Zwift Tour for All - pro races - spoilers
Comments
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Not as good as the men's race today, but better than the men's stage 1 yesterday. The last few km was probably better than the Stage 1 womens yesterday, but overall perhaps not quite as good. So for me:
1. Men's stage 2
2. Women's stage 1
3. Women's stage 2
4. Men's stage 1
In terms of how good they were to watch...0 -
The men's race today was a proper decent race. I'll watch another one of those.0
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It really matters who shows up I think - todays was improved by VDP and GVA competing properly, yesterday was a bit softer.
Tomorrow finishes on a climb which will take these guys ~16 mins (KOM is around 15 mins but the credible looking ones start around 16 mins, I'd expect the pros to put in similar times). So it'll need to be won by a different type of rider.
I know Dan Martin raced yesterday, it would seem like a good one for him tomorrow if he races as there are some flatter bits towards the top and he has a good kick as well as being a good climber.0 -
I'm looking forward to the start of "real" racing again when the riders are so used to zwift they all hit 700w+ when the flag drops and we see some real fights to get in the break of the day.
There'll be none of the old fashioned cruising along for the first few hours waiting to pull back a doomed 2 man breakaway post-lockdown.0 -
They should put some 35km lumpy stages in a GT
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Bit of info on today's route and climbs, and a link to the Strava segment: https://www.strava.com/segments/20655505
The first climb proper is the Volcano KOM. This comes quite early on, beginning around 14.5km:
Worth noting that the middle part of the race between say 30.5-44.5km (highlighted below) is on a dirt loop which is accessed/exited by a moderate climb (tarmac). The dirt has the effect of increasing rolling resistance for normal tyres, and in the game you are much better off switching to a mountain bike or gravel bike. I assume that won't happen in this race, but because it makes the effort harder it could have a similar effect to a climb in that it may split the group up a bit.
Finishing Climb (Epic KOM):
You can see there is a flat/downhill section of this towards the top, it will be interesting to see what happens.
Normally for an outdoor race you would say that a breakaway would get established on the Volcano KOM and then be caught around the foot of the finishing climb, but who knows what will happen here.
All in all, it will be interesting to see what happens on this course, because typical amateur races on Zwift take place on significantly shorter circuits (most races in the 15-45 minutes range).
The KOM on this route is around 1 hour 45 mins so I expect that the pro times will be similar-ish.0 -
Provisional start list includes both Yates brothers, Hugh Carthy, Pozzovivo and Pello Bilbao:
So some proper climbers there.
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Nice to see a race thread generating some interest and some serious input.
If only real race threads were as well supported.
Will try to catch up on some of this on the player."Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.0 -
Been loving the racing so far. It's not the road but it stands up pretty well as a format, and the pros seem to be taking it seriously. MVDP set his highest 60 min HR and watts for the year yesterday!0
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I mean, there's 40 posts and most of them are by me...blazing_saddles said:Nice to see a race thread generating some interest and some serious input.
If only real race threads were as well supported.
Will try to catch up on some of this on the player.0 -
The women are way ahead of schedule, live now with 10.6km to go. Looks like a significantly reduced group.0
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Moolman Pasio putting out the watts on the foothills, stretching it out with 7-8 w/kg there. Has one rider with her, and 4 or 5 a bit further back.0
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Group of 6 at 7 seconds, a couple at 20 seconds, Niewiadoma is back at 30s in 10th. Bigger gaps than we've seen previously already.
7.2km to go so onto the climb proper now.0 -
Significant improvements in race graphics for this tour IMO
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Gap out to 30s... The question is, how long can she keep up with 5.5-6.5 w/kg?0
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Worth noting that Ella Harris in the chasing group, riding for Canyon-SRAM, was originally scouted via the Zwift academy, and holds the accolade for the first rider to be selected in this way to win a professional bike race.
https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/racing/ella-harris-becomes-first-zwift-academy-winner-to-take-victory-in-pro-race-4485330 -
The gap was out to nearly two minutes at one point, but she did more than enough to stay away.
Quite aggressive for second place at the end.
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And she was the one without a power-up in the last few metres.bobmcstuff said:Worth noting that Ella Harris in the chasing group, riding for Canyon-SRAM, was originally scouted via the Zwift academy, and holds the accolade for the first rider to be selected in this way to win a professional bike race.
https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/racing/ella-harris-becomes-first-zwift-academy-winner-to-take-victory-in-pro-race-4485330 -
Just done an interview with Adam Yates about the new UCI race calendar... Interesting.
Now live in the men's with 39km to go, they have just come onto the dirt roads which I mentioned in the preview. I rode these on a mountain bike yesterday 0 -
Has Pello Bilbao been on any of the other races? Got to be in with a shout today.0
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Yeah, potentially she didn't get a useful one at the last banner? Imagine getting the XP boost in a race like thiskingstongraham said:
And she was the one without a power-up in the last few metres.bobmcstuff said:Worth noting that Ella Harris in the chasing group, riding for Canyon-SRAM, was originally scouted via the Zwift academy, and holds the accolade for the first rider to be selected in this way to win a professional bike race.
https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/racing/ella-harris-becomes-first-zwift-academy-winner-to-take-victory-in-pro-race-448533
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I am not sure he's ridden so far. The Yates brothers haven't either.kingstongraham said:Has Pello Bilbao been on any of the other races? Got to be in with a shout today.
We are going to see a lot more of the men's race. Big group at the moment.0 -
Attack off the front from an FDJ rider (Konovalovas) on the climb out of the jungle really stretched it out, but he's dropped back now and the race is a lot more stretched out0
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Oooh, Mader and Campanaerts off the front coming back onto the tarmac roads, like I said there is a decent dig coming out of there.
Great pain face from Campanaerts. 10-15 seconds ahead.0 -
Back together. Not sure what that was about, as they were both NTT riders and it was clearly coordinated. Perhaps trying to give one of their other riders an easy job in the bunch?0
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Carthy's not in the bunch so we won't get to see him on the climb0
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Yeah OK, NTT were trying to get the intermediate sprint points.
De Bod (NTT) used an undraftable power up to get away, but Madouas for FDJ took it in the end.0 -
Bilbao going quite hard with 21km to go, a bit of a hiding to nothing I think because there is another 13km flat or rolling before the KOM starts. Has a handful of seconds but he's not really stretching it out despite him doing 6.5 w/kg and everyone else doing 4 w/kg, he's just going to get tired...0
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15km to go now, Bilbao has 21s but I don't think he'll be able to win from here as he has been going hard for a while now, the others are all still 4w/kg or so0
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41 seconds now - still a chance for a climber like him0
