From the editor:
This week Bryn Griffith, director of the Wahoo Le Col eSports team, reached out to me with some big news. One of their riders, Hywel Davies, finished his one-thousandth Zwift race this week (he finished third in the A’s). And he’s only been on Zwift since January 2019!
Hywel is currently ranked #20 in the world of Zwift racing. He’s an indoor rowing world record holder, sub 9-hour Ironman, and an early adopter of indoor training. Definitely a racer worthy of an interview… I hope you enjoy.
~Eric
How long have you been on Zwift?
Since Jan 2019, but was a long resistor to Zwift having had many years with an Imagic, indoor rower and a Wattbike, just didn’t think I needed it in my life.
Do you remember your first race?
Yes, on the Jungle Circuit in the Tour of Watopia. I was proper crap and Adam Zimmerman won. Now a good rival and team mate but I came no where. Not a clue.
How many teams have you raced for?
Only 2: BRT and WLC.
Whats the best tactic you could give to someone starting out on Zwift?
Try to be the most efficient rider in the room.
What do you enjoy most about the Zwift platform?
The switch that turns on that allows you to go to that dark place, where you get into the hurtbox, close the lid and an elephant sits on the top. You get that with indoor rowing racing, but it is always there on Zwift.
Is being on ZwiftPower important for the average Zwifter?
Vital. It’s a way of checking validity. Unfortunately, compared to racing on a standardised Concept 2, there are many on zwift without any knowledge of what power is, whether a wheel on turbo is accurate or not. The ZwiftPower community kind of self polices races.
Where do you see top end Zwift racing in 5 years time?
A standardised piece of equipment and a way of integrating streaming. The courses should expand but there will be no change in categorisation or a way of sorting the TTT start out.
I doubt I will be there, age has caught up with my running and non weight bearing sports won’t be far behind.
Who’s the hardest competitor you have raced against over the years?
Lennert Teugels. You watch him like a hawk, try to follow a break, sit on his wheel and he still rides away from you. Insane power and endurance.
How quickly did it take you to get to level 50?
Can’t remember getting to 50. I did a lot of the double XP races, did the challenges on the Volcano to get there, but the Tour of Watopia Figure 8 when they offered 250 xp for every banner was done about 20 times.
What’s your top 5 races that you have raced on Zwift and why?
Every Premier League race. Racing is fair and fast and it’s great if you can get points. I loved the Innsbruck KOM After Party and Surrey Hills as they are just attritional and you hang on as long as you can.
SZR Wednesday series. This is where I learned to sprint with the prime races, especially 15 primes on Crit City. The whole series set up by Martin is great. Small enough for tactics to work and always good fields.
BZR series: They encourage dual recording with time penalties and always tough courses with lots of Belgian riders to test and push you.
Specific races are hard to remember but good to look back on when you stream. My favourites are when I attack 1k out and hold on, but often get caught before the line. I can’t say I really enjoy the big Oh Crit races as they always come down to a massive bunch sprint, but when you can get a race with 5 or 6 riders, tactics come into play.
My worst races have been on anything with the Epic KOM descent or NYC KOM descent as more often than not, I’ll push to win the climb but then get dropped on the descent.
Ride on, Hywel. We hope your next 1000 races are as fun and successful as the first!