WTRL’s weekly TTT series is something special: a hugely popular event with thousands of riders taking part in team efforts every Thursday.
But once a year, WTRL sets aside a particular Thursday and makes it very special, because that Thursday is designated as “WTRL TTT for World Bicycle Relief” – a day to raise funds for World Bicycle Relief, an organization committed to changing lives through the power of bicycles.
Last year they raised $68,000USD, which was matched by private donors for a complete donation of $136,000USD. With each Buffalo Bike costing just $165/£120/€147, that’s over 824 bikes purchased… 824 lives changed!
The WBR Buffalo Bike
This year, WTRL has set its goal even higher: $75,000USD. Nearly $50,000USD has already been raised, and WTRL believe they’ll be able to exceed that goal:
The average TTT Team Size is 6 RIDERS and there are usually ~700 teams competing each week.
1 life-changing Buffalo Bike costs just US$165/£120/€147
If each rider on each team was able to find US$28/£20/€25 that would raise US$112,000 (678 Buffalo Bikes!)
For each Buffalo Bike that your team purchases, WTRL will take 1 minute off your team’s time in the L39ION of LA Challenge.
There are prizes for the top fundraising teams
It promises to be a spectacular day, too, with prizes, L39ION racing, and special in-game settings:
Join Us for the PRL Full at Saturday’s Z Badge Hunt Event
Zwift is spinning up a series of “Z Badge Hunt” events where Zwifters can ride together and earn some of the more challenging route badges.
We’ll publish a complete post about that series soon, but here’s what we’re stoked about right now: Zwift Insider is hosting some of the events, and the first one is this Saturday on London’s PRL Full route!
The event takes place on Saturday, December 11th, at 7am PST/10am EST/3pm GMT.
The PRL Full route was released with the original London map, and the intent was to mimic the length (but not the actual roads) of the IRL Prudential Ride London event.
In contrast to Zwift’s typically complex long routes, The PRL Full is quite simple: it’s just 11 laps of the London Loop, followed by a bit more riding to get you onto The Mall where you finish at the Classique forward sprint:
The big feature of the London Loop is Box Hill – 3km/1.9 miles long with 136m (446′) of elevation gain for an average gradient of 4.4%. It’s not a particularly long or steep climb, but 11x up any climb is a challenge!
There are just two categories for this event: an open category, and one for ladies only.
More Ride Specifics
Show up on time, because there is no late join for this ride. Why? Because if you late joined more than a minute or so into the event, you wouldn’t unlock the route badge! And we don’t want that on our conscience.
This will be a double draft ride, so sit in with others on the flats in order to conserve your energy.
Steering is enabled, to make it more engaging and fun!
We’re serving up a custom mix of only useful powerups, evenly split between the Feather, Van, and Helmet. Use them for a bit of relief.
This is not a race – it’s a group ride. You can treat it as a race if you’d like, of course, but the ride will break up naturally into pace groups. Find riders working at your target pace and work together.
Based on the VeloViewer Leaderboard we can see that top riders crush The PRL Full in 4.5 hours. But most mortals require 5.5-7 hours, with plenty taking even longer. You do you. Be sure to plan accordingly.
Discord
Zwift Insider’s Discord server will be used for voice chat during the ride. This really helps pass the time, so we highly encourage it!
If this ride’s start time doesn’t fit your schedule, there are additional (not Zwift Insider-hosted) Z Badge Hunt PRL Full events happening this weekend at these times:
Returning for its second year, Garmin’s four-stage “Never Stop” series has expanded to include running for 2021.
This series of rides and runs is all about exploration. Garmin has selected unusual routes for each event, so this is the perfect way to get out there and explore some new courses while grabbing a route badge or two! Along the way you can unlock a fresh kit and be entered into a prize drawing. Here are all the details…
Scheduling
Each stage of the series lasts 4 days:
Stage 1 (Dec 3-6)
Stage 2 (Dec 7-10)
Stage 3 (Dec 11-14)
Stage 4 (Dec 15-18)
Short routes are scheduled every 2 hours throughout the day, while long route events are scheduled every 6 hours.
