Hey Zwifters!

I’m excited to announce the launch of No Breakaways, a new YouTube channel focused on sharing racing tips, tricks, tactics, and more with the Zwift community!

Our first episode features 2018 USA National Champion Adam Zimmerman. Adam breaks down a race with an amateur racer, Dave Shafron, as well as one of his own races. Planned upcoming content includes previewing the WTRL Zwift Racing League courses, live coaching streaming, publishing shorter videos on specific course segments and tactics, and more! If you’re looking for actionable advice on how to improve your Zwift races, check out episode 1 and subscribe!

Calling Amateur Zwifters

We are looking for amateurs to join episodes so if you’re interested in being a guest on the show, please apply here.

Calling Pro Zwifters

If you are a Zwift pro and interested in making some content, let us know by emailing us at [email protected].

Do you have ideas for future content for this channel? Do you have segments that give you trouble? Do you feel stuck at your current level? Share your ideas for future topics in the comments below!

Stay tuned. It’s an exciting time to be a Zwift racer.

Ride On!

Like many of you, I follow Eric Schlange’s How the Race Was Lost (or sometimes Won) series, and going into Thursday afternoon’s ZA Race #1 race, I fully expected my experience to be a cautionary tale describing how important it is to have a proper warm-up and how easy it is for larger athletes to get dropped by the field once the hills arrive.

This isn’t that tale though. I’ve been participating in Zwift Academy, and even before that trying hard to increase my Watts/kilogram since August 18th. My motivation on this was two-fold: My Facebook memories showed that a year prior I had been fit and in France about to begin Paris-Brest-Paris (my write-up of which can be found here), and I’ve been working from home and wearing what my friends call “soft pants” since March, so when I had to put on slacks there was a bit of a scramble to find some that fit. I wasn’t on Zwift (and didn’t know my FTP) in August 2019 but I suspect I was then a Category C racer and now (despite this story) am still solidly a D.

Zwift’s information page for the Zwift Academy Race #1 helpfully included a link to the Zwift Insider 2015 UCI Worlds Course Route Details which I studied on Wednesday night and for the first time ever looked at the Guest Worlds Schedule. I determined that I could very carefully and slowly do a lap just to see exactly which hill Peter Sagan got away on, as well as scope out the scene right then.

I selected the Thursday afternoon race because I’ve been trying to do the Bear Mountaineer (BMTR) Fundo on Saturdays and their Mini Fundo on Sundays, both in a fasted state. I knew that if I wanted to do well in the Zwift Academy races I would need to be fueled, which meant a non-morning race, and because of some other scheduling I didn’t manage to ride Tuesday or Wednesday. Indeed, my pre-ride Wednesday night was done halfway through an adult beverage and was not in any way rigorous. My legs were rested and I pretty much managed to keep them rested.

Looking at the route profile I saw that someone nearing 100 kilograms such as myself had an opportunity to push the pace on the downhills but needed to do so carefully in order to be prepared for the grueling task of keeping up with lighter-weight riders on Libby Hill, 23rd Street, and again on Governor Street. The route looked like I would be fine for the first half but on the second half I was concerned I would be left alone struggling uphill.

Knowing that I’m a rather slow climber, one of the things I’ve done in road races in the past was move to the front of the field approaching a hill so that they all have to work to pass me, giving me a chance to make contact with the tail as I finally huff to the top. In Zwift they just get to pass through me like I’m not even there, but at least the distance could make a difference. I went into it vowing that I would try to hit the hills ahead of the field if I could.

WARMUP

The race I signed up for was at 4:13 pm and thus I was pretty annoyed with myself that I forgot that my coworkers would probably schedule a teleconference just prior. I got the email sometime Thursday morning that it would be from 3-4 pm. The next scheduled race wasn’t until pretty late at night, so I figured I would just have to make it work.

