It doesn’t seem like four days ago that I did three laps of Zwift’s new Scotland map, on the Rolling Highlands route. But today I was back there for another lap (and a chunky lead-in), this time under race conditions.
Having ridden the route three times (or once, but three laps), I knew that the second half of this race would be where things were decided. In particular it would be the corkscrew climb that would almost certainly cause chaos, and so I was mentally prepared for that.
From the off, this one wasn’t too fast. I’d had about 5km of warm up before hand, and made sure to adjust my trainer difficulty down to around 15-20%. I think I had it slightly higher than last time, but only by ~5% or so.
If anything today would be the true test of how much difference that trainer difficulty setting makes on a longer race – though this would only be 1 and a half laps (including lead-in), so around 14km, and ~100m of climb.
I’d have to say I was working hard throughout this ride.
So much so that I wasn’t paying that much attention to the group size or splits. I gather we split into two bunches within the first kilometre, with maybe 2/3rds of the 90 riders in the front, and the rest blobbed up behind.
But beyond that I don’t know how things panned out during the ride as I was on the edge most of the time just keeping pace.
Looking back at the pictures it’s very clear to me that my map knowledge is pretty lacking for this route. It appears that we zig-zag around quite a bit, and in particular we crossed the start / finish line at the end of the lead-in, and then again at the end of the ride.
Now, this probably sounds obvious. But around 5km in we did head back up the riser that makes the S-shape curve back to the start / finish line for the first time. During this time I had an aero power up that I was somewhat undecided on whether to hold on too, or as turned out to be the case, was very grateful for in helping me cling on to the bunch on that aggressive little incline.
Had I known that was a trial run of what was in store at the end, I might have paid more attention.
Why that’s not particularly obvious is because on the lead-in, you skip the corkscrew. Somehow on the lap proper, you hit the corkscrew and then rejoin the route and hit that incline back to the line once again.
The pacing between the start proper of the first lap, and about 3/4 of the way through, really wasn’t so bad.
At one point we crossed a banner and a bunch of riders got Draft Van power ups. From there, they all used them at once and the entire bunch slowed so much I was able to ease back to tempo, preparing for the corkscrew finish I knew was ahead.
Tactically, I saved the Draft Van power up I had received, hoping it might come in handy on the climb out.
Once we hit the bottom of the corkscrew, things inevitably blew up.
By using the draft van, and my legs, I was able to kick up hard and come out still in touch with the front runners. It took a bit of a further intensive push, but because of the short length of the climb, and the long length of the power up, I got back on and held some hope of a good finishing spot.
Within 1km to go I was right at the front. I knew that wouldn’t last, but was hoping I’d be in the top 20 – not a bad result for me in a field of 90.
Sadly then reality called.
As I mentioned above, that last kick up to the finish, whilst not steep, is enough to absolutely slaughter you if you emptied the tank on the corkscrew, as I had.
I could see the bunch split and head out to the line, and those final 300m seemed to go by at a glacial pace.
I managed to crawl over the line feeling like I’d given it everything… and then I looked up and saw I’d managed 40th?!?
Outrageous.
Honestly, sometimes I feel like I’ve done shocking and it turns out things went better than expected.
And then sometimes I feel like they went well, and it turns out … yeah, not so much.
Today was the latter, which was a bit hard to take given how much effort I felt like I had put in (or out, depending on your POV).
So all in, whilst I shouldn’t be disappointed – I did after all set a new 15 minute power record – I still feel like I should have done better.
Ahh well, it is what it is.
And if it’s any consolation prize, I unlocked what I consider a really rather snazzy new kit. One I actually shall wear, and have changed into already:
Anyway, Zone 2 tomorrow.
Unless there’s a suitably timed Stage 4 make up ride for the Tour de Zwift 2023 that I can get in too.
