IMPORTANT: additional details of this crit series are available on our updated post.
A new crit race series has just been announced on Zwift in partnership with L39ION of LA, the team Global Cycling Network calls “the coolest team in cycling.”
Like all crit races, these will be fast and furious. And like the best crit races, they’ll be raced at night! Here are the details…
About the Route: Neokyo Crit Course
Events will take place over 6 laps (approximately 24 km/15 miles) on the Neokyo Crit Course, a circuit included in Zwift’s recent Neokyo release but not yet ridden by any Zwifters because it is only available for events. (The route will be launched with this crit series, then presumably available for other events soon afterward.)
The flat 3.9km circuit covers portions of the permanently-dark Neokyo map near the Neokyo Harbor start pens including Castle Park and the Shopping District, as well as two sprint segments.
On Dec 7th at 7pm GMT/2pm EST/11am PST, an orientation ride will offer Zwifters the unique opportunity to be the first riders to tackle the new Neokyo Crit Course, and to do so alongside L39ION of LA team members.
There will be a live broadcast component to this ride where L39ION athletes will be providing tips on preparing for and executing a successful race while also giving insight into the new course itself from a racer’s perspective.
Roll with Castelli – November Epic with Jason Osborne Announced
It’s time once again to “Roll with Castelli” on their monthly Epic Zwift adventure. This time they are tackling the Alpe Du Zwift… and Team Castelli are not doing it alone.
On 30th November, the team will be led up the mountain by Jason Osborne, the first Esports World Champion. If you want to ride with a champion, come along! It will be paced between 2.5–3.0 w/kg, so expect the ride to last around 80 minutes.
Jason has a strong sporting background: originally a rower before transitioning to cycling. He won silver as part of the German team in lightweight double scull rowing at the recent Olympics, a step up from the 2016 Olympics where he also competed. He also won in the men’s quadruple sculls at the 2013 World Rowing Championships in Chungju, Korea.
In the Esports World Championships, Jason used his immense strength to power away from the group on the short climb to the finish, holding sustained power of 12 w/kg. For those that watched, it was incredible to see and highlights can be viewed below:
During the race Jason beat some biggest names in the world of cycling, including Tour de France stage winner Thomas De Gendt, who came in 53rd position, Norway’s Edvald Boasson-Haggen (35th), and Britain’s Olympic Mountain Bike Champion, Tom Pidcock (31st). That gives you an insight into how high the level of competition was.
I appreciate that was a year ago, but Jason is still good and recently he was won 5 out of 5 races at the Digital Swiss 5. This is a digital cycling event for national and international professionals and a limited number of amateur athletes from Switzerland and abroad, on a different platform to Zwift. In conclusion, he’s pretty good at Esports.
Giveaways
As customary on the Castelli Epic rides, those who participate have an opportunity to win some high-end Castelli gear. To have a shot at the prizes, be sure to stay close to the beacon when a snapshot is taken. As always, the closest to the beacon will win the prize, which is announced on Catelli’s Strava Club site, which riders are welcome to join.
This month, Castelli are giving you the opportunity to win the Alpha RoS 2 Light Jacket. This is a premium product that would normally retail for €249.95 / £250.00 / $289.99, so it’s a substantial item of clothing and the product features are extensive.
The jacket has wind protection on the front-facing surfaces and breathable fabrics on back-facing surfaces. It repels water and offers wind protection through lightweight two-way-stretch fabric. The fit is close to body so there is no fabric flapping around. This is Castelli’s best jacket for mild conditions.
Over the years I have spent a small fortune on Castelli clothing, because it is comfortable, fits me well and is high quality. However on this occasion, Castelli have kindly sent me the Alpha RoS 2 Light Jacket to test and I can personally confirm that it is deluxe item of clothing. It’s so deluxe, it has its own waistcoat built into the jacket, which adds this layer of warmth around your core. You could probably just get away with wearing a base layer and the jacket. I know some people who wear their base layer, jersey and then their jacket but with the waist coat I don’t think it’s necessary. Furthermore, the jacket itself has three large pockets at the back and a handy zipper on the left-hand side to store your keys, so there is space for storage.
