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Fall 2020 Zwift Race Series Brainstorm...
The goal would be to challenge one another in a series. Either done as a race (series?) or DIY on TT Bike and report in. It could be the Flat and Fast Series...like 1 lap races. Tick Tock, SeaSide, Champs d'Elysse, CritCity, what else?
We'd need to either come up with a time to race where we could all make it...or we do it DIY style...what do you all think
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Random thoughts:
• DIY only really works for TT - otherwise, too many variables, even on the same course, depending on others in the race.
• I'd like to see a series which includes all sorts of races: climbs, short, long, TT. One a week in Oct, Nov, and Dec. Use one's top 6 results out of 10 races for final tabulation.
• Schedule as a meet-up without "keep together"?
• What about running?
• What about returning to racing as a team once a week?
• Do we sponsor a race series, or make it exclusive to EN members? Unless it's open to all, there may be too few entering to have real racing.
• Unless they happen after 9:30 AM Eastern time, I'll have to snooze and looze.
So Random
I really loved it when we were able to do the Kiss Community League as a team. Races motivated me to stay engaged and give a ton of effort, but the team aspect motivates me even more.
I have heard of team time trial series in Zwift where the groups leave the pen at there assigned times. It is done as an event, but the race organizers have to assign the starting times to each team and track the results on another website.
If we wanted to do this as a team event, I believe it is doable with a meetup. I believe the meetups now post results. It would be good to have 4 to six person teams and take the time of the third or fourth finisher. Making it draft legal would allow someone to pull really hard in the beginning and then maybe fall off late.
Some of the local IRL time trials are also including running before and after the bike TT event, so that would be fun. This would not require a TM, as we could just use strava times, or have people post them on a google sheet.
We could make teams and set east coast and west coast meetups for team trial team only races (I am very open to inviting non EN teams to join. The more teams, the better
Follow Zwift Racers on facebook and see what other series we could join. I follow, but i do not look at very much
Yes, include running as part of the tie trial series. Say must be within 30 minutes of bike or something.
I am hoping for more suggestions!!! These are both great....
One a regular note, yes I like the "we meet up and race" style events for the Team. We already have:
I like the idea of picking a race that we can all do...the time zones make it hard outside of a few folks. One option might be to pick KISS AT RACE event, as they have the same race across different times...and then we could track results in ZP under the Team tab? This event is Tue/Wed for example.
Another option could be to pick a weekend day for a Meet Up Throwdown event? We could have Early / Late options (you pick your team)...then we race. Could track individual rankings, cumulative times for individuals across all events, or key segments (thanks Strava). Could make it a team thing or maybe just do the "team TT" thing in 2 of the 10 events, etc.
Thoughts?
~ Coach P
How do we handicap so it is meaningful for slower riders? Really like the whole idea! Maybe a Team EN Hare and Hounds using Zwift Categories with staggered starts and chasing would be fun to try.
I have no suggestions but want to take part for sure. Womens Only race - option? I know we are doing some women only other programs with the team. I find it hard to race with the boys...who am I kidding. I find it hard to race with the gals but at least I have a chance of not being kicked off the back of a race to limp in on my own.
-KRJS
I like the idea of the KISS race series and non-rubberbanded meetup race that's conducive time-wise for both coasts.
I really like @Sid Wavrin 's suggestion of a Team EN Hare and Hounds based on Zwift categories. Since we have many Bs we could also split the Bs and have more categories and then we have to determine handicap so that every group has a chance to win (even Ds or Cs). I also like the idea of the team time trail, i've seen it on Zwift and was really interested. Whatever you choose to organize count me in.
competition with folks in different levels. I don't know if anyone can see
my response, since I'm not able to access the forum.
-Kevin
I bet we could do some kind of Hare and Hounds event here for the Team so athletes from different abilities could participate. I think it might be possible to do with a meet up?
Assuming all are in on time (paging @Carl Alleyne )….we let the Ds start…start the clock, then the Cs Bs and As…does that sound right? Don’t want to request “another” official event but want to make up something cool.
If you are on board with that, we'd need to pick a day and time for the event that works across the US. I could see a 9:30am EDT / 6:30am PDT time on a Saturday, for example...but I make it up.
For our own Meet Up Event: Here is a quick poll for Sat vs Sun to see if any particular day or time is popular: https://doodle.com/poll/p75wgpzin8d4422r
Another alternative would be to have a handicapped Course Challenge...we could pick courses, and a given week...and then folks race them and report their times during the week (you can race multiple times). An example would be Road to Sky on Bike X. Handicap elements could be determined ahead of time and calculated in the sheet. Weekly results determine points...points are added up, etc.
