The third points race of Zwift Racing League 2021/22 Season 1 happens Tuesday, October 19th (Monday the 18th for Premier Division racers). This week has something everyone – sprints, short climbs, and one of the longest climbs of the season.

The race takes place on France’s Casse-Pattes route, which has never been raced before in ZRL. On top of that there are four timed intermediate sections (two sprints and two KOMs), certain intermediates not awarding standard segment points, and A/B racers racing longer than C/D racers. It’s a lot to wrap your head around – but we’re here to help!

Let’s dig into the course, including tips for bike choice, strategic options, and details about those confusing intermediate points competitions.

Looking at the Route: France’s Casse-Pattes

French cyclists use the term “casse-pattes” (literally “leg-breaking”) to refer to particularly difficult parts of a ride, or roads that awkwardly change gradient and break a cyclist’s rhythm. It’s a fitting name for this route, which is quite flat and steady until the all-important Petit KOM section.

One lap of this route is 23km (14.3 miles) long, with 145m (476′) of climbing. A/B categories will race two full laps, while C/D will race around 1.5 laps, ending atop the Aqueduc KOM Reverse for a total distance of 35.7km according to WTRL.

The race begins with a short lead-in from the start pens to the Marina Sprint Reverse banner. This may be ZRL’s wildest race start yet, because the first Marina Sprint is an intermediate offering first across the line (FAL) and fastest through segment (FTS) points.

So plan on the typical hard start out of the pens – with a sprint to finish it off! The sprint begins just 700 meters into the race.

Once we’re through the Marina Sprint things stay fairly flat and simple until the next sprint, Pavé Sprint Reverse. When you find yourself riding through the field with sunflowers on your right, you know you’re approaching the sprint. It begins as you turn right and head through the arch into town. And you can’t see the start line until it’s too late to start your effort, so make sure you keep an eye on your minimap so you know where you’re at!

Oddly enough, for this race WTRL isn’t giving points for FTS on the Pavé Sprint – only FAL. This is important to know, if you’re contesting sprint points, as it may change your positioning strategy approaching and during the sprint.

The Pavé Sprint is a fairly long segment at 340m on slower-rolling cobbles. Fast sprinters will complete it in 18-22 seconds.

After the Pavé Sprint we have a moment to catch our breath before the road tilts upward, heading into the Aqueduc KOM Reverse. The stats on this climb are deceiving since you’ve got around 0.5km of snaking uphill leading into the timed segment. Efforts will lift as the road lifts, so be ready to go hard for around 1 full kilometer, with a bit of extra mustard in the final flat meters as you battle for placement over the line.

Like the Pavé Sprint, there are no FTS points given for the Aqueduc KOM – only FAL matters. (We checked with WTRL and confirmed that this includes the second lap for C/D riders, where the Aqueduc KOM banner is the finish line but also awards FAL points!)

Then it’s a short, winding descent to flat ground and a bit of recovery before the big climb of the day. If you were poorly positioned on the Aqueduc KOM you may spend extra effort chasing wheels here, so try to come over the top well-placed. There will certainly be a selection on this short climb, and you don’t want to be relegated to the chase group!

The Petit KOM is next, and don’t let the name fool you. This draggy climb is going to force the biggest splits of the race. It’s a challenging climb at 4% for 2.7km. Some sections are flatter (2-3%), especially at the start of the climb before the zigzags. These areas offer more advantage to those who are drafting. Other sections are steeper (6-7%) and pure w/kg will be crucial.

Once over the Petit KOM it’s a long descent to the start pens and a flat lead-in to more intermediate points on the Marina Sprint Reverse. This is the last Marina Sprint that will give FAL intermediate points, as A/B will end at the Marina Sprint banner next lap (WTRL says FTS will still be active for the finish, but not FAL), and C/D’s race ends before they reach the Marina Sprint again.

Wash, rinse, repeat on the second lap – unless you’re a C or D racer! Your race ends between the end of the Pavé Sprint and the start of the Aqueduc KOM (Zwift clearly placed this finish line in the wrong place.)

*Note for C/D racers: Zwift has manually set the finish line at the Aqueduc banner. But historically, they haven’t always done a good job of placing these virtual finish lines in exactly the right place. Look for the blue finish line on your minimap and screen, and don’t stop until you pass it. It’s quite possible that it may be located 50-100m past the Aqueduc KOM banner!

Read more about the Casse-Pattes route >

PowerUp Notes

Riders will be awarded powerups through each segment banner, meaning we’ll get 4 powerup chances per lap for a total of 8 powerups for A/B and 6 for C/D. Three powerups will be randomly given out at each banner:

Anvil: makes you heavier for 30 seconds, so you can descend faster.
Use this on downhills. Pair it with a supertuck to go extra fast with zero effort! Really only useful here on the descent from the Petit KOM, although you could use it descending from the Aqueduc KOM as well.

