The 7 Deadly Wins challenge is my personal mission to collect a gold trophy in every Zwift Classic, no matter how many tries it takes. You can follow the highs and lows on my Youtube channel, Zwiftaholics.
Attempt #1: A Multi-Faceted Failure
It started with the stream, which started, stopped, stuttered, and quickly shut down entirely. An apt metaphor for how the race would pan out.
I went into the race with a premeditated plan to take the outcome into my own hands and win with a bit of style, launching off the front at 1.9km to go with a punchy attack up the shallow rise followed by the knockout blow up through the sprint banner. The bunch, disheartened, would settle for a sprint for second place and I would never be seen again.
It started so well. The attack surprised the bunch and I held the power in orange numbers for almost 20 seconds. A 40m gap opened up. I was away! I put my head down and powered up the rise, holding 7 W/kg, feather power up activated, feeling good. What would the gap be when I looked back at the screen? 5 seconds? Could it be as much as 8?
I crested, ready to assess my lead and take in some big breaths on the descent for the final push to the line…but I was not alone. A DIRT rider had shut down the gap entirely and was in my wheel, with the bunch only 1-2s in arrears. I wish the stream or recording had worked so I could go back and marvel at that closing effort.
The brink of exhaustion is a bad place to be reassessing one’s situation and adjusting a strategy, so I kept it simple. Hold on for dear life, then sprint with whatever’s left. It wasn’t enough. David Husband, the rider who’d closed me down so mercilessly, had managed to kick again and take the win by over half a second. Amazing ride.
I managed to sneak onto the podium in third, but the challenge remained unbeaten. Time to re-roll.
Attempt #2: Keeping it Simple
I chose this time slot because it had two races an hour apart, figuring I may as well have another go while I was kitted up and warm. No time or energy for advanced tactics or rigorous competitor analysis this time. Basic to basics: conserve as much energy as possible and save it for the sprint.
It was another attritional race. One rider, Jeff M, seemed to sprout wings every time the road tilted upwards and was always off the front, but we let him dangle and brought him back each time, even if we were losing a few off the back with each surge.
Things heated up from 3km to go – the same point I’d decided to go back into on-the-bike commentary mode – so you can see the spicy finale below:
This time things went to plan (apart from getting the dreaded anvil power up through the final banner). Bunched at 400m to go. Shift up twice. Get on top of the gear. All in from 200m. This time when I looked up it was the sight all racers dream of, a clear road between me and the finishing line. One down, six to go.
Watopia Cup Awaits
I have no good memories of Two Bridges Loop. I was dropped on the steep pitch up the Reverse KOM in the Zwift Racing League, and at the same point in the HERD Summer Racing League. I did a woeful ITT around it for the Tri Oceania Challenge. My best result is third, in a one-lap sprint race, after once again being dropped in the exact same spot.
Nevertheless, that punchy ramp is normally good to me on races that feature the full climb, and I even held onto an A grade field up it twice in a recent hit out. Some cause for optimism, although I will need to survive three ascents next week.
There’s not a lot of scope for sneaky tactics on this one, unless you’re brave enough to try and gap the field up the hill and hold on to the line. The descent into Downtown provides a nice freshener for the legs and spits riders out at high speed into the final few hundred metres; perfect for those who want to surf wheels and launch their sprint late.
Racers who want to put the hurt on and thin the field even further could try a surprise move through The Esses, particularly up the final long rise as the fast descent on the other side can distance anyone who loses the wheels over the crest. The hyper-ambitious may even try something out of the Italian Villas and past the waterfall, although you’d need to be feeling on your A-game to juice the legs so close to the decisive ramp up the KOM.
I’ll be approaching this as a classic battle of attrition. Objective #1 is simply survival, with the hopes of seeing a reduced bunch sprint.
See you in Watopia.
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