered Wise-guy
Larry being thrown to the wolves this week, this should be interesting. I’ll have to look at each riders pure watts but I know Craig and I work very well on the front. I for ATP in zone 7 it’ll be which of our Frappe teams can claim bragging rights within ATP. You can bet I’ll be taking it to John and his team.
 

trplay

Zen MBB Master
High Speed 6 Low Drag 11. That is the number of minutes in wait time for each team tomorrow. Low Drag can jump for joy as they'll be plenty of teams in front of them to pass. Team High Speed drew a good start time that is one minute after ATP Beryllium giving them a rabbit to chase. They really shouldn't need a rabbit as they will have split times to gauge their PL target progress by. Other start times of interest:

Flamingos--Connie 5 minutes
Unicorns--Maria 12 minutes (ouch!)
Killer Bees--Chris 3 minutes
ATP Argon--Jason, Larry 11 minutes
ATP Radon- Benphyr 15 minutes (ouch!)
ATP Oxygen--Jason 5 minutes
 

LarryOz

Cruzeum Curator & Sigma Wrangler
Larry being thrown to the wolves this week, this should be interesting. I’ll have to look at each riders pure watts but I know Craig and I work very well on the front. I for ATP in zone 7 it’ll be which of our Frappe teams can claim bragging rights within ATP. You can bet I’ll be taking it to John and his team.
I'm going to bed now so I can be well rested! :rolleyes:
 

trplay

Zen MBB Master
Zone one has finished the TTT race and is leaving some interesting clues on what both High Speed and Low Drag will have to do if they are to reach their goals. This race was run in reverse as the Route a Vitesse (RGV) back on 6 Aug. Eat Dirt Trois , the last PL invite on the Aug 6th list averaged 37.55 kmh on that day using 7 riders. High Speed turned 36.05 kmh with only 4 riders. High Speed was just over two minutes slower than the Dirts on that day. Today Eat Dirt Trois averaged 37.45 with essentially the same 7 person team as they did on 6 August. We will have more times to compare later in the day but This should give High Speed an early indicator that they will have to avg 37-39 kmh to reach their goal tonight.

Low Drag comparisons are not as clear. On the 6th they turned in a time of 32.95 kmh while the Herd of Koalas turned a whooping 35.79 kmh. Today, with a different team the Koalas cruised in much slower with a 32.61 kmh. Low Drags target of 33-34 kmh is looking possible. The after lunch times will give us a clearer picture.
 

RojoRacing

Donut Powered Wise-guy
Tip for the first few miles through the twisty rollers. Blog up and stay tight, don’t try and string out into a proper looking pace line. This will come at the cost of a few riders who would normally be hanging at the rear needing to put out just slightly more recovery watts to stay tight. This will keep those sudden gaps from opening in the turns and forcing riders to surge. Concert through the twisty bit it’s business as usual the rest of the way.
 

trplay

Zen MBB Master
It turns out the guesstimate of averaging 37-39 kmh for High Speed is spot on. With zones 5, 6, 7, and 8 left to go 9 teams are in the books finishing inside this 37-39 speed range. So now we know. Good luck tonight High Speed!
 

benphyr

Guru-me-not
Aug 27 is looking good for recumbents.

Recumbent World Domination teams:
High Speed: 5
Low Drag: 4

Lonely Herd:
Flamingos: 1

And The Poachers (ATP) Racing:
Hydrogen: Jason Perez
Xenon: Larry Oslund, Benphyr
Neon: Clifford Federspiel (and Eric A. Ware's info shows a streamliner)
 

trplay

Zen MBB Master
@benphyr Oh my the Herd is lonely! Although, Chris Cooper is taking a long deserved break. I don't believe he has missed an event in a very long time. The solo Cruzbike Herder almost went to High Speed but it was determined High Speed was fine with the standing roster. Roy was pulled up from Low Drag to boost the High Speeders. His high watt output will pay dividends on this course. I keep expecting High Speed to have that break out race, but it just hasn't happened---YET. It will. Xenon will be another interesting team to watch as you and Larry have similar stats. Hopefully, good recumbent chemistry will have your team punching above its weight class.

Meanwhile, we still holding on to some faith that maybe just one member of the Cruzbike Hermit Chapter will breakdown and come give us some help. A long shot I know, but weirder things have happened.
 

trplay

Zen MBB Master
@Robert Holler Lots of news updates. Ray is sick so will be swapping places with me, meaning High Speed got a little slower but wow they look a lot more handsome now. Zwift HQ is entering a Mocha team called the Zwift rebels in zone 8, so there's another stacked team to beat. High Speed has an 8 minute wait while Low Drag is first team out the gate with a 2 minute wait. We have room for riders in both teams but not much time to get them ready.
 
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