Virtual racing - Tour for All Exhibition Series

Image credit: Eurosport/insidethegames

On the front of virtual racing, starting May 4th (may the forth be with you ;-)), there is a very exciting virtual race series starting. At least I think it’s really exciting, but with ZERO racing in real life, virtual racing is as close as it’s get. The exiting part for me its a pro only event backed by GCN (Eurosport) and Zwift using the experience from a virtual racing and a network broadcasting point of view, to hopefully give the best viewer experience as possible.

“Both men's and women's racing will be screened each day between 1400 and 1600 BST with some of the best cycling teams in the world including Mitchelton-Scott, EF-Education, NTT, Alpecin-Fenix, Bahrain-McLaren, Canyon//SRAM Racing, CCC-Liv and Boels Dolmans competing for race honors.”

Another amazing benefit is that the pro’s are racing for a good cause….not only their fitness and bragging right, but more importantly a charity.

“The Tour for All professional racing series will open a month-long charity fundraising initiative that will see Zwift donate a total of $125,000 to Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and its COVID-19 crisis fund. An additional $125,000 can be unlocked once 250,000 people complete a stage of the Tour for All. The professional racing series is designed to showcase the mass-participation stages and encourage Zwifters to take part by riding some of the same courses that the pros have raced.”

The stages are more than just a short exhibition. Most of the stages are about an hour long and it will be very interesting to see the pro riders skill levels and experience Zwifting will come into play. Not to forget team tactics……the online races i’ve seen so far was basically all men/women for themselves..😉

4th May - Stage 1

We kick off the Tour with a flat-ish stage for the sprinters. Both courses feature one short steep hill so expect some action with multiple ascents.

Course: Innsbruckring, Innsbruck. Elevation Gain: 72m (237ft). Total distance: 52.9km (33miles)

5th May - Stage 2

Our first hilly stage.

Course: Cobbled Climbs, Richmond. Elevation Gain: 126m (413ft). Total distance: 46.2km (28.5miles)

6th May - Stage 3

Our first mountain stage. We begin by taking Ocean Boulevard around to the reverse Hilly KOM, which is the first half of the Figure 8 route. Then it’s over to the Volcano and up to the top before descending down and heading to the Italian Villas then the Mayan Jungle for a reverse loop of the circuit. After climbing out of the jungle, we descend back to sea level, hit The Esses and spin a quick around the Volcano Circuit. Then it’s through downtown Watopia and out Ocean Boulevard once more to the forward Epic KOM. Our route finishes at the Epic KOM banner.

Course: Medio Fondo, Watopia. Elevation Gain: 981m (3220ft). Total distance: 72.9km (45.1miles)

7th May - Stage 4

We give everyone’s climbing legs a break with a mostly flat and fast stage. Enjoy it while it lasts because tomorrow is the Queen Stage!

Course: Sand and Sequoias, Watopia. Elevation Gain: 147m (482ft). Total distance: 42.6km (26.5miles)

8th May - Stage 5

The Queen Stage with a finish up Alpe du Zwift.

Course: Quatch Quest, Watopia. Elevation Gain: 1710m (5610ft). Total distance: 46.5km (28.9miles)

Link to the original article: Cycling news

Zwift update April 29th

Zwift jus released a new update for their cycling platform. Find a copy of the release notes below. It’s a fairly small updates but a couple of nice additions and new features I’m curious to find out how they work and what the impact for riding & racing will be.

Hey Zwifters, we have just released a new update with a number of new content additions, improvements and fixes. This update is available now for PC, Mac, Android. Updates for iOS and Apple TV should be available in the coming hours.

Here’s what the team has cooked up this month:

New Missions and Programs for May

The Tour for All (May 4th-30th)
Join the Tour For All and come together with the Zwift Community to support Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in their response to COVID-19.

CeramicSpeed Cycling Mission (May 1st-31st)
Unlock the CeramicSpeed cycling kit and a chance to win a CeramicSpeed OSPW derailleur by riding the target distance on OSPW enhanced Road, MTB and Tri/TT bikes.

Goodr I.P.A. Running Mission (May 1st-31st)
This mission challenges Zwifters to run 3 different workout types: one interval workout session, one pace group run, and one “altitude” or hill workout session to complete the mission. Completing all three workouts unlocks some sweet Goodr shades and a contest entry to win the real thing.

