Stage 6 of the Tour de Zwift 2022 today, and was this the hardest stage?
I’d have to say I found this one about as physically tiring as the Alpe du Zwift climb, and by and large the times and wattages were roughly equal. This was certainly an intensive workout.
The route today was The London Pretzel, a circuit that I haven’t done before on Zwift.
The London Pretzel covers almost all of the London map in both directions, excluding only Keith and Leith Hill.
Interestingly that meant a trip up Fox Hill, the reverse of Box Hill. It feels like a long while since I’ve done Box Hill, but I used to ride it quite a lot in my early years on Zwift. It’s fairly short, steep enough to be challenging, and I felt always served as a decent marker of my form and fitness.
On the other hand I think I’ve only ever ridden Fox Hill once prior to this ride, as it’s a bit of a difficult one to get to. I think you need to know to pick a route from the available options, then immediately pull a U-turn as the only way to ride it. So in a way, it’s kinda ‘unofficial’. Which is a bit weird.
This was definitely a ride of two halves.
Out of ~55km, the first 30km were flat. This meant, inevitably, that several large bunches formed up. As is often the case for me, I found myself hovering around position 100, but the bunch was so big just easing off a touch could see you drop back to 150 in less than 5 seconds.
Around the 20km mark (pictured above), I was in a bunch hovering around position 100 and for whatever reason we’d slowed down a touch. The group behind us were chatting about catching us, which they inevitably did.
After they caught us, one of the bunch suggested they now ease off. As a joke, I suggested we should now try to drop them. You can see in the second picture that several people took me up on the offer and we did manage to fracture the bunch. That was a fun little distraction… but did it cost me my legs?
I can’t say I was nervous going into Fox Hill, the first of the two climbs.
I’d set myself a target wattage of 245w, or approx 3.8w/kg. I felt this should be sustainable for ~10 minutes – having no idea how long this climb might actually take.
I feel I did alright on this, but as expected, the very large bunch I was with had thinned down to maybe 10 riders by the time we made the top. I was definitely not with the lead bunch, but I’d stuck to my game plan… and mashed my legs.
Ouch.
We did a further 10km of flats after Fox Hill and I’d say we collectively took our feet off the pedals to give a decent recovery.
Collecting up a number of other riders, by the time we made our way back to Box Hill we numbered maybe 20 or so.
Again, my strategy was to hold 245w, this time having some idea of the duration of the climb. I was absolutely knackered by this point though and seriously wishing the whole ordeal to be over and done with.
Perhaps the biggest discovery over the two climbs today, however, was that Haribo cola bottles are significantly more effectively as a source of sugary nutrition than Haribo fried eggs. The egg yoke seemed to puff up and choke me. Lesson learned, stick to the shiny stuff – cola bottles, rings, gummy bears. No fluff.
At the top of Box Hill I think I was with two or three other riders. Maybe three actually. It’s hard to remember as I was cooked.
Only ~3km or so to go, of which 2km was a nice down hill zing.
However, before the descent there’s that little 10% leg snapper. And snap it did. I struggled over that, barely able to hit about 400w out of the saddle.
Those three riders dropped me like a stone… 5 seconds, 6, 7, 8 … they disappeared into the distance leaving me solo. And as a feather weight, descents are not my forte.
A small pack formed behind me and swallowed up the >10 second time difference to not only catch me, but over take me. You can see in the final two pictures that they were definitely pushing to the line… but I wasn’t. Other than wanting to see the whole thing out, I was in absolutely no state to sprint finish. My legs were done.
I have absolutely no idea what remaining fun awaits in Stage 7 & 8, but I am surely glad that a 56km ride fell on the weekend. Long ride indeed.
As I was already feeling the fatigue in my legs I cannot understate just how much I am looking forward to a rest day. And at >1000 calories burned, a hearty Sunday lunch.
As it stands, I may even take a double rest at this point. I’m really feeling it. Definitely seeing an uptick in fitness based on the numbers I’m producing, but that can only last so long.
Overall though, really glad that I saw this one through, felt like a solid workout and I really pushed myself hard. It will be interesting to look at whether this truly was my best 1.5 hour time so far on the bike – but I’ll need to feed my data in to Golden Cheetah to see that.
