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How the Race Was Lost: One Race, Two Perspectives

Eric Schlange
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22
How the Race Was Lost: One Race, Two Perspectives

I’ve written quite a few race recaps in this “How the Race Was Lost” series, but today’s takes a novel approach: combining my perspective with that of a teammate who raced the same event.

Mike Lister is a B like myself, although he’s ranked significantly higher (1,536 to my 3,030). He’s a level 36 Zwifter who rides on Team DIRT (as I do) and has over 140 races in his ZwiftPower profile.

We didn’t plan to do this article, but when we happened to choose the same race and finish in very different places, the idea came together. Call it serendipity! The P Race: 2 laps of Watopia’s Waistband, with double draft engaged. Let’s race!

Warmup

I woke up at 6am and went through my standard race prep: weighing in, kitting up, a piece of caffeine gum and some PR lotion on the legs. Then I opened up Zwift and scrolled down the list of active Watopia riders until I found one Michael Knudsen, who I knew was out on Tempus Fugit in the middle of a 24-hour record attempt. He was trying to ride 1000 km in 24 hours, while also fundraising for medical expenses for a friend’s son. 1000 km in 24 hours is no joke, and he needed the help of other Zwifters to ride along and lend him a good draft.

All aboard the Knudsen train!

So I joined Michael’s group for about half an hour, clocking in around 13 miles with a few sprints in their to break the ice. Mike Lister hopped in and rode with me, so we warmed up together in the desert.

The Start

Our B category had 131 riders – quite a large field! And I knew from glancing at ZwiftPower and riding in recent races that we had a fair amount of riders who were, let’s say, “undercategorized.” Given the very flat course, I knew we’d see a steady, hard pace from the beginning as the strongest riders went to the front and pushed watts to string out the group and create a selection. My plan was to race as conservatively as possible so I had as much left in the legs for the final desert sprint.

As it turns out, I didn’t have any choice but to sit in, because the pack was flying. Someone at the front was pushing the pace, and it was all I could do to maintain a position as a tailgunner in the front pack!

Mike shared my experience, saying “Being a long race I planned on trying to sit in on the flats to conserve energy which was just as well as the race went off like a rocket. Checking out the segments after the race showed I achieved a PB for Fuego Flats Forward although my power output wasn’t over the top.”

Our starting group averaged just under 30 mph on Fuego Flats, and by the time we hit the short rise into the redwoods the front was whittled down to around 60 riders. This is where the next major selection of the race occurred. Mike says:

“As we approached the incline out of the desert I moved up the pack to give myself a bit of breathing room to glide through the pack. As we went up and over the pack split into two large groups with a 6-second gap in between. I expected the groups to coalesce back into one super blob but whether it was the determination of the front of the race or the effect of the double draft, this didn’t happen, leaving a leading group of around 30 riders.”

Unfortunately, I was caught on the wrong side of this split as the pack hammered its way over the top and down through the redwoods. A stupid mistake, because I know the group always strings out and riders get dropped in this section. But some combination of my legs not feeling strong and my brain not thinking quickly led to the screenshot below, which no racer wants to see:

The deadly gap

That’s a strung-out pack right there, and that’s a gap that we would not close down. Race over for me – I was now in the chase group!

The Middle

The miles flew by, and up the road, the effort required to hang with the front group began to wear on Mike as he worked to complete his first lap of Watopia’s Waistband:

“As we went through the switchbacks, Italian village and Volcano my legs were starting to suffer. My participation in the DIRT Sprintalooza the day before was fun but might not have been the best preparation. The speed was so high I took a minute off my Waistband PB, which I’d set in January in a single lap DADurday race. However, today I had a second lap to go!”

The middle portion of my race wasn’t particularly interesting – we settled into a more doable pace, and our group of 15 or so slowly grew as we gobbled up riders who were being dropped from the front of the race in ones and twos. (With double draft enabled it’s nearly impossible for a group of 1-3 riders to stay away from a group of 10 or more.)

On Mike’s second lap he succumbed to the group’s high pace:

“As we headed back into the desert I managed a bit of respite in the pack but soon the terrain started rolling again and riders started to drop off the back. Unfortunately, as we entered the Italian Village for the second time I found myself at the back of the group and a gap formed a couple of riders ahead of me and we lost contact with the front. I kicked myself for not being further up the pack, but in reality, I was suffering and that was the real reason I was at the back of the pack. I did attempt a half-hearted sprint to try and get back on but even a 4-second gap was too much for me. “

I stayed off the front of our chase group, except for one little dig on the climb snaking up from the fishing village in our second lap. My legs just didn’t have it today, but I decided to make it a “race within the race,” pretending like my group was the front group and I needed to conserve for the final sprint.

The End

Nearing the final sprint

Mike’s ending would come 2 minutes sooner than mine, and although he was no longer with the front group, he was happy with his race so far. “A top 20 finish from 131 entrants was in the cards which I was pretty happy with considering it was my first race over 40 km in 6 months.” Mike would finish in 17th according to the in-game results, but 8th according to ZwiftPower.

My chase group had swelled to around 25 riders by the time we turned off of Ocean Boulevard and hit the long drag up to the desert finish line. The wattage ramped up a bit, but the pace was still very doable. I sat in, riding near the front but out of the wind, planning to grab onto the wheel of whoever jumped first! (Without a powerup to help I didn’t fancy my chances at a longer attack.) My plan worked well, and only one rider from our group finished ahead of me. 36th place in-game, 18th on ZwiftPower.

See my activity on Strava >
See my activity on Zwift >
See Mike’s activity on Zwift >
See race results on ZwiftPower >

Takeaways

I’ve ridden the P race many times over the last year, since it fits nicely into my Saturday morning routine of riding 60-80 miles with a longer race effort somewhere in the middle. It’s interesting to compare the data between this P race and those I’ve done in the past. Same route, but more riders – and more sandbaggers!

Even without sandbaggers, as a general rule in Zwift races, overall speeds increase as pack size increases. But this race also had some significant sandbagging going on: check out the power numbers from the front finishers!

I’m looking forward to Zwift’s new anti-sandbagging green cones to begin doing their work in community races soon.

My other takeaway from this race was a lesson I apparently needed to re-learn: that I can’t tailgun into an attack section and expect to come out of it in touch with the front group. I have to force myself to get closer to the front before these sections begin, so I avoid the gaps which will open and I can stay in touch even if I drift back a bit in the group.

What About You?

Have you ever lost a race due to ill-advised tailgunning? Have you noticed that Zwift pelotons have swollen in size and increased in pace lately? Share your thoughts below!

Video: How to Start Riding on Zwift: The First Ride – New User Tutorial

Eric Schlange
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7
Video: How to Start Riding on Zwift: The First Ride – New User Tutorial

Video: How to Start Riding on Zwift: The First Ride – New User Tutorial

Our favorite Aussie Lama Shane Miller has put together a video walk-through of Zwift from the perspective of a new user.

He doesn’t talk about setting up your bike, trainer, etc (although Shane covers those topics in depth elsewhere on his YouTube channel). He walks you through getting going on Zwift, beginning just after downloading the software and creating your account.

Along the way he covers pairing your equipment to Zwift, doing your first ride in Watopia (with added overlays to better explain things!), and some user setting optimization at the end for a better in-game experience.

If you’re just getting started on Zwift, this video will give you the orientation needed to Zwift like a seasoned pro. Ride on!

Video: How To Livestream Your Indoor Ride – Online Streaming Basics

Eric Schlange
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10
Video: How To Livestream Your Indoor Ride – Online Streaming Basics

Video: How To Livestream Your Indoor Ride – Online Streaming Basics

Livestreaming appeals to many Zwifters, from top racers wanting to share their passion with the world, to newer cyclists who simply want to show their friends how much fun indoor cycling can be. And while livestreaming is taking the gaming world by storm, it can be a bit daunting to get set up if you’ve never done it before!

Never fear: our favorite Aussie is here! Livestreamer and video tutorial guru extraordinaire Shane Miller has put together a cracking tutorial covering the basics of livestreaming your Zwift ride.

Shane covers the basics of his livestream setup that uses OBS Studio on Windows 10. He includes all the hardware, software, and configuration details for a high-quality single scene stream before going live on Twitch to show it all working in real time. (Once you have OBS Studio configured you can stream to almost any platform – YouTube, Twitch, Mixer, and Facebook.)

Here are links to most of the hardware used in Shane’s own livestreaming setup:

Haute Route Watopia – My Experience

Mike Lister
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46
Haute Route Watopia – My Experience

Haute Route Watopia – My Experience

The Haute Route events have been described as the closest you get can to being a pro without actually, well… being a pro cyclist. Renowned as much for their top organization and experience as their difficulty, Haute Route events are the ultimate test for many amateur riders. The traditional events are usually held over 3 or 7 days, although for the bravest it is possible to undertake the Alps, Pyrenees, and Dolomite tours back to back for your own Grand Tour experience.

Like many cycling companies, Haute Route saw a valuable opportunity in pairing with Zwift to promote their product and unveiled the first virtual 3-day Haute Route event on the platform. True to the real-world events, there would be plenty of climbing and it would be no stroll in the park.

Prep

Launched to much fanfare back in February, the event had fallen off my radar until a few days before. As someone always keen to push myself I signed myself up to all three stages and began a few days of prep. Due to the lockdown, my fitness wasn’t a problem, so my preparation actually meant tapering for a few days beforehand. To give my legs a little test I undertook the Tour of Watopia Stage 5 Long Ride up the volcano on Thursday, the day before Haute Route Wataopia. I felt in good shape but as I went to bed I wondered if I had overdone it.

Stage 1

The stages were being run on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, over three different routes and with multiple start times per day. I opted for the first event of the day at 8am Friday. This worked well with my normal routine and would give me the maximum rest time before stage 2 the following day. I joined the event as soon as I could, due to wanting to be near the front of the pier pens – with over 4,000 signed up I didn’t want to spend 5 minutes getting to the course!

