The 9km race in B Grade, and it’s a matter of holding on to the A Grade riders until the very end.
The race was a bit of a disappointment, as there was one rider in the B group who was riding on ZPower and clearly riding way above the B grade. Their result ends up being classified as a DQ. The rider didn’t help the race, as one A grade rider tried to catch them in the break when they really didn’t need to do so.
If you take them out of the equation, I ended up 1st in the B Grade, and 3rd overall.
With 8 laps in this crit race, I kept burning the match each time I hit the Cobble Stones, and hit the last lap, the field stretched out and I found myself in 6th position.
Not much of a break and with over 700m to go I am behind the leader by 4 seconds. I grind away to have an exciting finish. I watched the reply many times and was surprised to not see the board light up orange in the final stretch.
I am meant to be tapering this week, but I can’t say no to a 10km quick, short, and hard Zwift Race.
With a tight small group, I was keeping my eye out for the guy in the camo top, as he had made several breaks, which meant I had to get off saddle to catch up.
But in the end it was a rookie mistake, as I had my eye on the wrong guy when it came to the sprint finish.
Exciting finish as you see when the power up runs out, and its just left to pure power to get you over the line at 14:55
What better way to spend a lunch break that hitting the world of Zwift for a flat out 6.6km Zwift Race.
I always find these rides hard especially when you are mixed in with the A grade riders, and you have know idea who you are racing against. (Guess you are racing everybody????)
Do I make it to to the end? Watch to find out and ignore the thumbnail.
Fridays are meant to be a rest day, but I figure If I can get in a crit race early in the day, then I can “recover” for the rest of the day.
Usual tight group for the entire race until the “Prime” hill section around the 1km to go part at 21:13 This part at about 6% hill starts to see some people using power ups, and thins out the riders.
Shortly after that I am coming 3rd, and now can see both riders in front of me have used their power ups, and have both got PR’s for that Prime section. This tells me they are now working at their hardest, and it might be a tough sprint to the end.
With 500m 21:56 to go, there are 2 riders, and the 1st is a full second ahead of me. Will I have what is needed to get over the line. Watch and find out (ignoring the thumbnail of course)
Lunch break, check Zwiftpower and notice a 10km race you can squeeze in, heck why not.
One of those races where you are mixed in with the A grade, and its going to be a tough 13ish minutes. So around the 06:16 mark, we get a single A grader make a break, and never see him again. For the rest of us, we are bunched together fighting tooth and nail.
With 700m to go, a group of about 11 riders, and I am watching the board and the riders for anybody who is going to make the break.
600m I drop the gears to get off saddle to get some higher watts, but still keep my eye on the pack.
500m to go as we make the left then right turn, and we start to see the power ups appear.
400m to go, you notice a couple riders are off saddle, now its time to slap the gears, pedal hard and see how far you can take it.
I think this was one of the hardest watts I’ve pulled in a sprint getting up to 924w, and I am just grinding away, I have 2 people to catch up to, and with 90m to go the board is lit up orange, everybody is going hard.
I just….. manage to get over the line. 1st in B grade, 2nd overall with the A graders. If this race was about 2m longer I would not have made it.
Who has two thumbs and didn’t realise the change in Daylight savings being over meant these rides started an hour earlier? That’s right Me.
Before I knew it, I had 10 mins to book up the PC, get everything ready, and then I was getting ANT + issues. I had to quickly unplug it, turn it on and off, and hope I get into the second race on time.
So, this race there were a couple of people trying to make an early break and hang onto it. It didn’t last, and I think its very hard to pull this off when the race is only 13km long. Everybody has something in the tank, and even with a group of 6 in a draft, its still going to be hard pulling over 4w/kg with no draft for most of the race.
It once again came down to the final 500m, and this track has a kick at the end where the hill can make of break you.
I just cracked going over the gears as they make a god awful noise, whilst trying to maintain the lead.
Happy with the result, just a shame I missed the first Crit race.
The final 800m at 22:27 see’s the race dynamic change as there are a bunch of riders using early power up, and then the top 5 quickly changes from those who went too early, and to those hanging in for the final sprint.
I was just unlucky with the power ups today, and ended up holding the steam roller for the end. Sure it made the road smooth, but can’t compete again an aero and they are pulling 13 w/kg.
Exiting finish, so enjoy the ride at 2x speed and watch till the end.
After spending the Easter break consuming way too much chocolate, what better way to burn off some of that pent up sugar energy that to race in the Zwift Crit City Race.
Trying to work on my cadence, and try to remain in the saddle, today I’m riding 95-100 RPM and leave the best till last.
I wasn’t riding too much in the red, and you can see from my colourful graph I wasn’t burning too many matches before the end of the race.
Watch at 2x speed for fun an enjoyment, or simple skip to the 20:33 Lap 8 (Last Lap) for all the excitement.
Hard race after burning the candle at both ends in the race before this one. A little bit longer, and I wasn’t riding as hard compared to the previous one.
It came down to a hard uphill sprint at the end, which I didn’t have enough to keep up. Happy with the 3rd spot, and well done to those in the race tonight.
Well done to the Australian Mogul Ski team for both races tonight, maybe next time 🙂
Nice to re-watch these in 2x speed or just simply skip to the 17:32 Sprint Finish