We recently published an article sharing Zwift’s hidden PowerUp “grant locations”. Then details for Tour of Watopia 2023 were released, and we learned that Zwifters would be receiving extra powerups at new grant locations during the Tour.
Yesterday Zwift released a minor game update, and we started hearing reports of new powerup grant locations in Watopia. After chatting with Zwift, we learned that the Tour of Watopia’s additional powerup grant locations are now in game, and will probably remain throughout the month of March.
Where are the new powerup grant locations? There are 13, indicated by arrows in the image below:
Here’s a list of Watopia’s new (and temporary) grant locations:
2 on Fuego Flats: one at the first turnaround, and the second between the Oasis and Saddle Springs
1 on Ocean Boulevard at the Sequoia Circle intersection
Note that the type of powerup indicated on the map above only applies to Tour of Watopia. If you are free riding or in an event, these grant locations will act like any other powerup banner on course.
For Ride Organizers
Zwift says if you’re organizing a ride in Watopia and don’t want participants to receive extra powerups you’ll need to move your event off of Watopia or contact Zwift so they can add a special tag to your event which blocks these extra powerup grants.
Today Zwift published details for March’s ZRacing Series, where the theme is “Race London” and all the races are on Zwift’s London map. Let’s dive into the details!
Race London – March’s Route Schedule
This month’s races all take place on Zwift’s London map:
The ZRacing series consists of monthly sets of weekly races. Each race is scheduled for seven days (beginning 1:10am UTC on Monday and running through to the next Sunday). Timeslots are consistent week to week and month to month.
Races are scheduled ~15 times each day, so there are plenty of available times to find a race.
Each monthly set of races has a time-based GC (general classification) which tracks riders’ best finishing times for each week’s race. The overall winners in each category for the month will be the riders with the lowest overall time for that month’s set of races.
Each month’s series has its own achievement badge, which you can unlock by finishing every stage for the month.
One and Done
Zwift has planned these events around the idea of a solid 1-hour workout, so each race should only take around 1 hour to complete, including your warmup and cooldown.
All About Tomorrow’s Zwift Grand Prix Series Finals
The Zwift Grand Prix’s season-long schedule of elite men’s and women’s races ends tomorrow, March 3rd, with the Series Finals. The action begins at 6pm UTC/1pm ET/10am PT and can be watched on Zwift’s YouTube channel:
This was a groundbreaking series in many ways, providing the launchpad for the “Battle Royale” format recently used in the 2023 UCI Cycling Esports World Championships. In fact, Zwift collaborated with the participating teams to create and improve unique race formats throughout the season, laying the groundwork for future events which are more “uniquely esports” and less about trying to replicate outdoor racing.
Let’s take a look at who made it into the finals, then dig into the new “Points Hunter” race format being raced on Friday.
Teams In the Finals
We began the season in September 2022 with 24 teams (12 men’s, 12 women’s). The top 10 teams (5 men’s, 5 women’s) will compete in the Series Finals:
Women’s Teams
Aeonian
Movistar ETeam
Socks 4 Watts
Virgina’s Blueridge Twenty24
Wahoo Le Col
Men’s Teams
ABUS Le Col
Coalition Alpha
Next Esports p/b Enshored
Toyota Cryo-RDT
Wahoo Le Col
Finals Format
The Zwift Grand Prix Series Finals will take place on Scotland’s The Muckle Yin route, with the men’s and women’s races each starting 25 riders (5 riders from 5 teams). All the points earned during the regular season have been reset, so the overall winners will be decided based solely on the points earned in this final race.
Named “Points Hunter”, Zwift describes the Series Finals race format as “a classic points race with a major twist”:
Each rider can only score points once during the race. Once a rider scores points they will stop racing – their job for the day is done.
Only 10 out of the 25 riders will be able to score points. So every point scored is super valuable! Lots of riders will leave empty-handed.
Teams need a great strategy to hunt for maximum points across the entire race using their whole squad. No single rider can dominate.
Points scoring opportunities come thick and fast throughout the race, across different terrain, providing opportunities for different types of riders to excel.
The number of points available is fixed at each intermediate arch throughout the race, with more points available at the finish line. But only 10 riders score points – leaving it too late could prove risky!