Content Additions

Workouts

• Added 8 new under 60 minute cycling workouts

• Added 16 new run workouts (several are offered at both 30 and 60 minute variations), for runners who want to get a good run in, and have less than 60 minutes to spare."

Bikes

• Factor One is available in the Drop Shop once you reach level 8

• Ridley Noah Fast is available in the Drop Shop once you reach level 9

Events Improvements

• Boost Mode is a new event type that will allow users to charge a boost (with their own watts of course) and then discharge that boost at a time that’s right for them. This mode will be exclusively available in a limited number of FutureWorks Club Jarvis events as we test, tune and tweak the experience.

• Added a new experimental event mode that lets you experience the sights and sounds of Zwift in its most pure form. This event mode will be exclusively tested within FutureWorks Club Jarvis events

• Added support for unique bib numbers for riders and runners in specific events

• Added numerous event arches and kits for major events in May

• Fixed an issue where Meetup riders would not receive a powerup when passing through a sprint, KOM or lap arch

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug related to events that could cause some lone riders to achieve ludicrous speeds

• Improvements to Apple TV pairing

• Upgrades to the anti-sandbagging logic used for some races

• Added the GeForce GTX 1650 to the ULTRA graphics profile group

• Lots of smaller bugs across all platforms

If you’re riding or running in an event in Zwift, please be sure to log in a few minutes early to give time to download and apply the patch before your event starts. If you happen to hit any issues with this update, please post in the thread below.

Podcast: Zwift! What is it all about?

Photo credit: Max

In this episode Sam, Max and Lowlands Cycling talk about Zwift and their journey into this amazing platform. Sam and Max are two cyclists that started as outdoor cyclists but evolved into, almost, dedicated online cyclists using Zwift. Their numbers are staggering. Max already has 4,000 miles and Sam over 3,700 miles in 2020. Zwift accounts for more than 90% of these miles.

We talk at length about the Zwift cycling community how easily it is to get started with Zwift. 

“Zwift is an online exercise program for cyclists and runners at the moment. It is something that you put onto your computer, your laptop, your iPad and you hook up your indoor trainer to it. Slap your bike onto your trainer and you can ride in a virtual world with real friends from around the world; you have your personal avatars in there as well. It is a fantastic platform because you can do all sorts of things. You can do workouts, group rides with friends, or you can just go in and ride by yourself. Zwift being indoor cycling, it is very safe because you do not have to battle all sort of traffic on the bike, which is wonderful. So, yeah, it's a fantastic tool to get your exercise done in a safe, convenient way.”

“Well, I think for one. For one, this is a great way to eliminate excuses for not actually getting out and exercising, if it is raining out or if it's too dark or too much traffic, or you’re scheduled busy. There is always time that you can find on Zwift. All you have to do is just go down to the workout area and you are good to go. So you really don't need to have the perfect conditions you can ride when the weather's terrible and your day schedule is busy, and truly driving to start and cycling resulting in eliminating a lot of excuses for not getting yourself active!”

Photo credit: Sam

Photo Credit: Max

Kevin Bouchard Hall, pro-Zwift racer, shows Ted King how to race on Zwift

This is a great video by Ted King where he gets tips from his good friend Kevin Bouchard on how to race on Zwift. I really like the side by side interview and the production of this video. Obviously all credits for this video go to Ted king. Enjoy!

Pro Zwift racing tips:

1. Throw down big watts straight out of the gates! (

2. Figure out how to float in the pack

3. Be ready to go berserk on every climb, not matter big or small

4. Aero Power-up is best for sprinting

5. Work on your efficient drift through the pack

6. Set your priorities correctly (balance work, family and training time)

7. Don’t accidentally get dropped. (Ted King wasn’t paying attention for 10 seconds and lost the wheel)

8. Save your feathers for the hill

9. Keep it all in perspective. People will “cheat” on shift. Enjoy and know that you are getting a good work out.

10. Know the course

11. Bonus Tip. Get a towel!

12. Bonus Tip 2. Do a good warm-up including a couple of openers.

13. Bonus Tip 3. It’s good to know your competition. Will take some experience and riding the same races.

Kevin Bouchard Hall, pro-Zwift racer and pro-Dad, is here to teach Ted, newbie-Zwift racer and neo-Dad, how to maximize his time on the trainer. Kevin Boucha...

