This morning I took part in the 9am Tour of Watopia: Stage 5, Tempus Fugit. This is a 18km time trial race that’s not a race race. Which is to say that whilst Zwift bill the tour as not being a race, each event is timed and ranked.
There was a decent attendance, despite the fact that it was 9am on a Sunday morning. I’d set my alarm clock for 8.40am, giving me enough time to jump out of bed, feed the kids, and get dressed and on the bike. But no warm up.
I got about a minute of gentle spinning in place before the race begun. I had low expectations for my performance after the Giro d’Italia taking a toll on my legs yesterday.
If I could maintain at or around my FTP (183w) for the race, I’d be happy with the performance.
I figured at 18km, the ride would take about 35-40 minutes, which is longer than the FTP test 20 minute maximum effort. As Zwift has guesstimated my FTP, I’m still not 100% sure what I could achieve as a maximum over that duration. I’d say around 200w would be a really good result for me at the moment, so riding longer than 20 minutes probably meant sticking to 170-190w would be a good shout.
But heck, I’m no expert by any means. All just guesses.
Out of the gates people were clearly going for it. I wasn’t even above 100w yet.
Right away the pack split into three distinct bunches. The front runners, the strong middle, and then where I was.
To begin with, there was a 3km lead in. This counted as part of the overall 18km total ride distance, but was only about getting to the real Fuego Flats start / finish line as best I understand it.
Being a newb, I honestly didn’t notice the lead in for about 2km. I thought we were racing from the off, and went up to my FTP pretty quickly. This turned out to be a bad idea for my legs later in the day, though at the time I felt fine.
I don’t know if it’s cus I have ramped up the graphics to 1080p, but to me the scenary is looking noticably better.
This pack around me was who I stuck with for the entire ride. For once, I found that I was with a pack of riders who I could stick with, but were pushing me. This was a really good motivator for me during the entire ride.
I had only a few km to go on my weekly 100km riding goal. I’d like to get back to doing a 50km ride at weekends, but my kids had a party to attend to, and a 50km ride takes me about 2 hours so that was a no-go today.
I’m sure this ride was double draft which is apparently just the equivalent of what a real world draft / drag reduction feels like. I wouldn’t know. I can’t say I found riding at ~180w any easier alone or in the pack.
I felt I’d pushed for a while and needed a breather. I wondered what would happen if I took my foot off the gas. Would I get dropped? Could I fall back a bit and then push and rejoin? Only one way to find out.
I dropped off to about 140w, dropped a few gears, grabbed some water. I tried faster spinning rather than grinding.
Ultimately I didn’t want to lose the riders in front of me, so had to get over my sweaty discomfort, dig in, and stick with them.
The riders on the left hand side were already vastly far in front of me. They had been up to the roundabout and were on their way back.
It was a bit demoralising to glance at the mini-map and see just how far the strongest riders were already ahead of me at this point.
The roundabout is a cool UFO thing. It reminds me of Forton Services.
Definitely noticing a better graphics representation. Genuinely can’t wait to start Zwifting on a GTX970, if this eBay transaction ever works itself out.
The day night cycle on Zwift is crazy. Was night time a few km back.
Around this point either everyone took a bit of recovery before the final push. Dropping down to green on the graph, and still keeping up with them. The double draft system was working absolute magic.
I was wondering if there would be a sprint finish. I was trying to figure out how early I could go.
I tried a very short lived breakaway, and was promptly swallowed back into the bunch.
I decided I would go at 500m left.
Having a rider in front of me to keep as a pace marker was helpful, and I wondered if I went, who would come with me.
Huge jokes. I went too early.
I had to take a short breather at ~400m. It cost me a place. I was a bit gutted. But I learned some things about myself. Time to practice those 500m sprints.
The scores on the doors. 34 minutes 48 seconds. Good enough for 229th out of 463 riders.
Overall I tried my best on this one. Happy with it. Can always do better, and have some new priorities sorted.
The Zwift companion app is a really cool way to view performances. Seems to odd to me that this is not available in the full laptop version.
There’s no end of ride report for a Tour of Watopia, or any event stage, it seems. Here’s the only screenie I could grab.
I wonder when I put out that 193w 20 minute average. I felt like I gave a better effort than I’ve ever given on this ride. Obviously not.
Basically 35 minutes at my FTP. That’s not a bad workout. And a bloody good fun one to boot.
Cooling Down on New York: The 6 Train
Some new swag.
Got the Tour of Watopia kit drop for completing the first 5 stages.
And the pink giro hat and socks combo. Which my kids say make me look like I’m a girl. Good stuff.
New York’s 6 Train circuit has some really nice short bump climbs. Bit knackering, but great training.
I’d have loved to have gone for a longer second ride. Time commitments.
Happy with the set of bumps I did.
Ultimately I aimed for 15km, and got that in, just. Then I had to get off the bike.
No idea what is in store for the next stage of the tour. Looking forward to it though. Will likely be next Sunday, 9am when riding.