Zwift Racing League

In an effort to not get more and more unfit, and to have something to help try and keep a competitive edge I'm taking part in Season 2 of the Zwift racing league.  (Nominally I took part in season 1 already - but Chester Tri only had a team in the A league - and having been dropped within the first few minutes due to just not being good enough I had very limited engagement).

For Season 2 we have also entered a team in the B league, of which I have the dubious honour of being Captain.  To be honest, what this means is that I am clearly not going to be able to improve my power output so significantly over the first few weeks that I get promoted - and so am one of the few regular Chester Tri Zwifters who is a guaranteed "B" rider.  (And a bottom B at that).

So, would I recommend the Zwift Racing League...?  Well, its a qualified yes.

• Its fun (as long as you like working hard and making yourself feel slightly sick)
• Its a good way to have a different (and virtual) social contact.  Really important in the current Covid world
• You'll probably work harder doing this than you would if you just ride
• but unless you are a top category rider don't expect to be at the front of the race - there are some seriously good riders out there.  Know your expectations and enjoy trying to improve yourself.

In case you are interested, here's how the race was for me...  Prior to the race I'd done a virtual recce of the course (there's loads of great info on the web) and so knew what to expect.  The normal hard start leading into two steep and short climbs that would split the field apart - before flattening out and then into one longer climb before a nice flat period, and then repeating it all again!

I actually managed to get a decent warm-up in - and so started spinning up as the race started, and watched myself slip back down the field.  Now I had no illusions of being at the very front, so I wasn't bothered too much about this - given the field would split on the climbs I wanted to try and get into a group somewhere in the middle of the field and see where I could go and how much benefit I could get from the drafting effect.  So I wound up my watts a bit, and nothing - still going backwards through the field and then I hit the first climb.  I hoped here that I would catch-up with a few people on these and we'd get a blob forming up - maybe a bit further back than I'd hoped, but it would still be OK.  10km of solo TT'ing later it was clear this wasn't going to work.  I was managing to hold a group ahead of me at about 20 seconds, but I was never going to catch them; so I slowed to let a couple behind catch me (and so I could take a breather on their wheel).  And to be honest, that was about the race - the 3 of us rode most of the rest of the course together - catching a couple of others on the second lap, and the strongest 3 of us made it to the finish line, where I completely mis-timed my sprint to come third out of the 3.

At the end of the day the numbers and power data were pretty much spot on what I should expect; and after a Christmas break and limited training this is probably better than I could have expected.  Next week is a TTT so hopefully my team mates won't abandon me within the first couple of KM for that one, and after that I'll just push a bit harder off the line.

If you are racing on ZRL I hope you are enjoying it, and if you have any Zwift racing tips then please do pass them on!