We’re already in week 2 of the Zwift’s June OG Racing series, and usually I’d have had a week’s rest between races, but not so this time around. My previous race, Stage 1 on the Hilly Route, was Saturday.
It was hot that day:
It was even hotter today:
The one saving grace would be that we were on a flat circuit for today’s race – taking on 3 laps (plus a very long / essentially 4th lap) of the London Classique circuit.
Unsurprisingly there weren’t too many Brits in the line up today. Some. But not many.
However, I actually think it was probably more sensible to stay indoors on a day like this. With zero cloud cover, even 45 minutes out there would have been ridiculous. It’s still, and it’s humid, and generally it’s just not much fun. But it’s here to stay.
With my shoulder / arm issues, I am enforcing indoors only when it comes to cycling for the foreseeable future, so really the only other options were to pass up on the ride / race entirely, or go for a walk. I’ve got blisters on my feet from walking, so that only left me with the option of skiving off, or getting on and sweating it out.
As hot as this one was, it wasn’t particularly any harder than any other race. In some ways I feel I did slightly better than usual.
Pacing was key, more so than usual. I was very conscious of not going too hard, because I knew keeping my body temperature under control would be important in keeping the heart rate down.
I feel I got fairly lucky with the power ups today. On offer, I believe, were draft van, aero, and feather. I got a feather and a couple of aeros. Had I had it my way, I think I would have swapped the aero for the feather on the last lap, but I don’t think I was too hard done by.
The key point each lap for power up usage would be the Whitehall Road segment (according to Strava):
That’s the little short, but fairly steep climb heading back up to the main roundabout. That comes slightly over 1/2 way through the lap and getting a good exit from there is crucial to remaining with the bunch. Expect the pack to go hard there.
For me, I think it was the second lap that I risked falling off from the group after Whitehall Road. Had they not slowed, I feel I wouldn’t have managed to get back on. I was fortunate there for sure, as it would have been race over from that point onwards.
As it was, I was with the front bunch until the very end. Within 1km to go I was rocking 5th position. Of course I knew that wouldn’t last, and how right I was.
At the 500m marker I was hovering around 30th – typical really – but decided to get out of the saddle and ‘sprint’ home.
Well, I probably overcooked myself – in more ways than one – and unfortunately Zwift’s racing leaderboard crapped out and wouldn’t show me my final spot sadly.
ZwiftPower has me in 29th, which sounds miles back but was only 4.6 seconds off the pace. I’ll consider that a pretty good result, all things taken into account.
That does beg the question what to do tomorrow. It’s another toss up between indoors or a walk. If I walk, I will smash up my feet. If I stay indoors it is probably best to do a lower intensity effort, partly due to the incessant heat, and partly with the idea of doing an FTP later in the week… if the heat abates. I can’t fathom a 20 minute hard effort in a sauna.
Anyway, that’s this week’s race ticked off and in the books.
I wonder what lies in store for Stage 3?