The first 5 scoring opportunities come at segment arches, and they increase in value as the race goes on. Only the first rider across the line will earn points:
Breakaway Brae Rev (1 pt)
Sgurr Summit North (2 pts)
Breakaway Brae (3 pts)
Sgurr Summit South (4 pts)
The Clyde Kicker (5 pts)
The final 5 scoring opportunities come at the finish line, where the first 5 across the line will earn 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 points.
Anvil and Aero Boost powerups will alternatively be given at designated arches, as shown above.
Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day Events Announced
March is Women’s History Month and March 8th is International Women’s Day, so Zwift has organized a slate of events led by superstars (teams and individuals) in our amazing women’s community.
The goal, Zwift says, is to “connect women in Zwift and introduce them to the great experiences that happen all year round.”
International Women’s Day
This is the key day of the month, and Zwift has organized Women’s Celebration Rides on a near-hourly basis led by superstar ladies. There are also four special Women’s Celebration Runs on the calendar.
Rides are for ladies only, and last for 45 minutes at a 1.5W/kg pace. Courses vary throughout the day. Runs are open to men or women.
Notable ride leaders include pro riders Ayesha McGowan, Neve Bradbury, and Ashleigh Moolman Pasio, as well as community stars like our very own Monica Schlange!
Zwift is spotlighting women’s clubs throughout this special month. The five Featured Clubs in the Companion app will be a rotation of women’s clubs, and public women’s club events will be visible on the main calendar, designated by a special event header (below).
Some of these events are for ladies only, while others are open to all.
Finish any International Women’s Day or Women’s History Month event and you’ll unlock the Women’s Celebration Kit. (This is the same kit that was unlocked in last year’s events, FYI.)
How the Race Was Lost: the Breakaway that Stayed Away
Today’s race story comes from my first time racing the Team DRAFT Tuesday Race. Held across three laps of Three Village Loop with category enforcement enabled and no powerups, it happened to tick all the boxes for me on this particular morning:
It was in a good time slot, and just under an hour long
It featured three goes up a hard climb where I would be challenged to stay in the front pack
The flat, fast sprint finish suited me
The number of participants was lower (40ish), which would make interacting with other riders more personal while opening up more strategic opportunities
The Warmup
The race began at 7:30am, so I was on the bike by 6:45 to spin up the legs with Coco. I’d eaten a banana for a quick breakfast, to get some fructose in the veins. And of course, I had chewed two pieces of caffeine gum (200mg of go-go juice!) and applied PR lotion to the legs… my typical race prep.
I put in a few hard, shorter efforts to get the heart rate up and break the ice, then I headed for the start pens on my Tron bike.
The Plan
I haven’t raced Three Village Loop much, but I know the course well enough to know that there’s just one stop where I would have to push at or near my max: the KOM up to the Castle.
Apart from that climb, the route is basically flat or slightly downhill, ending on a high-speed flat sprint.
The climb is around 3.5 minutes from start to finish for a B rider like myself. It’s really a two-part climb, though. The first part – across the bridge and twisting up through the houses – is very draftable, rather short, and generally not very challenging.
Then the road flattens for a bit before you turn left toward the Castle and begin to hammer for the final 1 kilometer. This is where the big efforts come, and when the route follows the road all the way to the KOM banner, I usually get dropped! But the Three Village Loop, mercifully, turns right earlier, keeping the climb short.
I wasn’t sure if I could hang with the front across three laps, but I figured it would be a great workout regardless.
Lap 1
After an easy downhill lead-in to the Country Sprint banner, our first lap began. We had 42 Bs in the race, and everything stayed tame until we hit the bridge that signals the real start of the KOM. (The actual start line comes well before the bridge, but the road is mostly flat from the start line to the bridge.)
I stayed in the wheels up through the first part of the climb and across the flat section in the middle, then steeled myself for the real effort. 376W average for ~100 seconds kept me in touch with the front group of 14. I survived! Now it was time to sit in, recover, and get ready for the next lap’s climb.
Up the final 1km of the climb, lap 1
There’s a bit of easy uphill after you leave the Castle area, then it’s flat or downhill through the Fishing Village and Village Onsen to the sprint banner. The Castle, the Fishing Village, Village Onsen. Three villages. Get it?
