3:56 is where the race review starts if you're a "jump to the action" type 😁

You've already won all the cats by getting your wife to watch you race!

I totally get it, recently returned to Zwift after a long break and trying to hang with the B's (and failing mostly) is far more rewarding than finishing high up in a C race. Each hill i stay with the B's feels like a win in itself!

@MarkLewisfitness

2 жыл бұрын

Exactly!

@DublinDapper

2 жыл бұрын

Im 85kg so i can usually stay with the Bs on the flats but they destroy on the hills. Funny though more and more you are able to hang with a few going up and then your buzzing afterwards!

@tsi92awd

2 жыл бұрын

Just got my upgrade to the Bs tonight. Its going to be a challenge, but that's how progress is made.

🎊 congratulations Mark and Jen, here's to many happy years together. Loved the video. 🥳🎉

Congratulations on the wedding. Yes please on the groom speech! I genuinely think your one of the funniest/wittiest person on KZread and this channel will grow and grow 🤞🏻

I totally appreciate you discussing enjoying zwifting and lifting and not feeling compelled to be a professional at either. I powerlift and ride, but struggle with setting goals. Your comments help me be okay with just enjoying both for what they are and not feeling compelled to strive, and be frustrated with, continual development for satisfaction. Thanks Mark.

congrats on the wedding, of course we want to see the speech!

The thing I find with B races, it's so easy to get dropped when not paying close attention e.g. toweling my face or eating/drinking. In C I could always hammer down a few extra watts and catch up that 20m relatively easily, but with B that's seemingly never the case - I'm just dropped.

@Lazy_Jay_Racing

2 жыл бұрын

That's exactly what I find.. 🙄

Congratulations Mark - looks like it was well worth the wait!!

Congratulations to you both! Looked like a great day. Well done to your son too, looked like he smashed that.

Fantastic video once again, by far my favourite KZreadr!

Kind of love that your son did the actual ceremony, best man's wedding speech style. Shows how much you all get on, despite the kicking the kids out jokes.

Congratulations to you both, be sure to remind Jenna how lucky she is! 😂 Hope you have many happy years to come. 🥳

Congratulations on your wedding!! Looks like you had an amazing time. As for racing, I have the exact opposite situation. Long races give me much better results. I get crushed at the line on the sprint races.

@MarkLewisfitness

2 жыл бұрын

Hour long races just fill me with dread 😂

Same here! I recently got my Ftp to 3.5 doing free rides, Zwift now gives me a warning i'll be flagged when I try to enter Cat C. Now i'm getting smashed by the B's. No more podiums for us! Congratulations on the wedding.

Speech, speech, speech, SPEECH! SPEECH! SPEECH!!

Haha 🤣 laughing at the hey are you dead poke

Congratulations. Your videos are very entertaining, thank you.

Amazing! I'm on the Computer Telly! Thanks for the shoutout. That was a fun race. What you say about finding your own race in the pack makes every race interesting and rewarding. Getting dropped from the lead group to group 2 is just the start of another race. Your content has been really enjoyable all summer. Congrats on your wedding and best of luck in the B cat. - Conor

@MarkLewisfitness

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks 🙏 And glad you liked your moment of fame 😀

@MrCbee

2 жыл бұрын

@@MarkLewisfitness I've officially peaked!

Starting to race in B cats is likely to pull you into B for all your races on ZP (simply drafting in B and trying to stay with the leaders will bring your numbers up over the limit). I got used to being competitive in C, rode a few B Crit City races to test myself (like in your plan) and am now a low B racer. Gone from regular top 10s and a few wins to being in the bottom third (below average). Having said that, my overall fitness and performance has improved and I wouldn't go back. Congrats on the wedding.

Pure gold. Yes to the groom speech……

Congratulations and best wishes 💕

Glad to hear I’m not alone. I too enjoy trying to master something and loose some of my inspiration once I’m getting better. I guess the good thing with Zwift there is always a higher category (at least in my foreseen future:)

Congratulations on the wedding, somewhat late. Just seen the speech as well. Amazing and have a wonderful life together.

Excellent decision! You will only get faster if you always race against people that are faster than you are. I spent my last six months as a B racing mostly A races. Eventually it pushed me up into official A.

"fighting amongst the rest of the rubbish people at the back" - Title of my autobiography.

Great video, Mark. Let's see that Way Above Average Speech. And, good luck in CatB. Hope to be there with you before too long.

Congrats on the wedding!

Congrats!

Nice work and approach regarding ZWIFT and philosophy…..BRILLIANT wedding (speech) BTW….to your lovely bride that is. She was crushing the vino. Brava!

