How the Race Was Lost: Pro Power in Glasgow

It’s the second week of Zwift’s Kick ‘N’ Sprint ZRacing series, and I’m loving the course selections because they suit me nicely! After being outwitted and outgunned in Innsbruck the last week, I went into this race hoping for a higher finish. Read on to learn how things unfolded…

The Warmup

I got on the bike nice and early this time, giving me a full half hour to wake up the ol’ ticker and spin up the legs. I don’t know about anyone else, but I’ve found for myself the longer I’ve been riding, the more I appreciate a longer a warmup. Is it because I’m getting older, or because I’m learning better how my body works? Unclear.

I was already one dirty chai and a few pieces of Neuro caffeine gum into my day by the time I got on the bike, so I was nicely caffeinated. I also applied some PR Lotion this week, to keep the burning at bay. After hopping on the bike, I joined the Maria robopacer group, then teleported over to the Coco group to finish up. Zwift popped me into the Glasgow start pen with a few minutes to go. Six laps of Glasgow Crit Circuit with feather and ghost powerups on offer. Let’s go!

Lap 1: Foreshadowing

Glancing at the start list just before the race began, I noticed one Imogen Alton (AEO) on the list with a pro badge next to her name. Uh oh… was Imogen going to treat this as an easy effort? Or was she going to rip our legs off?

I’d find out soon enough.

Right out of the gate, it was clear Imogen would be pushing the pace. She rolled off the front, got swallowed by the blob, then went off at the front at the bottom of the first Clyde Kicker, disappearing as she did it thanks to a well-timed ghost powerup. She wasn’t playing around!

But neither was anyone else. We started with 40 riders, and after averaging 555W to get up and over The Clyde Kicker in 29 seconds, the group regathered, and we still had 38 riders. Strong group!

Lap 2: @&#% Ghosts!

Heading into the second lap, I got another ghost powerup. This would turn into a recurring theme: ghosts when I wanted feathers. Most of my ghost powerups were activated somewhere near the front of the pack, in hopes that riders would see it happen and put in an extra dig to chase invisible me, wasting some energy. (It rarely works, but it seems smarter than just trashing the powerup.)

This lap was rather unremarkable, apart from the fun we had when one Zwifter’s message autocorrected a rider’s name from “Molinari” to “marinara”.

Lap 3: Imogen’s Big Jump

As we descended from The Clyde Kicker on the third lap, I saw Imogen roll off the front and disappear once again. Oh boy. By the time she popped back onto our screens she was probably 50 meters ahead and motoring. One rider jumped hard to join her. I sat in the draft, because I could feel I didn’t have it in me to bridge up.

Lap 4: The Move

Entering lap 4 I finally got a feather. Hurray! This made it significantly easier to maintain a good position up the climb. (I was able to do it at 483W average instead of the 510W+ I’d had to hold on the previous laps.)

Imogen was still off the front, being chased by Molinari/Marinara and others. She messaged “work with me” as we descended from The Clyde, but I’m not sure anyone had the legs to take a pull.

The end of lap 4 is when “the move” happened, with four riders jumping off the front of the peloton to bridge up to Imogen. (I was poorly positioned to respond to the jump, and probably wouldn’t have had the legs to do it even if I was in the right place.)

We went from a pack of 31 to a pack of 27 with 5 off the front, and the chase was officially on as the front group appeared to start working well together with Imogen’s encouragement.

Lap 5: the Breakaway Stays Away

Another feather helped me up The Clyde on the fifth lap, but boy, those 30-second efforts were hurting!

The breakaway stayed away, but the group was also breaking up as we started the final lap. Would we be able to catch any of them? Three kilometers to go…

Lap 6: the Finish

I held onto my feather powerup for the final time up The Clyde, knowing riders would attack hard and it would be a big effort to stay well-positioned. And it sure was! 543W and a feather kept me in a good position and earned me a time of 27.38s on the segment – my fastest ever.

But there was no time to celebrate. Imogen and Marinara were 8s up the road, with Scotty P between us in no-man’s land. I was sitting sixth wheel, hoping the two strong riders pulling just ahead would help me close the gap to the breakaway. But there were 25 more riders strung out just behind!

Speaking of not celebrating: I got a ghost as my final powerup, atop The Clyde. Not what I was hoping for.

Imogen put in a big dig on the descent, dropping Marinara and going solo off the front. (Did she use a ghost again? She wasn’t close enough for me to see.) A few riders were off the front of our group, but we were 20 strong, so I sat in the wheels, letting the draft close down the gap.

With 300 meters to go, everyone in the breakaway had been reeled back in. Everyone except Imogen, that is. She was 11s away, and not coming back. We were all sprinting for scraps.

And sprint we did! I got out of the saddle and gave what I had left on that interminable sprint, but it just wasn’t enough. I crossed the line in 5th place.

See ride on Strava >
See results on ZwiftPower >

Watch the Video:

Takeaways

As it turns out, Imogen was a 2021 Zwift Academy finalist who looks to be a TT specialist based on her ProCyclingStats profile. She averaged 4.6W/kg (267W) for the race, and appears to have raced it very smartly given her power profile. It was fun to watch her execute her race place, and it took me back to a Tour de Zwift ride/race I lost to one Jadon Jaeger (5-time and reigning USA Masters TT Champ). Pros are pros for a reason!

Me? I just tried to survive each Clyde Kicker and ride efficiently in between, hoping to have something left for the final sprint. And I cursed the Zwift gods each and every time they gave me a ghost powerup. This was a hard effort, as evidenced by the red spikes on my ride report:

Further evidence: my W’ Balance chart on Intervals.icu, where you can see how each Clyde Kicker emptied my power bucket just a little bit more, with the final sprint dipping me into the negative numbers:

That tells me I left it all out there, which is exactly what I was aiming for.

My 5th place finish bumped my Racing Score up from 552 to 558.

Your Thoughts

Did you race this week’s ZRacing event in Glasgow? How did it go for you?