Yesterday my team (the DIRT Roosters) took on 21 other teams in the second race of the ZRL Semi-Finals. This race field had some very strong riders – certainly a more competitive field than we’d seen in the regular season, and that was a tough season in EMEA W B1! On top of that, my fitness was nowhere near its peak, and the punchy course didn’t suit me well.
So I chose an unconventional approach to grabbing race points. Controversial? Perhaps. Successful? Also perhaps. Read on for the full story…
The Warmup
The race began at 12:30 (it had shifted an hour thanks to last weekend’s time change), so I was on the bike a little after noon to spin up the legs with Coco. I had chewed two pieces of caffeine gum and applied PR lotion to the legs… my typical race prep.
The Plan
This was a points race on 10 laps of Scotland’s Glasgow Crit Circuit… which is just nuts, if you think about it. This 3km circuit has 2 segments (a short, flat sprint and a punchy, short climb) per lap, and we would be contesting those segments on every lap for first-across-the-line (FAL) and fastest-through-segment (FTS) points.
This course is punchy enough as a scratch race. But throw in points at every intermediate, and you have attacks every two minutes for 40 minutes!
So I decided I’d try something unconventional. Instead of trying to hang with the front so I could come across the finish line in the highest place possible, I decided to sit up and take it easy for the duration of the race, apart from chasing points on the Champion’s Sprint segment. This is an approach I’d never taken in a race, although I’ve seen it done by others.
My specific plan was this:
- Go all-out from the gun in an attempt to grab FAL points the first time through the sprint
- Sit up, get a good powerup, and let the pack lap me. I would then sprint with them in an attempt to grab an FTS slot.
- Repeat step 2 as many times as possible, if grabbing FTS slots seems realistic
- Bonus: consider going for Clyde Kicker FTS, if the times on the leaderboard look beatable.
I realize this sort of racing may rub you the wrong way, and to be perfectly honest, I’m not a big fan of it either. But it’s completely within the rules of ZRL and in fact, one could argue ZRL’s rules actually encourage this sort of thing.
In the end, it wasn’t hard to rationalize my decision, because I knew four things:
- I wouldn’t be able to hang with the front group for the duration of the race. The competition in these semi-finals is even stronger than in the regular season, this is a difficult circuit that doesn’t suit me, and I’m nowhere near peak form currently.
- If I was struggling to hold onto the front pack (and I knew I would be), I didn’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell at grabbing any segment points. I would just be trying to survive every segment.
- My sprint is not first-class, but my fresh legs vs the tired legs of better sprinters probably stood a good chance at grabbing some points.
- This wasn’t a life-or-death decision – my team is sitting mid-pack in the semi-finals results, and we probably won’t even field a full team for next week’s TTT. My paltry points, no matter how I earned them, wouldn’t matter much.
I had informed my team of my plan, and they seemed to trust that I knew what was best for me. The rest of them would be trying to hang with the front while grabbing intermediate points wherever possible.
The Lead-In
The first step of my plan started at the gun. I had already saved a spot near the front of the start pen, and I knew I had about 40 seconds of hard effort to the first banner. My goal was to be one of the first riders across the line, thus grabbing FAL points.
I tried to sit in the wheels while staying near the front. Teammate Clem flew off the front, and another teammate (Dejan) was next to me as the sprint began and we went all-in. I was the 4th rider across the line, with a sprint time of 11.45s. A good start!
Sit Up and Sprint, #1
After the sprint, I just sat up and pedaled easy. What a strange feeling to let the race ride away! I could have stopped pedaling entirely, or pedaled super slowly, so the pack would lap me on this first lap… but that felt much too slow. So I decided I would do two laps for the front group’s three.
Even then, I didn’t time it very well. I should have worked even less! I had to stop on the side of the road and wait for the front group to catch me, then I hammered out a Champion’s Sprint attempt using my draft boost powerup.
But I held everything too late. The group caught me too close to the start line, I didn’t hit the start line fast enough, and I was off the front in the wind by the end of it, crossing the line ahead of the pack (but of course, a lap behind). My sprint time was a pathetic 12.352s… not even close to top 10 in FTS.
