Tiny Race Series – Week 3 Results and Week 4 Route Details

Last Saturday’s set of Tiny Races was the toughest yet! Thanks to custom-length routes on Watopia Hilly, Innsbruckring, and Rooftop Rendezvous riders were treated to climbs (respectively) 2 minutes, 1 minutes, and 3 minutes in length. Ouch!

Thanks to a PC crash the first week and a scheduling snafu the second, this was my first time actually riding and finishing all four races. And it was a blast! I even came away with an improbable win on the final race… more on that in another post. A few shots from my races in the Zone 2 time slot:

Congrats to Last Week’s Winners

* Mike Jonsson and Daniel Manalo tied for points in Zone 2 B division, but Daniel had the highest placing with a 2nd place finish in race 1, so he gets the overall win.

This Week’s Routes

This week is all “custom” routes, because racers are really enjoying these. Instead of four routes in four worlds we’re doing two in Watopia and two in Makuri Islands.

Here are photos so you can see the precise location of the custom finish lines:

• Race 1: Muir and the Mountain (5.1km)
  • Custom length, ending atop the Titans Grove Reverse KOM. This will be a topsy-turvy start through the uphill rollercoaster of Titans Grove which includes a ride-through tree and Jarvis the perenially unlucky bear. It’s all going to come down to the final ~90-second climb up the KOM, though.
  • Powerup: none
• Race 2: Volcano Circuit CCW (4.8km)
  • Lead-in section only, race ends at lap start banner. Most of this course is flattish, but the finish is one of the most technical in all of Zwift. First you have the longish ramp that saps your legs and encourages early attacks…then there’s still a few hundred meters of twisting, slightly uphill road. Good legs will keep you in contention, but timing will get you the win!
  • Powerup: Aero Boost
• Race 3: Valley to Mountaintop (3.5km)
  • Custom length, ending at the Temple partway up the Temple KOM. This route is mostly dirt, beginning with the beautiful “Golden Forest” section and ending partway up the Temple KOM. Hint: if you don’t pick a gravel or MTB you’ll be left in the dust. (Extra hint: spend a few extra Drops to get some name-brand gravel wheels. Read this post for details.)
  • Powerup: none
• Race 4: Wandering Flats (6.1km)
  • Custom length, ending near the end of the tunnel to Neokyo. This is the “easiest” of the week’s routes in terms of climbing, but we predict a drawn-out sprint finish as riders rev up their steamrollers in the dirt and go long to the tunnel.
  • Powerup: Steamroller

Sign up at zwift.com/events/tag/tinyraces

Join a Chat & Chill Cooldown Event

Immediately following each hour’s racing, we’ve scheduled 30-minute “Chat & Chill” events where riders from all categories can spin out their legs together and have some fun chatting about how it all went down. The events haven’t been created yet, but when they’re done you’ll be able to find them at:

Sign up at zwift.com/events/tag/tinyraces

ZwiftPower Results

Zwift displays preliminary race results in game when you cross the line, but points are computed after all four races finish, with final results on ZwiftPower. (We have to press a ZwiftPower button to compute results manually, so if your rankings don’t show up right away, just be patient.)

Riders will earn points based on finish position in each of the 4 Tiny Races. The category winner of each week’s series is the rider with the most points across their timezone’s 4 races. Here are the links for each timezone’s results on ZwiftPower:

• Zone 1 (8am UTC)
• Zone 2 (2pm UTC)
• Zone 3 (8pm UTC)

Questions or Comments

Post below!