Zwift - Cruzbike Activities (races and group rides)

[LarryOz]

A busy morning for Cruzbikers . It started off with Larry sticking his toes into the world of Zwift racing in the wbr 25 mile race. He missed the jump out of the gate but we are going to blame Rojo shoe less racing for this. Seems Jason left his shoes at work and was not there to lead Larry out to make the critical hook up at the start. His only task this morning was to guide Larry to the front group and he blew it. It didn't matter, once Larry got the big wheels rolling he held his own displaying his ability to push big watts over long periods of time. It was fun watching Larry come from the back of a pack of ten riders to within a bike length of taking this groups final sprint. Good job today Larry.

haha - Not Jaso's fault. This out of shape "old man" just could not hang with big guys pushing 4-5 wt/kg over the first 1/2 lap. I held about 280 watts for the 1st 5 or 6 minutes, but knew I could not keep that pace for an hour. It was weird, I kind of got stuck in no-man's land. The group I was with was not really working me hard enough at about 230watts, but to just blast off solo would have been pretty painful and I most likely would just had them all draft me the whole way. So, I decide to stay with them and tried to learn how to draft in this game and use the power-ups. It was a learning session for me and still a pretty good hour workout.
The sprint at the end: I did manage to push my HR past 190 with Hardy and Connie cheering me on. I do miss my music though. I will have to figure out a way I can listen to my riding music in one ear and Discord in the other! I will connect with Jason, Jim, Kyle, Jesse and Bob and see if we all can hook up for something over this Thanksgiving weekend for a group ride.

 

[LarryOz]

A quick question. Were you amped up pedaling high wattage just before the start or did you start from a stand still? If it was the latter it explains a few things. Another tip I failed to mention was make sure you get a power up before you enter the pen so you can start with one. Preferably the aero jet. Use it at the jump.

I was spinning at maybe 200-250watts right before the start. Probably should have been a lot more and maybe I could have hooked onto them. I will have to experiment.

 

[RojoRacing]

A group starts are 6-7w/kg for about 20 seconds then drop to 5w/kg for the next 30 seconds then it stabilizes after that at 4w/kg unless someone is trying to breakaway which is super rare. I'm pretty sure I'm at ramp up to 400 watts in the last 3 seconds and I'm always at the front from the start. I knew the starts were fast before I even tried my first race so I went out extra hard to be sure not to get dropped and found myself at the front stretching the group out. When I tried to ease off I quickly fell through the group and almost off the rear to the point I need to sprint back up and then found myself blowing through the group and back off the front. I performed this yo yo tactic for awhile till I gradually leaned the timing of how to stay in the group. Id say by the end of my first race I was able to stay in the group with a steady effort.

Just like real life there are a few other tips and tricks but I'll save those for when we're in a race together.

 

[PeteClark]

Sounds more like a BMX start than a road race start. Are there races with a controlled pace for the first km or so?

 

[RojoRacing]

Sounds more like a BMX start than a road race start. Are there races with a controlled pace for the first km or so?

If by controlled pace you mean always the exact same 400 watts for the first min then yes. This is how every MTB race I've ever done starts, none of this lame holding hands for the first 5 mins to warm up. You warm up before hand and show up ready to race.

It's rather common to go over 1000 watts in the first min of a Mtb race if there's a lot of narrow trails.

 

[PeteClark]

Different situations dictate different tactics. Sprinting off the line to be first onto the single track makes sense. Sprinting to start a road race, not so much. Going all out from the start in Zwift apparently makes sense as the game is currently configured. The paradigm could be altered to make it more like a road race... or not.

 

[RojoRacing]

Different situations dictate different tactics. Sprinting off the line to be first onto the single track makes sense. Sprinting to start a road race, not so much. Going all out from the start in Zwift apparently makes sense as the game is currently configured. The paradigm could be altered to make it more like a road race... or not.

I guarantee if a single team of road races attacked strait out of the gate in a real life race then everyone else would have to follow. Do that enough times and it would become the new normal because people would be in the mindset of attack or be attacked. The beauty of zwift is there are no crashes unless you count your CPU so you can have all out sprint starts unlike real life where it would just create a massive pile up.

 

[RojoRacing]

Jumped on zwift for my first real ride on watopia in several months. I choose the Big Loop route so I could get in a solid climb and still check out the new Jungle loop. It really pisses me off most the preset courses always avoid the radio tower climb, it's no wonder no one rides it if you're always directed away from it. Sorry I didn't send out an invite but I wanted to ride a solid Rojo kind of pace. Ended up starting my loop at almost the same time as a ride name Eddie Bell and as luck would have it he was riding nearly the same pace as me for the first flat miles out. He hung tough all the way up the epic climb and completed the whole 30 miles with me stretching out on the climbs and him taking the DH on his TT bike. It's always more fun when you have someone to ride with especially when they happen to be riding your pace.