Complete any event in the series to unlock the latest in-game Garmin kit.
Prize Drawing
When you complete any of the long events, you’ll receive one entry to win the Tacx NEO 2T and Forerunner 945 Tri Bundle in the Garmin Never Stops Giveaway!
Andy is back! In March, I had the fortune of interviewing Tour de France Champion, Andy to discuss his weekly ride on Zwift, the “Andy Schleck Cycles Cappuccino Ride” (read that interview here.)
The event took a hiatus over the summer but now is restarting tomorrow, 7th December, 8pm CET/2pm EST/11am PST.
I will be attending to hear what he has been doing over the last few months, and I’m hopeful that he will be accompanied by his old crew of event facilitator Joel and Andy’s brother Frank, which some of you may know.
About the Ride
The event lasts 1 hour is hosted on the Sand and Sequoias route, which Andy says is his favourite on Zwift. This is a very leisurely group ride paced at 1-2.4 w/kg, so it is accessible for all (including those who enjoy racing like myself, since it makes a perfectly-paced recovery ride).
Overall, it is a relaxed ride with good conversation, including funny stories from Andy’s past and present cycling adventures. As a result, this ride quickly became one of my favourite on Zwift.
The ride is showing a new “Andy Schleck Cappuccino Kit” as the event jersey in Companion, so it looks like we’ll all be riding in style now that Andy has finally managed to get his custom jersey in game!
Those of you who joined Andy’s rides earlier in the year will remember he was waiting on his design to be created by Zwift and it looks like during Andy’s summer break, they have managed to do just that. And that’s great news, because a ride this good deserves a custom kit.
It’s “Millar Time!” David Millar, retired professional cyclist turned television commentator and joint podcast host (Never Strays Far) has re-joined Zwift, giving us the special opportunity to ride with one of Britain’s finest riders and commentators.
About David
In 2000, David Millar time trialed his way to his first stage win of the Tour de France and with that, took the yellow jersey, cementing his place in British history as only the fourth British rider to wear it. The “Millar Time” phrase was coined along the way due to his superior skills as a Time Trial specialist.
Like many of us, David’s passion for cycling dates back to childhood. Scottish-born, he bought his first road bike aged 15 and when he turned 18 moved to France to race. Two years later, in 1997, he was offered his first professional contract and he was soon winning stages of the Tour de France. His Grand Tour victories were not limited to the Tour de France, though: he won at all three major Grand Tours. (He is one of only a handful of riders to have worn the leader’s jersey in all three Grand Tours.)
In 2004, a young David stumbled into the dark side of cycling for a short period and received a suspension for doping as result. However, David used that experience for transformative effects and since then, based on his experiences, has become an authoritative voice on anti-doping.
In 2008, he became part-owner and rider for the Garmin Slipstream team who became renowned for their strong anti-doping stance. Since his resurgence as a clean cyclist, David has made his mark as one of Britain’s most successful road cyclists, including winning the gold medal in the time trial at the Commonwealth Games in 2010 and the silver medal in the same event at the UCI Road World Championships that same year.
David was instrumental in Mark Cavendish’s world title in the road race in 2011 in his role as team captain, and he represented Great Britain at the Olympic Games in London 2012.
Since his retirement in 2014, David has become a television commentator for ITV and BBC and is working on a number of projects, including a role mentoring Senior Academy riders with British Cycling.
CHPT3
In 2015, David launched CHPT3, with the objective of making clothing David would wear as a retired racer. The concept quickly evolved.
CHPT3 has now become a cycling lifestyle brand. The essence of CHPT3 (which is short for “Chapter 3”) is that every person has three chapters in their life: family, work and play. The third chapter is often forgotten. As David states “CHPT3 exists to design and produce the products and share the lifestyle that cycling can inspire in all its forms, out on the road, adventures on dirt, navigating through streets, indoor training – we do it all and we want to inspire you to do the same and find the playfulness in life – your own third chapter.”
It was originally produced by Castelli, called CHPT3 x Castelli and is what David refers to as his “purest.” David explains that the “first collection will always remain the purest, there was nothing else out there like it and it proved to be not only difficult but expensive to manufacture.”
