This morning I took part in the Tour of Watopia: Stage 6 – Against The Clock. This involved 3 laps of Watopia Flat. In total, about 460 people took part.
Stage 6 was ridden on Time Trial (TT) bikes, so no drafting.
A 9am start, on a Sunday, whilst feeling knackered from yesterday wasn’t the best way to get into the event. I put on a brave face and got onto the bike with ~2 minutes to spare before the event started. Not ideal, but the kids needed breakfast.
Out of the gates I set off at a leisurely pace, watching the pack spread out immediately, with me chasing up the rear. My feelings were simply to see the ~30km through, and whatever time I could put out would be good enough.
A lot of people go too hard at the start in my opinion. I managed to gain 50 places just by going at a steady pace.
Anything around 180w would be good enough for me on this ride. My legs were not feeling optimal, shall we say. If I hadn’t had the Tour ride to attend, I might have skipped today. I mentioned this yesterday – the fear of missing out.
Whilst this was three laps of Watopia Flat, there was a fair amount of uphill involved.
Zwift Insider has Watopia Flat down as 10.3km with 54m in climb per lap. My legs were not appreciating the sprint followed by the climb.
Zwift can be really inconsistent in user experience.
So as it happens, the Sprints were timed on this stage. Fine. But normally, on a free ride, when sprinting you will get a time on screen showing how you’re doing. Not so in the tour.
I figured it wasn’t timed. As such, I kinda gave up half way through the first sprint. And given how my legs were feeling, this was probably my best shot at beating my previous PB.
Yeah…. not so much.
Turns out it was timed, and my half hearted attempt wasn’t that great.
As above, the sprint section is followed by a climb – most of the elevation for the entire lap. It’s nice, in a weird way, but it’s also taxing and I just didn’t have much to give.
Lap 1 done. I was feeling tired, and not appreciating having to do two more. Again, without this being a Tour stage, I’d have probably wimped out at 15km and called it a day.
Interestingly, being “forced” to keep up a “decent” pace meant I reached 11.1km in 20 minutes. I’m pretty happy with this, considering how I was feeling (probably 4 or 5 out of 10 on the day). A few weeks back I was struggling to make 10km in under 20 minutes, so always happy to beat that time.
I managed to get through a good chunk of Kasabian’s greatest hits on this ride. I’d thought about listening to a podcast on this ride. Cycling + podcasts are a pretty great use of my time. But being late to the party and not wanting to alt+tab mid ride meant I stuck to whatever I had available on the phone.
The second lap was a grind. My vision was largely on the slowly ticking down kilometers left in the event. I tried harder on the second sprint, beating my previous time by just under a second, but having burned my legs out over the last 5 days or so, I couldn’t set a new PB.
Get ready—Stage 6 is all about high-speed action. Consider this your own personal challenge. Give it your all and see how you stack up.
https://zwift.com/tour-of-watopia
We’re back at Ocean Boulevard, trading climbs for the fast-paced Watopia Flat. Take off from the pier, continue downtown, and ride through an undersea tunnel into a familiar California coastline. Find your rhythm and stay on the gas. PRs will be broken today.
Zwift promised me I would make new records on the Tour Stage 6. You lied to me Zwift!
20km in 36 minutes 9 seconds. Decent. Happy with this. Even with tired legs and low overall motivation and energy, this was a fairly decent pace for me.
End of lap 2. That one was the hardest of the three for me. Half way there, living on a prayer.
Lap 3 wasn’t super eventful. I’m not a huge fan of doing laps. I’d rather see lots of stuff once.
Boom. Level 13. Dotted socks unlocked. All worthwhile.
Third and final sprint. Amazingly my best on the day. Total wiped me out though. Note the big section of blue before the sprint 🙂
Still over a second off my best.
These little rollers towards the end were so taxing. I just wanted to be done and dusted.
I didn’t get any screenshots approaching the line as I was engrossed in a sprint finish.
321st of ~460 riders. It’s about where I’ve finished in all the other tour stages, so overall can’t complain.
I finished 14 minutes behind the leaders. Motorbikes shouldn’t be allowed IMHO.
Strava confirms this was not my finest hour. Still, it was a good workout with over 500 calories burned before breakfast.
Bit gutted that Windows Zwift does not seem to carry over my stats from Zwifting on a Mac or iPad. These figures are somewhat misleading, but whatever.
2 pizza slices earned. Fantastic. I have about 8 cold slices in the fridge from last night’s tea.
Of all things I’m most happy with the sprint finish. I can’t help myself. It’s partly that I just want the damn thing over with, and partly cus I’m goaded into it by my monkey brain. Must. Go. Faster.
A hearty bag of meh to that graph.
Thanks to everyone who gave me a ride on. I try my best to screenshot them all, but I know I miss a few. Much appreciated.
Next up on the tour is the 7th and Final stage.
This one looks absolutely brutal. I’ve been trying to train as best I can for climbing this monster. It’s going to be a long, slow process. But I’ll make it. What a ridiculous way to spend a Sunday morning 😀
Ok, until my next ride – which may be Wednesday, as I’m having at least Monday as a rest with that crazy climb ahead – have a good one, and ride on.