This was the third year running Zwift have ventured 'Down Under' before the winter season really kicks in. This time Auckland was added to the itinerary. I was invited along to each of the events to talk tech, smart trainers, Zwift, and all things bike. Here's the wrap of each stop on the tour!
The Zipp wheelsets in Zwift are more than just visual upgrades for your ride. Using the same Llama Lab parameters as the Road vs TT bike tests, I set out to put all the available Zipp wheel choices to the test around Watopia.
Llama Lab Parameters
Frame: Zwift TT
Rider Weight: 71kg
Power: 300W / 4.2w/kg sustained.
Course: Watopia (Normal direction)
No power-ups or drafting in the tests.
Power output was accurate to the watt, for science! There was no variance on hills, descents, or for sprints.
Results
Zipp 202
KOM: 2:33.66
Sprint: 29.95
Lap: 13:51.97
Max: 65.2km/h
Zipp 404
KOM: 2:33.66
Sprint: 29.60
Lap: 13:44.29
Max: 66.0km/h
Zipp 808
KOM: 2:33.31
Sprint: 29.47
Lap: 13:42.03
Max: 66.2km/h
Zipp 808/Disc Combo
KOM: 2:33.26
Sprint: 29.38
Lap: 13:39.17
Max: 66.5km/h
Observations
When it comes to these steady-state tests, more (wheel) is better! The 808/Disc combo rates best across all tests. The 202 may come into their own on a long steeper climb, I'll re-test if one ever pops up on Watopia. For now, keep levelling up if you haven't unlocked all the Zipps yet!
Last month saw the general release of the long awaited Zwift TT bike. Triathletes were seen ripping off their virtual jersey sleeves with excitement! In real life, TT bikes are faster. That's a fact. What about on Zwift? I had a tip-off that they were, so after a hot-lap on Watopia that indicated they were quick, I put on the lab coat and cranked up Llama Labs to really put these bikes though their paces.
The Idea - Same conditions for both bikes, the same wheels, the same rider weight, holding the same w/kg for the entire lap of both Watopia and Richmond. With a little magic and a w/kg picked that was within a sustainable (and repeatable) range, we had lift off!
Llama Lab Parameters
Frames: Zwift Areo Road / Zwift TT
Rider Weight: 71kg
Wheels: Zipp 808
Power: 300W / 4.2w/kg sustained.
No power-ups or drafting in the tests.
Power output was accurate to the watt, for science! There was no variance on hills, descents, or for sprints.
Watopia - Our Island Home
Zwift Aero Road
KOM: 2:33.52
Sprint: 30.49
Lap: 14:05.50
Average Speed: 38.9km/h
Max Speed: 64.0km/h
Zwift TT
KOM: 2:33.32
Sprint: 29.45
Lap: 13:42.30
Average Speed: 40.0km/h
Max Speed: 66.2km/h
WKO multi-range comparison:
Yellow: Aero Road. Red: TT. (Top is km/h, bottom is elevation)
Richmond - Road Worlds Course 2015
Zwift Aero Road
Sprint: 19.26
Broad St: 24.82
KOM: 1:53.82
23rd St: 52.89
Lap: 25:06.58
Average Speed: 38.8km/h
Max Speed: 70.3km/h
Zwift TT
Sprint: 18.72
Broad St: 24.17
KOM: 1:53.31
23rd St: 50.49
Lap: 24:26.36
Average Speed: 39.9km/h
Max Speed: 72.2km/h
WKO multi-range comparison:
Yellow: Aero Road. Red: TT. (Top is km/h, bottom is elevation)
Observations
Hands down the TT bikes are faster. Surprisingly they climb pretty well too. I attribute their climbing times to the higher speed in which they enter the start of the climbs, and their ability to get up to speed when the gradient flattens out.
Sprints on a TT bike in real life are typically clumsy and wasn't really put to the sword in these tests. I hope on Zwift the developers can make the aero advantages disappear, or even become a hindrance at anything above 500-600W. We don't want everyone rolling around on tri-bars on Zwift, it'll be carnage! :)
I also tested the Zipp 808/DISC combo, but you'll have to wait for the wheel comparison tests to find out the results there......
Like most games, Zwift has a number of achievements to unlock as you progress though the levels. Two of these are distance related, the Metric Century (100km) and the Imperial Century (100 miles/160km). Completing these distances will get you two new jerseys added to your virtual wardrobe.
Last Friday I set out to complete the 100 mile ride on Watopia, with a twist. I had to always hold a jersey during the ride. Any colour, any segment, any direction. This mixed things up and kept the legs awake through the session. The plan was only to complete the 100 miles. During the ride I was asked on Instagram if I was going to hit 200km, I decided that sounded like a better goal to aim for. Total: 210km/6h:33min.
