Zwift Road Race Series - Winter Week 1 - 1/12/21

[Jonathan O'Keeffe]

The NCC's Monday night Zwift road race series starts its winter season on January 18th.

For the first few weeks of this season, we will be joining races from the ongoing Tour de Zwift 2021 race series.  These are huge events with many hundreds of riders (sometimes thousands), so everyone should be able to find a compatible group of riders to compete against.  Since the TdZ events are not categorized (all riders enter the same category), we will use a slightly modified scoring system for these events (details below).  After the TdZ wraps up in mid-February, we will return to the regular category-based scoring system for the rest of the season.

The Week 1 race will be on Monday January 18, 6:00 PM EST.  The race we are entering is the "TDZ Stage 3: Group Ride" Category C (https://www.zwift.com/events/view/1505338). Note that you must enter the "C" category of this race, regardless of your actual racer category.  The categories in TdZ races are for different race lengths on different courses, not different ability levels.  The C race is one lap of the Mountain Route course in Watopia, for about 18.3 miles total.  You can register for the race ahead of time in your browser at the link above, or you can join the race on the spot when you start Zwift by finding it in the event list in the upper right corner of the startup screen.  Note that start times for these races will vary, depending on the Zwift event schedule, but will generally start between 5:00 PM and 7:00 PM.  There is no late join option for organized races on Zwift, so make sure you're ready to go ahead of the scheduled start time.

Scoring will be based on the results published by ZwiftPower (https://zwiftpower.com/).  You must be registered for a free account on ZwiftPower in order for your results to be counted.  If you're not already registered on ZwiftPower, be sure to sign up in advance of the race, as it takes a little while to get your Zwift account linked to your ZwiftPower account.  You should also join the NCC team on ZwiftPower (https://zwiftpower.com/team.php?id=227) so that I can pick you out in the results.

The scoring for TdZ races is based on your finishing place relative to all finishers, with category and gender bonuses.  Your finishing points are computed by the formula (100 * (B + 1)) / N, where B is the number of riders you beat, and N is the total number of riders in the race.  Category bonuses are based on your racer category in ZwiftPower on race day: Cat A riders get no bonus, Cat B riders get a 5% bonus, Cat C riders get a 25% bonus, and Cat D riders get a 40% bonus.  Women receive an additional 10% bonus.

Optional audio/video chat will be  available on NCC's Discord channel at https://is.gd/nccdiscord.

This race is part of our weekly lineup of  Zwift rides, as follows:

  -  Mon afternoon - Road Race (times will vary between 5 PM and 7 PM EST)

  -  Tue 8:00 PM - Social Ride (invite required)

  -  Thu 5:30 PM - Time Trial / Hill Climb (solo effort, TT bike required) (invite required)

  -  Sat 9:00 AM - Social Ride (weather dependent) (invite required)

Follow Michael Bello on Zwift for invites to the invite-only rides.

Check the calendar page at www.nohobikeclub.org for full details on all events.

[Jonathan O'Keeffe]

The winter season of our Monday night road race series got off to a great start, with ten riders racing up the Watopia Epic KOM in the Tour de Zwift Stage 3.  For these TDZ races, which have no categories, we are all racing together in the same event, which is fun.  In sharp contrast to to the usual hell-for-leather Zwift race starts, this one started out at a comparitively sedate pace, with the big climb looming.  The NCC group was not buying this easy pace, however, and everyone moved to the front, massing at the front of the peloton for the first few minutes to the base of the climb.

Once the gradient kicked upward, the race split up, but Kevin, Zinj, Henry W, Dusty and I set the pace at the front, along with with a couple of other guys.  Charlie, Melissa, and Henry vdB hung tough a short distance back.  Zinj eventually fell off into no-man's-land, and the rest of our front group crested the top of the radio tower climb fairly close together.  After a swift descent, Kevin, Dusty, Henry, and I worked together in TTT mode to pick off a couple riders who had slid off in front of us, and reached the 1K point all together.  I unleashed my sprint a bit too early, but still managed to hold off Kevin, who was threatening to come around me the whole time.  Henry finished just behind Kevin for an NCC podium sweep.

The rest of the riders ended up mostly solo or in small groups after the climb, which is a tough way to get through the second half of a race, but Zinj and Henry still managed top-ten finishes, Charlie and Melissa were in the top 20, and all the NCC riders finished in the top 40 out of 125 total finishers.

Note that the points awarded for TDZ races give bonuses for women (10%) and for categories (A 0%, B 5%, C 25%, D 40%).

Results for Week 1:

1. Henry Weis (C) - 3 of 125 - 123.0 points
2. Jonathan O'Keeffe (B) - 1 of 125 - 105.0 points
3. Kevin Weinman (B) - 2 of 125 - 104.2 points
4. Melissa Warwick (B) - 16 of 125 - 101.6 points
5. Dusty King (B) - 5 of 125 - 101.6 points
6. Zinj Guo (B) - 8 of 125 - 99.1 points
7. Henry van den Broek (B) - 9 of 125 - 98.3 points
8. Charlie Bailey (B) - 15 of 125 - 93.2 points
9. Michael Bello (C) - 37 of 125 - 89.0 points
10. Joe Lellman (B) - 21 of 125 - 88.2 points

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[Kevin Weinman]

Wow, amazing results...to say NCC made it's presence known is an understatement. Setting aside the pain of 2,200 feet of climbing, mostly in a 7 1/2 mile stretch, it was a blast alternatively pacing and pushing each other up the hills, working together on the descents and closing flats, then, as Jonathan said at one point, 'every one for themselves' for the finish. A short ride/race that had it all.  Thanks Jonathan for organizing, and to all for the fun Discord conversation and mutual support throughout.