~ Patrick
I think for a meetup to work you would have to have a separate meetup start time for each Cat. Maybe I'm thinking this only because of rubber band? (which we would't use) Or can we all just show up at the same time, have the lower cats start and the the faster folks just wait at the start for a specified amount of time? I would also mention that there is a pretty popular ride on Sunday mornings with the Old School CNC that we might want to consider when scheduling a new ride. That ride has always gathered several folks and the East Coast/ West Coast timing works well. (6:00EDT)
How about Switch every other weekend with CnC old school and Hare and Hounds?
I really like old school CnC. Not the open to everyone version. U turns allow the ride to have higher VI for everyone.
@Robert Sabo, great idea.
I also think it could be a good idea to have some team guidance for how people should slot these races/ events into their plans, assuming they are following EN NOS or JOS and then any IM or HIM plans. New members (and maybe some veteran team members) likely want to follow the plans and may be unsure how these fit in and therefore hesitant to get involved. An explanation of what this can replace in a training week may also help drive uptake.
@Robert Sabo Good call, and thanks for pointing that out re the oldschool CnC as it's waaaay better. Wonder if we should "formalize" that as some kind of meet up. Like a leader(s) with a form so interested folks can get an invite or something?
I check le poll results tomorrow....
Ok folks, there are your poll results...you can see the "count" at the top of each column.
From my rough math, it looks as though Saturdays are better, and that mid morning timeframe between 9 and 11 is the best option. That locks out @Ross Randolph and @Kevin Schroth and @Brian Hagan ....but otherwise we have a good crew to at least start this with.
I think the start of this makes it critical we have a decent crew...hopefully this survey is somewhat representative.
I think we start off as Meet Up and then we can see if we have enough traction to make it work.
I need someone (two?) to step up as organizers. You don't need to ride every week, but you can help with the logistics...who is with me on Saturdays 9-11 EDT?
@Nam Lam @Jeff Phillips @Julia Herrmann @Scott Giljum @robin sarner @Vincent Sivirine @Ross Randolph @Sid Wavrin @Ralph Moore @Shaughn Simmons @Wendy Kelly
@Coach Patrick I can help during my fall hiatus, Oct 1 - Nov 22. You know me, I love to boss people around...
OMG I found the forums @Coach Patrick ! Just catching up a bit on this thread. @Robert Sabo I was actually just talking to @Brian Hagan about keeping CNC old school because of your point and we seem to have a pretty good group that really likes the format (which of course, it's awesome).
We could use different formats (hare and hounds makes a lot of sense and I think would work in one meetup now that they have the "Race Results" setting instead of "Stay Together". We could do coffee to let everyone ride together for a bit and then blow it out at the end. Or we could just do hammer time from the start and the groups will likely form as in other races (this would likely yield the least friendly/smaller attendance type of option, but its an option if we wanted).
I should be able to help organize/play along as needed.
Don’t know if this has been suggested but how about switching between the CnC and hounds&hares?
I think someone had mentioned it. I guess my thought was that we would still keep CNC on Sunday and this event would happen on Saturday. I am also not sure if Meetups allows for U turns which is the key to the CNC I think. Just my .02.
I'm in! Speaking as a category D zwifter, CNC might be a challenge for optimal enjoyment, but if others are willing to U-turn and join back up, that could be workable solution. A challenge for a D rider is that what is the "cruise" and "easy" effort for category C (and B and A) riders is a harder effort, and recovery between KOMs and sprints is not always achieved while trying to stay with the group.
I also like the idea of Hares and Hounds, as well, since that could provide some motivation for a tortoise to keep pushing and to try to not get caught by all you hares on the team. Coffee+espresso concept could also work (but with the same concerns for CNC for the coffee portion).
I was riding IRL with @Andrew Wojcik this morning and he was interested as well. can the list of 15 participants above be expanded?
FYI I am i regardless of winning time not being one I voted for. 9:00 means I can sleep in on Saturday!! I think the chase race or even everyone adjust weight to make FTP 3.0 or something like that.
I can help also @Coach Patrick
Ah... finally back on the forums :-).... if I can make the times and I'm not out gravelling, I'm in, sounds like fun-ish 👍️
SO, I am out of town this week but will be back by Sunday for CnC or whatever. I also am interested in he teams for the zwift racing league but I bet that is a separate thread. I also just tried to log into the formus for the first time in a while and couldn't so that took a bit of figuring out but here I am!