Tomorrow I’ll be racing up Alpe du Zwift against reigning Kona AG champ Jana Richtrova. Since she’s got a PR a minute faster than me, she’ll be giving me a 1 minute head start.
I’m in need of some advice and or tips as I’ll need to climb out of my mind tomorrow if I’m gonna have a fighting chance to hold off the Czeck Chick!
Ever heard of the overnight zwift diet?
.
Typically I aim for 95% of my FTP. After each corner I do a mental reset, and go again, repeat 21 times. I have managed sub 40mins twice using this method. I climb standing the whole way up, with difficulty setting around 80%. Others prefer lower difficulty setting, however, I like to feel the climb in my legs
As an alternative I sometimes do this as a stand alone training. Start a little below your target power, on each of the 21 corners try to increase your average power. for example if your target is 270w, start at 250 and increase by 2w on each corner, by the end you should be above 290w. Starts relatively easy but gets really painful towards the end
Do you have the Specialized Tarmac and Lightweight Wheels, I think this is the fastest combination up the Alpe
Have some flat coke in your bottle, the caffein kick will be welcome at the end
By the way, I love to chase, I would much rather start 1 min behind and watch the time tick down to the person ahead. I guess you could do it in reverse. You know you can lose 3s per corner, watch her chase you up and mentally reward yourself each time you only lose 2 seconds from one corner to the next
…You know you can lose 3s per corner, watch her chase you up and mentally reward yourself each time you only lose 2 seconds from one corner to the next
If she gives an actual 1 minute headstart, it’s not likely to appear as 1 minute on the Zwift gap timer. As far as I can tell it’s only based on distance between riders so it’s horrendously inaccurate on gradients, especially when one rider is on a different gradient to the other. Best to gauge the gap using actual landmarks (like the turns) if you want a reasonably accurate gap time.
If you’re not already, use the best climbing bike and wheels. That’s the Tarmac Pro and I think ENVE 3.4 unless you’ve won the Lightweight wheels in the Alpe lottery.
The Alpe is pretty consistent, but push just a little harder where the grade is a bit steeper. Don’t back off too much on the flatter corners. If you hold some speed you can carry it onto the next steep section.
Like others have mentioned, I tend to watch my average power for the split I’m on in the box on the left, and have a target minimum. last time I went up, that minimum was 260W. I aimed to beat it by a watt or two each time and took it one turn at a time. As I got to around turn 6, I think, I decided I could afford to raise the target to 265W and I might survive. Then at turn 1 throw everything you have left into the legs for the final stretch.
…You know you can lose 3s per corner, watch her chase you up and mentally reward yourself each time you only lose 2 seconds from one corner to the next
If she gives an actual 1 minute headstart, it’s not likely to appear as 1 minute on the Zwift gap timer. As far as I can tell it’s only based on distance between riders so it’s horrendously inaccurate on gradients, especially when one rider is on a different gradient to the other. Best to gauge the gap using actual landmarks (like the turns) if you want a reasonably accurate gap time.
Agree, however, on the Alpe, I find it does work for chasing. The time will get bigger on the lower gradient section up to turn 6, however, the rest is pretty constant.
Typically I aim for 95% of my FTP. After each corner I do a mental reset, and go again, repeat 21 times. I have managed sub 40mins twice using this method. I climb standing the whole way up, with difficulty setting around 80%. Others prefer lower difficulty setting, however, I like to feel the climb in my legs
What is the benefit/downside of riding at 100% difficulty level?
Tomorrow I’ll be racing up Alpe du Zwift against reigning Kona AG champ Jana Richtrova. Since she’s got a PR a minute faster than me, she’ll be giving me a 1 minute head start.
