How the Race Was Lost: Box Hill Survival (ZRL on London Loop)
Tuesday was the last race of Zwift Racing League Round 3, and we were in London for a two-lapper of the classic London Loop. That meant 30km of racing but, more importantly, two trips up Box Hill! This was going to hurt…
Planning and Warmup
Heading into the race, we were scrambling to line up enough riders. We brought on a new Coalition teammate, Neale, and Captain Neil signed on to race even though he was going to be racing an earlier edition with another Coalition team that was short on riders. So our starting lineup was:
- Captain Neil
- Enrico
- Dylan
- Neale
- Fabian
- Myself
I pulled my S-Works Aethos out of the garage and installed the ENVE 4.5 wheels, because I wanted every advantage I could get on Box Hill. I got out on course early, so I could take my time with a 20-30 minute warmup. Then I signed onto Discord, downed a SIS gel, and got ready to rumble!
Lap 1
63 riders rolled out of the pens to begin the first of two London Loops. We all got feather powerups at the lap arch, and we all tucked them away for safekeeping. We knew what was coming up the road.
The first little effort of the race was short climb (Northumberland Avenue) you hit when you turn a hard right away from the Thames 3.5km into lap one. It wasn’t bad, though – just 30 seconds of slightly higher effort. The feathers still weren’t flying, and none of us was brave enough to attack in earnest this early.
An average of just 250W brought me (and all 63 starters) from the start of the race to the bottom of Box Hill. That’s where the action began.
While I know Box Hill is a ~7-minute effort for me, I don’t think of it that way. Rather, I mentally break it into a few sections:
- The Lead-In: The bit before we turn a hard right and the climb gets steep. Nobody pushes hard this early.
- The Steep Bit: The first long stretch averages 7-8% until it eases a bit before the left hairpin. This is where the pack quickly separates and elastic snaps, and it’s where I’ve been dropped in the past. I used my feather to help me hold a good position near the front. Sauce showed the front group had shrunk to 44 by the end of this section.
- The Middle: When we “zag” back to the left, the pack tends to ease a bit, and the road even flattens momentarily, although it pitches back up and ends up averaging around 5%. Things often come back together a bit in here, but not for long.
- The Long Haul: Turn a hard right and hit the white painted roads – this is the long final haul to the top. Some riders held their feathers for the end of this bit, which made me work harder than anticipated. I was close to being on my limit, but I also knew what was up the road, so I knew I could push hard here since recovery was waiting. Sauce showed 32 riders left at the top of this section.
- The Flat Finish: Turn right at the top of the Long Haul, and you’ve got a flattish final 600 meters to the KOM banner. If I’m still in touch with the group at this point, I know I’ve survived the climb. And I was still in touch! Sauce showed 26 left in the group as we went through. This was the selection. This group of 26 would stay together to the end of the race.
Instead of the promised anvil powerup at the KOM arch, I saw the standard powerup animation pop up through the KOM arch, flipping between Draft, Aero, and Feather. I got a feather, which I used on the short kicker that comes just before the long descent of Fox Hill.
We all took a big breath as we flew down Fox, put in a quick dig to get up and out of The Underground, then spun our way to the finish of the first lap.
26 riders had survived in the front group… but only 2 of us (Enrico and myself) were Coalition. Clearly, this wasn’t going to be a team win for us, but if I could hang on over the second Box Hill, I would have a shot at the podium. That became my only goal.
Continuing the powerup weirdness, we all got feathers at the end of Tower Bridge (there’s a white line on the road there that acts as a sort of “invisible arch” marking the start of some routes). I could have used my feather right there for a bit of relief, but I wasn’t convinced there was another one waiting for me at the lap banner, and I knew I wanted one for Box Hill. So I just held onto the feather I had.
Lap 2
The lead into Box Hill #2 was unremarkable, with some riders putting in harder pulls on the front, but never hard enough to drop any riders. All 26 of us arrived at the bottom of Box Hill, ready for the next big battle.
This time around, I decided to hold onto my feather until the end of the climb, unless I felt like I was getting dropped. It seemed like everyone else had the same idea: I only saw a couple of feathers fly before we reached the final stretch of The Long Haul near the top of Box Hill.
