2016 MFP CLASSICS CHALLENGE - DISCUSSION THREAD
TheBigYin
Posts: 5,686 Member
This year, in an attempt to revitalise this challenge a little, there are a few changes that I'd like to try and implement... First of all, I think that we should expand the challenge to take in a few more of the one-day "semi-classics" and long established races.
So, with that, here's a few Dates for the Diary... These dates are possibly subject to change, but are as per the "Classics List" on www.steephill.tv.
Cycling Classics 2016:
Trofeo-Laigueglia - Sunday Feb 14
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad - Saturday Feb 27
Kuurne-Brussels-Kurne - Sunday Feb 28
Le Samyn - Wednesday Mar 2
Strade Bianche - Saturday Mar 5
Milan-San Remo - Saturday Mar 19
Dwars door Vlaanderen - Wednesday Mar 23
E3 - Harelbeke - Friday Mar 25
Gent-Wevelgem - Sunday Mar 27
Ronde van Vlaanderen - Sunday Apr 3
Scheldeprijs - Wednesday Apr 6
Paris-Roubaix - Sunday Apr 10
De Brabantse Pijl - Wednesday Apr 13
Amstel Gold Apr - Sunday 17
Flèche Wallonne - Wednesday Apr 20
Liège-Bastogne-Liege - Sunday Apr 24
Break for Giro d'Italia Grand Tour Challenge - May 6 - May 21
Break continues for Tour de France Grand Toru Challenge - Jul 2- Jul 24
San Sebastian - Saturday Jul 30
Break for La Vuelta Espana Grand Tour Challenge - Aug 20 - Sep 11
** GP Ouest France ???
** GP Cycliste Québec Sep 9
** GP Cycliste Montreal Sep 11
Milano-Torino - Wednesday Sep 28
Il Lombardia - Saturday Oct 1
Paris-Tours - Sunday Oct 9
** Note - the three races marked are at this moment not scheduled for inclusion in the challenge - the 2 Canadian races, because of clashing with the closing week of the Vuelta Challenge, and teh GP Ouest France because i'm not sure WHAT the date will be at the moment. IF it doesn't clash with any of the Grand Tours then it will be slotted in as appropriate.
The more observant of you will have spotted that some of the races are in bold. These races are the ones that were in the Classics challenge last year, and are IMO the "true" classics. As such, they will be attracting a slightly higher points tarrif than the other "semi-classics"
Last year we had quite a few people comment that it was a shame that they had an event on the Saturday, and therefore wouldn't be adding anything to the Sunday where the race was being run. So, at the risk of making lots of extra work and hassle for myself in waiting around for the rides to get booked in, what I'm proposing is this...
For any of the races on a Weekend, you are allowed to book A SINGLE STRAVA LOGGED RIDE, from either the Saturday OR the Sunday. This of course doesn't apply for the Omloop/KBK weekend, as there is a race on Saturday and Sunday. As per last year, anyone who has entered any of the "pre-classic sportif rides" that are based around these classics (and generally are run in the couple of days prior to the actual race-day, over the same route on closed roads) gets to enter their ride from the sportif, provided photographic proof of competing in the sportif is added to the thread.
Off the top of my head, I think that this year the Paris-Roubaix and RVV both have sportives run the day before the race, though I'm happy to expand this to any other races that also have a pre-event sportif. (L'Eroica doesn't count, as it's at the other end of the summer to the Strade Bianche BTW
)For any of the Mid-Week Races, the ride has to be on the specific day of the race.
As to points scoring, again there's a small tweak, Book a single ride (if you commute take the long way home and book that one), recorded on Strava.
For the "True" classics, the BOLD ones in the list, points are awarded for the first 15 finishers as per last year...
Longest distance gets 25 points, next 20, then 16,12,11,10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,and 1. Spot prizes / bonuses also awarded - these are announced before the event, and are usually either picture bonuses (get a point for a picture of a windmill or cobbles say on paris-roubaix day, or say a roadside chapel on Il Lombardia day.)
