Taking more turns at the front would have definitely helped team 1. Don’t get me wrong, it was great sitting behind @jeffb @doka @TROSaracen for most of it, but I did feel guilty. I think the only time I was at the front for any extended period was when we slowed up a bit to get @MW22 back on. It was weird because I’d put in a +5wkg effort to get to the front of the group only to literally hit a brick wall when I pulled alongside. Having commas would have helped. Discord was working for me but I had broken earbuds, so I could hear you all in the pen. With 15kms to go I had to stick on some Beastie Boys to get me to htfu.
86/125 in Latte
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Comms, able to hear you all.
Yeah I get what you mean, I did my fair share at the front until about half way then when we (including me) said we felt good and to push on, I couldn’t, so ended up sat on but I can promise you I was grafting (you could probably hear!!)
After I died and crawled home, I noticed one thing. Alot of the discarded riders were on TT bikes.
Can’t help but think they sit on the front, benefit from the aero, the team can still draft off them.
As they know they won’t sit in the pack they can pick the TT bike.
More riders the better from my experience, then you have a technical or someone isn’t feeling great the team can go on.
I think it would also be useful to have some pre planned strategies for dropped riders. I felt terrible the team was slowing for me and when I knew I had to stop but couldn’t get the comms through to let them know not to wait.
Ie if lose the wheel in first 10km then team slows (assuming the rider is putting out some wattage).
Last 10k if dropped the team carry on unless they need numbers for a finish.
I was really grateful for it. I’m not sure that I would have hung on over the last 5km had we not had that little ease-up. Really felt for you, having to turn yourself inside out to get back on.
We really made a mistake in that we only eased to about 3 w/kg and that left you dangling there doing 4.5w/kg killing yourself for ages while not getting any closer. Sorry!
Only when we dropped to 2w/kg could you start catching. If we’d have gone to 2w/kg straight away, bridging would have happened with much less damage and, overall, we’d have lost less time. Doh!
We only had 5 and the numbers you were putting out said not only would you have stayed on, but done some good turns. I thinking waiting was right given that, we just messed up the actual execution of it!
Yes, early in the race and especially with only 5 riders it makes sense to wait. Last 10k it’s probably worth pushing on if there’s enough in the main group.
A few weeks ago I got caught out when we went through another pack that weren’t going much slower. Zwift basically put me in that group and I lost the draft benefit of ours, and that was race over.
I’d be intrigued to know if i could stick with the first group. Probably not strong enough to do pulls on the front, but i shold be able to hold enough to sit in the draft, if that increased the team size. Though if it’s 1900 again, i can’t make it anyway, so it’s moot! haha
What was unfortunate (other than the actual drop out and me having no comms)… Was that after I got going again I was only 14 secs behind and I held that gap for a couple of minutes.
Then as you got going thw gap grew towards 25 seconds… Then you noticed I was missing
Had my mic been working my catch couldve been much quicker and easier.
Yeah looking at the numbers, last nights group was ideal for me. On the positives, it costs us nowt and we can try again in a week
Don’t feel bad, I was absolutely buzzing that we slowed a bit for you!!. In hindsight we would have got a faster overall time if Jeff & I had slowed a bit more and we all pushed on.
Need to give more of a chance to get back on in the early stages and then if we have ‘qualifying’ numbers at the end just push on if someone drops. If you didn’t need me last night you could have done 1-2mins faster. I kept thinking @Jgav was suffering too as he was behind me but then he just flew off
I could have gone faster without the runs/swim/chippy. Maybe next week.
I might start a 3rd group too, as I was clearly slower than even the 2nd group, and see if that attracts a few slower riders with a 2.5 w/kg target… with a view to being ready to push back into the 2nd group in a few weeks time.
I said that about myself after last night after the ride. I reckon there is a big gap, the people I finished with could have gone a lot harder if on their own and not dragging me round. Better for me to get the max workout but not for the team.
I had an NP of 260w which is 95% of FTP and 2.9w/kg so am happy to go again next week but I ain’t got much more than that.
I would say that possibly team 2 were trying to be too regimented, rather than just seeing how it went.
I think had we just relaxed a bit more and rode at a more steady pace, that it would have gone better. I’m not an over/under type of rider, so even when I’m with the others I sit 1st/2nd wheel and just maintain a good power
Ah no, I was just hanging back to make sure gaps didn’t open up. I was about 30W below FTP so it felt comfortably hard rather than all out hanging on for my life hard.
I guessed that when you said “Oh are you waiting for me”, then blew straight past me
I’ve been watching with interest. I have a reasonable FTP but low W/kg given current weight so wouldn’t dream of slowing you down. But if there were a third team shooting for that it could well be worth a try…
well lets see how much interest there is. Happy to register a TriTalk3 group with a slightly lower power goal, and leave someone else to register TriTalk2 for next week, but only if it doesn’t spread the numbers out too thinly and leave insufficient people.
Totally agree. If we get numbers enough for a 4th team it’ll be like school football all over again and I’m bound to get a game!! Sniff. (Joke)