CHPT3 has many collaborations, one of which is with Garmin, whose cycling team David raced with for 7 years. Now, 13 years later, he is the supplier of a Garmin-inspired line of clothing. The designs pay homage to and are inspired by the Garmin Cycling teams from the past.
Currently, in Zwift, CHPT3 rides are using the standard Garmin jersey. However, David and Zwift are busy creating Garmin’s new CHPT3 version which can viewed and purchased here. This will give people the unique opportunity to have their real world look mirror their virtual… or should that be vice-versa?
It’s important to note that like all CHPT3 mainline designs, the Garmin jerseys and shorts are performance designed using recycled materials, which is a core value of the brand.
“Sustainability” is an important part of CHPT3. As is noted on their website, the designs are aimed to be timeless. “By producing collections that eschew fads that may be out of fashion next week, made from durable yet highly technical performance materials, we have a range that can form the heart of your cycling wardrobe for years to come.” Furthermore, CHPT3 have linked up the Clothes Doctor who “want to help extend the life of your cycling kit through considered cleaning, protection and repair services.”
CHPT3 Tuesday Chaingang (and more)
To celebrate the third chapter, the “play” aspect that is integral to the company’s philosophy, David is hosting a weekly event on Zwift every Tuesday at 8pm CET/7pm GMT/2pm EST/11am PST. His first event attracted 200 people and had that nice feel of a Saturday morning club ride, with many questions being asked about David’s experiences as a racer.
As he re-finds his feet within Zwift, expect more events to follow. He was actually an early adopter of Zwift and has been impressed since returning to the platform with its evolution. With a contact book filled with past and present cycling superstars, I expect this ride to be stocked full of guests. Interestingly, in David’s first ride, the one person that everyone asked about was his co-commentator and friend, Ned Boulting. In his recent podcast, David was introducing Zwift to Ned, who certainly sounded interested in dipping a toe into this new world.
At the moment, as David gets to grips with leading the bunch around the virtual world (something I am sure won’t take him long, given that he spent 18 years in the professional peloton doing this very thing), the ride is simply a nice group ride. However, David is keen to listen to what the community wants and adapt the event accordingly. And with two rides completed, he’s well on his way.
One area which CHPT3 is focused on is promoting women in cycling and as such, they are also hosting a weekly “Women’s Only” event every Thursday at 7:00PM CEST / 6:00PM. This event has a special story behind it because originally it was hosted as a closed event, to encourage women into cycling and where CHPT3 would discuss product designs, marketing plans and generally just ride together, however this evolved and now is open for all women on Zwift.
David is reconnecting with Zwift. This includes catching up with Eric (Min), who he knew from when Zwift launched its beta in 2014. In an upcoming Off Bike podcast, David discusses with Eric the origins and vision he has for Zwift.
On the Zwift platform it’s certainly looking like David’s Tuesday evening ride is a place where you can ride and be entertained by stories from a lifetime spent on two wheels and the different people David has met along the way.
Furthermore, given that time trialing was David’s speciality, I hope that there are some sessions focussed on that discipline because as we know, it’s very popular on Zwift. And could you imagine a CHPT3 Time Trial Team competing in Thursday’s WTRL, led by David? I could and that would be a frightening prospect!
Rahsaan Bahati sits down with Matt Rowe to discuss his winning team performance at this year’s Race Across America (RAAM). The race spans 3000 miles with 175,000 feet of climbing acrosses 12 states!
About the Podcast
The Zwift PowerUp Cycling Podcast features training tips from host Matt Rowe (Rowe & King), with regular co-hosts Greg Henderson, Rahsaan Bahati, Dani Rowe, and Kristin Armstrong.
Editor’s note: whenever I ask about the best races happening on Zwift, TFC’s Mad Monday Series is mentioned with their unique “split categories”. They recently sent over the details of the next round of the series (#11!) which begins on Monday.
Since TFC has a special place in my heart (it was the first Zwift team I joined, back in 2015) and the race series is a favorite of many, I wanted to make sure everyone knew about the next round of races. Hope to see you there!
