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China and Europe in lockdown, millions in quarantine, borders shut, airspace closed, panic buying hitting the shelves of supermarkets...but only now seeing Paul cancelling a trip to Arran did i realise the gravity of the situation

Sunshine, showers and a strong wind today meant times were never going to be fast. 11 hardy riders braving the conditions, 5 of them Jets. Best turn out we've seen for a few years. David Cowan 38:36, paid Fiona Davidson 37:35, paid Kyle Maitland(J) 33:26 Fraser Elsby (J) 36:47 Martin Mulholland 37:22, paid Andy Ross 39:59, paid Ruaridh Mulholland (J) 38:59 James Ross (J), 36:12 Fraser Anderson (J), 42:13 Iain McTavish, 29:43, paid Marc Kelly, 30:58, paid Some great times there in the conditions, and congratulations to Iain McTavish for picking up the first silverware of the season. If someone can let me know the missing jets surnames, I'll update the list. Thanks to all the marshalls, and to my glamorous assistant, Elaine Muirhead at the start/finish line. I have £18 to transfer to the club account.

60 minute group ride, sticky draft on so no-one will be dropped. Remember to follow Johnstone Wheelers on the companion app if you want an invite Before the event is due to start make sure you have opened up the game and can see your avatar and bike - you can ride about on any course or just sit waiting. When it is 5 minutes to the start of the meetup a dialogue box will appear on the bottom left of the screen - select that and it will take you to the start of the group ride. Clocks are forward so mudguards can now come off

Hi all, Updated guidance from Scottish Cycling on training during the pandemic. In short - no intense efforts, keep it aerobic. We have been copied into guidance issued by SC performance coaches to their athletes advising against intense training and zwift racing. Good to know that we are already on that page in organising no drop zwift rides. Here's what they are saying: PLEASE NOTE NO HIGH INTENSITY TRAINING … no zwift racing right now. We can still do group rides on Zwift right now but keep it steady please … it is clear that you don’t want to be doing so much that is leaves you too tired and weakens your immune system. Scottish Institute of Sport medical advice right now: 1. Athletes with no symptoms should be advised to refrain from maximal sessions and we should be aiming at submaximal training for the next 12 weeks. There is an impact on your immune system if you do high level sessions…that makes you more vulnerable. We need to be protecting our immune systems. 2. If you are symptomatic / diagnosed with COVID-19, you must not do any training for at least 10 days ( possibly 14 days …we are debating the evidence at the moment ) and only then, if symptom free, can you start to do a stepwise increase over 7 days. This is because there is evidence of damage to lungs and heart. As you can imagine this advice is all based around keeping a super healthy immune system so eating and sleeping right will be paramount to that as well. I understand this is all very frustrating but please follow the advice if you can right now.

60 minute group ride, sticky draft on so no-one will be dropped Remember to follow Johnstone Wheelers on the companion app if you want an invite Before the event is due to start make sure you have opened up the game and can see your avatar and bike - you can ride about on any course or just sit waiting. When it is 5 minutes to the start of the meetup a dialogue box will appear on the bottom left of the screen - select that and it will take you to the start of the group ride.

Decent turn out for the first ride...keeping riders together feature worked pretty well meant everyone could work at their own level and get a good workout. Next ride probably Saturday morning i’ll post more details later

Since i have a bit more free time than planned I thought I would offer my congratulations to Coach Mul on winning the Scottish Cycling coach of the year , although I could never agree with Mul when I was a member , you have to give praise where it is due So👏👏👏👏👏👏well done Mul well deserved

Now only 4 weeks to go from minging to pinging

I did a race before this then had a 10 min rest before starting the JWCC ride. That was hard though and some of you guys seem to be naturals on Zwift. Is there a secret to it? Especially noticeable on climbs.... 😂

60 minute group ride, sticky draft on so no-one will be dropped Remember to follow Johnstone Wheelers on the companion app if you want an invite Also before the event is due to start make sure you have opened up the game and can see your avatar and bike - you can ride about on any course or just sit waiting. When it is 5 minutes to the start of the meetup a dialogue box will appear on the bottom left of the screen (plus on the companion app i think) - select that and it will take you to the start of the group ride.