Draft Boost (van): increases the draft effect you are experiencing by 50% for 30 seconds. Use at higher speeds (flats and descents) when you are already drafting off another rider (since this powerup only helps when you are drafting.) Very handy to increase recovery on the flats, or boost your sprint speed when chasing FTS points through a sprinting pack.

Burrito: turns off draft effect for riders within a 2.5m radius for 10 seconds.
Use when attacking off the front so opponents have to work harder to follow you, or use it in the group to make everyone work harder for a bit.

We saw on Surrey Hills in a previous ZRL season that the anvil powerup actually boosts speeds quite a bit on descents – use it to bridge up to other riders after the Petit KOM, or even to launch a long attack at the end of your A/B race.

Tip: Trashing Powerups

This week, perhaps more than any other in ZRL, riders may want to just trash a powerup so they can get a new one at the next banner without actually activating the powerup they’re holding.

For example: if I get an anvil powerup at the first banner (Marina Sprint), you can bet I’ll be wanting to get rid of it before the Pavé Sprint banner, so I can get a better powerup. But I don’t want to activate my anvil and make myself heavier while we’re racing on flat ground!

Zwift anticipated this situation, and built a simple way to trash your powerups. Just click/tap at the bottom center of your screen, or use the Companion app. Both have a button showing your powerup going into a trashcan. Tapping that button will immediately delete your powerup. Done!

Here’s a quick video showing how it works:

Bike Frame + Wheel Choice

Choosing the right frame for this route is a tricky proposition, since the fastest aero setup is going to cost you around 2 seconds on the crucial Petit KOM climb. So where do you want your advantage? Strong climbers may opt for a more aero setup, saving themselves watts on the flats and descents.

But if you anticipate struggling on the climbs, we recommend going with a more balanced all-arounder like one of these setups:

• Tron bike (of course)
• Scott Addict RC or Specialized Venge S-Works frame + ENVE 7.8 or DT Swiss ARC 62 wheels

If you’re strong on the flats and want to go extreme to help you on the climbs, look at the Specialized Aethos frame paired with the ENVE 7.8 or DT Swiss ARC 62 wheels… or even the Lightweight Meilensteins.

See Tron vs Top Performers for a helpful chart of how different popular setups perform >

More Route Recon

Several rides are planned on Casse-Pattes leading into the big race. If you’re not familiar with this course, consider jumping into another event to do some recon! Here’s a complete list of upcoming Casse-Pattes events.

Zwift’s vibrant race community continues to up its game when it comes to course knowledge and recon videos. Here are our two favorite recon videos this week:

Sherpa Dave

Si Bradeley

Strategic Options

This week’s race has the longest climb we’ve seen this season, and in fact it’s the biggest climb we’ll see until the final race on Makuri Islands’ Countryside Tour. Here are a few predictions of strategies we’ll see deployed:

• FTS the First Time Through: plan on all the FTS points being scored on the first trips through the Marina Sprint and up the Petit KOM. Why? Because legs will be freshest and packs will be largest. If you’re going after FTS, do it on lap one.
  EDIT: WTRL has told us that FTS will be active on the last time through the Marina Sprint, for the finish. It’s possible that some top 10 times will be set in these final meters, give how many points it would be worth to finish high and grab FTS!
• Force an Early Selection: teams of pure wattage bazookas who don’t fancy their chances of hanging with the front up the Petit KOM might try to push very hard for the first few minutes of the race, grabbing intermediate points at the Marina Sprint and forcing a selection by breaking away from the front of the pack. If they can drop the stronger climbers it’ll be worth it for sure. But heck, even if they don’t drop the climbers… it might still be worth it! Plan on a hectic start.
• C/D Finish – Go Early, or Go Late: the C/D finish on the Aqueduc KOM will be interesting because of how it lays out and because it carries extra FAL points. Strong climbers will want to attack early on the uphill to gap sprinters so they can stay away to the finish. Sprinters will want to wait to attack until the flat finish. Who will win the battle?
• A/B Finish – Go Long, Uphill: strong climbers will push extra hard on the second Petit KOM in order to drop sprinters before the final run-in.
• A/B Finish – Go Long, Downhill: heavier riders, anyone with anvil powerups, and riders who don’t fancy their chances in a pack sprint will try to go long on the final descent so they can solo to victory. It’s 4km from atop the Petit KOM to the finish line. Can you hold it?

Watch the Premier Division Race

Zwift’s top racers will take on 2 laps of Casse-Pattes on Monday at 11am PST.

Your Thoughts

Any insights or further thoughts on Week 4’s big race? Share below!