The TFC Mad Monday Series has been running for nearly two years, with series 10 just finishing up. We are looking forward to series 11 starting on the 6th of December.
The focus of the race series is on team participation (individual riders are also welcome) but what sets us apart is our narrower category bands which improve the competitiveness of the races and discourage sandbagging by making the next category a smaller step up.
For series 11, the European race slot is at 8:20pm CET/7:20pm UKT and a North America timeslot is at 7:45pm EST.
How It Started
The series started off partly due to frustration within TFC at the options available for teams to race (particularly larger races) and for members throughout the team to be able to contribute to a series performance. We also looked at the usual events scheduled during the week and saw that Monday was a relatively quiet day, which could lead to higher participation without conflicting with any other races. The first-ever race series was run with WTRL back in March 2020, before becoming the TFC Mad Monday Series in April 2020.
To help ensure policing of categories, we pushed ahead with the scoring being team-based, with teams being penalized for infringements. This self-policing method worked very well for helping to enforce the rules! Numbers very quickly picked up as the Monday evening time slot proved to be very popular, with the European timeslot becoming one of the largest races on the calendar in terms of numbers.
Splitting Categories
At the start of January 2021, then TFC team captain David Mulholland proposed splitting up the categories to have 8 instead of the usual 4 categories. This brings two major benefits:
It means that riders who are normally the bottom of their race category (C/B particularly) now have a really competitive race to participate in
It discourages sandbagging as riders on the limit of upgrade have a smaller step up to the next series
It also helped us to keep up with the success of the event and accommodate more riders without the races being “too big”.
We remain grateful to Zwift for allowing us the extra race events and ability to experiment in this way, since split categories like this were a first in Zwift.
The categories are as follows:
Cat A+: 4.60 wkg and above FTP
Cat A: 4.00 wkg up to 4.59 wkg FTP
Cat B+: 3.60 wkg up to 3.99 wkg FTP
Cat B: 3.20 wkg up to 3.59 wkg FTP
Cat C+: 2.85 wkg up to 3.19 wkg FTP
Cat C: 2.50 wkg up to 2.84 wkg FTP
Cat D+: 2.00 wkg up to 2.49 wkg FTP
Cat D: 1.99 wkg and below FTP
Team-Based
Another part of making it a success was ensuring we had various teams on board, continuing to support the series and help police things, and in the beginning we had TFC, ART, ZwiftScotland, SZ, Vikings, Cryogen, Foudre, BRT (now defunct and partly become WLC). These teams helped to provide input and other viewpoints to help shape the series. It has also been great to see the split cat idea catching on and seeing other teams like SZ running events with the same concept.
As mentioned before, the current series setup is team-based, with points being awarded for various FAL segments as well as final finish line position. The number of riders contributing to the score per team varies depending on overall turnout in the race.
The course selection for every series contains a little of something for everyone, so you are guaranteed a bit of climbing, sprinting, and everything in-between! After some experimenting with the event setups we have also settled on using private race signup links, which are communicated to registered team captains three days prior to each race… so best get signed up!
Feedback from teams and riders continues to be extremely positive and we are very grateful for the support we get from the teams in the series as without them and their team captains none of this would work. It has been an honor to see how well received the series is within the community… something we will never take for granted.
About Team TFC
As to the history of TFC itself… we are one of the oldest and largest teams on Zwift, having started back in 2016 and grown to over 600 members, with people from all over the world and with all kinds of backgrounds and abilities. There have been a number of captains over the years, including a little-known person called Eric Schlange (who may have designed one of the early TFC logos…).
We compete across all categories and in all the main race series, but there is never any pressure to race within the team. We are also well-known for running the longest-running race series on Zwift, our namesake, The Friday Criterium, on Friday afternoons and Friday evenings. We also run a Sunday social ride, which is a great way to start/end your week (or prep for Mad Monday!).
After a weekend of racing and with the conclusion of the Flamme Rouge Racing series yet to come, the start of my fifth week of training with Rowe & King was very much focused on recovery. Monday was a much-needed rest day.