Before my conference, I put on my shorts knowing they would only see my t-shirt anyway. I also mixed up some lemon-lime Heed and sipped it throughout the meeting. At 3:55 I unplugged my laptop and carried it down into my basement and plugged it in for my usual Zwift set-up. I put my shoes and heart rate monitor on and stood in front of it waiting for the meeting to wrap up. A coworker commented that I looked as if I was standing in a beam of light, and I had to explain that was my basement window, showed them the heart rate monitor on my arm, and explained I really had to go. I started up Zwift and immediately joined the race, relying on those few minutes of trainer time at the start to try to loosen my legs. They were not very loose.

LAP 1

At the beginning of the race I fully expected things to start off hard. I spun up and was ready to do whatever I had to do in order to keep contact with the group. My avatar moved quickly but oddly veered left and then stayed on the left side of the road as we rounded the corner, meaning I was alone without a wheel to follow. I had to work hard to keep pace with the group on the right side of the road and it seemed to take a long time to finally drift into the draft.

Once I was in the draft it was OK and got my breathing under control. My goal was to stay toward the front, but not actually on the front, as much as possible, so when we went around the hairpin turn leading into the Monument Avenue Sprint I was right there when two sprinters took off for it. I decided my legs could use a bit more of a stretch so I impishly took off after them. I didn’t win but that wasn’t the point. The three of us let up after the banner and I fully expected the field to show up any second.

I positioned myself in between the two of them and the one in front wasn’t working super-hard but she also wasn’t soft pedaling. I could see on the mini-map that there was actually a gap between us and the field and I realized such a gap would be very helpful to me once we got to Libby Hill. Here’s a map for reference:

I was thinking that it would be a dream if we managed to stay away, and I suspect that at least one of the other women with me was thinking the same, for we rotated all way down the hill (with the exception of a little jockeying for the Broad Street Sprint). R.Vaisanen, J.Cooper, and I took turns deploying Helmet powerups at the front, and by the time we got to Libby Hill I actually could not see the main field dot on the mini-map.

On Libby Hill, though, I was pretty sure my fears of being left were being realized. Vaisanen darted around me and I had to work on the downhill to close the gap. I was grateful I weighed a lot at that point, for mashing a big gear downhill made that possible. I hadn’t quite figured this out yet, but Cooper didn’t make it up the hill with us, and I went into the 23rd Street climb assuming Vaisanen would again beat me. I was very surprised when I was able to power through to the banner there and again at the lap line.

LAP 2

I was really taxed from the Governor Street climb going into the first lap. When we got to the Monument Avenue Sprint Vaisanen again went for it and I really didn’t want to give her a gap so I stood up and hammered. (I didn’t go into this knowing I would win so I did not take any screen shots. Usually there is at least one that Zwift includes with the ride but mine was blacked out for some reason.) Vaisanen gave her permission for me to use her picture here and I think it was taken about at this point in the race. You can see how strung out the field is on the right but my eyes were not good enough to see how things stood. I imagined the field was somewhere together behind us, working to catch us still.

I wanted to know how things stood though, so at this point I called my husband and asked him if he had a few minutes to come and read things for me. Vaisanen did manage to close that gap and I could see that she was right behind me. I tried to see if she would share the work to help keep us away but every time I let her in the front we dropped down to around seventeen miles an hour. I didn’t want Cooper to catch us, I didn’t want anyone in the field to catch us, and I certainly didn’t want to pull sprinters around just so they could dart past me at the finish. I knew I had to lose her.

My husband came downstairs and let me know the field wasn’t coming, but he agreed I needed to get away. Vaisanen darted ahead for the Broad Street Sprint and this time I let her.  I then put the hammer down just afterward, gave it all I had and got an achievement for going over 700 watts for the first time.

On the big downhill I pushed a big gear slowly, sat up, and took deep breaths, trying to keep my distance while recovering enough to handle the hills without cracking. I felt like the possibility of cracking was real. I asked Jesse to get me a mini-Coke from the fridge and drank about half of it, glad for the sugar and caffeine. That was my last rest.