I’m in need of some advice and or tips as I’ll need to climb out of my mind tomorrow if I’m gonna have a fighting chance to hold off the Czeck Chick!
one question i have - and i haven’t tested this - is whether there’s value in pitching up the front of the bike. not so much for the seated part, but to allow you a more balanced posture when out of the saddle. just shimming the front of the bike a bit. for example, if you have one of those round blocks for the front wheel, stick your 700c wheel in the spot where the 650c wheel goes. set your bike up so that it’s riding a 6 or 7 percent grade, so that your weight is balance over the cranks when you’re standing.
i don’t know if this would be a benefit or not. in general zwifting, in pack riding, no, because in my own riding it’s just like outdoors, where you have to really stay on the cadence, like, 90 or more. but i’ve been up alp d’zwift a few times, and maybe it’s just the graphics faking me out, but i think i like to climb it as a climb.
This is super helpful advice!
i’m Level 20 and have ridden up AdZ a dozen or so times. i did just get the Lightweight wheels so will add those.
Jana is a Level 50 so i know she’s got all the top equipment at her ready. She’s got a PR 45:xx.
thinking we’d select the Road to Sky route at the same time then she’d give me a 1 minute head start once we pass through the AdZ wall. the actual start is only a few hundred meters further up the road so unlikely she’d carve too much time into me on the flats so early on.
is there a better way?
we’ve already discussed keeping the difficulty level setting at 50%. is it preference or would it dramatically make for faster times to go drastically higher (75-100%) or lower on that scale setting? she asked a few of her peers and the consensus was that anything higher than 30% was fair in Zwift racing. thoughts there?
Changing the difficulty setting is pretty much the same as changing your cassette gearing.
I have a corn cob cassette on my trainer. Riding at at 100% would be pedalling 30rpm up AdZ.
80% would be close to my outdoor gearing.
I ride at 50% and AdZ is more like a TT than a grunt up a climb.
Negotiate whatever resistance you like better.
Me, personally, I prefer 100% difficulty because among lower volume hobbyist dudes I’m in the lighter 1/3 of riders. So having an edge on making people ride with me at 100% difficulty on trainers that can hit the % grades helps. Now, folks lighter than me that would be a leg up to them.
Some guys from my little local race team wanted to try to ride one night. Lap of Achterbahn? The climb route on the world’s course? Soon as I mentioned 100% trainer, they were like “nope, you have fun dawg”.
And I’ll do the 100% difficulty up Alpe and the tower climb in my 53/39 equipped bike.
Dunno, that’s a tough one. A minute out of that long doesn’t sound like a ton. IRL draft up a mountain can truly matter. At you all’s ascent speeds on the lower % grades especially! Not for me though, lol. Too slow.
I’d almost instead start at the same time and then suck their wheel as much as they can stand before they start attacking you. I’d doubt a minute over 40min to 50min or so couldn’t be made up for by sucking wheel. Then just bury it the last 5min to try to drop them.
i’m with you on this one. i use the steepest of the three settings on a Cyclops (err, Saris) wheel block.
i think i’m faster doing the climb seated vs standing though i’m sure this is HIGHLY personal preference.
thinking we’d select the Road to Sky route at the same time then she’d give me a 1 minute head start once we pass through the AdZ wall. the actual start is only a few hundred meters further up the road so unlikely she’d carve too much time into me on the flats so early on.
is there a better way?
we’ve already discussed keeping the difficulty level setting at 50%. is it preference or would it dramatically make for faster times to go drastically higher (75-100%) or lower on that scale setting? she asked a few of her peers and the consensus was that anything higher than 30% was fair in Zwift racing. thoughts there?
I assumed that you would start just before the AdZ wall, that makes most sense.
Would traniner difficulty make a massive amount of difference? no. is it personal preference? absolutely
In theory, there is no benefit changing the difficulty setting, riding at 350w at 100% would be the same time as riding 350w at 0%. However, in theory at least riding at 100% should give a bigger VI, so 350w at 1.02 VI will feel like 357W. As a result, many racers choose to race with the trainer setting at 30%, with just enough feel to know when to push on the inclines, but maintaining VI as low as possible. In practice, I prefer to ride with trainer difficulty high, I naturally ride with a low VI, I can put in a very similar level of power at 55rpm and 95rpm, I probably make more shifts, but I ride much better if I can feel the incline changes.
Setting the difficuty at 50% for both is a smart move, and it’s a good compromise.