I went into the event with fairly high expectations, as a B rider I have had some good results recently and according to my race ranking on ZwiftPower I was in the top 50 entrants. This was a fool’s metric, though! Most of those ranking points had come in shorter, flatter races where my 80kg of weight is less of an issue and raw watts at the finish can make a big difference. So, bearing this in mind, I set myself a target of finishing in the top 10%.

The Friday course was Three Sisters, a punchy 47.8km route over the original three Watopian climbs; the KOM, Epic KOM, and Volcano Climb for a total of 879m of climbing. As expected, the start was fast, frenetic, and straight up the KOM! No lead-in, just boom straight up. Sure, it’s just a little bump in the scheme of things but I didn’t want to ruin my legs in the first couple of clicks so I paced myself but made sure I stayed in a small bunch for the descent to the base of the Epic KOM.

I crossed the start of the climb in around 200th position but as the route ascended, my position descended, down to 400th and outside of the top 10%. Not feeling despondent I reminded myself this was a marathon, not a sprint and we were less than 20km into a 150km event. I also didn’t know how many of the riders around me were targeting all 3 days – as a free to enter, virtual ride there would no doubt be those just doing 1 or 2 of the stages due to other commitments so I reminded myself this was about my time at the end of the event, not my position on the day.

As I descended the Epic KOM, I made it into a nice blob which worked together to keep the speed high until we reached the volcano climb. Having completed the climb, the day before I knew this would be around 8 minutes of climbing. As we went up, I lost touch with my group. With one eye on the next two days this didn’t worry me. In hindsight, I could have been better positioned going into the climb and maybe pushed over the top with the group. This would have allowed me to be in a larger, quicker group for the final run-in to the line. As it happened, I finished 30 seconds back on this group with a final time of 1:19:00. This gave me a position of 239th out of 1,624 on Zwiftpower, not quite the top 10% but I expected this to whittle down over the weekend.

On a real Haute Route, riders are presented with access to top nutrition and massages after each stage but I had to settle for a protein shake and cookie and hope that would be enough to recover me for stage 2.

Stage 2

At 27.6km, stage 2 was shorter than the previous day but featured barely any descending and plenty of climbing, with a jaunt up Alpe du Zwift on the agenda. Like the previous day I got into the pen nice and early and then got swamped by riders speeding off as the lights turned green.

The ride to the foot of the climb was very fast, essentially one long train. I have only completed the Alpe twice before and knew there would be very little respite. Prior to the stage I checked out my average power from my PB – 284W – so as we started the climb, I set this as a target. (This might have been optimistic as I was concerned it might leave me fatigued for the final stage.) Regardless, I smashed out the first few sectors at around 320W. This soon caught up with me and I found myself in the middle third doing everything I could to keep each sector’s average above 284W.

Once again, I was being passed by a stream of riders but I wasn’t racing them, I was racing myself and my time. As I neared the top, I realized that my earlier efforts meant I was on course for a PB and this buoyed my efforts, giving me the lift needed to push on for the last couple of kilometers, raising my output back up to the 300W mark.

I crossed the line in 1:15:39 for the stage but more importantly I had taken 3 minutes of my Alpe PB. I was cautious though: was this just down to the draft from all the riders on the course? Later inspection showed that my power was 14W high for this effort so it was a genuine improvement.

As I rolled back down the 10minute descent, my thoughts turned to Stage 3. At 73km, this was as long as the first two days combined and featured the Epic KOM in both directions. I had my usual protein shake and cookie before fully intending to put my feet up and rest my legs all day. Unfortunately, my wife remembered my promise to mow the lawn and assist with the garden, not what my legs needed!

Stage 3

The final day filled me with a few nerves as I got set up for the 2pm ride. I plumped for a slightly later ride, giving my legs just a few extra hours of rest – my version of marginal gains. I’ve not ridden the Pretzel before but looking at the profile I estimated it would be a 2-2:15 ride, so filled up two water bottles plus a backup pint glass and placed them with some snacks on the workbench next to me.

Whether it was adrenaline, excitement, or stupidity I set off at speed making the most of the draft and raced towards the foot of the Epic KOM. Having completed the climb a couple of days earlier, I expected this to take around 23-24 minutes and for my early position to drop like a stone. To my surprise I managed to hold steady! Perhaps there was a general feeling of fatigue in the pack or I suspect those who had gone all out on day one hadn’t lasted the distance. Regardless, this was once again a race against myself and I felt good, powered up the climb and knocked almost a minute off my PB.

Had I just blown it? Am I going to regret this very soon? Time would tell. First I had to get back down the mountain. After learning from the first stage I pushed hard to catch a decent-sized blob which I knew would make good time around the main island and two ascents of the original KOM.

