Since taking on Zwift’s 12-week Build Me Up training plan I haven’t had time to race, so I was excited when I figured out a way to justify getting a little Crit City racing in on my birthday, which just happened to fall during a Build Me Up rest week.
The race was only 8 laps (~20 minutes) long, so I figured I could do it during the rest week without breaking too many rules. Plus, it was my birthday, and I wanted to do something fun!
In the end, I earned a very solid result… but perhaps the more interesting story is how the winner pulled off a remarkable victory.
Birthday Ride Plan
Since I was turning 44 years old, I planned to ride at least 44 miles. I also needed to knock out a 1-hour Build Me Up workout because even though this was a rest week, there are two workouts that I needed to do. (Build Me Up actually has three assigned, but the third is “Pedaling Drills”, which isn’t what I’d call a “required” workout.)
So I decided I’d do a long warmup with Coco, a Crit City race (~20 minutes), then do my 1-hour workout.
I prepped for it all by chewing two pieces of caffeine gum and applying PR lotion to the legs before I got on the bike. This was followed by one tasty Blueberry Crunch Clif bar while warming up to make sure I had some glycogen flowing.
Race Start
56 B’s jumped off the start line in Crit City, and I was excited to be racing again! It felt like a fresh experience thanks to not racing for the past 4 weeks. Plus we had the recent release of Pack Dynamics 4, freshly rebalanced powerups, and Zwift’s Category Enforcement boundaries becoming the new standard for races… so there have been a lot of changes in the past few months!
The pace wasn’t bad, but I executed the first brick climb poorly, starting near the rear of the group then having to chase back on once it flattened out. On subsequent laps I’d find that starting near the front and keeping the power high up the climb made things much smoother and easier overall.
Getting Into a Groove
As the race developed, we got into the ol’ Crit City groove. Push a bit on the false flats, go bonkers up the brick climb, then take it easy on the rollercoaster descent and through the lap banner.
Riders would attack occasionally, but nothing ever stuck.
The race was handing out three powerups: Ghost, Draft Boost, and Feather. Here’s how I used them:
- Ghost: Throw it away by using it mid-pack. (Once I went to the front of the group then activated it to see if anyone would chase. They didn’t.)
- Draft Boost: activate near the top of the brick climb, to take the edge off at the point where I’m most tired.
- Feather: activate at the bottom of the brick climb. Now that it’s 30s long it lasts through the bricks and across some flat pavement that follows.
The Finish
I got a Ghost on the second-to-last lap banner, so I burned that and hoped for a good powerup the last time through the banner. The Zwift gods were smiling upon me (it was my birthday after all) – I got a Draft Boost!
Near the start of the last lap a rider named R. Höller attacked hard, bridging up to another rider a couple seconds ahead. I let them go, figuring their attack was too early and we’d get them back.
We all went hard up the bricks – this is just “table stakes” for your last lap on Downtown Dolphin. If you don’t go hard up the bricks, you’ll get gapped and won’t be in the mix for the final sprint.
As we topped the bricks I glanced at the minimap and rider list and saw a dot for a rider several seconds ahead. I also glimpsed their name in the rider list, but I wasn’t sure if they were getting lapped or were somehow off the front.
My brain couldn’t handle the distance math, and it didn’t make sense that they’d be off the front, because I had only seen two riders ahead, and we’d caught them both!
As we started down the rollercoaster descent I activated my Draft Boost – now that it lasts for 40 seconds I figured I had plenty of time. Then when I saw riders began to ramp up the power I did the same, to sit in their wheels and maintain a good position.
Not far from the hairpin it was time to go all in, so that’s what I did. Seated and hammering to the line, I felt like I was pushing good power as I passed several riders and did my best to hold the watts all the way to the finish.
Crossing the line I could see I would be 2nd or 3rd, since there was 1 rider just a bit ahead of us. The results popped up – 3rd place! I’ll take it.
See activity on Strava >
See results on ZwiftPower
Double Ghosted
As it turns out, the rider I glimpsed up the road at the top of the bricks on the last lap was one Maarten van Rhijn, a top-ranked B who had masterfully and powerfully attacked the pack. He would go on to win by 0.983s.
