The New Year began bereft of the last. No training and no racing on January 1st. The opposite of most’s New Year’s resolutions. But I had a plan, one that I hoped would help me peak for the 2023 UCI eSport World Championships on Zwift.
After spending the inaugural day hiking and drinking plenty of water, I got straight back into training. January 5th was my first attempt at the Proximus eSeries, a Belgian-hosted professional virtual cycling series. There was (and still is) prize money for every stage, plus the overall classification and an intermediate sprint classification. (Unfortunately), it isn’t a life-changing amount of money. But in the virtual cycling space, any money is good money.
The first stage finished on a steep climb, and I was up against two legends of Belgian virtual cycling. After holding ~370w for 20 minutes, I finished the final climb with an average of 500w for three minutes and 10w/kg for the last 18 seconds. Want to guess where I finished?
6th. Four seconds behind the winner, Lennert Teugels.
Despite the disappointing result, I took confidence from my power performance into Sunday’s race on MyWhoosh. These races have been a big point of motivation for me in the last couple of weeks. They feature the best virtual cyclists in the world – putting out world-class power numbers for an hour – with five-minute and 20-minute segments that would blow the doors off every amateur you know.
On the Wollongong City course – the site of the 2022 UCI Road World Championships – I finished 9th in one of my best-ever performances on the platform. MyWhoosh races follow a typical pattern: the first 20-30 minutes is nuts (~390w NP), then it settles for 10-15 minutes (~300w NP), and then it gets even harder (~400-450w NP for the last 10-20 minutes).
In Wollongong, I survived the first two 15+% climbs, putting me in the front group of less than 15 world-class riders. I was happy, but I wanted a Top 5 finish. But then…I got dropped on the descent. A rookie mistake. I had done the hard work and only had the easy part left until we hit the next climb. But I lost focus, drifted off the back, and couldn’t catch back on.
But…I defied the odds and made it back. When I first gave up, I was six seconds off the back with one other rider. There was a small rise coming up, and I hit the gas at 700w in an attempt to bridge back to the front group. After digging deep, I made it. But it was hardly 30 seconds before the 2021 UCI eSport World Champion, Jason Osborne, attacked at over 10w/kg. I dug again, and again, and again…but after five more minutes, I couldn’t hang on any longer.
When I finally got dropped, I was in seventh place. The closest I’d ever been to the Top 5, and I almost hung on. A few more digs, and I would’ve had a chance.
I took that confidence into my next few races. But first, I had to survive a mental test.
In the first round of the Zwift Racing League – the course I was most looking forward to on the Chain Chomper – I felt horrible and couldn’t even finish in the Top 10. Next up was the Proximus eSeriers, but the app crashed 10 minutes before the start. It left most riders in no man’s land, and the overall results of the race were canceled.
The following day was the Zwift Grand Prix, and that was the saddest of all. I did my entire pre-race routine: timing of breakfast, pre-race ride, recovery, warm-up, and all the extra gadgets and gizmos that go into a race-winning performance. And then, I had a complete Bluetooth dropout 10 seconds before the start. Just like that, it was over.
For the second week in a row, I tried to channel my frustration into Sunday morning’s MyWhoosh race. This time, it was easier than ever – until the final climb. With many of the top riders at professional races or training camps (e.g., Tour Down Under, New Zealand Cycling Classic, and Alpecin-Deceuninck training camp), the field stayed together until the final climb. And then it was nuts.
I survived three minutes at 6.6w/kg. In order to finish in the Top 5, I would’ve needed to maintain that power for another 10 minutes. Again: progress.
Just two hours later was the NeXT Cup, a three-race series that runs until the week before the UCI eSport World Championships. Take one look at the courses and race format, and you’ll understand the connection. After racing on MyWhoosh at 4 am, I usually don’t feel great in the first two races. But by the third race, my legs finally return (most of the time).
On that Sunday, I finished 2nd in Race 3, behind my teammate, Thom Thrall. My strategy was 100% breakaways since I had no legs to sprint, and it almost worked out perfectly. After more than three hours of riding, in the fourth race of the day, I finished that 18-minute effort with a Normalized Power of 431w. One of my best, fatigued performances ever.
Two days later, I went for a 10km run first thing in the morning. I hadn’t been running much lately, but I wanted to get back into it. In many ways, it helps my mental health even more than my physical health. After running at 5:45 am, I lined up for our next TTT in the ZRL, a 35-minute effort around the Magnificent 8 in Watopia. I felt absolutely incredible and finished the race with an NP of 394w for 35 minutes. ‘Twas a great success.
My good form continued that Thursday for the first race of a massive block that would take me all the way through that Sunday. In the Proximus eSeries, I attacked at 800m to go and…made it all the way to 60m to go, where I got caught and finished 6th.
