"Winter" - Cruzbike Virtual Time Trial Challenge

[LarryOz]

What is it?

A winter Cruzbike Virtual TT Challenge Series that is created and administered by Larry Oslund.
(Officially approved and with blessing of Cruzbike owners - Yes they will participate!)

It will be 10 weeks long and we will use it to fine tune what will be a longer 26 week Summer TT Series starting first week in April and ending the last week in Sept, just before the Cruzbike Retreat Oct 4-7.

You don’t have to be a good (or fast) rider to win!
Anyone can win! Based on Alvin Maxwell’s summer Time Trial Series, it is designed to give everyone an equal chance to win – male and female, young and old, any bike type, and regardless of rider conditioning. The rider that is the most consistent and improves the most over the course of the series wins. There are also weekly winners so everyone in the series has the chance to win at some point!

What will I need to participate:

• a Strava account (you can create one free)
• You will need either a smartphone to run Strava or a Garmin (or similar data collecting device) that can upload to Strava - most new ones can be setup to auto upload to Strava

If you want to be able to ride indoors, you will need:

• Zwift (costs $15/month)
• SmartTrainer (like Wahoo KICKR, or Tacx Neo) that can link to it.

NOTE: You do not need this to participate in the competition. If you don’t already have this setup, I would not get it just for this Challenge. A decent SmartTrainer will be at least $700. Many of us already have this setup at home for winter training. It is not cheap, but very beneficial for training when you can’t get outside for whatever reason.

How It Works

• Weeks will run Monday - thru Sunday
• Week: 0 will begin on January 14th and will be the setup-week where each rider will define their own 15 mile segment. Ideally it is flat and must be out and back or a loop. Several smaller loops such as (3) 5 mile loops can make your segment. Pick something that does not have stoplights, and only right hand turns if you can. Ride this segment (speed does not matter), and create then your Strava segment. You’ll use it for the entire challenge.
• If you do not know how to create a segment let Larry know - and he can help you do it, or do it for you larryoslund@gmail.com
• Weeks 1- 10: Each rider will ride their 15 mile “segment” as hard as they can each week and submit their results by emailing Larry (larryoslund@gmail.com) their Strava ride link. Results must be submitted by 11:59 pm on Sunday.
• As an alternate for people that cannot ride outside due to weather or travel, a Zwift course has also been selected from the Watopia world. It is 2 laps of the Volcano flat. You must ride the TT bike (so no drafting is counted) and your weight must be actual for the day you ride to be fair. The Strava segment is called: 2Laps-Watopia and is 15.35 miles long. Your Zwift ride should be set to automatically upload to Strava. Note: email larryoslund@gmail.com if you need help to make Watopia world your default world of how to auto sync to Strava.
  

The Nitty Gritty
The first week:
All riders ride their course as hard and fast as they can (No sandbagging!) If you want to use your outdoor and the Zwift course, you should ride both. This will be your initial Personal Best. Each rider will receive 1 point that rides during this 1st week. There will be no weekly winner the first week. The cut-off for submitting your segment each week is Sunday at midnight.

Second through tenth week:
Scoring is based on how many riders are competing. After the cut-off for the week, each rider’s time offset from their Personal Best will be used to determine the places and points for that week. If 20 riders compete, then 1st place gets 20 points, 2nd place 19, etc. If 10 riders, then 10, 9, 8, etc. If there is a tie, the tied riders will get the same number of points.

Anyone joining after the first week will be considered a new rider and receive 1 point after their first ride. If there is more than 1 new rider, they all receive 1 point. If a participant does not ride, then do not get any points. If you ride and get last place, you still get more points that the rider that did not ride at all!

You can ride your segment anytime within the week from Monday at 12:00 am to Sunday at 11:59 pm. We will announce a weekly winner along with the cumulative points for each rider on Tuesday.

You can use either your outdoor Strava Segment or your indoor Zwift Segment on any week. If you set a new Personal Best on either segment your Personal Best on both segments will be adjusted by the same time amount to keep both aligned.

Weekly standings will be posted on this forum.

Who can ride??:
This challenge is primarily for Cruzbike owners, but anyone on any bike can participate. The results however will only be available on the Cruzbike forum.

Please email larryoslund@gmail.com if you are interested in participating.

 

[Pollock]

I might actually see a few more Cruzbikers in Zwift! Don’t forget to turn on Discord if you have it. It might be hard to talk while going full-gas, but you also might get words of encouragement!

I look forward to this. I better set a calendar event to turn it in every Sunday

 

[ccf]

So is the winning strategy to sandbag the first ride?

 

[benphyr]

So is the winning strategy to sandbag the first ride?

Sand bag stackers beware:
There are a fair number of at home analysts in the Tribe, most notable is possibly Larry Oz who is administering this friendly competition.
It would probably be pretty hard to pull the wool over the eyes.
Not to mention the resetting-personal-best criteria make it pretty hard to guess what strategy is going to get you the most points.

I'm hoping the numbers are large enough to make your concern worthwhile but the results confirm the high honourable nature of Cruzbike Tribe members.

May the best sand-bagger get sent to help flooding victims in disaster areas!

Cruz on,
Ben.

p.s. is the Cruzbike emoji working?

 

[LarryOz]

So is the winning strategy to sandbag the first ride?