@MarkLewisfitness

2 жыл бұрын

Ha! She actually had a lightweight day! More dancing than drinking, for once 😂

LoL 🤣 I love your one liners

Congratulations to you guys.

Makes sense to me, also, I said before but will say it again, congratulations to you and Jenna.

Love the video. Congrats for your wedding. I want to hear the whole 27 minutes :) can you post the BST start time for the race. might sandbag a little and join the Bees :P

lol fastest rubbish rider!! :D love it... congrats on the wedding.. so many strong cyclists .. well done on coming second!! :)

Great Video!!

Obviously everyone wants to see the speech mark. Love your approach to fitness focusing on personal motivation Not how others think. So many people are afraid of competitive activities because of other people when actually the only competitor that matters is yourself . . You have managed to make it a complementary part or your life not an exclusion. And I hope you make a few Bob from you tube. Looking forward to wedding video.

@MarkLewisfitness

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks Angus - speech has been edited to remove family in jokes and almost has wife approval to upload :)))))

Congratulations on an absolutely miles above average marriage!

Bring on the speech, you are a beast 😂😂😂

Mad b'trd. Great content :)

Not that you'd be sandbagging, but good on you for not just sitting back and soaking up the constant wins. I've found Zwift racing really demotivating to be honest and have found I prefer a more relaxed 'semi-competitive' group ride where I can pick a bunch of riders I'm on par with and have a bit of friendly sport in the group. Congratulations on getting hitched by the way 👍

Great video thanks 😊

your Mrs knows what zwift and zwift power is???? you have a keeper mate, congratulations !!! I've been off youtube for a bit, you have dropped a lot of weight.... ("coming from a nice place") be careful and dont let it take over your life or hurt you...

@MarkLewisfitness

2 жыл бұрын

That’s why I married her 😂👍🏼

haha, that Ghost powerup. I won an A grade City Crit last week and pulled out the Ghost powerup for the sprint. Felt dirty using that as I would have preferred the aero powerup instead, but only had the Ghost to use so used it and got the dirty win. I then apologised for using it lol. Hate it when someone uses the Ghost in the sprint. :P

Congratulations

Really interesting to hear about your Trackday background 👍

You caught me in a EVR Europe race (C) today in the very last seconds. Ride on! :)

Show the speech! your son was hilarious aswell

Harry Potter had no hrm.... zwift should place broken hearts next to their name like the cone for riding out of cat. Progression is hampered by doing what you are good at , continue to challenge yourself with new skills. I raced B cat ZRL last season and had predominantly 75kg team that did well on rolling and climbing courses. As there are flat courses and TTT events the team that won the league were pretty much 90kgs but probably not as strong as you . We did come second... so above average.! Join a B cat team and join the TTT and the flatter races. You know exactly how to score points with FAL and FST points. Huge Congrats on the wedding!

Congratz on your marriage!

Congrats for getting booted from C! Funny thing, I raced my last Cat D race last night because Zwift dq'ed me for winning with an average of 2.57wkg at Crit City. Like you mentioned , not a problem because I had said I would race "almost C" until I got booted. Now I get to get crushed at the tail end of C for eternity! But at least I have a new goal! Yes, your wife is HOT!!! and I would love to see that speech! Thank for all of your motivation!

I am at about the same place as you in FTP, had 3.3w/kilo today in a c-race. However I have a poor sprint, so was delighted to get a second place today in a 35 min race. Did the completely unusual thing of pulling hard from the start, also after the first surge, and just trying to make the race as hard as possible for myself and the others. A small group of 18 soon reduced to 9, and on the small climb (sand and seqoias) I managed to completely split the group. Ended up riding hard on last 3 km with one rider going from 5-10 seconds lead, and 2 riders 5-6 seconds behind me. The point of my rant, races arent more fun than you make them. Have had plenty of races where nobody wants to pull above 2.8-2.9w/kilo, but everybody has a massive 7-8 w/kilo sprint ready at the end. Fun to see some of the sprinters drop :-) Also considering the move to B, but it will take all fun out of the races with substantial climbing, they are hard enough in C.

@FoobsTon

4 ай бұрын

Yeah I've noticed that. There's not enough hilly races. The flat sprint style just suits the heavy power monsters...but the categories work on a watts per kg basis.... which is the opposite of most course set ups. Even the Muckle Yin isn't hilly enough. The downhill speeds achievable by heavy riders isn't realistic either. Descending at 90kmh is only for the pros.

Thanks for the nice sprint duel, I had to try something, your sprint is to good.