I refused to let myself drop below 3 W/kg on Libby Hill (a pace that was really hard for me) and cursed when I got a Truck powerup at the top. My husband reminded me to use it anyway, for maybe I would get a Feather next. I did and got the Feather.

THE FINISH

The rest of the race was a pile of pain. I pushed as hard as I could on the downhill after 23rd Street and brought my gap to 40 seconds. Vaisanen and Cooper looked like they were meeting up and would work together to reel me in but then separated again on the hills. I deployed my Feather when the grade turned orange on Governor Street and kept telling myself that it could only hurt this badly for a few more minutes.

My husband sat silently on the couch. (When asked about this later, he said he didn’t want to say anything, for fear I would let up.) I was sure that was bad and really dug deep into the red. There isn’t an overhead arch at the end so I actually didn’t know I was at the line until I was crossing it. It was a surprise to see the finish screen pop up with my name at the top.

I slow pedaled and stuck my arms in the air. My husband congratulated me and went over to my laptop and gave the other women Ride-Ons as they started coming in 45 seconds later. It took so long I thought there was some mistake – how could I have grown my gap on an uphill finish?

TAKEAWAYS

I still can’t believe that I won. My average output was 2.4 W/kg, appropriate for my category and lower than the women who came in 2nd-4th. I got away after the first sprint and stayed away, and then managed to lose the sprinters on my wheel and time trialed to the finish. It sounds like some ridiculous fairy tale and yet I’m talking about myself.

I’m carefully watching ZwiftPower to see if they append “Almost C” to my category anytime soon, but so far it hasn’t happened. I’m hopeful it will eventually, but with the way it stands now I’m solidly a D. I did get called a sandbagger on Saturday, after which I took another picture of my television:

Your Thoughts

Share your questions and comments below!

I’ve been purposely taking on longer/harder races lately in preparation for the start of the big Zwift Racing League this Tuesday. So when I saw that the first race for Zwift Academy was a three-lapper of Richmond’s 2015 UCI Worlds route, I knew that was the perfect event for me. Three laps works out to ~50k, the same length as the Tuesday’s big ZRL kickoff race. And Richmond had some punchy climbs, which is the kind of training I need more of.

I love racing in Richmond, and I’m not entirely sure why. I never win here. But it is the first race route I remember racing, back in November 2015 as part of the ZTR and TFC races.

There’s just something special about the way the course is laid out that keeps me coming back again and again. Will I ever be able to power away from the field on the final ascent of 23rd Street so I can supertuck and stay away from the chasers just like Sagan? Doubtful. But that doesn’t stop me from dreaming, then racing my guts out every time I’m in Richmond.

Warmup

Today’s race was at 7:11am, so I had already chewed my caffeine gum and rubbed PR lotion on the legs well before climbing into the bike at 6:15. I was happy to see the Pace Partners had returned, giving me a chance to spin through Fuego Flats with Coco Cadence and her cadre. (I’m not sure why I enjoy warming up with Coco, but it sure is more fun that going it alone!)

15 easy miles later it was time to head to the pens.

Bike Choice

I’ve been riding the new Canyon Aeroad 2021 lately, because it’s such a freakin’ light bike, while remaining super aero. It’s exactly what I need, since I struggle on the climbs! I’ve been pairing it with the Zipp 858 wheels, only because it’s hard for me to put disc wheels on for a road race. Even a virtual one. Just feels wrong.

When I hit the start pens, I discovered something interesting: everyone had the Aeroad 2021. Apparently Zwift is auto-equipping us with that bike for these races! So watch out, Tron riders – you may end up with a wimpy wheelset when you join the start pens. Double-check your rig.

Route Notes

What I wanted to do was stay with the front of the race over the each of the three climbs we would be hitting on each lap. Three climbs per lap. Three laps. Nine goals.

For those unfamiliar with Richmond’s 2015 UCI worlds route, it’s essentially flat for the first half, then bump for the second half. Here’s the profile:

You’ll only shed a few riders on the flat half of the course – then the fireworks happen when Libby Hill, then 23rd St, then Governor St blow apart the field on the back half. It really is a magnificent race course, even if it destroys me… every… time.

