This month is the Tour de Zwift which means perfect opportunities for sweet spot group rides!
This Saturday is Stage 2. The standard course takes you on the Innsbruck course which is a great opportunity to get that freestyle sweet spot in. You can use the 22-28 minute climb on course as your sweet spot effort. Then roll the rest of the lap zone 2. A lap takes 40 - 55 minutes.
And if you plan it correctly they have multiple start times so you can double up directly after your first event. Quickly you will have 2 hours with 40-60 minutes of sweet spot! TSS gold.
I’ll be out in the 9am and 10am EST events. Maybe I’ll see you out there!
Freestyle sweet spotting bottom to tops is the Zwift hack I didn’t know I needed. It’s working great and giving new perspective on some Zwift routes.
Jake, I missed Stage 2 but wonder if there are a few Zwift climbs available in some of the different worlds that you can suggest which would give us those 20, 30, 40-minute freestyle SS opportunities as part of 40-60 minute laps? Thanks!
Innsbruck is great, 25ish minute climb then a 5min descent back to the base of the climb again. The London Surrey hills loop is great also, 2 shorter climbs and 2 longer. Also the new Cliffside road in Watopia I think would be good - up the Epic KOM, back down and across the Cliffside road and back up again.
This is a great thread, I’m targeting 6Gap this year as my A ride, and around these parts of OH I can only get a bunch of 2-3min climbs in which just isn’t going to cut the mustard. I’d been thinking I should investigate using zwift for a bunch of good 20-40min sweetspot climbs later in the year. This thread is providing a good menu of options and ideas. Thanks!
These are just some options I look at when I want to do efforts. I will also look at different course laps so it’s not allows climbing efforts.
Again for sweet spot weekend rides I’ll choose a course with multiple climbs and just sweet spot the climbs and use the rest of the time as zone 2. A few courses I like are Watopia 3 sisters, Watopia pretzel, London Surely hills
Check out Zwift Insider for more details on climbs and routes!
I also find adjusting the trainer setting depending on the climb and effort you want to do. As an eg. for me Alp du Zwift can be a 50-60rpm grind when it’s at 100% (esp the closer to the top I get) but turning the trainer level down to 50-60% lets me keep the RPMs up.
Very good point! I always keep my trainer setting at 50-60%. Like you mentioned it keeps from grinding on the steeper pitches. I find 50-60% is plenty of resistance to get a good climbing feel.
For those playing along this week on Zwift the options are endless for sweet spot group ride. Each of the events includes a big climb!
The long event takes you up half of VenTop. The Standard route takes you up the Alp. And the short route takes you on the Epic KOM. Get your climbing legs on and your sweet spot game ready.
The short route with the Epic KOM maybe the call of the day as it allows plenty of zone 2 time around the sweet spot. But if you want to push yourself the Alp can be a hard 45 - 60 minute sweet spot effort. You can also do the longer VenTop and break it into 10 - 20 minute intervals, resting a few minutes between and getting back at it.
It’s working great and giving new perspective on some Zwift routes.
