Tour de Zwift: Stage 2 Long Distance

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For this morning’s ride I took part in the Tour de Zwift: Stage 2 Long Distance over on the Innsbruck map.

This was my fourth ride in the Tour de Zwift 2020 so far, my second group ride with the other two being races. Due to the somewhat compressed schedule of the Tour de Zwift I’ve ended up racing last night (also on Innsbruck) so went into this one feeling less than fresh.

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One thing of immediate note was that this time last week, we had over 2600 riders on the 10am long distance ride. Today? 619.

So for me, just turning up is a win. I suspect a major drop off in attendance is to be expected, and to be honest, with the schedule as it is, I can understand and sympathise. This thing is knackering, no doubt about it. God knows how the pros deal with this – but much more intense and longer – on a real tour.

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Given that I raced last night, I decided I’d go easier on myself today and stick to 180w or so.

This didn’t really happen.

I started without a warm up, and took a good few kilometers of the first lap at a warm up tempo. But after the warm up I fell into a rhythm of around 3w/kg – pushing between 200-230w on average.

This felt better than expected.

The two leg snappers in yesterday’s race were my #1 and #2 personal bests. Knowing I had the full Innsbruck Forward KOM to complete after three laps of Innsbruckring today, I definitely paced myself differently.

I was fortunate to get a feather on laps 2 and 3, which I kept for the leg snapper.

As a point of note, I saw a 0.5w/kg boost from using the feather up the climb, so this was a major boost in helping me gain a whole slew of places on each lap.

For the majority of the three laps I managed to find a decent pack which wasn’t pushing my to my absolute limit, but was certainly keeping me on the gas and at a higher intensity than I might have otherwise maintained if solo.

I was thankful for this as a big part of turning up today was to burn down as many calories as I could off the 10k Zwift January challenge.

On all three leg snapper climbs today I have a decent effort, but also – somewhat unconventionally for me – took a rest stint after the climb by way of a super tuck.

Anything to save the legs.

The third of the three laps was the least intensive. I’m guessing everyone had the forthcoming climb up the KOM in mind, so wattages fell back closer to 180-200 average.

This suited me fine, and we as a small pack managed to catch a pack in front and swallow them up.

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On the third climb I could sense many were feeling it for sure, and I managed a fairly consistent third climb.

My tactic had been to save my feather until the final little straight stretch. Using it here wasn’t enough to see me all the way to the top by any means, but it gave me a boost when others had finished theirs which allowed me to gain another big bunch of places.

Coming off the leg snapper, my biggest worry was always getting back into the big ring.

I’ve de-chained a bunch of times doing this maneuver in free rides, so am super conscious now of timing and positioning. As such I would likely have lost several seconds on each lap taking my time to make sure I transitioned smoothly back up.

That said, it’s definitely better now that I have oiled my chain.

Overall I’m fairly happy with how I performed on each of the leg snapper climbs today. Pacing myself better, I would prefer to have seen each time around 1:34, rather than one low and the other two high, but first lap excitement clearly got the better of me.

With the three laps done, it was off to the Innsbruck Forward KOM for ~30 minutes of climbing.

Again, heading into this the aim was to sustain around 3w/kg for the duration, give or take. Innsbruck Forward KOM, much like many of Zwift’s climbs, has some short flat sections thrown in, and as above with gearing, I do struggle to maintain consistency during those flats. It’s a choice between switching from the little to the big ring, or accepting lower wattages but removing the risk of losing my chain.

I’d rather it was simply all up hill, but then, I’m not mother nature.

Truthfully I was feeling pretty knackered going into this climb. The racing yesterday, plus the previous three laps had really sapped at my energy levels and the 3w/kg idea went out of the window. I was between 2.8-2.9w/kg as best I recall for the majority of this one.

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As ever on the climbs, the pack totally fractured. Every rider for themselves and all that. I’m not entirely sure how much aero actually helps on a climb.

What I did do was save my feather from the final lap to use when things got steep. I managed to use mine the first time we hit 10%, which was fairly low down the climb. Still, I feel I used it in the best position, all things considered.

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Heading up to the line I was happy enough with my final position. At the start of the first lap I’d been in ~450th, and here I was chasing down 253rd. Not a bad push considering my initial feelings when led in bed only a few hours early. I’d not wanted to do this one.

I managed a final push for the last 500m or so, and even tried to push harder for the line. But I got pipped out of a place as the chap behind me totally steamed me in the sprint. Fair play, no way I had that kind of power left in the tank.

Probably the best thing about today’s result was my heart rate. Under a 170 average after a hard ride? I’ll definitely take that all day long.

Happy enough with my average power as well, given how I was feeling ahead of this one.

Really confusing on the results – clearly above I came in 254th place of 646 riders. My final placing however was listed as 234th out of 753 riders (as per Zwift Companion App). Weird.

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Bit of celebrity action as Zwift co-founder and CEO Eric Min was riding again today. Fairly sure he was in last Sunday’s 10am start, too.

The biggest win for me today was smashing another 895 calories off the 10k January Challenge. I can feel those pizza socks coming my way real nice. Of course, I’ll never equip them but by jingo I want them. I’m quite the sucker for virtual tat.

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It was nice to see a decent result on the critical power graph also. I’m not quite sure I put 100% faith in this thing, but at 202w over the hour it’s re-assuring progress towards actually being able to ride at 206w (my ftp) for the hour.

This is a goal I set for myself in my yearly review so I’m very happy that such immediate progress towards that goal is showing. However I definitely put a chunk of this down to the reduced friction from oiling my chain. Seriously. Sounds crazy but my bike was obviously in a bad way from my lack of love.

OK, tomorrow is rest day, that’s for darn certain.

And then it looks like Tuesday night I’m in the 17:12 Tour de Zwift: Stage 3 race, which is 2 laps of Watopia Hilly Route. Not my favourite circuit, for sure, but I’ll take 2 laps over 4 any day of the week.

Wanting to race + group ride each of the Tour de Zwift stages is really challenging. I’m not sure how competitive I’ll remain as the weeks march on, but for sure it’s a fantastic workout.

Have you been taking part in the Tour de Zwift? How are you doing? Leave a comment and let me know.