This week’s ZRL scratch race was the longest of Round 3, with A/B teams completing 3 laps of Makuri Islands’ Countryside Tour for a total of 47.8km with 556m of elevation.
There are two key features of this route – one I love, and one I hate:
- I love the finish, because it’s downhill and fast.
- I hate the Temple KOM. This dirty little 7-minute monster has been my nemesis in many races.
As it turned out, my real nemesis would be the Zwift gods and their capricious powerup assignments. Or the “powerup roulette,” as I’ve decided to label it today. Read on to see how my race unfolded…
Race Prep and Warmup
The days leading up to this race saw the usual team chat on Discord as we figured out who would be racing this week and how to attack the race most effectively as a team.
Our team would feature Captain Neil, Chris, Dylan, Andrew, Enrico, and me. Additionally, and perhaps most excitingly, this week we welcomed Sarah, Neil’s wife, to the virtual team car as our DS.
What was our strategy? Pretty simple, really:
- Don’t push the pace on the front during the Temple KOM, because the slower the pack moves on that climb, the better it is for us
- Push hard to hang onto the front group over the KOM
I made two slight modifications to my nutrition/supplement routine for this race. First, I chewed an extra piece of caffeine gum, which combined with my two lattes earlier in the day meant I had 300-400mg of go-go juice coursing through my veins. I wanted to see if I’d notice the difference.
Secondly, I stockpiled two SiS energy gels for the race, instead of the usual one, just to make sure I had plenty of carbs since it would be a longer effort.
After a short warmup, in which I observed my heart rate being nicely responsive to harder efforts (thanks, caffeine!), I joined my team at the start line. Let’s go!
Lap 1
We jumped out of the Yumezi start pen and quickly headed downhill. There were 70 riders in the pack, but that number would drop dramatically by the end of the long race, which we guessed would take over 75 minutes to complete.
Sarah did a lovely job of making sure we all knew the powerup situation as we rode through the flat farmlands at a fairly leisurely pace. Since we were getting feathers, draft boosts, or aero powerups at each arch (equal probability of each), it was smart to “burn” your powerup if you didn’t have a feather yet, so you could get a new powerup at the sprint arch and hopefully have a feather in your pocket heading into the key climb up the road.
So I did just that, using my draft boost so I could spin the roulette wheel of powerups at the green arch. And I got a feather! Excellent.
The pace picked up a bit after the sprint arch as we hit the slack climb up through Village Onsen and on to the fishing village. This ~4.5km lead-in to the Temple KOM wakes the legs up, but riders typically don’t push hard, because they know the big climb is just up the road.
Soon enough we were there, turning left off the tarmac and onto the dirt singletrack of the dreaded Temple KOM. The moment of truth.
I tried to stay positioned near the front of the group, in that magic spot where you get just a bit of draft without being so far back that gaps can open up and you get stranded in a chase group.
This climb breaks up into 4 sections for me:
- The first bit up through the Temple building
- The second bit up to where it flattens out at the first bridges
- The final climby stretch, with its steep, straight final pitch into the left hairpin
- The last bit, which is mostly flat and on wooden bridges
If I can survive to the end of the second section – to that first set of bridges – I find I can usually survive to the top.
To my surprise, I found myself able to hold position consistently as we climbed toward the mystical tree. I wasn’t even on the limit! (Not that it was easy, mind you. But we’ve all felt the difference between a hard push and a max effort. Sometimes it’s only a few watts… but that’s all it takes.)
Over the top of the Temple KOM, our group had shrunk from 70 to 42 riders. A long descent followed, during which I essentially soft-pedaled for 5 minutes, letting the legs recharge for the next go at the KOM.
The Countryside Tour loop breaks down into 4 distinct sections. Here are my times and power numbers on the first lap (pulled from Strava, so times and power have some margin for error, apart from the Temple KOM which is an actual segment):
- Flat Start: 234W (~8 minutes)
- Lead-In climb: 290W (~6.5 minutes)
- Temple KOM: 330W (6:28)
- Descent: 167W (~5 minutes)
- Full Lap: 258W (25:16)
Laps 2 and 3 would be remarkably similar. I’ll put those times below.
Lap 2
The second lap was, unsurprisingly, the chillest of the three. The big selection had already happened; it was clear nobody was chasing back on, and everyone wanted to save their legs for the third KOM.
My team had three riders in the front group: Enrico, Andrew, and myself. Dylan, Chris, and Neil were in groups behind. (Because we were hurting for riders, this was Neil’s second ZRL race of the day. So I was just impressed that he was alive!)
The second Temple KOM was the slowest of the three, which was fine with me, since I hadn’t managed to grab a feather despite my best efforts. I used my aero powerup on the first set of bridges, giving myself a bit of respite before the final push. And I survived the KOM a second time!
