Everybody can join!

We generally use the “Keep everyone together” option, which means that we stay together, regardless of your speed or power. 

We sometimes plan to have a specific workout during the session. In this case, you must press ‘E’ to select the correct workout as specified in the meetup invitation. The workout is now loaded and will automatically start when the countdown ends (along with the other riders on the ride)

Rides “without elastic”
We do organise rides during which we do not use the “keep everyone together” option. Those rides are mainly dedicated to BBB Racing members. In this case, feel free to join if you feel strong enough, but be aware you might be dropped.

First—you need a Trainer. This is what holds your bike in place. In many cases, it will also give us the info we need to make you move in-game and let you ride with Zwifters all around the world.
Second—you’ll need a Bike. We’ll help you figure out what bikes work best with Zwift.
Third—but definitely not least, you’ll need a Device to run Zwift on. 

BBB has prepared a flexible training programme with sessions which you can easily incorporate into your weekly schedules. It will provide you with a very solid training basis for Spring, and is ideal as a first step to more specific training you wish to undertake based on your race objectives.
This training plan is also ideal if you intend to take part in our week-ends or training camps: you will start fit and fresh and ready to take on a big days of cycling!

What is it about?

• A 8 to 12-week programme targeting strength/cadence, threshold (FTP), and VO2/MAP over 4-week blocks
• Each 4-week block targets one area in particular (threshold, for instance), named under ‘major’ category. Most sessions have also been picked to include 10-20% of training in another area (‘minor’ category) to recall past training sessions or to prepare for future one
• Each 4-week block increases in intensity, with the fourth week being an easier week to allow for the training effect we are all looking for (‘surcompensation’)
• An FTP (or ramp) test should also be performed during a ‘surcompensation’ week (before starting the training programme, on week 4, week 8 and week 12). This would allow you to adjust your FTP if necessary and measure progress.

What do we offer?

• Training sessions on Zwift on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, with advice and feedback from our more experienced riders to BBB Members.
• Our proposal is a well-rounded programme which we guarantee will improve your general fitness. You will have done cadence and strength work, and will have trained all of your training zones by the time you reach April
• You will achieve the best results if you follow all sessions, but feel free to join on an occasional basis: you are bound to improve and learn something!

The workouts are open to all BBB Members: Zwift group workouts allow all of us to stay together, regardless of our levels! Get in touch if you are interested.

How does it fit in your overall training programme?

• Training programmes are individualized programmes by definition. Each rider has different starting points, different areas of strengths/weaknesses, different race objectives. The science of coaching is also about feedback between the coach and the rider. It is therefore impossible to prepare a training programme that would fit everyone.
• There are different training methodologies, each with their own merits/flaws. The progression and organization of the workouts follows a traditional 4-week pattern (3 weeks that get progressively harder, 1 lighter week)
• The benefits of these workouts will greatly increase if your training plan follows a similar 4-week pattern. In any case, it is important that you perform these workouts with relatively fresh legs, at least sufficiently fresh so that you can complete the workout without decreasing the FTP bias on Zwift or skipping some blocks altogether!
• Any BBB rider would benefit from these sessions as part of a broader training plan (obviously doing this session as your only workout every week is not enough to increase fitness on the bike!)
• Doing these sessions as group training on Zwift is not only motivational, it also allows riders to exchange experiences, share feedback and therefore improve collectively
• We are not professional cyclists and do not have the luxury of time at our disposal: as long as you keep some sort of structure, you will improve your performance on the bike. Sessions can be moved from one day to another, and it is important to listen to your body (if fatigued: skip a session or do a recovery ride)

What could a weekly training plan look like?

A rider with 8-10 hours of training at his disposal could envisage the following typical training week over the winter:

• Monday – rest or recovery ride
• Tuesday – 1h/1h15 BBB structured workout
• Wednesday – 1h to 1h30 zone 2 (endurance) training (optional: rest if fatigued) – rest if fatigued
• Thursday – 1h/1h15 BBB structured workout
• Friday – rest or recovery ride
• Saturday – 3h endurance (Zone 2) ride. Mix it up with some Zone 4/low cadence on hills/a few sprints with plenty of recovery in between
• Sunday – 1h30/2h endurance or recovery ride if fatigued

During rides, training sessions or races, we communicate through different channels:

• Zwift’s channel, which allows us to write messages,
• With Discord app, that we use a tchat channel and/or as a “radio”

👉 Download discord
👉 Checkout our tutorial about how to use BBB channels on Discord

1. What are Zwift team time trial sessions organised by the WTRL?

Zwift Team Time Trial are organised every Thursday evening by the WTRL). They involve teams of up to 8 riders working together to get the best possible time overall.

They are hard, relentless and testing. But they are some of the best events you will ever take part in on Zwift. As they are becoming more and more popular, organizing team(s) requires a bit of organization and planning.

