The last race of ZRL Round 1 happened this week on Greatest London Flat. The pressure was on for my team (DIRT Kraken): we were in third place, just one point behind the two teams (SZ and Coalition) tied for first. It’s rare to have such a close competition at this point in the round – usually one or two teams hold a strong lead heading into the final race. But based on the points totals, all three top teams had a shot at an overall win today.
We knew the stakes were high. SZ and Coalition knew it, too.
The Warmup
The race began at 9:30am, so I ate a carby breakfast (Malt–o-Meal, an American classic!) then chewed some caffeine gum (300mg of caffeine) and applied PR lotion to my legs before kitting up and getting on the bike around 9am.
I swapped to my TT bike for the warmup – the Cadex Tri with DT Swiss Disc wheels (the fastest TT setup in Zwift). I also put on our team kit. But I kept my very non-aero orange Zwift casquette, so each of us would have unique hardware, making it easier to tell each other part.
Hopping into Discord voice chat, I was happy to hear my teammates discussing the race and feeling good for the day. I finished putting in my steady warmup and a few digs to get my heart rate up into the threshold zone, then headed to the pens 5 minutes from take-off time.
The Start
After several mishaps in past races, we were all double-checking our setups. Everyone on a TT bike? Everyone’s power numbers and heart rate monitors working?
For once, it looked like we’d finally have all six riders able to function off the line. Splendid! Our pull order and target wattages were:
- Darren (Daz): 406W
- David Mac: 415W
- Dave Husbo: 406W
- Myself: 407W
- Captain Diogo: 392W
- Wojtek: 436W
SZ started ahead of us, then Coalition one minute later. We would start one minute after Coalition, meaning we could see our time gap to them during our race.
Our clock hit zero and we jumped out of the gates, getting into single-file fairly quickly, if not a bit messily. (Six races in and we still haven’t figured out how to keep David Mac and Dave Husbo apart in our voice comms!)
Just past four minutes in, Captain Diogo told us he needed to skip a turn. That wasn’t a good sign! We turned right and headed up Northumberland Ave, with me on the front. I pulled around 450W, a bit higher than my target power, because that’s the smart thing to do on climbs in order to keep overall speed high.
But things got messy over the top and down the slight descent that followed as riders skipped pulls. We blobbed up and Discord comms got noisy.
“Who’s on the front?”
“Who’s pulling?”
“If you’re not pulling early warning please.”
“You good Eric?”
“Yeah, I just don’t know where I’m supposed to be at this point.”
“You’re next turn I think.”
“You should be P3.”
“Alright, let’s reorder. Daz is on at 7…”
It was messy, and Coalition was 3-4 seconds ahead up the road. 6km down, 25km to go.
The Middle Bit
We started settling into a rhythm, but it still felt like things were messy. Holding a single file formation isn’t easy on Zwift, and the current version of pack dynamics with its complete lack of sticky draft certainly doesn’t make it easier than in the past.
Making our way around Traflgar Square, Diogo and Wojtek got gapped a bit off the back, so we eased up to let them rejoin. With 22km to go, it wasn’t the time to drop to 4 riders!
Up through the Strand, then a short descent and another climb, the order started getting reshuffled. Wojtek needed to skip a turn, and wouldn’t be taking any more: his new goal was to hang on as the last rider. I wasn’t helping the situation, seemingly unable to get into line. In case you’re wondering, this is what inefficiency looks like:
Daz was putting in some rock-solid work as our #1 rider, and our time gap to Coalition showed 1 minute, which meant we were in a dead heat!
Along the Thames, over the bridge, down into the Underground. Now it was time for the toughest part of the course, through the Surrey park area and its ramps. I’ve been dropped here in TTTs before, so my goal was to keep my power steady and use the draft to survive.
Unfortunately, Coalition seemed to have a better plan… or just better legs. Their gap grew from 3s to 13s through this stretch, even as we caught their first dropped rider.
The Finish
Ramping up out of the Underground with 8.5km to go, Wojtek was dropped and done. With five riders left, once again Daz was on the front saving our race. I couldn’t hold his wheel, let alone put in the next pull to relieve him.
“The Swedish team is way ahead, they’re about 30s faster now,” Wojtek said, having switched to DS mode. Our well-planned pull order was shot to smithereens, with riders calling out when they were up next based on what their legs would allow.
Coalition was 15s ahead, SZ even further. Our closest chasers (Foudre) were 17s behind, so we were firmly slotted in third place. Even as we turned ourselves inside out, I think we knew the result was all but decided.
With 1.5km left, Dave Husbo fell off the back after one last mighty pull. Four riders left. David Mac and Daz were still going strong, while Diogo and I were holding on. We went all in for the final 500m, crossing the line at 41:49. 39 seconds behind SZ, 18 seconds behind Coalition.
Watch the Race Video
Team Result
We finished 3rd on the day, and 3rd overall for Round 1:
Takeaways
I set new 2023 power PBs between 24-42 minutes on this ride, so I’m not sure I had much more to give. Where I could have done better, though, was in my positioning. I may not have been able to ride harder, but I could have ridden smarter.
This TTT was messy, no doubt. Between overlapping wheels pushing us out of the draft and the pull order getting jumbled up, we lost valuable seconds. Clean that up and we may have bested Coalition, putting us in a tie for 2nd place. But let’s not cry over spilled sweat.
Overall, DIRT Kraken turned in a strong result in Round 1 considering this is the B1 division and it was our first time racing together. We’ll need to improve our TTT skills, though, if we want to take it to the next level next round.
Congrats to division winners SZ Sleipner!
Your Thoughts
How did your ZRL TTT go? Share below!
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