The big one. No longer the biggest climb on Zwift, and hasn’t been now for quite some time, but nevertheless a true challenge for me, and I suspect most riders. Yes, today would be longer ride for Stage 3 of the Tour of Watopia 2023 Fall edition, seeing the group tackle the 1,036 metres of hard climbing.
I’d be lying if I said this one hadn’t been playing on my mind all week. It wasn’t nerves, but a nagging question as to whether, with my long standing statistical decline, I might be still capable of posting a sub hour time on the Alpe du Zwift Strava segment.
Spoiler alert: yes. Thankfully.
My aim for this was basically use my alleged FTP as my target for each segment on the climb. For me, the Alpe du Zwift is a true FTP test. That 20 minute go hard effort is one thing, but can you really sustain 95% of that figure for a full hour?
Time to find out.
My FTP, for reference, is 236w. That’s 3.52 w/kg at 67kg.
So the plan would be hit every one of the 21 corners (22 actual sections, never forget!) at an average of 3.5w/kg. Or, because I forgot it’s 236w, I actually went for 235w as a target.
The original plan was to ride at 1pm.
However, due to the fact that I simply wanted to get this one over and done with, I went for the 12pm start instead.
I think discussing nutrition is somewhat important on rides like this. Normally I’m not overly fussy about this sort of thing, but to give myself every chance of success, I went with my usual filter coffee and toast at 8am, polished off a litre of water between about 9-10, then at 11am had a big bowl of porridge with some agar (god knows, I thought it was honey, but it definitely wasn’t, but I’ve forgotten the actual name now and am too lazy to go and check), and some currants.
For the ride I took my usual 1 litre of water, and a few sweets.
Even though I started prepping for the ride at 11:30, I was still rushing to get on just before 12 noon.
What that means is I got no prior warm up.
But not to worry, because on the Tour of Fire and Ice route you get a solid warm up.
It takes ~30 minutes of riding just to reach the bottom of the Alpe du Zwift, and along the way you get a practice climb, what Strava calls the Dirty Sopresa Climb, where I tested out of a couple of gearing options and cadences, neither of which were exactly what I wanted, but I figured they were close enough to get me where I would want to be.
After that it’s about steadying yourself on the Jungle descent, trying not to go too hard or too keen, and prepping the mind for what’s going to be 60 or more minutes of hard work.
By the bottom of the Alpe I was feeling alright. I’d paced my warm up / transition really well, and was coming in about as fresh as I could hope.
That first segment seems to last a long time, but I find it super important to find a good maintainable pace here, as it’s super easy to go out too eager. Many do.
As above, my target was 235w per corner, and by the time I hit the first bend I’d put in a 237w which was probably showing a few nerves really.
The same went for corner 20, where I still struggled to find the right balance, alternating between a little punch and then easing off. I don’t like that approach though as it’s janky and my body tends not to respond too well to it as time goes on.
Cracks showed in the intentionally over / under approach by the time I passed corner 18, where I came in under 235w for the first time. I was hoping that was just because the segment was small and not because I was already crumbling.
After that, things stayed fairly consistent, maybe a little too keen but there or there abouts until corner 11.
Essentially ten corners done, 35 minutes gone, and my pace suddenly dropped to 228w average. This wasn’t intentional, and when I passed two further corners with a 231w and a 227w average I was thinking it was all over.
Around corner 8 I pulled it back, but I mullered myself in the process. All the hard work of one segment quickly came undone as my pace dipped again, first down to 223w, and then up ever so slightly to 224w.
This same pattern seemed to repeat again around corner 5, where I posted an improved pace, followed by another big dip.
Somehow though, with three corners to go I found something of a second wind. I managed to get back up into the 230’s for the final two on-screen timed segments.
Motivated by that, I had my head down and pushed on home on the final stretch.
I’d say the hardest part on the second half today was controlling the heart rate, rather than the wattage. I was more inclined to ease off when the heart rate ticked above 180bpm.
Anyway, I crossed the line, to receive yet another helmet, with an Alpe du Zwift time of 56:53.
I was super chuffed with this, but apparently it’s only my third fastest time. That seems absolutely bonkers to me at this point. Over the whole climb I managed a 231w average, which again I feel is a true representation of my actual FTP, rather than the 236w I got from the FTP test. If I was truly capable of 236w for the hour, I would have posted that today,.
The crazy part of the Alpe du Zwift, for me, is the length of time it takes to descend. Sure, it takes 57 minutes to get up, but you know a climb is long when it takes nearly 11 minutes to get back down at over 70kph. Madness.
Glad to get to this one over and done with. Jungle Circuit next. Yippee, everyone’s favourite :/
I thought there was six events in the Tour of Watopia 2023 Fall series, but it turns out there are only five. That’s quite sad.
Rest / walk day tomorrow. Hopefully I won’t smash my phone again. That would suck.