One Belgian rider, Claessens, went off the front as we left the Castle area, but he got reeled in before we passed the start pens 3 km later. A bit later, he attacked after the Country Sprint banner. Was he super strong, just racing for the workout… or something else? We would find out soon enough.
Lap 2
The second lap’s KOM began rather unremarkably, but we caught and dropped Claessens just before beginning the hard final kilometer. He wouldn’t come back.
But the Belgians were out in force today, and one “J. Mertens” attacked hard on the climb, finishing 7 seconds ahead of my pack of 9 survivors.
That second lap’s climb hurt more than the first, but I wasn’t quite at my limit, either. I was starting to feel hopeful that I could hang in on the final lap.
Mertens making a joke off the front (at least, I THINK it was a joke…)
Lap 3 and the Finish
Mertens stayed away, and as we began lap 3 he had ~10 seconds on the peloton. Two riders – M. Chaix and J. Profeta – jumped off the front of the peloton early in the lap and bridged up to Mertens, making it three strong riders up front vs seven chasers. This was getting interesting!
We hit the beginning of the KOM and one “P. Thomsen” attacked, bridging up to the three ahead. Now it was 4 vs 6, with the breakaway 10 seconds up the road heading into the final hard climb.
At the end of the climb Thomsen ran out of steam, dropping back to my group. We were back to 3 vs 7. Could we chase down the leaders? Nobody in my group seemed to have the will/legpower to pull the group back to the breakaway, even though “M. Tremblay” and “Old Andy” put in some decent pulls. For my part, I just couldn’t put out the power to stay on the front of the group in any meaningful way, so I gave up the chase and sat in.
With 1 km to go I congratulated the front three, then prepared myself for the final sprint. With just under 300m to go, Tremblay jumped first, followed immediately by an even harder acceleration from “A. Erikssson”. I reacted a bit slowly (need to put the KICKR back on my rocker plate and enable race mode, I guess!) but held decent power, reaching the line well behind Eriksson but ahead of everyone else in my group.
4th place on ZwiftPower earned me a result of 182.2, which wasn’t quite good enough to make it into my top 5 recent results and improve my ranking. For that, I would have needed 1st or 2nd.
Should I have followed the two riders who joined the break and stayed away? Perhaps. Looking back on races, I often think things like, “I could have made that jump.” (Do you do the same?) In the moment, though, with tired legs and a high heart rate it seems close to impossible!
Regardless, I always smile when I see a breakaway succeed in a race, even if I’m not in the breakaway, because it just doesn’t happen a lot in Zwift. Looking at the results, though, it’s worth noting that the breakaway rider who “won” this race, M Chaix, averaged 4.2W/kg (328W) for 48 minutes, with no HR and no ZwiftPower account, while the other two breakaway riders averaged just 3.4 and 3.6W/kg.
I don’t mention that to cast aspersions on any of the breakaway riders. The other two in the break had no easy way of knowing if Chaix was legit or not, and in fact, with this being a category enforced race, it would be fair to assume this was a breakout performance for Chaix and he’ll be upgraded to A for future events. So all good there.
I mention it because Chaix doing out-of-category numbers is probably a big reason why the breakaway succeeded. So my rule still holds – that breakaways rarely succeed in Zwift races. When they do, it may just mean there’s someone powering the breakaway who should be in a higher category.
But that sort of stuff just comes with the territory in Zwift racing. You have to learn to live with it, or it’ll drive you crazy. In the end, it was a fun and challenging race, and those willing to attack and take a chance came away with the win. Profeta finished 1st on ZwiftPower, and Mertens 2nd. Chapeau to you both!
Your Thoughts
Have you ever won a Zwift race in a breakaway? Or missed the break and cursed your poor judgment? Share below!
Tiny Race Series – Pack Dynamics 4, March 4 Routes, and Last Week’s Results
Last week’s Tiny Races returned with a bang on 4 flatter routes, which kept the competition tight. Many of the overall winners (below) only won by a margin of 5-10 points, which could have been changed by finishing just one place lower in a single race!
We’ve got another themed week this time around, with four dirty courses on the docket. We’re also testing the latest version of Zwift’s new Pack Dynamics, so be prepared for the races to “feel” a bit different than a standard Zwift race.