The Start

Predictably, the race didn’t start too hard. We began with 66 riders and dropped a few quickly, but we still had at least 2/3 of the field intact when we hit Libby Hill for the first time. I made sure to position myself near the front (but out of the wind) as we began climbing, giving me a bit of space to drift backward if necessary while still staying in touch with the front pack. It worked like a charm, and I made it to the top with the front riders just a few bike lengths ahead.

One down. Eight to go.

23rd Street comes hard and fast after Libby, and it’s just a straight near-sprint to the banner. I crested the hill in 6th, gave a few extra hard pushes on the pedals to get up to speed, then messaged “Sagaaaaan” as I descended in a supertuck. (Seriously. I could watch his race win on repeat forever.)

Governor Street was the last climb of the first lap, and it’s always a tough one – the longest of the three. I made it to the top in the front group, but it was far from easy. Our group of 66 had dwindled to just 16, and we still had two laps to go. This was going to hurt.

The Middle

Things were tame for the flat portion of the second lap, and I made it to the top of Libby Hill with the front just as one “A. Courts” jumped off the front with one other rider in tow. I couldn’t have chased even if I wanted to, but with 15 miles left I figured those riders would be coming back anyway.

Up 23rd, then up Governor Street. I was still with the front pack, although A. Courts was off the front, and one “mbahgusmbangs” (we’ll call him “Bangs”) had just jumped away as well. How was A. Courts staying away? And how did Bangs jump so hard after such a hard climb? Looking closely at the rider list, my question was answered: neither was registered on ZwiftPower. And both were using zPower.

Cool. No need to worry about chasing them down.

Unless…

Ah, crap. A legit rider (D. Maxwell) had jumped up and onto Bang’s wheel. Smart. Perhaps not entirely sporting by some standards, but it was within the rules, and he was playing the game brilliantly.

As a public service announcement, I messaged everyone to let them know that A. Courts was on zPower, not on ZwiftPower, and therefore didn’t need to be chased. (He quickly replied, in classic zPower Ranger fashion, calling me a “whinging yank.” LOLz. I wasn’t whinging. But I do suppose I am a yank. So he was half right.)

The Finish

With one lap to go, the two zPower Rangers were off the front, with the canny Mr. D. Maxwell in tow. Maxwell was just 8 seconds ahead, but nobody in our group wanted to put in the effort to chase him down on the flats, knowing we would need everything we had for the three final climbs.

I could actually feel my matches burning on each of those climbs. The question was, did I have enough left? I felt I did not. But I resolved to give it all I had.

We had a pack of nine, chasing a pair, with A. Courts alone in front.

We reeled in Maxwell and Bangs on the descent before Libby Hill, then Bangs sat on the front of our group, pulling us along at 5+ w/kg. Ha!

Then we hit Libby for the last time, and the climbers pulled out their big power to weight ratios. Our pack splintered to pieces, with me bunched up near the back with the 9-11th place riders.

Up 23rd Street, things got even more broken up. On the plus side, Bangs had disappeared, leaving us only one zPower rider to chase (A Courts, still over 20s off the front). I was in a pack of 3, representing 7th, 8th, and 9th place. I deployed my feather powerup on the right-hand corner of Governor Street, since that’s the steepest section of the climb. Then I hit the power hard, trying to drop the two guys I was with and perhaps bridge up to a rider ahead.

(Turns out that was the glycogen depletion talking. There was no way I was catching the riders ahead.)

One rider followed my attack: Tharratt. He came around me, then eventually I was able to come around him. As we reached the top of the climb I hammered hard to get up to speed and try to break the elastic between Tharratt and my back wheel. I was on the limit, pushing as hard as I could while watching Tharratt’s numbers to see if he was going to try to reel me in. Somehow I managed to stay just ahead, crossing the line totally exhausted in 7th place.