Well, that was fun. First Zwift ride done. I have to admit I hadn’t a clue what I was doing! It seemed a bit quick to me- is that the normal pace for the social ride? My 60 min power was over 240 watts (whatever that means 🤪). Also, I didn’t notice any effect drafting or downhill. I presume this is only with a smart trainer. First impressions are that it’s fun, but I need to get the hang of it. At least in real bunch you can sit in if someone is smashing it! When’s the next one😅

Before the event is due to start make sure you have opened up the game and can see your avatar and bike -can ride about on any course or just sit waiting. When it is 5 minutes to the start of the meetup a dialogue box will appear on the bottom left of the screen (plus on the companion app i think) - select that and it will take you to the start of the meetup. Anyway was a hard route today - 5 of us and at the end Conal and myself opted to continue to the top of the Alpe after the meetup...another 30 minutes of climbing. 😭

Yeah, I use the zwift companion app on my phone to link the turbo to zwift on the laptop. I think the phone uses Bluetooth to talk to the turbo and then it uses the WiFi to link to zwift on the laptop. Usually works smoothly.

Top posting Billy😀 sorry we won't be riding together for a while. You are hereby invited to the massive club Arran ride which I shall organise to celebrate the rebirth of club rides. Until then I'll see you and Mul on Zwift, once I work out how to join. Stay well.

My mistake “Chris Biggins”

Another pointless post by the club troll. Yawn 😂

Anyone on here cycled or walked it?

That was fun! Thanks for the company guys, and cheers for the invite Iain!

I’ve no idea what I’m doing on Zwift, but 300+ watts sounds pretty good. I suppose you now have to ‘lose’ some weight 😅😅

Had my first go on Zwift today. Ended up doing two races. first race: despite selecting what I thought was an easier level everyone stormed off into the distance-I did 340w for first 2 mins and was still left for dead. Then got into a duel with a Canadian “dude” eventually dropped him and rolled in. 10 min rest and into next race: this was better. Got into a group that rode at a good power level for me & as race wore on I got confident enough to push on to catch other groups and move through them. Good fun but I was blowing a bit towards the end. as my group got to the last 200 metres everyone shot past me. Very realistic....

Thanks for the info Mul. I wouldn't worry overly much about the the BC Zwift race series Billy. You can choose not to do them. Also, the advice above in Mul's post probably supersedes early statements or announcements by BC/SC. As for clarity - a premium commodity these days. I know of a number of global CEOs who'd sell their mums for some right now. Perhaps err of the side of caution, as the elderly are supposed to be at high risk. 🤧😷

Thanks for the heads up. Also saw this....Jason may be an orthopaedic surgeon now but he is pretty clued up on this sort of thing and was a doctor with Team Sky in their early years so worth listening to. Anyway think i'm going to knock zwift racing on the head for a bit and stick to the virtual group rides and steadier efforts.

Yet BC have put on a series of races on Zwift, there is also other research that suggest something different . It would be nice to actually get some clarity from the governing body, because just now it looks like is ok to race and dig deep if your joe public , but not if your SC Performance Program

More like getting beamed up Scotty.

Thanks Roberto. Good to see you virtually in the bunch the other day.

Paul is right about power meters. I was in a rush today and just threw my road bike with Stages pm on the rollers in front of smart TV. Worked fine. Did not get the resistance feedback on hills but just had to work harder to keep up. Of course I fell off a couple of times trying to "corner" my avatar and I couldn't fiddle with my phone but otherwise great.

G - one has to keep up appearances even in doors. You never know when the window maintenance operative might appear!!! Out of general interest what times are being posted for the AdZ. Only ridden it once with 1hr 05mins on the clock.

Two points 1. only you would have a full length mirror 😉 2. tidy that cabling

For about £600 i'd be looking at direct drive (so rear wheel off and you attach bike to a cassette on the turbo) . No experience of either of these but Tacx Flux S and Elite Suito are in that price range as are a few others. You can get wheel on smart trainers for a bit cheaper

For me the easiest way to set up was via my Ipad - my turbo (which is a tacx neo) can connect to that using bluetooth and it is very straight forward pairing that (open the zwift app and then there will be options for connecting). A laptop will also be enough (assuming it meets the minimum system requirements) however it may not be able to receive a bluetooth signal in which case you may need to do it via ant+ which will require an ant+ dongle to plug into the usb. It's possible also to use some phones connecting via bluetooth and an apple tv 4k (also bluetooth) too. I think most smart trainers can use either bluetooth or ant+ these days but i'm a little out the loop on what the current models are.

