…and absolutely anyone else who wishes to join me…
I’m going to have some savage “fun” on Wednesday afternoon from 3pm, but doing some crit races.
Even though my tactics are awful, I do find they’re really good for doing 20 minutes at just above/below FTP, so they’re a good TT/Tri training session.
I’m doing the B-Cat super sprint at 1505 to get fired up, then the B-Cat at 1531 as a decent effort.
I’ve got a Zwift Academy Group Ride (late starts allowed!) for 50mins on Champs-Elysses at 1600 as a cool down.
Sounds awesome, but alas I’ll be entertaining the in laws on Wednesday afternoon. Sneaking off for a Zwift race would be a politically bad move. Enjoy!
Maybe next week onwards; Half Term this week and I’m off that day. Although I do try and get stuff done whilst the kids are at school usually (12-15.00ish) meetings allowing.
Ah - I’m off today and tomorrow.
Back to work Weds.
@mw22 - You’re officially at Cat A now. Congratulations
I rode a Crit City Cat B race this morning (note to self: don’t do that again on a Monday morning!) with the sole intention of dragging myself up a category to Official B status, scraping in there.
Now to be last in every race
I just looked back to when I made it to Cat A… it seems like ages ago, but was only 2nd Jan this year.
Initially I was in the bottom 5 for the Category, however, I never came last. My First Cat A was a Crit where I finished 37th out of 40 in Category. Over the next 3 months, I worked my way up the category, occasionally getting a podium or win, normally on the Alpe. Then in April I got bumped up to A+
It looks like you may be better at sprinting than me. I am a diesel engine, and do best with lightest bike and lightest wheels. I am strong enough to easily keep up with the peloton on the flat, but need the light weight on the inclines where people like @daz put in 500w for 2 or 3 minutes. A good sprinter, like Daz will go with the most aero bike with the most aero wheels, and put in low power on the flat to keep with the peloton, then use short burst of power on the climb, so he ends up with a pretty big VI. I tend to trundle round with a higher AP but much lower VI
In Cat B, especially if you are near the front, you can get away without being too tactical. In Cat A, you really need to be smarter about tactics and bike selection
In Cat A you don’t stand a chance of breaking the group on the flat, the only chance is on the hills, which is why the leaders put in such massive surges. I really struggle when it gets into aerobic capacity. In the April and May I could hold the lead group on these early efforts, however, at the moment I tend to fall back into the second group even though I am much fitter
GOOD LUCK fella. I’m doing the Heino Cup pts race at 6pm which will be my main race of the week. A few hours after you.
What level are you? Venge+disk if you have them. Or use the new aeroroad with the disk. For crits you can go for heavier aero equipment because it’ll come down to a sprint on the flat, and you want that extra momentum.
A-CAT RACING
Agree totally with whats been said.
As Matt says it’s hard to get away from a large a-cat lead group on the flat. Your only hope as a diesel engine is for the average pace to be high so that everyone gets stretched out and the sprinters get dropped. It can happen, but usually in high profile races and pts races where a lot of one-hit sprinters lose the will to live.
If you’re a diesel engine then you need the longer hilly rides. koms and (pref) epic kom thrown in for good measure.
When I started out on Zwift I was more of a diesel engine (from my endurance/tri background). Over 2 years later and I’ve mutated into a crit racer with a sprint. It opens up more races if you’re a sprinter or puncher with a reasonable sustained effort, as long as you keep away from long climbs. You can hide in the blob for the races, just doing enough to hang in. You can make a game of it by trying to get your av watts as low as possible watching Zwift Power Live.
I’m sure I read somewhere that Zwift over-egged the Aeroad and made it too fast realtive to the other frames, so the next release is going to slow it down