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

Watch a video of the race:

Takeaways

This was a tough, tough race. I could tell because my legs were sapped the next day for Sprintapalooza. That said, I think it was great training for Tuesday’s big ZRL kickoff race with all its punchy climbs and longer distance.

I’m not sure I could have played this race any better than I did. Richmond’s climbs kick my butt every time, and having to take them on three times put me over my limit.

My only real takeaways here are for Zwift HQ, actually. First: please stop holding races where we’re all stuck in the same kit. We know this is a Zwift Academy event – we don’t need the jersey to remind us. And it’s super-difficult to know who is who in a race where everyone is in the same kit (and on the same bike)!

Secondly: please roll out your anti-sandbagging tools soon, and/or make it so race organizers can hold events where zPower riders are barred from entry. And if a rider is over the stated category limits when they cross the finish line, for heaven’s sake, don’t show them on the leaderboard! That just reinforces their behavior, which means one rider will continue to negatively impact everyone else in the event.

In lieu of the fixes above, I’ve taken the liberty of editing the results screen from this race:

Your Thoughts

Share your comments below!

Since March I have become obsessed with the weekly Team Time Trial… so I asked Eric if I could share my obsession with you all, in weekly doses.

Each week on a Friday I will give you a profile of the upcoming route, guidance on bike choice and some target times if you want to aim for the Premiere League (top-10 in each coffee class get to be in a special race televised on YouTube). 

If you can’t ride (or even if you can ride, but want more action), don’t forget to tune in to the live TV show on Zwift Community Live’s YouTube Channel at 6:15 (UK time). 

Sand and Sequoias (#77) recap

Before we look at next week let’s review this week’s performance on Sand and Sequoias. As always my goal is to predict the time a team needs to make PL next week. The trick for me is to get as close to 11th spot (top 11 teams per coffee class get an automatic invite to next week’s Platinum League) without going over. 

Here’s how I did… it’s a mixed bag as usual. My virtual teams made it into Espresso, Frappe and Mocha, but Vienna and Latte well outperformed my expectations.

Class	11th Position	My prediction	My team’s position
Vienna	1:03:19	1:04:00	16th
Espresso	56:08	55:00	6th
Frappe	58:44	58:30	10th
Latte	1:03:10	1:03:50	14th
Mocha	1:11:39	1:11:00	6th

How did I do today in Latte? We knocked over a minute off our time from July… and my legs are still feeling it. The KOM really hurt us, and we lost a couple of riders the first time around, and another on the last lap – but everyone gave 100% (technically Strava says I gave 96% intensity, but Training Peaks gave me an all-time 60m power), and who can ask for more than that. Both laps in an identical time – giving us 1:06:36 around the course. That’s enough to position us close to the top 40% of Latte which I’m really happy with.

It was great to see my old team CICC back out there… like all good Frenchmen (fighting talk… they’re mostly British expats) they took an entire summer off, but they are back and fired up. 

Thursday 15th October – Watopia Flat Route

We are staying in Watopia once more this week, with four laps of Watopia Flat Route. This route is OLD… pre-dates my existence on Zwift, coming along in December 2015 (I didn’t find Zwift until autumn of 2017). I was amazed to find that Watopia Flat hasn’t appeared on the TTT calendar before, so we are all learning as we go. While it hasn’t appeared on the TTT, this is a popular race route on Zwift, and I am sure you have all ridden it a few times. We are lucky that ZwiftHQ has written a race recon. The race recon profiles focus on scratch race dynamics, not TTT, but it is a good read regardless. 

Thanks to the early birds reading this who spotted that the race length changed… its not four laps any more, its three. At a touch over 10km each make this a 30 km race. Each lap is pretty flat (the clue is in the name), and all-told we have around 160M of vertical climb. Like Volcano Flat a couple of weeks ago – this is all about formation and communication. It’ll take between 40 minutes for a top-flight Espresso team to an hour for a short-handed Mocha. I reckon my mid-pack Latte lads will be in and out in 50 minutes.