Pre 400 attempt ride - On the way to 210km for the day.
By coincidence, on the same day there were two crazy dudes Michael Schmitt and Tristan Dimmock up in Canberra were completing a 12 hour charity ride on Zwift. I'd seen them on Watopia riding around all day, I didn't know what they were up to until I was off the bike catching up on the Zwift Riders group discussions. Tristan tapped out an epic 320km and Michael topped that with 346km in the 12 hours to set a new Zwift day distance record. Check out Michael's write up here.
With rain forecast for Perth on the following Tuesday, and the calendar clear.... you can only guess what I started thinking about... How far could I get in 12 hours on the Watopia course? It'd been 12 months since our group 10hr/303km Sufferfest Knighthood at the VIS. Could I match those numbers alone in our spare room? Could I even get past 12 hours?
Testing saddles and Twitch streaming on Monday. Not a lot of space in the Perth apartment pain cave.
400km was the goal. A goal that I didn't verbalise to anyone as it was well beyond my comfort zone even committing to. I didn't go through any dark patches in the 210km ride, surely they'd appear when trying to double that distance and duration. My curiosity of what my limits are was the main motivation for attempting this ride. What would be the first to break me?
6am kick off, and sprinting for the green jersey at 6:26am. The Zwift Effect in full swing early on. Entertainment was in the form of one full episode of This Week in Tech (2hrs), Gleaming the Cube, then onto the YouTube music videos for the rest of the day.
What started as just another early morning Zwift session in the dark was slowly being noticed once I'd passed the 200km mark. My Twitch live stream was up and had a number of viewers tuning in. I was joined by pro mountain biker Nathan Guerra for a number of laps. Zwift themselves even gave me a shout-out on their social feeds, turning up the pressure!
At 8hrs56min 294km my day came to a crashing halt! The Zwift application terminated on my MacBook Pro..... In my foggy haze of 9hrs on the bike, I just assumed that was day over and that I'd failed. By the time I'd submitted the crash logs to Zwift I was thinking more clearly. That wasn't day over at all, it was still Tuesday - "Get back on the damn bike and ride!"
My Twitch stream just after the crash....
Side note on the crash - I was pushing my Mac pretty hard with Zwfit, Twitch live streaming, and YouTube HD streaming for 9 hours. I'd used 15GB of bandwidth too! The developers love logs and details, it'll allow them to make a more robust application. This is all part of the beta testing process currently underway with Zwift.
Log submission done - I was straight back on Zwift. The auto-save feature kept 8:50/289.9km, so I had 110.1km to go. It was disappointing not to see the daily total kms on the top menu bar, never mind, I'd join the two files together into one ride for Strava later on.
The rest of the ride went like this: 346km tick. I'd matched the distance record. 350km tick. 400km, goal achieved! I did a few more kms just to be sure. I rolled out toward Hank's and gave it one final kick though the reverse sprint point, snagging the green jersey with a 12.72. Not a PB but enough to test the legs one final time. And they were still attached. :) I pulled a u-turn at Hank's and rolled easy back to the start to clock 415km. Then one more, 416km.
The hardest part of the day wasn't the physical effort, as I thought it would be. The hardest part was stepping off the bike. I hadn't hit any physical limiters. I felt like I was giving up. We don't train or prepare for 'giving up'. No sport does. We train to be faster, and to go further. Apart from a small foot cramp at 405km that soon disappeared, I'm still wondering when the real limiters would have appeared, and what they would have been.
After stepping off the bike I lay sprawled on the floor for a few minutes. It felt like I'd just ridden over rough cobbles and had finally hit smooth road again. My arms and legs were in an Endone like fuzz, without the broken bones that accompany those.
Distance: 416.2km Time: 12:41:31
One thing I have to mention is the online social community that has embraced Zwift. Who'd ever have thought that riding indoors would be so social! All day I received many +1 RideOns in Zwift, messages in the Zwift groups, and tagged posts on Instagram. All interactions that made a world of difference getting though the day.
It's only a matter of time before someone rolls beyond the 416km mark on Zwift. Hopefully I'll get to do a lap or two with whoever does. Looking over the stats of my ride, that was easily the biggest daily effort I've ever done on a bike. A breakthrough day training wise, both physically and mentally. All while cramped up in an otherwise boring spare room in an apartment on a rainy day.
#RideOn
Ride Nutrition:
5-6L of water/mix.
3 coffees.
3 bananas.
3 Cadel Winners Bars (like Cliff bars)
4 choc chip muffins.
