Zwift - The Grade Climb - How NOT to climb it

Рет қаралды 6,847

Ай бұрын

I intended to scope out The Grade but ended up doing a full gas effort. I definitely used bad tactics here, though. I've linked to an excellent video by RidewithGerben at the end that shows you everything you need to know to put in your best time on it.

Пікірлер: 44

@RyanCondon Ай бұрын

Unbelievable tekkers mate. Look at that power graph, like it was drawn with a ruler. Welldone. 🎉

@lee-cycling Ай бұрын

Lol thanks Ryan. All my own work. Lee Cassidy, age 47 and 1/4!

@marcorufer2342 Ай бұрын

Great climbing Lee. You're being pretty harsh on yourself. Yes, the power wasn't quite constant until the end. But still very impressive. And when we're feeling good, we can just try to start a bit faster with the risk of dropping a bit. 👍

@lee-cycling Ай бұрын

Thanks Marco. But I did make silly mistakes. Pushing harder on less steep and easier road surface was uneconomical. I'll know for next time, now.

@user-dm84 27 күн бұрын

This was a great session, great job. I’ve only had one attempt at the grade and essentially made exactly the same mistakes, though nowhere near your numbers, only 197W@65kg here, but think I can eek another 10W or so with a proper warm up and improved tekkers! Will be trying next week

@lee-cycling 27 күн бұрын

Thanks 👍 Warm up for this is definitely advised lol. I did at least have a good hour long warm up before this. You should check out @ridewithgerben channel and watch his guide to riding this. Great info. Wish I'd seen that before doing this, but I will come back at it soon. And good luck for your attempt! 💪

@JDirom Ай бұрын

Solid ride, handsome great tips. Cheers!

@lee-cycling Ай бұрын

You're not so bad looking, yourself, JD.

@JDirom Ай бұрын

@@lee-cycling lol…auto correct no glasses for “and some” entertainment 😂

@HuddoThePaceline Ай бұрын

well done mate, some cracking watts there.

@lee-cycling Ай бұрын

Thanks Andrew. Did you do this yet? It's a real tough one. Highly recommend watching Gerben's video on it before, if you haven't.

@HuddoThePaceline Ай бұрын

@@lee-cycling yeah I’ve done it a few times now. I did the route oh hill no first which drops you right at the start. Don’t recommend climbing with no warm up either. There’s another one which you go along the coast first I found better gave the legs a chance to get into gear.

@EmrysJones 11 күн бұрын

Wow what a effort 🤯

@lee-cycling 11 күн бұрын

Thanks Emrys. I just watched your Alpe video. Amazing effort!

@MrPedel Ай бұрын

Cool vid! Very helpful stuff. You did great to even out the pacing when you realised you’d gone out too hot. Also, did you get overtaken at any point? That’s your life now - never getting pipped again! 💪 Oh, and EXCELLENT song choice. One of my indie favourites - although I thought it would be too pop for a man with your rocking tendencies :)

@lee-cycling Ай бұрын

Cheers Thomas. I don't think I got overtaken, but my racing history shows that happens with alarming frequency 😕 I love Grizzly Bear! Interesting band, for sure. It's definitely one of their more accessible, pop-oriented songs, but I don't know how anyone can't get along with this!

@adamweb 29 күн бұрын

Very nice time, I wish I could hold 5w/kg as long as you! my PR on The Grade is 14 minutes.

@lee-cycling 29 күн бұрын

Thanks Adam. 14 minutes is a great time. What do you think of the climb? I really like it. I like how, even when there aren't too many changes in it, there's still room for some strategy to it. And the sections really help to break it up and pace yourself.

@RideWithGerben Ай бұрын

This is really, really quick!

@lee-cycling Ай бұрын

I wish I had watched your videos before this. You're 100% right: do not underestimate this climb.

@99cya 28 күн бұрын

eh you are just here to gloat 😂 you did very well and your climb is executed with no major issue.

@lee-cycling 28 күн бұрын

Thanks lol, but I think you underestimate how nerdy some of us can be about hill climbing. Some rookie errors in this.

@99cya 28 күн бұрын

@@lee-cycling ok ok :-) well then go and show how its done correctly. On your trainer :-)

@benjapolcycling 29 күн бұрын

Solid 12 minute effort!! I heard that snow/ice has changed back to normal tarmac in recent zwift update?

@lee-cycling 29 күн бұрын

Thanks! 👍 Yeah, I read something about that, too. But I'm not 100% if I understood it right. I think Epic has had the rolling resistance changed back to Tarmac, but will still look like ice. But The Grade, I'm not sure if the resistance has been changed to match Epic. It might be ice still, like the Radio Tower. If it has been changed to tarmac, then I guess I need to go at this again 😬

@MarkyMarkZwifts Ай бұрын

Great climbing Lee - it looked like you held on the power really well, mostly all red in your graph! This is the new FTP climb isn't it? It seems a bit weird sticking a flat bit in half-way up, I would have thought that would mess people's rhythm up.

@lee-cycling Ай бұрын

Thanks mate. Yeah, this is that new fangled climb thing that can test your FTP. You're right, very weird to put a flat bit in it. I'm not sure what's special about this over something like Keith Hill. If you do it in 20mins, it just uses the regular 95% for your FTP. If you go faster, it uses a little less (for me it was 88%). But, ignoring that part of it, it's a cool climb. I think you'll dig it when you give it a bash.

@MarkyMarkZwifts Ай бұрын

@@lee-cycling It does look like fun, and any FTP test less than 20mins sounds good to me!

@Alan-Turnbull Ай бұрын

Despite you saying you started off too quick you held on well. I did exactly the same but did not hold on and crawled over the line 😢

@lee-cycling Ай бұрын

Cheers Alan. Yeah, but I was pretty close to crawling by the end here. It's deceptive, this climb. Started out thinking "this isn't so bad", but by section 7 I was questioning everything.

@redmaister9909 26 күн бұрын

I’ve done the grade with an average of 323w and it took 19min. # 103kg 😢

@lee-cycling 26 күн бұрын

Nice! I don't know if you saw the other comments here, but the surface near the top has changed, so you should be able to knock a chunk of time off that. I think maybe even close to one minute.

@redmaister9909 26 күн бұрын

@@lee-cycling I’ll chunk off the time when I can get the weight down and FTP up again. I only did it to determine a starting FTP after some lazy months. The % done gives you a false sense of security on the first ramp….

@jamesmckenzie3532 28 күн бұрын

Standard mistake with The Grade. You got lulled at the beginning and got it handed back to you at the end. You will do better, next time.

@lee-cycling 27 күн бұрын

Yup. In my defence, I knew going in without knowing the details wasn't the best idea.

@jamesmckenzie3532 27 күн бұрын

@@lee-cycling I did a steady state power recon of the climb when when snow/ice effect on power was in place. The last 1/10 appeared to be the most difficult. That effect was removed and now that section reacts as normal tarmac.

@lee-cycling 27 күн бұрын

@@jamesmckenzie3532 that's good to know, thanks! I read some details on the Zwift forum that said they'd removed the resistance changes back on Epic, but wasn't sure what that meant for The Grade.

@jamesmckenzie3532 27 күн бұрын

@@lee-cycling They removed the change for all areas where there is snow/ice per their own posting for 1.68. They are looking at how best to implement the effect of riding on snow covered roads without causing issues with The Grade power testing l.