That result took the wind out of me because it’s much harder to lose when you are mere seconds away from the win. I tried to take my frustrations out on Stage 1 of the Joe Martin Stage Race on Wahoo X RGT the following day. It was a 9-minute effort, and I finished with a solid power PR of 6.5w/kg and the win at the end of the day. Despite the success, it was an empty feeling to win a virtual cycling time trial alone in your apartment on a Friday.
On the third day of racing, I lined up for Stage 2 of JMSR, which finished on the super steep climb to Mount Sequoyah. It’s a great finish for me, but I almost got dropped in the opening kilometers after a relentless series of accelerations took the pro men’s field from 30 riders down to seven.
But I hung in the front group, ate knock-off Fig Newtons, drank some Kool-Aid, and was feeling better with 30km to go. When we hit the bottom of the final climb, I set off at 10w/kg with the hopes that no one could follow. And I was right. I won by 23 seconds after producing 510w for the final three-plus minutes after an hour and 40 minutes of racing. Once again, the form was good.
However, four days of racing was the tipping point, as I got dropped in the first 20 minutes of the MyWhoosh race on Sunday. You need great legs to compete in the hardest races in virtual cycling. So I took a two-hour break, one for each bagel I ate, and got back on the bike for the final stage of the JMSR. It was a hilly crit that I did my best to survive. And despite launching my full-on sprint with 300m to go, I didn’t pass anyone and ended up 6th…in the group of six. The next day, I took a much-needed day off to set myself up for my final training block of the 2022-2023 indoor season.
I never feel good after a day off, so I wasn’t surprised when I muscled through Tuesday’s ZRL race with a lackluster performance. But I continued the reset before another easy day ahead of Thursday’s Proximus eSeries. This was the one I really wanted to win: the virtual Flanders that finished just after the Paterberg.
The peloton split up the Oude Kwaremont, where I did 500w for three minutes, but the field was still 20-strong at the base of the infamous Paterberg. Attacks started launching from the first meter of the climb, and I dug super deep as I clung to Lionel Vujasin’s wheel over the top. Jasper Paridaens was already off the front, and there was nothing we could do to catch him. I settled for 3rd, which was my best result yet in the Proximus eSeries.
Three days later – I’ve been racing a lot lately – was the Team Prize Money race on MyWhoosh. With the big bucks on offer, the level was as high as ever. The race finished on the newly-introduced Jebel Jais climb, a virtual replica of the real-life behemoth in the UAE.
I haven’t been working on my 20-minute power much lately, but I set a new PR with an agonizingly impressive number of 399w (5.8w/kg). Unfortunately, the climb was 33 minutes long, and I got dropped less than halfway up it.
It felt like there were mere milliseconds to rest before the NeXT Cup, and this time, we were heading to Richmond. I timed my sprint perfectly in Race 1 (and got lucky with an Aero power-up) to finish 3rd, only behind Joakim Lisson and Freddy Ovett. In Race 2, I solo bridged to a dangerous breakaway with a horribly painful effort of 522w for three and a half minutes. It was close to a power PR, and this time, I was three hours deep into a hard day of Sunday racing.
My legs gave up in Race 3, which featured four sprint primes plus the finish. But with the first month of 2023 winding down, I could sense my best legs were coming to the fore.
But then everything went to shit. First, my right-side shifter broke, so I was stuck in the 53×11 on my usual trainer bike (2001 Giant TCR). I tried putting my road bike on the trainer (an Argon 18 Gallium CS), but that only lasted a few days before the bottom bracket came loose, and now it’s probably trashed.
I was about to go in search of a new shifter when my car decided to die in the freezing cold. So now everything is broken, and I’m less than three weeks away from Worlds.
Long story short – it’s a very, very long story – I have a new shifter and rear derailleur mech (thanks, Dad), and my car is alive for now. I rode in the 53×11 for six days straight, and I actually earned some great race results. But now I’m back to pedaling at a normal cadence with 14 days and 10 races between now and the 2023 UCI eSports World Championships.
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Coaching by Alex Coh at Endurance Sport
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MyWhoosh: Qualifier #1 – February 5th
NeXT Cup: Watopia – February 5th
Zwift Racing League Season 3: Round 5 – February 7th
Proximus eSeries: Round 6 FINALE – February 9th
MyWhoosh: Qualifier #2 – February 12th
USA Cycling National eSport Championships – February 12th
Zwift Racing League Season 3: Round 6 FINALE – February 14th
UCI eSport World Championships – February 18th
MyWhoosh: Qualifier #3 – February 19th
WTRL TTT Cup – February 23rd
Echelon Racing League: League Championships – February 25th
MyWhoosh: Team Prize Money Race – February 26th
Zwift Grand Prix FINALS – March 3rd
Proximus eSeries: Round 4 – January 26th
MyWhoosh: Prize Money Race – January 29th
Super glad you got your shifter fixed. Ride On Z!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!