The 'Queens Highway After Party' is a fantastic race format with some really punishing ramps. Here is my review of this new course and my first time racing it. It's definitely not one of my favourites…….. yet.
Z-Racing: Bag That Badge
Bag that Badge is one of Zwifts official monthly race series. It's made up of 4 weekly races that span the month of May. You can enter each weekly race on the hour, every hour so you're never stuck waiting to race. The races are usually the most popular of the regular races on Zwift, this means you will always have some good competition to race against.
This month's series is themed around new race courses that have been added to Zwift. Currently, the only way you can get the achievement badges for them is by entering this series. So as an extra bonus for completing this series, you are guaranteed some extra in game XP.
The 'Queens Highway After Party' course is an extension to the short but popular "Queens Highway" route. This is mainly a 1.5KM long crit loop of the village, but with a larger than usual ramp in the middle. To create a good race distance, the loop is repeated 5 times before heading up the "Yorkshire KOM Reverse" to finish.
The Race Plan
I've been recently having a lot of success in Cat C Zwift racing. In Aprils "Lap It Up" series, I managed 2 wins and 1 third place. These are by far my best ever results at Z-Racing. When I started Z-Racing last summer, I was fighting just to be in the top 30's. My results have progressively got better even though my average power hasn't increased a great deal. However, with how hard the finish looks on this course, my plan was just to stay with the main group until the last climb.
The cross road section is a great place to use my flywheel technique. This is for climbs that start with a descent before them. The trick with it is to spin up your cadence on the last 5-10 meters before the assent. As you start to climb and the resistance is applied, you will find yourself with a higher wattage and speed. This usually catches out the other riders who are waiting for the resistance to start before they push the climb. I also flywheel before the longer ramp on the Queens Highway. If I can stay with the main group till the end, I would try the flywheel method at the base of the finish climb to see if I can break away on the steep starting ramp to the KOM.
Easy start, hard laps
As expected the start wasn't as explosive as other Z-Racing starts. This was mainly because of the short descent down to the cross road section. The race had around 70 riders, but the lead group would soon reduce down to 30 on the opening lap. I felt well rested and good on the opening few laps. I was staying with the lead group on the climbs, even though the pace was a little higher than expected.
I tried to recover on the long descent to the cross roads. But this would be my undoing! After the sprint section you initially start to descend. As you go through a right-left section, the road levels off before descending again. On this flat section I should have pushed or flywheeled it. The other riders would push here and enter the descent a lot faster than me. After the second lap, I totally misjudged the gap. The pace was too high, my attempt to catch back up just burnt away most of my energy matches. I had just about caught the group as they made it to the climbing part of the lap, but with no time to recover there was no way I was going to stay with them. I slowly watch them power away.
Getting dropped always sucks
It was time for plan B, find the chasing group and hope more riders failed like me at staying with the leaders. I had dropped from the lead group in about 25th place, I eased up a little and got caught by a small group of around 5 riders. The group worked well together and we caught another 4 riders on the remaining laps of the Queens Highway. An Irish rider in the group attempted to break away on the penultimate lap, I helped chase him down and his effort seemed to wipe him out and off the back of the group.
The final part of the race was the 'Yorkshire KOM reverse' segment, which was going to be hell. By now I had mastered the descent and was hovering at the front in about 21st place. I was feeling very fatigued though and my heart rate didn't seem to drop much coming into the cross roads. My final plan was to flywheel in the cross roads and see what gap I could manage at the steeper base of the climb. It worked well and I lead the group with a 3 second gap. As the climb levelled off, I paced my effort and let the group slowly catch me. I was still well over threshold though as I tried to stay with the group when the gradient got steeper. We caught some more riders on the climb and I pushed on well into the red. I really had nothing left, my heartrate was through the roof. By the finish line, and a small miracle, I had managed to fight my way up to 19th place.
Summary
The 'Queens Highway After Party' was a lot crueller than I expected, all the ramps and climbs are just a bit too long to be comfortable for me. However, I think the format is great for racing as it really empties everyone's energy tank before you are faced with the scary KOM finish. I can very much see this course appearing in the next Zwift Racing League.
As for my performance, I am kicking myself about how I managed the descent. However, I'll admit the pace of that race was probably higher than my current level. I am happy with how I recovered though, 6 months ago I would have been over the moon with 19th out of 70 on a course like that.
The next race is a reverse route of a popular hilly race in Watopia. With more uphill racing to come, it looks like I'll be spending the rest of the week trying to lose a few grams. Good luck with your racing and I'll see you at the next review.
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VeloHunt Steve