How the Race Was Won: You gotta know when to hold ’em – ZRL Week 3 (Flatland Loop)

Yesterday was the first Zwift Racing League event ever held on Zwift’s newest world, the Makuri Islands. With riders having so much less experience on these roads there were a lot of question marks heading into the race. Where should we start our sprints? Could we hang on for the climb section? And how could we best attack that crazy downhill finish?

For me, all those questions combined into a surprising result – a rare race win, and my first ZRL win ever! Here’s how it all went down over three laps of Flatland Loop. (Note: I’m a B racer with the DIRT Roosters squad racing in Division 3 of the EMEA W zone.)

The Warmup

My typical pre-race ritual was executed as usual. Beet juice (liquid dirt) a couple of hours before the race, then three pieces of caffeine gum (100mg of go-go juice per piece!) an hour before, and PR lotion on the legs before kitting up.

Related note: I recently saw a nice post from Asker Jeukendrup re: caffeinated chewing gum discussing how quickly it kicks in, dosing, etc. Check it out >

Then it was time to kit up and awaken the legs and heart by spinning with the C. Cadence groupies. 30 minutes or so with a few sprints to get the heart rate up and I was ready to go.

I went with the Cervelo S5 2020 with DT Swiss Disc wheels this time around, because I wanted every aero advantage I could get on this flat course where the sprint intermediates and downhill finish were everything.

After checking that Discord was set up, the racing playlist cued, and OBS was recording all the action, it was time. I even had my Velocity Rocker plate‘s LED lights turned on… green for go. Let’s race!

Lap 1

The race began quite tamely, as our pack of 73 seemed to anticipate the key selections coming on the first sprint and the climb immediately following. I got an aero powerup at the start/finish banner, so I decided I would push the first sprint and try to get some extra points.

I’ll confess, though, that I was going back and forth mentally with myself regarding the sprints. Especially this first sprint – I didn’t know how hard the first climb effort would be – I’ve been dropped on it in other races. I didn’t want to burn out my legs sprinting then get dropped on the first lap! So I didn’t go all-in on this sprint… or any of the intermediate sprints, really. Just couldn’t get myself to fully commit.

That said, I was 6th FAL and 4th FTS overall on the first Country Sprint. Thank goodness for aero powerups!

Then the climb began. I moved closer to the front as we hit the incline heading into Village Onsen, wanting to give myself every chance of hanging with the front if big attacks happened. But… nothing happened! Sure, the effort ramped up on the climb, but it was quite sustainable. I only averaged 302W on the main climb section, and that kept me in the front group.

Then it was time to gear up for the Village Sprint. I knew from Sprintapalooza practice that you have to go early if you want a fast time go early, ramping it up as you hang a right into the Village. And I had an aero powerup, too! So I popped the aero as we turned right, then started hammering from ~5 bike lengths back. I found myself on a Vikings’ wheel (Johansen) but couldn’t come around his strong effort – so I sat up at the end and took 2nd FAL, as well as 5th overall FTS.

I got a feather powerup through the sprint banner – totally useless (even detrimental) on a descent. So I trashed it. On the plus side, finishing near the front on the Village Sprint made the ensuing trip to the finish line an easy one. Just easy spinning, letting the riders behind catch up, and recovering more on the descent and flats.

One lap down, and the legs were feeling pretty good!

Lap 2

The Roosters began chatting on Discord as we hit the flats of Lap 2. Where was everyone at, and how were we feeling? That’s when we realized we were in trouble: Thomas (our strongest rider) had been dropped from the front pack on the Village Sprint/descent section. And Ally, also a strong rider, had dropped a chain near the start, putting him out of the front group almost immediately. Couple those issues with our team captain Antoine not being able to race and we were looking pretty weak compared to the Vikings, who had three riders in the front group compared to our two!

It was up to Arjen and myself to score as many points as possible. Could we beat the teams who still had three riders in the front pack of ~20?

I didn’t think I’d be able to grab more FTS points on the second (or third) laps due to a smaller, slower pack compared to the first lap. But I thought I could snag some FAL points, since it seemed like most riders weren’t contesting the sprints. Plus, I had another aero powerup! So for the Country Sprint I did another 90% effort, trying to surf the wheels but also finish near the front. 4th over the line. A few more points.

The climb section on the second lap was unremarkable, and I had no powerup for the Village Sprint. But I still put in a dig, looking for those FAL points, figuring I needed to get near the front before the descent anyway. 5th FAL. And another feather to trash on the descent. Time for the final lap!

Lap 3

I was gifted an aero powerup at the start/finish banner heading into lap 3, and now I had a decision to make: use it and chase sprint points? Or keep it for the final sprint?

I opted to use it on the Country Sprint, mostly as a tool to let me stay near the front for FAL points without putting in an all-out effort. I was 5th over the line and trying to strike a difficult balance: grab as many intermediate points as I could, while saving my legs for the finish, where I thought I could do quite well if the stars aligned.