Sauce showed the second KOM had shrunk the peloton to 33 riders. As we chilled on the descent, I took the chance to survey the front group. We still had three riders, but unfortunately (and unsurprisingly) I saw our rivals, Team SEA, had 4 riders in the front pack. As far as I could tell, no other teams had 4 riders in front – but that’s also not easy to see with some jerseys looking like others in a churning group of 30+ riders.
The second lap’s numbers:
- Flat start: 211W (~8 minutes)
- Lead-In climb: 258W (~6.5 minutes)
- Temple KOM: 327W (6:34)
- Descent: 145W (~5 minutes)
- Full Lap: 235W (26:27)
Lap 3
In the flat start of the final lap, I sucked down my second SiS gel and tried to seriously entertain the idea that I could survive the final climb and be in contention for the win. My pessimistic side was saying this race would be like last week, where I got dropped on the final climb. But I knew I needed to think positively, and the first two climbs hadn’t pushed me to my limit, which was a great sign.
I also had a feather from the lap arch, so I was holding onto that for the KOM, and hoping I would land either a draft or aero at the top of the KOM for use on the fast, downhill finish.
Apart from one slight attack on the flats from SZR, we stayed gruppo compatto. Everyone else seemed nervous about the final KOM as well.
Soon enough, we were there. The pace was definitely a bit higher than the previous lap, but I had plenty of virtual gears to use and kept my cadence high, where it felt like I could make good power with the least effort. Enrico put in a bit of a dig with his feather powerup on the final push, and I sat in the wheels behind, once again pushing hard but not quite on the limit.
I’d made it! Honestly, I could hardly believe it. And while I was silently jumping for joy, as we went through the KOM arch, the Zwift gods rained on my parade by handing me a feather powerup for the final sprint.
The front group had shrunk to 20 riders. Enrico was still with me, but Andrew had been dropped on the final KOM. As I spun lightly on the descent, I tried to figure out the best plan of attack for the finish. Should I use my feather at all? When should I go?
I decided not to use the feather. I figured it was a toss-up: the feather would take away weight on the downhill, which would slow me down, but it would also make me a bit smaller (in terms of CdA), so I would be a bit more aero. (Note to self: I really should test the effect of feathers on downhill sprints…)
The descent gave me plenty of recovery, and I was feeling good as I dropped the hammer with 400 meters to go, entering the right hairpin with its steep downward drop. I had my head down, hammering in a seated sprint. Glancing up, I saw there were still a few riders ahead, and the finishing arch was just peaking out in the distance.
Keep pushing!
The aero helmets and draft vans were everywhere. I hammered with everything I had, but crossed the line in 7th.
The final lap, by the numbers:
- Flat start: 207W (~8 minutes)
- Lead-In climb: 256W (~6.5 minutes)
- Temple KOM: 335W (6:27)
- Descent: 168W (~5 minutes)
- Final Sprint: 813W for 20 seconds
- Full Lap: 260W (26:20)
Watch the Video
Results and Takeaways
COALITION Delusion finished the race in 4th place, and I was surprised to see Team SEA finish second, behind ZU4R Peacock. Nice work, all!
That means we’re sitting in 2nd place overall midway through Round 3:
Personally, I was both stoked and disappointed with this race. Stoked that I was able to hang with the front group to the finish, which was unexpected. But disappointed in how the powerup roulette worked out this time around.
I analyzed my race video afterward, trying to find a mistake I could blame on myself instead of being annoyed at the universe. Should I have used my feather in the finish? Should I have held onto an aero and tried to survive the final KOM without a powerup?
(Hindsight is 20/20, of course. Knowing what I know now, I would have held onto my aero powerup for the finish, because I could have survived the final KOM without the feather.)
Powerups don’t always play a huge role in Zwift races. But this week, they certainly did. In fact, every rider who finished ahead of me triggered either an aero or draft boost in the final sprint. (The two riders who magically glided past me without powerups over their heads in the final seconds? They triggered their aero powerups at the perfect time, so they would run out with a few seconds to go…)
The final moments of the sprint, as recorded by Zwift…
That’s frustrating. While I’m typically a fan of powerups – I like the strategic element they add – I don’t like it when they’re assigned randomly on a course where they affect the outcome so dramatically. (This is why Zwift Insider’s Tiny Races have always given the same powerups to all.)
But that’s bike racing for you, isn’t it? You know the rules going in, and you try to play it as smart as you can. But you can’t eliminate all the randomness. You can’t control every factor. Sometimes the odds work in your favor. Sometimes they don’t.
Hopefully, my airing of frustration doesn’t sound like me trying to cheapen my competitors’ results, as that’s not my intent at all. They played the game well and beat me, fair and square. (Plus, for all I know, some of them may have held onto a draft or aero powerup up the final KOM, like I should have. Respect to anyone who made that brave, 200-IQ move.)
We finished with our customary team photo, featuring DS Sarah, who did a mighty fine job:
What about you?
How did your race 3 go? Did you win at powerup roulette? Share below!
