2023 World Championship

 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.

It's Been a Long Time

...since I rocked the bike. Sorry I haven't been keeping up. There hasn't been much to write about. I won one week of the ZI Tiny Race series. ( I don't count any races unopposed as wins). I just fall apart after the first race it seems. I did the new time trial series and came in 11th place after three A's. Next time I will just be the slowest in the A cat. But, It is a five week commitment and time and training is precious. I just can't skip the Tour de Zwift, even without a working gc chart. The tiny races are short and fun, so I will probably keep doing them too.

What else can I say? I'm getting older and slower. It's a bit depressing. I wanted to ride the ten world challenge before Scotland is released. But I am very busy lately. Who knows, some day. Let's hope Scotland is fun. 

2022 Zwift Academy Winners

 This is not an official Zwift Headquarters list. Winners have not been verified at this time.

Women's Sprint Winners:                                    Men's Sprint Winners:

1 Zee Kryder               22.552                             1. Paul Baker          19.576

2. Liz Van Houweling   23.060                              2. Pete Murray         19.774

3. Tilly Field                 23.242                             3. Jun Kamotora  (*) 20.186 

Women's Short Climb Winners                            Men's Short Climb Winners (4 way tie)

1. Alex Morrice (*no strava) 1:23                        1. Ramses Brito        1:13 (no strava)

2. Liz Van Houweling           1:24                     1. Cooper Sayers      1:13 (no strava_

3. Cat Ridgway                      1:25                     1. Mihael Stanjnar     1:13 (pro rider)

                                                                       1. Cyril Grangladen  1:13 (no strava)

Women's Long Climb Winners                             Men's Long Climb Winners

1. Madi Roberts                   6:35                         1. Deino Cratis (no strava)     5:43

2. Alex Morrice (*)               6:37                           2. Cris (no strava)                  5:49

3. Cat Ridgway                    6:43                          3. Marc Mading                    5:51.29

Zwift Academy 2022 Second Place Sprint...No Wait..First Place !

      First, I entered with overall poor fitness. ( I finally took off some weight, but I lost a lot of power, a whole lot of power. My ftp went from 260 to 230, seriously.) I was only practicing my sprint. I had a good sprint while training...23.23. In my baseline attempt, I did a 23.191 with 9 w/kg in the sprint section. I started super early and coasted the last 100 meters. Consider this; someone beat me with a 23.060 with over 12 w/kg. That means they started the section at a much slower speed. (42 kph vs. 50 kph) So, I'm still sitting in second place after two weeks. Kudos to Lisa Houweling for being in first place... I Rod is in third at 23.278.

News Flash.....

Currently in third place... Tilly Field at 23.243

In Second Place ..............Lisa Houweling at 23.060

In First Place....................Zee Kryder at 22.552

It was on my third attempt in a 3R Race on my tt bike. I had a 23.4 then 23.2 and I almost quit. But instead I just tried to do my 10 second sprint and see if I could hit a good speed before the start line. Then I hit the big gear and tried to mash it and of course, I was flailing with 100 to go but somehow hung on. I was shocked because I thought I lost too much time at the end. This was the culmination of three weeks of training and attempting that sprint forward too many times to count. It helped having three chances in a row to hit my mark. It is good to know that I recovered well from the first two attempts. Now I can sit back and hope that nobody outdoes me in the last two days of the academy. What a rush. I was thinking about this sprint all day. I drank four cups of coffee. I was so disappointed to only hit 23.4 on my first attempt. I'm so glad I didn't give up then.

Now, maybe I will try to crack the top ten on Titan;s Grove before the ZA closes. There are some serious fast times this year.

A New Day

     Still training to get some strength back. Making enough improvement to practice the old London 8 course. So I finally made a full on attempt to regain my qom.  Managed to get up Fox Hill in great time. I was 20 seconds down on whoever beat my old record by one second. I was trailing the whole way until two minutes until the finish. I finished hard as I could muster, and I had it by10 seconds. Ummm, it felt pretty good. I was knackered, as the Brits say. 

Has Zee retired?

      It looks like I have retired from racing. What happened to Zee? Well, I don't see a lot of the old racers anymore. It was definitely more fun going head to head with people I knew and faced in several series. I have just gotten to an age where I can't train like I use to. My power has faded in the last six months. I fear doing a ftp test. I won't be up in the top for the next Academy. While that's not all that bad, to go from nearly making the top ten selection to also ran is very tough mentally. 

     What then is my legacy? I've had good number of QOM's but most have faded. It isn't a realistic view when it comes to Strava records, way too many fake times. The qom's I have left were z-power before I got my power meter in 2017. I held some for five years. A pro race on Richmond's Cobbled Climbs beat my long-standing record by nine seconds. (Still the fastest time trial on record if there was a category for that. ) My 22 second climb on Richmond eclipsed,still top three though. My London record beaten by one second after many years. Another record was 'beaten' by a trainer that read 400 watts the entire time. 

     I'm proud of my accomplishments. I have my 5th place in the European Championship Series. I have my National title. I was elated to win the Zwift Time Trial Championship with a time that was a minute faster than I ever expected; a perfect race with great legs.

     I still enjoy Zwifting. A good number on Zwift still recognize me and say hello when I go by. I haven't written a Zwift Insider article for a long time now. My Zwift group, ZwiftOff has gotten lost with so many other groups. I applaud them rather than compete against them. I finally shed a few pounds myself but I did loose strength as well, sadly. 

     Thanks to my readers. I hope you enjoyed some insights to a racer. The days before the pros showed up were like the cowboys of the old wild west. I look forward to new expansions and ride for fun series. At least I knew my days would at some point be 'the good old days.' I held onto them as long as I could. Here's to great memories. And don't worry, I'll always be around Zwift.

Mixed Win #5 Tour de Zwift 2022

 This race was the bomb. Why? Well over 500 riders strong entered this event. To win at this level is truly an honor. I have done really well in this event over the years, especially winning the 2020 Tour (when it was a true race with a GC total). I just recently learned this course. You've got to sprint before you see the finish line. I pushed hard in the last two minutes but 30 seconds from the line, I was seeing the back of the pack of 20 riders. I hit my sprint and my aero power up early because I needed to build speed, mainly to catch the front of the group. It was hard to see since there was some lapped traffic. I saw a 2 next to my name and it looked like I passed him but I had to wait about five minutes for the ZP official results. I WON!

As it turns out the other rider was a lapped rider that accidently tripped the finish line. Zwift does that occasionally. So I actually beat the next rider by .279 seconds. I will take any win at this point. I got tired in Stage 1from staying over 4 w/kg for 12 minutes or so. Stage 2 I did good for about 16 minutes. So a race 16 minutes long was just perfect for my condition, no endurance. I had hoped to podium when I got into the final lap. Sometimes the pack will slow before the final sprint which helps a sprinter win. On this occasion, the pack built speed and I just had to hang in there and pull the rip cord early. I was amazed as I went from 16 to the front with a good bit of real estate in front of me. Fortunately, my long sprint is my specialty and I hung on to win. I am over the moon. Mission accomplished.

Finished the Tour with 76 total for eight events, averaging top ten! I'm very happy with my finishes, even without an official GC, I know I was up there with the top riders.