Zwift Get Rolling: Stage 4 – R.G.V (B)

Right then. Where to begin?

The bike is back. Hurrah. It’s been three days since the bike went away, and three days since the FTP test.

I’ve been out on a few short walks but by and large I feel rested. 

And the bike is chock full of new shiny goodness, thoroughly serviced and aside from irreparable damage I’ve done to the frame through ignorance over the last few years, it’s practically brand new. 

Would this combination translate into any kind of improved performance? 

Well, there is one unknown still.

I think I have spotted a fairly significant problem with my turbo trainer. The freehub(?) that I mount the cassette too appears bent. It’s not hugely bent. The cassette goes on fine. But the last two cogs of the cassette are off line, quite significantly.

I tried several times to mount the cassette, and every time this issue occurs. So I don’t think it’s a mounting problem. I think the component itself is bent slightly.

Anyway, I’m going to video that, and make a separate post. Partly because I am curious as to whether I’ve messed it up, but partly because I think I’m going to send it to the bike mechanic who did the upgrade on the bike itself, and see if he can repair it.

What I do know is the bike parts he fixed are absolutely silky smooth. The shifting is phenomenol. Night and day difference.

Unfortunately I thought I’d be fine mounting the cassette on the turbo myself, so whilst it’s identical to the one on the wheel, the alignment is not right. And that means some gears are unavailable to me.

Like I say, I’m going to do that as a separate post, so for now at least, let’s say no more.

OK, so I got the bike back at 9am this morning.

Immediately after that, I spent some time getting the cassette on the turbo, and then did a quick test of the things. I hadn’t noticed the issue above by this point.

So I did a short / 3km test on Zwift.

During that time I managed to do a sprint effort, and that then felt like I’d … well, not pulled the muscle, but definitely done my left thigh muscle absolutely no favours.

Pro tip: don’t do a max effort when not warmed up. Duhh.

I wanted to start the race with a good warm up. Unfortunately I then spent the entire warm up time mucking around trying and retrying to mount the cassette without the weird bend.

So by the time I got on, I had 50 seconds of warm up.

Not enough. Certainly not enough with the muscle issue.

But it is what it is, and we got underway.

Fortunately this one was taken at a fairly relaxed pace. Or maybe the new components gave me super powers?

No, it was the relaxed pace.

I know the R.G.V route.

There are two killer bits.

One is the Aquaduc KOM, and the other more brutal bit is the final few kilometres, right up to the final kilometre actually, where you go through the rollers. That bit is hard work.

And so it was today. Yet I somehow managed to keep with the front bunch up to the top of the aquaduc KOM. I foolishly eased off too soon, and they got away from me before crossing the KOM marker line. But with a big push I got back on for the descent and was, frankly, amazed at having done so.

From then on it was about recovering, of course, and holding on to the rollers.

When the rollers did come I was able to stick with the bunch for a good while. I did inevitably get dropped towards the end.

This was where things came unstuck really.

Heading into the final kilometre I’d fallen back to 17th. To be honest, that’s better than usual. Especially for a Saturday ride, from past experience.

I was determined to hold my spot, and when I looked up, gasping for air, I saw that I had a 2 second gap to the rider behind me.

When I next looked up, there was 500m to go, and lo-and-behold, I still had the 2 second gap. I wasn’t catching the two in front, but if I could hold my line I’d be sound to keep my spot.

Well, they worked that down to 1 second. I could see their watts per kilo were near the 5s, and I was sat around the low to mid 3s.

I dropped gears and stood up, and that’s when I heard the crunching and got the unwanted shift back up to an easier gear. So that alignment issue above meant sprinting in the hardest gear wasn’t happening.

At this point we were 100m from the line, and the person behind was rapidly closing down from 5m to 4m to 3m…

As we crossed the line I was sure I’d been pipped at the post, but Zwift said otherwise. It must have been fractions of a second.

Not that it really mattered.

The good news is then, after a hard effort the bike performed really nicely.

Yes, I have the very obvious turbo mounting issue. I think that’s something bigger. But the new kit performed really well. Shifting is lovely. And works without a hitch. I know that sounds so basic but compared to what I had, it’s night and day.

I’d love to test the brakes out, too. But I am not planning to head out just yet. It’s horrid weather and I don’t fancy getting either myself or the new kit filthy.

So, at least I got the race done. That’s Septembers series in the bag. Nice.

On to whatever October holds.