The jacket has reinforced seams so don’t expect any water to seep into the coat. And it’s not heavy, weight-wise. It has long cuffs which will fit into your gloves so no chance of getting wet or cold, if combined with a nice pair of gloves. I have the red coloured version, which looks very smart with black tights and most importantly makes you visible on the road. You won’t be disappointed with this item so join up, ride and be in with a chance of winning this.
In March, when I wrote my initial article investigating how events were created on Zwift, little did I realise how things would develop over the next 8 months. Early on I created my very own event, the Monday Mountain Massif TT. But months later, on Wednesday 24th November, I found myself hosting the third and most challenging event in my Mountain Massif TT series. This time I had partnered with Elite to celebrate the release of their innovative climbing and steering device the RIZER, which I have recently reviewed.
Headlining the release of this new event was 2016 Liege-Bastogne-Liege winner, Wout Poels. Wout and 221 other riders waited anxiously for the start of this 10.1km Mountain TT up the Ven-Top. (With 339 riders signed up at the start, 100 already had changed their minds, and opted not to start, which I could understand because this was by far the most difficult event I had created!)
Event Stats
Across the two events (12pm and 7:15pm CET) there were 459 people who signed up – 120 for 12pm CET and 339 for the 7:15 pm CET.
In the 7:15 pm CET event 222 riders participated, and I was delighted with the uptake because this was a very challenging event with nearly 700 metres of climbing.
Mountain Massif HQ
I joined the 12:00pm event to check that everything was set up correctly, since this was my pilot event before the main one later in the day. I’m glad I attended because within moments of the start I noticed that there were no placings!
It was clear that the event was configured as a “Ride” and not a “Race.” Having ridden for just 5 minutes, I jumped off the bike and contacted the Events Team at Zwift, hoping that the evening session will be amended in time. There was a nervous wait for the next couple of hours before getting confirmation that the update had been made. It wouldn’t have been a major issue because results were being taken from ZwiftPower, but it is nice to know your position during the race so you ride accordingly.
With that change, we were ready for the main event.
The Event – The View from the Front
The start was a spectacle, over 200 racers decked in Elite’s jersey starting “en masse” with no draft, on various cycling setups from TT bikes to climbing rigs and somewhere amongst the riders was Wout Poels, who had successfully made the start.
For my ride, I opted for a climbing setup: the Specialized Aethos S-Works and Meilenstein wheels. This pure climbing setup would give me the advantage when the road started getting vertical but for the initial first kilometres, I found myself battling in the pack.
As the road started to rise, I was able to pull away from some riders and sat in 19th place after the first 3 minutes. I was conscious not to push too hard too early, as the plan was to build into the climb. I felt I had been too conservative, so I began to push.
from 19th…
to 13th!
The next three minutes I started to increase my effort and was able to pass 6 riders and was now in 13th. I was starting to find my rhythm.
In test rides, I knew the event would last around 30 minutes when raced at 4.5-5 w/kg. As I approached 10 minutes – a third of the race complete – I was in 11th. I realised that my conservative start meant that with the lead rider already 1 minute ahead, the best I could hope for was a top 10 placing, so I focussed on the next rider who was only 2 seconds up the road (2 seconds on a climb is a substantial gap to close!)
The RIZER was changing pitch as the gradient raised and descended, adding an extra dimension to this unique event.
As we approached the first of the few hairpins on the course, I pushed hard to make gains on the rider ahead. Then as we approached 13 minutes into the race, I pulled alongside and the RIZER ramped up to 10%. My heart rate at this stage was high but I had reached my target, top 10! The key was to keep my position on the road. I didn’t think there was much chance of catching the next rider, who was 16 seconds ahead.
At the head of the race, there was a close battle for the top 5 or 6 positions. The watts per kilo people were delivering was way in excess of what I could possibly do, with the lead rider at 6.0 w/kg.