Yes more than welcome.

Well done guys good initiative. Just a pity I aint on zwift

Cheers Billy, appreciated. Was a big surprise tbf but was chuffed to see the nomination came from a bunch of the Jets themselves.

Thanks chaps. Only time I've laughed in the last two days. We are going to have SUCH a big club Arran attack once this is over.

Arran Alert - there is only one weekend left to attempt the latest category in the Arran challenge, the Winter Single Arran (WSA), as the summer timetable starts the following Saturday. Next Saturday weather looks very good, wind maybe not ideal direction but that is what makes the challenge. I am going to have a go at his, could be either 7am or 9.45am ferry over. Only thing with 9.45 if you miss the return at 1355 then next one is 1640, so probably 7am. Plenty notice to taper and have a grand day out next Saturday As a refresher the categories in the Hall of Fame are SA - Single Arran SSA - Solo Single Arran 56+50 - An SA followed by a further SA but cutting out 5 miles and going over the Ross Road climb 56+ 50 S - As above as a solo ride DA - Double Arran and the new boy on the block - WSA - Winter Single Arran - which no one has done yet Hall of Fame attached Arran Challenge 2020.xlsx

Is there a blocking function on here 😉

Study in BMJ today Involving 264,377 participants (average age 53 years) recruited from the UK Biobank - a database of biological information from half a million British adults. Commuting to work by Cycling or walking is associated with substantial health benefits.

Thats an extra 2 pints tonight then

Brill. Can you timekeep as well? In which case, it's happening. In other news, I rode the route this afternoon, and the road was closed to facilitate tree cutting. This means that as well as standing water, mud and gravel, there will be sawdust on the section between the monkey house and Old Greenock Road.

Jan, if Scottish gov decides to ban gatherings of more than 500 people in order to slow the Corona virus then you might have to postpone this. or at least set them off in 2-3 groups....

Good turnout with 7 jets and wheelers in the Bs tonight! more in the Cs and Ds. Next winter hopefully see a few more of the regulars make a return too

Fraser Elsby, Kyle Maitland, Fiona Davidson. Thanks for organising Alan. Not done that for a long while, but it didn't take long to remember why I don't like time trials.

The pressure on the start line when we noticed your absence was great. Everyone knew that this was a rare window of opportunity that may not happen again in 2020 once you start your race season

Congratulations Iain and well done all today. Tricky conditions for a restricted gear TT

Hi Alan. I am happy to come and help out at the start. See you in the morning.

6 jets

entered last night … on time !

Great run out in the sun today, especially with Glen towing me round. Cold, but very sunny. Good to get out.

Have you been to Wuhan recently?

State of play: Archie has spent all winter at various hot weather training camps so should hit the spring in peak form. However he has also spent the winter annoying everyone so every breakaway attempt will be chased down by eager volunteers. Gregg is now a wheeler so will that mean everyone is racing for 2nd in the sprints? Billy is knocking out 1200watts standing starts at the track...if he could just wait a bit longer to unleash that power with about 100m to go he could be a contender Richie, Darryl and Paul are all flying and about to get faster again after their trip to Spain Marc, at the start of the ride will be telling everyone how he not been doing much and is really unfit...but then over the next hour will rip everyones legs off Charlie back in form and as a wheelsucker par excellence will be difficult to shift along the Georgetown Stuart has been getting some good results at cx so he could be the bunches van der Poel and van Aert Jess will find out if giving birth is the equivalent of taking EPO in terms of the impact on red blood cells George has promised to be utterly dominant and I have no reason to doubt his word Not seen Galeb, Robbie, Paul and Sam out on the bike for a while, i can only assume this is due to lots of secret training! The rest of us? well the only positive i have to say is that we've still got 6 weeks to get fit