Zwift, TR, Sufferfest etc

[kathleenturneroverdrive]

I need a TdZ tutorial. I signed up, had every intention of riding the stages, but when I see 600 people signed up I just bail. Riding with that many avatars is a shit show. Am I missing something? Are these races?

Once you start riding you’ll pretty quickly end up with people riding at your pace and won’t at all be stuck in a massive group. Zwift power records them as “races” but the results don’t show up on Zwift companion. Not sure why that is.

[huckbucket]

Once you start riding you’ll pretty quickly end up with people riding at your pace and won’t at all be stuck in a massive group. Zwift power records them as “races” but the results don’t show up on Zwift companion. Not sure why that is.

Thanks.

[VTskibum]

For TdZ route feedback for what it's worth, I did Alp de Zwift (AdZ) and Ventoux a few days apart recently. I would say that while considerably longer, Ventoux was far less taxing than AdZ IMO. It's a bit steadier and overall lower grade after the first few pitches. I tend to run 50% default like Jamal mentioned, as it's definitely smoother. If I did Ventoux again, it would be one to put a movie/other activity on and just pedal. When I do AdZ I've definitely paid much more attention to each corner and distance.

I also missed the Stage 2 as I thought I had another day.

[Dee Hubbs]

I was just updating my TGR Zwift invite list. Bennymac just followed me on Zwift and he now on the invite list to both the rides.
This makes 21 TGR riders invited even Tuesday and Thursday night.
Out of the 21 riders we have had 19 different participants.
We have had 11 riders in our largest group.
We have had 5 riders in our smallest group (excluding Christmas week)
We are averaging (excluding Christmas week) 8.3 riders per meetup (7.25 if you include the data from Christmas week).
There have been 12 rides so far with Dee Hubbs attending 12, jamal with 10 rides, EWG with 8, and justcuz and Huckbucket with 7. "=COUNTIF(F4:Z4,"X")"

[huckbucket]

"=COUNTIF(F4:Z4,"X")"

EXCEL NERD ALERT!!!!

Thanks D.

[Dee Hubbs]

Also trying to exercise and keep my brain fresh.

[scharny]

I need a TdZ tutorial. I signed up, had every intention of riding the stages, but when I see 600 people signed up I just bail. Riding with that many avatars is a shit show. Am I missing something? Are these races?

A big pile of riders on a TDZ stage is actually a good thing, as it means you can usually find a group that’s in your ability range where you can pull a decent draft. Can’t draft on big climbs, but for up-and-down courses it works well.

[VTskibum]

Also trying to exercise and keep my brain fresh.

Dee - Not sure but you may want to doublecheck you'll get the badge for VenTop w/ that event. It does the climb, but doesn't start the same place as the non-race route! I just got that badge a week ago via the normal non-event route.

[grrrmountainman]

anyone doing stage 3 tonight? thinking of logging on for the Group B (at a D pace) AdZ at 5pm MST and enjoying the ~2hrs of suffering

[Dee Hubbs]

Dee - Not sure but you may want to doublecheck you'll get the badge for VenTop w/ that event. It does the climb, but doesn't start the same place as the non-race route! I just got that badge a week ago via the normal non-event route.

You're right. I would have been pissed if I climbed Ven-Top and didn't get my badge.
Ven-Top Badge route from ZwiftHub.com:

La Reine (TdZ stage 3) route from Zwift home page:

The map from ZwiftHacks.com:


And the description according to Zwiftinsider.com:
"Released with Zwift’s France map for the first-ever Virtual Tour de France, La Reine (translated “The Queen”) is the Queen Stage of the vTDF, taking riders up Mount Ventoux to the Chalet Reynard banner. It’s also the only route that isn’t listed in the France map’s route picker, indicating that La Reine will continue to be event-only even after the France map is added to the guest map rotation.

This route is an alternative way to ride Mount Ventoux, but be warned: it bypasses the Mount Ventoux KOM start line, so if you choose to ride all the way to the top, you won’t be listed on the leaderboard or Strava segments for the climbs! (If you want to ride the KOM start to finish, select the Ven-Top route.)

Keep going? For those unfamiliar with Mount Ventoux’s layout, Chalet Reynard is located 6km before the finish line at the very top of Mount Ventoux. If you choose, you can continue riding after finishing the La Reine route, climbing for another 6km to the summit.

So I guess I'll ride the Stage 3 C Group. Its Watopia Mountain, and I don't have that badge, Or maybe I'll do the B group and climb Alpe du Zwift and see if I can get some new wheels! I could then get my Avid Climber badge for my 5th time up Alpe du Zwift.

[justcuz]

[QUOTE=jamal;6200551]Turning trainer difficulty down a bit helps on those big climbs. First time I did adz I had it at 100% and while I am ok with that, I was really annoyed by the grade changes. You don't really see them on the screen but you go around a corner or hit a flatter spot and you spin out and power drops. Turning the difficulty down smooths that out and also lets you put out a higher cadence and a little lower power if you want. The 50% default feels better to me, .

https://youtu.be/JMAfZvKpfBI?t=425[/

Stupid question. How does one change the default? I know how to do it during a workout but not on course...



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[jamal]

Stupid question. How does one change the default? I know how to do it during a workout but not on course...

When you're in the game riding, go to menu - settings. Trainer difficulty is a sliding bar you can adjust from none to full.