*Florence: we need you to verify your power numbers, otherwise you may be disqualified from future Tiny Race events. Please contact [email protected] for more information.
This Week: New Pack Dynamics!
Zwift rolled out phase 3 of Pack Dynamics 4 in late January, and it has been tested in various races and group rides over the past month. This weekend we’ll use it in the Tiny Races, with the goal of letting hundreds of racers experience the latest iteration of Pack Dynamics, so you all can provide feedback to Zwift on this forum topic.
(Feel free to comment on this post after your race, and share your thoughts on the new Pack Dynamics.)
This Week’s Route(s): The Dirt Hurt
Each race this week features one or more key dirt sections. This does not mean you should use a gravel bike for every race. You’ll need to check out the routes and make the best decision for you!
Approaching Volcano Flat Rev finishVolcano Flat Rev finishValley to Mountaintop custom finish at Temple
Race 1: Mech Isle Loop (4km, 1 lap) The shortest Makuri Island route makes for a great short race with its climb section and mixture of dirt and paved roads. What bike will you use?
Powerup: none
Race 2: Valley to Mountaintop (3.5km, ends at Temple entrance partway up KOM) This route’s key climbs are dirt, beginning with the beautiful Golden Forest which will stretch the pack out and create gaps, then ending partway up the Temple KOM after a bit of pavement in between.
Powerup: none
Race 3:Beach Island Loop (6.166km, ends at JWB Sprint) This will be a wild finish! Everything will kick off when we hurt the Dirty Sorpressa snaking up to the Italian Villas. But wait – you’ve got some cobbled road following the Sorpressa, plus the JWB Sprint! Where do you use your powerup? Where do you attack?
Powerup: Aero Boost
Race 4: Jungle Circuit Reverse (6.289km, ends at Jungle Arch) This mostly downhill race covers just the lead-in of the Jungle Circuit Reverse route, which includes the rope bridge.
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, 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:
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 – you will be DQ from race 4. And if you race 2, 3, and 4, you’ll be DQ from all those races, since you skipped race 1!)
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 their legs together and chat about how it all went down. Find them at zwift.com/events/tag/tinyraces.
The Power Costs of Different Wheels and Surfaces in Zwift
Note: Zwift updated Crr settings for various surfaces and wheels, so this article is no longer completely accurate. We will republish it once it is revised. Until then, we recommend you check out our master page on Zwift Crr and Watt Savings >
Zwift roads come in various surface types including pavement, dirt, cobbles, and more. Just like outdoors, the wheels (tires) you use on your virtual Zwift rig affect how your virtual bike performs in game. So road bikes roll fast on pavement, but don’t do as well in dirt. Mountain bikes are slow on pavement, but better than road bikes in the dirt.
We already have a post that covers the details of rolling resistance (Crr) on Zwift – see “Rolling Resistance on Zwift: Crr and Watt Savings of Various Wheels“. Today, I want to chart these performance differences in new ways so you can better understand how your bike choice affects your in-game performance and make smart choices heading into races/rides.
In the charts below, I simplified things for clarity:
Makuri Islands’ sand rolls the same as pavement, so it was combined into the “pavement” surface type.
Bricks, Cobbles, and Wood all roll nearly the same as pavement for all wheel types, so they’ve been removed as redundant.
Grass is a surface type only available on Repack Ridge, where only MTB can ride, so it was removed.
Numbers are for a name-brand gravel wheelset instead of the stock Zwift gravel wheelset, again for simplicity.
Power Cost by Wheel Type and Speed
Note: numbers above assume a 75kg rider weight.
As speed increases, the power needed to overcome rolling resistance increases proportionally. The additional work of riding a gravel rig on pavement at a social pace may be hardly noticeable, but trying to keep up with roadies at race pace may quickly sap your legs.
Examples:
At 50kph on pavement, a gravel bike requires 41W more than a road bike to overcome rolling resistance. But at 30kph, the difference is only 24W.
Descending the Jungle’s dirt at 50kph? A road bike will require 91W more than a gravel bike. But as you climb at closer to 30kph, the road bike only requires 55W more.
Power Cost by Wheel Type and Rider Weight
Note: numbers above assume riders traveling at 40kph.