Initially, I found a nice rhythm but after an hour of riding I started to struggle and as we made our way down the switchbacks on the approach to the Epic KOM reverse I was not feeling good. I attacked my snacks, some Haribo and several digestive biscuits. I was not looking forward to the next 45-60 minutes and felt like I had blown it, angry at myself for attacking too hard early on.

The first switchbacks up to the bridge were a struggle. My power was around 250W – respectable, but below the 300W marker I set myself for the climbs. But by the time I had crossed the bridge, the biscuits had started to work their magic! My legs awoke and I found the missing watts and pushed myself on. A quick water refill from the team car (aka wife) kept me going and despite my slow start I bagged another personal best.

Secretly I had hoped for sub 2 hours for this ride and that target was on a knife-edge right know. I can’t remember the exact numbers but I had around 16km to ride and 19 minutes to do it. It was time to find some eager riders and blob up. We started well, the descent giving us a fantastic speed boost and the riders around me got on board with the idea of sub-2. Time and distance checks were announced, this was going well but it was all downhill!

Soon we were on the flats and the switchbacks. The slight incline felt like the Alpe again but we pushed on – this was going to be touch and go. The kilometers ticked down, I nearly lost contact on the cobbles in the Italian village – mentally I hate those cobbles but amazing through it all we stayed together. One final climb out from the sprint bridge and through the Esses before the descent to the line. Unlike Stage 1, the finish was at the banner but those extra 250m didn’t matter as we crossed the line with 19 seconds to spare. A fantastic effort from Team Sub-2 as we had named ourselves.

Closing Thoughts

What a great three days of racing this was. Highs and lows, determination, stubbornness, and personal bests. In the end, I finished 895th out of 7,506 finishers. A little outside my top 10% target but as I discovered on the Alpe this wasn’t really about everyone else, it was about me. With personal bests on the three biggest climbs in Watopia I had plenty to be happy about.

A few days later my legs were still feeling the effort I had put in, and I was still feeling pleased with my performance. There were lots of positives to take-away and where there were a few issues Zwift acted quickly to address them, including staggered starts and more start times. It would have been nice to see the results broken down by category so I could see how I did against other Cat B’s but that’s my only real (small) complaint. (I’m sure there will be more multi-day events, so hopefully this is something that could be included in the future.) All in all, a great event that pushed me mentally and physically.

What About You?

Did you complete the Haute Route series? Share your experience below!

How to Get Over 40XP Per Mile On Zwift

Rob Lines
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96
How to Get Over 40XP Per Mile On Zwift

We all know that a mile in Zwift is worth 30XP and a kilometer is worth 20XP. So how did I reach Level 50 with less than 20,000km of riding?

With 500,000XP being needed to reach level 50, surely one needs to ride 25,000km at 20XP per km or 16,667 miles (26,816km). Or do they? I’m Zwifting proof that it’s entirely possible to reach 500,476 XP with 19,843km of riding. That’s 25.22 XP/km (40.58 XP/mile)!

A good number of approaches to gaining extra XP are covered in 8 Ways to Earn more XP and Level Up Faster on Zwift. And the screenshot above, like a good weight-watchers case study, proves it.

So, what tips does someone who has gained 25% extra XP over 20,000km give?

  • Put yourself into km rather than miles (you’ll get 7.3% more XP this way).
  • Get gamified and go seek achievement badges. Throw a U-turn, do a workout, be a fan, watch people and complete a workout are pretty easy ways to get a little XP bonus.
  • Tour the courses and get the route achievements. You pretty much get double XP for the first time you ride a route. Ensure you select it as you start up Zwift and keep riding until you get the success banner!
  • Look for events giving double XP (they are very rare). The 2020 Tour of Watopia was a prime example of this, giving 40XP per km rather than the normal 20XP. If you get a route achievement on one these stages, that’s as good as triple XP.
  • Ride the Alpe. Ride it a lot. Yes, it’s slow XP on the way up, but the XP on the way down is pretty easy. 13km 260XP in 10 minutes. Plus, there is an XP bonus at the top once you have the gloves or don’t get the wheels.
  • Ride a time trial bike – you’ll get XP bonuses through each arch instead of powerups.
  • Get into a pack in a group ride. Ok. It doesn’t earn any extra XP per km, but you will cover more distance within a set time if you’re traveling faster thanks to the increased draft.
  • Do some workouts. Feel free to craft your own if you want, but you do get more than 20XP per km.

But the biggest keys to gaining XP are to ride your bike, have fun and be social in the Zwift community.

Think it’s going to be a quick trip to Level 50? Whilst it’s proven possible to gain 25% extra XP over 20,000km, it will still take you ~700 hours to do so. Enjoy. Ride On!

What About You?

Have you managed to reach level 50 with less than 20,000km of riding? Share your experience and tips below!

5 Zwift Events Not To Miss This Weekend

Eric Schlange
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28
5 Zwift Events Not To Miss This Weekend

5 Zwift Events Not To Miss This Weekend

With more big events than ever happening in our virtual cycling paradise, it’s easy to miss some really cool rides! Here are 5 events this weekend which we think are especially important to share with the community.

