This race was a bit different from most I’d been doing… but it was a welcome change. Instead of 60+ B riders on a ZRL course or Crit City, it was a small pack on two laps of New York’s Astoria Line 8 route.
The pack was small, the race was short (23km)… and I’ll try to keep this short, too. Let’s get to it!
Start + Lap 1
The race start was easy enough, and our pack of 9 B’s quickly started ticking off the miles as we made our way around Central Park.
Just 1.1km in, an A rider named Duffin came flying up from behind, through our pack, then eased off to sit in. I’m not sure what the story was with Duffin – he seemed to disappear occasionally, then reappear. Perhaps internet connection issues? But Duffin would play a part in how the race unfolded, so I wanted to mention his arrival.
I knew the Astoria Line 8 route well, having raced NYC’s ground-level roads many times. I particularly like this route, as it includes the punchy Harlem Hill section to the north. This is a great place to put in digs and drop riders. And that was exactly my plan.
We descended Harlem Hill, then began climbing up the East Drive climb (I’m not sure if locals have a better name for it). That’s when I launched my attack, going off the front hard. Only two B’s followed: Curtiss and Machala. Duffin, our lone A passenger, also hung on. And we caught Cross, another A, at the top of the climb.
Now the question was: could we stay away from the 6 chasing B’s? With two A riders sitting in, and probably the three strongest B’s, I figured we had a good chance. We kept pushing on and I watched the gap to the riders behind slowly dwindle from 5 seconds to 2. But then a rider named Ferreira jumped across to our group, and the gap began to stretch out again.
7 seconds… 10 seconds…
Ferreira was on the front pushing hard, and by the time we crossed the lap banner the chase group was 30 seconds behind. They’d given up.
Lap 2 + Finish
Ferreira was keeping a furious pace at the front, and I noticed as we started lap 2 that he was on virtual power and basically holding 4.9 w/kg (around 315W). Also, no heart rate!
Clearly Ferreira was not a legit B rider. (That’s what I get for entering a race without category enforcement!) Ferreira had gapped us off the front, and I messaged our group, “Not chasing Ferreria. Clearly not a B rider.”
“Thx”, said Curtiss.
And there we were. It was now us three B’s, with Duffin floating off the back, occasionally riding through our group and sitting on the front.
When we hit the East Drive climb for the second time I put in another dig, but Machala and Curtiss hung with me. It looked like I wouldn’t be able to shake these two, so it would come down to the sprint finish.
I picked up a feather powerup at the sprint arch. Not my preferred powerup, but also a pretty handy one on NYC’s punchy little uphill finish.
Now it came down to tactics and timing. I didn’t want to attack off the front without an aero powerup, so I sat in and watched the other riders, looking to grab their wheels if they attacked. Curtiss activated his draft powerup and I eased up even more, making sure he wasn’t benefiting from my draft.
Then his numbers went orange, and I hit the pedals hard to grab his wheel! Punched the spacebar to activate my feather, and as the road turned steep with 100 meters to go my avatar came around Curtiss’.
I crossed the line in second, a minute behind Ferreira – but I considered it a win. And so did ZwiftPower!
See ride on Zwift.com >
See activity on Strava >
See results on ZwiftPower >
Watch race video
Takeaways
In a normal year we see reduced race participation on Zwift from around April thru September. Where every B race has 50-100 riders in January, most have 10-20 during the northern hemisphere’s sunny months.
Personally, I enjoy this change.
Big pack races have a certain feel and challenge to them. The pack speed is high, so you can’t attack and stay away. Instead, efficient riders can tailgun most of the race and simply sprint at the end. And you don’t really focus on individual riders, because there are too many names to track. Instead, you focus on your position in the group.
Small races have a totally different feel. You can sort of get to know each rider. And in a race like today’s, a handful of strong riders can actually make an attack stick if the conditions are right.
And if that attack sticks, you’re faced with a finale where it’s just you versus a few other riders, instead of you against 30 others. That makes the finish much more tactical and interesting.
The downside of small pack races is that they don’t really help me when it comes to ZwiftPower ranking points, because there just aren’t enough well-ranked riders in small events. But that’s alright – it’s not all about ranking points anyway. Today I enjoyed riding a more tactical race, and it fell in my favor in the end, which was just icing on the cake.
Your Thoughts
Do you like small races too? Share your thoughts below!
