When I fired up Zwift in Sunday’s dark morning hours, I was anticipating a fun but unremarkable warmup followed by a Crit City race.
But as often happens on Zwift, I came away with more than I’d planned. Because this was the morning I would find myself in a race with none other than Zwift CEO Eric Min!
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The Warmup
Soon after hopping into the C. Cadence group for a race warmup, I noticed Eric Min was in the group as well. I said hello, there was the usual joke or two about lots of Erics (there were three Eric’s in the pack), then I popped the question privately to Eric:
“Heading to the Crit City race in 15 minutes. Want to join me?”
Eric and I had talked about racing together a few times in the past, but had never actually done it. We’ve participated in a lot of group rides where we were both in attendance, and we’ve even spun our way around Watopia on a few free rides (I remember once when we rode up the Volcano together, and he dropped me hard at the finish).
His reply came quickly: “I’ll see you there.”
Woohoo! This was going to be fun. I started thinking of ways we could team up and make the race interesting as I finished my warmup. But I never really settled on any great ideas, and in the end I headed for the pens, deciding to just treat it like a normal race unless Eric pinged me with an idea to do something together.
The Start + Middle (Laps 1-11)
We had a decent turnout of 50 B riders, but nobody was in the mood to attack and make it interesting, so we just spun our way around Crit City, lap after lap, averaging 45 kph.
The Zwift gods granted me an aero powerup heading into the 3rd lap, so I decided to hold onto it unless an attack happened and I really needed a bit of help. I figured the race would come down to a final sprint, and I knew Eric had a strong kick!
The group was whittled down to 34 riders by the time entered the last lap.
The Finish
In my mind a vague memory was bouncing around as we entered that last lap – I seemed to recall seeing a Strava activity or two from Eric where he’d won on Crit City with a long attack. So as we approached the brick climb I stayed near him, near the front of the group, watching for an attack from him or any of the other strong riders in the peloton.
We hit the bricks, and I saw Eric’s avatar stand up to sprint while his numbers flashed orange. It was go time! I stomped on the pedals as quickly as I could, spiking my power just over 1000W… but Eric had gotten a gap. One other strong rider (Sudworth from TFC) was chasing with me, but our 8-9 w/kg was no match for Eric’s 12-13 w/kg. His gap grew, while the rest of the peloton held onto our wheels.
I eased a bit, hoping others would give a hard chase – but nobody had the power to get Eric back. At the finish I delivered a mediocre sprint and came across the line in 8th place. Eric Min took the win by 2.3 seconds, with a category-leading 9.5 w/kg 60-second critical power.
In fact, only one rider in all the categories bested Eric’s 60-second power on the day, and that was the A+ rider who won the As! Impressive.
See activity on Strava >
See ride on Zwift.com >
See results on ZwiftPower >
Watch the Race Video:
Takeaways
Although he doesn’t race super-often on Zwift (7 races in 2022), Eric Min is a very strong rider and an experienced racer well-suited to a course like Crit City (see his ZwiftPower profile here). His 15-second and 1-minute powers of 13.2 w/kg and 9.5 w/kg respectively make him a formidable opponent in the B and even A categories, on certain courses.
What could I have done to improve my result in this race? Looking at our numbers, I’m not sure there’s any way I could beat Eric head to head on this course unless he was having an off day. (He was particularly strong in this race, achieving an XERT Breakthrough with his effort.)
It would take some sort of team effort with repeated attacks to take the win, methinks, because I set my year-best 60s power at the end of this race, and I wasn’t even close to chasing him down.
Alternatively, I could have improved my result two ways:
- Not chasing Eric’s attack. Typically on Crit City, when riders attack on the bricks on the final lap they aren’t strong enough to stay away. So I don’t respond, and I let the pack pull me back to the attacking rider. If I’d done that this week we still wouldn’t have caught Eric, but I would have been fresher for the final sprint and could have improved my finishing position.
- Responding faster (or even jumping the gun). If I had started my sprint/attack as soon as we hit the bricks, I may have been able to hold Eric’s wheel as he attacked. Maybe. I’m not sure I could have responded much faster than I did, but I should have known he would attack on the bricks. (Popping my aero powerup early may have helped, too.)
Although it always hurts a bit to lose a race, I smile knowing Zwift’s CEO can hold his own as a bike racer. Eric’s a strong, smart rider with a lifelong love of cycling and a competitive spirit. These attributes served him well growing up racing in New York City, and they’ve certainly served him well now as Zwift’s CEO.