If you find this post useful, please comment below. We may make it a weekly habit if there’s enough interest.

See you on course!

Michael Knudsen’s 1000km in 24 Hours Attempt

You may remember Michael from his crazy 5000km ride on Zwift back in November 2019. Now he’s taking on a new Zwift ultra-endurance challenge, for a great cause:

I will attempt to smash the 1000 km mark in 24 hours next Saturday and fundraise some money for fellow zwifter, Phil Reckless’ nephew on 3 years, William who earlier this year suffered from a sepsis shock and had both legs and multiple fingers amputated The little hero is exactly same age as my son so it hit me a little hard.

I’ll start out at 0830 with a 200 km group ride and then free ride the rest. I’m gonna need the Zwift community to rally behind again like they did for the 5000 km indoor RAAM project in the mall to keep my average on + 42 kmh.

Join Michael when you hop on to ride (follow him in the Companion app, then click to join him). Let him benefit from your draft as he tries to ride 1000 km in 24 hours! His attempt begins at 8:30am his time (Copenhagen, Denmark), which is 6:30am GTM Saturday, 2:30am ET Saturday, 11:30pm PT Friday.

Want to donate to help William? Here’s the fundraiser link.

Hells 500 World Lycra Party

Hells 500, the keepers of the Everesting and vEveresting rules and hall of fame, are holding a “World Lycra Party” on Zwift Apr 10 at 12:30 AM – Apr 13 at 11:30 PM UTC+10. They’re trying to stake a claim on a new vEveresting world record (most vEverestings) and you can be a part of it!

Learn more at facebook.com/events/3100332533320261

Ride with Some Pros

There are 12 accounts on the calendar this weekend with the #ridewithpro tag. Want to ride with some top of the top men and women in the cycling world? Hop into one of these rides! See full #ridewithpro ride list >

The most popular #ridewithpro events this weekend are with Team INEOS, who are hosting their first major team event on Zwift! Three different group rides scheduled for Sunday, with almost 9,000 riders already signed up!

Watch INEOS Race the Alpe

Speaking of INEOS, we’ll get the chance to see the team’s riders go head-to-head as they aim to win the inaugural Team INEOS eRace at 5pm BST on Sunday. The riders will duke it out on Alpe du Zwift and Eurosport’s Rob Hatch and Matt Stephens will guide you through the action, with exclusive rider interviews throughout the live broadcast.

Watch it here:

Jan Frodeno Tri At Home 180km

Jan Frodeno is the current Ironman World Champion and course record holder, an Olympic gold medalist, and a 2-time 70.3 World Champion. Join him Saturday as he completes the second leg of his home challenge to swim 3.8km, ride 180km and run 42km. He’ll be riding between 3-3.5 wkg for the full distance and he is looking for some company on his long day.

Throughout the day Jan will be fundraising for the fight against Coronavirus. You can follow along by tuning in to his live stream on his Facebook page.

Learn more at zwift.com/events/view/532546

Found this Useful?

Comment below if you’d like to see a sort of “events not to miss” post before every weekend. If even people find it useful, perhaps we’ll make it a habit!

Couch to Route Hero, Week 11 (+1) Done

Monica Schlange
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14
Couch to Route Hero, Week 11 (+1) Done

Couch to Route Hero, Week 11 (+1) Done

Editor’s note: Monica has undertaken the “Couch to Route Hero” challenge of riding all 67 “free-ridable” Zwift routes (and getting all the badges) in 11 weeks. Each week she shares her story of the previous week’s struggles and accomplishments. Follow along on her journey, take the challenge yourself, and be sure to give her a Ride On if you see her on course!

This week was a bit of a let down mentally. I don’t know if it’s the Shelter-in-Place orders getting to me (we’re on day 20-something), or the fact that the challenge was already supposed to be done but isn’t. Either way, it was a blah sort of week, to be sure.

The Week Lined Up

I rode three routes this week, making my badge total 64. So close! I rode 62.9 miles with 5,413 ft of climb in 5 hours and 6 minutes.

Routes Completed:

How the Week Played Out

After the high of finishing London’s PRL Full last week I really had no interest in riding my bike ever again. This is how it’s been every time I do some amazing feat on my bike. “Okay, I’ve done a lot. Now I’m done!” I couldn’t stand the thought of not having anything to write to you all though so I forced myself to ride one route on Tuesday and two routes on Saturday. 

Rising Empire

It felt great to ride this at my full capacity. I pushed myself up the climbs and sailed through the flats. And it’s funny, because now that I’ve done much bigger things it wasn’t so daunting to go up both sides of the KOM in New York. 

Achterbahn

For the first time in this challenge, I had to do the world hack to get a route done. This was pretty much inevitable, even though I had carefully planned out each day before the real world stopped. There just aren’t a lot of days where Innsbruck is available, even now with the choice of 2 guest worlds. 