500g of sourdough olive loaf bread (nice and salty)
1 Red Bull 250ml
50g jelly lollies (Cadel's Winners something-or-others)
Tray of fresh fruit (500g)
4 small biscuits with honey
2 Turkish Delights (40g carbs)
All spaced evenly throughout the day. I started with a bowl of Nutri-Grain and a coffee prior to the 6am start. The only point I felt hungry was chasing a KOM at 11hrs where I quickly reached for the sugar hit of the Red Bull. Other than that, the above menu was spot on for me. No stomach problems keeping that amount of calories down either.
Equipment Used:
2015 MacBook Pro 13 inch. (OSX 10.10.4)
Zwift (Build 1.0.5796)
OBS - Twitch broadcasting software.
Wahoo Kickr - Set to Max/100% on Zwift.
Quarq Power Meter.
S-Works Tarmac road bike (10spd SRAM Red)
S-Works Power Saddle - 12hr ergo session tested and approved. :)
S-Works Bibknicks (SL Pro)
S-Works Shoes.
My 55mm aero Sicasso front wheel - Worth a few kms on Watopia for sure. Quad Lock Case for iPhone - Very handy addition for ergo rides.
Audio Technica ANC9 Headphones
Here's an interview I did with Cycling Maven regarding the ride and all things Zwift. Enjoy!
We've just arrived home from Sydney after an amazing whirlwind
short notice tour competing in the Zwift Down Under Challenge. Not in a
million years would I have imagined being on a plane with a large trophy
between my feet and a giant novelty cheque in the overhead luggage.
Back in early April I wrote about Zwift and my experience with the new world of online interactive cycling: Zwift - Next Level Awesome.
Since then a few things have changed. Zwift is now on a new and
improved island (Watopia) and the code geniuses have added more features
(and a mobile companion app). Things are progressing at warp-speed with
events such as 'Ride with Jens', partnerships with the Tour of
California and Tour de Pier, just to name a few. This is just the tip of
the iceberg of what's coming. They've also just gone to 'open beta' which
now allows everyone to get involved.
When the team at
Zwift announced they'd be coming to Australia to host events in
Melbourne and Sydney, I was keen to catch up with them and get an
insight into the company and what we can expect in the future. Oh, and
to tell them how addictively fun they've made indoor riding.
They'd
seen my posts online about using Zwift and were also looking forward to
catching up with a passionate (and obsessed) Zwift user. They invited
both Veronica and I to their Melbourne base the night before their
launch at Bike Gallery for a meet and greet.
We'd
planned to spend only a few minutes to say g'day. Two hours later,
after many questions, stories, and a few good laughs, both Von and I
left them to continue their event preparation, both wearing Zwift
t-shirts! As I posted to the Zwift Riders group on Facebook, catching up with these guys was inspirational.
Me (Zwift addict), Eric Min (CEO), Mark Riedy, and Tomas Hrbek.
It
was great to meet the team behind something that is going to be pretty
big in cycling. I speculated on the potential of what they could do with
the platform back in April. It turns out they're already three steps
ahead, in every aspect. I left there with my eyes wide open and mind
spinning faster than a Kickr flywheel.
Bike Gallery Melbourne Zwift Launch - May 13th 2015
The setting for the Melbourne launch was perfect. Cam and Lincoln have a showpiece store and pump out quality coffee to match.
Not
only was the launch to demo Zwift to the local cycling community, there
was an added incentive to set the fastest male and female times around
Watopia (9.1km) for a winner-takes-all $500!
They'd taken fun and turned it up all the way 11 (speed)!
The
pressure was on from the start, I'd been ranked high enough to be one
of the last riders off. Even the online Zwift community were talking up
my chances at the $500. International pressure, and eyes from all over the world were on this event.
Veronica set a huge PB on
Watopia with 14:47, which was leading the women's category until Seda Camgoz flew up the climb and around the course to set the winning
women's time of 14:08. Amazing times from both ladies.
Veronica (Von) looking strong and stylish all at once. #hammertime
I
kept a nervous eye on the leaderboard all night until it was my time to
take on the Watopia challenge. The heat was on, literally, from the
start. I'd gone out hard and was soon calling for water. Thankfully I
had Stephen Lane and Veronica by my side as assistants. While Veronica
was pouring water on me, MC Scott McGrory (OAM, Olympic Gold Medallist)
was on the mic pouring on the pressure.
.... and this was just the warm up. :)
The jersey
soon came off as I was into the final few kms of Watopia. There had been
some great times ridden already, if I could push hard from the sprint
banner to the finish line the time should be well under 13 minutes.
