If you’re a Zwift racer who has been active at all in the past few weeks, chances are good you’ve raced Scotland’s Rolling Highlands route. It hosted ZRL’s final race, was stage 1 of this month’s ZRacing Series, and of course was the first race of the UCI Cycling Esports Worlds (and the Zwift Insider Worlds Experience races which replicated the Worlds setup).
By the time I joined the pens for last Saturday’s Worlds Experience races I had already raced Rolling Highlands three times, on top of leading a few group rides over multiple laps. So while the Scotland course had only been on Zwift less than three weeks, I felt pretty familiar with the Rolling Highlands route.
The Warmup
The race began at 7am, so I was on the bike by 6:30 to spin up the legs with Coco. I’d eaten a banana for a quick breakfast, and of course chewed my caffeine gum and applied PR lotion to the legs… my typical race prep. I put in a few hard, shorter efforts to get the heart rate up and break the ice, then I headed for the start pens on my trusty Venge + Disc combo.
The Plan
Having raced the Worlds Experience triplet the previous weekend, I knew I didn’t have the legs to compete for the overall podium. (The previous weekend I had been dropped hard on the Sgurr, then dropped again in Glasgow). So I set my sights on trying to get the best finish possible on the first race of the three-race set, because this was the course that suited me best of the three. My goal? To finish high enough that my ZwiftPower ranking got a bit of an upgrade.
How would I reach that goal? By sitting in and conserving so I was as fresh as possible for the final effort up Breakaway Brae.
It’s been less than three weeks, but Breakaway Brae is already my new nemesis. I’ve found I perform reasonably well on this short climb (620m, 2.4%), but never good enough to be a winner. I generally go through the KOM banner in the top 1/3 of the pack, but doesn’t do you much good when you’re contesting points in ZRL or trying to get on the podium in a scratch race!
In fact, performing decently well on the Brae has only served to make me a little crazy. Because I feel like I’m so close to unlocking the secret of this segment. Why is it that I hang in so easily up through the steep section, then get dropped on the flatter lead-in? What could I do differently?
This time around I resolved to try and stay out of the wind, a bike length or two from the front up through the steep portion of the climb. Then hopefully I would have something left to keep pushing to the line across the flatter section where I’ve been repeatedly gapped in past races.
Recalibrating My Burrito Usage
Just a few days earlier I had learned that the burrito powerup didn’t work like I thought it did. To be specific: I always thought it disabled drafting for riders nearby. I never once thought it also disabled drafting for the person who used the powerup!
But that’s exactly how it works. So when you pull that burrito trigger in the middle of a pack, you’re making yourself work harder, as well as all riders within a 2.5 meter radius, because none of you are receiving a draft benefit for the next 10 seconds.
Given this info, I had rewritten Misused Zwift Powerups: the Breakaway Burrito and published it just hours before this race. And I had changed my approach to using the burrito, because now I knew it was only really useful if I was in the front and wanted to make it harder to follow my wheel. So my plan was to use my burrito the final time up the Brae, but only if I wasn’t benefiting from the draft. Otherwise, the burrito would go unused.
The Lead-In
Rolling Highlands has the longest lead-in of any Scotland route – 5.1 kilometers. It’s a pretty easy lead-in, though… down along the Cliffs, rolling through the Mystical Roundabout, then a hard kick up Breakaway Brae to the KOM banner that signals the start of the actual route.
Today’s lead-in was uneventful, apart from some poor non-Zwift Insider readers who used their burritos to shoot themselves in the foot midpack. This lead to lots of fun banter from folks saying things like, “If only there was a website that taught us how to use these things…”
There were 142 Bs in the pack, and everyone seemed to know that attacking early wasn’t the smart move. So we descended as a pack past inflatable Nessie, catching our breath from the Brae effort, and began our trek back to the Cliffs.
Rolling Through the Highlands
On paper, the Cliffs section is the longest climb on the route. So you would think you’d see more attacks happening here – but no! Racers have learned that it’s hard to stay away to the finish if you attack this early (the climb ends 4km from the line) so they generally just pace themselves up this draftable hill, saving their legs for the two kicks that lie ahead.
Through the roundabout and the lap banner, a picturesque descent delivered us to the foot of the Corkscrew Castle – a surprising little kick that can get you dropped 2km from the finish if you’re not paying attention!
With ~80 riders still in the pack, nobody was brave enough to attack this far from the line. So I stuck to the plan – conserve. Keep those legs as fresh as possible. Breakaway Brae is just up the road!
The Finish
We descended from the Corkscrew, took a right through the Loch, then a left onto the main loop. Breakaway Brae’s start line arrived in short order, and the pack revved up.
On past attempts I’ve found myself pushing a bit too hard in the early part of this climb, floating to the front. So I let the pack surge around me, holding ~400W and trying to conserve a bit of energy in the final 45 seconds of the race.
As the road turned left and pitched up the rider list turned orange with big power numbers, and I found myself near the front of the pack. This is part 2 of the Brae – the steep climb where I have to push big watts to maintain position. Now I was pushing ~750W!
The road turned right and flattened to 1-2%, and I was in 4th with a pile of riders breathing down my neck. This final 250 meters is where so many riders had come around me in past efforts, so I steeled myself and tried to keep the power high.
The riders list was still entirely orange, and I was getting passed on both sides, repeatedly.
14th place. I looked up with less than 100m to go and realized I was getting dropped by the pack of strong riders surging around me, but more were just behind. So I did it – I deployed the burrito. My thought was, I wasn’t catching the riders up the road, and I didn’t want the riders just behind to benefit from sitting in my draft.
Looking at the video replay, I may have been a bit to quick on the burrito draw. Perhaps if I hadn’t used it I could have followed the wheels a bit longer and stayed away from a few more chasing riders. Perhaps.
In the end, I was pipped at the line by a handful of chasers, dropping from 16th to 21st with just a few meters to go. The difference between 21st and 16th? 0.13 seconds.
See activity on Strava >
See results on ZwiftPower >
Watch the Video
Apologies for the lack of voice – I had the wrong mic selected. But you can enjoy the music!
Sometimes a Loss is a Win
With a big field of strong Bs and a finish that didn’t suit me, I never really expected to win this race. But I had hoped to finish higher than 21st.
Happily, the field was so strong that even 21st place resulted in a slight points upgrade for me. The ranking result was 146.67, giving me 4.12 point gain. Goal achieved!
Takeaways
From Corkscrew Castle to the end of the race I essentially tied my power PR for 2023:
Could I have finished higher, or was 21st the best result I could squeeze out?
I’m still convinced I can do better on Breakaway Brae. First, I need to make sure I try to go easy on the Corkscrew Castle climb, because that can sap the legs early. I’m thinking drift to the front on the lead-in descent, then sag-climb it, knowing the pack always seems to come back together well before Breakaway Brae begins.
Then I need to take the middle steep bit of Breakaway Brae a bit easier, so I have more for the flat finish.
Lastly, I should stay away from the burritos entirely, because I need all the drafting help I can get in that fast final bit. In the heat of the moment I thought I wasn’t really benefiting from the draft anymore, so I hit my burrito. But my Sauce overlay’s draft meter says differently (see video above). Maybe I should make a sticker for my TV…
Interestingly, looking at the ZwiftPower rankings of the riders who finished ahead of me, I actually finished right around the spot the rankings would have placed me. The guy who won is a strong ZwiftPower A (category enforcement missed a beat on him, apparently), and 15 of the 20 riders who beat me also outrank me on ZwiftPower. So that helps me feel a bit better… maybe.
Your Thoughts
Have you raced Rolling Highlands? How’d you do on Breakaway Brae? Share below!
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