Ride #9: (first race) The Driveway Wednesday Night Crit Worlds on Neokyo Crit Course in Makuri Islands

I’m proud of myself. Not for the result (although, I’m not disappointed in it), but there were only 4 people registered right up until about 5 mins to go and the other 3 folks were all folks who had been on Zwift forever, had photos of them in their profiles on bikes outside, weighed less than me, and, yeah, were obviously going to be substantially better than me in the race. And I stayed anyway.

Over the next 5 mins another 15 (I think) people filtered in, so there were 20ish of us on the start line. From the videos I’d seen on YouTube, Zwift races start fast and you need to put down a bunch of watts of the line to stay with the lead group. And it’s important to do that because if you get dropped early, getting back to the pack is very, very difficult.

For about 2 of the 5 laps, I stayed with the group of about 15 that had formed up front. That group then split into two where there were 4 or 5 riders who pulled out in front, leaving about 10 of us in the ‘chase pack’ (that’s probably not the right term). We stayed together mostly until the last 500 meters or so when 2 riders – who I imagine knew the course better than me (and had more juice) – split off the front. That left about 4 or 5 of us in a little group. I used my feather power up as I threw everything I had for the last 300 meters or so and won that mini ‘sprint’ (there was no sprint) to finish 9th out of 20 on my screen.

The goal was not last. And I had absolutely no idea how reasonable a goal that was. And I didn’t finish last.

That being said, I checked ‘Zwift Power’ afterwards, and essentially I finished 5th out of 7 in my ‘category’. I don’t really understand it tbh. Perhaps the other people in my category aren’t sharing their data with Zwift Power or something. So that’s a bit bitter sweet. I finished 9th out of 20 on my screen, which means top half. But 5th out of 7 on Zwift Power so simultaneously 5th (better!) out of 7 (worse). Dunno.

Oh, and if you want to jazz up the stats even more I was 3rd in my category based on age. (Let’s ignore the fact Zwift Power calls me a ‘veteran’ as my age range.)

Anyway, it was fun, more races in my future for sure. Tomorrow will probably be a longer, less intense ride as I’ll then be away for a few days.

I am going to order a fan next month. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned I need one.