The first race of Zwift Racing League 2022/23 Round 2 happens Tuesday, November 8th. We’re in France to kick off this round, racing Roule Ma Poule (“Roll My Chicken”?!), a challenging route that will drop many weaker riders and even strong pure sprinters in the first 5 minutes of the race!
Let’s dig into the race, including tips for bike choice, powerups, strategy, and crucial segments.
Looking at the Route: Roule Ma Poule
We’ve never raced Roule Ma Poule before in ZRL, but riders will be familiar with these roads since this loop is the reverse version of the more often raced Casse-Pattes route.
The route totals ~26.1km including the lead in, and all categories will race the same distance. The route includes three intermediates which will be contested for points, shown in the profile below:
This profile doesn’t tell the whole story, though, because it doesn’t include the lead-in! This is going to be a hugely important section of the race because it’s a long (for ZRL) climb which begins right out of the start pens. Here’s what the lead-in to the start of the route proper looks like on Veloviewer:
The lead-in is 3.11km long, averaging 3.4%. It takes you from the start pens up the backside of the Petit KOM (or the foot of Ventoux, if you want to think of it that way) and dumps you off at the Petit KOM banner, which is the official start and finish line for Roule Ma Poule.
This climb is the biggest feature of the course, but it’s not a timed intermediate. Make no mistake, though: the race will be won and lost here! This lead-in climb will stretch and split the field, and the gaps will be big enough that many riders who are dropped will never see the front of the race again.
In the final minutes of the race, those who have survived in the front will get to duke it out once more to see who can cross the line for maximum finish points!
The only other remarkable sections of this route are the intermediates since they award points.
Aqueduc KOM (0.42 km, 0.9%): more of a sprint than a climb, with only a ~200-meter length of uphill road. But be mindful that the segment start line arrives after you’ve already been climbing for a bit. (In fact, the Aqueduc KOM is only 1/3 as long as the overall climb.)
Pavé Sprint (0.33 km, 0%): when you pass the field of lavender to your left shortly after descending from the Aqueduc KOM, you know you’re getting close to the Pavé Sprint. And when the road turns a hard left into the arch to enter the village, your segment begins! The layout of this sprint is such that you won’t see the finish line (or even the start line) until it’s too late to contest the segment, so knowing the landmarks and segment length pays off when you’re chasing points.
Marina Sprint (0.34 km, 0%): look for the tower on the right flying a French flag to know when it’s time to rev up the watts heading into the start of the sprint. You won’t see the finish line yet, but rest assured it’s up the road.
Read more about the Roule Ma Poule route >
PowerUp Notes
Riders will be awarded powerups through arches on course, meaning we’ll get just 4 powerups in this race. Three powerups will be given out at each banner:
Aero Boost (helmet) (40%): makes you more aerodynamic (reduces your CdA by 25%) for 15 seconds. Use this if you’re contesting a sprint or attacking in the wind at high speed.
Invisibility (ghost) (30%): makes you invisible to other riders for 10 seconds. Disabled within 200m of the finish line. Use when you want to get away from one or more riders. Deploy then hammer, in hopes that you will create enough of a gap that your opponents can’t grab your wheel.
Steamroller (30%): reduces Crr for 30 seconds so you roll as fast as a road tire on pavement regardless of wheels or road surface. Not a terribly useful powerup here, but you can use this on the cobbled Pavé Sprint to save a bit of power/go a bit faster.
Bike Frame + Wheel Choice
Bike Frame + Wheel Choice
With the important and rather length climb being hit twice in this race, you may be tempted to go with a climbing rig. But we wouldn’t recommend that… for two reasons:
- First, the vast majority of this route is flat, where the pack will be moving fast and aero is everything
- Second, we tested various bike setups on the key climb (let’s call it the Petit KOM Reverse) and all setups are within 1s of each other when riding at 4 w/kg:
- Specialized Venge S-Works + DT Swiss Disc: 6:46
- Tron: 6:46
- Specialized Aethos + ENVE 7.8: 6:45
- Specialized Aethos + Lightweight Meilenstein: 6:46
If you don’t have either of those rigs, go with the fastest you’ve got based on our “Fastest Bike Frames and Wheels at Each Zwift Level” list.
More Route Recons
Many events are now being planned each weekend on the upcoming ZRL route. If you’re unfamiliar with this course, jump into an event and do some recon! Here’s a list of upcoming Roule Ma Poule events.
Looking for a video recon, with lovely British commentary to boot? Check out Si’s recon below:
Si Bradeley
Oli Chi
Strategic Options
Points Distribution, Roule Ma Poule
These charts show the maximum points a team of 6 could earn in each race.
What strategies will riders employ in race 1? Here’s what we predict:
- Big Push Up the Lead-In: strong climbing teams will push hard on the first climb to create the ideal race situation: dropping a large part of the field and reducing competition for the intermediate points.
- The Chase Is On: after the lead-in, dropped riders will attempt to chase back onto the front group to have a shot at intermediate points. Will the front group keep pushing, or ease and allow riders to rejoin? This may depends on the team mix in the front group.
- Sag and Sprint: sprinters dropped on the lead-in who don’t go hard to chase the front pack after the climb may be wise to ride easy and save their legs to contest the sprint intermediates for FTS points.
Your Thoughts
Any insights or further thoughts on this race? Share below!
Hola soy un socio desde hace casi 3 años, tengo todas las rutas terminadas , y me apunto a todos los eventos que puedo, pero últimamente lo estoy dejando por culpa de tramposos y últimamente esta lleno
Can you please clarify where is the finish banner ? Normally, 27,2 km is in the middle of the descent.
It says 1 lap, so the finish banner will be the Petit KOM banner. No idea why it shows 27.2 on WTRL’s site, when it’s really 26.2km…
My best time for the Aqueduc KOM suggests that it definitely does not involve 200 metres of climbing 😁
He means ~200m of distance of a slight climb before flattening for the final ~200m distance.
The most annoying thing about this route is that Zwift have never done us riders the courtesy of creating a timed “Petit KOM reverse” segment so that all the pain of that climb as both a lead-in and finishing stretch can at least go towards PBs and potential Prime points
I still dont understand the logic of FTS being worth more than FAL? Surely “placement” is more important than speed? After all crossing the line first is the point of a “race” isnt it? You dont hear about the guy/gal who came 69th over the line but had the fastest sprint get talked about in the highlights reel…
Because on races with multiple laps FTS is awarded just once. Getting any FTS points on the Paris course for example was a big achievement. But yes for single lap races it’s more questionable. It does at least mix the strategies up
Totally agree with this. FAL is definitely the harder to achieve.
Yes “Roule ma Poule” can be literally translated to mean “roll my chicken”, but rouler also means “to go”, as in “le velo roulait vite” (“the bicycle was going fast”). In this sense, “(ça) roule ma poule” as an idiom means “how’s it going?”
Eric, Why can I no longer X out the shaded area on the site? It is very frustrating trying to read 3 lines at a time!
Just tried a different browser and the site looks totally different. Guess that answers my own question!