The Champions

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They did it. After months and months of being close, the mighty High Speed recumbent virtual racing team swarmed into the Mocha top ten with a scorching time of 1:11:32 earning the elusive Platinum Invite they have been chasing for so long. How big a deal is this? Big! We will go over this but first, let's cover last night's other recumbent racers.

Low Drag's race report will follow but they hit their marks over a rocky road.

If you recall last week Liz Kufer's first race ended with technical difficulties. Not this week! Elizabeth Kufer and her recumbent rocked the women's Flamingo team leading them across the line with a time of 1:19:22.

In the Frappe Division Benphyr is back in form as he finished 2nd in his 8 person ATP Xenon team at 1:01:41. How fast is that over a hilly 42.8 km course? Fast, 41.6 kmh fast. Cliff was 19 places back with Frappe team ATP Neon with another fast time of 1:02:23. The 204 team Frappe Division is tough with the top team turning in a 57:07. Chris and Larry were idle this week.

So back to the highlight storyline of the year. High Speed finished tenth becoming the first recumbent Team to ever receive a Platinum invite in any WTRL Division evaaah! Think that's easy? Go ahead form a team and show us what you can do. Major props to Ray Torrey, Rob Lloyd, Robert Holler, Ed 72, Ken H., Connie, Jay Lee, and Captain Josh B. who made recumbent history last night. Others may follow but Cruzbike's High Speed will always hold the title that says "First to do it." A mighty fine title to hold.

What next now that they have reached the mountain top? Expect to see growth in the TTT Recumbent teams. High Speed is likely to split, Half to move into the Latte Division where they will be joined by some of their Frappe brothers moving down to shore up the team. The other half will form another top level Mocha team with Low Drag continuing as our developmental squad. Negotiations are already in the works. Extensions are being offered and salaries are being doubled. It is a great time to be in Recumbentland.

We have room for you. Come join us or simply miss out on the most fun in bicycle training there is to offer



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Note: Only two teams that were not already PL teams were able to break into the top ten, High Speed and DIRTy Wattz 5.

 

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Straight from The Low Draggers basement

Give me your slow, tired, weary; those huddled racers yearning to be fast sayeth the Low Draggers. From the bottom, we began, but on the bottom no longer. Last Night low Drag tackled one of the toughest courses on the TTT circuit and we are still alive to race another day. We continue to rise finishing #571 out of 594 teams. We had a plan until we didn't. We knew what to do until we were surrounded by three other teams trying to pass and became hopelessly discombobulated. These minor issues of course lay primarily on the Captain which was I. Had the normal Low Drag Captain, Roy been here to steer the ship I'm certain it would have sailed smoother. See you next week Roy, no excuses.

For you foolish readers who think this is an easy task let me assure you it is not. The TTT is such a good workout people often overlook how much fun it is trying to work as a team and the challenges that go with it.

The first hint that I had no control was at the start gate when two, not one, but two Low Draggers crossed the gate drop prematurely. No sweat lots of hollering over Discord managed to stop them before they crossed the more important start timeline. We were soon off and ready to start our team rotations. As most know, team speed is the most important ingredient to a good team time trial. This is achieved by short pulls by the team members. However, there are perils to this technique. Do it wrong and you have members getting caught in the sticky draft both ways and requiring more energy than one saves. We tried and need more work but we did have some success. David, Matt, Bob, Greg, and first timer Jeff all pulled like tug boats. Our climbing technique worked well as fast climbers dropped back to help those who aren't while the medium climbers set the pace. The slower climbers meanwhile took it up to over threshold as verified by some impressive heart rates. Yes, I sneak peeks at them. This is good as it means we are improving and another warning for # 570 to watch out we are coming for you. The rollers were another challenge. If you’re coordinated as a team you’ll accelerate on the downhill and let the momentum carry you up the next. If your team is not coordinated and together at the start the momentum delta between heavier and lighter riders will split you apart! It sounds simple to you guys on the sofa but it requires real-time practice to get it right. On the first lap, we got lost as several teams were intermingled right at the start of the rollers. The second lap we hit it pretty well but boy was Discord buzzing on that first go-round!

