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You are having an amazing FRR Hal! It was fantastic to race with you again, you have truly gone from strength to strength!

Great racing Hal!

I confess that I leached the whole way, trying to ride teh coat tails of more nthusiastic riders ahead.

[commentary continued ...] And none of such things was in mind in this race. I knew no riders nearby. A CAY to me is just someone who should be on the front breaking and barging through the imaginary wind, doing their duty to help weaker riders behind. Up and down and up, ... repeat. Repeat again. Perhaps my biggest thought, as far as I as able to think at all, was to catch the draft on the steeper descents. This knife edged danger times that can be a Bond ejector seat. The climbs - odd. Too often I found myself too far forward, worse - out the front. They may be chunky, but they can climb better than that, surely. So they're probably loitering together, obsessing as usual about their finish sprint. Fine ... be my guest, the sprints are all yours. My race as a yoyo. Spinnnn. Being gapped. Out the seat, g_r_i_n_d, back down. Spin some more. Repeat. For most of the race. The cadence plot was a fragmented square wave. Weird or what. Maybe the big brutes running out of puff. I began to feel more comfortable. Even I was beginning to have in mind the finish. Not the ubiquitous sprint, but just hanging on till then. The chat nonsense had faded, thank goodness. Enough of Dad naffness, Here's another 10-percenter to shut the gabber. All the better when the climb goes on for a while. By 21.6km 37:10, the race was fairly fragmented. I found myself towards the front. The new Zwift climb plot that was in my face and showed it going on a while, so I might was well keep slogging. There's no draft to be had, so rest the eyes for a bit and focus on smooth cadence (no squares needed here). By 21.9km 38:06 I seemed to have towed some up to the group ahead. At that point, a thumb from Martijn was all the motivation I needed to keep going - keep grinding. By 22.7km 40:30 on the fragmented front again. Descent coming, time to back off and engage brain a bit. The Yorkshire sprint saw a pathetic 300w max from my legs, but I was pleased to see imperious Martijn sweep by with 800w, and this after hauling his mighty frame up so many climbs. I was luck to have 4 pursuers catch up and tow me over the gentle descent. The aggregate grew to a small mob who towed on to catch a relaxing Martijn. He stayed in recovery mode, while I clung on to the group. Weirdly at the end, over the last 500m, almost everyone melted away. Till only 2 left ahad. vry odd. I get a sense that they know something that I don't. Clearly there can't have been any benefit in sprinting. All in, a freakily good race as far as performance was concerned. And I really did expect the complete opposite. I'm left not knowing what to make of that race, but at the same time pretty chuffed that the legs did so unusually well.

Pretty chuffed at this. Overall, on GC 20/107

So peculiar. My hunch is that it was chasing other riders ahead which brought the most out of my legs. Ridiculous as there's always riders ahead. But somehow a decent climb feels honest. Real racing (unlike the flats that are dominated by the masses).

All 4 races, but ... Have a look towards the bottom of the description for URLs to jump to the beginning of each race.

Thanks for the video and for the ride ! H.MAILLIOT

How lucky was I with the PUs. First I skipped the penultimate PU as I had a feather already. I used that (though rather late) on the mostest climb to the penultimate arch (and last PU). There I was lucky to get a van PU. This I used as soon as the feather finish with 30.3km to go. That still had 1/4 left at the finish. Ideally might it have been better is the other way around, van-feather, rather than feather-van. A van being ideal when travelling fastest, the feather on the steepest gradients (up). However in this cas I was doing 24kph approaching the penultimate arch, and around 40kph approaching the finish (45 to 32kph). But I used both too late. And as usual I was putting out sprint power late, even the other side of the finish. That's the annoying 5 to 6 second lag which I get all the time. Any clues or leads for how to remedy this would be greatly appreciated and acknowledged.

'Promo SM'

All in, thank you very much James, and I'll return when MW is quite a bit more developed. Who knows, perhaps when the app is available on the Mac, it will have grown up and emerged like a butterfly, and its caterpillar phase will be forgotten.

