Points Winner! Tour de Zwift 2020

Like my blog title suggests, I always thought of a stage race for Zwift and this year I have it scheduled out. Pity their isn't a time trial but rather we have double draft in every race. In other words, "Stay in the Draft!" I did that pretty well so far.

As of four stages including the rather long double climb of Bologna, I am leading in the B cat. I realize that a few A racers are chumming up the water but that's racing I guess. I get the benefit of the A racers when I can draft and the curse when their group drops me and continues to haul my B rivals over the hill. It's all for fun, but seriously, the rules will change zoon. I am robbed of points for every A racer in the B cat race that finishes before I do. I've been able to average 80 points per race. The only question is what the race is for Yorkshire Stage 7. If it is two laps, I'll struggle. If it's just one lap, then only stage four was a 45 minute event and I did pretty well by just hanging in the group for the flat parts. It may have even been a 45 minute avg record at 256 watts.

In my workouts, I've done intervals and time trials for training for this. I'm using the Tour to shape up for Nationals. I think it will be a long stage again. Yorkshire would be great, even two laps would be better than two laps of Watopia figure eight like last year. I've heard there may be no power-ups, which is what everyone seems to be asking for.

I'll edit this page after the tour. PS There is an A racer winning the C cat races that is ahead of me on points but I'm going to give her a big DQ for all points.

Update: I have more than 100 point lead which means I only need finish stage 7. I have 446 points. My competition can max at 384, 437, and 339. I'm not following the C and D cats yet. I can always try to redo New York if I need a few more points. But, I doubt I would care enough too. After stage 7, it is back to serious training.

Update: I just finished stage seven in good fashion. I made the front, lost touch on the climb but rallied from 32 to 24th place by the finish. Plus, there were 11 A cat riders that finished ahead of me. Oh brother. That was hard and fun at the same time.

Now, I'm just waiting to see how many points I scored. Then I will have to wait to see how many the C cat rider has. She has a 9 point lead going into the final stage. If I get beat, should I redo the New York stage, which was my lowest points? I don't think I care for this point system. I finished the last stage at just over 20 minutes. The pros did it over 19 minutes (they saved a minute on the climb over me for sure) Still I can in 26th place for stage 7 this week, counting all of the pros. So a good conclusion and I'm in great shape with a 4.03 ww/kg ride. Good for my FTP. I really needed a bit longer to warm up today but I got home late with nine minutes to go. Huff. Puff.

Looks to be a 2 way tie in the men's race:
Heiko Lehman and Stefan Kirchmair look to tie with 700 points.Yes, a tie.
There's some B and C riders I haven't looked at yet, will wait till Sunday's finish.
Three B riders: Choppa, Kevin Selker and Ian Upcott had 700 points
In women's :
Zee Kryder with xxx points 531
Shabbi Shabbi is C cat has No Strava but has  xxx points 526
Also, a D cat rider Alison Riley with 447
And Shayne Vans in the women's only event at 50+ years and 4.9 w/kg. (and you wonder why I prefer the mixed races.)

Final Results

My GC time was 3:09:40 but it seems the GC list is not a total function but is missing a lot of riders.It is only counting the group rides and excluding the group races in the results. Still not fixed glitch.I have made a new post with gc now that all stats are in.

Tour of London Winner

I won the three stage Short Tour of London (B stages, not the longer A stages). I stayed with the A group for 20 minutes in an FTP effort on stage 1 finishing in 8th, then 6th place stage 2. Then a good effort on stage 4. My training was a bit off lately because I didn't have a firm goal fixed in my mind.

Next, I'll target some Tour of Zwift stages. Yesterday got a QOM on the finishing sprint on the new Crit City course. Couldn't race this earlier due to Tour stages. 3 and 5 left me exhausted.

World Champion Road Race Results

In addition to the time trial world championships, Zwift also has road races this weekend.

Women's Results:
1. Alexandra Nohlis  1:06.58
2. Teri Cashmore       1:08.49 (no strava)
3.Kristen Bitter          1:08.50
4 Ruth Vickers           1:11.01
5 Sara Wets                1:11.54

Turnout was extremely low. Zwift, why can't you do better at promotion?

Mens Championship road Race:
1 Lionel Vujasin 2:15.26
2 Darius Zarbiba 2:17.06
3 Igor Kopse       2:17.40

Nobody else really came close to the times from this race.

