As a general rule, once you’re dropped in a Zwift race, you’ve lost. And if you’re dropped on a double draft race, then you’ve really lost!
But that isn’t always the case; it depends on how the race is set up in terms of categories and timing. I recently hopped into a Critty Critty Bang Bang race over 14 laps of Crit City’s Downtown Dolphin and had a blast pushing hard, getting dropped, and winning! Here’s how it happened…
Warmup
I began my race prep by chewing two pieces of caffeine gum and rubbing some PR lotion on my legs. Then I hopped onto the Richmond course for a ~20 minute warmup, because I hadn’t ridden Richmond in a while. I’ve always loved this race course.
My Wahoo TICKR version 2 wasn’t behaving – it has been reading low or erratically lately, even with a new battery. So I grabbed my 4iiii Viiiiva instead and headed to the start pens. Let’s race!
The Start
I knew going into this race that it was a mixed-category affair. But there were only a handful of A riders signed up, so I figured the pace wouldn’t be unbearable.
We only had 20 B riders in the pens and 70 riders total, which is wild considering the last time I did this exact race we had 402 total riders participating! It’s definitely outdoor season for much of the cycling world.
The race started unremarkably, with the typical hard first lap. It wasn’t too tough, though – I averaged 324 watts in order to hang with the front. We were quickly shedding riders, and by the time we neared the end of lap 3 we had a front group of ~20.
The zPower Pull
One A rider in particular was pulling the group around – and of course, “N Bergamini” was on zPower. I mentioned it early on when he kept riding off the front, but the mixed category setup means the A’s probably won’t let a flyer go, because his power isn’t too outlandish compared to theirs – and it’s easy to miss that he’s on zPower, since the only indication is the tiny missing lightning bolt in the rider list.
ZPower wasn’t allowed for the race anyway, so everyone could have let Bergamini go and it wouldn’t have impacted the final results. But that only works if everyone lets him go – and that wasn’t happening. So we all held on tight and kept pushing!
Bergamini would end up finishing 3rd according to Zwift, averaging 5.5 w/kg – a full 1.1 w/kg higher than his closest competitor. He would be DQ’d from the official ZwiftPower results.
Getting Dropped
Hanging with the 7 A riders wasn’t easy, but I wasn’t on the rivet either. We made good time zipping around the circuit, and I used a powerup to maximum benefit every chance I got!
This was a double draft event, and the pace was pretty high thanks to the A riders (especially Bergamini). I didn’t feel I had enough extra wattage in my legs to attack, and with the increased pack speeds from double draft I didn’t fancy my chances of staying away even if I got off the front with a couple riders. So I tried to sit in and conserve as much as possible.
But I was tailgunning a bit too much, and somewhere around the beginning of lap 11 a gap formed up ahead and I missed the break. I’m still not sure what happened (I wish Zwift had a way to replay events) but I think our group was lapping another group, things got messy, and before I realized it the fast guys were in a breakaway.
It’s important not to panic here, though. The big question is, “Who is in the breakaway?” I’m racing against the B’s, and there were only 5 of us left in the lead group. Did any B’s make it into the breakaway? I started looking around and counting, then breathed a sigh of relief. No B’s in the break – I still had a chance to win this!
The Finish
With Bergamini and the strongest A’s off the front, our group’s pace dropped – which was fine by me. (Average wattage for lap 12: 271. Average wattage on the lap before the breakaway: 308!)
This let my legs recover a bit. I crossed my fingers, hoping the Zwift gods would smile upon me with a useful sprint powerup for the finale. But alas, I was gifted a feather! I used it on the final prime brick climb to give myself a bit more rest, then sat near the front of the group, ready to jump and follow the wheel of anyone foolish enough to attack early. Nobody was.
As we neared the bottom of the twisty descent I went all-in from the middle of our group, using the extra-strong draft to slingshot me into the empty, painful chaos that is the front of any Zwift sprint finish. It was another seated sprint, which I’ve been using to good effect lately.
As I neared the finish line I glanced at the screen and saw my competitors 5, then 10, then 15 meters back. They weren’t gaining! I crossed the line in first for B’s. My first back to back race win on Zwift… ever! (Read about last week’s win here.)
See activity on Zwift >
See activity on Strava >
See results on ZwiftPower >
Takeaways
With field sizes down significantly from a few months ago, it’s much more possible to place well in Zwift races these days. That’s fine with me – I prefer to race in fields of 40-80 rather than 200+ anyway. For me, at least, the race is more interesting when you can get to know the individual riders instead of feeling like it’s “me vs the blob”.
So while I’m typically not a fan of mixed-category races, at this time of the year I’m finding them much more tolerable as they give me a chance to mix it up with the A’s without getting shelled within the first few minutes.
My lesson for today is one I should have already learned – tailgunning is dangerous. Just when you think you’re safe hanging onto the back of the group, a gap will form and you’ll get dropped! It’s safer to ride up near the front, but still out of the wind. If I had been positioned correctly I think I could have gone with the breakaway – then I would have been the only B in the group. That would have been sweet!
The other lesson is that getting dropped isn’t always the end. I’ve been in mixed races before where just one or two B’s got into the winning break, which left a podium spot in my chase group. Don’t give up! And pay attention, so you know if the group ahead contains your competition (meaning you may want to chase that group) or not (meaning you can sit in). Getting dropped can actually help you, as it did me when it reduced the group’s pace so I could recover a bit and be ready for a big final sprint.
Your Thoughts
Have you noticed smaller field sizes on Zwift lately? What sort of field size do you prefer? Chime in below!