Do you ever have those days where you’re warming up for a race and thinking, “This is going to suck. Bad. My legs are no good today!”
That was me this morning. I had decided to string three events together into a sort of Saturday long ride, aiming for around 3 hours/60 miles of riding on Zwift. My first event was one I’d never done: SMITE (Saturday Morning Interval Training Exercise). It seemed like a decent way to warm up the legs for a race: 60 minutes at recovery pace, with 4-5 intervals in between. It began at 5:55am, meaning it would end 15 minutes before my next event: the Tour of Watopia, Stage 2 race.
I did my usual pre-race prep, chewing a piece of caffeine gum and putting some PR lotion on the legs. Also ate a Clif bar, because I wanted to make sure I stayed fueled up for today’s longer session.
Once the SMITE ride began, I quickly noticed I was not at my best. Whenever we did an interval, everyone rode away from me! And just spinning along my body wanted to cruise at ~150 watts, instead of closer to 200 where I’m normally at. My heart rate didn’t want to come up either, which is never a good sign.
On the plus side, the SMITE ride leaders and crew were hilarious. So that brightened my morning.
Ride banter made me LOL 
Some good leg openers before the race!
I wrapped up SMITE, hopped off to refill bottles and grab a Clif bar, then jumped into the Stage 2 race start pens. Let’s race!
The Start
Stage 2 is one lap of the Sand and Sequoias route, just over 14 miles long. Sand and Sequoias is a fun race route because it begins with a lot flat section through Fuego Flats, then takes you onto the rollercoaster that is Titans Grove. This is where the race breaks up, then you’re back onto Fuego Flats for the final flat finish.
I knew my big challenge would be Titans Grove: specifically the KOM section. Based on the SMITE ride, I honestly thought I’d get dropped from the front at that point – possibly sooner.
The race began with a hard effort, but thankfully it was short. I averaged ~370 watts for the first 70 seconds, then we settled into a more sustainable pace, flying along at 28-29mph through the desert. Our starting group of 76 was whittled down to 57 quickly, but nobody was trying any attacks – everyone knew the action would happen in Titans Grove.
Titans Grove
Soon enough we found ourselves climbing up to the redwoods of Titans Grove. This is the most twisty, rolly section of roads on Zwift – in a race you need to stay very attentive if you want to surf the wheels efficiently without getting dropped from the pack. It requires a constant modulation of your power levels to maintain a good position! And that’s all I concerned myself with as we zipped up, down, and around the redwoods – just stay in that front pack.
When the KOM began, one rider put in a hard dig and gapped the group. But no one attempted to chase him down, which was fine with me – that meant our group pace could stay more event, and I was quite sure we’d catch that rider up the road anyway. (We did, on the KOM descent.)
The Titans Grove KOM is an interesting one, because the starting line really isn’t where the climb begins. (Check out the Strava segment.) The road feels basically flat for the first 1/2 mile, then it ramps up in to a steady grade of only 3-4%. It’s a low-grade climb, and that’s important because the pack speeds will still be high, meaning drafting still plays a big part!
We averaged 21.4mph up the climb portion of the KOM, and when we arrived at the top I was amazed to see I was still with the front group which had been whittled down to just 17 riders. Excellent! As a decent sprinter, this was very good news for me.
Besides the KOM, there’s one other little climb you have to watch out for in Titans Grove – it comes just after the descent from the KOM. It’s steep and around 30 seconds long. If you’re not wanting to attack of the front, just plan to go hard here, staying out of the wind but well-positioned in the pack. That’s all I did, and the group was surprisingly tame.
The Finish
We turned onto the desert road, settling into an even pace and recovering for the final effort. And I had a decision to make. I was holding my first-ever ghost powerup, and I had to decide if and when to use it!
The ghost makes you invisible for 15 seconds, so it’s really only useful if you want to attack off the front without others following. The problem was, I knew I couldn’t attack off the front early and stay away from this fast group. So I decided I would use the ghost when I made my final sprint jump. I would begin my sprint well within the pack, without going into red numbers so as not to draw attention to myself. I would pick up speed through the pack, and activate the ghost when I hit the front of the pack so I could invisibly shoot off the front to glory.