The downside to a world hack is not having a lot of company out there. At the beginning of my ride there were only 34 of us in Innsbruck. I’ve realized more and more that these routes go by so much faster when others are riding… even if they’re not riding specifically with me! So, if you can do an Innsbruck route while it’s on the calendar, do it. It may be far more interesting! 

Figure 8 Reverse 

I didn’t want too many rides looming over my head on my last week so decided to do a second ride after Achterbahn and some lunch. Someone told me later that it was amazing I did two rides in one day. It didn’t seem like some amazing thing at first but then I thought about this journey I’ve been on. Monica on week 3 would have been hard pressed to do a 4 bidon and a 2 bidon on the same day. But Monica on week 11+1 isn’t the same gal! A 4 and a 2 ain’t no thang! And gosh, am I proud of that! 

Next week

I have three routes left! Watopia’s Out & Back Again, Innsbruck’s Lutscher CCW, and Watopia’s Road to Ruins. Let’s be real: your girl here, the one who did the Uber Pretzel is NOT looking forward to Lutscher CCW and doing that KOM Reverse climb twice. Haha. Silliness. I’ve done much more difficult things!

Another Open Invitation

I invite you all to join me after this whole Route Badge Quest is done to get another badge: the “On Fire.” Check out the April 25th event info here!

How About You?

What routes did you do this week? And if you’ve ridden Lutscher CCW do you have any tips?

Strava Announces Major Changes to Virtual Segments

Eric Schlange
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109
Strava Announces Major Changes to Virtual Segments

Strava Announces Major Changes to Virtual Segments

In a support post this morning, Strava announced big changes that will drastically reduce the number of segments showing on Zwift activities. Here is how Strava summarized the changes:

  • The least popular virtual ride segments have been made private, but none have been deleted. Any segments you’ve created can be found on the Strava website by selecting Dashboard > My Segments > Created Segments.
  • Any newly created virtual segments will be private.

In Strava’s words, these changes should “… remove clutter and noise so athletes can experience the segments that matter the most.” Let’s dig into this a bit more…

Some Background

Virtual segments, and specifically Zwift virtual segments, have been putting a strain on Strava’s systems for years. Strava was designed with real-world segment traffic in mind, and that is very different from the sort of traffic Zwift brings. In the real world, riders are spread out and so are the segments. On Zwift, riders are concentrated into small areas, with tens (hundreds!) of thousands riding each day.

This strain has become clear in recent months, when we haven’t been able to create Zwift Insider verified segments for routes of any substantial length due to Strava timing out in the “Check for Duplicates” step of its segment creation workflow. It appears there are simply too many public segments for Strava to compare against.

Additionally, the sheer the number of Strava segments for Zwift courses is just silly. And Strava’s automated systems for choosing which segments to display or hide have never worked well on Zwift.

New Segments=Private Segments

With this change, all newly-created virtual segments will be private, meaning only the creator can see the segment.

Note: at the time of this post, this change doesn’t appear to be fully implemented. There was still a checkbox in the segment creator tool to “Make this segment private”.

Existing Segments Made Private

Strava says “The least popular virtual ride segments have been made private”. They aren’t disclosing just how many segments were switched to private with this change, but from what I’m hearing it’s a “significant portion of existing segments.” When I asked Strava what sort of “signals” they are using to decide which segments stay public and which ones are switched to private, they said:

We’re reviewing segments based on engagement post-activity upload and understanding whether athletes look at the segment analysis and leaderboards. Segments with lowest engagement are made private.

Sounds sensible to me. Odd that they didn’t mention whether or not people have starred a segment, but my guess is this is included in their engagement metrics as well.

Private segments are only visible to a segment’s creator, meaning they aren’t matched against the activities of other riders. So switching many public segments to private means two good things: less processing required in terms of segment matching for Strava, and fewer segments showing up in activities.

Of course, Zwifters can still see their own results on any segments they’ve created on their ride activity details page.

What About Zwift Insider Verified Segments?

Strava and ZwiftHQ reached out to me at Zwift Insider with news about this change, because they recognize that our large set of “Zwift Insider verified” Strava segments are important to the community and should be kept public. I was grateful for that! So it sounds like our segments will be kept public.

In the short-term, creating new Zwift Insider verified segments will require an extra step or two of reaching out to Strava to get the segment made public. But I can deal with that.

What About My Segments?

In my chats with Zwift, it is clear they are well aware that the community has created many bespoke segments that are used to track various events. It is unclear how many (if any) of these segments will be switched to private, but hopefully between Strava’s automated triggers and Zwift’s communication with Strava the useful community segments will stay public.

When I asked Strava what the process was for “forcing” a segment to be public, they said:

…if the Zwift team recognizes a segment as important or significant and lets Strava know, then Strava will make it public.

Wrapping It Up

A few weeks ago, Strava rolled out new algorithms to catch impossible efforts upon uploads. They say today’s change is the next step in “making the segment experience better for athletes”. I agree!

As I said over 3 years ago, “I don’t care if I got a PR on a random .2 mile section of London titled ‘your mom smells like donuts’! Reducing the clutter will make it much easier for athletes to track their progress on segments they actually care about.

