This brought me into the final 3 days of the Flamme Rouge Racing series feeling primed, which I had discussed with Matt as being the target.

I did go rogue from the plan to sample Neokyo’s new routes and collect a badge, just to give myself a taster of what I have to look forward to in the future. Wednesday was penciled in for an easy ride, so I joined a group ride and got towed around Watopia, and Thursday’s rest day or easy ride was completed by joining the “Roll with Castelli” ride. I’ve mentioned this on numerous occasions, but when you ride consistently on Zwift, you will find yourself replacing components at a fast rate. This led me to the conclusion that the large chainring needed replacing, a subsequent one was ordered and another bike was fitted to the trainer, to keep me Zwifting.

The new chain that I had installed to replace the one that caused me problems in Sunday’s race continued slipping. I did attempt an evening ride, but the session came to an unexpected end as once again, I suffered chain issues. Overall, I did a good job with perhaps two lapses of concentration causing my data to spike, but for the most part, it was consistent. The session was called “Drift Test” because literally, if you didn’t concentrate, your power would drift. I found my eyes glued to the wattage in the centre of the screen. It was a challenge to find the zone and hold it for 30 minutes. It was difficult because too much effort and you were pushing wattage way in excess of the requirement, too little effort and you were then falling behind. This was all about finding your rhythm and being consistent, which sounds easier than it was. A quick 3-minute rest then led into the main event of 30 minutes at 285 watts. The interval session consisted of a 10-minute warm-up where the pace steadily increased until the last minute’s interval saw me pushing 345 watts. Tuesday’s interval session was reduced in its normal intensity and had me holding 285 watts for 30 minutes, which seems simple on paper but I will explain the challenges.

Need for speed most wanted trainner