All went according to plan, until my legs ran out of juice on that ridiculously long final sprint section. This happens on every race here – someone jumps too soon, then gets swallowed up by the pack. That someone was me today.
I finished 6th in Zwift’s results, 4th on ZwiftPower.
See my race on Strava >
See my race on Zwift.com >
See race results on ZwiftPower >
Takeaways
Two important takeaways for me today:
- Don’t let powerups dictate my race strategy. If I’d had an aero helmet or van or no powerup at all I would have waited to open up my sprint. The ghost pushed me to go early, and that was a mistake.
- I can have a good result even if my legs don’t feel great beforehand. I’m not sure what was going on during the SMITE ride, but in the race as well as the ToW group ride I did right afterward, my legs felt good. Maybe they just needed a long warmup. Between the three events I did and a bit of riding in between I ended my morning with 58 miles, feeling great.
What About You?
Have you raced stage 2 yet? How did it go? Share below!
“I had decided to string three events together into a sort of Saturday long ride, aiming for around 3 hours/60 miles of riding on Zwift”
You sir are a maniac. I salute you.
I had my first burrito on the final sprint. No idea whether it blocked much, but nobody caught me in my bunch…
Well done, your race certainly went better than mine.
I’m only 61kgs so i have to sit at threshold just to sit in on the flats. The first climb/rollers/KOM went well, getting to the top in the first few riders then it literally went downhill from there. I just could not recover. The climb at the bottom and then the rollers finally detached me from the front group with 3km to go. 2 guys caught me and I won that sprint for 29th (15th on zwift power).
I dont think my weight (or lack of) helps on the downhill/rollers, i seem to lose all momentum and have to sprint to stay in the pack. Either that or i just didnt have the legs.
Having some weight definitely helps on descents, like outdoors! On rollers, what I consciously do that seems to help is I focus on maintaining momentum. So right as you’re hitting the uphill, increase your power so your speed stays high. Then keep it high over the crest until you’re up to speed on the descent.
Wash, rinse, repeat.
Stage 2 long ride. Started… and immediately lost connectivity. So I spent the whole ride catching up. I think I made it back to 90th or something after a very hard ride.
90th is no joke if you were dropped at the start! I did the short route after this race, finishing around 50th. But that was a decently hard tempo effort the whole time.
similar with me. i had made the cut for the front pack, and after the oasis, the monthly Microsoft security update started to download hanging my system for what felt like an hour, but was probably only 2 minutes or less. Either way, it was enough to dump me out of the front group by about a minute, and about a minute in front of the last group on the road. So i had to time trial for 7 miles. I did catch some front group stragglers in Titan’s Grove, so that helped move me up to about 32nd in Zwift (out of 54), and 23rd in ZwiftPower.
That sucks! You should change your Windows settings so those installs/downloads only happen when you tell ’em to!
Great review! Just as I did experience the race… I was one of the chatty ones at the start 😉
Eric , You put out some nice power! I did Stage 2 Race yesterday. Felt good at the start had 82 in B class. I’m decent size at 83.9kg so I can make some good time on the Flats and hang with the front for about the first half of the race then I just try to hang on. I ended up finishing 47 out of 82 or more disappointing was that I finished 30th out of 33 according to ZwiftPower. The group was really fast and I still feel pretty good that my time was 31:30 and I see yours was 29:58 so for a 54 year old guy I feel pretty good and Zwift is making me stronger. Love your articles and so cool that your wife rides as well.
