How the Race was Won: Backbiting Burritos, Cones of Shame, and Sheer Chaos

My coach would have been proud: I signed up for the race with the best of intentions. This would be a workout effort. I wasn’t going to just sit in then sprint at the end – I was going to push to my max to attack off the front and stay away, working on maximal 1-2 minute efforts.

We’d be riding 12 laps of Crit City’s Bell Lap, and everything seemed perfectly planned and ready to go. At least, that’s what I thought…

The (Long) Warmup

Since ZRL Season 2 began, I’ve slipped into a bit of a weekly habit. Trash myself ZRL Tuesdays. Take it easy on Wednesday. Then get a longer ride in Thursday, including a short race effort. It’s been working out well for me.

This week I started my day with the 6am Team Twenty24 Road to Tokyo ride – one of my favorite group rides. Easy pace, good banter – it’s a nice launching platform for a longer day. From there I kept spinning for another 45 minutes, then joined the Crit City pens for my 7:45 race, having put in about 90 minutes/30 miles of zone 2 effort with a few sprint spinups.

(And yes – I had already get PR lotion on the legs before kitting up. I also popped two pieces of caffeine gum in around 6:45. Ready to race!)

A Hard Start

There were 77 riders in the start pen when the clock hit zero – a high enough number that I was already doubting whether I’d be able to push hard enough to stay off the front for more than a few seconds. 20-30 riders, maybe. But 77?

We flew out of the pens and up the first twisty climb. The pace was high, but I figured it would calm down nicely once we reached the brick descent.

But it didn’t.

Things stayed quite spicy until the end of the third lap, in fact. I averaged 330W for over the first 6-1/2 minutes, just holding onto the pack, before things calmed down a bit. (A few green cones showed up after 4-5 minutes, which probably helped slow things.)

The Middle

The pace dropped a bit during laps 4-11, with each lap lasting between 2:33-2:36. I wasn’t sure if my legs were just tired, or if the pace was a bit higher than usual – but there was no way I was getting off the front of this group. I was riding threshold just to stay in touch with the front pack!

The “race as a workout” plan was abandoned. Not due to a conscious choice, but out of sheer necessity. It wasn’t going to happen today. Instead, the glycogen-depleted brain switch to my typical strategy in a faster race: sit in, use powerups and positioning to conserve, then try to time the final attack just right.

Brutal, Backbiting Burritos

The burrito powerup made many appearances in this race – usually activated by multiple riders on some portion of the twisty climb. And I always seemed to be right next to the burrito users!

I’m sure glad this powerup only lasts 10 seconds, because it’s a brutal offensive weapon, disabling the draft for all riders within 2.5 meters. As soon as I saw one above a nearby rider I knew I had to increase my watts by ~30% and pay close attention to make sure a gap didn’t open up ahead of me.

Speaking of gaps: I do wonder if racers have figured out yet that using the burrito can lead to unintended consequences, hurting the burrito’s owner. It happened in this race at least once, actually:

1. We’re all riding together in a group, pushing especially hard on a difficulty portion of the route.
2. Someone activates their burrito powerup (often triggering a second person to activate theirs).
3. This disables the draft for all riders within 2.5 meters – which means a gap easily opens up one or two riders ahead of the burrito owner. The burrito owner is enjoying a nice draft, but their burrito has caused a gap to form one or two riders ahead. The front group is flying away, enjoying an unencumbered draft, while the burrito owner’s group is getting no draft, and they’re dropping back.
4. The burrito owner must now attack to close that gap, or take the risk to sit in and hope those around him will close it.

The burrito is a powerful weapon, but you’ve got to make sure it doesn’t bite you back.

A Wild Finish

As we started our 12th and final lap the starting group of 77 had been whittled down to around 15. The strongest riders moved to the front to hammer up the final twisty climb. I grabbed their wheels, holding onto my aero powerup for the finish.

Ellwood and Grindrod were on the front – two riders who had been pushing big watts for the whole race. And I saw on the minimap that we were about to lap a large group of B’s. This was going to be sketchy!

I hit the brick descent with the front group of ~8 riders, then halfway down a rider appeared a few seconds ahead! “J. Bos” had used the invisibility powerup masterfully to break away without us seeing! He was now midway between our group and the B’s we would be lapping, which meant his breakaway would certainly benefit from that group’s draft once he reached them and sprinted through.

My group caught the lapped B’s at the left-hand turn after the short false flat climb. All hell broke loose, with powerups flying early and riders trying to figure out who was racing who. I knew I couldn’t sprint full-out from this distance, so I just tried to keep the power high and trust that everyone else was suffering too.

As we passed the graffiti wall we were through the lapped group and I could once again see my competition. Grindrod, Ellwood, and Bos were all there in the mix, along with myself and 5 others. As we made the final left I activated my aero, shifted, and got out of the saddle for the sprint effort. I flew past the 4 riders ahead of me, but Bos came from behind with a massive sprint, winning by a bike length.

I got 2nd on Zwift’s screen. But 1st in ZwiftPower (where it really counts), because Bos averaged 4.4w/kg (342W) for the race, didn’t have a heart rate monitor, and isn’t signed up for ZwiftPower.

See this activity on Zwift.com >
See this activity on Strava >
See race results on ZwiftPower >

Watch my race recording:

Takeaways

The pace of this race was definitely affected by some A-level riders. Ellwood was ranked as a B for the race, but got upgraded to an A after this effort. Bos was putting out A power, as was Grindrod. And let’s not even talk about the riders who were coned a few minutes in, after pushing the pace at the front for the initial minutes.

Sure, it grinds my gears a bit when people sandbag. But I can’t deny that it makes for pretty killer training, even if it ups the pace so high that I have to ditch my original workout plan.

Rewatching the race video (above), it looks like nobody else in my front group had a powerup in that final stretch. I think many of the riders burned their powerups early as we rode through the lapped group, but I’d say that was probably a mistake in hindsight, allowing me to fly through the pack in the final meters.

The finishing lap was a super-tough effort. I think the Bell Lap direction on Crit City makes for a higher-wattage final lap, because you’re basically at pushing the limit the entire lap, whereas the Downtown Dolphin attack doesn’t start until you hit the bricks. I tied my fastest Bell Lap time in that final lap (2:23) and hit a new max heart rate (191). Yeah.. that wasn’t easy!

Your Thoughts

Ever been bitten by your own burrito? Hit a new max HR on a Crit City sprint? Or had a lapped group turn a regular finish into a pell-mell dash? Share below!