Stage 3 of June’s Zwift OG Racing series saw us heading to Richmond, for a single lap (praise the lord) of Richmond 2015 UCI Worlds Course. Basically one full circuit of the entire map.
The long and short of this one is: if I could have made any more mistakes with my power ups, it would have been some kind of record.
Speaking of which, the power ups on offer today included a new one on me:
- Aero
- Anvil
- Steam roller
The steam roller was the new one. At least, it’s the first time I can ever remember seeing it in use. I think I read about it on Zwift Insider a long whilst back.
I had to ask, mid race, what it does. Thankfully someone gave me the info I needed:
It makes the rolling resistance of cobbles equivalent to smooth paved tarmac. Probably not that useful to me, overall. But interesting and good to know, all the same.
Today’s field was only 34 deep. That meant sticking with the bunch was absolutely essential, as it was unlikely a second tier would form. All or nothing.
I was nearly caught out at the start, under powering somewhat and having to then ramp up quite a bit to get back into the thick of it.
Fortunately though, after a pacey start, the speed dropped to the point where I got a decent endurance period to pretty much fully recover. From then on, things didn’t really push that hard at all on the flats. Meaning almost everyone was likely saving themselves for the three punchy climbs in the second half of the lap.
My first power up was an aero. I used that to help on the first sprint of the day, finding myself off the front after that. Dropping pace, I was then swallowed and nearly spat out as I re-adjusted. No major drama though here.
Going through that sprint arch I got my second power up: the anvil.
A very useful power up on Richmond. Use that on the very long descent before the three climbs and you can absolutely rocket down the slopes for next to no effort. Talking 80kph speeds possible there.
However, I fudged my deployment.
Going through the second sprint banner I decided I could maybe chance it. I might be able to deploy the Anvil, whilst then getting a second power up for later use.
Only, my lack of map knowledge let me down. The second sprint banner is still about 1km or so from the long descent. All I did was weigh myself down. Then have to use more effort than I might have otherwise just to stay with the bunch. Stupid.
And all I got for that was another aero.
I then had to use the aero where I should have used to the anvil, on the long descent, just to keep in the pacey bunch. And for that I had to sprint.
In short, by the time I got to the bottom of the three climbs I’d already done three punching efforts and one sustained push… all on the ‘easy’ bit. Whoops.
That said, even without those efforts I wouldn’t have been able to stay with the front. Well, I could… on the first climb. But I would have maxed myself.
Instead, I went for a paced effort up the first climb, aiming for 300w.
That went well, but saw me drop back to 30th (of 34).
I crossed the KOM banner in 24th for a time of 1:43, which stacks up to previous efforts as follows:
I can’t actually remember the previous events, but I don’t feel great about how large the gap is there.
Knackered, I dropped the second anvil power up of the lap too early, using it as soon as I hit a slope, rather than on the really steep descent part. That saw me lose several more places, dropping back from 24th to 27th by the time I hit the bottom of 23rd Street KOM.
I didn’t claw any spots back on that climb, and faded about 3/4 of the way up.
After that I got the steam roller. Pretty sure there’s no cobbles on from there, so that was a good power up to get.
As I hit the final, unnamed climb of the day, I had fallen back to 28th.
It became a case of gluing myself to the wheel in front and hanging on. I figured I could go at an FTP pace, or what I would aim for in an FTP test, anyway.
And that was probably my best part of the race. I managed to claw back the 27th spot, hold my power to the top, and then get out of the saddle and push to the line.
The person behind me held on, but I managed to break the draft and pull away, albeit fading once more about 100m from the line. However, it had been enough.
Not a great result. But a solid effort all the same. I can’t say I didn’t try, I’m just massively outclassed in B.
For whatever reason, in the recent patches my result doesn’t seem to show on the leaderboard. For that we have to head over to Zwift Power.
After I was absolutely drenched, sweating stood still even after my cold shower. I hadn’t realised just how humid it was.
Glad that’s in the books, and now to an easier ride tomorrow before Thursday’s FTP Test.
