The first race of Zwift Racing League Round 3 happened on Tuesday: a team time trial on the new Neon Shore Loop in Makuri Islands. While the very climby list of routes selected for Round 3 struck a bit of fear in my “overmuscled” heart, this looked like the sort of race my team (Coalition Delusion) could win…
Heat Training: Fool Me Once…
You may recall that the last TTT we won was in NYC, despite me mistakingly doing a hard heat training session the day before that definitely limited my race efforts.
This time around, I made sure I didn’t push too hard the day before. I rode the first event of Tour de Zwift at an easier pace, then turned off the fan and road easy for another 15 minutes to get just a bit of heat training in, to keep my adaptation level up. (More on heat training in an upcoming post… I’ve been doing a lot of it, and learning a lot along the way!)
Planning Our Race
Heading into the race, my team was chatting about all things course and strategy as usual. Captain Neil had our pull order worked out, with a bit of help from the Zwift TTT Calculator:
It was William’s first time riding with us, but we knew the drill: call out when you’re on deck. Call your stopping time when you get to the front. Call when you’ve got 5-10 seconds left in your pull. Call out if there’s a gap.
Basically: stick to the plan, and communicate well. Chris M would be our DS on the day, since he wasn’t riding. Always nice to have a non-riding DS for TTT weeks!
The new Neon Shore Loop route seemed fairly straightforward as a TTT course, since it was essentially flat, with three short and draftable climbs thrown in to make things interesting. We would hold formation on the flats, trying to hold our target power on our pulls, then push as hard as possible on the climbs. It’s proved a winning formula thus far… and we had no better ideas. Let’s race!
The Race
We began our race in Neokyo with around 10km of flat roads. This is a lovely way to start a TTT, especially if you’ve got some new team members. It lets you work on the fundamentals: hitting your pull targets, rotating smoothly, communicating clearly.
Two things we quickly noticed:
- The new drafting indicator was nice
- The game’s auto-steering made us look like a bunch of n00bs at every intersection, breaking formation and veering across the road
Here’s a quick screenshot of what our lovely single-file formation looked like just after a 90-degree turn at a Neokyo intersection:
Most TTTs aren’t on intersection-heavy roads like Neokyo, so perhaps I just haven’t noticed this issue before. Or perhaps it’s because I can easily see what I’m missing now that the draft indicator is live!
This may not be a popular opinion, but I think it’s time to allow steering in these races. Maybe I’d change my mind after actually racing a TTT with steering (I never have), but I really like the idea of being able to control my left-right position.
I was on the front, taking my third rotation on the day, when we hit the first little uphill: the riser to the second level, which takes us to the Rooftop KOM. I bumped my power up from my target (370W) to just over 400W, to keep speeds high on the climb without blowing myself or my teammates up. It seemed to work well, which was a good sign for me: it meant I was riding strong enough that teammates who are better climbers weren’t coming around me on uphills. But as we crested the top and Will began his pull, a gap opened up to Captain Neil, who was valiantly riding his second TTT of the day.
A bit of instruction from Chris for the front to ease, and we were back together for the start of the Rooftop KOM. We stayed roughly in formation on the lower part of the climb where speeds are high as you stairstep between slack climbing and flat road. Then it was time for my fourth pull as we hit the spot where racers traditionally attack, so I let everyone know I would just hold steady power and try to pace us to the top of the KOM.
Climbs can be messy in a TTT, and it can really simplify things if you know a particular rider is just going to keep it steady to the top.
I probably should have kept my #6 camera view live during this entire pull, but I didn’t activate it until I heard Chris ask me to ease up a bit, as a gap was forming. It’s never easy to hit that perfect pace in a situation like this, because you basically want to push as hard as your team can possibly go on a climb, since that’s where you can make up a lot of time in a TTT scenario.
Anyway, I eased, we regrouped, then we came over the top and settled in for lots of descent and flat roads, all the way down to Urukazi.
As usual, I had Sauce for Zwift running so I could see time gaps to nearby teams. It was showing that we were catching riders ahead, and pulling away from the team behind. Good signs! But it ain’t over ’til it’s over…
The next big effort we’d face would be the Pain Cavern, and as we were getting close to it, teammate Will had to skip some pulls. We made the call to have him do one last suicide pull in the run-in to Pain Cavern, and he executed it perfectly, holding the target pace until he blew up. We came around and kept pushing on, rotating through our remaining riders.
As I started my pull, we were in the middle of the figure 8 portion of the Pain Cavern, where racers typically attack. I eased a bit to keep the team together, then the road flattened and speeds ramped up as we exited the cavern with 2km to go and a team just a few seconds ahead!
Shorter pulls are often the way to go in the final 1-2 minutes of a race, as legs are tired but you want to finish fast. With 1.3km left in the race I came to the front and announced I’d be pulling for just 30 seconds, but pulling hard to catch the team ahead. Let’s go, boys! I do love a good carrot.
We passed the team with 900 meters to go, and I dropped a Ride On bomb as their lead rider waved. Class! Then Fabian came to the front and three down one last pull before rotating off with 500 meters left. Go go go!
Everyone on the team was pushing hard, a sort of friendly final race to empty the tank and not be last across the line. If it was a race, I guess I pipped Andrew at the line:
Watch the Video
Results and Takeaways
Heading over to WTRL’s website, we learned that we had indeed taken first place:
WTRL has placed us in the B2 division this round, which seems a bit odd since we took second place in B1 last round. Perhaps WTRL will re-sort the divisions after this race?
On the other hand, given the hilly nature of every other race this round, perhaps B2 is exactly where we should be. Because while our TTT result would have beaten all the B1 teams as well, our strength as a team has never been found in the hills.
Personally, I was happy with my performance in this race. I felt like my heart rate was a bit lower than usual, possibly a product of all the heat training I’ve been doing. And I was able to consistently put in 1-minute pulls, which I haven’t always been able to do.
We wrapped up the day with our traditional team photo:
What about you?
How did your TTT go? Share below…
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