My only concern is that useful, community-created segments will remain public. I’m sure we’ll hear from the Zwift community if that doesn’t happen, but I’m hoping Strava has implemented the auto-privatization of existing segments so it’s all quite painless.

What Do You Think?

Does this change seem like a good one? What are your thoughts? Share below!

Testing Zwift’s Beta Anti-Sandbagging Controls

Eric Schlange
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Testing Zwift’s Beta Anti-Sandbagging Controls

Testing Zwift’s Beta Anti-Sandbagging Controls

This morning I used my test account to hop into a ZHQ Beta Crit City race as a D rider. Zwift has begun using these races to test their still-beta anti-sandbagging controls, and I wanted to see them in action!

My plan: click around and watch riders until the green cones started flying. See how much the green cone affects their speeds, and see if I can get a green cone myself. Then see what the final results look like after riders have been coned.

Before we begin, I want to make a couple things clear:

  1. Zwift’s anti-sandbagging controls are in early beta. They’re testing the feature in ZHW Beta Races currently, but the feature is being fine-tuned. The final product will certainly be more polished and precise than what we’re currently seeing.
  2. My test account ride was done in such a way as to not interfere with the actual race in any significant way.

Here’s a quick video I cobbled together so you can see portions of the race live:

Starting Up: the Out of Category Alert

I signed up for the event from within the game itself, and when I clicked to join the event the following popup appeared:

This alert is better than nothing. But it’s also far from ideal! This won’t change signup behavior much, if at all, because there’s no way for me to easily join the correct category from this popup. I would have to exit the game and restart, or use the Companion app to change my category signup, in order to make the swap. Nobody will do that. Or at least, almost nobody.

Instead, I should see a popup when I click to sign up, and that popup should drive me toward joining the category I should be in. Something like this (excuse my terrible UI design, it was a quick job):

Some would say that Zwift shouldn’t even allow riders to join a too-low category. I’d be OK with that, but I also understand Zwift’s position of not wanting to be too heavy-handed in this first iteration.

The Green Cone of Shame

Once the race began, everything was “normal” for the first ~4 minutes or so. Then the green cones began to fly! The first cones were given to two riders in the group of three off the front. Perfect! Zwift race sandbagging legend Bath Salts was one of these riders, and I was happy to see him (or her?) coned.

Cones began to pop up in the main peloton behind the leaders as well. Eventually there were probably 10 coned riders in a field of 95 – but it was hard to keep track because the riders were scattered all over the course. Here you can see what the cone looks like – it floats over the rider’s head, and shows up in the rider list as well.

What does the green cone look like from a rider’s perspective? I pushed my one-minute power up to 500 watts and got the cone in short order – here’s what popped up:

The message says “We’ve ratcheted back your power a bit”, but my wattage readout didn’t change at the top-right. My w/kg number in the rider list was hidden, which seems odd to me. Is Zwift actually reducing my power? Or are they just artificially slowing me down? The answer is unclear.

What about Throttling?

My rider definitely slowed after receiving the Green Cone of Shame, but it wasn’t an extreme slowdown. I would estimate it knocked ~5kph off of my speed at 300 watts (4 w/kg). But that’s just a guesstimate.

The riders who were off the front and received the cone were able to stay away from the much larger chasing group, despite being coned and slowed. My conclusion here, based on this one limited test, is that the cone isn’t slowing people down quite enough. They shouldn’t be able to stay off the front, or even hang with the front pack, after getting coned. There needs to be more of a performance penalty.

Race Results

Lastly, I wanted to check the race results screen. Would coned riders not be included in the list? Would they show up as being coned? Unfortunately, neither of those is currently the case. Coned riders show up just like other riders in the rankings (several of the riders in this screenshot were coned, but you can’t tell be looking at it):

An Anomaly

The rider who “won” this particular race (R. Foucault) certainly must have exceeded the triggers for the Green Cone. But he was never coned. Was he running an outdated version of Zwift, or was there some other issue?

Conclusion

Again, I want to stress that this is an early beta of Zwift’s anti-sandbagging features. It feels a bit unfair to even write about the features in their current state, but at the same time, the racing community is wondering what the feature looks like, how it works, and what the current state of implementation is.

I think there’s a lot of promise here – it just needs some fine-tuning. And that’s exactly what beta testing is for! So keep up the good work, HQ. We’re all rooting for you!

Your Thoughts

Have you tried one of the beta races yet? Seen any green cones? Been coned yourself? Share your experience below!

How the Race was Won: Tour of Watopia, Stage 4

Jarrad Bird
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5
How the Race was Won: Tour of Watopia, Stage 4

How the Race was Won: Tour of Watopia, Stage 4

I joined Zwift in November 2019 after picking up a Wahoo Kickr Core during Black Friday sales. A series of knee surgeries over the last few years have put an end to any team sports or running aspirations I may have had. I have been riding on and off for the last 10 years, but my competitive edge brought me to Zwift racing!