“Kevin Bouchard Hall, pro-Zwift racer and pro-Dad, is here to teach Ted, newbie-Zwift racer and neo-Dad, how to maximize his time on the trainer.

Kevin Bouchard Hall is a former US national team stand-out, but he decided that unless he was making it to the Pro Tour, he'd rely on his intelligence to move forward in life so he stepped away from cycling. Now married with two beautiful boys, the Bouchard Hall family is busy as it gets, so Kevin is as well. After a hiatus from racing he's back on the scene, but now storming Zwift at all odd hours of the day. Kevin and Ted are gravel racing buds and as a throwback to their collegiate racing days when they battled it out, they're doing so on gravel bikes all across New England and beyond. Ted and Kevin are both riding Saris H3 trainers with the Saris MP1 platform underneath them for the added realistic feeling of bike moving under you. Kevin has the Velocio Unity Jersey and Ted has the Velocio Indoor kit featuring the Radiator Tank and the Ultralight shorts.”

• Saris H3 Direct Drive trainer

• Saris MP1 Nfinity Motion Platform

Stewart Gross and Lowlands Cycling talk about Endurance Mountain Biking

Photo credit: Stewart Gross

In this Episode Stewart Gross and LowLands Cycling talk about endurance MTB racing, training and racing during the covid19 lockdown and things he learned during his time as a MTB pro. He raced the Wilderness 101, 24 Hours of Old Pueblo, Marji Gesick 100, Shenandoah Mountain 100, Vapor Trail 125 to name a few. Stewart also talks about his future and races like the Ride the Divide, Trans Alp, and Cape Epic. 

Stewart is a passionate athlete who is dedicated to becoming the best cyclist he can be, which is evident from his results. Stewart is absolutely an ambassador of the endurance, cyclo-cross and cycling sport overall.

He moved from Colorado, where he raced as a professional mountain biker, to West Chester, PA in the fall of 2015 to work with his parents and brother in Real Estate. In the short time that he has been a resident there, he established himself as one of the strongest riders in the area, as well as, a patron of the sport.  Stewart is very active on social media and very well known figure in the local  Chester County and domestic bike scene.

Interview references:
24 solo: https://amzn.to/3bs81aC
Mountain bike like a champion: https://amzn.to/2XVMxii
Ride the Divide: https://amzn.to/2VNoRKd
Drink: https://amzn.to/3cwyxzu
Eat: https://amzn.to/3bsh9vS

Wilderness 101

Absa Cape Epic

Trans-Alp

Photo credit: Stewart Gross

Staying motivated during Covid19 and the Mid Atlantic Mountainbike Super Series

In this episode of the N+1 Lowlands cycling podcast Geoff and Gerry talk about mountain biking and the regional Mid Atlantic Super series. 

They try to answer the question; how do you try to stay motivated during a pandemic, social distancing and staying at home when you should be starting your race season? 

Geoff talks about how he got into racing bikes at the age of 12 and what it was like to race for a team in France in the early 90's

They referenced cycling platforms Trainerroad and Zwift tools they use as part of their cycling training programs.

Zwift Online Cycling Platform

Trainer Road Online Cycling Platform

Mid Atlantic Mountain Bike Series

PodCast - LowLands Cycling and Greshfit talk about bike fitting and saddles specifically

LowLands Cycling and Greshfit talk about bike fitting and saddles specifically. 

Everything you need to know about saddles and have a comfortable ride. We touch on how to manage a comfortable ride online when you are using online cycling platforms like Zwift and Trainer road.

Tim Gresh, the owner of Greshfit specializes in bike fitting, building custom bike, bike maintenance and providing indoor group training in his studio.

Tim builds amazing Seven bicycles where he marries his bike fitting with a custom build titanium frame and components like Selle SMP saddles and SRAM or Shimano Group-sets.

Podcast references

Greshfit

Selle SMP Saddles & Seven Bicycles

Zwift & Trainerroad

Podcast episode 1 season 1 link: ITunes or listen directly: