I have already gotten caught up in past hunts for 60 second power, 20 minute power, most repeated efforts on Richmond and Yorkshire (nobody even cares about local legends on Zwift.) and less we not forget the hunt for ten orange jerseys. Why? I don't really know. Why was I obsessed about each Alp section for two or three months? Why did I train for an all out session on Ventoux? Because I need goals.
So why in the world would I want to climb twelve stupid red, yellow, and blue mountains when I hate climbing? Answer, to race down as fast as I can. Why do I try to shave off two or three seconds on a downhill of ten minutes? I recently rode on Watopia for a short warmup. I sprinted down the hill, taking the virtual qom on the descent. I have all of the France descents. (not that anyone should care about their best time on a virtual downhill anyway.) I don't want to start on Watopia, so I decided to let someone else have the Watopia crown. (I beat them by 3 seconds) She will never know. And when I looked at her ride, she tried really hard to get her time down. But, the sprinter in me just takes it from the very start. It was the same way I beat LVH in last year's sprint by half a second. She put in a huge sprint. But I had so much speed going into the sprint that I didn't need to hit 12 or 13 w/kg to win. I admit, it took me about seven attempts to beat her. My first attempt put me in second place by only 0.02 if I remember correctly. But I threw everything aside to beat her. Training and racing that same sprint until I got it just right. My time in practice before the Academy was under 22 seconds! But breaking 23 that month was a huge, huge task.
There are three new climbs coming to France and the Madone is rumored to be coming but only in Watopia I'm told. While the Alp and Ventoux are sort of manly macho climbs, the French view the Madone as a weaker climb. I'm not sure if I can explain it. I guess it is just softer, less steep. Ille Gardner ripped the throat out on her ride this year, demolishing the former times. Maybe it is in the name. Maybe it's because it has never been included in the Tour. All of its rides are pure time trial performances. It is a climb for purists, a virgin climb. It is a bit too long for me to perform well. I hated training on Ventoux. But if your coach was an hour specialist on the track, sooner or later you get forced to make a long attempt. Riding an hour at full intensity is so exhausting physically and mentally.
I love sprint training and racing. It has taken Zwift years to finally start real sprint races. I won two of them! Scotland was by far the hardest because it included two climbs up the Sgurr with three sprints. I won all five that race. I took six or seven sprints in a Richmond race, skipping the first of two climbs to save my strength for the sprints. I wish we had this years ago. I could use a race like that now. But they are very rare.
In between now and the Academy, I will be doing some pointed workouts and probably another attempt on the Makuri route. I will probably do the Madone even though it is 3 km longer than in real life and it will take over an hour. I think both Ventoux and the Tourmelet sit at 62 and 61 minutes for me, and no I will probably never break the hour on either of them.
I'm excited for the last Academy in November. I hope the races will be good for a sprinter to win. See ya!
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