How did he do it? Looking at his Strava activity, he attacked hard heading through the final lap banner. He also activated a ghost powerup as he attacked, so we didn’t see him go off the front of the group.
15 seconds later he appeared momentarily on my minimap, but then he activated his second ghost powerup (which he’d been given as he passed through the banner seconds before), disappearing again and continuing to put time into the group as he held 550W+. A double ghost attack!
He held steady and impressively high power for the remainder of the final lap, averaging 524W (6.6w/kg) for the final 70 seconds of the race to stay off the front and take the win. Chapeau, sir.
Watch the Race
Takeaways
I think I raced this well, except where I completely missed Maarten van Rhijn. I didn’t look at the rider list ahead of time, so he wasn’t even on my radar. (I did have my eye on the one strong racer I recognized in the list, Andrew Peakman [Vision] who finished just behind me in 4th.)
But even if I’d been marking Maarten, I wouldn’t have noticed his attack, since he was invisible while doing it. The fact that he got a second ghost at the banner was just pure luck, but he leveraged that perfectly by using it right away and working hard to push his gap out. I would venture to say the vast majority of riders didn’t even know Maarten was off the front.
In the end I was happy with my result. It was my first race in 4 weeks, and I got a strong points results on ZwiftPower (118.05), boosting my rank from 168.81 to 155.5. (Learn how ZwiftPower ranking points work here.)
Your Thoughts
Have you ever seen such a masterful ghost attack? Or perhaps you’ve done one yourself? With the new ghost being 50% longer, I think we’ll see more like this! Share your thoughts below…
great blog!
Good to see a use of the ghost that didn’t involve a sprint segment. I really think they’re most effective in areas like that where there are a lot of turns and short sight-lines so, when you pop back up, you’re not on anyone’s main screen – especially on a short course with a lot of laps where you can hope people think you’re a lapped rider they can ignore. Getting 2 in a row was super lucky. I think, if they want the ghost to be used successfully like this more often, they have to increase the time to… Read more »
Yes agreed, it’s perfect ghost territory!
Would call this the PacMan attack. Double Ghosted!
great race and write up. I really enjoy Crit City as I just completed a D race myself.
Ha brilliant!
good reason for ghost to be longer than (now 15) just a bit more, will spice up using ghosts. this guy lucked out and got 2 for 30 sec and it worked.
Happy Birthday Eric!
This was foretold on the In The Drops podcast by Rob ‘Zwifty Zwifter’ Bane, that’s me! Our loyal subscribers always get the best beta!
it’s only lucky if you think the 2nd ghost is better than a feather. Given his lead when he reappeared, I’m guessing he’d have been happy with the feather also,
Does anyone know what happens if you use the ghost at 500m to go? Do you reappear at 400?
Haven’t tested it, but I’m 90% sure you’ll stay invisible for the full time duration.
this needs to be tested … with the old ghost (taken e.g. 250m to the finish) we definitely reappear at the 200m mark
Oh really? Interesting. I’ll test it today.
Here’s a test video where I triggered the ghost with 500m to go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRbcObjlKdY
You can see Zwift shortens my ghost’s length, cutting off the last few seconds so I don’t stay hidden too far into the final 400m. It’s a bit odd, though – I don’t become visible right when I hit 400m to go. But yeah, Zwift is definitely shortening the invisibility powerup if it’s still activate in those final meters! Good catch, Carsten.
Thanks Eric for the quick test 🤗
With the 400m mark, I think it’s like this : when you see the change from 0.5 to (rounded) 0.4km to the finish, then it’s a rest of just under 450m … compare this when it changes to 0.3 … then you also need a few meters to hit the exact countdown for the last 300m, 290m and so on
Ah yes, I think you’re right, Carsten!
Happy Birthday!
Ive executed one Ghost attack that worked wonders. the winter ZRL league in Jan, The Neon flats points race, My only job was on the 2nd lap to go early and get the points at Alley sprint reverse (I’m not a sprinter). There is a 90 degree left hand corner just before the rise leading to the segment. I got a ghost power up and saved it as my plan was to activate the ghost at the corner and go all in to get the maximum points on that segment. turns out there was a breakaway of one rider about… Read more »
This is what is disgusting about Zwift categories and unfair to average racers. The winner Maarten van Rhijn has a 20 minute power of 4.46 w/kg (353 watts) and a one minute of 8.22 w/kg (649) watts. How the HELL is he still a B? According to Zwift a Category B has a FTP of 3.2 w/kg to 4.0 w/kg. Where is the so called “category” enforcement as it is clearly unfair to average B racers that he is allowed to stay in that category.
