How the Race Was Won (On ZwiftPower): Zwift Classics, Watopia Cup

Having lost a significant amount of weight (32kg,) I’ve spent the last 12 months or so floundering as either a very, very low A or a high B. Racing A I struggled to even hang on to the front group on a flat route, and as a B I would lose the group on short inclines like the last of the Esses in Watopia or basically anywhere in New York.

Because my weight essentially determined the category I was in (obviously watts were also a factor) and I don’t have good one-minute power, racing was a struggle.

With my (not so) new (anymore) job, the times that I’ve been able to race have been limited. I will generally start at about 0830 and finish around 1900. I have meetings with my Californian colleagues once they wake up, with my being in the UK, so 1600-1900 is often a busy time for me. This means that I will generally ride between around 1300-1500 on a weekday.

I love my job and spending time with my US colleagues, but the times that I ride normally aren’t conducive to larger racing events. I’m also extremely thankful to be working for a company that gives me the flexibility to be able to ride 1-2 hours each work day, supporting my fitness and mental health by doing so. But through racing less, I’ve lost a decent amount of muscle and put on a bunch (11kg) of weight.

My team recently launched our new outlook on individual racing – firstly with our Crit Racing series and now with the Zwift Classics. This gives everyone a chance to race, with 16 options daily and a new route each week (with the Crit Racing series, there were 5 courses which changed daily). All of a sudden this meant there were races available, with decent attendances, times that suited me. Hello pain!

Dropping My Cat

For my first attempt at racing in the Classics, I was a very, very low B (I think in Category Enforcement terms I was 3.21w/kg). I managed to hold the group at the start, but then there was a minute long 10% incline.  I’ve mentioned my one-minute power! Bye-bye group! Came third last 🙂

On Friday my decline had steadily continued to being a Category Enforced C rider, coming in at a princely 3.196w/kg (I have received suitable levels of abuse from my team (thanks Sean, Simon!) and entered the 1310 race. There was a decent attendance with 22 C racers by the time the timer hit zero.

The route was Two Bridges Loop, starting with a gradual incline almost straight out of the pen, into the Esses, and then the start of the Reverse Hilly KOM, before taking the bypass back down the hill towards the start/finish line. Three laps of fun!

The Start

It’s probably been about a year since I last entered a C race, so I had genuinely no idea what to expect. I was worried that I’d lose the group on the first incline out of the pen, so I had a good warmup and was ready for battle!

It was the usual fast start to the race, but not too brutal and the first incline was relatively steady at around 3.5w/kg. I kept being a bit of a novice and poking my head out the front before being swarmed by the rest of the pack. I got to the top and tried my best to remain in the middle of the group. Then came the Esses – I’ve been dropped on the last of these so many times and again wasn’t sure what to expect, so kicked hard and hit the top in around 2nd place before coasting down the hill.

Then we came to the reverse KOM and I hit the start line, placed poorly, as usual, in the back half of the pack. Luckily I had a feather, which I used on the corner where the gradient spikes sharply and kicked. HARD. I moved my way to the front of the group and a few others kicked to go with me. By the time we reached the descent, we had a group of 6 with a lead of about 7 seconds.

We held our lead for most of the second lap until we were just about to hit the KOM again.  I jokingly messaged and said we should try and break them again to get our little group back. This climb felt like the hardest of the three and I got shelled out the back of the lead group of about four by a couple of seconds. This meant I had to work really hard on the downhill, but thankfully caught the group by the time we were back on the flats and took a deep breath (or possibly more like erratic panting).

Final Lap Ramp

For the final lap I figured no one was going to go absolutely berserk on the last climb, because hanging on to a lead with a group descending behind is probably ill-advised. But we still hit the climb hard and all six of us crested together and coasted down the hill.

At this stage, I’d already picked where I was going to start my sprint. Two bridges (funny, given the name of the route) from the finish line was a good marker and around 300m out and seemed a good place to ramp it up. I’m terrible at picking up on when others start to go and will always pick a point where I want to go from. I’d been ramping through my gears for about the previous 300m and then I gave it everything I had. I was at the back of the group of six and was worried I’d left it too late before I surged through in the last 50m and ROARED as I crossed the finish line! I had won!

But I hadn’t. I was in second place, 3s behind the actual winner. He’d played a tactical blinder and used his ghost powerup and had (presumably) gone about 5s earlier than anyone else. Because no one could see him, no one chased!

If It’s Not On ZwiftPower…

So whilst feeling a mixture of elation and disappointment, I did what any self-respecting Zwift racer would do and opened ZwiftPower. The racer who had beaten me hadn’t connected their account and because results are only real if they’re in ZwiftPower, I had won!