We had 8 split times and hit them all within 30 seconds. Amazingly we hit kilometer 38 at precisely our target time finishing the race 5 seconds faster than our prediction. Pretty good for a bunch of grumps. Just how high can we fly? Come join us next week and find out.

Low Drag roster of honor

 

[benphyr]

Way to go!
No slouches on those two-wheel couches.

 

[Robert Holler]

Epic!!!!

 

[ccf]

Kudos to High Speed and Low Drag!

 

[ed72]

Pretty exciting stuff. Especially the start......I was pedaling like mad and going nowhere. I felt awful to hold everyone up. I still don't understand what happened. My son thinks it might have been a wifi drop out. Great race everyone!!!

 

[Pollock]

High Speed Race Report

WTRL stayed with the recent theme of racing in Watopia by pitting everyone against the Sand and Sequoia course. For those not aware, this course is over near the desert section and takes you through a number of climbs and rollers that are bound to break teams apart if they are not paying attention.

The all recumbent team High Speed came to the starting pen with one goal; race fast enough to get a Platinum League invite. The PL is an invite only zone where WTRL tries to bring the 10 fastest teams from every division to the same course. Zwift Community Live then broadcasts the race and covers two of the divisions each week.

With a full complement of riders, team High Speed set out with a goal of finishing under 1hr 12 minutes and hopefully closer to 1hr 11 minutes. So far, this team has never been able to arrive at the starting pen with a full set of eight riders, but this week Team Director 2 Team Moose pulled in everyone he found find. This set our starting eight riders as Ed (high wattage), Ray (excellent climber), 1 Team Moose (everyone’s favourite Moose and an excellent climber), a trio of great all arounders in Rob H, Rob L and Ken, a new comers to High Speed on loan from Low Drag in Jay (look for him to try and stay in High Speed, he’s there) and finally the boat anchor of a captain Josh.

In order to compete with the PL teams, the team was well aware that we needed a plan. No idea why, but they asked Captain Josh what that plan should be. The course breaks into two main sections; there is the flat areas in the desert and the climbing through the hills and both need different strategies. Through the desert, the team goal was to work on trading pulls up front to keep the speed high and everyone as fresh as possible. This would be done by having Josh keep track of the time and try to get people to come up to the front on time. The hills require a completely different strategy though. For this section, the goal was to have our climbers support those that are struggling to climb (did I mention we have a boat anchor?) by staying in front of the and providing that little bit of a draft that we can get. The rollers right after the KOM require communication and team work to not stretch the team over the top of a roller and then *snap* the team apart.

After a leisurely 10 minutes wait, team High Speed took off from the gate. After about 10 seconds, we realized we are missing someone. Our mule for the course, Ed, is still in the pens! Apparently his trainer/power meter went to sleep in the 10 minute wait causing him to fall behind. The team started to stretch out to give the cover of draft as Ed caught up to us. A slower than expected start, but now everyone is together!

Lap 1, phase 1. Josh started to call out the time and the racers started to take pulls on the front. Most of the team took 30 seconds pulls while those that had the power (umm, Ed) took 60 second pulls. The desert is always a challenge for the lighter climbers as while they have a great w/kg ratio, their top end power is usually lower and that is what dominates the team speed on the flats. Everyone seemed to have a chance to pull the team out front and warm up. The team quickly came up the little town across the desert. The team goal was around 16 minutes at the 10km mark and we hit it at 16:31. A little behind pace, but that can be attributed to our start.

Lap 1, phase 2. The team is coming up into the first climbs. The call goes out to have the climbers come stay back and help anyone that needs it. The first climb out of the desert the team attacks without any issue. This leads straight into a series of rollers that keep increasing in height and again, the team holds through. Finally the hard part is upon us and we start the climb on the KOM. No one is quite sure why, but our team captain and boat anchor Josh is suddenly 2 seconds back; he doesn’t have the power to keep up with what this team is doing! Knowing that if the other 7 wait for him, the team will just bleed time on the climb, Josh sends them forward. Several pulls through the desert and keeping a watchful eye on team splits from the team car will be his day. The team then continued up the KOM and set a blistering pace of around 6:12 up the KOM on lap one. Everyone was able to hold on through the rollers just after the KOM and the team was back in the desert.

