Virtual Time Trials Winter 20/21

We’ll be restarting the ACC Virtual Time Trials on Zwift for the winter season, running every Wednesday at 19:00, from October 28 through to the end of March. 

The first event will be a one-off hill climb, and then we’ll move to a series of monthly competitions with monthly winners, with an overall competition for the whole season as well.

We’ll include scratch, handicap, veteran and women’s events, so there’s something for everybody to aim for!

Courses

We’re going to alternate between flat and sporting (hilly) courses on alternate months, so that there are courses that suit different rider types. I’ve tried to keep the distances as close to 10 miles as I can, although obviously they do vary.

The Hill Climb is a special one-off course of 0.56 miles with a 0.9 mile lead-in. So you’re right, the lead-in is longer than the climb but you’ll be nicely warm by the time you get there!

The courses for the Hill Climb and the monthly TTs are published here:

http://www.addiscombe.org/wp-content/uploads/ACC_VTT_2021.xlsx

Timings and Results

We’re decided to stick with using Strava segments for the timings and results,

Each month’s course will be based on a Strava segment from the website Zwift Insider. This means you can look up details of the segment on the Zwift Insider website, including how long the lead in is, where it starts and finishes and the elevation, etc.

Each of the Strava segments we use will carry the tag (Zwift Insider verified) which means they’ve checked the segment using a robot rider in Zwift.

We’re also going to automate the timing and results process, to ease the administrative load on the riders and Jonathan Pontin who produces each week’s results.

We’ll be using an ACC timing app that Andy Knight has developed to do this. For it to work, you’ll need to authorise Andy’s app to collect data from your Strava account and you’ll need to set your privacy markings to either followers or everyone. 

Drop Andy an email at andyknight@btinternet.com and he’ll mail the authorisation link back to you. Any issues, please email Andy and he’ll sort them out with you.

How to enter

I’ll post up details of each week’s TT on both the ACC website and ACC Facebook page.

The official invite for each rider will be sent via the Zwift Companion app. You need to accept the invite to be entered.

I’ll send invites to everyone who rode in either a virtual TT or club run earlier this year.

If you want to be added to the invite list, then you’ll need to follow me on Zwift – Derek Cobb [WTRL] – because that’s the way the invite system for Meet Ups currently works on Zwift.

And finally

The virtual TTs earlier this year were a great success and they fed through to increased fields when we returned to the outside world this summer.

So, come along and join the fun. You’re competing against yourself to improve your time and the different competitions mean there are opportunities for all riders! 

So, throw your hat into the ring and get involved. We’d also like to see more women involved to broaden the women’s competition.

If you want to invite guest riders from other clubs, then let me know. We do this in real life, so as long as they sign up, we’ll let them ride.

We had a few old members return though the virtual TTs and club runs last year, so let’s hope we can do a bit more on that front again!

Also, I’d like to thank Jonathan Pontin for offering again to sort out all the results and Andy Knight for developing the ACC timing app.

Let’s look forward to a great winter of ACC Virtual TTs!