Tuesday’s Session
Tuesday’s interval session was reduced in its normal intensity and had me holding 285 watts for 30 minutes, which seems simple on paper but I will explain the challenges.
The interval session consisted of a 10-minute warm-up where the pace steadily increased until the last minute’s interval saw me pushing 345 watts. A quick 3-minute rest then led into the main event of 30 minutes at 285 watts.
This was all about finding your rhythm and being consistent, which sounds easier than it was. It was difficult because too much effort and you were pushing wattage way in excess of the requirement, too little effort and you were then falling behind. It was a challenge to find the zone and hold it for 30 minutes. I found my eyes glued to the wattage in the centre of the screen. The session was called “Drift Test” because literally, if you didn’t concentrate, your power would drift.
Overall, I did a good job with perhaps two lapses of concentration causing my data to spike, but for the most part, it was consistent.
I did attempt an evening ride, but the session came to an unexpected end as once again, I suffered chain issues. The new chain that I had installed to replace the one that caused me problems in Sunday’s race continued slipping. This led me to the conclusion that the large chainring needed replacing, a subsequent one was ordered and another bike was fitted to the trainer, to keep me Zwifting. I’ve mentioned this on numerous occasions, but when you ride consistently on Zwift, you will find yourself replacing components at a fast rate.
Easy Wednesday and Thursday
Wednesday was penciled in for an easy ride, so I joined a group ride and got towed around Watopia, and Thursday’s rest day or easy ride was completed by joining the “Roll with Castelli” ride. I did go rogue from the plan to sample Neokyo’s new routes and collect a badge, just to give myself a taster of what I have to look forward to in the future.
Racing Weekend
This brought me into the final 3 days of the Flamme Rouge Racing series feeling primed, which I had discussed with Matt as being the target. Friday’s TT was on the “Tour of Tewit Well” route. I was confident of a good result, but lack of course knowledge and the wrong wheel choice cost me a top 10 finish.
The TT was a mass start event, no drafting, on TT bikes, where the only variable was the wheel choice. I opted for the DT Swiss disc wheels. The issue I experienced was due to the undulation of the course, when I hit the climbs, it felt like I started going backwards. I opted for these wheels thinking that I would need their advantage on the descents, but the reality was, I would have been better with some more all-around wheels and to push harder on the climbs to build an advantage.
Furthermore, I was not familiar with the climbs, so didn’t over exert myself on the short efforts and on the punchy climb mid-way along the route, I had several riders bridge a nice gap I had built, with one rider coming from 12 seconds back. Literally, he flew up the climb. The “on-off” explosive nature of the TT, certainly did not suit my style of riding and in the last kilometre I lost a couple more places and finished in 13th. Although it was a respectable time of 16:38, finishing outside the top 10 was not in the plan.
Despite my disappointment, it’s without doubt that had I not spent the last 4 weeks doing weekly intense intervals sessions that had elements of explosive power required, I would have finished further down the field.
I fared much better the following day with a 56km hard race around London that took in Leith Hill and Box Hill. In 56km of racing, there was plenty of “on-off” explosive riding and I was delighted with my 8th place finish because the hard truth is, that is the probably the level I am at, at the moment. I missed being in the battle for the top 5 by the finest of margins, again showing the huge progress I have made since training has commenced.
During the final climb on Box Hill, I was with the final group of 10 riders and the pace crept above what I could sustain, putting me into the “red zone” which resulted in me slipping from the battle for the top spots. But during my struggle, I did accumulate my second highest ever 5 minute power rating on Zwift and took 6th spot on the KOM, before being passed on the descent.
There is no doubt that I would not have finished as high without the training that I have been undertaking, particularly the 3 hour endurance rides that have given me the strength and confidence to race these long events and be competitive right until the end.