As an aside, I don’t recall where the 20km mark was, it was probably in the rollers after the KOM. The team goal for the 20km mark was 34min. The team made up 32 seconds since the 10km mark and finished 20km in 33:59; how’s that for keeping on pace?!

Lap 2. Yes, no phases for lap 2. As the team hit the finishing banner to complete lap 1, Jay was starting to struggle and mentioned it to the team. The pulls up front continued to be quick but were just a bit lower than before. The pull rotation was mostly abandoned as well. With the team captain in the team car, he kept an eye on Jay and called out every time he started to just barely drop off the back; Jay was determined to hold on as long as possible and Josh was going to make sure it happened. As the team reached the other side of the desert and the 30km mark, they were on pace! The goal for 30km was 50min and the team hit it at 50:08.

As we approached the climb out of the desert, it was evident that Jay was done for the night. He slowly drifted off the back of the group and the remaining 6 charged up the hill. From the team car, Josh recommended that the team form around one of the all around riders and used Rob L for this. If Rob L could set the pace, everyone else should be able to climb right around that pace as well. This worked for the climb out of the desert.

The first set of rollers were taken well and quickly the team came up to the KOM climb again. About half way up and the team was beginning to string out just a bit. The team car made sure everyone was aware. With under a quarter of the climb left, Ken and 1 Team Moose were slowly falling back. A call went out to have the leaders slow a bit before the team really cracked. Unfortunately, it appears the wind noise from the team car was causing interference and no one could understand what was being said.

As Ken and 1 Team Moose crested the KOM, it was apparently they were not going to catch the front four. We all waved Ed, Rob H, Rob L and Ray on to go get the best time we could! Through the rollers in the back, Rob H was falling off just a bit. After some encouragement and having the front slow just a fraction, all four riders were back together again.

The last part through the desert was extremely fast with Ed pulling the team. Everyone else was just hanging on. As the team entered the final sprint section, the team car suggested they just keep an even pace and don’t try to sprint. If Ed started to sprint, the team would have fractured and the 4th place riders time would likely have fallen instead as the rest were on the edge now.

So, remember at the top where we had a team goal of under 1:12 and closer to 1:11 so the team has a shot at a PL invite? At the end, the team finished in 10th position with a final time of 1:11:32. Team Director 2 Team Moose was dancing a jig after finding out that this will be the first PL invite to an all recumbent racing team! Even without having our natural advantages in Zwift, this group is proving to the racing world that recumbents can race on any style of course!

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And here it is! Congratulations High Speed.

 

[Pollock]

The like button isn’t enough! Congratulations team!

 

[benphyr]

Awesome write up and amazing teamwork to you all. Congratulations on the PL invite.

 

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High Speed's projected roster for this week is, Capt. Robert Lloyd, Jim, Ed, Rob Holler, Ken, and Jay. There is room for two more. The primary Team objective is to defend the current Platinum Invite Streak. A secondary objective is to "Cat up" the team's current D category racers into the C category in preparations for High Speed's upcoming advancement in the Latte Division.

 

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In case someone missed it.

 

[ed72]

What kind of time will be needed to podium Thursday? Any guesses? I am 100% sure we can do it, forgive me but I want to share my ideas how we might do it after studying the course and each of our power duration profiles to maximum team results.

Zwift models aerodynamics quite differently than in the real world, this is the best relevant data that I could find. Riders 1-4 of the same on the flats would experience 300w, 231w, 205W, 199W with riders 5-8 probably experiencing 195-198W. That is the example given in the link. The draft isn't that great on the flats compared to real world. I can do 290 watts for about 30 minutes straight, just saying that so if I am out there for 2 minutes, don't worry. We should probably be doing at least 280 watts on the flats.