For the "Minor" classics, they will attract a lower points tarrif (and points only for the first 10 finishers)
Longest distance gets 20 points, next 16, then 12,10,8,6,4,3,2,and 1. Spot prizes / bonuses will not generally be awarded for these races.
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so... Anyone fancy a go ??
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Yep stick my name down, hopefully I'll have a better one this year.0
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In as always! :-)0
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All in.0
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It looks like I won't be able to do anything before at least the end of March. We are getting El Nino'ed to death with rain and flooding. So all of my rides until the rainy season ends are on my turbo trainer. I upload my data from my Wahoo phone app to Strava, but alas, no outdoor rides. It look like I will miss most of the Monuments. Will be doing the Giro though.0
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Sign me up.0
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Is it outdoor rides uploaded to Strava only?0
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Style for miles. I'm in.0
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steffenson wrote: »Is it outdoor rides uploaded to Strava only?
Absolutely - no "virtual rides" allowed - it's all about getting outside with the rain in your hair and the mud in your teeth.
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anaconda469 wrote: »It looks like I won't be able to do anything before at least the end of March. We are getting El Nino'ed to death with rain and flooding. So all of my rides until the rainy season ends are on my turbo trainer. I upload my data from my Wahoo phone app to Strava, but alas, no outdoor rides. It look like I will miss most of the Monuments. Will be doing the Giro though.
There's plenty of rides at the back end of March, through to October - most of the "real" classics, the higher scoring ones, are in this period, so I wouldn't dismiss it - Plus - there's no rigorous "Sign Up, and participate in every Race on the Calendar" - even the pro's pick and choose the races that suit them. I know I'm not going to be on full ahead mode in the early rides - getting a ride in at all is going to be highly weather dependent for me - if it's poor weather, I may well have a whole string of 10km long rides around the local country park in the mud on my MTB...
Won't matter - the real object of this challenge is to try and get out and ride even if the weather's saying "maybe tomorrow instead"
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Jakess1971 wrote: »Yep stick my name down, hopefully I'll have a better one this year.KitTheRoadie wrote: »In as always! :-)All in.Sign me up.cowbellsandcoffee wrote: »Style for miles. I'm in.
well - that makes 6 of us so far... if it cut's off here, we're all guaranteed between 6 and 10 points per ride - plus any photo-bonuses
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Goes without saying... I'm in! May miss the 14th Feb though; missus informs me I'm taking her away for the weekend [Grumble]0
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I'm in0
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Naturally i'm in
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just like Flynn...
Love the 1 booked ride on a weekend to count, great innovation!0 -
Sign me up too.
I also might be doing little 10km rides until the end of March but this looks like fun.
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Spatialized wrote: »just like Flynn...
Love the 1 booked ride on a weekend to count, great innovation!
partly driven by the number of people saying "oh, i'd have entered, but I just can't ride on Sundays, it's "family day" (whatever that is... rule #11) and, I must admit, partly because I really, REALLY want to join in this year, and if I've saturday and sunday to get out, I've twice the chance of actually getting weather where I CAN actually ride...
It depressed the hell out of me last year to be running this challenge (my undisputed favourite of all the ones I organise) and to barely participate in it...
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steffenson wrote: »Sign me up too.
I also might be doing little 10km rides until the end of March but this looks like fun.
just let me know if you're on a 10K and I can try and do 11... I'm going to need every point I can get!
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Need the encouragement to ride which these challenges always give me.0
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steffenson wrote: »Sign me up too.
I also might be doing little 10km rides until the end of March but this looks like fun.
just let me know if you're on a 10K and I can try and do 11... I'm going to need every point I can get!
I think I will being doing 9km for all of them.... *wink* *wink*0 -
Jakess1971 wrote: »
Hah! Barely! and you've had loads of time off!0 -
I'm in Mr Yin...Sign Me Up...0
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verdemujer wrote: »Need the encouragement to ride which these challenges always give me.I'm in Mr Yin...Sign Me Up...
Excellent... The more the merrier...