Eyeing the Clyde
Somewhere between my two sprints I took a look at the Clyde Kicker leaderboard, and realized I didn’t stand a chance of getting on it. I would need to improve my PR (26.57s, set in a strong race) by over 2 seconds, which just wasn’t possible.
This wasn’t particularly surprising, given the strong riders in this race.
If I wanted points today, they would be coming from the Champion’s Sprint.
Sit Up and Sprint, #2
Once again, I did two easy laps following the sprint. Well, almost 2. This time I stopped on the side of the road earlier, letting the front pack catch me sooner so I could get my position dialed in before the sprint began.
I had also burned through powerups until I got an aero, knowing it would help me more than the draft boost on the sprint.
This time around I felt I executed the sprint well – starting near the back of the pack and sprinting through, with my powerup running out as I crossed the line. But even though I had the fastest time of anyone on that lap, my time of 11.563 didn’t even beat my attempt on the lead-in!
I was frustrated. I could already see that my best time of 11.45 wasn’t even in the top 10 for FTS, and I didn’t seem to be able to improve that time.
With no better ideas, I just pedaled to the finish, coming in 103 out of 104 riders.
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Takeaways
Reviewing my race video, I realized I could have cracked the top 10 FTS if I’d just timed my sprint better. I had the power numbers, but my timing was poor. This is a good lesson for anyone chasing fast sprint segment times in any context, so I’ll unpack it here.
- I should have let the group catch me well before the sprint. Perhaps I could have waited atop the Clyde Kicker? This would let me get my legs spinning and heart rate normalized early instead of spiking it with just seconds to go before the sprint effort.
- I should have the started my sprint effort about 10 seconds earlier. I hit the start line at 54kph, but got up to 68kph on the sprint! That means I should have hit the line much faster. Doing some quick math, this change alone would have put me into around 6th overall in FTS.
- I should have started my sprint effort from further back in the pack, so I had more riders and a stronger draft for the duration of the sprint.
- I should have triggered my aero boost powerup 4-5 seconds earlier. I still had a bit of it left when I crossed the line, and it’s usually best to have these end 1-2 seconds before your sprint finishes.
- I could have stopped pedaling and done just 1 lap for the front pack’s 2, giving me 5 sprint attempts instead of the 2 I took.
In my second sprint, I did a few things right: I was in the draft the entire time, and I had the right powerup. But if I’d done the 5 things listed above, I would have earned FTS points. Probably on multiple sprints!
In the end, I earned 8 points for my team: 7 from my 4th place FAL on the first sprint, and 1 finishing point. Could I have earned more points by trying to hang with the front pack? Possibly. After the front group of 33 riders, there was a large pack representing places 39-84. I think I would have finished in this group. The question is, would I have outsprinted them and earned 15 finishing points for 39th place? Or finished in the back, with just 1 finishing point?
We’ll never know. But I won’t lose any sleep over my result, because even if I’d finished 39th, it wouldn’t have moved us up in the results. In the end, the DIRT Roosters finished 4th on the day on the back of strong performances by Clem, Arjen, and Tim, who all finished in the front pack while grabbing some FAL points.
Will I be trying this approach in future races? Meh. It’s really not a fun way to “race”, so after trying it out this time, I think I’ll only be keen to do it as a last resort in extreme situations.
Your Thoughts
Go ahead, throw your tomatoes. Let me know what you think of my approach to this race, and share if you’ve ever done something similarly unconventional.
Thanks for your article. I understand your strategy considering ZRL rules allows to do it. IRL the “lapped” (not sure it’s the appropriate word in english) racers got to quit the race in order not to put the mess within the front group. I did the race last week, staying in the front group. At the final lap, we where almost 30 in the group, but actually only 10 in the final lap (the 20 other guys were lapped ones and had to do, at least one more lap). But when we where doing the sprint looking for the FAL we don’t know if we “fight” against direct competitors or lapped ones. This was a bit messy, even if I enjoyed this 21 sprints within 40mn. As a non-sprinter, I had to wait the 6th lap to start to score at each sprint and having a chance to win at the end -actually I didn’t and was 5th- beacause on a flat race I got absolutley no chance in front of sprinters like you ;-(
That’s a good point, Pierre – in IRL races, I would have been pulled for sure! It definitely does get messy when you’re riding with lapped riders – this is an issue in Crit City as well, sometimes.