Sunday’s event was a brutal 56km ride around the Surrey Hills course, with an extra climb thrown in at the end. I was extremely pleased with my performance as again I was able to stay at the front of the race, and as the pace increased, I had the power to stay with the moves. On the approach to the last climb, there were 7 in the group, including myself. One rider launched a long range attack which the group let go, 2 riders decided to chase after he was already 30 seconds up the road. Tactically, I decided to stay with the group of 4, thinking we would work together to pull the escapees back. This did not happen so it was left to the 4 of us to fight it up the climb, where I finished 7th overall due to my poor descending from the climb to the finish line.
I appreciate that I did not win the stage, but I had the power and endurance to remain competitive in what was an excellent field, and the data backs that up.
Wrapping It Up
It is without doubt, this new level of power and endurance is a direct consequence to the 5 weeks of structured training supported by Rowe & King. As stated from the outset, I wanted to increase my 20 minute, but it is evident that a by-product has been that my 1 to 5 minute power range has significantly increased and as such, I have become a more competitive Zwift racer.
Still, we are only just getting into the training and believe that there are still gains to be made. The good results have made me feel positive about the process, so I look to week 6 with enthusiasm.
As of today, I’ve completed 667 races on Zwift. But today’s race would be one of the most memorable!
We were racing 12 laps of Crit City’s Bell Lap, and I had a race plan that almost guaranteed me losing. On top of that, the powerup gods didn’t smile upon me one bit, leaving me with a ghost going into the final lap.
But I managed a win, surprising even myself. Here’s how it happened…
The Warmup
Thursdays are often “short race” days for me. I’ll try to do a longer, mostly zone 2 warmup of 60-90 minutes ollowed by a shorter race, often in Crit City.
This week I jumped into the TWENTY24 Road to Tokyo ride (a favorite of mine) at 6am. It’s an easy-paced, steady ride with just enough conversation to get my brain engaged. I chewed some caffeine gum while I spun the legs up, having already rubbed the PR lotion into my legs.
The Plan
My plan today was to treat this 12-lap Crit City race as a workout, where every two laps or so I use whatever powerup I’ve got to do a powerup-inspired attack. For example:
Feather: attack on the climb
Aero: go for a breakaway
Steamroller: attack on the brick descent
I figured the attacks would take their toll on my legs, leaving me without the punch for a final sprint effort. But along the way I hoped to animate the race while putting in some hard interval efforts.
The Start
Our starting group of 41 Bs jumped out of the pens and quickly headed up the twisty climb. The first lap was fast as expected, but not “on the rivet” fast. In fact, the group felt pretty tame, with pack dynamics 3.0 spreading the riders across the road as we ate up the tarmac.
Finishing up the first lap, I grabbed my first powerup, which would inspired my first attack. It was the draft boost (van).
Attack #1: Draft Boost
The van isn’t terribly useful for attacking – it’s best used when you want to sit in with a fast-moving pack with as little effort as possible. So I decided my van-inspired attack would come in two phases:
Use the van on the most difficult portion of the lap (up the twisty, fast climb) to conserve energy then
Attack on the false flat after the descent
Mike Tyson famously said, “”Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” That’s also true in bike racing, where the punches usually come in the form of other riders attacking. And that’s what happened to me. Just before the brick descent a handful of riders attacked, so I decided to use my conserved energy to chase the group of four up the road, in hopes that it may turn into a decent breakaway.
It didn’t.
I got another van at the end of lap 2, and used it to help me sit in. There were definitely a few strong riders in our group still pushing the pace. The hard attack I had followed in lap 2 had stretched out the group, eventually forcing a selection of around 25 riders up the twisty climb on lap 3.
Attack #2: Steamroller
The Zwift gods granted me a steamroller going into lap 4. So my next powerup-inspired attack would be deploying the steamroller on the brick descent and attacking a bit on that downhill.
But once again, my plans were foiled as everyone pushed so hard up the climb before the bricks that I didn’t have enough pep in my legs to truly attack. Foiled again!
I grabbed a feather going into lap 5, and decided to take an easy lap before the feather attack. There were clearly at least a handful of strong riders in this race, including one named Anders, Meese from ODZ who I’ve raced with before, and a DIRT teammate named Kok.