Ride on, @George Stacko! Keep racing and you’ll keep getting stronger for sure! It’s all about figuring out what motivates you to push it to the limit. Racing does that for me better than anything else.
not the lightest of riders I knew I would be dropped in the climb to the KOM, but I still gave it my all. I got my first burrito power up that I saved for the last sprint, must have worked cause I won my sprint and came 9th overall on Zwiftpower, not to bad for a 255lb’er
I was feeling sorry for myself, missing the first race of outdoor season with flu like symptoms. I decided to give Stage 2 A race a shot. I didn’t expect anything as I have had the body aches last few days but I felt great once I got going in the race. Went over the top of KOM in good position with group of about 10, two A+ riders were off the front and we were not going to get catch them. So I saved everything I had for final sprint, popped a feather just inside 500 meters and went all out. Timed it perfectly and won the field sprint. Zwiftpower shows me 2nd and my best ranked result yet beating some really good riders. You never know how you will feel until you get in the race.
Well done!
Nice going. Looks like you missed the podium by just a few tenths! So close…
Close, but no cigar. I blame the ghost!
Well done, Eric.
Stage 2 was my second Zwift race. I raced Friday morning. I have had a bit of a cold and wasn’t feeling my best. I hung with the top 10 to Titans Grove, but I got dropped in the hills. My takeaway is too not be too concerned with being in the top 5 or 10 early in the race. I should have just settled in with the top 20 and saved more for the hills. I figured that’s where the race would get interesting and it did, but I didn’t leave enough in the tank to withstand the first charge with the lead group. Gotta get better at drafting.
Good job. I learned a possible new tactic today in my group finish jumping about 10 riders with .8 of mile to go and while it was too “early” no one took it serious. By time I was running out of juice I had 8-9 seconds with still .3 to go. The group had not started up and I got to relax a few seconds before a final little dig w/ .1 to go and easily finished 5-6 seconds ahead. Lesson learned? Sometimes group might let you go hoping someone else will chase. By time they realize no one wants to chase you might just stay away?
Hi Eric! It has been the first event we have raced against each other and it’s very nice to recap it reading your post.
I would say my problem is the opposite of yours: I’m still too late for the sprint during the final meters, hesitating to start with 300m to go but then overstrained by shifting, ramping up the pace and activating my power-up in the same time. Today, when I really started my sprint, I maybe had 50m left to the finish line. Will have to practice timing – but it may also be partly due to my Zwift setup with my PC remotely placed in another room, so I would have to use the app on my tablet to activate the power-up which is always a bit of a hustle.
Thanks for your many interesting posts and keep up the good work 🙂
Does the ghost hide you in the rider list too, or does it just hide your avatar?
Very similar story for me. B rider, got the ghost power for the first time, but the key difference is that I really have no sprint. My only chance was to attack as the sprint starts and try do a powerful 30-40 seconds (as opposed to super powerful 10 seconds). I almost did it, was passed by 3 just before the line. In retrospect, I should’ve started just a couple of seconds later, but of course you never really know what the rest of the group will do and how much you’ll be able to hold.
Still, very happy because from the acceleration I did to get to the front of the group to the finish line I ended up doing my best minute ever by far, at 6.9 W/kg.
I did the group A race on Friday night. I signed up for the long ride group at 6pm but it wouldn’t let me join. So I joined the next available tour without realising it was a race. 😆
It did help push me to get mew FTP so it was good for that but I only managed 13th.
There was only 23 in the race.
I love reading your How the Race Was Won/Lost articles. Sometimes I save them for a break at work so I can feel like I’m riding in Watopia or wherever the race took place. I really like hearing how people have done with the ghost power up! I did stage 2 yesterday and it was my best effort yet; not according to Zwift Power but according to me. I usually finish in the last 10-20 places, but yesterday I finished 244th out of 397, which is huge for me, and I averaged 2.0 w/kg, which is also huge for me. Looking forward to stage 3!