This is not true in all races. Here in the US, it is a perfectly fine tactic. This was done by Mike’s bike in Norcal crit racing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0x2Gnpt9a0&t=2s
But there’s a big difference, William Ng, between a strong, small front group lapping the field, and what I did – a solo rider sitting up and getting lapped multiple times.
I would have been pulled from an IRL crit, I’m sure. But I think it’s good that the main field doesn’t get pulled when the breakaway laps them. Makes for a wild crit race, as that video shows!
IRL in the US (and mostly here on West Coast Canada) a breakaway lapping the field get special treatment. The front group gets belled two laps early with the riders up a lap sitting up. Those riders do an extra lap after the early finishers before getting their bell and they then sprint to sort out their top finish places.
Track rules for scratch and points races are different again. For scratch races the laps follow the main group, if you lap the field you get 20 points and end up having done an extra lap. Points races (mostly) follow the front rider for laps. If he joins up with the main group they end up doing one less lap than the posted distance. Madison rules are too complicated for me to explain, mainly because I don’t understand them.
Big difference in that video William. A few riders lapped the entire field and rejoined the pack – it would make no sense to pull 40 riders from the race. If one or two riders had gotten lapped by the main field they would, in fact, have been pulled from the race.
I will grant you your original statement though – officials don’t ALWAYS pull lapped riders, especially in lower cats. But they will generally do so if necessary to avoid interference with the flow of the main race.
As you say, ZRL allows this type of racing. I presume the segment battle points was supposed to reduce incentives for this… But if people don’t like it, there are tons of scratch races out there to do instead!
When I see people attempting it I take solace that they’ll finish a good time after the majority of riders (including me hopefully!) and probably get far less enjoyment from their time on the bike. I know I would find it incredibly lonely… E.g. if you’d managed your 5 sprints for the front pack’s 10, you’d still have a long 5 laps to ride home solo.
I get that ZRL allows this and the practical side of me knows that it can be an effective way to help the team, but it always annoys me to see people doing this end up getting more points than me when I do it the “right way” (a.k.a. the way you’d do it outside) and they finish 20-30 minutes behind me, which would have gotten them pulled for sure in real life. On the other hand, Zwift racing isn’t IRL, and, when racing for a team, you have to do what helps the team the most, even if it feels wrong sometimes, I guess.
Totally different note, glad to hear you were well enough to race yesterday. I tested positive for Covid on Monday and thought about trying to drag myself around the course for finishing points (my field yesterday only had 57 finishers, so there would have been a few points even for Lanterne Rouge and we didn’t have any eligible subs) until I tried to go down the stairs Monday night to my bike to make sure I could z1/z2 for a while and got so dizzy before I’d made it halfway down the stairs I was afraid I’d fall off my bike if I survived the rest of the way down the stairs. That told me I needed to take a while off the bike. Your article yesterday about riding sick confirmed that choice for me.
Yeah, sounds like taking at least a few days off is a good move, Paul. Get well soon!
Well played.
It was the same as me and it was also employed by 4 others in my race. (C Cat, West 1 cup) some did much better than others.
It’s a team event and in my honest opinion it seems reasonable if a team decides to sacrifice a rider for FTS, its almost encouraged as part of the WTRL set up and points system.
My experience wasn’t too dissimilar to yours. I hooked onto either the lead pack or chase pack, each was a similar size to one another.. for a time.
Got several good attempts at FTS but the times set on the first sprint, plus pack speed and increasingly tired legs didnt help me. And I finished last.
What I did learn, albeit too late, is I should have focused more energy for the Clyde kicker and not the sprint. Less draft effect, there was the ‘hidden’ power up from under bridge so you could technically engage two powerups on the segment. I was technically sprinting for similar amounts of time on both anyway.
I achieved a top ten time without a pack to follow, late into the race as well. One of the ART riders had it nailed and picked up FTS multiple times on the Kicker.
