Dmitry Shevarov: the World Championship in Japan, podcasts after the races and why 5 Watts/kg are overrated

Guest

Useful from the issue

1. The team in Zwift is assembled not only from the strongest.

   According to Dmitry, a victory in the junior category of KOM-ON brings the team as many points as a victory in the highest. Riders of different levels who are able to compete for places in their categories are important.

2. Rating knows how to sell an extra race.

   Dmitry was not going to go to the Grand Fondo finals in Ruza until he saw himself first in the ranking. The possibility of losing the lead outweighed both the cost of the slot and the cost of a babysitter.

3. On a long climb, determination alone is not enough.

   After the World Cup in Japan, Dmitry watched the video of another participant and realized that it was much longer to endure until the end of the climb than it seemed to him. To stay in that group, we needed a different power for 30-40 minutes.

4. Analyzing the race helps to let it go.

   After the night "Mangazeya" Dmitry could not sleep for a long time, scrolling through the options of how he could get through. By recording a podcast, he gives these emotions to listeners and returns to them less himself.

5. Inexpensive fees start with flexible dates.

   His company chooses a trip based on a combination of ticket and hotel prices, starts following offers after the season and catches promotions. It is important that everyone can afford the trip.

6. 5 W / kg for 20 minutes is not the answer to the question about FTP.

   Dmitry achieved such power on the trainer in winter but doesn't consider it a universal measure of a rider's strength. He himself finds it more interesting to overtake people with higher metrics.

7. In a sprint, you can win a position before the foot fight starts.

   In one of the races, Dmitry noticed his main rival's acceleration earlier, sat on his wheel, and finished ahead of him. This is the main pleasure of road cycling for him.

8. Sometimes it's worth looking around.

   At the race in Japan, Dmitry saw rivals and a bicycle computer, and noticed volcanoes and greenery while watching the track. His wish to the audience is not to lose the pleasure of the bike and everything around it behind the numbers.

How the TOP team appeared and ended

Dmitry liked the KOM-ON races because the hard training on the indoor trainer turned into an event: there was a parallel broadcast, the commentator named the participants, encouraged them, and analyzed what was happening. When the team scoring appeared in 2022, Dmitry suggested to Sasha Apolosov to form their own team.

TOP brought together riders and coaches from different clubs. There was no need to leave your street team for Zwift: it was a common project for those whose clubs could not yet assemble a full online team. According to Dmitry's recollections, TOP almost always had three teams, often won the team competition, and were upset with just a second place. When Apolosov and Anatoly Solodov tried to move the project offline, disagreements arose. After that, Dmitry says, the online team ended too.

Now he's putting together HBFS online: at the time of recording, there were nine people, he expected to recruit about twelve. Among the favorites, he names MTB training. With the current point system, he explains, the strength of the composition in different categories is important: you can't secure a team victory with just top-level riders. He likes that such a system needs weaker participants too.

HBFS: a club that feels its own

Before HBFS, Dmitry chased Desperados, then spent about a year without a team. At some point it became clear that in road group races it would be more and more difficult for one. Among other things, he was attracted to HBFS by the opportunity to perform next to Sergei Trubetskoy, whom he then considered one of the strongest in the amateur crowd.

He stayed for another reason: the club feels like his own. According to Dmitry, HBFS was created with the idea of uniting fans — strong for racing, different for communication. There are coaches inside, but no one is obliged to study with them. He himself gradually began to take on organizational matters. The online team is also his initiative: "No one asked me to."

A yellow jersey and a race I wasn't going to go to

Dmitry has an ambivalent attitude towards ratings. The Cycling Race yellow jersey warms the soul: individual results add up to a season that has a common meaning. But the same system easily forces you to go where you didn't intend to go.

Before the recording, he discovered that he was first in the Grand Fondo ranking, even with two missed races. There was a final in Ruza, and it became clear that if you miss it, the opponents can bypass. The decision cost "6 mowers per slot, 7 mowers per nanny", because on this day he should be with his son. Dmitry compares himself to a betting player: he hasn't lost anything yet, but he already wants to defend the first place.

At the same time, not all starts win in a dispute with the rest of life. He is going to miss Nirvana in Antalya: he promised his son the sea and has already taken tickets to Hainan. Further plans for the selection for the World Cup at the time of the conversation remain open.

World Cup in Japan: "It turned out to participate"

Dmitry went to the UCI Gran Fondo World Championship with hopes of both time trial and group race. But in the group it was not possible to stay on the rise, where I really wanted to endure. Already at home, after watching the video of another participant, he realized that there were still a few kilometers uphill ahead. An extra minute of effort would not have solved anything: it required significantly more power for 30-40 minutes.

"There are no miracles," is how he describes the sporty side of the trip. The international race itself was felt on a large scale: participants from different countries, a different environment, volcanoes around. It was especially valuable to go to the blue jersey, which the subscribers gave him for his birthday.

The organization did not seem in everything better than the usual Russian starts. According to Dmitry's impression, the starting town was modest, and the logistics of water and food turned out to be the most difficult. He says that he had to take the water with a stop or rely on his man. Due to the mountainous route and overlaps, it was difficult for the assistants to get to the right points, so they had to carry a lot with them.

Where gravel turns into a log

When asked why he does not like gravel, Dmitry corrects: he is neutral, there are questions about extra-long distances. Brevets are clear to him: you are driving a long route, and the list of those who finished alphabetically does not push you to fight for the first place.

He does not name a clear boundary in kilometers. He offers his own conditional criterion: if you already have to take water in excess of that in the flasks, there is a risk of getting the title of brevet. Ilya calls him to the Tsar Grader and offers him a slot, but does not receive immediate consent: "I'll think about it, but not in 5 seconds."