{1} Or were some riders able to position themselves more sensibly. I tried to position myself in the lane middle but that was like chasing a drop of mercury of a glass plate.

Be happy... you beat me. Just watched this.... that Riedle looks strange unless he's about 45kg. A bit the same here.... it was full-on to stay with my group on the flat, over the aquaduct and on the flat again, so when we hit the hill I just blew/rode my own race. That strange rider d.dddd was teh only one in the frame. Keep chewing iron bars. Charly.

The man in question was around all right.... just that you were off like a rocket, I see from this pulling 250-300 watts from the gun, when mere mortals were around 230-240.

Well done.... a win is a win.

Well done. I see you overtook me at about 20seconds from the start. I did a couple of comments mid-race and see they appear on your video even though you weren't anywhere near... must be more careful from now on.

For once I was lucky enough to be able to hitch a ride with a big group of riders. What a difference that makes. Small wonder so many people lolligaga about till in their sandbagging easy cat. Being back amongst the stragglers is so much harder work.

Who is from Chickasaw? There should be a button I can press on routes with two big climbs like this.... so anyone 10kg lighter than me has to pause for 2mins when halfway up and let me inch ahead. That said.... well done.

Ha.... you beat me by just over a minute so it's not all bad.

a lot of time in the red zone Hal

Well done, Hal!

Wahoo TICKR HR monitor has an extremely fragile battery cap. Yet again the little fragile lugs broke off. I have had no success, on the two previous occasions that this happened, trying to superglue them back on. The monitor will frequently (and this has happened with 2 others too) show ridiculously exaggerted HR values (180bpm when I am relaxed and my watch shows 55bpm). I think it is past time to turn my back on Wakoo HR monitors for good, and find a better designed replacement. Can anyone recommend. better designed and more reliable HR monitor that is cycle racing suitable?

chapeau mate

Good 2 see you today mate

I hope it was an enjoyable tour for you! Thanks for recording!

Missed SISU stage-3 today, and a climbing one too. So depressing. Still no clarity of what next. Another (new) trainer? Most of a month waiting for this NEO 2T to be fixed, and the cost of that. Needing some inspiration. Is there any way to use this to raise my enthusiasm and cycling activities, start a new chapter. If only the Stages/NEO/Kickr bikes were not so expensive, support in the UK so questionable at times. Zwift and others so slow at adapting to new technologies for steering, braking, etc. Suggestions always welcome to fire up my enthusiasm for virtual cycle racing as the ravages of age tick on.

On reflection, when one can't cope with the front group's pace, could it be preferential to back off earlier than later. That way, one conserves more energy, and has longer to for up into a secondary group with other stragglers. Not by design, I did that yesterday. And pretty soon were were picking up more soloists that had later dropped off the front group. They had had to have been burning more energy both in trying to keep up and in soling their way back to us. A soon as a decent rear group has formed, that becomes my race. Interest in whatever may be going on in the front group fades to nil. Indeed, for me, as I am never near the lead group, I never have any interest in the podium finishers. It's disappointing that so many, especially luminaries and commentators focus only on the front few. Boring and irrelevant as far as I am concerned. They tend to look after themselves, those front riders. They get their kudos in their own bubble. That's what was so good about Marcus's WKG racing, it wasn't just that he took real interest mostly at the rear racers (from cat-D up), but there was a culture of those at the front also taking an interest and being involved in the racing lives of the slower racers behind. Take the marathon for example. The front runners with all their physical (and probably financial and support) advantages. They take their usual couple of hours then can parade their achievement before the cameras. But what about the older lady with weight problems and any number of physical aspects of their bodies complaining and making running at all a real struggle. They have to slog, often alone and feeling none too proud of teh loose fat around them moving by itself. 6 hours later, no kudos for them, no camera ego-fest. And which overall tried hardest, suffered most, put in most. Who amongst them is the hero. My vote is for her, as cold and exhausted she sits alone in the dark on the train afterwards travelling home. My interest and support goes to the rear sloggers. Little vanity there, and personalities have to be the kinder. Less exhibitionists and show-offs. And at the rear of each cat, less sandbaggers. Guess it is all down to sportsmanship and culture. Or is all the above just me feeling guilty having, before the race, had Carolyn Potts in my crosshairs, as my competition. Afterwards I discovered that she is a cat-D. PS. It's a nuisance that ZP sorting never works for age.

