I’ve been enjoying the Zwift Classics series currently underway. Medium-sized fields on short, punchy routes… and the chance to attempt the race again later in the week if you screw it up the first time around!
Which is exactly what I did last week in NYC, where I miss-timed my sprint and finished 9th. A follow-up attempt earned me a solid 2nd place, which was good enough for me.
Monday rolled around and it was time for the next race: three laps of Watopia’s Two Bridges Loop. I’ve raced this route several times in the past, so I knew the drill: surf the wheels through the Esses, maintain good position out of the Italian Villas, then be ready to go all-in after Hank’s Oil & Gas before recovering on the descent to downtown Watopia and doing it all over again.
This was a short race, at only three laps (~21km total). So I decided I would push the pace a bit on the first climb to thin out the herd, if I was feeling good. Little did I know that my own attack would be my undoing!
But I’m getting ahead of myself…
A Weak Warmup
In hindsight, it’s possible that an inadequate warmup is partly to blame for how this race unfolded. I did my typical “casual” pre-race prep: two pieces of caffeine gum (200mg) around an hour before the race, plus some PR lotion on my legs.
Then I hopped in with the Danny Draft Pace Partner group, since she was on the flat Tick Tock route riding at 2.2 w/kg. I spun around Fuego Flats for a while, but my legs didn’t feel great so I never really pushed my pace to get my heart rate up into that racing zone. (Which was probably a mistake. Always put in some efforts and break the ice before joining the start pens!)
Eventually, I grabbed my Tron bike and headed for the pens.
Lap 1: The Early Attack
The race started easily enough, and I had to laugh as riders got Anvil powerups through the start/finish banner and promptly used them on the uphill ramp into the Esses.
(The Anvil adds 50 kilograms to your body weight, for 30 seconds. Yes, you read that right… 50 kilograms! That’s a lot of weight, and you’ll really notice it on a climb.)
Anyway, I got an Anvil too. I used it on the descent to the reverse sprint, then got a Ghost powerup through the sprint banner. Boooo…. I’d much prefer the Feather!
Soon enough, we began the key section of this course – the climb that begins at Hank’s, winds around the statues, then cuts across to drop you onto the Hilly KOM descent.
The group wasn’t pushing very hard at the base of the climb, so I upped the watts a bit and found myself floating off the front.
The legs felt alright, so I upped the effort a bit more, hoping to initiate a split in the group that would whittle down the pack size and give me a better chance in the final sprint.
As the road got steeper, one rider pulled up next to me. I activated my ghost, hoping to trick them into pouring on the watts, thinking I was attacking hard while invisible.
It seemed to work – the rider went into the orange numbers and sprinted up the road! The climb was nearing its end when three more riders came around me, and I started digging hard to grab onto their wheels.
As one more rider zipped past me (Tom Meese, who I’ve raced with many times before) I realized I was in big trouble. There was no group of riders just behind to pull me back to the front guys, and I was at my limit.
I pushed as hard as I could on the descent and the flats that followed, but within a minute they were 9 seconds ahead and pulling away. My race was over… I’d been dropped by my own attack!
The Rest of the Race
The rest of the race was fairly uneventful. I sat up and got swallowed by a group of 8 riders, and we chugged along for two more laps. Five of us contested the finish together, and I finished in the middle of that pack at 9th overall (6th on ZwiftPower).
Takeaways
This is the first time I can remember initiating an attack and getting dropped as a result. Two takeaways for me:
- Make sure I get my heart rate up with some short efforts during my warmup. Break that ice.
- Pay more attention to how I’m feeling, to avoid digging a hole I can’t get out of when attacking. If I had sat back and followed the attackers’ wheels I could have hung onto that front group.
The good news is, it’s only Monday. I’ll be back to contest this race again before the week is out!
Your Thoughts
Have you ever been dropped by your own attack? Please say I’m not the only one…
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