After my first race of the L39ION of LA Crit Series (read about that here) I was keen to give it another go. My 20th place result in the first race had earned me a hefty ZwiftPower ranking upgrade, and I was thirsty for more!
But this time, I had a plan…
Planning Position
The truth was, that first race wasn’t terribly hard. Until the final 90 seconds! It was super duper steady, in fact, until that final bit. And while my finish had boosted my ranking nicely, I really hadn’t positioned myself well for the final effort.
I figured I could do better. And boost my ranking even more.
My plan was simple: sit in the pack and conserve. Then position myself close to the front in the final 2 minutes, so I could surf the wheels of early attacks and finish higher.
But as they say, no plan survives contact with the enemy. Or in my case – no plan survives contact with a race buddy’s crazy ideas!
Warmup, and a Last-Minute Change of Plans
My normal pre-race routine was executed to perfection. Two pieces of caffeine gum. Slap some PR lotion on the legs and kit up. Then as I spun out my warmup miles, I got a PM from Tom Meese (ODZ), a racer I’ve ridden with on many occasions. (I think our schedules just tend to line up.) Here’s our chat, verbatim:
Tom: Wanna try a break on the crit?
Me: Perhaps! Around what time you thinking?
Tom: Lap 3 might be good. But with a field this size, I really have no idea.
Me: There no way two of us would stay away for three laps.
Tom: I think we could get some more. We need 10-15.
Me: How about lap 4 we attack on the slight climb just after the Alley Sprint? See if we can get a small group.
Tom: That’s kinda what I was thinking. You tend to be marked. I think if we go we will get others and at least create a split.
Me: Agreed. I’ll probably blow up in spectacular fashion, but it’ll make things interesting!
Tom: That’s part of the fun!
And thus our plan was set. Admittedly, I was conflicted about this. I didn’t have much confidence that others would follow our attack, giving us a big enough group to stay away. But at the same time – wouldn’t it be amazing if we did?
The chance of breakaway glory in such a big race was just too tantalizing. And I rationalized it, of course. “If it doesn’t work out you’ll have a few laps to recover before the final effort…”
The Start
The race began just like last week’s. A bit of a hard effort for the first 30 seconds, then the pack settled in and chugged along around 47-48kph. I sat in the draft, riding as easily as possible without drifting off the back of the front group. We had 255 riders in the race, so a bit less than the previous week.
Efficiency is such a core concept when it comes to racecraft. Racers who win ride as easily as they possibly can, so they have the power to go hard when it’s needed. Those guys sitting in the wind at the front of your group throughout the race rarely end up winning. It’s not rocket science: they’ve spent their legs working extra hard while everyone behind worked 30% less.
For the first 16 minutes of the race I averaged 291W. Then we began lap 4. It was go time!
Mid-Race Attack
I’d seen Tom surfing wheels in the front group with me, so I knew he was ready for the attack. We sat near the front of the pack of ~100 riders, went through the Alley Sprint arch, then as the road tilted up we both poured on the watts, slingshotting off the draft of those ahead and rocketing into open space.
My aero powerup was activated for an extra boost. And it worked… sort of. We got away from the group, quickly creating a gap of ~4 seconds.
Tom saying what I was thinking… 
Not a bad gap!
There was only one problem. Nobody had followed us. It was just Tom and I against 100 other riders. “Nope,” Tom messaged.
We both knew it wasn’t going to work, so we eased up. In the end, the attack effort lasted around 30 seconds, with an average wattage of 518W. My heartrate spiked up to 187 (my max is 189). It was time to let the group catch, then sit in and recover.
The Finish
Lap 4 and 5 ticked over quickly, then we arrived at the back half of the final lap. My legs felt good, so it was time to put my original plan into place.
As we rode through the Castle Sprint arch, I worked my way toward the front of the pack. There’s a bit of a rise after the arch, then it’s a twisty, pell-mell final kilometer to the finish line. I wanted to make sure I stayed with the front riders during the final craziness!
Cresting the slight rise, I was positioned well. At first I thought, “The group’s not stretching out like last time,” but then I realized the stretch was happening behind me instead of ahead. Splendid!
I’d held onto an aero powerup, and used it as we neared the final wooden arch. It was go time! I hammered with everything I had, crossing the line in 15th place at 189BPM. Woosh!
See activity on Strava >
See ride on Zwift.com >
See results on ZwiftPower >
Takeaways
I crossed the line 0.513s behind the winner this time, compared to 1.304s in the previous race. I’d say my positioning plan made all the difference. And for my efforts I received another ranking upgrade (-10.75).
This is a good example of the fun Zwifters can have riding “repeat races” against a similar field on the same course. If you learn something each time, and apply it to the next race, you can see measurable improvements. And that’s gratifying.
Was the mid-race attack a smart move? Nah. We should have done something to get more riders involved. What I’ve done in the past (and this may sound crazy) is simply message everyone in game something like “Going to attack on this false flat. Join me?” This always gets more people attacking than if you go for it solo. Sure, it telegraphs the attack, so more riders can surf the wheels and hang on. But it also works better than going solo, in my experience.
If there was another L39ION crit to race, I’d probably give this a try. Sadly, the 4-race series is over.
Could I have finished higher without the mid-race attack? Perhaps. It’s interesting comparing my power numbers for the two L39ION crits:
- Race 1
- 299W average
- 312W normalized
- Final 2 minutes: 415W average
- Race 2
- 306W average
- 328W normalized
- Final 2 minutes: 433W average
Normalized power is better than average power at quantifying the difficulty of a race effort, and clearly my mid-race attack plus a bit more effort in the final minutes bumped up the difficulty significantly. (My average wattage for the first 16 minutes was actually 4W lower in the second race. Apart from the mid-race attack and final effort, the rides were quite similar.)
Your Thoughts
Did you race multiple L39ION crits? Did you apply your learnings and improve your results? Share below!
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