First, a precursor. I saw the World's three courses the weekend before the championships race and it was laden with heavy hitters. I knew I couldn't keep up, so I just raced the first part of the second race up to the top of the Sgurr. I was drafting the elite men, used an anvil on the uphill to get to the front again. (The anvil will work on the two negative stretches if you time it right.) I lost the draft then attempted to sprint to the line. I passed Ed Laverick and finished in 9th place. (I watched it on his youtube channel). I did enter the third race but was too tired, I decided to just have fun and run the sprint through the pack. I got the QOM for the Champions Sprint. It wasn't a great sprint and I slowed before the line and no power up. But I hit the start line at a very fast speed and it carried me through. Pack dynamics 4 should make this much slower.
I watched part of the men's races on replay. The first two were sprint finishes. The third race saw the winner shoot clear of the pack, come back to within one second, then extended to about 15 seconds. (Sorry, but I like Crit City better.)
The women's races were pretty good. The first race was mostly a sprint finish. The secret? You have to stay in the draft. Hit the front and the pack will fly past you. It is similar with the second race. You need the draft to keep your speed up. On the first climb, Tanya Erath lost the draft and tried to regain the pack with a short sprint but she missed and gave in. More on her ride later. The anvils were a factor. You must use it to keep up with the others or you will fall off. Brooke put in a sprint toward the bottom. Godbe had to sprint to latch back onto the leaders. As the line approached, there were 14 riders shooting for the ten spots open. Van Houling beat Brooke for the tenth spot. I kind of trust the final numbers, but it gets confusing when you watch the timer in slow motion.
LVH 1.45 1.68 1.74 1.72 1.74 1.74 F
LB 1.52 1.65 NA NA 1.73 1.77 F
These are the numbers shown in a two second window of time. Brooke is in the lead by 0.03 then not on the board at all, then ahead by 0.01 but finally off by 0.03. This seems confusing as all of these numbers are shown on the board after they cross the line. Why did Brooke's number change? I realize there are 30 racers all sending data from all around the world. But it seems like something that is too fast for anyone to double check. "You have to trust the computer." I don't.
Here's one more reason. Watching Tanya's finish, she hit the finish line, the segment timer popped up and showed her finish Sgurr segment at 399.06. How did her finish line come before the end of the Sgurr? I saw several others finish and that did not happen to them. The Sgurr timer finished before or at the same time as they crossed the finish line. I had a race in New York that ended at the sprint line. I had a great sprint time but it didn't show on Zwiftpower. Why? Because the finish line came a fraction of a second before the end of the sprint segment. Is this something similar. How accurate is the actual finish line? Does the end of the segment and the finish line match exactly? Is it exactly the same for each individual?
On to race three. What happened now? In the beginning of the race, Lou Bates is in the pack and suddenly disappears. I thought Zwift was at fault. What really happened was Lou's heart monitor was not getting picked up by Zwift (an Ant signal). They tried to restore the signal and the officials waited a short while. At the point she disappears from the screen, the officials pulled her out of the race. It was sad but accurate in accord with the rules. As soon as she is removed, her on screen wattage reads zero, just like the elimination races in the Crit City qualifiers.
Here's another glitch. When Godbe crosses the line, it tells her she finished in second place. But then Zoe's finish time comes in a moment later, and Zoe's time is less. So Zoe takes second and Godbe's screen changes to third place. It has happened to me and others. It just takes a few moments for another rider's data to register. The times are accurate, they just don't get processed at the exact same millisecond. Godbe has the screenshot showing her second but Zoe's finish hasn't come through yet. The new screenshot auto took the photo. But then I think Godbe knew she was in third.
Overall, the course was interesting and fun. But it never separated the riders as the reverse Innsbruck climb did in qualifiers. I understand that is not as exciting to many others. But watch Bates take control in that race. I was amazed at her long power.
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