Even though the second climb was a bit slower (7:25 at 326W average vs the first lap’s 7:13 at 340W average), this second Box Hill effort was tougher than the first. I could feel that I was even closer to being on the limit, but I also knew everyone was suffering. This is bike racing, after all. So I kept digging, and eventually the road flattened, and I was still in the wheels. I’d made it! Hurray!
The powerup spinner at the top gave me a feather, which was not ideal (more on that later). I decided to hold onto it for use on the ramp out of The Underground.
Everyone lit it up on that ramp, so the feather helped. I found myself in 2nd position, in fact, chasing on to a long attack from Allois (TSE). I quickly decided that was a bad idea, though, as my legs needed a break. So I sat up, getting in the wheels, and waited to time my final effort.
As we left the Tower Bridge, we got another feather powerup. I used it right away, hoping it would give me a bit of relief, because I figured it wouldn’t be much help on the downhill finish. I was sitting in 6th in a strung-out group, and Allois was 2 seconds up the road.
With a few hundred meters left, the road tilted down a bit, and the powerups started to fly. First the feathers and the draft boost vans. The near the end, the aero boost helmets. I hammered with all my tired legs had, and came across the line in 8th.
Watch the Video
Results and Takeaways
I’m going to break this section up for clarity…
Finishing Position Inconsistency
While the on-screen results showed me in 8th, ZwiftPower (and WTRL’s final results) show me in 9th.
In the grand scheme of things, this doesn’t matter much at all. But it could have been a really big deal, because:
- My team tied with another team (ART) in total points for this race, meaning it goes to whoever had the highest finishing points (not counting podium bonus points). That means ART beats us. But had I finished in 8th, we would have beat ART.
- It turns out, we held onto 2nd place for Round 3. But just barely (by 2 points).
Look, we all know that, if Zwift wants to be taken seriously in the e-racing space, they need to solidify the finishing position experience. It’s been an issue for a long time. But this particular issue is a weird one I haven’t seen before: how is the game showing one result, while ZwiftPower/WTRL are showing another? That shouldn’t be possible, right? Aren’t both of those based on the same server-side system?
Powerup Madness
Can we talk about powerups… again?
If you watch the finish of this race (video above), you’ll see that nearly all (or possibly all, it’s hard to tell) of the riders who finished ahead of me had draft or aero boost powerups. (Reminder: I had a feather.)
Let me remind you: we were all supposed to get anvils at the KOM arch. Everyone was supposed to get the same powerup, and therefore have the same advantage in the finish.
But that wasn’t the case. A bug/misconfiguration of all the races on the day meant we got a random pick of three powerups at the KOM. I, unfortunately, got a feather. Had I landed a draft or aero boost, I can promise you I would have held onto it for the finish, used it wisely, and finished higher than 8/9th place.
This is the second time in Round 3 that my ZRL result was affected negatively by how powerups were handed out in the race (read about the first time here). And while I’m happy to take the blame for a poor race result, it’s irritating and demotivating to know that the finishes to these races were, in some part, determined by the “luck of the draw.” It shouldn’t work that way.
My opinion: powerups shouldn’t be randomly assigned, unless it’s an event like a Crit City race, where you’ve got lots of chances to get powerups, and thus the choice to use or hold them becomes a strategy in itself.
Personal Performance
I’m happy I survived in the front group in this race, as that was far from a foregone conclusion. Could I have played my cards better for a better result? Probably. Easing a bit more out of The Underground on lap 2, then saving my feather for the final 30 seconds may have gained me a few places.
Apart from that, I’m not sure if I’d change anything else about how I raced this one.
Final Team Result for Round 3
Despite an unimpressive 7th-place finish on the day, my team managed to hold onto 2nd place overall for Round 3. Congrats to TSE, who beat us once again, just like Round 2:
We finished off the round with our traditional team Discord photo:
It was good racing with you lads. See you in Round 4!
What about you?
How did your last race of Round 3 go? Did you win at powerup roulette? Share below!
