Today I took part in my first Zwift Race: the Giro d’Italia TT Challenge.
This is a special event to tie in with the real world Giro d’Italia which started today.
The Giro d’Italia is one of cycling’s three Grand Tours, running for three weeks each spring. 2019 marks its 102nd year, and Zwift is bringing part of the action to the entire community.
https://zwift.com/news/14612-giro-ditalia-2019/
Pretty cool to get to ride a pro tour map, and witness how hard it really is to do what they do.
I started with a quick Watopia warm up. I did 5km. All the while the little count down timer was ticking away in the bottom corner. Very neat.
However, I did find it a bit annoying how it kept popping up on the Zwift companion app as a modal, blocking out everything else.
As best I remember, this is the only time I’ve been in a massive group of people on Zwift outside of the Tour of Watopia.
I checked last night around midnight for some unusual reason, and saw that the Giro d’Italia stage had just gone live. I saw the first ride had like 14 people registered. I wasn’t expecting 460+ other zwifters on my ride, but as best I am aware, about 600 ended up taking part. Lots of late joiners, I guess.
And it’s go, go go
I heard Zwift races start hard. I gave it as good as I could, but I also knew I needed to keep going at a similar pace for the next 20 minutes or more.
See, my mistake was fairly basic. I forgot about the hill.
I had a new TV, I had loads of stuff on my mind, and in the midst of it all, I neglected to look at the minimap properly. All I saw was the roads. Not the gradient bit at the bottom. Oops.
Right at the start, zipping through the streets of Italy, this map had an awesome buzz about it.
This lulled me into a real false sense of security. I genuinely wasn’t expecting half this race to be a hill. Such a noob.
The squirrels on the map were really cool. I don’t know if that’s there in real life, but it was a nice feature.
The briefest of includes, and then whooshing down into a lovely -5% gradient. Ahh, if this is racing, I could get used to this.
I was a little concerned that my graph was showing only red and yellow, but if the climb only came at the very end, I’d still be fresh.
Boy, was I in for a shock.
Just nipping to the petrol station for a pack of cigs and a copy of razzle.
Beyond the petrol station, things got a bit more serious.
This was the start of the climb. The climb that goes all the way to the finish.
I’d probably gone a bit too hard in the first half of the course. Maybe I should have kept at my ftp / in the yellow, saving more for the climb.
I guess I’m fortunate in a way. In not knowing to read the gradient on the minimap , I was just as unaware of how long the climb went on for as I was how far the race would start out flat.
And that’s good cus it’s easy to get demoralised when the only way is up.
I had hope going in to each blind corner that the next bit would be back to a nice flat.
And every time I was disappointed.
It was a really good race though. It was a mental game, just got to keep going as best I could, and hope not too many people would go past me.
There were some strong finishers and fair play to them. I want to do better and with each climb / event like this, I feel I do perform better, but it’s a long road ahead.
It’s a really short course by comparison to everything else I’ve ridden on zwift. The production was first class. The level detail was great, the map makers did a great job.
I truly hope they keep this course around for use beyond this weekend, od whatever short promotion period the event is on for.
If you haven’t yet done so, get on it before the event is over.
My setup today was in total flux. I will do a proper post on it once its got the new / ebay new to me pc in place.
As such I missed a bunch of screenshots.
Including my position on the leader board. Fortunately the graphs can be found in the zwift companion app.
297th overall out of who knows how many riders. I think it was over 600. Not last, that’s good. Solidly mid pack. I don’t understand the wattage figures. I would have expected in to be linear.
After the event I did a short cool down on Watopia flat, taking in the reverse bridge sprint. I felt like I gave it a food effort but it was only good enough for second place out of 2.
I got an ftp bump after the giro. I unfortunately missed the screenshot. 180 to 183w. I’ll take it.
That’s the strava stats for my giro ride. 300 calories in 30 minutes. A pretty good work out. And a lot of fun to boot.