Last week’s second running of the new VO2sday Micro Races went well, with over 420 riders participating: a 14% increase from launch week. Let’s gooo! Here are a few videos from the day:
This week, we head to France for a new set of routes, with categories modified to help things feel as competitive as possible. Read on for details…
Compound Score Categories
Last week, for the first time, we categorized these races using Zwift’s Compound Score (CS), which is calculated as (5-min power in W/kg) * (5-min power in W). It was really interesting to see how the use of CS allowed women to be more competitive in their respective fields. Check out these results (taken from ZwiftPower, where I just looked at the top 5 overall, not individual race wins):
- Zone 1: Diane Bomans took 1st in D, with Sarah Allen in 4th. Emily Vrijsen took 2nd in C.
- Zone 2: CarlaO took 1st in D, with Vanessa Mora in 5th. Women swept the C podium, with Emma Dooley in 1st, Humerus Fraktur 2nd, Caterina Roncalli 3rd, and Ragna van Rixtel 5th. Maria Marb took 4th in B.
- Zone 3: Women swept the D podium, with Christine Grant at the top, followed by Megan Grady and Kristin White. Karen Stensrud also took 5th. Sophie C took 1st in C.
This makes sense, of course. CS is more friendly to lighter riders with lower absolute power numbers, compared to Zwift’s traditional pace categories, which favor heavier riders.
This week I’ve tweaked the CS-based categories a bit, because the D groups were too large last week. Here are the new categories:
- A: 1700+
- B: 1200-1700
- C: 800-1200
- D: 800 and below
May 19 Race Details and Signup
Here are this week’s courses:
- Macaron (2.6km): 1 lap of this tiny route for a nice, flat start
- Peaky Pavé (2.6km): another flat one, ends midway through the Dos d’Âne Sprint Reverse
- Ven-Top (2.1km): the climbiest route for the week, even though we just touch the start of Ventoux
- Lutece Express (2.5km): starts with a climb up Champs-Élysées, followed by a descent
- Champs-Élysées (2.75km): finishing with a stroll around the Jardin des Tuileries on the east end of the Champs-Élysées circuit
Sign up at zwift.com/events/tag/vo2sday >
Time-Based GC Results
Final GC winners in each category are crowned based on overall completion time across the 5 races. The leaderboards are available on ZwiftPower:
- Zone 1: 11am UTC/7am UT/4am PT (see results on ZwiftPower)
- Zone 2: 5pm UTC/1pm ET/10am PT (see results on ZwiftPower)
- Zone 3: 11pm UTC/7pm ET/4pm PT (see results on ZwiftPower)
My dream is still to make these races time-based, so each race would be (for example) 4 minutes long for everyone. This would let us dial in precise VO2 max interval lengths for the races, ensuring that all riders go hard for the same length of time regardless of ability, and (maybe the most fun part of all) it would let us set up a unique GC that is based on overall distance covered in the allotted time.
The problem is, ZwiftPower doesn’t support this. So I’m talking to WTRL and a few other community organizers to see if we can pull it off some other way. Stay tuned.
Structured Workout Racing
The VO2sday Micro Races are nothing like your typical Zwift scratch race. Here’s how these races are distinctly structured to be engaging and fun while delivering a proper VO2 max session:
- 5 races in less than an hour – that’s 5 hard VO2 max intervals
- Very short efforts: Each race is very short, with a target completion time of 3-5 minutes, just like a good VO2 max interval
- Recovery time: Races are 10 minutes apart, so a 5-minute race leaves you with 5 minutes of recovery before the next interval
- Mix of courses: Each week’s race courses feature a mix of flat, climb, rolling, and even downhill parcours. Riders with lots of pure watts have the advantage in some races, while riders with strong w/kg have the advantage in others.
- Compound Score categories: Since results will be driven by your power numbers, riders will be categorized based on compound score, not Zwift Racing Score. This takes into account your 5-minute power and body weight.