I've been sensing recently that powers were decaying ever faster. But at least today I saw a VO2max of 45, which has to be better than the average man in the street. There can be no escape or dodging the elephant by the turbo. Just have to try harder. And no, max clearly isn't enough. Go for double max. And no killing yourself getting there. Be warned young bucks and does, it'll be your tunr soon enough. And you' too will find that you'll find that you need to try harder than ever, and be blind and deaf to ever steeper challenges while you fade away on your glide path to you end. Or will you be the sort to laugh setbacks off and go for it. Losing all the way. Your mileage may vary.

It appears that Zwift Insider, as most, is focused only on the podium riders. They being the privileged ones that get a nice long rest between races. But for slower riders, little to no rest. Straight on with the next race. This despite, for the individual, racing just as hard, maybe trying even harder. The intrinsic nature of such back to back short races, the recovery times issue can't be otherwise. The strongest riders get the most recovery. But regardless of that issue, I'm never interested in higher cats or podium racers. Rather the riders around here I am. In these races I didn't recognise anyone. But I was intrigued to find a few 70+ riders in cat-C. 3 others. They, I take as fairer competition. And I came last. A good base from which to improve. It was fun, though the asthma is a huge interference in such intense racing.

Great racing 👌

Can't reach arms out as far as A & D (back injury), must hack up some alternative.

Well paced to the end Hal, I tried chasing you down once I realised you had lost the group but you were too strong💪🏻👍🏻 it made a solo last lap enjoyable😜

Great race, Hal! I did see you use the PU well before the finish line, I thought it was all part of your master plan 🙂

Sorry I couldn't give any better advice, Hal. This is such a hard race and the other teams also have very strong riders. Too bad there isn't a really long climb in this league, I'm sure you would shine in that. Still a very strong performance, well done!

That was a fun one for me 🙂how are the legs now, Hal?

Superb performance, Hal! The TT is such a hard thing to do, my legs will be killing me tomorrow.

The TTT left me feeling that I'd done all the TTing that was in my legs for this week. It can get a bit boring, always on the same cadence on flattish courses; just feeling the watts ebb out out. Perhaps that's just from riding in isolation, no communication. Need to learn just what it is that fires TT specialists up. Get some of that. Or maybe that's not really available for shinny weaklings on flat courses. Truth Sunday ... ha!

I have yet to begin to get to grips with the delay that I always get (about 5 seconds). Is it my MBP, my ISP, the distance from here to Zwift's servers and back, the turbo, power meter, ... It can be quite a nuisance.

I know Keith probably was on a TT bike on his screen, but it sure does look funny to see him on a hand bike here. Well done, team FUN!

Well done, Hal! Thanks for dragging me halfway up that mountain!

Do these size up the same as the Tempo's?

Got these shoes too, plus Shimano RC1 and Carnac Sortie. Like the look of the Tempo's.

I'm sure you'll be feeling better soon, hopefully by Tuesday's short race. After losing concentration and getting caught by sprinters in race one tried a different tactic. Was in second group and managed to breakaway with Duncan Bruce and Kath D, kept a 30 second gap on the group by the finish.

Sorry you're still not feeling well, Hal ☹hope you start to feel better soon. Great job finishing this one though, it was a tough one.

That was a fun one, wasn't it? Really enjoyed it, but happy today is a rest day 😅

Thanks Hal! So much fun to race with you and very nice to see the sprint from another perspective. This one did hurt a lot!

A great pleasure to ride with you and the other, Hal! Thanks for not dropping me on that climb 😅

pքɾօʍօʂʍ

Good job team! Hal, you were flying up that final climb!