RGTCycling... New name for RoadGrandTours

itboffin

@daniel_b I tried RGT but couldnt get it to work with the vortex and it turned out that unit had a hardware fault which was replaced by Tacx too late to use in the trial period, i might try again.

As for doing epic climbs i'd defo say one or two a week at the most, i'm now firmly set on Monday rest day, Tuesday Z1 or lower then back into ramp and power modes.

With 1-2 hour daily rides when i can, matching my turbo schedule. My ultimate goal is increasing time on the bike, from <7 to +10 hours a week, a far cry from my commuting days 15-20 hours a week.

daniel_b

Hey ITB,

that's good to know it was hardware related - I have a Vortex which seems to have always been fine, but a mate has a vortex which refuses to be controleld by ERG, just won't be 'smart' as it were.

He has been loaned a drivo by our club.

I'd definitely recommend giving it a go if you have the relevant kit, which I expect you do - should only take 10-15 minutes to configure, and see what you think.

I have become a bit obsessed with RGT recently, to the extent I have not been on Trainerroad for a couple of weeks, but I think in reality I need to complete 1 or 2 TR workouts a week, and then maybe a couple of RGT rides to mix things up a bit, and generate some added interest.

I went for Stelvio this morning, and managed to get my time down from 1:17 to 1:12 which I was pleased with - I measured the effort pretty consistenly, and ended up at 3w\kg which was my target.
Just rode on my own with some bots, but very enjoyable and no danger of any loss of focus.

Ben6899

I stumbed upon RGT, last weekend. Saw a mate had ridden to the Cap Formentor lighthouse (my favourite road) and wondered how he'd managed that during the lockdown!

I'm currently Bluetoothing from turbo to phone and the phone is paired to the laptop over WiFi so I see the programme on the laptop screen...

Is there a way of connecting Ant+ straight from turbo to laptop (I have an Ant+ dongle - Sufferfest user)?

diplodicus

If you do manage to get a group ride organised I would be interested in tagging along, but not while the weather is so good!

daniel_b

Ben6899 said:

I stumbed upon RGT, last weekend. Saw a mate had ridden to the Cap Formentor lighthouse (my favourite road) and wondered how he'd managed that during the lockdown!

I'm currently Bluetoothing from turbo to phone and the phone is paired to the laptop over WiFi so I see the programme on the laptop screen...

Is there a way of connecting Ant+ straight from turbo to laptop (I have an Ant+ dongle - Sufferfest user)?

Ben, yep, but it will be better if you have a usb extension cable to get the dongle as close to the turbo as possible.
As long as the laptop picks up the Ant+ devices, when you go into a course on rgt, tgen click on power, you should see the Ant+ options, one will say power, one will say trainer, and it's the last one you want

Edit: But you'll still need the phone as the controller.

daniel_b

diplodicus said:

If you do manage to get a group ride organised I would be interested in tagging along, but not while the weather is so good!

Maybe we can start a thread on here to promote rides.

First.Aspect

I'd be up for that.
... problem is our weather here in the east of Scotland has merited a few 2 hour rides lately so I've not been back on. Plus have to keep factoring in the rowing machine days...but if we are further locked down or the weather is shyte I reckon we'd beat the hour mark just by striving for man points.

Ben6899

daniel_b said:

Ben6899 said:

I stumbed upon RGT, last weekend. Saw a mate had ridden to the Cap Formentor lighthouse (my favourite road) and wondered how he'd managed that during the lockdown!

I'm currently Bluetoothing from turbo to phone and the phone is paired to the laptop over WiFi so I see the programme on the laptop screen...

Is there a way of connecting Ant+ straight from turbo to laptop (I have an Ant+ dongle - Sufferfest user)?

Ben, yep, but it will be better if you have a usb extension cable to get the dongle as close to the turbo as possible.
As long as the laptop picks up the Ant+ devices, when you go into a course on rgt, tgen click on power, you should see the Ant+ options, one will say power, one will say trainer, and it's the last one you want

Edit: But you'll still need the phone as the controller.

Thanks Daniel. Got a USB extension.

twotoebenny

Done my first ride on this earlier today a wee trip to the Fromentor lighthouse, ended up going a bit harder than I'd originally planned...

cjcp

Yep, I joined RGT last weekend and I'm hooked. Ridden Ventoux, Stelvio, Cap Formentor a couple of times (once back down to PdP), Paterberg, and the Pienza course a couple of times.

I tend to be on around 7.30am during the working week, so I can do an hour/hour and a half before work. Not sure what time I'll be on tomorrow.

1:09 up the Stelvio, 1:39 up Ventoux, 41 up Cap Formentor. Heavens to Betsy did I suffer. Had to stop on Ventoux to adjust the turbo a couple of times and was grateful for the rest -- I was trying to hold off someone who was consistently 100-200m behind me for a few KMs, and the squeaking became too much. They may have thought I'd stopped to vomit or something because the screen said I was doing 3.1-3.3w/kg and I was beginning to see stars. First time I've owned a powermeter (bought from @asprilla ), so all these power stats are completely new to me, as is this virtual riding experience.