After passing the coastal finish line I eased off to cool down and noticed a ride ahead of me named J.Foote. I thought I recognized that last name and such enough it was fellow recumbent ride John Foote rolling on zwift.

 

[ratz]

It really pisses me off most the preset courses always avoid the radio tower climb, it's no wonder no one rides it if you're always directed away from it.

The three sisters was changed to include it recently.

 

[RojoRacing]

They need to update the pretzel to include everything.

 

[Don1]

just to ask a quick question... it appears that the kicker is the better smart trainer compared with products from tacx (flux/neo) due to disc brake combatibilty cruzbike style? is that right... does the hammer get a jersey? i was thinking of a flux or neo but.......???

 

[RojoRacing]

just to ask a quick question... it appears that the kicker is the better smart trainer compared with products from tacx (flux/neo) due to disc brake combatibilty cruzbike style? is that right... does the hammer get a jersey? i was thinking of a flux or neo but.......???

I don't recall the kicker fitting the V20 with disc calipers but then again I wasn't paying attention to Kickr related stuff very much. Buying a kickr over the neo because of the caliper interference would be your choice but not one I'd personally follow. As I've said before if you remove the caliper via the bracket and not the caliper bolts you can avoid having to reset the position of your calipers on the rotor each time, it only add one minute to the process of mounting the bike. You'll have much more trouble getting the damn chain and derailer out of the way as you try and place the bike onto the direct drive trainer. It's like trying to change a front wheel but harder because the wheel weighs 40lbs and it mounted to the floor :lol

 

[RojoRacing]

I'm going to hop on zwift right now and enter a couple races. First the single lap race as a warm up http://zwift.com/events/view/29874 and then the 4 lap race http://zwift.com/events/view/29875 .

 

[super slim]

just to ask a quick question... it appears that the kicker is the better smart trainer compared with products from tacx (flux/neo) due to disc brake combatibilty cruzbike style? is that right... does the hammer get a jersey? i was thinking of a flux or neo but.......???

Ratz has just sold his two Kickers, and bought two Neos, mainly because there are much quieter, but also has a strain gauge power meter that NEVER needs calibrating, and doing spin down tests!
I would go the Neo way.

 

[RojoRacing]

I did skip the second race after Sir Becker decided to welcome me back with half a dozen or so 20 second 10w/kg attacks in a 6 mile race :lol I lost track of how far we had to go and wasn't ready for the finish because I've never done a one lap race and I could have sworn I had just saw 2 mile to go like 1 attack earlier. First race back always leaves a bitter taste but I got it out of the way. For those of you who tried one zwift race and didn't like it, well that's because you have to try hard and yes even I hate the first couple to I find my groove again.

 

[RojoRacing]

I may available to spin around in zwift in a few hours if anyone needs zwift tips or a wheel to suck. Let me know here or on the discord channel if you're interested.

 

[ratz]

I may available to spin around in zwift in a few hours if anyone needs zwift tips or a wheel to suck. Let me know here or on the discord channel if you're interested.

I've got 3x20 at 90%FTP today. So that's about 2.12 w/kg if any one is bored. Was thinking about doing repeats on the kom hill.

 

[ratz]

Ok you zwiftpower.com users. I am starting to get things organized. If you are so inclined , go to join the ZwiftPower.com team "Cruzbike Racing" short name "CBR" since I created the team I can screenshot the steps to join a team. If one of you would like to do that; and post them in the beginners zwift thread.

I'm going to start planning actual Events. Research to be done; but you can expect Climbing Challenges, Group Workouts, and TT/Lap races. Much research to do, but this is the first step

 

[RojoRacing]

I don't do group erg zombie workouts so have fun. For anyone else I'll keep my discord open while I build the DIY for the wheel covers I made today so if you want to ride or race just yell at me over my music.

 

[RojoRacing]

Jason your music sounded more like two tom cats fighting. Any-who I couldn't get above the fracas. Ratz thats great news . Hope you include a lot of races or rides as like Jason the workout thing isn't my balleywig.

Did you try yelling at me? I have my phone on speaker right in front of me and didn't notice anything. My motivation with writing this DIY is dwindling so I may need to take a break and pedal a bit.