From 11th…
to 10th!
With 3km to go, I could see the next rider ahead of me. This was the carrot I needed, so I started to dig deeper than I thought possible. I was conscious of my power graphic which was showing red and yellow. The choice was to push and possibly blow up or settle for 10th. I opted to gamble and push! Over the next kilometre, with Elite’s Direto XR-T trainer responding nicely to my extra effort, I edged up to the rider in 9th, finally catching them with 1.6km to go.
From 10th…
to 9th!
This inspired me. I had consolidated my top 10 position and it gave me energy to push on. I could visibly see the next rider up the road but knew I was running out of tarmac. With nothing to lose I pushed on, putting out some surprisingly high watts. As we approached the finishing corner I hoped that I would have enough to catch the rider but in the end I ran out of road and crossed the line in 9th.
My finishing time was 28:23 and ZwiftPower noted I had completed the event with a 5.3 w/kg average, which was the highest for any event I have completed on Zwift. This further validates the structured training approach I have adopted with Rowe & King.
Summing Up
The event was competitive, fun, and well attended. It was, however, one of the toughest races I have completed. But with an Elite jersey unlocked as a reward, it was well worth the effort.
The RIZER performed as expected, adding an extra dimension and increasing the fun factor.
It was fantastic that Wout raced with us and he messaged me to note how strong the field was after he came in 43rd position in the unofficial rankings (I noted he doesn’t have a ZwiftPower account).
Direct feedback to me after the event was positive, and it’s always nice to know that what we had delivered was appreciated. I certainly enjoyed collaborating with Elite to deliver this and it’s now a regular event in the calendar, along with my two other Mountain Massif TTs. So I look forward to racing you all in the future!
(Talking of the future, Elite are keen to host their own event, and I am going to help them facilitate their vision. So watch out for another new exciting event in the calender!)
After three tough training weeks following a custom training plan created for me by Matt Rowe from Rowe & King, it was agreed that during week four we would dial down the intensity so I would be fresher for a weekend of racing that was scheduled. (I was taking part in the Flamme Rouge Racing series which consisted of six events spread over a week, with two hard events on Saturday and one on Sunday.)
This meant that the intense effort would be undertaken at the start of week. Therefore, following a rest day on Monday, Tuesday’s session had me racing a TTT in Zwift Racing League.
TTT Tuesday
Before the TTT on Tuesday, I enjoyed dipping into a couple of group rides to warm up. With the event scheduled for 8:30pm, this enabled me to ride firstly with Castelli, in their customary Tuesday evening ride, before joining former pro cyclist now turned TV commentator, David Millar, for his first event on Zwift. Called “CHPTR3 Tuesday Chaingang”, it was fun and certainly an event that I am going to cover in more depth later. It was also a great warm-up for the TTT.
The TTT was around London and it was the usual all-out effort that left you hunched over the handlebars at the end of the race, gasping for air. Our team of six got whittled down to five and then four within the last few kilometres, making the dash to the finish on the Mall that much more painful! I concluded that this was one tough 42-minute interval session.
Wednesday Plan Change
The previous day’s all-out effort on the TTT meant that my Wednesday’s “Hour of Power & Squeezers” session was only partially managed. Like last week, the plan was to complete 3 x 20 minutes at 320 watts, but after the first set, I was struggling to hit the required power and when I commenced the second rep, it was clear the effort from the night before had taken too much out of me, so I slowed to a stop.
After resting and refueling, still wanting to achieve the desired training time, I opted for an evening group ride.
Thursday’s rest day and Friday’s one-hour easy ride were much welcomed, leaving me going into the weekend event feeling refreshed.
Flamme Rouge Weekend
The Flamme Rouge Racing series event consisted of two events on and Saturday and one on Sunday. Race creator Rich Vale had introduced a new policy called “Your race, your way.” This meant that despite being in a team, you were not limited to the time of one specific race. This meant due to my schedule, I was able to race event 2 in the morning in the APAC time zone, followed by the Team Time Trial, event 1, in the evening in the EMEA time zone.