I've signed up for the short/24km Pienza race at 0900 on Saturday. Whether I'll do it is another matter as I'm planning a couple of hours on there tomorrow morning.

N0bodyOfTheGoat

Anyone sent RGT a GPX file for a "magic road" creation? If so, what is the result like to ride compared to real life?

cjcp

Not yet.

Did the Ventoux route this morning. Felt much better than when I first attempted it - 1.21 - but some of the speeds up there are bonkers!

daniel_b

Hey cjcp, just seen both your recent posts - I have managed 1:12 I think it was on the Stelvio, something like 52 for the Cap, and yesterday tried Ventoux for the first time, and clocked something like 1:42, based on your most recent performance on Ventoux, I suspect you can achieve Stelvio in around or under the hour.

My Ventoux effort wasn't completely full gas, but my personal aim would be around the 90 minute mark, I think that could well be achievable in the near future.

Regarding magic road creation - I have not yet riden one, but from reading on the fb page, it seems gpx files sent in from completed rides often have horrendous elevation spikes, caused by hooky elevation estimation of the device I suspect, so the best method seems to be to use Strava to map the ride, but even then to use a smoothing tool to pickout any of th esilly high percentage 'climbs' that appear.
Think I saw a few people say their rides had 51% ascents!

cjcp

I entered the Stelvio race on Sunday morning as the family were having a lie in before tucking into the chocolate. 60-odd signed up, but only 16 or so on the star line. Did 59.21, but it was 0.2 miles short of the normal, non-race route, so I suspect I would have come in just over the hour.

Averaged 294w/3.6 w/kg. Some of the riders were knocking out around 5 w/kg - insane

Couldn't walk straight immediately afterwards. Had to lie down for a bit...

daniel_b

That's phenomenal, chapeau sir
Theoretically that kind of time is within my reach..... in reality probably not though!

cjcp

Thank you kindly

Did the 6pm race on the Paterberg route today. Came in 4th! \o/

Had to average 307 watts for the 51 mins/8 laps, and still couldn't bridge up to the front three, so finished a couple of minutes behind them, but put enough time between me and the two guys chasing behind me to be able to ease off just a little on the last lap, but a few laps on my own was mighty painful. Great fun though!!!

Definitely give the Stelvio race a go; you'll knock a few minutes off your time.

Ben6899

N0bodyOfTheGoat said:

Anyone sent RGT a GPX file for a "magic road" creation? If so, what is the result like to ride compared to real life?

Me. They created it pretty quickly, but I can only ride it if I organise a group ride on it so no idea what it looks like (because no on ever signs up)!

Ben6899

cjcp said:

Averaged 294w/3.6 w/kg. Some of the riders were knocking out around 5 w/kg - insane

There seem to be lots of 40/50kg riders currently signed up...

daniel_b

cjcp said:

Thank you kindly

Did the 6pm race on the Paterberg route today. Came in 4th! \o/

Had to average 307 watts for the 51 mins/8 laps, and still couldn't bridge up to the front three, so finished a couple of minutes behind them, but put enough time between me and the two guys chasing behind me to be able to ease off just a little on the last lap, but a few laps on my own was mighty painful. Great fun though!!!

Definitely give the Stelvio race a go; you'll knock a few minutes off your time.

Wow, that is some serious power output, I'm about 30% behind you!
Good call on trying a race, may well do that to see how I get on.

Ben6899 said:

N0bodyOfTheGoat said:

Anyone sent RGT a GPX file for a "magic road" creation? If so, what is the result like to ride compared to real life?

Me. They created it pretty quickly, but I can only ride it if I organise a group ride on it so no idea what it looks like (because no on ever signs up)!

If you are not arleady, sign up to the RGT User events page, and post on there, an ask people to sign up - loads of people on there, I sign up to random rides just to get them over the line of 5 sign ups, so the server spins up - no one else actually has to start the ride, you just need your 5 sign ups - so as long as you give a bit of notice, I expect you'll be fine, I often sign up for random events that I can't ride to help people out, and see a ton of people do on there now as well.

Ben6899

daniel_b said:

If you are not arleady, sign up to the RGT User events page

Where is this, Daniel? Thanks!

cjcp

daniel_b said:

cjcp said:

Thank you kindly

Did the 6pm race on the Paterberg route today. Came in 4th! \o/

Had to average 307 watts for the 51 mins/8 laps, and still couldn't bridge up to the front three, so finished a couple of minutes behind them, but put enough time between me and the two guys chasing behind me to be able to ease off just a little on the last lap, but a few laps on my own was mighty painful. Great fun though!!!

Definitely give the Stelvio race a go; you'll knock a few minutes off your time.

Wow, that is some serious power output, I'm about 30% behind you!
Good call on trying a race, may well do that to see how I get on.

Ben6899 said:

N0bodyOfTheGoat said:

Anyone sent RGT a GPX file for a "magic road" creation? If so, what is the result like to ride compared to real life?

Me. They created it pretty quickly, but I can only ride it if I organise a group ride on it so no idea what it looks like (because no on ever signs up)!

