Off we go with a new Zwift ZRacing series for 2023. This one is called Flat Is Fast and will cover four of Zwift’s worlds over 5 races. Each week features a new stage, and much like the Race Makuri series, this one ends with a two part back-to-back stage.
You can read more about the Flat is Fast series over on Zwift Insider.
In theory I shouldn’t do that well on the flat stuff. Being on the lighter end of the weighing scale, apparently I should be better at climbing. But I struggled like crazy during the various climbing stages of last month’s Race Like A Pro series, so was hoping for a better result today even on the flats. The main strategy today was to stick with the bunch.
Being flat, 20km in distance, and with a 100 or so riders on the start line, this one was always going to be rapid.
From the off it was a strong pace with a good size group (70ish) got up the road.
I’ve been in similarly fast circuits before and fully expected this one to remain really tight until the two punchy little climbs on this route.
There would be the ascent out of Fuego Flats (about 10km or half way), and then fairly shortly after, the lift out of the water tunnel ~15km or 3/4 of the way through.
As expected, that first climb towards Titan’s Grove turn off split the bunch massively.
I put in an as much as I could, but towards the top I was falling off and was certain I would be dropped once the pack hit the dusty switch back descent.
Somehow though, I held on.
I was fortunate here. Because of the size of the group going into the ascent, there were enough people around me to help me find a wheel and get back on. Having come out of the top around 30th, I was still able to grab a bit of recovery whilst falling back, then have recovered enough to give it something to get back in touch as the front runners took their recovery.
After this I was fighting against myself to bring the heart rate down.
That was the whole of the battle for the rest of the race, from my point of view.
There would be the second punchy climb out of the water tunnel, then a gradual drag back up towards the Tempus Fugit area.
The front bunch had thinned down by this point, dropping at least 20 riders from the first climb. It was getting harder to get that high tempo recovery.
But then the bunch slowed. I’m not sure why. Maybe they were recovering, preparing for the final quarter of the race.
I was aware that at some point, I would be saying goodbye to the front runners. The truth is I’m not strong enough to stay in touch. It always feels like the front 30 or so are at tempo or low threshold where I’m burning significantly more gas. Combine that with the high heart rate and when push comes to shove, I have nothing in reserve.
So really it became a case of sticking with them.
I knew if I fell off the bunch it would be a fight to save whatever spot I had been spat out at. There were riders behind, though how many was hard to tell. All I knew is I could see sporadic green dots on the map on the companion app.
I thought I’d done alright in my effort to climb from the water tunnel, but even burning pretty much everything I had left I found myself falling off the bunch with 3.5km to go.
Here’s where course knowledge came into it.
Knowing that what lay ahead was a little 1%, maybe 2%, then back to the flats, I was able to mentally find it within myself to push hard, briefly, but just enough to get back on.
After that I was safe in the knowledge I would make it to the (start of the) end with them.
Given how absolutely panned I was, I figured I had 200m of sprint in me. I was averaging around the 190bpm heart rate in the pack, and the final 3km saw an uptick in pace such that I was at FTP already.
My game planned quickly became: make it to 200m or so, then gun it with everything and anything you have left.
I knew I’d be dropped, and at 500m to go that happened like clockwork.
There was simply no way I held back 500m of hard effort in the legs.
So I resigned to race anyone around me.
Except there was no one. Awww.
I still gave it my all at 200m, or whatever was left that could be counted as my all. But yeah, I was 3 seconds behind the guy in front, and had no one behind.
Still, I made it with the pack… almost. Close. The closest I’ve ever come, I think.
Flat was indeed fast.
