It was Saturday, which meant I wanted to get a few hours of riding in, including some hard efforts. So my plan was to do a longer warmup with Robopacers, then jump into a longer race – the second race of the DIRT Hors Categorie series – before getting in a few more kilometers in a cooldown.
Read all about DIRT’s Hors Categorie series >
The race was on the newish Outer Scotland route (a former Rebel Route and one I had raced in a Tour de Zwift event just days prior. The TdZ race, though, was only two laps long (22.4km). Today was 5 laps (55.7km)! Additionally, the Hors Categorie series is a points race series, meaning you earn points for performance on designated segments during the race, as well as your position across the finish line.
So while this was the same route I’d raced previously, it would be a different race altogether. I would need to pace myself for a ~90-minute effort, but also go hard on the three Clyde Kicker primes in order to grab points. It was going to get spicy. Let’s race!
I joined the start pens with less than 4 minutes to go. There were just 11 riders in the pens, but that number grew to 20 by the time we blasted off. Let’s race!
Lap 1: Don’t Miss the Break
I was running Sauce for Zwift so I could get a good view of the number of riders in each group, plus time gaps. Sauce showed that our 20 starters were quickly whittled down to 15 within 2 minutes of the race kickoff.
The strong riders began to show themselves early as we wound our way up the slack climb through The Cliffs section of Scotland. Essel, Cezard, and Poilvert were pushing hard and stretching out the pack, and as we neared the top of The Cliffs, just before the lap banner, Cezard put in another dig over the top. This pattern would repeat itself every lap.
Heading into the Corkscrew Castle climb, there were two groups of three off the front, 6 and 8 seconds ahead respectively. They had sort of snuck away without me noticing, and this meant there were only 8 in my group. Alarm bells began sounding…
Those 6 are probably the stronger riders in this race. My 8 may not be able to get them back!
As we started the Breakaway Brae Reverse climb, I made the fateful decision to bridge up to what had coalesced into a front group of 6. It took 542 watts for 30 seconds, but I caught them!
This would prove to be the right call, as the chasing group would never see the front group again. That was the move.
Poilvert attacked on the Clyde Kicker, even though there were no points given for this segment on this lap. We would eventually pull him back, but this was a foreshadowing of things to come.
Lap 2 + FAL
We began lap 2 with Poilvert 9 seconds ahead of the front group of 6: Larkin, Tobian, Cezard, Essel, Frank, and myself.
(One thing I like about longer races with smaller groups is that you begin to get to know each rider. You learn where they like to push the pace, and where they like to position themselves in the pack. You can even click around in Sauce to do a bit of spying to learn their zFTP and other metrics.)
The pace definitely felt like too much for me to sustain for another 60+ minutes, but I held out hope that the same was true for everyone else and that the pace would calm down as the race progressed.
Riders pushed hard up Breakaway Brae, and we caught Poilvert on the descent. Back to a front group of 7. But only for a moment: Poilvert attacked hard again, and got away.
Either he would blow up, or we were thoroughly outclassed. Time would tell.
This was a points race, and our first points segment was on this lap’s Clyde Kicker. It was an FAL segment, meaning points were given based on who crossed the finish line first. Poilvert got 1st place points, and I sprinted for 3rd, getting beat by Tobian’s strong effort. 12 points!
Lap 3 + FTS
The pace dropped considerably in lap 3, and Poilvert quickly put more time into us, pushing the gap out to 30+ seconds. I’m not sure what everyone else was thinking, but my thought was, “He’s either so strong that he’d beat me even if I bridged up to him, or he’s going to blow up early, stranding me if I bridge up to him.”
(Also, I was about 60% sure Poilvert was the rider last week who rode off the front for most of the race, then quit early. Turns out that was a different rider. Do your research, kids!)
Lap 3 was an FTS competition on the Clyde Kicker, which meant a different approach than the previous lap’s FAL effort. I started in the back of the group this time, because when you do that, you can then sit in the other riders’ drafts for most of the segment, finish tied with them, and you’ll have a faster time!
I think I executed it fairly well, but Tobian beat my time. I came in 6th overall, though, because 4 riders from the chase group clocked faster times! (They must have sprinted together on less-tired legs.)
Lap 3 would prove to be my easiest lap, with an average power of 249W.
Lap 4 (another FAL)
At lap 4 began, I noticed Sauce showed our pack of 6 was now a pack of 7. That was odd, since the rider list on the right only showed 6 riders. But I did in fact see a 7th rider in our pack. Clicking around in Sauce, I figured out it was one “Nathan Hakken” who was riding in the higher B category. The Hors Categorie races are set up so you see riders from all categories, which can make for interesting dynamics when you catch riders from other groups.
Poilvert was still off the front by 40+ seconds, and this would stretch to over a minute by the time we finished lap 4. Barring disaster, the race was his.
The final points segment of the race was an FAL competition on Clyde Kicker. With no powerups or steering in the race, it came down to timing and pure power. I managed to outsprint my pack of 6 to take 2nd place in FAL, earning me 13 points. Woohoo!
Lap 5 + Finish
Everyone had kept their powder dry on the previous lap, and now the question was, what sort of attacks would we see from the strongest riders in our group? Poilvert was over a minute away, and it was a foregone conclusion that he would cross the finish line first.
The attacks began right at the start of the lap, with Cezard attacking up The Cliffs. I sat in the wheels, not wanting to give chase and blow my chances at a strong finish. While the pace was solid in our group, nobody else wanted to bury themselves to pull back Cezard, either. His gap went to 10 seconds, then 15. The race for third place would be between the 4 riders in my group: Tobian, Larkin, Frank, and myself.
Tobian attacked hard up the Clyde Kicker, and I pushed to grab his wheel. But he just kept pushing over the top, and I couldn’t pull him back! In the final minute of the race I could see I wasn’t catching Tobian, and the riders behind weren’t catching me. I crossed the line in 4th.
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Takeaways
My 137 points for race 2 put me in 5th place overall for DIRT’s Hors Categorie series, and in 2nd place behind Tobian for the C (450-575) group.
Poilvert, it turns out, won the race by less than 6 seconds as Cezard closed the gap in the final minutes. Poilvert held 4.1 w/kg for 84+ minutes, an effort that earned him a score of 594. This means he’ll have to race in a higher category if he decides to take on next week’s Hors Category event. Which is exactly what should happen. +1 for results-based race categories!
Overall, I was pleased with my performance in this race. I got 4th in points as well as across the finish line, I bridged up to the winning move, and I had near-top placings on the points segments. I also set some 6-week power PRs in the 40-84 minute range.
I’m really enjoying these longer races, and I plan to show up for more.
Your Thoughts
Have you tried racing longer events on Zwift? How did it go? Share your thoughts below…
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