Season 2 of the 2021/22 Zwift Premier League runs from January 10th to February 14th. As a quasi-contributor to Zwift Insider and a rider/director of a newly promoted Premier League team, I wanted to give an unfiltered behind-the-scenes look at the action. Look for a recap each week here on Zwift Insider.
After last week’s disappointing result, Velocio needed a strong performance to stay in the game. Sitting in 14th, but only 1 point out of 12th, we were still in it to avoid relegation.
When the team first set its eyes on the Premier Division, we never expected to actually stay. Getting a kit was always the goal, and the accidental white shorts have not disappointed. But there are far more important things than the Premier Division. A death in the family of one of our racers, and a serious health scare from another meant starting the race with only three racers. Scoring points has been exceptionally hard this season, but with fewer cards to play it was going to be even more difficult.
This week’s course was on Temples and Towers and it had three KOMs. They each increase in difficulty with the final being the notorious gravel climb from last season. The race didn’t end on a climb though but had a nice downhill run into the city. The race was likely going to explode then turn into small group racing. This is my favorite type of racing and I was looking forward to the challenge.
Saying No to Gravel
The week leading in, I wanted to double-check if there was any world in which a gravel bike would be worth it. I did two laps of the course in erg mode using each bike choice to see how they differed. The road bike was about a minute faster overall but the gravel bike was 25 seconds faster on the climb. Gravel bike was 15 sec slower over the Castle KOM. Pretty nerdy to test, but I came to the conclusion that if I needed the gravel bike to make it over the Temple KOM I wasn’t strong enough to stay in the pack to get there. After seven years of University I vowed to never learn anything ever again, but I decided to learn from last week and “don’t overthink it, don’t get cute, do the normal thing”. Race plan was simple. Conserve energy and try to make it over the Temple KOM in the front group, don’t use the gravel bike.
The Early Bits
The race started fast and the first Rooftop KOM strung things out but nothing broke. As we worked our way out of the city some attacks went and a nice break split off the front. We didn’t have anyone in it. In bike racing more riders or more watts can buy teams additional opportunities, and since we had neither, we had to hope it would come back. They got a good gap and took the Castle KOM, but the sprint and the difficulty of the sections afterward killed the spirit of the break. Groupo compacto going into the gravel climb.
Temple KOM
I have raced the Temple climb quite a bit. It is pitchy and hard, but many of the sections are draftable. It’s very hard to make up ground but if you can hold the wheel when the going gets tough, you have a chance to finish better than you are. This was my plan. When you sort by 20 min w/kg on ZwiftPower signups, I am barely mid-pack. On the final climb I expected the front group to be less than 10 over the top with maybe 10 more catching on the descent. This is well beyond my predicted placing. I was going to have to punch above my weight to make it. I concentrated on staying as close to the front as I could without being on the front. I broke the pitchy sections up in my head. I focused on not losing the wheel.
When you race outside with others and can feel the draft of the rider in front of you you can really push yourself to a place you can’t go on your own. Fixating on the rear hub or calves of the rider in front of you, desperate to not lose the draft. There are some races where my memory of the race isn’t the finish, the course, or the town it was in, but the pair of calves I stared at trying not to lose contact. With Zwift racing I can go to that place just like I can outside, and I think that is an advantage.
The last 400m of the climb is flat. But the 400m before that is the final pitch. I made it to that point right at the front but then the powerup game came into effect. I saw about 10 steamroller powerups get dropped. This is the powerup that makes dirt ride like pavement. I had a burrito. Those with the steamroller started to fly away. I jumped as hard as I could to stay on, averaging almost 600w for 45 seconds. But the steamroller was too strong. I came off over the top. The front group was about 9 guys. Behind me were many other very strong guys who also didn’t have the steamroller and I felt confident we would catch back on. We started the descent 7 seconds back from the front group of 9.
As expected, we came back on the descent. We were a group of 19 with a 25-second gap over the next chasing group. From the bottom of the descent was a flat 5km run back into the city. At worst, I would get 19th, but there was still a chance to win. I figured if I hung around and sprinted I could maybe get 10th. If the group looked a little lethargic I would attack to play for the win.
The group did slow, and I jumped.
I got a small gap and then Restart’s Jamrozik jumped across. I had to work hard to stick his wheel and watching the leaderboard behind I could see Tuegals was also coming across. This meant one of two things would happen. Either he was going to take us to the promised land, or the pack would panic and bring us back. It ended up being the latter. But Jamrozik was desperate to get me to pull through. He made his avatar flick his elbow. He started waving on his zoom camera. I heard he was even on the Restart Discord yelling for me to pull through! He looked like a wounded chicken riding a bike, flapping a broken wing.
We were caught but I still had legs. Again, my powerup options were awful. I had the steamroller now that it was useless. But, there was one small dirt section before the city. So I went again with 2km to go. I got a good gap and hit the gravel with my powerup rolling. With 1km to go I had about 6 seconds. I went all in and 500m later, I was caught. Sad trombone. My attack was 30sec too short. I rolled in for 19th…
The team finished 14th and fell further behind the other teams. Relegation seems inevitable now. Thankfully, our community team is doing great and is in with a chance to requalify the team! If they have another good playoff run, we could get promoted again! Honestly, this would be a pretty hilarious end to the season. We can be the whack-a-mole community team.
We won’t give up yet, however, and are prepared for an exceptionally hard race up the Epic KOM for the 6th and final race of the season.
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