Don’t worry that you are level 20, the Specialized Tarmac with Lightweight wheels is the fastest combination up the Alpe, Jana will probably be using the same
Good luck
Tomorrow I’ll be racing up Alpe du Zwift against reigning Kona AG champ Jana Richtrova. Since she’s got a PR a minute faster than me, she’ll be giving me a 1 minute head start.
I’m in need of some advice and or tips as I’ll need to climb out of my mind tomorrow if I’m gonna have a fighting chance to hold off the Czeck Chick!
one question i have - and i haven’t tested this - is whether there’s value in pitching up the front of the bike. not so much for the seated part, but to allow you a more balanced posture when out of the saddle. just shimming the front of the bike a bit. for example, if you have one of those round blocks for the front wheel, stick your 700c wheel in the spot where the 650c wheel goes. set your bike up so that it’s riding a 6 or 7 percent grade, so that your weight is balance over the cranks when you’re standing.
i don’t know if this would be a benefit or not. in general zwifting, in pack riding, no, because in my own riding it’s just like outdoors, where you have to really stay on the cadence, like, 90 or more. but i’ve been up alp d’zwift a few times, and maybe it’s just the graphics faking me out, but i think i like to climb it as a climb.
Wahoo makes this exact argument in their Kickr Climb sales pitch. I for one buy it. I think the re-balancing is beneficial for climbing simulation.
Changing the difficulty setting is pretty much the same as changing your cassette gearing.
I have a corn cob cassette on my trainer. Riding at at 100% would be pedalling 30rpm up AdZ.
80% would be close to my outdoor gearing.
I ride at 50% and AdZ is more like a TT than a grunt up a climb.
I’m sorry but I completely disagree with the whole “adjusting the difficulty is like changing your cassette”. I agree that a what is a watt, to me it is about the build up of fatigue. Changing the difficulty is like flattening out the gradient. Please tell me in real life terms what gearing do you use to flatten a 10% grade? Climbing a mountain is supposed to be tough if you’re going to reduce the difficulty why not just race on a flat section as a time trial, really no different.
You don’t seem to mind the heat and humidity, but if this is harder than some of your other races only thing I can think of is to keep air circulating.
P.S. There’s a difficulty setting on Zwift?
Assuming you’ll target around 40 mins?
In that case my best times have been achieved by targeting my 20min max for each and every mini-sector, no excuses until half way! Also push hard in the corners (this might give you some leeway at the end of the sector you’re in … so each sector you can reward yourself with a little recovery if your avg. is still >20min max) This way the hurting remains managable. (Esp. during the longer segments after half-way)
In the end you might fade a little, however keep targeting ftp (only allowed after half way)
My advice I can think of (Granted, you are about 8mins faster up the Alpe than I am, so really it should be the other way around).
I think that’s all I can think of for right now.
EDIT: Ok last thing I thought of, is if you really want to maximize your “e-setup” you would use power pedal output as your power source for Zwift, and not the trainer’s power source. This helps you “gain” all of the watts that are lost in the drivetrain of the bike. Could be 5 watts. Who knows.
Changing the difficulty setting is pretty much the same as changing your cassette gearing.
I have a corn cob cassette on my trainer. Riding at at 100% would be pedalling 30rpm up AdZ.
80% would be close to my outdoor gearing.
I ride at 50% and AdZ is more like a TT than a grunt up a climb.
I’m sorry but I completely disagree with the whole “adjusting the difficulty is like changing your cassette”. I agree that a what is a watt, to me it is about the build up of fatigue. Changing the difficulty is like flattening out the gradient. Please tell me in real life terms what gearing do you use to flatten a 10% grade? Climbing a mountain is supposed to be tough if you’re going to reduce the difficulty why not just race on a flat section as a time trial, really no different.
Go use a fucking gear calculator. I’m not doing the work for you.
If I put one of those new SRAM 11-52 cassettes with a 32 front ring, I’m pretty sure I could maintain a high cadence up AdH in real life. Physics comes into play in the real world where low speeds make it hard to maintain a line and stay upright.