- Mass start: While riders are broken into categories for results, these are mass-start events with all categories starting together, so everyone has riders ahead to chase. (Remember, the goal is to push as hard as you can for the duration of the race, not to sit in the pack and conserve so you can sprint to victory in the last 15 seconds!)
- Drafting is disabled, so these are effectively time trials. (Yes, you’ll want a fast TT setup.) Hopefully this forces you out of the “sit in then sprint” mindset, and into “hold steady high power for the duration” mode.
- GC-Based final results: overall rankings are based on your cumulative time across the 5 races (see links above).
Questions or comments?
I’d love to hear your feedback after you’ve completed the latest set of VO2sday races. Share it below, along with any questions or comments you’ve got beforehand!
I am a big fan of this new format and only have one request. Please use race #1 in one of the next weeks as a min. 5 minute effort. I think many of us never did a true 5 minute all out test and from the last two weeks I learned, that my 5 minute power must be significantly higher, than what Zwift has recorded. Maybe you could make the second race a little shorter or give us 5 more minutes to recover.
I’ll consider it, but it’s tough to do… because 5 minutes for an A can be 8 minutes for a D. Hopefully I’ll figure out a way to do time-based races soon so everyone does the same precisely-timed intervals.
Maybe 4 km (or a little more) of Road to Sky downhill could work. In race 5 of the first week, the best A rider was ahead less than one minute compared to the top 10 D riders. I cannot see myself testing 5 minute power without your help! 😆
Most of the top 10 in the D group were over 4.0 w/kg for 5 minutes. Not quite what people think of for “D” riders. Even with weight in the factor. I do love the format of the shorter intense races. I have trouble recovering from the tiny races. They are hard to finish as 2.8w/kg sometimes.
Ride fast for a long time vs ride fast for a short time are 2 completely different skills.
Why is that strange? A track sprinter would not beat Pogi on a short track race? Or are we trying to create something where a 100m sprinter shall have equal “fair” chance as a marathon runner over a short distance?
Can you retroactively look at a rider’s results from last week? The “winner” of section 2 has odd ride charts, they don’t look at all realistic (very linear) and he’s recently been DQ’s from other things.
The A category winner of league 2
Ah, thanks for the tip Ralph. Yeah, his power charts for other races are super bad… massive “sticky watts”. I just DQd him from recent Tiny races and this week’s VO2sdays. See https://zwiftpower.com/profile.php?z=7205307
Zwift really needs to automate detection of stuff like this. Really easy to see there’s a big issue here.
I don’t agree with previous comment. Anyone who do races, have accurate 5 minute race values. Anyone who do not race, can just do these as workouts and not race. These 5 short intervals are perfect from a VO2Max perspective and don’t break it just because some few people who do not race, want to race. My $0.02
If someone wants 5 mins then use the buffalo bike and don’t obsess over the leader board – its a Vo2 max interval session. Those of us with the broom wagon pushing us along need at least some recovery time. I recon I’ll be lucky to get 3 mins recovery after Ven Top . Come along at 4:20 PT to find out. Or give us old farts an in game e-bike to pace the young whipper snappers.
As you say: Races are too short. 6.5 mins recovery was too much.
I didn’t get 6.5 mins recovery.
You can select a slow Gravel bike next time then if you think you get too much rest. At least for myself I see my average wkg/watts go down steadily from race 1 to 5 so regardless of resting time, I suffer
Maybe next week you could try using both CS and zMAP w/kg to set the categories.
Cat D limit of CS 900 and zMAP w/kg 3.6.
C limit 1300 and 4.4, B limit 1800 and 5.2.
It would take the advantage away from both ends of the weight scale, and should result in a more level field in each category.
Took part in week 3 – really enjoyed the format and experience. I hope it doesnt deviate too far from the VO2 Max interval session goal. As a heavyweight 50+ yo firmly entrenched in Category D it forced a really refreshing change of mindset and I was able to surprise myself. I like also how the Compound Score is bringing the cycling ability of women to the fore … I hope it encourages more women to take part and is good to see “mixed” podiums in mixed racing.