There are two tricky areas on the route – the ramp out of tunnels through the dirt and up the false flat is the first, and the hill through the Esses is the other. Keep communication clean and keep an eye on your team mates and you will sail through. 

From the Pens you head towards the undersea tunnels (Ocean Boulevard) through the fishing village and up the winding false flat. Down the other side into the Italian Villas towards the sprint (don’t be tempted) and up the hill that precedes the Esses… up and down the Esses, and down the hill to the start/finish. My fastest time through here was the Team INEOS group ride in the spring, where I averaged 40kph. 

What to ride?

Bike recommendation on this route is pretty straightforward. Aero rules the day. For me it’s Venge S-Works and Super9 disc over Tron.

As I mentioned last week, the new Canyon Aeroad totally changed things for anyone between levels 23-33. I don’t think there’s a lot in it between the Aeroad 2021 and the Tron even. Here are my recommendations at different levels.

• Level 5 Specialized SL7 with Roval CLX64 or ENVE SES3.4
• Level 6 Ditch the Roval/ENVE and get the DT Swiss ARC 1100
• Level 23 – Ditch the SL7 and get the Canyon Aeroad… keep the DTSwiss hoops
• Level 33 S-Works Venge… keep the DTSwiss
• Level 40 S-Works Venge with Zipp 858
• Level 45 get those 858/Super 9 wheels and pair them with the S-Works Venge

If you have the Tron and are level 23+ it’s a toss up… the Aeroad with the DTSwiss hoops are compelling… but I think the Tron wins by a hair. That said…  I cannot stress highly enough that if you are racing you need to be working on Tron. It’ll take a while, but just set the Everest Challenge and forget about it for nine months… like having a baby. 

Route Recon Rides

I said above this was a popular route… when writing this (Tuesday) there were 41 rides or races listed, many of which are 4-laps long just like the TTT (edit: the TTT is 3 laps now… but go the extra just for fun). Check for yourself on the event listing on zwifthacks.com. 

• Saturday
  • 3R has three races on Saturday – two of them are 3 laps, one is 4 laps. 
  • For the Vienna racers, Fearless has two races – one is a one-lap sprint… the other 3 laps
• Sunday
  • 3R have even more on Sunday, including a 6-lap marathon. 
  • Fearless have their ladies races on Sunday as well
• Monday
  • If you fancy a workout to get you ready for the week, don’t miss Rowe and King’s Monday Mixer. R&K Head Trainer (and champion racer himself) leads riders through a great workout perfect to start the week. More often than not I’m at this, and it happens to be on Watopia Flat this week. Click here to sign up!

Race breakdown 

Regardless of how the official race recon breaks the route up, I only see three sections…

• Pen/Gate to the end of the undersea tunnels
• To the Italian Villas
• Esses through to the start/finish

Start to the end of the undersea tunnels

A flat 3.2 km from the start/finish gate to the start of the ramp. Around the same if you’re on lap 1 from the pens. You’ll pick up speed as you go into the tunnels. That is really all there is to say here.

Col Du Italian Villas

This starts with the ramp out of the tunnels (300 meters at 3%), onto the dirt roads around the fishing village and up the false flat. The kicker at the end of the false flat will be barely noticeable at speed. It’s 3.6m in total from the the ramp to the Italian Villas.

Esses and home… 

Through the sprint and down through the sprint. Cross the bridge and into the only real climb of the loop – 300m at an average of 5%. This one will take some care if you are all on the rivet because your smaller, lighter riders will shoot ahead if they aren’t careful. After that it’s the Esses.

The Esses are a series of humps… if you’re coordinated you’ll accelerate on the downhill and let the momentum carry you up the next. If you’re not coordinated the momentum delta between heavier and lighter riders will split you apart! 

After the Esses its downhill to downtown. Don’t forget to sprint on the last lap!

Target times

I’m taking a one-week break from target times… colour me chicken.

Wrap up

This race is all about team formation and setting a steady but aggressive pace. If you did well two weeks ago – do the same thing this week. If you didn’t do well around the Volcano Flat… think about why and do something different!