The first race, event 2 consisted of three laps around the 2019 UCI Worlds Harrogate course. To stop the frantic and unrealistic starts of Zwift, Richard had introduced a unique neutral rollout feature where you would roll for 1km before the race begins. This meant that everyone got settled before the racing started.
After a nice start to the event and feeling positive, when we approached the start of the KOM climb I went to the front of the group and hit it hard. As this was a points race, and knowing my strength isn’t a sprint, I wanted to get maximum gains for the team here.
But I got it wrong.
I went too early, but I couldn’t relent once I began, so I kept pushing, putting down some massive watts (500W+) on this short climb. This was epic by my own standards. Effectively, I led the group up the KOM and at the last moment, my competitors used my slipstream and zipped past me on the line.
I came across the line in 9th. Some riders would have been disappointed with what just happened, but not me, because I was convinced I had probably delivered my best 1-minute power effort ever! (ZwiftPower later showed it as a new PB at 7.8 w/kg.)
The second lap, I went a bit later on the KOM, but the same thing happened and the small group of riders that overtook me formed a pack and stayed away for the remainder of the race. In the second group on the road, I tried to encourage the group to try and bridge but the response I got to my encouragement was “too tired.”
I settled for finishing in the second group, content with my efforts on the KOM and proof that the training I had been undertaking was actually starting to pay off. I even had strength in the legs to bag 9th on the intermediate sprint segment, but whilst doing so, the chain slipped. This was a warning sign I missed that would haunt me the following day.
Further vindication about how this structured training approach was benefitting, can be witnessed by what happened next.
In the evening’s Team Time Trial, event 1, a 20km spin around the Greater London Loop, I had an unexpected Bluetooth dropped connection 20 minutes in. By the time I had reconnected, I was 20 seconds adrift of the team. It would appear I am not having much luck with Team Time Trials these days. Knowing the Team had to race up Box Hill, I figured I might be in with a chance of catching, if I just stayed in the race.
The next five minutes were a blur of pain as I put my head down and I went. I pushed on a time trial like I have never done before and was putting out wattage that was completely unexpected, in excess of 400 and it was sustained.
Slowly the time gap to my team dropped. And with each second that it decreased, my motivation increased! As the team was approaching Box Hill, I got sight of them and this motivated me further. Then as the team turned right to start the climb, I had bridged the gap and went to the front to pull the team up the climb. The adrenalin was flowing and I soon got told to “Slow down.” It was a massive effort and I led the team up the climb, before ironically getting dropped on the descent. I tried chasing, but without success – it’s not the first time I have got dropped on a descent, so I wasn’t worried. I’d helped the team up the climb, so I was content.
The data in ZwiftPower showed I had a new 5-minute record at 5.7 w/kg, my previous best being 5.5 w/kg.
Two events and two new personal records. This speaks volumes for the structured approach being adopted.
Event 3 was a bit of a bust. I was racing the early session but my race lasted only 5 kilometres. At the first sprint, feeling strong, I went for it and was pushing 700 watts, which was good for me as I’m not much of a sprinter, but there was a loud crunch and my body jerked forward! I’d thrown the chain and it was wrapped around my crank. By the time I had resolved it, I was 1 minute down. So I abandoned. A quick look at my chain revealed it required replacing. Testing on Tempus Fugit revealed every time I pushed over 500 watts, the chain would slip. I gave the race another attempt in the evening timeslot but it was impossible because I could not “push” to keep up with any moves and after 15km of struggling, I gave up.
4 weeks into my programme and training with Rowe & King is starting to deliver improvements. I’m looking forward to what comes next!
Hugely accomplished athlete and coach Julie Dibens joins Matt Lieto and Sarah True to discuss the ins and outs of coaching the finest athletes in the world.
About the Podcast
The Zwift PowerUp Tri Podcast is hosted by former pro triathlete Matt Lieto and Zwift Academy Tri mentor Sarah True. Both are passionate about lending their in-depth knowledge of the multisport to the Zwift Tri audience.
