How the Race Was Lost: Maxing Out the VO2 Max (Empire Elevation)
This week, ZRL racers headed back to New York for the final race of round 2. It was a scratch hosted on the new Empire Elevation route, and my team (Coalition Delusion) was tied for 1st place in the B1 Development Lime division. It all came down to this!
Planning and Warmup
As usual, my team was chatting on Discord in the days leading up to the race, deciding how best to ride the course. We found ourselves in a difficult spot. Sure, we were tied for 1st. But we were up against team TSE, whose strength was climbing. (Ours is not.)
We searched high and low for a brilliant race strategy to secure the overall win, but found nothing. Our conclusion? Teamate David said it well: “I think there is only one tactic for this and it’s go into the KOM with as much energy as you can and try to empty yourself on that climb.”
I’d scouted the KOM to write the week’s race guide, but that wouldn’t make it any easier. I knew I was facing an all-out 5-minute effort on some steep slopes, so I pulled the Specialized Aethos out of the garage (level 3 upgraded, good enough), fitted with the fancy new ENVE 4.5 PRO wheels.
With a whiff of PR Lotion and mint MEG gum in my nostrils, I started my warmup, putting in a few good digs and chatting about Zwift with other riders as I woke up the heart and legs. Soon enough, it was time to sign into Discord and join the start pen. Let’s race!
The Easy Part
The Empire Elevation route was brand-new, created for this specific race, and I’d never ridden it. But that didn’t mean it was unfamiliar. I’d ridden all of its roads multiple times via other routes, so I had a pretty good idea how this would play out as a scratch race.
Simply put: it would be quite easy for the first 24km. Then the KOM finish would be an all-out ~5-minute effort.
It played out as expected. Sure, some digs were required whenever the road tilted upward, including those pesky escalators. But the pace was never truly “high.” My heart rate sat firmly in the tempo zone, and I sat firmly in the draft.
There was just one snafu: I somehow neglected to fasten the upper Boa on my left shoe, and didn’t notice it until the race was underway! So I pedaled with a loose shoe until the Manhattan Bridge descent 12km in, where I managed to stop pedaling and fix it while sliding backward through the pack:
Here’s something a bit crazy, which also speaks to how easy the first bit of this course was: we didn’t lose a single rider from the starting pack of 48 in the lead-in to the final climb. When was the last time you did a ZRL race where nobody was dropped in the first 24km?
The Hard Part
35 minutes into the race, we hung a right onto the glass road of the NY KOM, and the “fun” began.
Someone on Discord said, “Last 6 minutes of the round, so lay it on the road.” Exactly right (except it would be closer to 5 minutes). I steeled myself mentally and began to push. Time to empty the tank.
I stayed close to the front on the first and second of the four ramps, and still had a feather in my pocket with 1km to go. Then we hit the “main” ramp, and the pack began to stretch out ahead. I triggered the feather and kept hammering, riding on that razor’s edge between easing and losing places or pushing harder and blowing up in spectacular fashion.
With 600 meters to go, I realized I was just behind a TSE rider named Grosso. I lacked the glycogenic bandwidth to execute complex strategies, but I knew one thing: we had to beat TSE to win 1st overall! So I dug deeper, passing him and teammate Andrew with 500 meters to go:
One ramp to go. I eased a bit on the flat road leading to the final ramp, but then Grosso flew past with 180m to go! It was now or never. I went all in to catch him, channeling my inner Pogi with a seated sprint. Glancing up from my sweaty top tube, I saw I was getting closer to Grosso. But where was the finish arch?
Another glance up and it appeared Grosso had sat up early. With 20m left, I flew past as he dropped his power to 2 W/kg. I beat him to the line! For… 15th place.
Watch the Video:
Results and Takeaways
Coming across the line, I saw that teammate David had taken 1st overall. Well done, sir!
Unfortunately, our overall team performance didn’t place us on the top step this week. We tied for 3rd, and team TSE took first:
That dropped us from a tie for 1st to a firm 2nd overall. Ladies and gentlemen, the final standings for the Lime B1 Open Development Division, Round 2:
Well done, TSE!
As for my personal performance? Once again, I think I played this as well as I could. Heck, I was even doing some VO2 max training in the weeks leading up to this race!
In the end, I used all my W’ weebles, according to intervals.icu:
That final climb was almost exactly 5 minutes long, which let me (almost) set a new 5-minute power PR for 2025. (I did 379W to finish this race, but did 387W in an FTP ramp test in September.) So I feel I gave it all I had. Which is all anyone can ever do.
Good work, Coalition Delusion. And chapeau to all our competitors as well. See you next round! (Watch for details of ZRL 2025/26 Round 3 to be shared here on Zwift Insider next Tuesday.)
What about you?
How did your final race of round 2 go? Share below!
