PRL Full Advice and Bike choice

Hey everyone

I am going to try the PRL Full tomorrow for the first time - it’s my last route badge and I’ve been putting it off for almost 9 months since finishing the Uber.

Any advice?

What about bike choice? Although I will be doing it solo, tomorrow is a London day so I imagine there will be a fair amount of people on the loop. Still not sure whether to go for the Tron bike or a TT bike with light climbing wheels like the Lightweights or DT Swiss or ENVE 3.4s.

Any nutrition tips would be similarly appreciated along with any suggestions as to pacing (% of ftp for the climbs and for the flats etc).

Thanks in advance!

I did PRL Full on Saturday, the 13th of February. That was my last Zwift route badge.
I used the Tron bike. I figured the flats would be good for Tron, and the climbs are not long or steep enough to warrant a climbing setup.
I averaged 171 watts, 5:50 ride time. My FTP is around 230. My goal was to finish under 6 hours, and do each lap in around 30 minutes - I averaged 30:30 per lap, so pretty spot on.
I got off the bike each descent after the Box Hill climb. Even thought it’s only a 3 or so minutes, it was good to walk around a bit and refill the water bottle.
I took a break after 4 laps, then after another 3 laps, and then just before the 10th climb of Box Hill.
I ate 2 PB&J sandwitches, one Cliff bar, 2 bottles of sports drink, 2 small Cokes, and a couple of Pickle Juice shots.
After I finished, I drank a Muscle Milk, and used a massage roller on my quads. I was sore that evening, but felt really good the next day.

Good luck!

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For the PRL I resorted to not actually watching Zwift and put a couple of films on. It’s mentally challenging because it’s the same loop repeated 11 times.

You can see where you are on the companion app and you’ll feel the resistance on box hill and the escalator.

I didn’t care about my time so just kept the legs turning.

Good luck.

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I rode THE PRL FULL also last Saturday as you already know :wink: . Fortunately I’m not easily bored on Zwift. I think, Tron Bike is a good choice, but not for me. Since I have a Kickr Bike with Steering I need a bike where I can see if I’m in the draft or not. So I chose the Specialized Venge S-Works with DT Swiss Wheels as a good alternative.

Nutrition was also a challenge for me. I had the usual staff (drinks with addons, Power Bars, Bananas, even Haribos and Cola). You need to regularly add some fuel to stay on track. The ride took me 7 h 53 min inkl. 35 min of breaks (I’m slow but enduring) and I managed it. It was my last missing route badge too.

You can do it! Good luck!

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But you missed all the social aspects of Zwift then. :frowning:

Tom

Thanks for all the replies. I may experiment a bit with the TT and the Tron given that I have so many laps to do. I have the Cervelo P5 and with maybe the DT Swiss it could be a good TT combo. I wish I had the ENVE 7.8s but those are a few levels away.

I completed the PRL full on the 13 Feb, it’s a tough monotonous ride. I used the S-Works Venge and Lightweight Meilenstein wheels. I think a good all-round fairly aero fairly light balanced bike is best.

Take a few breaks, eat about 50g of carbs per hour and drink about 800ml per hour. You can recover by freewheeling down the backend of box hill for a few minutes. As with any long distance ride pacing is key so don’t push to hard up box hill you have to do it 11 times!

Great to hear how you got on in what is probably the toughest route in Zwift (although I’ve not done the Uber Pretzel yet).

Good luck!

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So I did the ride today and was successful.

Thanks for all the advice.

One point - just for science - I did a few laps on the TT (Cervelo P5) with the DT Swiss Arcs and the rest with the Tron. I had basically no difference with either setup - a couple seconds here or there so I stuck with the Tron as it’s prettier.

I agree with what I have read elsewhere that the Uber is way harder physically but the PRL is just mentally a nightmare.

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Well done, it’s a major achievement. Totally agree when I did it last weekend it was the mental challenge that made it tough, particularly going up Box Hill eleven times! I’ll never ride up virtual box hill ever again :joy:

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I did mine with a light frame and initially by accident with Zipp 808s, noticed my mistake on lap 8 or 9, changed to Enve 3.4s, with the end result that my last laps (even the one where I had to stop to change the wheels) were my fastest, one by more than a minute.

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So Zwift Insider shows 1,100 feet less climbing than the Zwift app. What did you find for an actual total?