The second race of Zwift Racing League 2022/23 Round 2 happens Tuesday, November 15th, and it’s the first of two team time trials for this round. We’re in London on the Greater London Flat route, one which we’ve raced as a TTT in ZRL before.
Let’s dig into the race, including tips for bike choice, powerups, strategy, and crucial segments.
Looking at the Route: Greater London Flat
The Greater London Flat route is 11.6km long, with 45m of elevation gain per lap. But it includes a substantial lead-in (from the start pens to the Classique banner) of 5.7km, meaning all categories will be racing a total 28.9km over 2 laps of the course.
As the name implies, the course is quite flat, with no uphills more than a minute long or over 5% incline.
Rather than take you through a turn-by-turn, let’s just discuss the key sections of this course from a TTT perspective.
The Start: the road is rolling at the start, so make sure you’re feeling the inclines and going harder on the uphills to maintain speed.
Northumberland Climb (400 meters). When the road turns a hard right you’ll start the first climb, which you’ll only see once today. Go hard up Northumberland to keep your pack speed high, then settle in at the top.
Piccadilly (1 km). Not a steep climb, but it’s draggy and you can lose valuable seconds if you don’t go hard.
Read more about the Greater London Flat route >
PowerUp Notes
Riders will be awarded a draft boost (van) powerup through every banner, meaning we’ll get 3 vans during the race (at the start banner, then twice through the Classique banner). See course profile above for powerup arch locations.
Draft Boost (van): increases the draft effect you are experiencing by 50% for 30 seconds.
Use at higher speeds (flats and descents) when you are already drafting off another rider (since this powerup only helps when you are drafting.) Useful if you’re looking for a bit of recovery after taking a hard pull.
Bike Frame + Wheel Choice
Bike choice is simple this week: go with your most aero TT frame + wheels. With no climbs long or steep enough for a lightweight bike to give you an advantage, aero is everything!
Check out our guide to find the fastest TT frame and wheels available to you.
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 (preferably with your team) and do some recon! Here’s a list of upcoming Greater London Flat events.
Looking for a video recon? Check out Sherpa Dave and Si’s recons below, both put together for past races, as well as Oli’s fresh recon:
Sherpa Dave
Si Bradeley
TTTTips
Team Time Trialing on Zwift is a challenging mixture of physical strength, proper pacing, and Zwift minutiae like picking a fast bike and understanding drafting.
This week’s course will give valuable seconds to teams who can keep their speeds high over the short rollers that pepper the course. Staying in formation while surging your power for these rises is a challenge, especially if riders are using various Trainer Difficulty settings. For a flat course like this, we recommend your team uses a high trainer difficulty (75-100%) so you feel the inclines and can automatically boost power accordingly.
Your goal in this week’s TTT is to get four riders across the line in the shortest time possible. That means every team’s pace plan will be different, based on the abilities of each rider. We highly recommend having an experienced DS on Discord directing your team, especially if your team contains some inexperienced TTT riders.
If you really want to go down the TTT rabbit hole, check out Paul Fitzpatrick’s zwift-ds.com site and particularly the Excel Power Planner sheet.
Your Thoughts
Any insights or further thoughts on this race? Share below!
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