Welp, I thought this one would play to my “strengths” but no. I got my usual Thursday pasting.
September’s Zwift racing series sees us take on the “Get Rolling” races, which are intended to be beginner friendly. By which I guess they mean shorter.
Which does, of course, mean faster.
Fun is fast, right?
Probably, is the answer to that. I mean, I’m evidently not very fast so I’m never able to have that much fun during any of my Zwift races.
I figured I would be in with a shot at the bunch / sprint finish today.
Nope.
Dropped, yet again.
The pace today was pretty bonkers. Within the first kilometre I’d spent more time in the red than out. I’d needed to drop an aero to keep with the bunch on the climb out of Downtown Watopia, though it is usually a pretty hectic start.
I expected it to settle.
It didn’t.
I was dropped within 4 minutes of the race starting, just after the Bridge sprint. From there I tried, in vain, to get back on but it wasn’t to be.
There formed a second split a couple of seconds up the road, but the only other person with me wouldn’t work with me to get back on. Instead they went tactical, putting in just enough to keep behind me but never pulling their weight. Super frustrating, but I get it. It’s a race and the gap ahead was slowly growing, so why not play it that way?
Well, I tried, several times to create a gap between myself and them, but I wasn’t able to make it stick. Each time they clawed me back, which was quite disheartening.
At this point it became a race of absolutely not getting beaten by this person.
However with 1km to go they pulled ahead and our gap between us two and the smaller group in front that had never truly gotten away, but we were never able to catch, began shrinking.
Could we catch them in the final kilometre?
Spoiler alert: no.
However I think downright anger saw me claw back the spot from M. Yamamoto as we came within 200m of the line. I launched my sprint from their slipstream but immediately, as had been the case in the previous ~5km, they matched me.
Only this time I didn’t give in.
To hell with that. I was taking my coveted 19th place 😀
I’m glad I got that.
Anyway, it is another terrible race placement to add to the list. But overall a decent ~15m effort overall, coming close to my previous PB. So pretty pleased with that.
Rest day now though. Something I am good at.
