TNW Race Report 2014-04-14

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15 riders showed up for the TNW race today. This included riders from three continents with representation from Australia, Canada, England and the US. Zwift luminary Mike McCarthy also showed up for part of the race.

Unfortunately mechanicals again took an early toll as a couple of riders experienced drop-outs as early as the neutral lap. The riders who managed to make it to km 0 took a “kinder, gentler” approach as the first lap was taken at a relatively sedate 7:34 pace. This didn’t last through the second lap, though, as Shane Miller with some foreshadowing decided to test his legs on the climb. He quickly opened up a gap and I was almost ready to use the word “inexorably” again when a Shimano neutral car came out of nowhere and clipped his Kickr, resulting in a 10s power drop-out and lack of resistance changes for the rest of the race.

As a result it was gruppo compatto on lap 3. This lasted for only 2 laps before Miller again attacked on the hill, splitting the group. A lead group with Miller, D. Garcia, R. Grieve and G. Hodge rode off the front. M. Simpkins bridged the gap with an impressive effort a couple of laps later. The story of the lead group was Miller’s unrelenting pushing of the pace each time up the hill. With 2.5 laps to go he managed to break clear and establish an insurmountable gap to finish solo in first place. The rest of the lead group had split by this time and Matthew Simpkins and Rich Grieve rounded out the podium.

  1. S. Miller 1:27:57
  2. M. Simpkins 0:00:40
  3. R. Grieve 0:02:03
  4. D. Pugh 0:02:51
  5. B. Pucsek 0:02:56
  6. F. Garcia 0:03:05
  7. C. Wiedmann 0:06:43
  8. J. Purtell 0:09:13
  9. C. Kozlowski 0:18:31
    DNF D. Garcia
    DNF G. Hodge
    DNF U. Wiedmann
    DNF M. McCarthy
    DNF R. Clenney

Note: Time gaps for entertainment purposes only. Corrections to placings and race narrative are welcome.

Not Placed due to missing Strava activity: D. Stoj (had to leave early - apparently work is more important than training races)

Honorable Mention: J. Stanunias who didn’t make the regular start time but rode a solo TNW instead, because hey - it’s Tuesday - you’ve got to hurt yourself.

Event link: https://www.facebook.com/events/1611803772385312/?ref=4 (join the Zwift Riders group to see details - generally I make the events publicly viewable but forgot this time https://www.facebook.com/groups/zwiftriders)

Strava flyby: http://labs.strava.com/flyby/viewer/#285572082,nxsFEXRABRGbWAURaGIFEQ1wBRH/cQURdXMFEWqABRG7gAURyo0FEWGVBRFApgUR5bcFEQ==

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Great read! Love the flyby view. 

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Thanks! I really enjoy flyby as well. I hope Zwift race mode includes replay capability. That would make writing race reports a lot easier (and more accurate).

The Strava flyby is a little problematic right now because the timestamps in different riders’ files seem to drift against each other. It would be nice to have a version where everybody’s time is in-sync. Currently the flyby sometimes shows riders in a different order than they were in the actual ride.

Anyway - these races are definitely a lot of fun already. I’m looking forward to being able to run them in a real race mode.

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Racing is one of our priorities! 

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Here’s a key thing that makes Zwift so good - The w/kg and terrain simulation is so close to real-world that you have to use real-world tactics within the race. It isn’t just a solo time trial, like what a lot of computer based trainers implement.

You can attack, or chose to sit in and let others do the work chasing. You can attack on a hill only to be caught on the downhill. You can learn the lesson of never attacking on a downhill (because you’ll always get pulled back!). You can wait for everyone to start fading late in the race then start making your moves.

In short, Zwift allows you to work on your real time race craft, and it’ll work out on the road too. If you can only get to one race a week in real life, or one a month, there’s nothing stopping you honing your race skills on a daily basis.

(*Did I mention I’m addicted to Zwift?) :slight_smile: