Racing on the DIRT Hellhounds team in the Zwift Racing League EMEA E2 B1 division has been a blast, but from the beginning I’ve been careful to make sure my teammates know that I have no problem whatsoever being “subbed out” if the manager thinks another rider would do a better job on a given week.

My reasons for this are twofold:

1. I don’t want my teammates or manager to put me in just because I’m the Zwift Insider guy, or they think I’ll get publicly offended and throw them under the bus, etc
2. Most importantly: I want my team to do as well as it possibly can!

This week, team manager Snowy finally made the call, asking if I’d be OK to sit it out in Yorkshire. I breathed a sigh of relief (Yorkshire always kicks my butt) and said I’d be happy to do so. In the same breath I volunteered to be the “Team Car” (DS) for the race if needed.

And that’s how I found myself sitting at my desk yesterday, signing into Discord, opening Zwift, and pulling up various browser windows so I could be a helpful voice for my teammates as they put in the hard work over two laps of Yorkshire’s 2019 UCI Worlds Harrogate Circuit route.

Today’s post will discuss how the race unfolded for my team, but it will also talk about the job of DS in a Zwift race, and how Zwift could improve the experience for the DS. Let’s race!

Zwifting DS: a Job Description

To put it simply, my job was to do as much thinking and communicating as possible for my teammates, in order to maximize our team’s overall result.

Experienced Zwift racers know good results are about much more than just hammering out the watts. Especially in a series like the Zwift Racing League, with its competitive divisions and strategic points structures. There really is a lot to think about, but we all know it’s not easy to make complex decisions when you’re riding on the rivet mid-race.

To be more specific, here’s a partial list of what a DS should do for their team:

• Deliver peloton reports. How big is the pack you’re in? Which teams are represented well, and which teams didn’t make the selection? Are there any noteworthy riders in the mix? Is the rider pushing hard off the front someone we need to mark, or can we let them go?
• Let them know what’s coming up: knowing the course is crucial. How long is the climb just up the road… and what comes after it? Where are the intermediate point banners? How does the finish lay out?
• Dictate efforts: should your riders be on the front of the group, pushing the pace? Or sitting in? What if you have riders in multiple groups?
• Encouragement: this goes without saying. There really shouldn’t be any negativity from the DS – it’s about cheering on your team, calling out every good bit of work you see, and believing every team member is going to do everything they can to help the team win.

The Start

Yorkshire UCI course races always start hard since you’ve got the Otley Road climb right out of the gate. We knew this would be a tough section, and a selection would be made – but we also knew that the biggest efforts would be on the KOM down the road, and the group would be culled even further at that point.

With no intermediate points atop the Otley Climb, it made sense to simply maintain a good position near the front of the pack, conserving energy for the battle to come. After a bit of a snafu getting my Zwift viewer going, I was finally able to see the live race as the riders made their way over the top of Otley. I was happy to see the Hellhounds had hung in there, with all 6 teammates making the front group of 58!

KOM #1

We had a few riders targeting intermediate KOM points, and they killed it, with Neil coming in 2nd, Scott 8th, and Dan 9th. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to view the in-game leaderboards due to how viewing other riders works (more on that later). But as the riders descended from the KOM these three Hellhounds were in a small front group of 9 riders, perfectly positioned to take intermediate sprint points just up the road!

Snowy was in the group just behind, and I advised him not to push to close the gap to the front group. We had a solid chance at big sprint points from our three front group riders, and bringing in another pack of riders would just reduce those chances. Better for Snowy to sit in, conserve, and let other riders pull the group forward if they chose to do so.

Sprint #1

Neil was first across the line for the sprint (he’s got a crazy strong sprint) with Scott in 7th and Dan in 10th. Extra points!

To Chase, Or Not to Chase?

The groups came back together after the sprint, and I clicked around to see where things stood. We now had a front group of ~30 which included 4 Hellhounds (Neil, Scott, Dan, and Snowy). The other 2 teammates (Ian and Phil) were in the chase group about 20s back.

Now the question became: should the teammates in the chasing group push to rejoin the front group? I quickly made the call to not chase, based on a few factors:

• We had good representation in that front group, with 4 team members
• Bringing the groups back together probably wouldn’t get us any extra points, since a more tired Ian and Phil would surely get dropped on the second KOM like they did the first
• The chance of pulling the smaller chase group back to the larger, stronger front group was pretty slim
• Conserving as much as possible would leave fresher legs for the finish, where Ian and Phil could hopefully sprint well and earn max finishing points from the chase group

Team Survey

As we finished off the first lap, I started clicking around to see how each team was represented in the front and chase groups. (I could really only do this by counting jerseys, but fortunately everyone was wearing their unique team kit!)

Knowing the mix of riders in the front group is crucial, because it helps us see which teams will be in contention for the overall points win. If one team has 1-2 riders in the front group of 30, while another team has 4 riders, chances are good that the 4-rider team will be finishing with more points in the end.

This even lets us decide which attacks to follow and which to let go. If a team only has 1-2 riders in the front and they attack over the KOM, it’s not a huge deal to let them go, because they aren’t going to win the overall points competition. But if it’s a well-represented team attacking off the front, you need to follow that if you want any chance at the overall win!