As rider weight decreases, the power needed to overcome rolling resistance decreases proportionally. That’s why this chart looks similar to the one above – both illustrate proportional increases/decreases.
In a race scenario, what’s interesting here is the power costs for riders on different types of bikes, at different weights.
Examples:
An 85kg rider on a road bike trying to keep up with a 65kg rider on a gravel bike up the Sgurr’s gravel climb at 40kph will need to put out 100W more just to overcome rolling resistance.
But once those two riders begin descending the paved side of the Sgurr, the lighter rider on the gravel bike only has to put out an extra 20W to keep up at 40kph.
More Takeaways
Road Bikes Are Costly
And I’m not talking about purchase price (although they’re stupidly expensive these days). Check out the road tire performance on gravel and dirt. Rolling resistance (and thus power cost) is so high on these surfaces for road tires that you should really consider your options when choosing a bike on a course that includes significant stretches of dirt or gravel.
MTB Are Rather Useless
MTB tires perform worse on every surface type except dirt, and even there, the power savings is very small compared to gravel tires. Factor in a MTB’s higher weight and poor aero performance and there’s really no place (certainly no full routes) within Zwift where a MTB is the best choice.
Dirt Hurts
If you’ve ever wondered why Zwift road races stretch out and selections happen in dirt sections like the Dirty Sorpressa or Ocean Boulevard’s Marina, the first chart spells it out. If your pack is traveling at 50kph on pavement and they hit the dirt, you suddenly have to hold 214W more if you want to keep the speed at 50kph!
Dirt in a road race is a lot like hitting a hill. Expect power numbers to jump, heavier riders to pay a higher cost, and for things to be generally more suffery when they’re more dusty.
What About Drafting?
People often ask, “What about when you’re in the draft?” on bike performance posts like this. The first thing to understand is that your setup’s rolling resistance, and therefore the wattage you have to put out to overcome it, isn’t affected by whether you’re drafting or not.
Example (using round numbers to keep it simple): In a race, you might be traveling along in the peloton at 50kph, putting out 300W while the riders on the front of the pack are doing 400W. If you’re a 75kg rider on a road bike, racing on pavement, you have to put out 41W to overcome rolling resistance.
Now you roll to the front, where you have to put out 400W to go the same speed (50kph). Rolling resistance hasn’t changed, because you’re going the same speed. So it’s still requiring 41W to overcome rolling resistance, even though you’ve gone from fully drafting to no draft at all.
The second part of the answer, though, is that drafting is a huge factor to consider when you’re deciding which type of bike to ride for a “mixed surface” route, and how exactly you will attack the route.
Example: Jungle Attack You’re entering the Jungle loop in a pack of roadies. You’re considering whether you should swap to a gravel bike for the loop. You’ll lose the pack’s draft when you stop to swap, but then as they’re descending the dirt at 40kph (having to put out 204W to overcome rolling resistance), you only have to put out 131W to match their speed. So you’ll be able to catch the pack.
You can’t just sit in the pack, though – you need to break away from the pack so that once the pavement arrives, you can swap back to the road bike and still be ahead of or in touch with the peloton. Happily, you have a 55W advantage when traveling at 30kph in dirt, so you should be able to push and get away.
Example: City and the Sgurr A gravel bike delivers the best overall time on City and the Sgurr, at least in solo rider tests. But you must know that the short paved lead-in will require extra work! You’ll have roadies pushing the peloton at speeds near 50kph. Roadies sitting in the draft have to do 41W to overcome rolling resistance, while you on your gravel bike have to do 82W.
This is a manageable power difference, though, for a short time. What becomes unmanageable is you matching the peloton’s speed if you’re not drafting (perhaps you’re chasing off the back, or attacking on the front). Lose the draft and you’ll have to put out ~100W extra to match the pack’s pace, in addition to the added rolling resistance you’re forced to overcome. Even if you can hold this power and keep the group within reach, you won’t have any legs left to attack the climbs. Staying the draft is crucial for this lead-in.
Zwift’s annual fondo series is a popular tradition where thousands of riders push themselves to finish long rides. The series began in December, when (according to ZwiftPower) over 9000 riders finished their fondos!
March’s rides are this weekend. Here are all the details…
March Fondo Schedule
The weekend kicks off at midnight March 3 GMT, which is 7pm ET/4pm PT March 2.