Here is an example of what Zwift TTT look like: https://youtu.be/ArQiHLVSyvY

2. What you need to race a WTRL TTT with BBB Racing?

You will need:

• To be registered on www.zwiftpower.com with accurate height and weight added. (How to register for ZwiftPower) (ZwiftPower is Zwift’s website resource for tracking race results)
• To create an account on the WTRL website
• To sign up to the event every week using the WTRL’s RACE PASS – your team ‘captain’ will provide that to you a couple of days before the events every week

You will also need:

• A Zwift subscription (doh!)
• A smart trainer (obviously!)
• A stable internet connection (this cannot be emphasised enough: please consider connecting your computer to your router via a cable to ensure maximum stability)
• To use ANT+ to avoid dropouts, you might need to invest in a USB ‘dongle. They’re about 15/20 euros. Bluetooth is NOT recommended (less stable!)
• To connect to the BBB Racing Discord channel (see below)

3. Important pre-race considerations

Zwift TTTs are very different from regular Zwift races:

• each team must be registered in advance on the WTRLwebsite,
• the team must assign a team ‘captain’ who will be responsible for registering the team members, communication throughout the race (the rotation orderfor team riders for instance), and the start procedure. He will also provide information regarding the course profile and some useful tips before race day and during the warm-up,
• each team member has to sign up to the Zwift event using the RACE PASS link provided by the team captain (note that the A/B/C/D categories do not apply here). The WTRL will provide the team captain with the right category ‘pen’, who will tell team members which category they need to sign up for on Zwift,
• each team member MUST use a road bike, not a time trial bike (very important, otherwise you will get no draft),
• each team member should get the classy pink and bluejersey and bib kit (you need to be Level 18 and above to unlock it),
• each team member should add (BBB Racing) after his name (for instance: J.Dan (BBB Racing)),
• please also select the fastest road bike frame and wheels you have in your arsenal before the race (ask on the Messenger chat for advice!),
• team members MUST use Discord to communicate throughout the race. Here is the link to the Discord BBB Racing room: https://discord.gg/bjMYTtsgRU,
• NOTE: there are NO LONGER any team tags

4. On race day

Start early

• make sure you have the correct (road!) bike, equipment (HR), water, towel, fan, etc,
• connect to Zwift well ahead of the event start time (30 minutes ideally). Bear in mind that Zwift also has to run updates sometimes which can delay the start of the app. As the effort will be violent from the gun, a good warm up is essential. There are many warm–up sessions to choose from (This 26 minute one is ideal),
• join the race at least 2 minutes before the assigned start time.

Start procedure
Although the event starts at a specific start time (19.15usually, we will NOT start at that exact time. Teams set off every 30s or 1 minute. The team captain will be given the actual start time for the BBB Racing team (19.19 for instance)and will be responsible for ensuring that we all start at the same time. This is one of the trickiest parts of the TTT!

Here is the full procedure (your ‘captain’ will recap the following steps during the warm-up):

• when the onscreen race start timer reaches 20 seconds, everyone in the team should STOP pedaling. When the start timer on-screen reaches ZERO and the banner drops DO NOT leave the pen, we will wait until our actual start time,
• press ‘A’ to enter pairing mode (or enter the garage in iOS) so you can keep the legs turning without moving forward,
• wait for the team captain’s instructions and for his countdown to the start: 20 seconds before the start, STOP pedaling, leave the pairing mode (press ‘A’), and wait for the ‘GO’ from your captain to start racing,
• a few minutes before the start, the team captain will also recap the rotation order for team Members and the length of turns,
• if all goes well, we will all start together. The first priority in any case is to REGROUP: those at the front should wait for the group to reform.

What not to do in this Youtube video: Nick forgot to stop pedaling when exiting pairing mode, and started way off the back…

5. During the race

Here are a few important tips for the race:

• NEVER SURGE, as that can create a gap. Stay VERY smooth, when changing pace.
• CLOSE THE GAPs, gaps are the enemies there, especially at the hill crests.
• RESPECT the puller. Its super annoying to pull as crazy and having a guy coming next to you or even passing you. It can happen, the Zwift algorithm will sometimesmove you to the front line even if it was not your intention.
• ALL IN THE WHEELS at the top of every climb. This is where gaps are created. We must be sure there isn’t anyone at the rear before we go down.
• WATCH the mini map regularly and communicate as clearly as possible: if you are feeling tired, if you are (or see someone) dropped, etc. This is where Discord is super helpful!
• The overall time of the team will be taken on the 4th riderfor teams of 4 or more riders, or 3rd rider for teams of 3.

Tactics to take your turn at the front

• We will be assigned a minute to take a turn at the front. The Zwift ride elapsed time will be used as a baseline.
• The team captain will call your name 10-15s before your relay. It is better to not be second in line, but to come from the back of the group. It is more efficient as the overall speed of the group will increase that way.
• When it is your turn at the front:
  – build up speed while at the rear and in the draft,
  – overtake everyone as smoothly as possible,
  – let the others close

6. Further reading

There are tons of good articles out there on how to ride the perfect team TT. Here are a few:

• https://wtrl.racing/ttt/TTT-Rules-and-Info.php – the rules, official information and great advice from the organisers
• https://zwiftinsider.com/speed-tests-ttt/ – useful if not geeky advice on the most efficient rider formation for a TTT
• https://www.reddit.com/r/Zwift/comments/ivnq93/wtrl_ttt_advice_needed/ – useful tips from people who have taken part in the Zwift TTT

You can download BBB Workouts here

Zwift now allows us to organise clubs on line.

As a member of BBB you can join BBB’s Zwift club through this link: https://www.zwift.com/clubs/ae075c6f-e84a-4fc3-85e9-8f65a7335ab8/home or search in “clubs” on Zwift companion and ask to join.

However, currently the club set-up on Zwift does not allow us to use the “keep together” (aka “rubberbanding”) function nor to customise workouts, so we cannot use it in some of the ways we would like.

For the moment we’ll use it to communicate about meet ups etc, perhaps run some test paced rides and see how Zwift develops the club options (it seems they are working on both the rubberbanding function and the custom workout function). So feel free to join so that we can gradually develop BBB’s presence on Zwift.

Follow those steps in case the ride is not organized through our BBB Zwift Club.

(1) To be sure not to miss any of the meetups set-up by BBB members or by BBB friends (a.o. BXL Zwifters), do not forget to follow the “ride leaders” on your Zwift Companion app :