I learned that it is more important in Zwift TTT to keep tight up hills, especially shorter ones taken at speed. Zwift seems more generous with the draft effect on hills compared to real world cycling This means the lower W/Kg racers on the team need to have their legs fresh going into the hills and the higher W/Kg riders need to go hard up the following three hills but not too hard. We all have a critical power level that if we exceed, we begin to "burn matches". Matches are always best burned on hills. Jim makes 3.1W/Kg for 20 minutes and I make 3.0 W/Kg. In my opinion, only he or I should lead the hills and everyone else should be conserving matches leading into them, even meaning takin no pulls or very short ones (10-20 seconds). It is just math. Boring math. Critical Power, W', etc. If we handle these three hills well, we will podium.

There are three hills:

1. Mile 2.3-2.45 right out of tunnel at 2-3%

2. Mile 3.2-4.3 is gentle at 1% until the very top, then it is almost 4% from mile 4.2-4.3. Critical not to bog down at the top.

3. Mile 5.17-5.37 is a fairly steady 4.3% climb with max gradient of 5.5%. This approx. 30 second rise should be ridden very hard by all to keep momentum into small rollers and then downhill to recover towards the start/finish. Jim being strongest should lead.

Mile 0-2.2 is flat or slightly downhill:

Jim: minimum 30 second pulls
Ed: minimum 30 second pulls
Ken: max 20 seconds....save energy for climbs
Robert: max 20 seconds...save energy for climbs
Rob: max 20 seconds....save energy for climbs
Jay and Josh: No pulls, save energy for climbs. Josh save energy to herd us.

Climb 1: Ed or Jim should lead trying to maintain speed but no acceleration

Mile 2.5-3.2 relatively flat
Jim: minimum 30 second pulls
Ed: minimum 30 second pulls
Ken: short pulls....save energy for climbs
Robert: short pulls...save energy for climbs
Rob: short pulls....save energy for climbs
Jay and Josh: No pulls, save energy for climbs

Hill 2 at Mile 3.2-4.3 should be lead by Ed and Jim with Jim taking the hardest final part going over the top because he has the best W/Kg. None of us should be more than 10% over their 20 minute power and preferably closer to 5% over on the first lap. It is essential that Jim and Ed keep the team together up the climb because the speed will be high enough for us all to get a very good draft. Around 3 W/Kg might be a good target for the lead rider with riders 3-7 needing around 2.5-2.7W/Kg. Certainly not much more than that at the front. Josh...big ask....try to keep us together. We need to be a blob.

Mile 4.3-5.17 is very slightly downhill overall. Due to my fat and higher power, gravity dictates that I should lead a bigger part of this section and if others need to recoup, get ready for Hill 3 starting at mile 5.17. This punchy hill is the crux and perhaps the most important part of the course. It is only 900 feet. Getting this hill right can save 10-12 seconds per lap. Coming into mile point 5.17, we will be hauling. Jim should lead us up this hill if possible because he has the highest W/Kg on team. All of us should be going really hard and critical to keep at least 5 riders together with as much momentum as possible. I am personally not fit enough to take this hill at sprint speed three times, guessing it should be more like like a wind up to the sprint. Hard but not full gas. Maybe 4-4.5 W/Kg first time for Jim and the rest of us in the 3.0-3.8 W/Kg holding his wheel for around 30 seconds. I am not sure the exact power levels because we have such different levels and I am not sure of Zwift's model. Faster is better. Coming over the top, there is about 1 km of rollers, so, carrying momentum is important. Then, fast downhill to the start finish returning to sharing rotations similar to first time into the tunnel. No sense to kill ourselves on the downhill, nobody should be much over threshold there. If anyone is really suffering.....consider not taking one or two pulls or take short ones into the start finish and tunnel area because recovery for the the second time up the three hills is important to team performance. Rinse and repeat.