Events repeat every 3 hours until 6am March 6 GMT (10pm PT March 5).
Each month of this year’s series rotates between these two sets of routes. February used the original routes, so March is using the 2022 routes.
Kit Unlocks
New this year, each fondo length has its own unique kit unlock. Here’s a shot of all three kits:
These kits are exclusive, meaning they will never be available anywhere else. A true badge of honor… even the “salmon and chocolate” Bambino kit.
Is this a race?
Officially, no. But thousands of riders will turn out for each of these popular “fun race” events, and the front of each category will certainly be filled with strong riders going all out.
How the Categories Work
Unlike other Zwift events, the A, B, and C groups don’t refer to rider strength or fitness. Instead, they correspond to route and distance options:
Zwift-based “Chasing Cancellara” events first launched in 2019, and they’ve always drawn a crowd as riders jump in to try to beat Fabian’s TT time and (of course) unlock the event-only kit.
Now in its 5th year, event organizers have refreshed the kit and added a RoboPacer.
If you’re looking to push yourself hard and go up against a time set by one of cycling’s all-time greatest, check out this weekend’s stage 2 events! Here are the details…
Who is Fabian Cancellara?
Fabian Cancellara (or “Spartacus” as he is nicknamed, due to his stature) is a retired Swiss professional road cycling legend and Time Trial Specialist.
His achievements are impressive. He was the 4x World Time Trial Champion and 2x Olympic Time Trial Champion, winning three of cycling’s most prestigious races (the “monuments”) multiple times. In addition, he won 8 stages of the Tour de France, including wearing yellow for 29 days.
Main Events
On March 3-5 individual TT events will be held on one lap of Richmond’s 2015 UCI Worlds route. This is the longer of the two stages, and the time to beat is 24m 51sec.
Remember, this is a TT, so there is no drafting! Everyone will be placed on the same bike – the BMC Team Machine (a road bike, not a TT frame) with DT Swiss wheels.
A RoboPacer will be on course to help pace you to a finish that beats Fabian’s time.
(It’s worth noting that the course time to beat is fairly fast – sort of high B, low A territory. Average speed is 40.3kph.)
Today’s story comes from my first attempt racing Scotland’s “The Muckle Yin” (Scottish for “Big One”). At only 23.4km it’s not exactly a long route. But it’s a pitchy one, so there is rarely a dull moment!
I raced it for stage 3 of Zwift’s “Race Scotland” series against a large B field. I knew between the challenging parcours and the strong field this race would push me to the limit. Could I hang onto the front pack and contest the sprint finish? There was only one way to find out…
The Warmup
The night before I devised my ride plan for the next morning: I would wake up at 5:30, join Team Twenty24 for their 6am Road to Paris ride and do a group ride on Loch Loop to earn my last route badge on the new Scotland map.
Then it would be time for a quick banana and Malt-o Meal breakfast before hopping on to spin the legs up for the race.
Throw in my typical race prep (two pieces of caffeine gum about an hour before the race, and PR lotion on the legs) and it would be a solid morning with a long warmup and a hard race.
My plans went off without a hitch. I even got a bit of free coaching during the Road to Paris ride from Wanda Archer, a keen Zwifter who always seems to be riding when I am. I had remarked that I was heading off to The Muckle Yin to get my butt kicked after the ride, and she said something along the lines of, “If that’s the way you’re thinking then you’ve already lost the race!”
Ouch. And so true. I promised everyone I’d think more positively… which wasn’t easy, with the Sgurr looming large in my mind.
The Plan
I had only ridden The Muckle Yin once before, but I’m pretty familiar with Scotland’s roads at this point. The toughest part of the ride, I knew, would be the two climbs up the Sgurr:
Having raced up the Sgurr in past weeks’ Zwift Insider Worlds Experience events, I wasn’t at all convinced I’d be able to hang onto the front of the pack up and over that rocky crag in both directions. I hadn’t managed to do it yet, at least!
My plan was to conserve energy everywhere possible, so my legs were as fresh as possible for the Sgurr climbs. Then I would give all I had to stay with the front on those climbs, blowing up if needed, just to see if it was even possible for me to stay with the pack.