Ride on, Eric! Thanks for the race.
Your Comments
Have you ever raced against Mr. Min? What should I do differently the next time we meet up? Comment below!
That’s awesome that you guys finally got to race together! I’m impressed with Min’s power profile as well. Great effort too Eric 👏👏👏
In a sprint is total watts more important than w/kg? In other words even if you anticipated correctly and was able to grab the wheel, would he just ride you off? 3 w/kg seems strong enough to leave you but without the actual watts, hard to tell.
Something for your bots to work up!
“In a sprint is total watts more important than w/kg?”
In Zwift more so than in real life, w/kg provide the acceleration component. Absolute Watts more of less determine the highest speed you can reach, but you also have to factor in how fast you are going, but a higher w/kg can give you a quicker acceleration which is an advantage in a really short sprint.
Those don’t sound like B category numbers. Please enlighten me if I’m wrong.
does it really surprise you to learn that the Zwift CEO potentially likes to indulge in ye ol’ sandbaggery? 😀
I think its more of an issue that zwift only looks at 20min power to determine categories. So you could have insane 15s and 1min power and still be a B. There are A+ guys who cant sprint and B racers who have amazing sprints. It would be nice to see these power durations factored into category determination especially since they play a major role in deciding the race outcome
if a B rider can hang with an A/A+ rider to the finish line, then they deserve a medal 😀
Eric, I’m delighted you enjoyed riding with Eric (and Eric #3). I’m as impressed as you are by Eric Min’s sprint and the hours of dedication it must have required to hone it over the years.
However, this is about the most dispiriting article I’ve ever read about Zwift.
A CEO shapes the culture of the organisation they lead. They role model the behaviours they want others to copy.
That the categorisation of riders is sufficiently warped for a category B rider to blow away all bar one A+ rider would have a strong, customer-centric CEO tearing their hair out and not resting until they’d found a better system.
A weaker CEO may simply ignore the problem and put it in the ‘too difficult to solve’ pile in the hope it would go away. Through his long-term failure to act I had Eric Min in this category.
But for a CEO to publicly demonstrate how broken their own product is? To role model sandbagging, or at least what probably feels like sandbagging to the paying customers who were competing against Eric? To think that is acting in the very best interests of the future culture of Zwift?
That feels at best utterly tone deaf and at worst disturbingly like sandbagging is fine by Eric.
You have a good relationship with Eric. I suspect he’ll be surprised to learn that what to him was ‘just a bit of fun’ feels to his paying customers as a breach of trust and good faith and an indication that he isn’t serious about fixing a problem that a proportion of his customers care passionately about solving.
Please could you *publicly* ask Eric to respond.
If he declines, we will know he is happy to publicly *give the impression of sandbagging* and can vote with our wallets accordingly.
If he accepts, he can explain either why we are wrong to perceive his ride as sandbagging, or ‘fess up to sandbagging, but explain what he is going to do to fix the problem.
So c’mon Eric. Use the investment you’ve made in cultivating the wonderful Zwift Insider following and developing a relationship with Eric Min to help improve the enjoyment of Zwift for us all.
Was Eric M. sandbagging or attending an event because Eric S. invited him? That was the impression I got.
I was in a group ride that Eric M. happened to join a month ago. It was C class I think but involved the Volcano. As usual many of us climbed in the 4W+ range. Eric and a few others dropped me in the final pitch where it got closer to 8W but he didn’t lead until the finish a few km later, the front group split and he sat with the second few.
I don’t care either way, just offering a counterpoint of what was an enjoyable ride he was on.
I was fortunate to be a part of this unforgettable race.
Eric Min’s sprint power was so dominant that there seems no way of competing against him… at least for great majority of B riders.
I must confess that I thought I wont the race at the finishing point (I was 2nd after Eric) not having a bit of sense that he already finished well more than 2 seconds ahead. I hit the bricks at the end of the group so never got a sight of you two jumping early.
In Crit City A races many riders attempt to jump at the bricks and hold on to the finish line. There must be some sort of formula for best results (e.g. dancing/sitting combination, power/cadence control) – making it a big difference of A and B, I guess.
Man… tough crowd in the comments!
I’ll remind everyone that Eric Min didn’t break any rules by racing in the B’s. He’s a B on ZwiftPower (not even “Almost A”) and Zwift’s Category Enforcement rules allowed him to sign up as a B as well.
