Oof, a nasty one today. One that caught me out. I have definitely completed the London Loop route before, but the gotcha on this race was that it was 1.5 laps… so we hit Box Hill twice.
I’d had a dental appointment this morning so it wasn’t like I hadn’t had time to do a bit of pre-ride recon. Not only had I checked out the route on Zwift Insider, but I’d also looked at the Zwift Companion App for the ride, and that’s where I’d booked my slot.
Yet I had missed the whole 1.5 laps thing.
Fortunately none of this actually became clear to me until we’d been up Box Hill once, and were just about to head back up for the second time. That was a fair chunk into the race, but it still wasn’t the most welcome of surprises when I had the realisation.
Being a climbing race, I fully expected to be dropped during this one. My game plan was actually to hit Box Hill at my own pace, and to heck with trying to keep up with the bigger boys and girls. That would just lead to me blowing up.
That said, I was lulled into a somewhat false sense of security when, within the first 3.5km we hit the bottom of Northumberland Avenue Climb (up towards the big London Roundabout), and I came out the top almost at the front. This was a tad unexpected, and I very quickly reined myself back in.
Out of the gate I’d had the plan to try and keep my head today. Play it cool. Keep in the bunch. And if at all possible, keep the wattage down whilst drafting, really trying to do as little as possible so that I had a decent reserve for that stint up Box Hill.
Again, I say I did my recon but I was caught out by how quickly we arrived at the bottom of Box Hill KOM. And how quickly I was left behind.
Actually, I wasn’t that surprised by that second point.
I did my own thing on that first climb, taking the first climb to the switch back a little over eagerly, and then putting a steady pace from there on up to the top.
I’m not surprised to see that as a PR in Strava. That must be my first sub 8 minute effort on Box Hill.
But to put that into perspective, everyone in the Top 15 (and likely beyond) had done a sub 7 minute effort, so … yeah. Already way off the pace.
Because of the split on the climb, for the rest of the race I was pretty much in a pack of 3.
Now, this narked me a bit because I felt like one of the three really wasn’t pulling. And what confused me was that this guy was someone we had caught up, so clearly he had been ahead of us on the first climb, meaning he definitely had it in the legs to work.
No matter what I did, he wouldn’t take the front. And if he did, he basically stopped pedalling and let someone else on.
I got annoyed and kept putting in digs, which he would chase, and then I’d ease off and so would he.
But, in truth, he totally out classed me. Not just on the final climb, but tactically.
See, as previously mentioned I had not realised we were doing Box Hill twice. But he clearly had.
And so me putting in a stint between the bottom of the first climb, and the start of the second, along with those few little digs, they had all only served to help him get there faster, whilst using far less effort.
I’m not daft enough to think I’d have had any kind of chance of competing with him up that second climb even if I had been fully recovered. But I definitely worked way too hard, mostly out of frustration.
Ahhh well, a great lesson learned there.
Two, if you count the lesson about properly seeing what’s involved in the route before hand.
Anyway, that’s Stage 2 race out of the way.
Stage 2 for the Tour of Watopia looks very silly. 70km on the Longer ride, and even the shortest ride is about 30km. I’m not sure how I’m going to fit them in this week. But I will try.