Attack #3: Feather
On the twisty climb of lap 6 I deployed the feather partway up the climb and got out of the saddle to hammer my way up. Anders and Meese were paying attention and stayed close, and while a small gap caught a few riders out for a bit, in the end I was only able to shed one rider from the group before getting caught on the false flat.
Another steamroller at the start of lap 7. Really not a fun powerup for attacks, so I just used it on the bricks to make things a bit easier.
Attack #4: Feather
The gods gifted me a feather going into lap 8, and I used it just as Anders’ attacked on the climb. So I followed his (strong!) wheel, and the pack stretched out, with us gaining a small gap off the front.
Our breakaway didn’t stick, but we shed a handful of riders off the back, thinning the herd just a bit more. This was definitely a more animated race than you typically get in Crit City Bs!
Heading into lap 9 I got the ghost powerup – one of my least favorite powerups. If it lasted just 5-10 seconds longer it would make things interesting, but at only 10 seconds long it’s pretty useless, especially in the middle of the a race.
I burned it, then planned to do one last powerup-inspired attack on lap 10. There were 18 riders left in the front group.
Attack #5: Burrito
Grabbing a burrito heading into lap 10, I figured I would use it near the top of the twisty climb to attack off the front, perhaps following another rider. Since the burrito takes away the draft effect for nearby riders, it’s the perfect powerup if you want to follow another rider but not let others follow you.
Near the top of the twisties Anders attacked once more, so I activated the burrito and gave chase. Unfortunately, he was too strong (or I reacted to slowly) and I was never able to grab his wheel. So I sat up, letting the group catch me. Time to plan my finish.
The Final Attack: Ghost
Heading into the penultimate lap of the race, I crossed my fingers and prayed for an aero powerup. But the gods didn’t smile upon me, instead giving me my third steamroller of the race. Gah! I used it on the brick descent, then hoped once more for a good powerup heading into the final lap.
And the spinner stopped on… ghost. Blegh. A feather would have made for a fun long attack on the climb. An aero or even a van would have made for a fast final sprint. But a ghost? I’d never used a ghost effectively in a race.
But I had commited to powerup-inspired attacks… so an invisible attack is what I would do! Timing-wise, this meant had to jump earlier than usual, because if I waited until the final ~15 seconds, when everyone else starts sprinting, nobody would notice me disappearing for a bit.
No, I had to do a surprise attack before everyone else was going hard, so I could create a gap then (hopefully) stay away.
On the false flat, 600m from the finish, I started hammering my way through the pack. Not a full sprint, as I didn’t want to alert others to my attack with orange numbers or a sprinting avatar. But 450W or so, to build speed so I could hopefully slingshot off the front without anyone seeing me. Escape velocity.
I hit my spacebar as I started passing the front rider, disappearing from everyone else’s screen and ramping up my power at the same time. Now it was time for a head-down, all-out effort to the line!
Reviewing the video, when my invisibility ran out I had a very small gap off the front of the group – not even 1 second according to the rider list. But I was traveling at 56kph, and even though I was now visible the gap quickly grew to 2 seconds while the other riders took a moment to notice me and respond.
As the numbers behind turned orange, I kept going, inspired by the thought of a livestreamed long attack win. And even though the riders began gaining on me as my heart rate spiked to my 189bpm max, I crossed the line with a decent gap (1.2s) to the next rider (Anders), with Meese taking third just behind.
I’d done it. I had used the ghost to initiate a long attack and take the win. Hurray!
Watch the Video Recording (with voice and music, since I was live streaming):
Takeaways
28 seconds. That’s how much time elapsed between me starting to ramp my power up in the pack and me crossing the finish line. But it feels like so much longer when you’re used to Crit City’s short final sprints.
I set a new PR for the year with that final attack in the 57-72 seconds range on my power curve:
This is the first race I can ever remember winning with a longer, “I jump first” sprint. While that final effort was tough, the feeling of winning in this fashion is so much better than a win where you barely outsprint the competition. You can bet I’ll be trying that trick again. Even without a ghost powerup!
Your Thoughts
Have you ever won with the help of a ghost? Do long final attacks work for you, or are you a “sit in and sprint” kind of guy like I (usually) am? Share below!
