A new week, and a new race. This time around we took on Stage 3 of May’s Zwift Crit Club racing series, seeing us travel to the LaGuardia Loop over on the New York map.
I couldn’t work out if I had raced this route before. It turns out that yes, I had. Back in 2019. Pretty wild how far I’ve come, looking back at that.
Fortunately there were no 200+ bpm heart rates to be had today.
Not to say that this wasn’t hard fought, however.
As usual, we set off at a decent pace. I had managed a short warm up, better than some weeks but not a truly ideal pre-race ride in an ideal world.
After a fast start however, we settled into something of a “relaxed” pace for lap 1.
I thought the nice and manageable pace might last for a few laps, heck, maybe even the whole race. But no. One third of the way through lap 2, several riders split and it was up to the pack to get on it and follow them.
From then on, the pace was higher. Or maybe it was just I was tireder, and it felt harder. Either way, I was no longer in my comfort zone.
The key to this LaGuardia Loop is that there’s really two major parts of what is a very short lap. I think the laps come in at 2.3km.
Going from the start / finish line, there’s a small gradient of around 2% about a third of the way around the lap.
However, from there it levels out, and even descends a little bit. That’s the time for recovery.
Things heat up again as you come to just about 1km from the finish line. First you go down, fast. 8% is the order of the day, so you need to keep with the bunch of risk being dropped due to the speed surge.
After that, as you pass the Y junction on your mini-map, it’s time to drop power ups.
If you have a feather, drop it earlier than you might thing. This bit is fast, and the recent Zwift patch means feathers last 30 seconds now, I believe. You will have plenty of time to tackle the short but sharp slope immediately ahead.
But then once you crest the ridge you will see the start of the NY Spring segment, and that’s all downhill.
So the struggle becomes keeping that intensity going when your mind is screaming at you to ease off on the down hill. But that’s when you have to push the hardest.
Phew.
I think I learned that the hard way on Lap 3 when I very nearly got dropped. From then on I had to really push to get back into the pack, and I’d cooked myself for a good while after. Fortunately that came mid race, or I would have truly struggled.
Of course the last lap was frenetic.
As best I could tell, two riders had got up the road on Lap 4, and the bunch didn’t seem massively interested in reeling them in. It certainly wasn’t my job to bring them back. I was at the edge just staying in the draft.
But with the two targets up ahead there was something of a surge even earlier than normal on Lap 6. Again I wasn’t anywhere near the front. I was out of the saddle to stay in touch. I’d been slightly less lucky on Lap 6, getting a Draft Van power up which I’d used early doors. I felt like I needed to get the recovery in whilst I could, and I’d trust my natural abilities (lol) to see me right at the end.
Amazingly, even without power ups, I finished strong this week, reeling in 5 extra places from the bottom of the climb and over the finish line. Pleased with that. Much better than last week.
All in then, a tough race but an enjoyable one.
I feel I earned my spot today. A solid workout, and a circuit that I felt didn’t absolutely destroy me.
Oh, and 9 minutes faster than my last race here. If I’m another 9 minutes faster in 3 years time then there’s chance for me to go pro I feel.