Armed with my trusty Tron bike, I joined the B starting pen with 138 others. Let’s race!
Part 1: Start to Base of the Sgurr North
The first 1/3 of the course is fairly uneventful, but that doesn’t mean it’s flat! Nothing in Scotland is flat. The first 8km of The Muckle Yin is basically rollers and short climbs. You leave Glasgow and take the Loch Loop in the reverse (clockwise) direction, climbing up past the Cliffs, up the Corkscrew Castle climb and Breakaway Brae Reverse, then come back to the Mystical Roundabout to start the gravel climb up to Sgurr Summit North.
Breakaway Brae Reverse PR
The pack was moving along at a good clip: we averaged 47.1kph for that first 8km, and I averaged 279W. Still, I felt I was riding conservatively and keeping my powder dry. I just hoped I had enough powder…
Part 2: Sgurr Summit North
Starting the first Sgurr climb
We had 80 riders remaining from our starting group of 139 as we hit the base of the Sgurr, then the work began. I just tried to hold a good position in the front group, not worrying about solo riders attacking off the front.
It wasn’t easy but I also didn’t blow up trying to hold the wheel. 3:33 at 384W kept me in the front group, and as we crossed the KOM arch I triggered my aero powerup and switched my mind to recovery mode.
Finishing Sgurr Summit North… in the front pack!
(Interestingly, my previous PR was 3:50, on a gravel bike in the Zwift Insider Worlds Experience race. I only averaged 316W for that effort, though, because the pace was so high heading into it!)
Just as expected, the first Sgurr climb forced a big selection. Our front group of 80 had been whittled down to 34.
Part 3: Sgurr Descent to Base of Sgurr South
Descending the paved side of the Sgurr was a pretty chill experience – I even got a cheeky supertuck in, for a moment. Then it was time to head back to the Corkscrew Castle climb, up Breakaway Brae (forward this time) and back to the lap banner for the start of the shorter, paved Sgurr Summit South climb.
There are a lot of powerups given out on this route, and the race was set to only give out aero boosts and feathers. During this portion, I just tried to use my powerups smartly while staying out of the wind to save my legs as much as possible.
Part 4: Sgurr Summit South
We hit the base of the Sgurr, this time on the shorter paved side. At just 1km in length this is a much shorter climb than the gravel side, plus it’s not quite as steep. It felt like we were flying up the climb, but I think that’s just because I had only raced it on a gravel bike previously, which feels like a real slog, especially when riders on road bikes are dropping you left and right.
I averaged 383W for an average speed of 33kph up the climb, and once again managed to stay in touch with the front pack. A new PR, too: 1:48 (my previous PR was 2:15, on a gravel bike).
Sgurr Summit South PR
Part 5: Sgurr Descent to Finish
With 29 riders left in the front pack we descended the gravel side of the Sgurr and turned right at the Mystical Roundabout to make our way back to Glasgow. I used my aero powerup before we arrived in Glasgow, knowing there was a hidden grant location just up the road before The Clyde Kicker.
I’d been dropped on The Clyde Kicker in previous races, but I hung in today, thankful the group hadn’t been pushing the pace heading into Glasgow. Two riders attacked off the front and the pace in the peloton stayed high as we descended from The Clyde and gave chase.
Everything nearly came back together with a big push up the last little bump with ~500 meters to go, but then attacks started flying and the pack exploded! Before I knew it we turned left onto the finishing straightaway. I was a ways back in the messy string of riders, but I hit my aero boost and gave whatever watts I had left, coming over the line in 10th (8 on ZwiftPower).
I didn’t win, or even podium – but I was pretty stoked with my result. Was it the power of positive thinking (thanks, Wanda!), or the difference between hitting the Sgurr with fresh vs tired legs? I’m not sure, but I absolutely believe what Henry Ford famously said:
“Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t – you’re right.”
My 8th place wasn’t good enough for a ranking upgrade on ZwiftPower, but I was happy I survived in the front group.
One thing definitely worth noting for The Muckle Yin: it’s really helpful to know key road features and all the banner locations for this route, because there are a pile of powerups handed out (10!), and you need to decide when to use them best!
Your Thoughts
Have you raced The Muckle Yin yet? How’d it go? Share below!
