Zwift Racing League 2021/22 Round 2 Week 4 Race Guide: Douce France TTT

January 29, 2022

LAST UPDATED September 3, 2024

The fourth race of Zwift Racing League 2021/22 Round 2 happens Tuesday, February 1, and it’s the first TTT of the season. As such, it’s a big opportunity for strong time trialing teams to move up in the overall rankings by putting together a solid race against the clock.

Let’s dig into the course, including recommendations for bike choice, TTT tips, and crucial segments:

Looking at the Route: Douce France

France’s Douce France route is 24.2km long, with 108m of elevation gain. This is the reverse of France’s R.G.V. which has been raced multiple times as a ZRL TTT.

Apart from three sections it’s flat and fast, meaning some A teams will finish below 33 minutes, B teams sub 35 minutes, C teams sub 40, and D sub 43.

Douce France Route Profile

Rather than take you through a turn-by-turn, let’s just discuss the three key sections of this course from a TTT perspective.

First, Les Intestins (0.6-3.4km). After a lead-in of approximately 500m you will turn right and begin the twistiest section of the course, which we nicknamed Les Intestins. This is a challenging section in a TTT because it’s impossible to remain in TTT formation around the turns which twist right and left while undulating up and down.

Don’t stress about staying single file here. Rather, have designated riders taking pulls, with the team massing behind. And if you happen to poke your nose into the wind, give a little extra gas to help boost your blob’s speed.

Second, The Jigsaw (3.5-7.8km). Immediately following Les Intestins, a series of looping turns which are never flat may challenge your team’s togetherness just a bit. Once you leave The Jigsaw you’ve got a bit of flat road before the last little hiccup: the Aqueduc.

Third, the Aqueduc KOM (10.1-11.1km). This short climb is the biggest uphill on the route. You climb a total of 20m over 1km of tarmac, making this average 2%. This is actually a series of three short ramps, beginning around 10.1km in to your race.

As with any uphill on a TTT, your goals here should be to keep the team together while keeping your speed high. Strong climbers will want to fly off the front, while heavier riders will tend to sag off the back. Keep your team together, regain speed on the downhill, then fly on the flat to the finish.

PowerUp Notes

For the first time in a ZRL TTT, riders will be awarded powerups through each segment banner, meaning we’ll get 3 powerups during the race – at the Ballon Sprint, Aqueduc KOM, and Pavé Sprint.

Three powerups will be randomly given out at each banner:

Aero Boost (helmet): makes you more aerodynamic (reduces your CdA by 25%) for 15 seconds.
Best used when you’re going fastest and air resistance is highest. That means you’ll get maximum impact using this on the front of a TTT, because that’s when air resistance is impacting your speed the most.

Lightweight (feather): reduces your weight by 10% for 15 seconds.
Use on climbs, when weight matters the most. Best used on the Aqueduc KOM on this course, although it could be used to simply make your job a bit easier on the flats as well.

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

Aero is everything in a flat TTT, so go with the fastest frame and wheels available to you. If you don’t have a disc wheelset and fast frame, that means you’ll want the Tron bike.

And if you’re in the Premier Division where discs and Trons aren’t allowed, we recommend the Specialized S-Works Venge + Zipp 858 combo, since it’s the most aero setup in game.

More Route Recon

Many events now being consistently planned each weekend on the upcoming ZRL route. If you’re not familiar with this course, jump into one of these events and do some recon! Here’s a list of upcoming Douce France events, including Tour de Zwift stage 6 events.

Looking for a video recon, with lovely British commentary to boot? Here are our two favorite recon videos this week:

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. Bring that mix into a competitive team environment and you can understand why WTRL’s Thursday TTT series has thousands of participants each week.

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.