Last month ended with me being sick and having a dropout two minutes before the Worlds Qualifiers. And as I type this, I just had another dropout in the middle of a TTT in the Zwift Racing League (ZRL). Not fun.
The dropouts were in two different places – two different kinds of dropouts. On the same trainer, no less – one of the magical “1% accuracy trainers” that make virtual cycling a completely level playing field (*sarcasm).
It’s been a frustrating few weeks, but there have been some big positives. So let’s get the bad stuff out of the way first.
Following the wireless failure at the Worlds Qualifiers, I tried to ride myself into form with the ZRL London TTT just two days later. It wasn’t my best performance, and it was my first TTT in over 6 months, but we finished second, and I was starting to feel better.
Up next was Round 4 of the Zwift Grand Prix, a Points Elimination Reverse format (they’re getting too complicated with these races and names, in my opinion) on the Chasing the Sun course. In short, there were five primes plus the finish, with increasing value over the course of the race.
Only a handful of riders would score each time, and those who scored were immediately eliminated from the race. Our team – NeXT pb Enshored – planned to leave it late. But what ended up happening was much more nerve-wracking. After four primes, we had only scored 1 point and were sitting around 10th place of 12 teams.
My role was coming up next: a late attack to win the fifth prime. And that’s exactly what I did. My attack wasn’t perfect, and it certainly wasn’t pretty, but it worked, and NeXT vaulted to the Top 5 with just the finish line remaining.
James ‘Ol’ Reliable’ Barnes won the bunch sprint for second, and just like that, NeXT won the freaking race.
I was incredibly proud of my effort and contribution to the team, and it was nice to get my confidence back after nearly three weeks of feeling off the pace.
The next day was the opening round of the Echelon Racing League on Wahoo X RGT. I finished 2nd in a bunch sprint. I’ll leave it at that…
On Thanksgiving morning, I lined up for the 5 am KISS race, a series that I have missed dearly over the past few months. It’s very difficult to fit weekday 5 am races into my schedule, but I’m always glad that I do. I actually surprised myself with a great ride, finishing 2nd out of the breakaway (a rarity in Zwift) with a Normalized Power of 379w for the last 28 minutes of the race.
The second round of the Echelon Racing League was…I got ridden off the wheel at 500w.
Fast forward to the next round of the ZRL, three laps of Sprinter’s Playground. 12 sprints in 40 minutes, plus the finish. It was brutal. I rode a solid race all around and scored the Fastest Through Segment (FTS) on one of the long sprints – that’s not easy for me.
As the calendar turned to December, I lined up for the fifth round of the Zwift Grand Prix: the Team Elimination Omnium.
The format of the race was too long and confusing to spell out – I’m not going to bore you here – so here’s what you need to know. There were three rounds of racing: in Race 1, the Top 30 riders moved on to Race 2.
In Race 2, there were three primes and the finish. At each banner, the Top 3 riders qualified for Race 3 and were eliminated from the race.
Race 3 was a 15-minute hill climb up the Innsbruck Reverse KOM.
After skirting through Race 1 with a long sprint (800+ Watts for 30 seconds), I went into Race 2, ready to execute my plan. I had done my homework during the week and knew that my best chance to be Top 3 in a prime was to attack it from 1k out.
So I studied the course and picked two spots that I could attack: Plan A and Plan B. When it came time to execute Plan A, I went all in. You have to go all-in during these races. 90% doesn’t cut it. My heart rate hit 191 bpm as I crossed the line and qualified for Race 3.
The Innsbruck climb was a wash. I was out of energy and motivation halfway up, so I rolled in for 10th. Another fantastic result in the Zwift Grand Prix, putting NeXT pb Enshored high atop the leaderboard with just one round before the March finals.
In the next 48 hours, Team USA will announce its roster for the 2023 UCI eSport World Championships. I’m hoping to make the team, and I believe I have a really good shot. In all honesty, I can’t see how they wouldn’t pick me.
Once I know about World’s, I can dial in my training for the next 10 weeks. It’ll take some careful planning around the holidays, but I always enjoy riding at that time of year.
As for racing, I have a big block coming up next week with ZRL on Cobbled Climbs and the Virtual Tour of the Gila on RGT. I’m much more excited about one than the other. I’m planning a huge training block between Christmas and New Year’s to cap off the year. Stay tuned to see if it (happens or) works.
Coaching by Alex Coh at Endurance Sport
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Up next
Zwift Racing League Season 2 Finale – December 13th
Echelon Racing League: Tour of the Gila – December 16-18th
MyWhoosh: SRC Prize Money Race – December 25th
Training Block – December 25th-January 1st