I’d had a thoroughly enjoyable 35 minutes or so and would encourage everyone to give the Classics a go. The fields are good, this one especially, is a really fun racing route and I can’t wait to do it all over again on the Casse-Pattes route in France!

7 Deadly Wins, Week 2: A Duel for the Ages

The 7 Deadly Wins challenge is my personal mission to collect a gold trophy in every Zwift Classic, no matter how many tries it takes. You can follow the highs and lows on my Youtube channel, Zwiftaholics. 

Laps of Two Bridges Loop clock in at only 7km, so efforts up the punchy start of the Reverse KOM sure do come around quickly. I now know this is especially the case when you have an opponent who’s decided to essentially punch you in the face every time you climb it. 

I’m quickly learning that scoping out a Zwift Classics signup list any earlier than 5 minutes before the start is not time well spent. Whether it’s the appeal of this specific series or the easier access to upcoming races in the new home screen I don’t know, but it feels to me like race fields are exploding in the hour before the banner drops. 

As the clock ticked down, what had looked like a relatively thin field suddenly featured some fearsome rivals. In my stream I called out Andrii Karanfilov and Andrew George; both had impressive ZwiftPower rankings, strong 20-minute power, and potent sprints. They were names I would get to know well over the next 30 minutes.   

The first climb was uneventful, with barely an orange number to be seen, which lulled me into a false sense of security. After binning my first three powerups (anvils and ghosts) and rolling yet another ghost I decided to have some fun on the climb and launch a fake attack to see if I could trick some opponents into burning a match. It worked, but like a careless camper on a windy summer’s day, that spark turned into a fully fledged forest fire. 

George surged after (invisible) me, kicking from 6 W/kg to 9 W/kg and leaving me scrambling as I zapped back into view. The attack sparked a reaction from Karanfilov, who popped a feather and also surged past.  

We crested with a three-second gap, but the group behind bunched up nicely and took advantage of the pack dynamics on the descent. 15 riders from the starting group of 46 remained in contention as we got the bell for the final lap. 

Here’s the video stream, queued up to the fun part so you can catch the final climb and the finish:

We had a lively chat window for the stream and they were all calling for an all-out effort on the KOM. I hit the segment with that plan in mind, but with no sign of last lap’s aggression at first I decided I’d sit in and take my chances in a reduced bunch sprint. George had other ideas. He once again lit up the second half of the climb, launching a 10+W/kg attack that only Karanfilov, myself, and a Danish rider called Lyksted could follow. And he got his gap. 

We were out of the draft but it wasn’t enough of a gap for George to push on solo for the line. At 700m to go he sat up, our group of four holding a slim two-second gap on a fast-closing chasing pack. They wound us in just as we hit 300m to go, but with several riders pushing 5+ W/kg just to close the gap there were some tired legs. 

George, Karanfilov and I all had the same idea, launching simultaneously at the second last bridge (seasoned Zwiftaholics viewers would know this is the optimal time to go). There’s a sizeable mental component to sprinting, and a “good head” as I heard one pro put it is just as vital as good legs. Putting myself out there with this challenge, having a great group of friends cheering me on via Facebook and YouTube, and knowing the calibre of the riders I was up against definitely had me in the right frame of mind to throw everything I had at these last few seconds. 

The result? A new power PR on Zwift, my best race-ending 15s sprint in well over a year, and a shiny gold trophy, crossing the line a fraction of a second before George and Karafilov, who were only 0.04s apart themselves. It was a fittingly close finish to an epic battle, and one I am very glad not to have to go back and try again. 

Off to France to Watch the Femmes

We’re climbing again next week, taking on the Petit KOM around Casse-Pattes. Given that I literally wrote the book on this course (OK fine, not the book, but I did do the blog post) I should have the strategy sorted. To be honest, though, it’s quite simple. There aren’t enough lumps and bumps to shake out any serious contenders until the race hits the steeper ramps of the KOM. It’s anywhere from a hard two to five-minute effort for the Bs, depending on when racers choose to make their move. 

I’m unlikely to be the fastest rider up the KOM, so I’ll need to hope we can regroup on the descent and reel in any flyers in time for the flat sprint finish through the marina. 

And if watching me on YouTube isn’t exciting enough, there will of course be the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift to light up your screens this week! The women’s peloton has delivered some incredible racing in 2022 and the stars are certainly lining up for this one. Speaking of which, I might need to channel my own inner Lorena Wiebes at the end of this week’s Classic if I hope to keep the streak alive.