Nizhny Novgorod minitur and the legend of Makride

The Minitur for Dmitry has long been a meeting of old friends. Time trial, communication in the evening, a group race the next day is an occasion to get together with the Nizhny Novgorod company again. Inside the party, this is the "main race of the season": even the winner of the Russian championship is jokingly offered to come and defend the title here.

According to his feelings, the cycling party of Nizhny Novgorod itself has grown and become younger. There are clubs, coffee parties, new people. He recalls how he was afraid of a weak turnout for the opening of the season, and about sixty people arrived.

Another local story is Makride, a circular segment for about fifty kilometers, which is driven by shifts after work. At first, the usual route, then more and more attempts to beat the time — and now a legend. Dmitry is especially encouraged by the phrase "it's impossible to get faster." In one of the attempts, it was possible to improve the result with approximately the same composition due to a smoother ride: they started calmer, added later and did not fall apart by the end.

Podcast after the race as a way to fall asleep

The first analysis appeared in the HBFS chat. After the race, Dmitry was overwhelmed by emotions, and he wanted to tell about them with his voice. I recorded it once, twice, and when I missed it, the chat participants started asking where the podcast was. Other teammates also recorded their races. Later, Dmitry decided that such stories might be interesting outside the club, and started a channel.

At first, almost everything was audio, right down to greeting new subscribers. The text remained in the captions so that you could find the right race. The reactions and auditions inspired me to continue, but there was also a personal benefit.

After the night "Mangazeya", he returned home in the dead of night and could not fall asleep for a long time: the race continued in his head, options were spinning, what could have been done differently. When you write down a story, these emotions are less disturbing. "This is my therapy," says Dmitry.

Fees: to make it funny and affordable

The company arranged its first trips back in 2015: a threesome by car, accommodation where it was possible to negotiate inexpensively. Then the places changed, and Dmitry gradually realized that the main thing for him was who to go with. With the same company, it would be fun even in a hotel with a bike track.

For the last two years they have been going to Alanya, to the Avena hotel with all inclusive, for twelve skating days. The company has people with different jobs and budgets, so dates are selected according to the cost of the hotel and flight. They try to return before the start of spring school holidays, when prices are rising.

They begin to follow the offers after the minimum wage, catch stocks, compare options. Sometimes, even with the loss of commission, it is more profitable to return the ticket and buy it again. Savings begin with a willingness to adjust to favorable dates by the whole company.

Why is 5W/kg overrated

Dmitry first suggests figuring out what is meant by 'five watts.' He himself did 5 W/kg for twenty minutes in winter on a trainer, with a coach behind him. He doesn't promise to repeat this simply on the street and doesn't equate it automatically with FTP.

The main pleasure for him is to overtake a person in a race whose performance is higher. He remembers an opponent who seemed unattainable in the early years. One day Dmitry noticed the sprint that had started before him, managed to get on the wheel of an accelerated rider and finished ahead of his main rival.

This is where the meaning of road cycling lies for him: the result is determined by the speed at the finish line, and the ability to spend energy more intelligently allows him to compete with more powerful people. Additional watts will help, he doesn't argue with that. But the pursuit of a round number doesn't attract him on its own: '4.5 is enough for me'.

Tractor, free uniform and commentary booth

Subscribers' questions took the conversation far beyond training. Dmitry suddenly had a country life that he liked: he bought a large lawn mower, learned to ride a tractor and mowed grass with it. Sometimes now it's annoying to also have time to go for a ride — because it's interesting to do completely different things at the dacha.

When asked about free bike trails and a coach, he returns to HBFS again: he stays because it's his team. And shoulder movements, which others take as a signal to pass the shift, explains their own anxiety and habit of moving the joint. At this point, he may not be going to pass the shift at all.

Bombbar gels were also discussed: according to Dmitry, in the summer his usual product suddenly became more liquid, which raised questions from him and subscribers. He is not eager to return to commenting on the Cycling Race yet for a simple reason: getting on the broadcast usually means not going to the race himself.

Notice what's around

In the finale, the conversation returns to the pleasure of the bike. Dmitry is studying to be a psychologist and notices a habit similar to the behavior in a race: you only see rivals and numbers, and everything else passes by. In Japan, he looked at volcanoes and greenery while watching the lap, during the race itself there was no attention left on them.

His wish is to sometimes look around and notice the good things that are happening around. Including what I got on the bike for.

Timestamps

1. 00:00Who is Dmitry Shevarov
2. 00:50The TOP team: how it was assembled and why it fell apart
3. 04:39HBFS online and layout in Zwift
4. 09:47HBFS: A club, not a coach's business
5. 13:38Points, ratings and Cycling Race yellow jersey
6. 17:17Nirvana, Hainan and World Cup selection
7. 20:18World Cup in Japan
8. 27:42Gravel — holiday or brevet
9. 31:36Nizhny Novgorod minitur
10. 35:09Nizhny Novgorod Bike Party
11. 36:49Podcasts after each race
12. 40:10Winter camps in Alanya
13. 45:22Mcride is a legendary segment
14. 50:595 W/kg, FTP and dispute with Apolosov
15. 56:23Bikes
16. 57:19Subscribers' questions
17. 1:01:14Tractor at the dacha
18. 1:04:43Free underpants, shifts and gels
19. 1:11:07Will Dima comment on Cycling Race
20. 1:13:55Permanent category and suggestions

Mentioned in this episode

HBFS · Desperados · TOP · "MTB-training" · Zwift · KOM-ON · Cycling Race · Gran Fondo · UCI World Cup Gran Fondo · UCI Gravel · Nirvana · Tsar Grader · Nizhny Novgorod minitur · Mangazeya · Macride · Avena · Bombbar · "Shevarov's Podcasts"