My Zwift Racing League team, the DIRT Roosters, has had quite a fairytale racing story. Illogically placed in Division B5 of the EMEA W zone, we set our sights on winning each round so we could be promoted up to the division we felt was appropriate (B1, of course).
And that’s exactly what we did, taking first place in our division in successive rounds, working our way from B5 to B4 to B3 to B2 to B1, then winning B1 in 2021/22 Round 3. It was glorious, and I documented many of those races in my “How the Race Was Lost/Won” series here on Zwift Insider.
Once you’ve won B1, though, there’s no automatic promotion to a higher division. You just stay in B1, unless your team opts to go into the A divisions. So the Roosters returned to EMEA W B1 for Round 1 of the 2022/23 season. And we immediately discovered things wouldn’t be like the previous round. Specifically:
- Our team wasn’t as strong
- The other teams had grown stronger
Let’s unpack those a bit…
Weak Roosters
I hadn’t been in close communication with the Roosters during the summer, but as we started talking about racing again it became clear we weren’t all at the high levels of fitness that saw us win B1 the previous round. What had happened between the end of 2021/22 Round 3 (May 2022), and the start of 2022/23 Round 1 (September 2022)? I asked our team members to summarize their summers…
- Antoine (our team captain): Due to a football injury that kept me away from cycling during several weeks at the start of the summer, my fitness shape consistently decreased. On top of that, the arrival of a third baby and an additional mental burden due to new side activities dropped my weekly cycling from 150+ km to +-60km. All this clearly set back my fitness level to square 0 at the start of season 1, which resulted in a shame season with nearly no points scored.
- Clem: I just had a lot of private and professional things to do…. I didn’t take the time to get on my home trainer to get in the shape I needed. Combined with that, there was the rapid arrival of the competition and the hot summer weather still present. No motivation to ride in the garage. The icing on the cake… a very strong field this year compared to last season.
- Sean: It turns out that taking a month off of cycling over the summer while focusing heavily on other sports isn’t ideal race prep for ZRL.
- Dean: My goal this year is to ride 10k km and with only 800km left, my fitness level is a little on the + side.
- Arjen: I maintained my form throughout the summer, and was pushing close to or sometimes over my best watts ever in every race in season 1. However, in this past season, this resulted in finishing positions somewhere around 20-30th place, in contrast with the previous season where I was competing for top 10 and lots more FTS and FAL points. Still, it motivated me to keep pushing and got me fitter at the end of R1.
- Thomas: (Thomas didn’t send in a summary, but he has been battling some potentially-serious health issues and has been off the bike for months.)
- Myself: I’ve been riding and racing consistently, and I’d say my fitness is right around where it was in the previous round. Which is to say, if you’re relying on me to take lots of points against the other B1 riders, you’re going to be sorely disappointed…
While Arjen performed admirably and Dean and I held our own, we clearly lacked the firepower of past rounds. Captain Antoine typically had a lot of useful punch on short to longer climbs, but he had lost so much fitness that he came in nearly dead-last each race. Clem, our strongest sprinter, was getting dropped from the front of most races. Sean, a TTT workhorse and all-around strongman, didn’t have the endurance to stay with us in the TTT. And Thomas, always reliable for a long attack, wasn’t even in the picture.
It wasn’t looking good. So I flipped the script.
I began consoling myself partway through Round 1 by changing my mindset. The Roosters had won it all in the previous round, and now we were on the Roosters Extended Victory Tour!
That’s right. We were sitting up, riding down the road in zone 2 holding champagne glasses to celebrate our victory. Some teams would have kept the tour quite short, but we decided to extend it for several months.
We still did our best to win each race, but we also didn’t feel any pressure to perform particularly well. Go out, smash ourselves, and have fun. That’s what Round 1 became.
And now that Round 1 has finished, the Roosters have agreed to end the Victory Tour. It’s time to train in earnest and work hard to regain our former glory. Cock-a-doodle-doo!
Stronger Competitors
On top of our weakened roster, the competition level in EMEA B1 had ratcheted up significantly. There are some “super-B” riders in this division who actually race quite competitively against A riders (one of them actually won one of my A Tiny Races last weekend)!
I’m not going to accuse anyone of sandbagging. But I’ll say the ZRL/Zwift structure encourages riders to stay below category limits so they can keep racing as a B. Add to that the fact that when you win B1 you don’t get promoted to a higher division, and you end up with a B1 division full of crazy strong riders!
Race Summaries
I won’t bore you with detailed writeups of every Regrettable Round 1 Roosters Race, but I’ll summarize them quickly:
- Race 1 (Climber’s Gambit): this is where I knew we had a problem. Because I was the second-fastest finisher on our team, in a race that ended up the Epic KOM. In past seasons I would have been the 5th or 6th Rooster across the line. 8th place
- Race 2 (Park Perimeter Loop): I was out of town for this one, which broke my heart since it was probably the best chance I had at a good result in Round 1. Substitute DIRT rider K. Mckenna rode in the open slot, but we scored a grand (or less-than-grand) total of 6 intermediate points. 11th place
- Race 3 (Wandering Flats TTT): in past seasons we’ve excelled at the TTT, but this time around it was ugly. We finished 85 seconds behind the first place team. Factors included Clem blowing up after foolishly agreeing to take 1-minute pulls, Sean getting dropped on the climb, and a general lack of hard pulls in good formation. 9th place
- Race 4 (Champs-Elysees): Jimmeny Christmas, somehow only 4 Roosters finished this race! It was my best placing of the season (8th) but that doesn’t mean much when you only get 4 riders across the line. 11th place
- Race 5 (Legends and Lava): once again I was the second Rooster across the line, which doesn’t mean I performed well. It means other Roosters have slowed down! It’s not a good sign for our team when I’m finishing 2nd on a race that ends on the Volcano climb. 11th place
- Race 6 (Eastern Eight): I had hoped to do better in this race, thinking the longer distance would work in my favor. It did not. But Clem had his best race of Round 1, and Arjen and Dean grabbed some solid points too. Progress! 9th place
We finished the season in 11th place overall. With 14 teams in the division, this means we won’t be one of the two lowest teams that get relegated to B2. Is that a good thing? Yes. No?
Your Thoughts
How did Round 1 go for you? Ready for Round 2 in November? Share below!