I hope are kidding, but hard to tell since you did not through up a little smiley or anything!
Sure - You could probably do it (sandbag) and even keep it from me and the group, but you would have to strategically sandbag less and less each week to get good points, and without knowing how others are progressing and improving this would be near impossible.
Plus - Any victory secured by divisive means hurts everyone and the sport (and you can quote me on that)
Best to just train hard, rest as needed, and give it your all each time.
The goal is to have fun and for everyone to get better and faster and continue to enjoy each other!
Nuff said (hopefully)
Larry

 

[LarryOz]

Here is a nice Zwift Insider link that explains how to set your world to Watopia (or any world you want)
https://zwiftinsider.com/world-tag/

 

[ccf]

Yes, kidding. Smiley face didn’t post with text.

 

[ccf]

But kidding aside, what do you think about using average speed divided by average heart rate for the performance metric? Then you could reward those who improve their ratio of speed to effort. Plus it would make it harder for cheaters like me to game the competition.

 

[LarryOz]

But kidding aside, what do you think about using average speed divided by average heart rate for the performance metric? Then you could reward those who improve their ratio of speed to effort. Plus it would make it harder for cheaters like me to game the competition.

That might work, but the true proof of better "fitness" is a better watts/Kg ratio, which would require everyone to have both power and HR for each ride. (This is exactly what Zwift uses to tell your virtual bike how fast it can go based on the terrain you are on)
If you go just by HR, with increased fitness everyone reacts a little differently depending on how they are put together. For a younger person or someone with more heart and blood flow capacity they might be able to do the same effort with less BMP when they increase their fitness level, but others will just lift the "ceiling" of their max HR. For someone like that, a speed/HR ratio would not be fair. HR is also very finicky - I can sit here on my trainer and push close to 200 watts at a really slow RPM listening to some calm music or reading an article and my HR may be at say 130-135 - All I have to do is "think" about competing against someone - and bang - it will go up 15-20bpm. This can also happen outside if you are suddenly scared or fearful, or just plane exited. I don't believe we should use it a metric in a ratio for this challenge
I appreciate the suggestion, but I think that pure time is still the best way. Plus riders do not need power or Heart Rate monitor on live rides, only Strava.

 

[HC203]

Can I use a loop course of 1.25 miles? The only place out of doors close to home that I can ride the Cruzbike, no lights, no traffic. Created a 15 mile segment.

 

[Pollock]

@LarryOz would you mind linking your Watopia Strava segment? I searched for the name you listed, but do not see it on the first few pages of Strava search results.

 

[LarryOz]

Can I use a loop course of 1.25 miles? The only place out of doors close to home that I can ride the Cruzbike, no lights, no traffic. Created a 15 mile segment.

You can use any course you want - just needs to add up to about 15 miles.

 

[LarryOz]

@LarryOz would you mind linking your Watopia Strava segment? I searched for the name you listed, but do not see it on the first few pages of Strava search results.

I am not sure what you are asking me to do: Link my Watopia Stava segment.
For me, the 2laps-Watopia segment was a "hidden segment", which means you need to scroll all the way down to the bottom of all the segments (after you are sure you did a ride that was 2 laps) - There is a button called "Show x Hidden Segments" at the bottom of the list

Click that, and then search for "2laps" - the 2laps-Watopia should show up like this:

(I had screenshots to show you, but for some reason the forum will not let me upload any right now - will try later)

 

[Don1]

i could do a ride in rouvy(or any trainer platform that does a route, gpx file) too if its uploaded to strava?

 

[Pollock]

Thanks Larry. I will try that later this week.

All I was trying to get you to do is post the link to just the segment you set; something like https://www.strava.com/segments/9332059. That way we would have a way to verify if part of our ride matched to it correctly.

 

[RojoRacing]

Pfff piece of cake.

log onto zwift and do two 7 mile loops with the erg mode set to something believable then increase the wattage 2% each week Perfect linear gains.

 

[benphyr]

Believable for you, Jason, would be inconceivable for me - without the 2% increase. That is, and believable for me - no one would believe that you would even beach cruise at my sustainable wattage. We're talking light bulbs wattage, hopefully closer to than to !

 

[RojoRacing]

But that the beauty of what Larry is trying to do, how fast you are outright doesn't mean you'll win. I will admit the stronger riders among us do have the advantage of knowing how to hold their limit better then most.

 

[benphyr]

But that the beauty of what Larry is trying to do, how fast you are outright doesn't mean you'll win. I will admit the stronger riders among us do have the advantage of knowing how to hold their limit better then most.

Gotcha!

 

[LarryOz]

log onto zwift and do two 7 mile loops with the erg mode set to something believable then increase the wattage 2% each week Perfect linear gains.

Great idea Jason - of course a quick look at the data would reveal even that neat hack, cause nobody is that perfect.
In reality the person who is best poised to win something like this comes into the challenge 'totally out of riding shape", i.e there first TT is so bad they are embarrassed to post it. But week by week they train methodically, rest when appropriate and before each TT, stay injury free, slowly improving each week, learning how to go harder when they ride, learning how to meter their effort out, etc.
The other interesting difference between this "blind" challenge of each person trying as hard as they can each week to do better and the real life version (that Alvin Maxwell runs each year in Washington, NC) , is that in Alvin's Challenge, everyone rides live against each other each week. Each person leaving in reverse order of there Personal Best. This way you can see what you actually have to do to get first place that week. The rider that crosses the finish line of the segment first wins that week regardless of their time. It might not even take a Personal Best because all you have to do is catch the lead rider and you score max points. Alvin is a fierce competitor and that is how he is usually able to win the challenge. In a way the blind way forces you to go all out each week because you don't know what anyone is doing.
So @RojoRacing - can we put you down for this winter challenge? From what you say, you might just be that "perfect candidate" !