I’ve definitely clocked this as a zwift specific thing - if you’re drafting nicely off someone, and they pass someone else, you seem to latch on to the person being overtaken for a split second, and the person you were drafting has a 1m gap suddenly. If you’re matching the person in front’s power it’s not an issue of course but this happened to be about a million times on the crit city race I did!
Yeah, there’s something to do with the drafting that I’ve read about. When passing others you need to ensure your power is sufficiently above theirs to ensure you don’t just lock into their draft, even for just a split second as you say.
On a Hare and Hounds race, it wasn’t too bad as we were passing C’d and D’s that were naturally going quite a bit slower/less power. But bridging back to a different group of B’s in a standard race, especially on rolling terrain, means it’s harder to establish that power difference.
In the end I lost 8s or so to the group I’d been with for pretty much the whole race, just in that last 1-2 km. On zwiftpower (still not fully processed results) I’m showing as 58th. That group a little further ahead peaked at 38th, so quite a few places lost simply from a momentary lapse. 50 extra watts for probably a couple of seconds, and I’d have been in the mix with that other group.
So, should I be using the Tarmac/Enves on the Watopia ‘Out and Back’ course this afternoon? 42km 334m ish.
So am doing it wrong by just being on the TT bike I chose when I downloaded lol
Depends if you are racing or just riding. If racing, definitely. You get no draft on a TT bike
For the hilly KOM, zwift insider recommend aero. On the Figure 8 route I raced last night, they’re course profile page specifically says aero is better on that course (https://zwiftinsider.com/figure-8/). They don’t have the same bike guidance on their Out and Back course page. The volcano KOM is a more prolonged effort, but still less than 10% of the race distance.
I probably would go for a climbing bike on that, but I only have the zwift aero as my slippery alternative, and that sucks uphill according to the stats. I used it last night on Figure 8 though. If you had a more middle of the pack for hills in terms of an aero frame, then I’d probably use that.
… if you’re riding solo.
I mean looking at the actual time differences of the frames over 2 laps of tempus fugit, solo at 300W, it’s a very small time difference, which in a drafting race is going to be infinitesimal unless you decide to do a Tony Martin.
Surely any route with climbing, just use your lightest frame (unless you think you’ll be sprinting for the win perhaps).
Much as in real life in reviews - frames are called ‘fast’ and ‘slow’ when in reality the difference int he real world is not going to be noticeable.
Yes, I think that it has the volcano climb, you definately want a light bike for that one… in fact it is one of the best places to split the pack, relatively steep, followed by a big descent. you really need to push at the top of the climb otherwise you will be 20s behind at the bottom of the descent.
Ticked off Tick-Tock at dinnertime, running out of shorter ones now.
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Much better paced TT tonight
Got used to the course
I’ve got so intrigued by where I lose time and how races pan out, I’ve just setup live streaming during a recovery ride. Really quite easy.
I have no intention of people actually watching them, but to be able to look back over a few key points myself will be helpful. I’ve actually learnt a lot by watching the streams of our beat club rider.
Yes, I know this is ridiculous in the grand scheme of things as this is just a computer game, but I guess it also reflects the lockdown boredom! Lots of time to kill 
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Newbury Funkster?
My first attempt tonight. Thought I was going to be sick with around 5k to go.
4.1w/kg and 280avg, pleased with that as really struggle to hold power on flat.
73rd outta 320odd. 25.03 I think.
What’s the other time column about??
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Mine was the Team CLS one
Is the other column the VTTA thing?
Yeah, column for old people is it!
Did the 5.30 tour group ride today. Might as well have been a race. Just under threshold average for 39odd minutes but lots of spikes and about 65 TSS. Was shot to bits after. Not pleasant 
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Did a little experiment today and entered a ‘C’ race just to see if I could hold the front group.
Jeepers, made it, just, absolutely on the limit. No chance of doing that at B level. Was nice and comfy once I’d recovered a bit, cruised for 2/3 of the race then pulled out as I should race B.
I need to go away and build something resembling a 1 minute and 3 minute top end…
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Newbury Velo TT this evening on Tempus Fugit… going like a train, feeling great, definitely on for a PB… 7miles in, screen flickers, and I find myself on the bridge in Downtown Watopia… go figure.
Looking in TrainingPeaks, i’d set an all time 10min power… would have been a great race. 
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That’s bad luck 
At least you know you’re on form for your next one
Was it you that’s had a few Zwift connectivity glitches?
I’ve had a couple recently, when using my laptop (which I’m increasingly starting to think might be because of an elderly ANT+ USB dongle), but this was on an ipad and bluetooth, which I don’t think i’ve ever had a single drop out with in the few years i’ve been using it. This felt more like a Zwift system/software issue… but its a good nudge to check to see if there has been an app update between this use and the previous one.