@MarkLewisfitness

2 жыл бұрын

If that ghost had kept you hidden for another few seconds it might have worked 😆

Congratulations on your wedding both :)

your approach makes a ton of sense to me, freshly joined the Bs this summer (as a mostly rubbish guy in the back ;))

@MarkLewisfitness

2 жыл бұрын

Rubbish among greats is better than being the best among the rubbish (C cats all over the world now going crazy 😜)

We need to see all that speech mate!!!

Great decision to compete in B-Category. In my opinion, this is really what develops top strength and gives motivation to go harder. If you have not tried to compete with a coach in a race, I can really recommend it. I often jump in and watch via team view when friends compete and give them tips and pushes them to go further. This makes them a bit more confident, and dare to challenge a little extra. Zwift is so much more than strenght in the whole race. Give me a shout If you wanna try having a swede yelling to you via Discord sometime;)

Rocky IV music is my go to as well!

Congratulations (two years late)!

Funny, I just watched another video of yours where you did the Harry Potter manoeuvre 😂

That race almost killed me. I've won a couple of shorter Cat C races lately but came 18th on ZwiftPower this time. Fun seeing how quickly my name disappeared from the "riders nearby" display at the start of the race video.

@MarkLewisfitness

2 жыл бұрын

Was a crazy pace.

We need that speech!!!

@MarkLewisfitness

2 жыл бұрын

I am seeking permission - I have already been told it will require some edits as some people there have already said that they don’t want me, basically roasting them, going on KZread 😂😂

Definitely need to upload the wedding speech as I'm yet to write mine and have less than 2 weeks to get it done 😂

I know where you’re coming from with the B/C thing. If I don’t come top 3 in a B race I’m disappointed but finishing top half of an A race is very rewarding. Haven’t raced Bs for a long time and haven’t won a race for a long time.

Savage speech

Nice. Same problem now. Zwiftpower: Minimum Category C Almost B. C is so boring. Only race in B (Already 3 times)😎👍👍

Hey Mark, I’m Harry Potter. Sorry to have had to do that to you - didn’t fancy getting pipped by an aero helmet on the line! See you in Bs for a more manly head to head sprint soon!

muppet. :-) love it

I like the last part of the race where you shown us your wife was there to make sure you are not fainted! hahahahahaha! (y)

That's why I race A grade races. I would rather come mid-pack in A than win B too, even though my FTP has me as a solid B grader. Most A grade races I'm happy not finishing last. I win a few too, mainly City Crits, if no elite A graders turn up. B grade races are also full of A grade sandbaggers too, so in reality there's not a huge difference between A and B grades, depending on the races you enter. A grade races can also be split into elite A and club A too. The elite A graders are A+ in Zwiftpower, so that could almost be a grade on its own, but the numbers probably would not be enough to run decent races.

*Ghost power up dropped. Me: old mate must have a dodgy internet connection….everytime

Just waiting to join zwift again :) this summer i wans´t at home so no zwifting just riding outside. Since cristmas i lost like 15kg and doing the sport much more for fun than bevore just to do what i can do. More variation more fun better results.

Good attitude - there really is not enough time to pat ones self on the back.

Cat A racing on Cat B, Cat B racing on Cat C , Cat D recovery ride 😂

Yes Please :)

Welcome to the Cat B Party at the Back 👍🏻😂

I need one good reason to buy a zwift this winter! 🚴‍♂️🤷‍♂️

I use to be a C cat winner, I'm now a B cat rider aiming for above average position which is making me stronger, better to push than settle like you have with your wife 😁

BTW: Did you say "numpties?" I look forward making use of that excellent word in the future. Thanks for enriching my life.

@MarkLewisfitness

2 жыл бұрын

ha! Glad to have added to your vocabulary 😂

@cyclingnerddelux698

2 жыл бұрын

@@MarkLewisfitness Seriously though, your content is awesome!!

as a slight difference but a similar outlook, I use to game competivly and the only way to improve was to play against those better than you, it's a way of looking at things I've had for a long time

hey not using your wahoo kicker bike? :)

Last video of yours I watched you used a ghost power up to get a KOM and here you are bitching about it 😂 love the videos, that tickled me

@MarkLewisfitness

2 жыл бұрын

When I use the ghost it’s a clever tactical move. When used against me it’s basically cheating 😂😂😂

@wazzerbaby

2 жыл бұрын

Yeah! I was going to remind you of that Harry Potter move, as well 😂. Great video and congratulations on the wedding.

@MarkLewisfitness

2 жыл бұрын

@@wazzerbaby When the big guy drops it on a climb and gets KOM - that's pure genius. Some skinny ass dumping it to sprint to the is outrageous 😁

On behalf of those at the back of B races "Welcome".

7:41 Wait; so Zwift does actually have a way to make sure people don't cheat the weight and height thing? That's good.