Did stage 2, as a lightweight 60kg the flats are nearly killing me just to hold on to some wheels… but I maid up some spots on the climbs, descending smart activating supertucks as from -5% then hit the following short climbs hard again! Ended up mid pack. Not entirely satisfied, but on the other hand, I race Zwift for only two months now, so in theory i’m just a rookie… Although I was getting DQ’d in CAT D when I just secured my first podium spot… Sooooo, now I’m riding in CAT C fof the last couple of races… Weird thing is, I now edge to the sealing of 3.2 wkg, which is the upper limit for C, but I can never seem to hold up in the front group… Even when I hit it hard at the start, I can’t keep up with the front (YET).
This is the problem with doing classification by W/kg. 3.2 for you is under 200 W. I’m right around 3.2, as well, but that’s almost 250 W. If we’re both riding FTP, you’d barely be sticking in my draft. Unfortunately, that means that we’re effectively even on the climbs, and i have a big advantage on the flats… Stick to races with lots of vert, I guess? Try doing the Bologna TT course. That stupid mountaintop finish is ideal for you!
Well done. I was 80th in my race (12pm GMT on Saturday). It’s amazing how much you loose grip if you don’t pay attention. At some point I was in the top 50, then a minute later I was fighting to stay in the top 100. The ghost power-up looks fun. I’m on level 28 and never seen it before !
This morning I road stage 2, only my second race in the C category. I’m wondering how the rankings work..?
There were 52 people in the group, I came 26th but the results screen said I was in the top 27% of my category.. is there something I’m missing? I came bang in the middle of the group.. Not sure where the 27% fits in.
Zwift Power shows me as 8th but I guess that doesn’t mean much as not all the riders will be registered..
There was one rider a few behind me who had an average heart rate of 124 but still 3.1w/kg. Mine was 170bpm and I literally couldn’t put any more effort in..
Really enjoying the Zwift tours and races. Only started riding in the last 6 months and the turbo trainer/Zwift package is probably one of the best things I’ve ever spent money on.. love it.
The in-race rankings are weird. I did a C race a couple of days ago, and the front of my group showed 20/56. I thought we had gotten dropped by another C group. In fact, that 56 was the total number of people racing throughout all categories. Kinda frustrating. I finished 6th out of 21 in the final Zwift results. Unfortunately, despite C being 3.2 W/kg max, four of the five in front of me were well above that, with two in the mid-fours. It feels discouraging to race this way, but just focus on the Zwift Power results. On Zwift Power, I took 2nd place, as all four above were DQ’d for doing at least .5 W/kg above category. I was a little sad, since I lost by .009 s, and I stopped sprinting because I thought I was in 6th place. Live and learn!
I did my first B group ride on Sand & Sequoias. It’s my favorite route and I knew what my effort would be and where I needed to push.
There were 68 riders and we were down to 34 by the time we started the Titans Grove climb. I pushed hard enough to blow up at the top where we were whittled down to 19 riders. Twelve riders took off down the hill and I used my weight to keep pace with the remaining seven as I pulled back and recovered.
I completely failed to time my “sprint” – I don’t have one so I figured I had to do a 60 second hard effort to pull away from anyone at about 450 watts – but mentally I didn’t even try and I finished last in the group of seven.
Still… 19/68 wasn’t too bad for my first B group effort. Final time was 31:05 and my average Watts was 290, one over my FTP. So I think I had a little more in my tank but it wouldn’t have allowed me to separate from the group I was in nor catch up to the one ahead of me.
I raced that stage with you. As a very low B and a lightweight, I was at threshold just to stay with the group on the flats. I had much better position on the climb compared to previous races, but just didn’t have enough to follow over the top. I also had a ghost for the finish and went from too far out and got swallowed up. Your wheel and frame tests helped me get off the Aeroroad and Bontragers and I noticed a nice difference so thank you! #DIRT
I did the race on Saturday morning cat d for me. It was carnage fast from the start and stayed that way. My second only race and boy did it hurt. Ended up 15th out of 150 so very happy chap. 53 yo and 89kgs with 2.4 average weight\power ratio. Some of the guys were laying some serious wattage and trying to play catchup hitting 500W and not impacting was a bit demoralizing. Stage 3 tomorrow night so let’s see what happens.
Stay safe and good luck everyone