Tiny Race Series – Results and November 5 Routes

Last week’s Tiny Races brought a new sort of suffering with the introduction of Zwift’s experimental Pack Dynamics v4. If you’re curious how it went for other racers, check out these videos from myself (B), Thom Thrall (A), Phil Lovett (A), and Roger Hall (C).

This week we’re locking in our ruleset, and returning to PD3. Details below…

A Note About Rules

Last week we softened the rules a bit, allowing riders to leave before finishing all 4 races and only requiring HRM for podium finishers.

This resulted in a significant reduction in DQs, with around 7% of ZwiftPower race results being DQ. (That’s down from 20% two weeks ago, and 12% one week ago.) While not ideal, this is an acceptable number for us, so we will continue with the current ruleset for the foreseeable future.

Pack Dynamics v4 Testing

Last week’s races were the first races ever run on Zwift using their new experimental Pack Dynamcis v4. Reviews have been mixed, but it seems generally agreed that further work is needed in order for PD4 to be ready for prime time.

Read Eric’s review of PD4 >

Due to inconsistent speeds, we won’t be using the current version of PD4 in future Tiny Races. But if Zwift updates PD4, we’ll do another experimental week!

Last Week’s Results

Overall Winners

Women’s Winners

*Seth Kaiser (DIRT) tied for 1st with JP (DIRT), but Seth had the highest finish with a first place in race 2, so he gets the overall win.

This Week’s Routes: the Big Apple

All four races take place in New York City this week. Enjoy the fall colors as you take on a mix of flat, rolling, and climby routes!

• Race 1: LaGuardia Loop Reverse (1 lap)
  • A quick lead-in followed by one short loop, this is a fast circuit with a bit of a rise just after the lap banner. Will anyone be brave enough to go long, or will it be left to a pack sprint?
  • Powerup: Draft Boost 2x
• Race 2: Everything Bagel (4.076km, ends at KOM banner)
  • This one’s for the punchy climbers. Begin on NYC’s paved roads then quickly transition to the glass roads and attack the NYC KQOM Reverse. First person to the top wins!
  • Powerup: Feather
• Race 3: The 6 Train(1 lap)
  • One quick clockwise loop of Central Park’s inner roads. The climbs on the back stretch make a great place to stage a long attack, but the long, flat lead-in means a pack sprint is probably on order.
  • Powerup: Aero Boost
• Race 4: Park Perimeter Loop (7.434km, ends at sprint banner)
  • The Harlem Hill climb will stretch and split the field. But with a few kilometers left until the line, some riders may be able to chase back onto the front. This is our longest race of the day, so we put it at the end in case some D riders need a few extra minutes to cross the line.
  • Powerup: None

Sign up at zwift.com/events/tag/tinyraces

ZwiftPower Results

Zwift displays preliminary race results in game when you cross the line, but points are computed after all four races are finished, with final results on ZwiftPower. (We have to do some data processing on our side to compute results, so if your rankings don’t show up right away, just be patient.)

Riders will earn points based on finish position in each of the 4 Tiny Races. The category winner of each week’s series is the rider with the most points across their timezone’s 4 races. Here are the links for each timezone’s results on ZwiftPower:

• Zone 1 (8am UTC)
• Zone 2 (2pm UTC)
• Zone 3 (8pm UTC)

Rules

Tiny Race rules are simple. Four races, four rules:

• You must have a ZwiftPower account, because final results are processed by ZwiftPower (learn how to sign up)
• No skipping then returning. These races are meant to be raced as a set of 4. If you need to leave early, that’s fine… but once you miss a race in your hour’s set of 4, don’t come back and race another or you’ll be disqualified from that race since you rested while others were racing! (Example: racing only races 1 and 2 is fine. Racing 1, 2, and 4 is not.)
• Heart rate monitors are required for podium finishers
• ZPower/Virtual power is not allowed. Smart trainer/smart bike or power meter required.

Join a Chat & Chill Cooldown

Immediately following each hour’s racing, we’ve scheduled 30-minute “Chat & Chill” events where riders from all categories can spin out their legs together and have some fun chatting about how it all went down. Find them at zwift.com/events/tag/tinyraces.

Questions or Comments

Post below!