Ha Ha 10:45 - My Hero 🤢🤣

I generally avg 3.7w/kg in 20 miles races and still get dropped in Cat B. Cat B seems the hardest jump as nobody likes moving to Cat A because they are all beasts 🤣

@bitminerbob6731

2 жыл бұрын

If you're averaging 3.7w/kg and getting dropped in a B grade race, you must be light, and that 3.7w/kg is not producing as many raw watts as the other riders.

@cyclingthomas826

2 жыл бұрын

3.7w/kg is still 3.7w/kg though regardless of the weight. I just consistently throughout and need to get better at reading when the burst are coming in

@MsPietpaaltjes

2 жыл бұрын

My ftp is 3.9w/kg and i still get dropped. B racing is though as nails.

Level 19 zwift cycling, cat C.😊

Would appreciate a video with tips on upgrading wife to the newer, faster sports model. I'm above average, I hear that helps.

There is no need to leave the category you could always do longer more challenging race distances or hill/mountain races. Sprints are your strength the others maybe less so.

@MarkLewisfitness

2 жыл бұрын

I do those too 👍🏼

I ride in B and I'm similar weight to you. Basically get dropped on any hill

Weetbix on the BBQ? lol, how did you know? Mark, are you interested in getting into the weekly zwift race series in a few weeks (ZRL)? It's a fun points race or TTT, and the points go to a team ranking each week. You don't need to race every week, as riders can swap in and out if needed. Let me know if you are keen to try it, I can find you a spot in a C team, your time tuesday nights. The races are really competitive, and being a team event, the extra motivation to ride for the team takes zwift to a new level.

@MarkLewisfitness

2 жыл бұрын

I did ride in the ZRL as the start of the year - trouble is it's just too tricky for me to commit to anything. Even just the odd Tuesday. TOO MUCH going on!

@titaniumben9923

2 жыл бұрын

@@MarkLewisfitness No worries, Let me know if you are keen for a cameo as I think we will have a spot free most weeks. Lot's of guys on the team enjoy your videos and would love to have you along.

@MarkLewisfitness

2 жыл бұрын

@@titaniumben9923 Happy to do that!

I'm right at the tipping point of going into cat. A and never winning anything again 😬 but I could also just keep the weight up and make winning cat b harder 🤔 I find it very satisfying beating guys that have put thier weight as 45kg up the climbs. 87kg myself although it doesn't happen all the time 😅

I'm a B but never do the Aussie crit crusher because 9pm is TV time - not next week it's not. See you then!

@bravehartley

2 жыл бұрын

And of course we want to see the speech!

@MarkLewisfitness

2 жыл бұрын

😂 you’ll have to watch love island on catch up 👍🏼

Congrats on the wedding…..now when are you returning to defeat the face wrecking pavement and complete a marathon followed by a trek up the Alpe?

@MarkLewisfitness

2 жыл бұрын

Might have to be after the 100km Ultra now on the 11th - so late sep!

@markevans7460

2 жыл бұрын

@@MarkLewisfitness I look forward to you bossing that one 💪….so now you’re lean (check) and married (check)…are you going to be so regimented with your diet….or relax a bit and indulge with a burger or four?

I take being called a numpty quite personally 😂

@MarkLewisfitness

2 жыл бұрын

Good - I always worry my insults get lost in the black hole of social media - good to know this one found a target 😂🤣

@NotSamUK

2 жыл бұрын

@@MarkLewisfitness haha, thanks for the video! It cleared up how I got dropped towards the end, sneaky ghosts and you chasing them down catching me off guard!

@MarkLewisfitness

2 жыл бұрын

@@NotSamUK gotta stay sharp that last 1000 m 😄

no wonder i can never hang on to C lol

Your comments about growth and sucking remind me of reading Dave Hollis book - "Get out of your own way"

Fucking crushed it mate

Rather be a little fish in a big pond than a big fish in a little pond.

I also join B’s sometimes (I am A), but I make dure that I atleast in the 2/3 of the group.

@chalkus

2 жыл бұрын

Why do you join B if you are an A?

@ingmarneple6072

2 жыл бұрын

@@chalkus for a easy ride :)

@ingmarneple6072

2 жыл бұрын

@@chalkus easier*

@chalkus

2 жыл бұрын

@@ingmarneple6072 why not have an easier ride in group rides (not races) instead of affecting the experience for other people?

@MarkLewisfitness

2 жыл бұрын

@@chalkus It's a good point - I join in D group rides when I want to do a nice steady 1hr at a (for me) easy pace - C group rides can be a bit mad at times. But I'd not jump in a D race!