And same as you my results made no real difference to where we finished in respect of the finals.
I’d say what should be more up for debate is where there are riders who single handedly score more points than entire teams, top 4 and 5 on their own! When you consider how many decent teams & riders there are in a 24 team line up , you would expect a better points spread. Way too many FAL pts available. plus SBP would only have given them more points!?
Hi Adam.
As the captain of the ART team (and one of the riders that got more points than most teams). I will explain our tactics now that the points races are over…..
(Out of context though – I finished 40th ish the week before on the Suggur course trying my absolute hardest, getting dropped 3 times by separate groups, so I am not holding back power).
Our plan was simple…..
One rider went for FTS and FAL on lap one.
Then they dropped to get lapped and go for FTS on subsequent laps.
Completely surrendering further FAL and Finish points…. BUT…. this means they can take a lot of the FTS points and other teams dont get them.
More importantly, it alowed the other 5 riders to concentrate solely on FAL, meaning they could time their efforts very differently and save energy.
By the other 5 rider not going for FTS in laps 1 and 2, it also meant that we still had 5 riders in group 1 after 6 laps and 4 riders by the finish.
This was everything tactically on this course on Tuesday, and we knew it. So that is what we did.
The job of the remaining riders in the group 1was to spread their efforts.
For three of us, our power profile suited the climb, so we soley went for this FAL, saving as much energy on the sprint one. The other riders went for the sprint, saving as much energy as possible on the climbs. And inbetween segments we tried our utmost to recover as much as humanly possble.
This also meant that by the finish, as a team we had more energy and got great finishing positions.
Yes I got 180 points, and won the race. And another rider got 150.
But what most people dont look at, is that:
That course suited my power profile (last weeks really didn’t, and neither will the TTT).
I didnt go for all sprints to conserve energy.
I actually nearly got dropped on lap 6 as I was really struggling, but luckily the pace dropped on lap 7.
And people didn’t see that I was an absolute mess yesterday…. broken from the previous days efforts.
People just look at positions and points and instantly think “sandbagger” …… they almost never think that that person researched the course better, came up with a suitable team plan, and then executed it to the point of exhaustion.
I like the comment “not holding back power” you are by far the biggest sandbagger in C and you should easily race B
Wow… quite an accusation.
And utter rubbish.
My short duration power is good but endurance is terrible.
Look harder before making an accusation like that behind a first name only………
Have a look at any hily course and see how I did.
3.08W/kg max average for 3 months is not exactly “on the limit” is it?? Muppet.
Sound like someone salty who just needs to learn how to race better to me… 🤷♂️
haha not on the limit is simply managing power well, 25 podiums, 14 wins from 34 races says your in the wrong cat, roll on 5min power to classify cat to put you where you should be and not simply coasting along then sprinting for the win. Platinum 2 ranking on ZR, im not salty just don’t get why people don’t just race up however those virtual gold trophies must give you an awesome ego boost, congrats dude.
I am not trying to say that I dont win a lot.
I do, in flat and punchy courses, I do. And this is also the reason why I am going to try and push up to B.
5 min power is so important in Zwift.
But you just blindly said I am “the worst sandbagger in C”….. which is utter bollocks.
On any course with a prolonged climb I will never win in C (firet semi final in ZRL I came 40th).
So in B, I will be last.
So…. according to the 20 minute categories I am a true C and your comment is insulting, non researched and wrong!
The mini races skew stats something wrotten, but of course they suit a puncheur better than other riders again. So again, just stating races numbers, when 4/6 a week or 4/5 a week are the short ones that are hard, but great fun is not really representative. Should I not do them to suit you sense of worth??
3 of those races that you elude too are also MadMonday where the category goes into B where according to my 20min I am able to ride the cat below but do not.
I also race up a cat when I can which is literally the opposite of sandbagging and as I am winning more at the moment, am planning on just racing B as of next week, even though I am physically uncapable of doing over 95% 3.2 at the moment.
So many of the wins are also due to concentration and race craft rather than having better fitness or power.
Am bored of explaining this to ignorent prats like you that just look at results with no context.