This also informs the chase group’s strategy. I told Ian and Phil (my teammates in the chase group) not to work on the front at all. Rather, let a team with lots of riders in the chase group (and few riders in the front group) do the work. SZ was such a team, with just one rider in front and three in the chase group.

KOM and Sprint #2

Going into the second KOM, we were targeting more intermediate points. Snowy put in a killer effort, making it first across the line. Neil was 5th, Scott 9th. The groups split up over the top, but we brought them back together in order to get Neil in contention for max sprint points. With 21 left in the front pack it would be a real battle for points on the 2nd sprint intermediate.

Snowy put in another massive effort on the sprint, coming in 3rd, with Neil 6th. The front pack came back together after the sprint. Time for those painful final Yorkshire meters!

The Finish

With 4 riders in the front group of ~20, we discussed our finish strategy in the final minute before all hell would break loose.

Do we send someone off the front for a long attack? None of the riders fancied that proposition. So we decided to just try to maximize each rider’s finishing position, sitting in then launching the sprint whenever each rider felt the timing was best.

Markus Pape (SOW) jumped hard and early, but we let him go – they weren’t a team we were marking, and I figured he launched too early anyway. As we hit the flatter portion of the finishing straight the aero powerups began to fly, and it was time to go all-in! Neil started his effort a bit late, but came in 6th – the top finisher from the Hellhounds.

And Pape? He stayed away, winning by 2.7s! Impressive. You don’t see many long sprints win in Yorkshire.

See race results on ZwiftPower >

Watch the race video:

Team Result

We were really pleased with our overall result in this race. The Hellhounds earned 231 points, good enough for 2nd place behind Kirchmair with 255. We remain in 2nd overall.

Zwift DS Feature Requests

The DS job is doable right now using a combination of Zwift, Discord, and whatever information sources you may need. But there are several things Zwift could do to really help the team cars do a better job! Here are a few ideas:

• Make it easier to watch the race: having to join the E pen, then fan view a rider using Companion – it’s all too much. If there’s an active event in Zwift, I should be able to just open the game, click a link, and watch the event as it unfolds.
• Let us see leaderboards: in a points event like ZRL, it’s really helpful to see leaderboards for the intermediates. It would be great to see these in game.
• ZwiftPower Live data: it would be really nice if we could see ZwiftPower live race data again. I’m not sure if this is just an issue with our races, but we haven’t had accurate live data for any race of the ZRL series. Having access to live prime (intermediate) data would be a nice bonus!
• Show teammates: it’s not at all easy to see which teammates are in a particular group from within the game, or to select a particular rider’s view. Having quicklinks I could click to go straight to each teammate’s game view… that would be awesome! I suppose I could just set up 6 computers…
• Live points tally: how cool would this be? If all riders could see a live points tally as the race unfolds… wouldn’t that just up the level of competition, and help inform strategic choices?

Takeaways

While I’ve watched others DS, and raced on teams with a DS, I’ve done very little DSing myself. So this was a learning experience, to say the least!

One thing I should have done better was getting to know my teammates. Some of them I raced with last season, but others I haven’t raced with at all. It’s hard to direct a rider when you don’t know their strengths and weaknesses.

Team manager Snowy certainly knows the team well – and his call to have me sit this week out was obviously the right one. Our team results was probably the best we’ve ever had in a scratch race. Well done, sir.

Having a lot of Zwift racing experience and very strong knowledge of the course was a big help for me in my DS role. Without those two aces in the hole I would have been lost. Happily, my teammates seemed to appreciate my incessant babbling, so maybe I’ll get a chance to do it again soon. I had a blast!

Your Thoughts

Have you ever been a DS? Got tips to share with me and others? Comment below!

My coach would have been proud: I signed up for the race with the best of intentions. This would be a workout effort. I wasn’t going to just sit in then sprint at the end – I was going to push to my max to attack off the front and stay away, working on maximal 1-2 minute efforts.

We’d be riding 12 laps of Crit City’s Bell Lap, and everything seemed perfectly planned and ready to go. At least, that’s what I thought…

The (Long) Warmup

Since ZRL Season 2 began, I’ve slipped into a bit of a weekly habit. Trash myself ZRL Tuesdays. Take it easy on Wednesday. Then get a longer ride in Thursday, including a short race effort. It’s been working out well for me.

This week I started my day with the 6am Team Twenty24 Road to Tokyo ride – one of my favorite group rides. Easy pace, good banter – it’s a nice launching platform for a longer day. From there I kept spinning for another 45 minutes, then joined the Crit City pens for my 7:45 race, having put in about 90 minutes/30 miles of zone 2 effort with a few sprint spinups.

(And yes – I had already get PR lotion on the legs before kitting up. I also popped two pieces of caffeine gum in around 6:45. Ready to race!)

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A Hard Start

There were 77 riders in the start pen when the clock hit zero – a high enough number that I was already doubting whether I’d be able to push hard enough to stay off the front for more than a few seconds. 20-30 riders, maybe. But 77?