It
was. 12:31. A PB around Watopia after giving it everything I had. A
late charge by Fergus Sully had me biting my nails until his lap time
was locked in with a solid 12:47. Another phenomenal performance by a
Zwift first timer.
That is a really big trophy. And Eric has really bright Zwift orange shoes.
A highlight was near the end of the night when James Werner was true to his word - if Fergus rode, he'd set a time in a TT helmet and tri-kit. The entire place was in hysterics, then he battled through and set a very reasonable time!
This is what happens when you drink too much!
Posted by Eric Min on Wednesday, 13 May 2015
After the event we had
dinner with the crew from Zwift and Bike Gallery, where
both Seda and I were invited up to Sydney to be a part that launch. They wanted the Melbourne champions to compete against Sydney's best.
Both Seda and I were not going to pass up this unique opportunity to be
involved, so we were going to Sydney! Women's 2nd place getter and Team
Lama better half (my wife Veronica) was also invited along.
Time to rest up and
#rideon in Sydney! Wahoo!
Rapha Cycling Club Zwift Sydney Launch - May 15th 2015
After a rest day and a long 800km transfer stage, Team Melbourne were ready to take on whatever Sydney could serve up.
Team Melbourne arrive in Sydney!
Rapha Cycling Club HQ
The
three of us were enjoying the night so much at Rapha HQ we
almost forgot we were there to compete in the challenge. In just a few
hours I'd caught up with Matt Keenan (Commentator/The human cycling wikipedia),
Philip Gomes (Editor/producer at SBS Cycling Central), Peter Rox (Transitions.com.au), and countless others who wanted to know about Zwift.
8pm
soon rolled around and MC Paul Craft started talking up the Melbourne
vs Sydney rivalry. As there were different ergo equipment used in Sydney
(CycleOps) the times on Watopia were a little faster than we saw in
Melbourne. I'd seen both Peter Moore and Tom Sacre set impressive sub 12
minute times. I didn't think I was in for a chance, so it was all or
nothing.
In the women's challenge, personal best efforts by both Seda and Veronica weren't enough to match Sydney's Lynne Clarke (who I hear loves a time trial). Lynne time trialled her way around the 9.1km course in 12:49 to secure the $500 and women's title.
Von and Seda enjoying the night.
Finally
it was me time to kit up and #rideon. I need ride 11:33 or faster for
the lap, almost a minute faster than Melbourne. To put that into
perspective, 11:30 was the fastest time on Watopia on Strava.
My
extended warm-up involved getting lost in the immersive Watopia world,
which isn't hard to do with a giant screen and other riders to chase
down.
From the starting gun I had to make this ride
count. I knew every inch of the course, every turn, and even where I
could get into an aero tuck on the descent, much to the amusement of MC
Paul Craft when I did. :)
The crowd noise grew
throughout the lap, and went off the charts when I passed the 200m to go
banner and my lap time came on screen. 11:15... 16.... 17... I buried
my head and chewed handlebar tape until I could hear it was over.
11:25!
I had to double check the screen. 11:25? It was official. The fastest
time on the night, and a new world record. It took a minute or two to
sit up on the bike after that. Lost for words from the effort and from
the surprise at taking back-to-back wins.
Eric Min was first to
shake my hand and congratulate me, that was a moment I won't forget. To
be able to show the CEO of a company their product working in full flight, with
the MC going crazy on the mic, people cheering, talking cycling, and
enjoying themselves made for a memorable night in Sydney.
I've also been set a challenge.... first at Rapha in Sydney, then on
national TV. Looks like I'll be clocking up some serious kms when the
Richmond world championship road course is released on Zwift.
Zwift
have set out to make indoor cycling fun, and for me they're right on
the money. They've taken static ergo sessions and made them dynamic,
interactive, and have created a virtual world where you can meet people from all over the world for group rides, races, and events. Something you just have to
experience yourself to understand how much of a game changer this really
is.
A huge thank-you to everyone involved:
- Zwift: The team who came to Oz and everyone else behind the scenes throughout the world. Special mention to Dave and Tom who did a lot of heavy lifting and the drive from Melbourne to Sydney on Thursday.
- Bike Gallery and Rapha Cycling Club for hosting the two events.
-
The cycling communities of Melbourne, Sydney, and beyond who turned up
on the launch nights or followed along from afar.
- Von and Seda from Team Melbourne who travelled to Sydney and back. Great company to share such a random and rewarding experience with.
If you see Zwift launching
somewhere local to where you are, I encourage you to go along, you'll have a blast. You never know, maybe I'll be there too. In the mean time, download Zwift and let me know what you think.