The system at the moment is based on 20min, and in that I am 100% confident that I am a C.
But am chosing to race up next week any way.
Your comment is so far off the mark its untrue.
Also…. If I was “sandbagging” yet wanted to do well in ZRL (which I do).
Why on earth would I not be right on the 3.2 limit for the endurance races??
I have sauce on my computer next to me that I could quite easily push the 20min power right to the limit if I was able to.
But I dont. Because I literally can’t.
Look at any race with a big climb on my profile….. any one.
I will be mid way down the results at best.
You won’t though I bet, because it is easier to just say “you are a sandbagger” isn’t it!?
The categories are based on 20min w/kg at the moment and as such some one should be judged on that not something you make up to make you feel better about being crap at racing!
I’d argue this is exactly what ZRL wanted to acheive with their FTS segments. If you don’t believe you have any chance of a decent final placing at least this way you can still play an active part in supporting your team. I agree you couldn’t do this outside, but you weren’t racing outside you were on zwift. It’s a different type of racing with different rules. You can’t hand sling your partner in a crit outside like you can in a madison on the track, but that doesn’t mean you’re “cheating” or not racing properly.
In my C race the split happened with the front 10 (plus yours truly in 11th place) by the time we finished lap #2. I was dropped shortly thereafter and figured it was all over, with the remaining FAL points being enjoyed entirely by that small group. But because the front was sprinting so hard and blowing themselves up, a small group that swept me up actually managed to catch them at the top of the Clyde a lap later. Suddenly we were in contention again, and thanks to taking it easy for a lap I managed to sneak a decent number of FAL points on laps 4-6 before the inevitable drop happened again.
Moral of the story is that even when things seem dark there’s always a chance for a comeback, whereas if you put yourself out of contention by purposefully getting lapped your options are far more limited!
Thanks for sharing this Eric. It’s “comforting” to know we all have bad days. Which is exactly what I had yesterday! Racing in the B4 playoffs, which are really more like B2, I was it itching to destroy Glasgow. But when the race started I quickly realized I didn’t have the legs or the stomach for hard racing. Felt strangely weak and a little sick. I dangled behind the front pack for 2 laps and then literally let them ride away. I figured I would try for FTS points on the sprint (I had the same issues on Clyde as you). But I was in a chasing pack of only 8 or so racers and pretty much unable to get much help from the draft power ups I kept getting. I finally got an aero on lap 5 or 6, gave it a good go, and was disappointed to see I wasn’t even close to the top 10. Cruised home for the finishing points. That circuit is very tricky and really wears me down. 10 laps in the front pack would have left me comatose. My team is still tied for first thanks to strong rides by my teammates, so next week could still be exciting.
Yes, this is a video game and the rules are the rules. That being said, people do take these races seriously and gaming the system, in my opinion, is not the way to participate. It’s tough enough to be competitive just racing the race without wondering whether you kept your FTS from the first lap when someone lags behind and beats it on the latter laps as they moseyed around the course. Someone else mentioned that if this was IRL, you would have been pulled from the course after being lapped. Perhaps the rules should be changed to prevent this in the future. I think they should.
It’s less about the “rules” than whether they can properly detect lapped riders and ignore them for FTS/FAL etc.
Making the assumption that they can do that, then I would suggest changing the rules.
“through in points at every intermediate” should be “throw” 🍅
Thanks for this. Any word/insight on when the next developement roadmap (think you mentioned something about this?) will be given.
Sorry, meant to post this under the new update article.
hmmm. I am just stubborn enough to try something wildly different. I would focus on a goal of suffering as best as I could and fighting my riding weaknesses. Rather than accept that my fitness was not where I wanted it or that the course did not suit me, I would go all in and give it what I had. Rather than worrying about points, I would focus on challenging my weakness; learning about myself and how I race a course like this; and letting go of my assumed limitations to discover how much more I can push it when I release those mental handcuffs.
At least 50% of these fields are cheating with:
ZRL is fun but for gods sake lets not forget why there are so many speed vets capable of pro tour numbers!
50%, eh? How did you arrive at that number? I’ve always heard that 83% of statistics are made up!