This evening I took part in the 5pm Team Dimension Data Zwift Academy Race, taking on 1 lap of Watopia Hilly route.
As I had a free afternoon, I was able to be fairly comfortable with my timings. I started out with a ~20 minute warmup on Watopia Flat, aiming to stick around 120w – blue zone.
During this warm up I covered ~7km, and was glad I had done this as it definitely loosened up the legs.
One thing I made sure to do was put in a few minutes at a lower cadence, which is something I’ve learned throughout the warmups in the Zwift Academy 2019 workouts.
During my warm up, the on screen prompt was constantly ticking down, telling me to join the event.
Eventually, with 5 minutes to go, it decided to automatically join me.
However, as I was mid way around the Watopia Flat circuit, on the part where the Watopia Hilly route would have joined up with Watopia Flat, Zwift seemed to get very confused and put me at the point I’d been at on my warm up, and had me in 1st place for the race.
Yikes. Seems like a massive bug not to reset riders on joining the race.
I quit out, and restarted Zwift.
Fortunately, with 5 minutes to spare, I had plenty of time – but only about 2 minutes remained when I finally got back in game and had the level loaded back up. Honestly, I thought it would be a total fail and wouldn’t let me back in.
When I did get back in, initially there was no one else around me. Then finally it seemed to sync up and everyone appeared with a ride on symbol above their heads…
Before I knew it, we were under way.
As ever with Zwift races, this one started hard. I was trying my best to remain at, or only slightly above FTP. In reality I think I went a little too hard out of the gate – more like 250w or so as best I recall, and only got more intense.
With just one lap to cover, I guess everyone was really going for it.
Hard to see in the screenshot above, but it was lashing down on the KOM.
It’s a shame really as with such a massive pack of riders around, all in their different jerseys, it’s a really cool sight to see.
By the time I reached the top of the KOM, the pack had snaked apart.
I managed a 2:56 on the KOM.
This is about 20 seconds off my current all time best time. However, on that occassion I deliberately went all out just to get a best KOM time, rather than having to worry about completing the rest of the lap. As I recall on that day my remainder of the lap was about 22 minutes as I had completely killed myself.
My aim for this race was to be sub 20 minutes, and ideally sub 18 minutes.
I’d done some pre-ride research and found my previous best time on Watopia Hilly Route as been around 18 minutes. This may be out of date, and I wasn’t that scientific about finding out my exact previous best.
For this ride I expected to be at or above FTP pretty much the whole race.
This turned out to be about right. The only respites came in the downhill sections, and even then I was on the pedals, but generally grinding.
In truth my legs were (and are) hurting at the moment. Not injured, but they need some rest.
After the KOM and the descent, I managed to fall in with a bunch who were really keeping me on my limit. I stuck with them for a while, but then most of the bunch pulled away.
This left me in isolation, and without a pack to ride with I was exerting more energy than I’d have liked. That said, with only a lap to cover I couldn’t consider “falling back” as this would have cost me more time than it would have saved.
Heading towards the sprint I met my weekly riding goal of 100km.
Happy about this. And in all likelihood tomorrow is looking like a rest day. Glad to have hit my targets.
The sprint itself was really nothing to write home about. I didn’t sprint. I kept up my steady pace, keen to save my legs somewhat for the immediate short, sharp climb that follows the bridge sprint.
I’m guessing the guys with the 2 second lead over me were all in the pack that had dropped me a kilometer or so previously. Long way for me to go yet.
After the sprint and little climb, what followed were the little rollers. Throughout this I was largely solo, though there was a guy a few seconds in front of me. Try as I might I couldn’t catch him.
This was the only point in the race where I dropped a gear and take a very short breather.
And then as I came to the final roller, a small pack swept me up. They had clearly paced the effort better than I had, but I found riding with them for the final kilometer to be motivating enough to keep me on the gas.
With the numbers ticking down, 500m, then 400m, 300m… I was watching the small pack around me waiting for one or two of them to sprint. At 200m two of the guys went for it, and I tried my very best to follow. I have no idea what numbers I put out, but I do know I managed to just nick someone at the line.
134th out of 200+ riders in the race overall. I’m happy enough with this.
As ever, I’m king of the overly high heart rate club.
In category C I managed 73rd of 109 riders.
This puts me in the bottom third, but I feel that’s a fair assessment of my ability right now. I’m certainly not middle of the group, as being dropped by the pack proved.
It’s motivating enough to keep me moving onwards all the same.
Interesting that a Cat B rider managed to considerably take this one. 493W average… I mean, wow.
And finally, for good measure, the top 8 (max my screen resolution will show) of Category C. Well done all.
Easily my favourite part of this race was having my daughter stood next to me, cheering me on. My own personal fan club, with sign. Awesome 🙂
It amused me somewhat not to have put in a 20 minute effort on this one. It was definitely short, but it was intense.
At various points on this one I was thinking back to the SRAM Send It Series: Race 6 (A) where we covered Watopia Hilly KOM a whopping four times. As best I recall that was in the interim between interviewing for my current role, and waiting to start. It feels like a long time ago. Man that was knackering.
This one was tiring for a different reason. Essentially it was a full gas effort for the race duration. It wasn’t the hardest race I’ve done on Zwift, purely due to it being shorter than – I think – any other race I’ve done.
It felt like a good workout, but the shortness of it means the stats don’t really feel like they reflect the intensity.
Out of everything I’d say I’m surprised I only managed 456w as my best power output in the sprint.
I guess this is something to feel really proud of, all things considered.
A few short months ago, 400w was my max sprint power. Now I’m able to put in a 450w sprint after being hard on the pedals for ~15 minutes. That feels like solid progress.
I also feel like I would have gained an increase in “guesstimated” FTP had this race run just a tad longer – 2 laps, perhaps. I’m surprised they made this one so short, in a way.
Anyway, this puts me at complete on the Zwift Academy group rides or races section.
I did two of each, two races, two group rides. In hindsight, the first race was more fun. Certainly more tactical. But racing is definitely the best part of Zwift, and the very best way to get the maximum from a jolly on the exercise bike.
Again, tomorrow is rest day. Monday is currently Zwift Academy workout #7 – VO2 max. That sounds fun.
