Today’s ride was the Tour Of Watopia 2021 – Stage 4: Longer Ride, and for this one we were off out on the Big Loop, covering the Epic KOM (again), a jolly around the Jungle Circuit, and then back home via the Volcano.
Whilst this wasn’t (in my opinion) the hardest ride of the Tour of Watopia so far, it wasn’t exactly a breeze either.
Fortunately today, having had to work very late yesterday, I was due an early finish. I still only just made it on for 4pm, but for once, I didn’t miss the start.
This, I feel, helped with today’s time. I reckon I would have been at least ten minutes extra had I had to play catch up, again.
Going into this one I was feeling… well, a bit knackered. I didn’t get a great night’s sleep yesterday, and as above, I worked a long day yesterday. The thought of doing 40km on Zwift wasn’t exactly thrilling me.
Ahead of time I knew this one involved yet another trip up the Epic KOM (actually I quite enjoy this climb, especially sans Radio Tower), but it did involve a lap of the Jungle Circuit, which frankly I don’t think anyone ever does except when forced to ride during events.
As ever, today I had some technical difficulties.
Very early on, my heart rate monitor crapped out. One day Wahoo will respond and (hopefully) send me a replacement. That Tickr 2 is absolute cack.
So that ended up in an unceremonious heap on the floor.
I’m wondering if mucking around with the HRM mid-ride caused the trainer to lock at a set resistance again. This happened during Stage 1 where I had to pedal at about 75rpm for the whole ride.
Today it kept me at a steady 90rpm. More my pace, if I’m honest.
I ended up putting in a solid ~30 minute opening effort – I’m genuinely unsure how I didn’t get an FTP bump for that. I absolutely slaughtered myself.
OK – one little tactic I learned today on the forward Epic KOM descent:
Power through the sneaky 10% hill on the down hill portion. As above, I lost 7 or 8 places to this. I simply went along at my same old pace, but the guys behind me caned it into the hill and zipped passed me.
Lessons learned.
After this I managed to find a little bunch which I clung on to all the way to the bottom of the Jungle Circuit.
In my head I knew once I hit the start of the climb back out of the Jungle Circuit I would spin back up to 95rpm and crack on.
That said, I definitely found this second effort much harder than the first. Whereas I’d maintained 3.5w/kg or greater on the Epic KOM, here I was struggling around 3.2 to 3.5 max.
At this point I just wanted it over with.
Once over the ridge of the Jungle Circuit (by the windmill), I managed to hook up with a couple of other riders who kept me at a very brisk pace pretty much to the finish line.
They were definitely stronger than me, but I enjoyed having to work hard to keep up.
Also… well, it made the ride finish faster. Bonus.
Heading into the finish line I dropped my aero boost at 500m.
Rookie mistake.
The other two, plus a third we’d been caught by, absolutely murdered me in the final sprint.
Fair play to them. I’d emptied my tank and was more than happy with my performance.
Post ride, the graphs show that it was my all time best performance(?). As such I’m really unsure why I didn’t get an FTP bump.
What I will say is it’s a bit weird really – sometimes I feel great before getting on, and I have average or sometimes even poor performance.
Other times I feel less than optimal – nutella on toast breakfast + cheese & ham sandwich for dinner – and then go and smash it.
God knows.
Anyway, glad that’s over with. Not checked Stage 5. I know we have the Alpe at some point. Hopefully not midweek.
I think tomorrow, all being well, will be another relaxed outdoor ride. It’s cold up here at the moment though, so worse case it will be a very laid back / recovery spin on Zwift.
However right now, I’m enjoying a sit down and a cup of tea.
