This week, Zwift Racing League teams headed to Makuri Islands to take on our first points race of the season. A and B teams raced the Makuri 40 route, while C and D teams raced Urumaze.
Having written the Zwift Insider race guides for both routes, I kept getting them confused in my head as I thought through the race in the days leading up to it. With all the funky powerup configurations and various sprint segments, my head was too full! But as I locked in and focused on Makuri 40, I could see this was a difficult route (3 climby bits and 5 sprint segments) that I might be able to do well one (because the climbs weren’t too big, and the sprints were flat).
So I went into the race hopeful for a good result. And what actually happened was even better! Read on for the full race story…
Uphill Start with a Sprint Finish
This course has one of the toughest starts in Zwift – the climb up from Urukazi’s castle start pen to the Castle area. I averaged 376W right out of the pens for 3 minutes to stay well-positioned heading into the sprint, then realized I wasn’t sure what to do next.
I must confess, I’m not super familiar with the layout of the Village Sprint. It’s not engrained in my brain like so many Zwift segments. When the road flattened out and I knew the sprint wasn’t far, I saw I was sitting around 10th place, with the leaders spread out well ahead of me. So I popped my draft boost powerup and hammered out of the saddle on already-sapped legs, catching a few riders and (even better) towing teammate Susanne to a high finish on my wheel. Nice one!
Village Sprint result: 5th FAL (24 points), 3rd FTS (10 points)
Recovering Into Sprint #2
The decent result on the first sprint gave me a morale boost. You’re never sure in these races where exactly you’ll stand against the competition until the race actually begins and you hit a tough segment. We’d just done that, and I did well. That felt good.
So as we recovered on our way down to the next sprint, I tried to breathe deep, sit in the draft, and spin the legs so I’d be ready for the next effort. There were only 20 riders left in our front group, and the Country Sprint in this direction is a favorite of mine. You always come into it fast, and it’s pretty short.
I popped my draft boost way later than I needed to, then went hard, quickly shooting off the front of the pack. As we crossed the line, there were four of us neck and neck. On my screen, I definitely got pipped by Else (Inc) and Mine (Level). But checking the results later, I realized I was first across the line, according to Zwift’s server. I’ll take it!
Country Sprint result: 1st FAL (28 points), 3rd FTS (10 points)
Chill Flats, Back-To-Back Sprints
We spun our way to Neokyo next, where two sprints were waiting in quick succession. But before that, we had the longest stretch of flat ground we would encounter on the day. I made full use of it, sitting in the wheels, keeping my cadence high, and letting my legs recharge as much as possible. After ~12 minutes averaging just ~215W, it was time for our next segment – the Alley Sprint.
I definitely misplayed this one, letting the pack stretch too far ahead of me before the start line. This did allow me, with the help of my draft boost powerup, to work my way through a few riders on this long sprint. That let me land 3rd in FTS, but it would be my worst FAL result on the day.
Feeling the previous sprint in my legs, I didn’t follow the stretched-out pack very well on the Castle Park Sprint that came just 2 minutes later. Oof. I needed a break! Luckily, that’s exactly what came next…
Alley Sprint result: 9th FAL (20 points), 3rd FTS (10 points)
Castle Park Sprint result: 8th FAL (21 points), 8th FTS (3 points)
Easy Down, Hard Up, + Sprint #5
It was time for more recovery as we descended Pain Cavern and made our way out to the next climb and sprint segment. I averaged just 191W for the nextt 8 minutes, which was exactly what my legs needed! I kept floating off the front as we descended, which told me nobody else wanted to work, either.
The Festival Harbor Climb was next, a 2.5km effort taking us to the final sprint segment of the day. I tried to hold a good position near the front, then popped my powerup (my 5th van in a row!) and hammered my way across the line. Teammate Susanne was well positioned just behind, grabbing 7th in FAL:
Shisa Sprint result: 5th FAL (24 points), 5th FTS (6 points)
Not long after we crossed the line, as the group was sitting up and catching their breath, Mahot (TBR) shot through the group and off the front, putting several seconds into us before we even knew what was happening. This was an impressive attack, and I immediately sensed we may be in trouble, as I remembered Mahot from last week’s race. But I also didn’t feel I had the legs to chase him down! So, hoping the group would pull him back (or he’d blow up), I sat in and recovered for the final climb.
A Climb to the Finishing Climb
The third climb of our race was up through the Slot Canyon. This climb is just draggy and long enough that I can get dropped if the pace is high. It’s definitely bitten me in the past. So I tried to take it easy as we made our way over to the climb.
Along the way, Mahot’s team captain messaged something to Mahot about this effort being nothing compared to Cape Epic, which didn’t exactly make me feel good about our position. If Mahot was strong enough to finish Cape Epic… we may never see him again. (I looked up his name on the Cape Epic site – it appears he finished the race this year. Chapeau, sir!)
As we got into the middle, toughest bit of the Slot Canyon climb, Susanne attacked the group. I eased up, making sure I wasn’t pulling the group back. But our group wasn’t letting her get away, and eventually pulled her back near the end of the Slot Canyon segment. 3km to go!
Mahot was now 15s up the road, and I still didn’t feel I had the legs to attack and pull him back. So I settled into my plan of attack, which was to use my feather powerup at the bottom of the final climb, in hopes that the lap banner would be giving out powerups so I could pop a second one in the final sprint. (I couldn’t remember what WTRL had said the lap banner was giving out, having confused myself when writing two different course recons this week.)
Our pack of 17 arrived at the base of the finishing kicker. 700 meters to go! I popped my feather as we turned right with 600 meters left, finding myself near the front of the group as we went through the arch. Gah! A 250 XP bonus, not a powerup!
I sat on the wheels, waiting for the final sprint, when Alex (Velos) blasted through the group from behind! I upped my power as I saw it happening, then steered into the inside of the corner to shorten the line. 3rd across the line, just 4 seconds behind Mahot.
Finishing Line result: 3rd place (26 FIN points, 6 PBP points)
Watch the Video
Takeaways and Team Result
Finishing on the podium is a rare thing for me, so I was happy with getting 3rd across the line. Checking the points totals afterward, I was even happier to see I’d earned 188 points, second only to Else (Inc), who got 191.
This was a much better result than I’d expected, and to be honest, I kicked myself a bit for not putting a bit more time into learning how each sprint laid out, and thinking through things to avoid some of small mistakes I made. It wouldn’t have helped our team result, but it’s possible I could have finished with the highest points total, or even finished higher at the finish line.
Speaking of results, have you seen all the changes WTRL rolled out to their race results page in recent days? The new “Rider View” toggle on the Race Results tab lets see sort individual rider results by various fields. Really handy. But there are so many new charts and reports! I clicked “League Stats” because I saw the “NEW” icon, and found out I’m currently leading the league in points. And just like that, I found my new challenge:
On the team side, we’re not doing so well. Susanne made a great points haul this week, but our captain Jamie had to DNS due to sickness, and our other two riders finished lower in the results. It doesn’t look like a strong overall result is in the cards for us this round, but we can still have fun contesting one or more of the “races within the race” that ZRL offers.
Speaking of which, check out these new charts at the bottom of the League Table tab:
Keep up the good work, WTRL!
What about you?
How did your race #3 on Makuri 40 (or Urumaze) go? Share below!