We flew out of the pens and up the first twisty climb. The pace was high, but I figured it would calm down nicely once we reached the brick descent.

But it didn’t.

Things stayed quite spicy until the end of the third lap, in fact. I averaged 330W for over the first 6-1/2 minutes, just holding onto the pack, before things calmed down a bit. (A few green cones showed up after 4-5 minutes, which probably helped slow things.)

The Middle

The pace dropped a bit during laps 4-11, with each lap lasting between 2:33-2:36. I wasn’t sure if my legs were just tired, or if the pace was a bit higher than usual – but there was no way I was getting off the front of this group. I was riding threshold just to stay in touch with the front pack!

The “race as a workout” plan was abandoned. Not due to a conscious choice, but out of sheer necessity. It wasn’t going to happen today. Instead, the glycogen-depleted brain switch to my typical strategy in a faster race: sit in, use powerups and positioning to conserve, then try to time the final attack just right.

Brutal, Backbiting Burritos

The burrito powerup made many appearances in this race – usually activated by multiple riders on some portion of the twisty climb. And I always seemed to be right next to the burrito users!

I’m sure glad this powerup only lasts 10 seconds, because it’s a brutal offensive weapon, disabling the draft for all riders within 2.5 meters. As soon as I saw one above a nearby rider I knew I had to increase my watts by ~30% and pay close attention to make sure a gap didn’t open up ahead of me.

Speaking of gaps: I do wonder if racers have figured out yet that using the burrito can lead to unintended consequences, hurting the burrito’s owner. It happened in this race at least once, actually:

1. We’re all riding together in a group, pushing especially hard on a difficulty portion of the route.
2. Someone activates their burrito powerup (often triggering a second person to activate theirs).
3. This disables the draft for all riders within 2.5 meters – which means a gap easily opens up one or two riders ahead of the burrito owner. The burrito owner is enjoying a nice draft, but their burrito has caused a gap to form one or two riders ahead. The front group is flying away, enjoying an unencumbered draft, while the burrito owner’s group is getting no draft, and they’re dropping back.
4. The burrito owner must now attack to close that gap, or take the risk to sit in and hope those around him will close it.

The burrito is a powerful weapon, but you’ve got to make sure it doesn’t bite you back.

A Wild Finish

As we started our 12th and final lap the starting group of 77 had been whittled down to around 15. The strongest riders moved to the front to hammer up the final twisty climb. I grabbed their wheels, holding onto my aero powerup for the finish.

Ellwood and Grindrod were on the front – two riders who had been pushing big watts for the whole race. And I saw on the minimap that we were about to lap a large group of B’s. This was going to be sketchy!

I hit the brick descent with the front group of ~8 riders, then halfway down a rider appeared a few seconds ahead! “J. Bos” had used the invisibility powerup masterfully to break away without us seeing! He was now midway between our group and the B’s we would be lapping, which meant his breakaway would certainly benefit from that group’s draft once he reached them and sprinted through.

My group caught the lapped B’s at the left-hand turn after the short false flat climb. All hell broke loose, with powerups flying early and riders trying to figure out who was racing who. I knew I couldn’t sprint full-out from this distance, so I just tried to keep the power high and trust that everyone else was suffering too.

As we passed the graffiti wall we were through the lapped group and I could once again see my competition. Grindrod, Ellwood, and Bos were all there in the mix, along with myself and 5 others. As we made the final left I activated my aero, shifted, and got out of the saddle for the sprint effort. I flew past the 4 riders ahead of me, but Bos came from behind with a massive sprint, winning by a bike length.

I got 2nd on Zwift’s screen. But 1st in ZwiftPower (where it really counts), because Bos averaged 4.4w/kg (342W) for the race, didn’t have a heart rate monitor, and isn’t signed up for ZwiftPower.

See this activity on Zwift.com >
See this activity on Strava >
See race results on ZwiftPower >

Watch my race recording:

Takeaways

The pace of this race was definitely affected by some A-level riders. Ellwood was ranked as a B for the race, but got upgraded to an A after this effort. Bos was putting out A power, as was Grindrod. And let’s not even talk about the riders who were coned a few minutes in, after pushing the pace at the front for the initial minutes.

Sure, it grinds my gears a bit when people sandbag. But I can’t deny that it makes for pretty killer training, even if it ups the pace so high that I have to ditch my original workout plan.

Rewatching the race video (above), it looks like nobody else in my front group had a powerup in that final stretch. I think many of the riders burned their powerups early as we rode through the lapped group, but I’d say that was probably a mistake in hindsight, allowing me to fly through the pack in the final meters.

The finishing lap was a super-tough effort. I think the Bell Lap direction on Crit City makes for a higher-wattage final lap, because you’re basically at pushing the limit the entire lap, whereas the Downtown Dolphin attack doesn’t start until you hit the bricks. I tied my fastest Bell Lap time in that final lap (2:23) and hit a new max heart rate (191). Yeah.. that wasn’t easy!

Your Thoughts

Ever been bitten by your own burrito? Hit a new max HR on a Crit City sprint? Or had a lapped group turn a regular finish into a pell-mell dash? Share below!