I see we were in the same race but a different category and then a different “instance” as we called it back in WoW (World of Warcraft) times. But I actually saw my name the first time when you fan viewed Ferreira.. silly how the standings on the right is so unstable sometimes, but have you then tried to fan view others in a different instance? by pressing for instance my name when you saw it, would that be possible?
I see you got a strong time with lower watt/kg average, clever cycling there! Strong efforts uphill gave B group a faster time it seems. I too was in a small group, so the total time was very much related to the race dynamics in smaller groups sometimes; speed falling and increasing rapidly and often, so average speed may fall drastically in slower phases.
What I realized is that Ferreira is nowhere to be found on ZP, so he might have started racing a little too early in his zwift career, not being present on ZP, because he is not in filtered for HR or UPG either. It seems noone is on the ZP listings with the time he had, with a different name.
I see now that you saw Duffin’s avatar, but not his name on the right, so maybe we had a different pen start time and Duffin was late out of the gate..? So maybe not two different instances as I thought.
BTW! Thanks for your big and important contribution to so many people getting to know and understand zwift!
Are you strictly a seated sprinter now?
Not stricly, but I find myself there at the end of races typically because it feels like I can hold it longer.
Stil working on improving my standing sprint. Working, working…
how did you see the rider was on virtual power and no heart rate? the zwift interface won’t show that, right?
There’s a little lightning bolt symbol next to watts per kilogram. If you have that, you are not in virtual power. You can click on the rider’s name to see if they have HR, as it takes to to view mode.
ah the lightening bolt! another thing to be on the watch for. thanks!
Wow you raced, wrote and posted this article in less than 2 hours? You are fast!
I like small races too. Did one on La Guardia Loop yesterday and it was a blast. Didn’t lower my ranking even though I won but who cares?
Nah – this article was about last week’s race. Then I raced this same race again today… and lost!
Today there were 27 B’s… and it was a much tougher race. Really interesting tactically… and I just had no sprint by the end.
What took you so long? 😂
Home improvement projects.
How are u DM’ing the group in a race like that? Phone app? Keyboard? I’m usually pegged and when I try it on the phone app it comes out -“pi Jane to whcxi”. Total garbage
Keyboard on a table in front of me. I find using my phone to be a hassle when going hard, but a keyboard I can manage.
There’s a Zwift feature request (to add to the other 1,001) … Talk to Text 🙂
Keyboard for me is too far in front (the laptop table I use doesn’t go over my 35mm wheels, so it has to be pushed back, just a bit out of reach while riding)
For the companion app, it’s being ran on my tablet, but that’s attached to a flexible arm (clamped to the table), and it bobs and weaves as you try to interact with the app.
I can’t type and cycle but have found voice recognition very easy to use on CA on ipad.
This is my favorite part of Zwift. Short races. Long races. Big or small field. Hills or flat. Mass start or each category. You find your strength and race to it. Then you can pick a different race to challenge yourself. I won a mass start B last night because I’m fat so can do big power but no sprint. Hang with the A till all the other B are gone then solo once I got dropped. Then I’ll do a separate start race with lots of B and be mid pack because I have no sprint. Lol
Seriously, how are you still racing B’s? How have you not improved. I started in C’s but quickly got to B’s. I followed a couple of training plans and even some in Zwift and made it to A’s in a year. You must not know how to train if you have stayed in B’s this long.
Man, you must be fun at parties!
A year into cycling, I was at 3 w/kg. My weight has basically stayed the same since then, and now (6 years later) my FTP is around 3.8 w/kg. That’s where I’ve plateaued for the past few years, although my sprint power, 1-minute power, etc have fluctuated as I’ve trained them.
I’ve trained with good coaches, etc, etc. In the end, I’ve come to the conclusion that getting up into the 4+ w/kg area would require more dramatic weight loss, and probably more difficult training, than I want to do. I ride to stay healthy and have fun. Becoming the world’s top racer really isn’t a goal, and never has been.
Also, I’d add that your ability to move up to the A’s doesn’t have much bearing on mine, Jerold. We’re not all created equal, age is a factor, etc. Some riders get up into the A range pretty easily… others struggle to get out of C. Or to put it another way: even with the perfect training plan, I’ll never compete with Mathieu van der Poel.
Everyone who doesn’t become the worlds best racer is clearly just not training well enough.
I like small race with the right adversaries. I did one time a B race were I was really to much above the other as I am a strong B: not interesting for anybody at the end… But I found my master with Zwift Insider race last saturday 😀