Stage 4 of the Tour of Watopia headed to the dirt of the Jungle Circuit – a part of Watopia I had never actually explored. During the first three stages, I found that the pace was quite high and never really considered racing. I prefer handicapped races like ADHR’s Chop ride, but I really enjoyed the Jungle Circuit ToW group ride and thought it might be a fun but tough race as I felt the course suited my rider phenotype. According to my Zwift Power profile, my strengths are short/uphill sprints… which is just what this circuit has!

My ZwiftPower phenotype chart

Route & Bike Choice

Two days later I headed into my pain cave ready to race. The Stage 4 race consisted of two 8km laps of the Jungle circuit, with a lead-in of 5.6km from the Jungle start pens.

Zwift levelled the playing field when it came to bike and wheel choice for this race, which was appreciated as a relative beginner at level 13, competing in my seventh race.

The Warmup

I’ve always preferred racing in the afternoon or evening – early starts are just not my thing! My usual routine consists of a late lunch at work, then a piece of toast about an hour before jumping on the bike. Nothing fancy, but it works for me.

I chose the Grand Central Circuit in NYC for my warm-up, a 7km 15-minute roll with a decent hill to get my climbing legs ready for the race ahead. Warming up for any longer than this usually results in me blowing up before the end of a race.

The Start

As an avid reader of the “How the race Was Lost” series, I have learned a lot (in theory) about Zwift racing but I’m still learning and slowly improving. Prior to this event, I put in the time to come up with a race strategy, and it felt like I had race director “Coach ZwiftInsider” in my internal race-radio…

The starting pen held a group of 88 riders in today’s C Grade event. I joined the ride about 15 minutes before the starting time to secure a spot in towards the front (thanks Coach). The start was fast as expected, 40 seconds of 280 – 360w with a peak of 400w was enough to form a group of about 25 riders off the front. Goal number one for today’s race achieved – get in the front group.

The Middle

The bunch settled into a fast but manageable pace descending towards the start of the main part of the course. The jungle climb has an average gradient of 2% with a couple of pitches at 4% so the pace was always going to be high enough that drafting would be important. I managed to stay with the first 10 riders until about 500 meters before the suspension bridge. I settled into a rhythm for the rest of the climb and joined the second group for the descent, figuring that the front group probably contained a good number of sandbaggers anyway.

A key strategy for me this race was to conserve as much energy as possible during the two descents to finishing banner. In my reconnaissance ride earlier in the week I was able to save at least 1-2 w/kg compared to other riders by positioning myself in the middle of the group. I recovered as best I could but needed to deploy my aero powerup after getting stuck behind a rider who was struggling to hold on to the wheel ahead. Was this going to hurt me, burning a useful powerup on lap one? Thankfully the powerup gods smiled on me a gifted me a drafting bonus.

The second climb was slightly slower than the first, 6:26 at 280w compared to 6:11 at 297w, mostly due to being in the second mix of riders with everyone on their limit causing several splits. A couple of 400w+ efforts kept me in touch with 3 other riders as we hit the suspension bridge and the lumps before the descent.

The Finish

The pace increased on the second descent to the finish, which made it challenging to hold on and tempting to deploy my draft power-up. But it also brought a group of 10-12 riders together by the bottom. As the road flattened out managing my position was a challenge, trying to maintain good rhythm and power but keeping my nose out of the wind was the aim.

Powerups started flying as soon as we hit the cave with about 1km to go, and then again on the wooden bridge at about 500m to go! But I held back as I kept hearing Coach ZwiftInsider telling me to wait until the last minute – so I did. I waited until 200m to go, just as the slight rise starts to hurt. Coming from the middle of the pack I put the hammer down and tried to catch as many wheels as possible to really maximize my draft. It worked perfectly! Jumping ahead of 8 or 10 riders in our group I finished a few seconds behind the small bunch ahead of us, placing 9th according to Zwift.

I was excited that I was able to execute a race plan well, and while I waited for ZwiftPower results to load, I thought I might have a chance at a top 5 or even podium finish. What I wasn’t expecting was that little gold trophy next to my name as a number of sandbaggers and non-ZP riders were removed. The race was won!

See my activity on Strava
See my ride on Zwift
See race results on ZwiftPower

Takeaways

  • Ride smarter not harder. Conserve energy wherever possible but especially on descents! Mid-race recovery can provide a huge physical and mental boost. The how the race was lost series really got me thinking about the strategic aspects of racing on Zwift, rather than going full gas the whole way and trying to hold on to the end.
  • Know the course, know your strengths. Knowing when to sprint/hold back/chase a wheel can make or break your race. Knowing your rider phenotype can help you find courses or events best suited to your strengths.
  • You don’t have to win to win. The confidence I gained from planning my race well and winning the sprint in my group was just as great as winning the race. Zwift is an amazing platform to improve as a rider both on and off-screen.
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What About You?

Have you raced in the Jungle lately? How did it go? Share below!

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