If you are not arleady, sign up to the RGT User events page, and post on there, an ask people to sign up - loads of people on there, I sign up to random rides just to get them over the line of 5 sign ups, so the server spins up - no one else actually has to start the ride, you just need your 5 sign ups - so as long as you give a bit of notice, I expect you'll be fine, I often sign up for random events that I can't ride to help people out, and see a ton of people do on there now as well.

There's a 50km race tomorrow at 4pm organised by a Canadian club. It's in Manitoba, so pretty flat. I've signed up, but may do something different instead.

cjcp

Ben6899 said:

cjcp said:

Averaged 294w/3.6 w/kg. Some of the riders were knocking out around 5 w/kg - insane

There seem to be lots of 40/50kg riders currently signed up...

I don't know if they lower the intensity settings, but they're rocketing up these climbs.

daniel_b

Ben6899 said:

daniel_b said:

If you are not arleady, sign up to the RGT User events page

Where is this, Daniel? Thanks!

Hi Ben - just another FB group, they want to keep the other one for general chat and technical queries.
https://facebook.com/groups/140335630752089/

The idea is you post the link on there for people to click on and join, and in the message you state a few key things, so what date, what time, average gradient, where the course is etc - although if you literally just want people to sign up so you can ride, then just write a pleading post!

cjcp said:

Ben6899 said:

cjcp said:

Averaged 294w/3.6 w/kg. Some of the riders were knocking out around 5 w/kg - insane

There seem to be lots of 40/50kg riders currently signed up...

I don't know if they lower the intensity settings, but they're rocketing up these climbs.

That's interesting, where do you see that?
I've heard some people complaining about people flying up the climbs, but the only way they can do that (to the best of my knowledge) is if they put their weight in way low - I'm 69-70kg right now unfortunately.

You can't lower the intensity settings to make you any quicker up the rises, it simply effectively gives you a bigger cassette (You still need ot generate the watts for your weight), so I suppose it means you can guarantee a higher cadence if you think of it, and not knacker your knees\tire your muscles early, but anyone of us could stick a 34\34 on to go to the alps no?

To give an example, if you had a 10% slope, and are running at 100%, that slope will feel like 10% (Assuming your trainer can generate 10% resistance!) where as if you run it at 50%, that slope will 'feel' like 5%, but you will be going half the speed - hopefully that makes sense.

So maybe at 100% you would need to be in 1st gear at 60rpm, pushing 220 watts, but at 50% you might be in 3rd gear @ 90rpm, pushing 220 watts.
Those are arbitary figures I have plucked out of the air.

What I haven't sussed out yet, is how RGT handles those turbos that can't generate the percentages, presumably it handicaps them somehow, but I wonder how exactly it gets that data back.

cjcp

I think you tap the "Slope" tab, and the drop-down gives the option to change the intensity. I have it on 100% because I thought that's what it should be set on.

I've got a Cycleops Fluid 2 turbo with a Stages powermeter rather than a smart trainer. I have to pedal harder to generate the power up the slopes and use the flywheel to generate resistance.

daniel_b

cjcp said:

I think you tap the "Slope" tab, and the drop-down gives the option to change the intensity. I have it on 100% because I thought that's what it should be set on.

I've got a Cycleops Fluid 2 turbo with a Stages powermeter rather than a smart trainer. I have to pedal harder to generate the power up the slopes and use the flywheel to generate resistance.

Yep that's exactly where you do it, but it doesn't help you go any faster up the hills, well unless the fact it effectively gives you a smaller set of gears is the case I guess.

As my gears are embarassingly now not setup very well on the turbo bike, I find it helps me keep a narrower set of gears to run at a lower percentage.

cjcp

Ha! Similar issue here: it jumps two gears changing up, then have to change back down to get the desired gear sometimes.

Ben6899

cjcp said:

41 up Cap Formentor. Heavens to Betsy did I suffer.

I bet you suffered. Heck of a time, that. I did a 43 this evening and was fully on the rivet, 3.5-3.7W/kg. Absolutely toasted when I climbed off.



There's an interesting looking Magic Roads group ride tomorrow at 7pm - Girona - which I might drop into.

George_Scott

For anyone new to this thread or looking for the essential information on RGT Cycling, we've just published our guide on BikeRadar.

https://www.bikeradar.com/advice/buyers-guides/rgt-cycling-guide/

cjcp

Ben6899 said:

cjcp said:

41 up Cap Formentor. Heavens to Betsy did I suffer.

I bet you suffered. Heck of a time, that. I did a 43 this evening and was fully on the rivet, 3.5-3.7W/kg. Absolutely toasted when I climbed off.



There's an interesting looking Magic Roads group ride tomorrow at 7pm - Girona - which I might drop into.

You should give the Cap Formentor race a go; you'll easily go faster. I did it tonight and clocked a 36:04 at an average of 317w. Just trying to chase down other riders or keep others at bay forces more out of you. In my case, I had a club mate hot on my heels.

Food afterwards didn't even touch the sides, and I've just stuffed carrot cake down my throat.

Ben6899

Another impressive marker, @cjcp . I might have a dabble in racing at the weekend...