Zwift Racing League 2021/22 Season 1 Week 6 Race Guide (Tour of Tewit Well)

The fifth points race of Zwift Racing League 2021/22 Season 1 happens Tuesday, November 2nd (Monday the 1st for Premier Division racers). This week the climbers and VO2 beasts are in their element. If you’re a pure sprinter, you may be out of luck!

The race takes place on Yorkshire’s Tour of Tewit Well route, a first for ZRL. It begins with a selection-forcing KOM, and the punches will just keep coming as riders climb and descend on a course that’s never flat.

Let’s dig into the course, including tips for bike choice, strategic options, and the crucial pinch point where riders will get dropped each and every lap.

First: Time Change for EMEA

This part of the year is always confusing in Zwift-land as some areas change their times before others. WTRL posted this note to their Facebook group earlier this week:

With many European countries changing their clocks for winter THIS WEEKEND (30th October), anyone who DOES NOT change their clocks will see the EMEA LEAGUE EVENT TIMES move forward by 1 hour (all those in Europe will appear to see all other leagues start 1 hour earlier but EMEA league times remain unchanged to you).

Confused? Once you sign up for your event you’ll see the correct local time in the Companion app, but talk to your team captain if you have questions.

Looking at the Route: Yorkshire’s Tour of Tewit Well

One lap of this route is 10.9km (6.8 miles) long, with 203m (666′) of climbing. A/B categories will race 4 laps (43.5km), making it a decently long ~1-hour effort similar to the last two races. C/D will only be racing 3 laps (32.6km).

The race begins in the Yorkshire pens located just after the start/finish banner. We’ll turn left to descend the main street, then stay left at the intersection to hit the only intermediate on the route: Yorkshire’s KOM Rev.

This 1.16km climb is the crucial pinch point on the course and will doubtless force a major selection, especially on the first lap. The first 400m are fairly flat, but when the road jogs right it pitches up near 7%, and that’s where gaps will begin to appear.

Give everything you have to hold onto the front group over this climb, which ends around a blind corner after a hard right turn. Then rest on the descent that follows. Then do it all over again!

Seriously. Tour of Tewit Well is really just a series of three VO2-testing climbs, with descents in between. It’s never flat – nothing in Yorkshire is. The only question is, will riders save their legs for the intermediate, or attack every climb to keep thinning the herd?

First you’ve got the KOM Reverse. Then it’s a climb up Penny Pot Lane (1.1km, 2.4%) which begins steeply but ends more like a false flat. Finally, we hit the Pot Bank climb (760m, 7.7%), the steepest climb on the route, with pitches up around 20%!

There’s one final little kicker, too, on Otley Road: 500m long at 6.6% average gradient. Then it’s a descent until we hang a left onto the flat 300m run-in to the finish line.

Read more about the Tour of Tewit Well route >

PowerUp Notes

Riders will be awarded powerups through each segment banner, meaning we’ll get 2 powerup chances per lap for a total of 7 powerups for A/B and 5 for C/D. Three powerups will be randomly given out at each banner:

Anvil: makes you 50kg heavier for 30 seconds, so you can descend faster. Event-only.
Use this on downhills. Pair it with a supertuck to go extra fast with zero effort!

Draft Boost (van): increases the draft effect you are experiencing by 50% for 30 seconds. Use at higher speeds (flats and descents) when you are already drafting off another rider (since this powerup only helps when you are drafting.) Very handy to increase recovery in high speed sections.

Lightweight (feather): reduces your weight by 10% for 15 seconds.
Use on climbs, when weight matters the most. The steeper the road, the more this helps.

Bike Frame + Wheel Choice

With the key moves and intermediate points happening on climbs, going with a heavier aero setup is not advised. At the same time, none of the climbs are long enough for a pure climbing setup to give you an advantage. So we recommend going with your best all-arounder.

Here are test times from Yorkshire’s KOM Reverse, using a 75kg rider at 300W steady:

* the Canyon Aeroad 2021, Pinarello Dogma F, and Specialized Tarmac SL7 still have the overweight Dura-Ace 9200 bug. We don’t recommend them for racing until it’s fixed.

See Tron vs Top Performers for a helpful chart of how different popular setups perform >

More Route Recon

A handful of rides are now being consistently planned each weekend on the upcoming ZRL route, which is quite handy. If you’re not familiar with this course, consider jumping into another event to do some recon! Here’s a complete list of upcoming Tour of Tewit Well events.

Zwift’s vibrant race community continues to up its game when it comes to course knowledge and recon videos. Here are our two favorite recon videos this week:

Si Bradeley

Sherpa Dave

Strategic Options

This is a week for riders with strong VO2 power (in that 2-3 minute range). If you’re unable to hold the front group on the climbs you’ll be stuck with no shot at intermediate points. Here are a few predictions of strategies we’ll see deployed:

• Climbers gonna climb: climbers/puncheurs will push on the KOM to make sure sprinters are dropped from the front pack. This gives the climbers intermediate points as well as finish points.
• Rest and hammer: riders who don’t fancy their chance of surviving the repeated climbs might instead go all-in for two efforts at intermediate points. Go all-out on the KOM for lap 1, then sit up and spin easy, timing it so the front pack laps you just in time for another hard effort on the KOM (their 3rd lap, your 2nd). Some riders may say this is unsporting, but it’s perfectly within the ZRL rules.
• Cat and mouse finish: this will be a very attritional race, so expect a small front group (5-10 riders) coming into the final kilometers. The smaller the group, the better chance a rider has to attack and stay away. Will we see some solo victories this week?

Watch the Premier Division Race

Zwift’s top racers will take on 4 laps of Tour of Tewit Well on Monday. Watch it below:

Your Thoughts

Any insights or further thoughts on Week 6’s big race? Share below!