I have to recognize that as someone told me, "You know, it isn't real" Get outside and do something real." I have been thinking about a lot lately, trying to overcome a few issues. But, this was a great challenge. I didn't know it would get such support on Zwift. Hundreds raced.
My race was fairly small, 8 of us plus a French rider that I later thought might be there to assist a friend or team mate.
The race started fairly well. I pushed the start to see if everyone was going to race and the group stayed together. After the climb out of the tunnel which I again dropped everyone (just wanted to see who had the legs to pull the rest back). I was breathing hard trying to slow my heart back. It was 162 and not going down. it had froze. I kind of paniced. I tried tapping it and pulling it out but still not changing. I should have unsnapped it and dried it off. Instead I grabbed my backup, the Tickr and had to pair it. The group was on the flat and not pushing hard. However, when I had it back I was 13 seconds back, then 10 and I realized I would have to sprint to catch them. You can see it on the graph.
Onto the volcano climb, I started to hit on the rise before exiting the volcano. I opened up a 4 second lead. Wanted to break off before the climb so nobody could draft me. Went at a good pace and watched them split up on the rise. I think there were four almost together. But then it became two and two. They started to fall back. I saw them under the banner as I made the turn onto the downhill. With my weight and a few digs, I opened up a one minute gap. That is doable over two people. The pair behind them were 20-30 seconds back. Would they regroup and work together to pull me in?
As the gap held, I kept my pace up, forcing myself to go hard on the rises. The French girl behind seemed pretty strong. I was fading a. Still, it was 2 minutes as we approached the volcano. Their time behind was mostly unseen. I was only seeing myself on the right side. Near the top, I had lost 30 seconds. I finished the climb but my legs were numb so I used my feather power up to get back a little speed and got an aero at the banner. I rested on the downhill, just working on the rises and the flat through the volcano. By the bottom, I had regained my legs and felt i could run. They seemed to be doing 3 - 3.5. Once i was at the 700m to go, I knew I could finish hard. Dig for speed and just try to survive until the finish line. A lot of the time in this race, the gap and riders behind didn't show up. I was guessing I might be up a minute but maybe 30 seconds as the 1 km mark came up.
I had turned off the live broadcast and just had my music. This was the culmination of two months of hard racing (although the crit series started in October?) It has been tough. I felt really tired lately. Skipped the gym the last two weeks. Overslept tuesday, rode recovery thursday. I couldn't sleep last night. Probably over-training (edit: yep exactly). As far as I know, a fellow Swiss Zwifter who is faster than me, had to work today. So, I am not the greatest in my mind. And it wouldn't be fun if the others hadn't kept working to make it a tough effort. So, I won despite a fairly foolish attack that somehow worked.
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