The sixth and final race of Zwift Racing League 2022/23 Round 1 happens Tuesday, October 18th. We’re in Watopia racing on former Rebel Routes, and for the first time that we can remember, A/B riders are on a completely different route than C/D riders! That’s right: A and B riders are racing on Eastern Eight, while C and D races Downtown Titans.
This post covers the Eastern Eight route for A and B categories. If you’re a C or D racer, check out the post covering Downtown Titans.
Let’s dig into the race, including tips for bike choice, powerups, strategy, and crucial segments.
[adinserter block=”4″]
Looking at the Route: Eastern Eight
Eastern Eight began its Zwift life as a Rebel Route (published February 2020), but was adopted into the game 2 years later. It’s a fun race route covering the easternmost roads of Watopia (Fuego Flats, Titans Grove, and most of Ocean Boulevard) in both directions.
At 54.1km this is the longest route we’ve raced this season. Let’s look at the key segments in order of appearance:
- Fuego Flats sprint: this is a rather long sprint, especially since it’s on a false flat. You hit the sprint at the end of your lead-in, then once again for the finish of the race.
- Titans Grove KOM: this very draftable climb begins quite flat, then tilts upward as it zigzags toward the finishing arch. This is where the first selection will be made in the race. Can you hang onto the front group, and will it come back together afterward?
- Fuego Flats Reverse: is it a sprint? At 7.1km long, probably not. Expect riders to sag the start, then sit in the pack before attacking near the finish in an attempt to take FAL and/or FTS points.
- Titans Grove KOM Reverse: didn’t we just race this in race #5? Yes we did. Let’s have another go! It’s a draftable climb, so sit in the wheels and time your jump just right. Or just try to survive and hold a wheel so you can be in the mix for the final sprint!
Read more about the Eastern Eight route >
PowerUp Notes
While powerups were originally planned for this race, WTRL has disabled all powerups due to ongoing Zwift bugs which award powerups inconsistently.
Bike Frame + Wheel Choice
Bike Frame + Wheel Choice
While this route has a bit of climbing on the Titans Grove sections, the climbs are short and not steep, meaning they will be fast and very draftable. Aero wins the day, hands down.
So use a fast frame and disc wheelset if you’ve got it. If not that, then the Tron bike. And if you don’t have either of those, get the fastest frame+wheel setup you can grab at your level.
[adinserter block=”1″]
More Route Recons
Many events are now being planned each weekend on the upcoming ZRL route. If you’re not familiar with this course, jump into an event and do some recon! Here’s a list of upcoming Eastern Eight events.
Si Bradeley
Strategic Options
Points Distribution, Eastern Eight
This charts show the maximum points a team of 6 could earn in each race. Note: FAL points for one Fuego Flats sprint were moved to the “finish” category since the race ends on this sprint.
With a points distribution that is perhaps the most even we’ve seen in ZRL, what strategies will A/B riders employ in race 6? Here’s what we predict:
- Big Push on Lead-In Sprint: The peloton will be big and fresh on the lead-in, so riders chasing FTS will want to set those times on the first time through the Fuego Flats sprint – not the second time.
- Should I Stay Or Should I Go? Gaps won’t open up until the top of the first Titans Grove KOM. Then the question becomes – do you work to stay away if you’re in the front group? Doing so may open up more intermediate points for you, but it will also test your endurance on this long race. If the front group doesn’t work to stay away after the first KOM, expect them to push to stay away after the second KOM.
- Fuego Flats Reverse Late Effort: No one will treat this long segment like a sprint… until the final kilometer. Then expect riders to attack in an attempt to grab FAL points, while some riders will sit in and wait even longer, trying to edge out the pack for FTS.
- Going Long: Someone will try to go long on the final slack climb into the desert (~4km from the finish). It’s a brilliant move if you want to give your team’s sprinter a rest, and/or you don’t trust your ability to win a sprint from the pack.
Your Thoughts
Any insights or further thoughts on this race? Share below!
Non English native speaker here. What is the meaning of FAL and FST acronyms?
I am guessing that F is for faster.
FAL =First Across Line
FTS = Fastest Through Segment
Thanks
Eric, could you please explain the “going long” strategy at the bottom of this page a bit more? It’s not clear to me whether that would mean go hard, go easy, fast, slow or what 😉 Thanks, and great work as always!
It means breaking away from the pack further than a usual sprint distance. Maybe anything above 600m, in this case 4Km from the line, is even on the long side of ‘going long’ and could actually be a ‘solo breakaway’. It can and should at least look like a genuine attempt to win the race. However, is often used to sucker the other teams into doing the hard work chasing, so that the ‘going longer’ teammates sprinters can just follow the chase and get an advantage in the sprint.
OK, so what I understand is… one strong but more endurancy guy breaks away from the group. If that person is sufficiently strong enough, they may be able to stay ahead until the finish. But the bigger goal (and possibly more likely outcome) is that IF the group increases pace, the work will be done by the OTHER teams, and the breakaway guy’s team mates simply ride the draft til near the finish line. Is that it? Thanks!
That’s exactly how I see it, the more convinving a threat you can make it, the harder the opposition will have to pull, dragging the ‘going-longer’ team-mates to the line.
I’ve seen enough of these races to know that everything will be decided on the Titan Grove rev. when a strong group of riders will push hard to exhaust the group and will punish hard all the cyclists that have already cooked their legs in the first steps of the race