Tina Kalkschmid joined Matt Rowe and Rahsaan Bahati to talk about her new role as D&I (Diversity & Inclusion) Consultant for Canyon SRAM and the goals she has set out for the team over the next 3 years.
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.
If you missed Eric Min’s Thanksgiving Day Ride where he interviewed Anna Van Der Breggen, then fear not… the full interview is now available here for you to enjoy on or off the bike!
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.
To celebrate what would have been the 143rd birthday of Major Taylor, Rahsaan Bahati and Matt Rowe discuss his life and legacy.
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.
Zwift’s November 2021 update added a new wheel brand to the Drop Shop: Dutch manufacturer FFWD. FFWD has been making excellent wheels in Zwolle, The Netherlands since 2006 (watch their factory tour video), and their wheels have been ridden to victories in the Spring Classics, each Grand Tour, and numerous World Championships in every discipline.
Their RYOT55 wheels have been added to the game. Rated 3 stars for weight and aero performance, these hoops are available for level 23+ riders at a price of only 113,700 Drops. Here’s how they are described in the Drop Shop:
“A wheel ideal for the flats, all-around road riding, long rides, fondos, and crit racing. The FFWD RYOT55 is the wheel of choice for the cyclist who wants one of the fastest 50-60mm wheelsets on the market. Rivaling the competition with strong aerodynamics and stiffness, the RYOT55 is ready to conquer all roads and crosswinds.”
Based on the look of the RYOT55 wheels in game, these are actually the “RYOT 55 Team Tech” wheels, designed for use with tubular tires and 150 grams lighter than the standard RYOT 55 wheels.
FFWD RYOT55 Team Tech wheelset
The star ratings don’t tell us enough to determine how these wheels actually perform in Zwift, so we ran them through our standard battery of tests to learn just how well they perform in Zwift’s virtual world.
Here’s everything you need to know about the new FFWD RYOT55 wheels in Zwift…
Aero Performance
The RYOT55 wheels turn in a flat test time that places them in approximately the 58th percentile for aero performance. In terms of closest competition, they’re just a bit slower (2 seconds) than the Zipp 353 NSW wheelset, and a bit faster (1/2 second) than the Campagnolo Bora Ultra 50 and ENVE SES 3.4.
FFWD’s RYOT55 wheels turned in a time of 50:58.5 on our test course (two laps of Tempus Fugit). By comparison, the fastest wheels in game (DT Swiss disc) turned in a time of 50:25.5.
Climb Performance
The RYOT55 wheels are rated at 3 stars for weight, so we were surprised at how well they climbed, turning in a performance that places them in the 89th percentile, tied with the much-respected ENVE SES 3.4 and Zipp 353 NSW wheels.
These new wheels turned in an Alpe du Zwift time of 49:20. That’s just half a second slower than the recently-released CADEX 36 wheels. And it’s 8 seconds behind the two top climbing wheelsets (Lightweight Meilensteins and Roval Alpinst CLX).
Note: all test results above are from a 75kg, 183cm rider holding 300W steady using the Zwift Aero frame.
Conclusions
The FFWD RYOT55 wheels climb surprisingly well given their real-world weight and deep-dish design. But that’s why we test stuff on Zwift, right?
The RYOT55 perform almost identically to the ENVE 3.4 wheels, coming in just a half-second faster on our flat test and matching their time on the climbing test. As such, they’ll become the 5th-best all-arounder pick, sitting between the Zipp 353 NSW and ENVE 3.4 (see our wheel performance comparison charts).
Given the standout climbing performance of the CADEX 36 wheels, we’ll be updating the following posts soon:
Important note: this post contains speed test results for Zwift frames or wheels. These results may change over time, and a bike's performance relative to others may also change. We don't always revise posts when performance rankings change, but we do keep current, master versions of our speed test results which are always available. See the frame charts, wheel charts, and Tron vs Top Performers for current performance data.