One other benefit of lower difficulty is it allows you to put down more power on steep descents. They're already cut in half, so a 10% downhill at 50% trainer difficulty actually only "feels" like -2.5%

You still probably want some though, I like the feeling of grade changes and having to shift and pedal harder up hills. If you want to hold a certain power/effort do a workout/use erg mode.

[grrrmountainman]

Stage 3 Tour done tonight - standard ride up the AdZ. Adz time of 78:45, total ride time of about 90:00 then a cool down. Think that's definitely an improvement over my only other ride up the Adz last April when I started zwifting (well, riding actually). It's a cool ride as it forces you to just grind. good workout.

[bennymac]

Nice work!

(I should mention that my previously posted AdZ time is from me riding a spin bike with power pedals - which I think is an advantage on steep climbs as I can just leave it in the same gear and crank out the same power and cadence the whole way up regardless of grade.)

[Dee Hubbs]

Nice work!

(I should mention that my previously posted AdZ time is from me riding a spin bike with power pedals - which I think is an advantage on steep climbs as I can just leave it in the same gear and crank out the same power and cadence the whole way up regardless of grade.)

I does not matter. You need "X" amount of Watts to propel your "X" kilos of weight up "X" about of elevation.
The trainer difficulty does not matter. If I have the difficulty set to 100% and ride at 200w for 60 minutes, I would gain the exact amount of elevation as if I had the trainer difficulty set at 0% and rode at 200w for 60 minutes.

[wendigo]

bummed i missed this week and will miss tuesday as well. should be around thurs.
if anyone is on the fence for the group rides - do it, all for fun, it may push you a bit at times, but everyone is chill. the more the mo betta.

[bennymac]

I does not matter. You need "X" amount of Watts to propel your "X" kilos of weight up "X" about of elevation.
The trainer difficulty does not matter. If I have the difficulty set to 100% and ride at 200w for 60 minutes, I would gain the exact amount of elevation as if I had the trainer difficulty set at 0% and rode at 200w for 60 minutes.

Yeah that makes sense (although the part of my brain that is supposed to make sense of that kinda stuff is weak).

I do think there may be an advantage to me being able to just pick a gear and cadence and hold that all the way up - but I’m not an expert and I’ve never ridden a smart trainer so not sure how much of an advantage that gives me.

[scharny]

Yeah that makes sense (although the part of my brain that is supposed to make sense of that kinda stuff is weak).

I do think there may be an advantage to me being able to just pick a gear and cadence and hold that all the way up - but I’m not an expert and I’ve never ridden a smart trainer so not sure how much of an advantage that gives me.

You are not off-base on this. A really good cadence to shoot for on long climbs is somewhere around 80-90 rpm (although some like to mash) A really good level of power to shoot for is your “sweet spot” which is 90% of FTP. Since I’m still recovering from a knee injury, my current sweet spot is @240 watts. I used the steep Radio Tower section of Watopia to play with my trainer difficulty slider until I gave myself just enough slack that I could pull 80rpm on a 14% grade in my easiest gear without completely blowing up, making sure that at the same time my power was close to sweet spot. Now I can take on long climbs more efficiently without fading (as much as I had been).

[kathleenturneroverdrive]

Did the TdZ stage 3, A and B races back to back this morning. Def a big effort, but I managed a PR on the alp (49:55). Stoked. I kept the room I rode in super cold by opening the doors to the outside and after reading about it here I bumped the trainer difficulty tip down to maybe 25%. Both really helped my power, but the trainer difficulty tip was huge! Made the racing experience so much better and more efficient.

Dee, I think we were in the same stage 3 AdZ race this morning. Hope you crushed it!

[Iowagriz]

Add me to those that dialed back the trainer difficulty setting and am happy. I went to 50% and it just seems to smooth out the experience so much more than 100%

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[buttahflake]

I like mine at about 45%, enough to feel even the slightest change in grade and spin 90rpm up the climbs. Set it there last year and haven’t moved it since.

[Whiteroom_Guardian]

Kickr Snap?

https://www.pinkbike.com/buysell/2931629/

I really want a wheel off, but can't justify freaking $800 to ride my bike indoors. But, this will maybe just feel like a bandaid until I can get a better trainer?

The feel of my current trainer is annoying for sure. Having been on a wheel-off trainer I see how that experience is so much better.

[Dee Hubbs]

Dee, I think we were in the same stage 3 AdZ race this morning. Hope you crushed it!

Yep, I saw your name, I like to go to messages, select Private Message, and you see everyone who you follow, who is currently riding.

I set a goal pace of 200w for this morning. I set my Garmin to beep at me when I dropped below 190w. It stayed fairly quiet.
I’ve climbed Alpe du Zwift 4 times previously, with my best time being 1:36 at 176w average. Trainer difficulty set to 50%, as it always it, I don’t ever change it from there.
Today was 1:16 at 218w. So I knocked 20 minutes off of the climb. That’s 15% better than my previous time.
Felt strong, I was able to push the pace/power for the last 4kms. I got the stupid gloves tab the top, then coasted down and still had energy to hammered out a Jungle Loop once switching over to a MTB.

[kathleenturneroverdrive]

20 minutes off is a huge jump. Nice work! I’ve never tried the private message setting - that’s good to know as I just saw an orange icon next to all the riders so I knew you were in there, but had no idea how to actually contact you

[bennymac]

Nice work to both of you for crushing PRs on the AdZ!