The powerup gods smiled upon me, granting another aero powerup at the sprint banner. I chose to hold onto this one for the finish, because I knew speeds would be crazy high on the descent, so aero would be hugely important.

There were 16 riders left in the front group as we began the climb. The Vikings and Pro-Vision BBR teams both had three riders in the group, and I 100% expected one of those teams to send a man off the front for a long attack on the climb section, or even on the little kicker heading toward the Village Sprint.

I was already playing it out in my mind: what would I do if someone attacked off the front? I couldn’t decide if I would chase it down, or sit in and let the group try to chase it. If I chased it down, the rider could just sit up and make me pull him to stay away from the group while his teammates sat in the pack. But if I didn’t chase it down, he might stay away to the finish.

And that is why you send a rider off the front when you’ve got the numbers.

But neither team sent a rider! I can only assume everyone’s legs were too knackered, but whatever the reason, I was happy things stayed steady. Because it meant I could sit in and conserve in the crucial final kilometers.

We hit the Village Sprint, the last intermediate of the day, and a few riders used their aero powerups (a brave move)! I just tried to stay near the front so I wouldn’t get gapped heading into the descent. 10th over the line. A small gap opened ahead, but I was able to close it down because I was expecting it and watching closely.

At this point, the Vikings (smartly) sent a man off the front (Johansen). I just hoped he didn’t have the legs or the powerup to stay away from our fast-moving pack. I watched him warily, deciding I would use my aero to give chase if he began pulling away.

Our group was slowly pulling Johansen in, though, so I opted to rest up and even supertuck a bit. It all came down to this. We caught Johansen with 700m to go, then a few riders popped feather powerups. (Silly Billies! Never use a feather on a descent!)

With 300m I was a few bike lengths from the front. It was go time! A spacebar tap activated my aero powerup, then I just put my head down and gave it everything I had. Glancing up at the screen I saw I was off the front – could I hold it?

Another glance up. Omygosh I’m still off the front. Keep hammering!
Gah! I’m spinning too fast, I should shift!
Keep hammering!

I crossed the line in first place, traveling at 71kph with the Vikings’ Hogseth bearing down on me quickly. My first ZRL win! That felt really, really good.

See my ride on Zwift.com >
See my activity on Strava >
See race results on ZwiftPower >

Watch Full Race Recording

Team Result

As the race wrapped up the Roosters began tallying points and speculating on the final team result. Initially there was a feeling in our Discord conversation of “we put up a good fight, but too much went wrong – there’s no way we won.”

Then Ally, our resident human calculator, began looking at the actual results – specifically the intermediate points. And things began to look better for us. The Vikings had amassed more FAL points than us thanks to their three riders in the front group (and the strong sprints of those riders, of course). But we had scored more FTS points, thanks especially to teammates Arjen and Dean.

Ally calculated that we had scored 253 points to the Vikings’ 232. Could it be?

Within a few hours the final results were on WTRL’s website. And Ally, once again, earned an A for accuracy:

I was super stoked that the Roosters took the team win, because I hated the thought of winning the race individually but not winning as a team (which is all that really matters in ZRL). Nice work, Roosters. And thanks to all the other teams (especially Vikings Muninn) for putting up another good fight!

The Vikings’ Hogseth (2nd place finisher) sent me his race recording – watch it here to see how the race unfolded from his perspective.

Takeaways

Intermediate points are so crucial in ZRL races. And this race really played to our strengths, with all the intermediate points being sprint-based.

For my part, I felt like I managed my efforts really well in this race, striking that super-elusive balance between contesting intermediates and staying fresh for the finish. Check out my XERT chart, where the purple line is MPA (maximum power available). For those who aren’t familiar with XERT, the idea is that it’s basically impossible to ever exceed your MPA in a race. (And if you manage to do that, XERT calls it a “Breakthrough” and updates your metrics to reflect that you’ve grown stronger.)

See how my MPA dips on every sprint, and my final effort touches that line? That’s what it looks like to “burn a match” on every sprint, then empty the tank in the final effort.

Lastly, I’m happy to see that changes to my sprinting form seem to be helping. After years of standing, lower-cadence sprints I’m finding that seated, higher-cadence efforts seem to let me hold higher power for longer durations, especially at the ends of races. It’s still a strange feeling, because it’s so different from my lower-cadence “torque-based” sprints. Of course, it’s not all about torque… it’s also about RPM. And I hit a cadence of 123 in the final seconds of today’s race!

(In fact, I set a new 2021 power curve PR in the 16-30s range at the end of this race. #fistpump)

Your Thoughts

Did you race ZRL this week? How did it go for you and your team? Share below!