Zwift Games Elite Sprint Championships

Racing
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Wow, great racing and cheers to the winners and podium points leaders in the series.

The start list for the women lists 118 women, 97 for the overall and 21 opting for just one or two races.

The ‘official statement’ was that about ‘thirty riders’ were sick.
Does the math add up? The race had 53 riders, so 44 unaccounted for.
However, the ‘points list’ only showed 70 riders in the overall, so 27 unaccounted for.

Zwift did say to me “Yes, unfortunately, there were a number of DNS’ yesterday, all the women who were able to start raced.”

I understand some just applying, then deciding they didn’t want to compete.
I saw at least three riders on a Whoosh race.
One was on vacation, one decided on an outdoor race and was on the podium.

Who is on the list for next week?
Listed are: Bjarehed, Brooke, Columbi, De Zee, Edqvist.
Unknown: Gamst, Real, Wilkinson, Lethbridge, Real, Langham, Verhaaren, Etienne.
Hopefuls for Climb: Gardner, Passio,

I do think a few started the Sprint but were dropped and did not choose to finish for the 47 points.
I’m sure I saw Tilly and Etienne raced, but not listed as having finished.
I’m sure an official finish list is pending. (7 riders did not finish, I’m told.)

Any thoughts on the men’s side?

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Just to share a racer’s point of view, I realize now that some sprinters said the course did not really suit them as a ‘sprint’. They signed up before knowing what the race course would be. I agree it was really a series of short distance races. The word sprint is used in different ways in triathlon and track racing.

Whoosh is doing a sprint race uci worlds with a true sprint nature FTS times, I think. Points race may be preferred by many racers, but audiences often get confused why the first across the finish line often is not the overall winner.

I noticed today that Etienne dropped out of the pack and the race halfway through the second lap. She seemed to be going really well. Maybe she’ll share what happened. I saw her on Zwift later that afternoon.

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Yeah I entered one of these “sprint” races and I spent a fair bit of time trying to figure out if the sprints mattered at all (nope). Nice to have a route that breaks up the group and hurts the usual sprinters though. Good race. Sprinters deserve maximum suffering.

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Watched both mens and womens championships. The racing was pretty great. The move made in Glasgow was spectacular on the mens side. I thought the women’s final race was fascinating as they needed to keep a certain rider in check, but the ones chasing her down each time may have burned too many matches.

Can’t wait to race and watch the epic next weekend!

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