We will PL. Let's shoot for a Podium spot!! I am convinced we can do it but only by a couple seconds. Lot of really smart people here.....comments? TMI?

https://zwiftinsider.com/speed-tests-ttt/

 

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Hmm, Top Ten will take a hard, smart,effort, top five a good stretch goal. Podium you need another strong C and a bunch of sandbagging D's. Your plan works on paper but rolling it out on the tarmac is much harder to execute. A few things to ponder that can get in the way. Pulls are harder to execute than just push harder up and let off to drop back. The sticky draft effect of moving up and back can take more energy than it saves. Twenty-second pulls will have low Drag in a mess of surges and people going everywhere. That takes a well-trained team such as Jasons or our B-boys to pull off. High-Speed experience level regarding virtual pulls respectively falls somewhere above Low Drag but probably falls somewhere below an effective level. It takes practice, practice, practice. Perhaps our B's can join in soon and show us the tricks of the trade. Not saying you can't do it. Just saying it might work against you more than it helps so watch it closely and be prepared to change while in flight.

In the past putting the fast hill climbers in the front simply kills the slow hill climbers in the back and prevents the all-important momentum surge when cresting the hill. The steeper the decline the more important the crest surge. I cry when I see our fast guys crest the hill 2 or three seconds before our tail gun charlie knowing we just lost 15 or so seconds in the next minute.

The bottom line is you guys got this. Whoever put you together was one smart dude! Oh, and we have a recon ride tonight fr those who can make it. @Pollock can hook you up.

 

[Pollock]

For those that want an invite for the recon right tonight, it is at 7:30PM ET. Please make sure you are following me (Josh Bonc) in Zwift. I likely already know your Zwift name, but if it is significantly different, let me know that as well

 

[Robert Holler]

Ahhhhh I would love to recon but will not be able to be there for that again - simply too much going on in the later afternoons for me early in the weeks. :-(

Robert

 

[Pollock]

I had more people respond that Monday worked. I'll keep sending the invite over for the off chance it works. I know that is pretty early in the day for you.

 

[ed72]

Well, HighSpeed was only about 60 seconds from podium last week and that was with a bad start and not fully optimized. With 4 riders having 20 minute power around 240-206 and one rider at 295 W coupled with one rider 3.1 W/Kg.....on a course that is mostly flat with three aforementioned climbs, I think we have a shot at podium with the right strategy. I also think it is a very big challenge to optimize D and C level race team compared to a team with a more homogeneous mix of power levels.

There is a bug or modeling error in the software when it comes to falling off the back during a climb from my observation.

It is essential that riders on back say, "slow" to the lead rider on the climb if they intend to keep pace but just need a little slower pace. OTOH, if a racer is off the back and completely shelled, they should say "out" or I am dropping out. It is also essential on these relatively short climbs to ride them fast and very tight as a group. Once over the third climb, a tight formation will help into the Esses because of the rolling nature of them. And the best way is for the D racers to have the freshest legs possible going to ride the climb hard, even if that means being careful with pulls in the miles leading up.

I am not sure what the sticky draft is. Time delay? Extra power needed to puch thru the lead rider? I found in my first race (Vegan Tofu on the Sands And Sequoia route) that if you fall just a few meters off the back on a climb that there is no possible way to get back on whereas in real life, it would only take a couple of hard pedal strokes. In a similar vein, the power required to climb the KoM hill in a pack during the race was substantially lower than what the physics/math would have dictated; thus, it seems even more critical to not only keep a brisk pace up the hills on TTT but to keep tight and steady.

Thanks for any Zwift tips!!

 

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@RojoRacing I'm all in with your enthusiasm for a podium, I'm probably your number one fan but the teams in your way have the experience advantage. Although that gap is in fact closing each week. Yes, the sticky draft is the extra power needed to get by the guy in front of you. This provides energy sappers for guys moving up and back. So a bunch of guys trying to make the move every 20 seconds could have sticky draft traps up and down your paceline. We discussed this at length on the recon. I've seen Jasons groups do it very well, maybe he will provide some thoughts and tips to help High Speed on Thursday. This course will be one of the easiest we see. Team speed is the most important ingredient for this route.

 

[ed72]

Thanks TRP. I was reading up this morning on the apparent way that Zwift model works on the flats. Reading slowtwitch and some other tri type sites. For instance, a 60kg rider with 180 watts vs 80 kg rider with 240 watts gives the same 3W/Kg. In real life on a TT, the heavier rider would crush the 60 Kg rider but in Zwift apparently, the lighter rider would win the TT. So, I throw into the trash my earlier drivel.