This week Zwift Racing League saw teams hit the pavement of Yorkshire in what is probably the most honest of Zwift courses. There is truly no place to hide with constant ups and downs!
There were few tactics that really seemed to play out with the teams – it was just basically a full slog up the K/QOM, a reduced sprint at the intermediary, then a painfully drawn out sprint to finish. But then I saw something cool happen: a solo breakaway that actually stuck.
Check out the video:
Why would this happen?
Dominant teams now only care about each other
In the video I analysed, it’s Beastmode v dPac-Elite, in my racing league it’s Saris+TPC v Finesse Rockets, in others it’s AERO v ZSUN. Most leagues now are getting 2 teams battling it out on the top. Serious spreadsheeting is being done on what points are exactly needed to stay ahead, research on specific riders to target on certain parts of the course.
This is all making for awesome battle royales between dominant teams. You know the kits of your competition and you mark them like crazy.
The emergence of the rogue solo rider
This raises great opportunities for stronger riders in less dominant teams to take advantage of being somewhat invisible in the lead pack. The video shows Hashimoto attacking on a short climb about 1km from the end. This type of a move would very rarely work (see my video here on how to make a solo breakaway stick) so close to the end on a predictable attacking terrain, and with a group of 12+ riders.
But this time it did work. The gap to Hashimoto never got larger than 4 seconds, yet he carried it all the way to the line… how? The dominant teams looked around, waited, had other teams try and bridge the gap, and by the time they realised it was a danger-move it was too late!
Will this always work?
Definitely not. You have to read the bunch well, which even in a virtual world is possible. You get a feel during the race which moves are being chased down and which aren’t. Hashimoto put in a few little digs into the orange numbers (while still in the pack) before this move and no one took the bait. If you are sitting in small bunch (<20) and you’re the only one from your team surrounded by dominant teams in the league, give it a try! Often the other teams are going for total points rather than finish line glory.
What About You?
If your team has pulled off something amazing in a race, or you’ve seen something tactically great, shoot me a message and I’ll do some analysis on why and how it worked.
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