With a nice warm up on the flats, I decided I was ready to hit the hills.
Is it a fair comparison to do the Richmond KOM’s separately to the sprints? Normally I’ve only done these as part of the full UCI Worlds Circuit.
Having hit Libby Hill KOM a few times now, I’m aware of what to expect. At just 0.64km it’s one of the shortest climbs in Zwift (that I’m aware of) consisting of two distinct parts.
There’s the initial ramp which is nice and straight. And then there’s a cobbled sequence of uphill bends. They are not pleasant.
I made sure to attack in the little ring at the front.
My aim for this attempt was to keep as high as a cadence as possible, and to be as smooth with that cadence as possible. For whatever reason, I had found myself in the first person camera mode for this climb.
After the initial straight, there’s a little dip into the next climb segment. On every attempt so far, I’ve definitely lost time in this little dip, as I haven’t done a gear change there.
I did try a gear change but then that hoofed me in the nuts as soon as I hit the next segment.
With a bit of chain clanging, I managed to drop back into an easier gear and continue my attack up the hill.
Unfortunately I didn’t get my position on the live leaderboard as a screenshot relative to others. I think I’m 62nd overall out of 391. Not bad. That was a new personal best, and shaved a massive 9 seconds off my previous personal best.
But alas, no time for a rest. There’s a lovely little down hill run after Libby Hill, but once you’re at the bottom it’s time to get back on the gas immediately for the 23rd Street KOM climb.
Again, this is a very short climb at just 260m. But it is steep.
I gave this my absolute maximum. Well. As maximum as I had left after Libby Hill. But I truly went for this.
Another massive improvement on my previous attempt. Nearly 20 seconds faster.
I mean, I know I’ve screwed up this climb in the past, but on this one my cycling game man was doing the out of bike sprinting motion. And in real life I was doing much the same.
Again, easy gear, not as high a cadence this time. Seems to be the way forward. Grinding sucks.
This one absolutely killed me. I saw on the screen I hit 8w/kg at one point, my name went orange. It may have gone higher. I have no idea. My heart rate hit 192bpm again at this point. Not great.
It took me an absolute age to recover from this, and during that time I had to climb the third, un-timed part of the circuit.
Once I’d hit the top of the climb and passed the start finish line, I got off the bike and tried something out.
From looking at my Zwift man on a side ways angle, I realised my handle bars were probably set too high.
So, I have adjusted them. I then jumped on again to test them out, and they feel mightily different. As different as when I adjusted my saddle to “the right” height.
Going to be real interesting riding with them in this new position. When testing them I hit a small pack of riders on a group workout. I wanted to stick with them. It would be so awesome if Zwift popped up an option to join their group workout. There’s so many ways Zwift could improve.
I would have liked to have continued this ride but tea was ready and I needed to shower.
Thanks all for the ride ons.
Happy with my climbs on this ride. More of sprint climbs in a way. Totally different to climbing other hills on Zwift.
During this ride I hit my 3 hour weekly riding goal. I’m not sure what lays ahead for the weekend. I’d still like to get a 50km ride in on Sunday, if at all possible. That may mean I take a rest day tomorrow. Or certainly, a less strenuous work out.
