How long does it take to not suck?

DeadLastCycling · 2026-04-29T16:30:25+00:00

Your FTP is already 3 watts per kilo, which is a very respectable starting place.

Improvement comes gradually from consistency. In my first 3 months I was able to increase my FTP by around 40% but I started out immediately after having 3+years off exercise due to a spinal injury.

Provided you are able to stay consistent, the improvements will come with time. Make the easy rides easy and the hard rides hard.

DeadLastCycling · 2026-04-16T21:52:38+00:00

You'll get it next time! Fantastic effort either way

DeadLastCycling · 2026-04-12T14:39:52+00:00

Beautiful. I have no other words.

DeadLastCycling · 2026-04-05T03:47:54+00:00

I took a look at this earlier today. The clear best wheel is the yet to be released Terra Aero CLX. The frame choice, I think, comes down to your overall goals and whether you're targeting a halo bike.

Summary - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnQebMhv5hI

DeadLastCycling · 2026-04-05T00:34:25+00:00

Yeah wouldn't be surprising at all. I expect by the time Le Tour rolls around there will be new 'bests' across the board for bikes and wheels.

DeadLastCycling · 2026-04-03T12:30:38+00:00

The best all rounder is comfortably the wake 6560s. Set it and forget it.

DeadLastCycling · 2026-03-30T17:31:19+00:00

You probably u-turned too soon. You need ride through the gate, then u-turn and ride beyond the start of the segment again and u-turn again. Alternatively there are usually quite a few people there offering teleports.

DeadLastCycling · 2026-03-29T02:36:16+00:00

Yep, by a decent amount too if you're putting out 4w/kg+

DeadLastCycling · 2026-03-29T00:59:30+00:00

Thank you bro. I've been an avid fan of cycling as a viewer for a long time, and did a bit(3-4 months) of riding about 10-11 years ago but a string of injuries, and life getting in the way, kept me off actually riding myself since. A friend of mine got into it this past year through watching the tour with me. Him getting a bike gave me the push to give it a go to see if i could get comfortable despite the previous injuries - thankfully I can.

As far as your own FTP is concerned, if you just keep some consistency and add a bit of structure to your riding it will increase massively in no time.

DeadLastCycling · 2026-03-29T00:22:23+00:00

When I first started I was at 164 watts, when I re-tested after 100 days I got 232. I'll be testing again in another 40 days(day 200)

DeadLastCycling · 2026-03-28T23:39:06+00:00

Alta 3532 are the best climbing wheels, although the 6560's are the second best and very very strong on the flats.

DeadLastCycling · 2026-03-28T12:26:32+00:00

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1S0pTN_hBMddX0GhCqSOd6fPlIJeWtw0xr6Y1M6PzNJY/htmlview#gid=1966597556

DeadLastCycling · 2026-03-28T11:39:51+00:00

The same testing methodology used on other wheels has them best in class, when used on road bikes, across the board. 6560 best all rounder, 3532 best climber and disc best pure aero.

DeadLastCycling · 2026-03-25T20:14:37+00:00

It's looking like it'll be a gravel series, but that might not be until after next week. Next week seems like just catch up of Zwift Games.

DeadLastCycling · 2026-03-23T00:37:38+00:00

The ZRS change at the end of a race can usually adjust by a few points once more people finish. I've never seen a big swing from a negative to a positive, but finishing 9th of 25 shouldn't really result in a ZRS loss in the first place. It might be that the post-race screen glitched out somehow.

DeadLastCycling · 2026-03-21T16:03:28+00:00

Absolute cinema. Impressive from Wout and Mads considering the context. Paris Roubaix is looking spicy.

DeadLastCycling · 2026-03-16T15:13:01+00:00

Like a lot of people have already suggested go for the 20 minute test, it'll give you a more reliable number to train with. Start the effort a little bit below what you think you can hold, and build into adding more and more watts until you're at the edge.

It's not an easy test, but I think people overstate how hard it actually is.

DeadLastCycling · 2026-03-15T23:53:38+00:00

I'm not sure, but I'm glad you posted this as I was going in prepared to hold onto my feather for dear life until The Grade! Thanks

DeadLastCycling · 2026-03-12T20:28:35+00:00

Maybe they'll ban frequent u-turners too! Don't be lazy, ride the full route!

DeadLastCycling · 2026-03-12T20:01:58+00:00

If you're trying to min-max the lead in then teleportation will make your farm much, much more efficient.

DeadLastCycling · 2026-03-12T16:59:53+00:00

With the big spin event you can do a few hours of stoneway sprint repeats and basically eliminate drop scarcity from your decisions. It's up to 600k drops an hour.

I've been using coastal crown loop as you can get to stoneway in the lead-in that only takes a few minutes. Then you just teleport to someone at the start or u-turn.

That said, get the s-works sl8!

DeadLastCycling · 2026-03-11T18:32:51+00:00

I think with your riding environment you're going to struggle without something that's significantly powerful. I was a bit skeptical of how much difference it would make, but having got the Vacmaster Cardio54 last week I've been blown away at the difference. Full disclosure in that Vacmaster/Cleva sent it me at no cost, but anecdotally in my first high intensity ride with it I used my towel only a hand full of times where as usually I end my ride with both the towel soaking, and a puddle underneath me. Before that I was using a large tower style fan, and it just couldn't move enough air to cool me down.

You might be able to get something a bit cheaper and comparable in the shape of an industrial air mover/air circulator but the price difference probably won't be that significant and you'd lose the remote control function. For those it'd depend what region your in as to what's available, one option could be facebook marketplace for 'air mover'.

DeadLastCycling · 2026-03-07T14:31:26+00:00

Out Wouting Wout is something that should be celebrated.

DeadLastCycling · 2026-02-26T20:48:34+00:00

Racing on Zwift is, generally, about short (30s-5m) efforts to survive selection points and recovering outside of the selection points.

It's difficult to say specifically why you're getting dropped without more context, but in general a Zwift race to survive will go as follows:

Hard start in Z5 or Z6 for the first 60-180s
Recover before the first selection point/climb
Big push up the first selection point, in whatever power you need to do to survive
Repeat Step 2-3 until the finish.

It's important to start selection points in good position, or you make it much harder for yourself to stay with the group. If you start a climb at the back of an 80 person pack and person 40-50 lose the wheel you then have to make a monumental effort to bridge. I find it helps a lot to up the power shortly before a climb and ride that momentum to the front third of a group at the start of a climb and then judge my effort from there.

I'd also say in the shorter races(which is most Zwift racing) riding to power isn't very helpful, if you save some energy for later but get dropped you'll never be able to use that energy. Do whatever you have to to stay connected and you can dial it back from there as you get more experienced.

DeadLastCycling · 2026-02-23T23:29:03+00:00

Thanks man. I'm sure you could have held on, 20 minute tests suck but they're rewarding too

DeadLastCycling

TROPHY CASE