I think you’re misunderstanding how Zwift race categorization works now.
Zwift races by default use category enforcement now, which is a different system from ZwiftPower categorization. You can see the power windows here: https://zwiftinsider.com/category-enforcement/
Maarten’s zFTP is 328, which puts him at 4.15W/kg, which is under the 4.2W/kg cutoff for category enforcement. Basically, he’s right near the top of the B zFTP window, which is why he’s ranked the 47th best B in the world currently.
Basically, Category Enforcement has raised the limit for D, C, and B riders, so all those categories are faster (tougher) than they were previously.
Eric,
Thanks for the clarification. I guess it is just hard to have a personal category enforcement of 3.56 w/kg and not even be competitive in the B’s. Using Maarten’s weight, that is range of zFTP of 252 watts to 331 watts over an hour (or whatever time they use). That is a big range. Still hoping Zwift will split some of the categories with such a wide range and give others not as strong a reason to race.
Also, Happy Birthday!
Sure, it’s always hard to be near the bottom of a category in terms of power. That’s why I’m looking forward to Zwift moving to results-based categorization, with custom pen cutoffs, so different riders will be at the top/bottom of the list for different races. It’ll come!
Eric – “Category Enforcement has raised the limit for D, C, and B riders, so all those categories are faster (tougher) than they were previously” – can you expand on this?
I would have thought that by getting rid of sandbaggers, and “B”s who drag “C”s along with them, that the lower categories would have gotten easier (fairer)?
Or fo you mean that racers who would previously have been “B”s are now legit “C”s? If so, that sucks even more for us perpetual mid-low C riders. Zwift really needs dynamic or rank based categorization.
Curtis – simple… the zFTP limits for D, C, and B categories are 0.125 to 0.2W/kg HIGHER than the FTP limit was when using ZwiftPower categories. On top of that, it seems many Zwifters’ zFTP is lower than their FTP. Combine both of those and you’ve got stronger riders able to legally ride down a category from what they used to. I think Cat Enforcement got rid of a lot of sandbaggers, which is great. But I would also say the ability levels of top riders in the lower categories is now higher than ever. I don’t see this as… Read more »
I think it’s just moved where the sandbaggers are within the group. The guys that *were* the sandbaggers, are now just a bit slower (in absolute terms) than the *new* group of sandbaggers. I’ve seen so many guys that used to be forced into A racing (and winning…) B races now. This includes some former pros.
Do you think the second ghost mattered? Who would have put their nose in the wind to get him even if they knew he was there?
It’s a valid question! I’m not sure if I felt strong enough to chase, even if I’d seen him up the road. He threw down some massive watts in that final lap!
Great article Eric! It’s funny to read how I eventualy won the race. I knew when I was with the pack how hard it was to go in the front alone. So I made a plan in the last few laps what to do with my PowerUps, when a Feather: burn it and hope for a Draft or Ghost in the next lap. With a draft PU I could stay in the group and save energy for the sprint and with a Ghost PU, I could sneak away from the group. So I saved the Ghost PU for the last… Read more »
Maarten, fantastic race and brilliant strategy. My brain can’t focus on things like that after 20 minutes of suffering. Congratulations! I’m wondering if you ever race in the A cat, and if so how you do there?
Thanks Marc! When racing an A-race I’ll can catch up with the group on a flat route, but when the race is longer and hillier, it’s becoming harder to hold on. The Tiny races from Zwift Insider I love the most! Those are 4 short distance races within an hour and is an effective workout to boost your hardness in racing. If I reach the top 20’s in one of the races I’ll be doing great (according to my standards)! Then you’ve always need a racing strategy to join the leading group, if you fall behind is impossible or very… Read more »
I would love to see races where you get an “arsenal” of powerups at the start to deploy as you wish. i.e., you get 3 trucks, 3 feathers and 3 ghosts for the entire race. Would add the next level of strategy, especially for team races.