Race 1: Road to Ruins

Welcome to the new season everyone!

First up is a points race with a difference: no points-paying segments. It's all about finishing position.

So the key questions will be: 1) where will the attacks come? 2) do we change to gravel/MTB bikes?

1) Lead group will attack off the start as usual and then settle down as they watch their averages. Then maybe a small attack again at 3.4km where there is a short climb out of the underwater tunnels.

The first salvo of watt grenades will go off at 4.8km. This is the switchback climb at the foot of the Epic KOM section, with ramps up to 12% It's a climb of two halves - it levels off after the first 500m. Riders with big one-minute power will attack at the foot of the climb and then ease back a bit when the gradient slackens over the bridge, so it's possible to reel them back in with a steady effort.

Once in the jungle it's a gnarly climb back. Expect an attack on the ramp back up the rope bridge.

After that, the other place to watch out for is the short ramp at the back of the volcano. There's only 3km remaining at this point so the leading teams may try to force a final split.


2) 9.9km is on gravel so it is worth swapping bikes if you have a suitable MTB/gravel steed (unless you're in the lead group and nobody else does). And if you can change quickly - don't try it for the first time during the event!

I'm undecided on the best location for the first bike swap. Once you pass the jungle start pen there a couple of short but not very steep ramps, then a 2km descent to the junction where the jungle circuit loops back on itself. Half of this descent is on gravel. So one option is to swap just before the top (7km, just before you pass the brown '100m alt' sign): you can use the incline to slow you down, and you're trading off 1km performance deficit on the asphalt against getting the full benefit as soon as you hit the gravel for the rest of the jungle loop. Obviously the downside of this is that if you're in a group, you will lose the benefit of the draft.

A slightly safer option, but one which involves you doing 1km of the descent on gravel on a road bike, is to wait until the jungle junction (8.9km-ish), where the road flatness off and begins to climb again.

On the return leg, change back to road bike at 17.5km as soon as you get off the gravel. The upward incline will help you stop.

Here's a guide on how to swap bikes: https://zwiftinsider.com/change-bikes-quickly/

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

As usual, remember to watch your averages and stay within the 20-minute category limits. Tough on a rolling circuit, I know!

Hi Stuart,

Thanks for the info. As I’ve never done a bike change during a race before, probably best not to attempt it tomorrow as you’ve suggested !

I’ll probably just choose the best road bike I have in the garage and hope for the best.

Hi Jason,

Welcome back! Yeah, race day is never a day to try something new. The swap takes a bit of practice because if you're moving, or registering any power, you can't get into the menus within the garage.

I did two laps of the jungle loop last night, one on the gravel bike and one on the Tron. Obviously not very scientific since I wasn't using a bot doing constant watts. The difference was 90 seconds, including around 20s for the change to the Tron. Add in another change in race circumstances and that's not a very convincing argument for changing if you're in a group - better to stay in the group and take advantage of the draft.

Cheers Stu for all your efforts.

I'm typing this on the toilet, pre-race nerves kicking on already. Gnarly.

For those not on Discord yet (make sure you are by Tuesday for the TTT!) here's a stream from the race by the DIRT team.

They were caught by surprise by the mass bike change too. But I'm not sure changing bikes had much of an effect on most of the top 20 - a lot of those who changed and came surging through were regulars in the top 10 anyway, plus a couple of people didn't change and still finished well (including the rider in this stream - can't believe he stayed in cat limits given some of the consistently high wattage he was putting out).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWaJSW7LefA

Morning Stuart,

Richard kindly provided me with the Discord link yesterday so I'm on the app, just need to work out how to use the voice feature (!).

Thanks for the race link, I'll have a look at some point over the weekend, I'm sure it's interesting viewing.

Yeah, all you need is a set of headphones with some sort of mic (most do these days, so you can answer the phone with them on etc).

In the Discord app on the phone, you swipe the screen to the right and you'll see the option to go into voice. There's also a setup thing which enables you to tweak various settings - you can have it with the mic on all the time or 'push to talk'.