Academy 2019

Well, time to check my numbers, now that the Academy is drawing to a close.
Here's a snapshot I took:

How did I do compared to last year? First, let me say that I was using the program to peak for the time trial race. So, I did the workouts and then concentrated on using the speed I built to focus on endurance. My forty minute was only 1 watt less than my thirty minute in that race. Both 30 and 40 minute bests were all time bests. Yeah. My hour was 241 compared to 249 in a race 2/18 against Beth. Racing beats training every time especially when it is neck and neck to the finish. Looks like I got the best 30 second sprint? (in watts, just missed it in w/kg)

What's next? Don't know. I'm not doing the long women's elite road race, especially after how tired I am from that all out time trial effort. I need a goal and a time. Unfortunately, Zwift often doesn't release info until just before an event. The lead up to Yorkshire was just okay. They didn't really say much. And the Championships was hardly mentioned at all. There's a random prize for those who ride 290 km during Yorkshire, which I did just on that chance. So, semi-finals are up Monday October 14 and I will probably try to compete if not selected. I'm looking for ninth place, lol. Not sure if the races are top ten only or open to all? I'll probably be at work like last year

Zwift World Championship Time Trial Championships

It's been a few weeks since I've written. Why? I posted most of my workouts but didn't want to draw too much attention that I was training to defend my World's Time Trial title from last year. It was a huge ask at 30 km of hills. Actually, the hills are in my favor as they present themselves as intervals with 30 seconds or so of rest.

I trained on the Yorkshire course as soon as it opened. Then I had to change with only a week's notice that the course would be the Pump 8 course and not two laps of Harrogate circuit. I had a good run in practice, then a race. I followed it with a long steady Alp and readied myself for the day.

I knew my limits and felt great, so I went hard all the way. Maybe the opening was a little soft for the first five minutes, but it is a long race and I was saving my strength for the many hills to come. I averaged 260 watts, an all time record for me! My normalized power was 273 at 4.0 w/kg. I can't even remember how hard I went at the very finish. By then, I knew I had done better than expected. My time was about 48:30 but it's always placed higher. I had an official 48:52. Better than my 50:09 and my 50:39 in practice. I did both hills at about 275-280 and had a 3:13 and a 2:57.

I had gone into the race blind, so I was eager to see the past results....and I saw I had the QOM for the race course! All I had to do was survive in the lead for four more events and I would repeat as the winner. I didn't see any big hitters (over 4 w/kg avg). I got up at 2:30 to see the results of the last race. There was a second place finisher. I did the near impossible. I knew it last night. I knew I had it.

I'll watch the men's races tonight and add the finalists. Here's the official women's results:

2019 Women's Elite Time Trial World Championships:

1 Zee Kryder          48:52
2 Miho Shina          49:47
3 Joy Murphy          50:58
4 Rhianon Norton    51:58
5 Tasha                    52:43 (no Strava)
6 Emma Tod            53:05
7 Gabrielle Pelchat  53:16
8 Sophee Coyne      53:25
9 Claire Joyce          53:39
10 Maaaike Van der Plas 54:42

Men's Elite Time Trial

1. Sean Vintin       1:12:30

2 Shabi Blaowah  1:14:52

3. Jesper Pihl        1:14:58

4 YHM                 1:15:13

5 Fordy                 1:15:16

6 WGKS               1:15:19

7 Ed Ray              1:15:45

(Second place not verified)

Race 3

Today's race was a big challenge, longer than I realized. It was almost three laps of flat with the volcano climb stuck at the end. Rhianna Norton tore off early while I stayed behind. The B group was too slow and lost ground even when I was riding solo. So both of us just rode our own time trial.  I was happy with the strength I had to finish on the climb. I lost ten - fifteen seconds a lap. I had it at 40 seconds but I still lost 12 seconds on the climb. I hope Norton goes to the big show. She's got the power for it. I knew if I went out fast, she would either burn me or simply tire me out. Although I probably could have just sat on her wheel entirely. Maybe another day, another course. Still an enjoyable ride. Light attendance, surprising. Gonna long on in a minute and see what I have unlocked (paint job?)
Now, when are we doing those real time trials? Italy and the Pancake Desert?

Week Three

Had a great hour effort that counted as week 2 (first week was Monday-Monday?). It was a struggle to keep going but after 45 minutes, the finish was in sight and I perked up. I did the Alp in 55 minutes, so I had to make a u-turn at corner 1 and re-cross the finish line for 60 minutes.

I also did my final workout #6 which wasn't too hard as I skipped the ten minute at threshold and just rode the higher levels. It was a warm-up for the Friday night time trials on Tempus. I did a PR on the 16 km course and matched my ftp at 266. Very happy with my hot start for 10 minutes. (My previous 20 minute pace that I'm almost back up to) The guy who finished in 5th (I was 4th) gave me a carrot for the first half. I think he was trying to stay ahead until I finally passed, then he slowed down.

Now I have to do four events to get the bike I think which means the two extra are not counted? So I am taking them today. Sunday will be the long Volcano After party race. Then I can finish the Academy races anytime but I graduated yesterday so I can start to focus on Yorkshire. Zwift is only giving us three weeks? How do they fall behind schedule with all of that money. Two weeks late. (well it was waiting on the bug fixes I guess)