Hewly mewly, it doesn’t feel like that long since I did Stage 1 of this years Tour of Watopia… and that’s because it’s not. I only completed Stage 1 on Thursday, and here we are already doing Stage 2.
There’s only five stages this year, to the very best of my knowledge, so within two rides we’re almost half way through. And honestly, this wasn’t the most inspiring of routes today. Two laps of Watopia Waistband. I guess we get to see all the main areas of Watopia, but … yeah, not exactly a thriller of a route.
I meant to get on this one at 10am. I was up in time, had had my coffee and was kitted up. Only I couldn’t find my heart rate strap. Frustrating. Long story short, I ended up missing the 10am start and doing this one at 11am instead.
That actually meant I got a fairly chilled hour in the lead up, and got in a good warm up before things kicked off. That definitely helped as usually I feel all kinds of tension in my legs having to immediately ramp up from the ‘Go’.
Knowing the total distance today was ~50km, covering not a huge amount of climb (maybe 200m total), I was hoping / aiming for a 1h 15m time, or there abouts. Of course I could never achieve this outdoors, but with a huge peloton, Zwift physics, and a decent level of intensity on my part, I was confident I could achieve that sort of time.
Lap one was fairly uneventful. It was mainly about settling in, finding a rhythm, and slowly progressing up the small groups until I found the one that best suited my pace. That happened to be around the 190-170 spot on lap one.
Expecting to feel pretty tired, I was instead fairly comfortable after that first lap. I have to suspect that’s due to warming up. Strange that. It’s almost like there’s some method to the madness.
Things definitely got more interesting on lap two.
Of course, this isn’t a race. Many Zwifters, particularly on a Sunday morning, do like to get stressed about this sort of thing. Race or not, I treat these events somewhere between a race and a very fast paced (by my standards and capabilities) group ride.
As in Stage 1, the key for me was not getting dropped during the descents. OK, so there aren’t a huge amount of down hill sections on this one. But there are a few places where in a true race I reckon I would have been left for dead. One is after the UFO climb / down by the entrance to Titan’s Grove, another is around the Italian Villa (think it’s called that) heading towards the Volcano, and the last one is after the little rollers in the Volcano.
All of those spots required definite intensity from me today, particularly on lap 2. That’s after putting in a stint on each little climb. I’ve no idea how Zwift pack dynamics work, but I keep finding myself on the front of the group, then with no change on my part, pushed right to the back as people fly past me doing less work… quite unusual.
It was during lap 2 where things became more fun. More racey.
Our group was large – maybe 30 riders. Ahead of us was a group of 20 or so. Having that shiny group of Tron bikes ahead by several seconds but slowly reeling them in was something to keep the mind busy during the lap, and definitely worked to take thoughts away from my tired legs.
As we finally got within a few seconds of them, some brave souls at the front bridged and we shortly after became one huge group of 50 or so riders. Not sure who put in that effort but it looked like a strong effort from my point of view.
I noticed a good few riders dropping off our group as we got within 15km of the finish line. In my mind I wanted to hang with the bunch all the way, though I was sure that with so many riders I was very likely hanging around with people who were working at considerably less intensity than I was. That would then show in the finish as they ramped up as I ran out of gas.
Fortunately I picked up a very welcome feather power up as we passed through Downtown for the second time. I’d grabbed a feather at the same place on lap 1 and used it on the little ~2% lift out of Downtown that time. This time I held it for the bridge in to the desert area. That definitely worked out better, keeping me slightly fresher for the finish.
Again as we came towards the last few kilometres another small group appeared ahead, and the work to catch them was strong. Those riders would take us in to the top 100, so I knew the desire to swallow them up would be strong. The question would then be whether I could use the speed and momentum to carry me home inside the top 100.
Even though it annoys / annoyed some people at the time, yes I did go for the sprint finish. I always do. It’s all part of the fun for me, but I can see why it would annoy those out for a true group ride. It’s not a race. I get it. But on Zwift it’s always a race.
Either way, it’s a good workout.
Now, according to Zwift power I did manage to finish inside the top 100. Just.
Yeah, pretty pleased with that. I had my head down as I crossed the line, working the drops to push out whatever I had left.
Why I show the screenshot though is to cover a couple of things:
- The time I see in Zwift is not even close to the time on Zwift Power… weird
- The separation between me and the front of the pack didn’t look as vast as 7 seconds at the time.
As much as Zwift does seem to be improving as of late, it’s still really poor that what you see in game is not necessarily what is happening in real life, so to speak. That’s where RGT Cycling kicks Zwift’s ass. Determining rider position on the Client side is a really poor choice for online games.
Anyway, all in all as I say above, a cracking workout.
I’m knackered honestly. Much as I often am on a Sunday as of late.
Whether it’s sunny or rainy on Tuesday, my next ride will be some kind of recovery. I’ll take it outdoors if I can. Bit of a shame to stay in today as it was nice enough to get out. But even so I wanted to put in this ride early, giving myself the chance to take the week day rides without unnecessary time pressure.
I think Stage 3 of the ToW22 is the Alpe. That’s all good, so long as it’s next Saturday or Sunday. Ideally Sunday. I need to check the diary.