I'd like to make it a good Classics Campaign this year, in honour of Spartacus's Final Season. Damn, I'm going to miss him in 2017, it's really not going to be the same - real end of an era stuff for me
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No, I'm Sparticus...
Too soon?
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so I just looked at my garmin connect dashboard, and compared the calories burned there to what it says when it uploads to my strava, and sad to say, I am getting way gypped! my ride today on garmin connects is 1500 calories compared to 1,100 on strava. Now thats not too terribly different, (although it is a whole point) but going back to my saturday ride, strava gave me 1,900 calories, but when I look at garmin connect, its over 3,000 -
Does anyone know why it is says something completely different when it uploads from Garmin connect to Strava? oh well It doesnt matter anyways -Im still doing good!0 -
so I just looked at my garmin connect dashboard, and compared the calories burned there to what it says when it uploads to my strava, and sad to say, I am getting way gypped! my ride today on garmin connects is 1500 calories compared to 1,100 on strava. Now thats not too terribly different, (although it is a whole point) but going back to my saturday ride, strava gave me 1,900 calories, but when I look at garmin connect, its over 3,000 -
Does anyone know why it is says something completely different when it uploads from Garmin connect to Strava? oh well It doesnt matter anyways -Im still doing good!
I dealt with that a month or so ago. My Strava way lower than Garmin. Make sure both Strava & Garmin Connect profiles are up to date on everything, age, height, weight, fitness level, FTP, etc. Once I did this, my comparisons were still off but much closer. Instead of long rides being thousands off, it's only hundreds. Close enough for me to not bother with posting both Strava and Garmin data on the log. And yes you are the climbing Queen!!!0 -
so I just looked at my garmin connect dashboard, and compared the calories burned there to what it says when it uploads to my strava, and sad to say, I am getting way gypped! my ride today on garmin connects is 1500 calories compared to 1,100 on strava. Now thats not too terribly different, (although it is a whole point) but going back to my saturday ride, strava gave me 1,900 calories, but when I look at garmin connect, its over 3,000 -
Does anyone know why it is says something completely different when it uploads from Garmin connect to Strava? oh well It doesnt matter anyways -Im still doing good!
What you have to ask yourself is what do you use in your diary, my Garmin bigs me up more then Strava too but I prefer to go for the lower calorie burn as I feel that is more realistic and it's what I tend to use, I notice a lot of people well over estimate calorie burns, it takes me a hundred miles to burn what some stick down for a hundred kms, saying that we are all built very different so it may well be valid for them, just means I have to stick in extra effort for those points! 0 -
oh... why are Garmin and Strava different on Calories...
Short answer... Garmin calculates calories based on Heart Rate, slightly modified by your Height,Weight, and Gender. But, unless it's been "Calibrated" to your particular metabolism ("New Leaf" do a testing/calibration service that gets the 800/810 series pretty damned accurate, but it's fiendishly expensive - think more than the cost of the Garmin over a year, and you DO need to keep re-testing and checking if you lose/gain weight or fitness...) it's simply using a "best guess" of how many calories you're burning. Strava uses its own "guess" based on Power rather than Heart Rate. So, if you've got a "real" powermeter (or a reasonably accurate smart trainer that reports power) then it'll do a conversion based on the power you put down for a entire ride. I believe that if you have an un-calibrated Garmin AND a powermeter, then the Garmin may well report calories based on a 1:1 conversion between kilojoules from the powermeter - but I can't be 100% sure on that, as I've actually got a "newleaf" profile in my Garmin 800 and that over-rides any other calculation method. If I don't have a HR paired at all, then the Garmin resorts to complete guesswork, and is next to useless in accuracy - reporting something like 800 kCals per hour of 3mph walking - I wouldn't burn that much riding the bike for a hour at 14mph!
Wow, that wasn't exactly all that short was it...
But - if you want the LONG ANSWER, go have a look at this post I made a while back...
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1120751/strava-calorie-calculations
Lots of data, tables, mathematics, links to external sources, the whole 9 yards...
you'll see why I didn't want to type it again, that's for sure.
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2 more and I'll be out of the points...