You can say, “Well he’s really strong and should race the A’s,” but keep in mind there will ALWAYS be riders at the top of any category based on power numbers. The only way around that is to go with an ELO-type ranking system, which Zwift has acknowledged is in the plans.
Also, this is a good example of a rider racing their strengths. Put Eric on a pan-flat TT and he probably wouldn’t win against other strong B’s. Crit City suits his strengths very well, as I mentioned above.
I initially thought “sandbagger”, but after thinking about it pretty much concluded what you just explained. Eric is a great example of a strategic racer who emphasizes his strengths really well. I try to do that every time I race, but can’t seem to locate my strengths yet. 😂 I just enjoyed the spectacle of a CEO getting down in the trenches with his customers and mixing it up. You almost never see that. Time for an Eric v Eric crit series!
Looks like a strong B to me. I’m a thoroughly mediocre B, and my 15 second and 20 minute wattage is nearly identical to Min’s. But I’m 8-10 kilos heavier, so I can’t hang with him or the other lighter riders up a hill. On a flat course Min would have a lot more competition (that 1 minute output, though!).
Sandbagging is intentionally modulating your effort to stay within category and it’s clear Min was pushing hard, so that doesn’t hold water. In any case, he was invited, graciously accepted, and I would have enjoyed being in the race with him as an ambassador for the brand. I hope to race against him at some point–although maybe on Tempus Fugit!
At least he has strengths to play to. My strength is being slow.
The issue is using ONLY 20-minute power for categories (plus, the need for some sub-categories). Given the character of most Zwift races (crazy-fast starts, short duration), 1 and 5 minute power need to be a big part of the equation. That being said, some of us (like me) will likely never shine in any but the longest races, and I don’t know that I want to sit on a trainer THAT long (LOL).
In the meantime, I will continue in my role at the rear of the field. Someone has to be DFL, and if that’s me, I’ll man that position working as hard as possible.
It would be nice to have some age-based races for those of us more senior, but I suspect those who kicked my a** 30 years ago would still do it today.
I can only really comment on Cat B races, but with the categorisation as it is at the moment the races tend to be dominated by those with good 1 or 2 minute power. Unless Zwift decides to change to a points based system i think it will always be the same guys on the podium. When I look at the results of the category enforced races I’ve done the winners have an almost 100% record. To be honest I’m not particularly worried, I think you have to take most Zwift results with a pinch of salt. I know with my old wheel on smart trainer my results were far better than my real life performance no matter how hard I tried to get them accurate.
As regards senior races, I enjoy the ZHR Masters races, we all start together but results are based on 5 year age cats. It’s definitely not an easy option, there are plenty of 60+ guys kicking my butt. I’ve been regularly riding the Tuesday evening races for the last 4 years or so, and find them thoroughly enjoyable.
is it not enough that this guy is ripping everyone off for the addition of about 20km of virtual track a year without this fanboy adoration? Why not write about all the great A racers and crit riders? I couldn’t care less about how the CEO who takes hundreds of millions of dollars a year from us suckers likes to ride. But keep up the other good work Mr Schlange!
It’s always been my understanding that Zwift categories are supposed to be based on the maximum power you *can* make, not the maximum power you *do* make.
According to the Coggan chart, Eric has the 1 minute power of a Cat 1 / Domestic Pro. He’s a small guy, which does elevate those numbers, though.
As far as his 20 minute power goes, he did 4.0 w/kg while staying well below his max heart rate (184 is the highest he’s posted in a few months), and his massive finishing effort only brought him to 171 bpm. He also did a NP of over 300 watts for the 26 minute race, which is 4.8 watts per kilo.
So, based on his suspected FTP, he clearly should be racing in A. That said, he doesn’t go above 4, so he’s within the rules he himself set. I think most Zwift racers would consider keeping your max power numbers within category limits intentionally to be sandbagging, but there’s no way to prove it without seeing an FTP test. His numbers in B make me a bit disappointed though. Not the system working like I would hope.
I’m always amazed to see people holding those kind of wkgs. I’m usually sprinting in the 52/12, and stomping and pulling so hard I fear I’m going to snap a crank and tear the bar from my bike, then see later than I was only able to muster a bit over 10wkg for fifteen. I honestly just don’t get it.
He’s 140lbs. That explains a lot.
I raced against him in a Master’s race and he did the opposite of sandbag and signed up for the 35+ even though i think he’s around 55.
So funny how this upsets some people