A Breakaway, A YOLO Attack, A Devine Finish, the Elite Men's Zwift Worlds Had It All
Some, dare we say, compelling racing was on offer from the men at Zwift Worlds
As even a part-time journalist, you do not necessarily want to be a one-trick pony. A few years back I managed to slide my way into the virtual racing beat because, well, as an Upper Midwesterner I spend an ungodly amount of time on the bike trainer in the winter and thus the emerging discipline of Zwift racing was something that caught my attention.
All of this is to say, this past weekend was Zwift Worlds Weekend here at the Bulletin. The 2022 eRacing World Championships took place on Saturday on the virtual course in the virtual New York City created on the Zwift platform. Yesterday we covered the Elite Women’s race, and today, it is time to talk about the menfolk.
As a quick refresher, the 2022 Zwift Worlds were held on the Knickerbocker route, which features three 1.4-zilometer climbs separated by about 20zm of flat-ish pedaling. The race finished atop the New York KOM, making it like a mountain-top finish but with, IDK, less mountain. Also, the hill isn’t even real.
Zwift has managed to finagle its way into hosting an official UCI race, but folks are still quick to remind you that Zwift is still a game. Being a game means it includes sketchy pack dynamics—more on that in a bit—and power-ups that give riders extra boosts for short periods of time.
Typically power-ups are random in Zwift races, a bit of the luck of the draw depending on what the best power-up is for a given race, but at Worlds this year, riders were each given the same power-up at specified locations. Given the hilltop finish, the key was holding onto a feather—which provides a reduction in weight for 15 seconds—and deploying it at the right time.
The feather proved to play a key role in the Elite Women’s race—less so here, as we will see, but I wanted to use this opportunity to make my case for the Wout power-up, which gives you Wout-like powers to do super-cool stuff for like 30 seconds. It would, of course, just be a silhouette of his perfect hair.
The story of the Elite Women’s race was one of the American squad launching attack after attack looking to gain an advantage before the final climb. The American Men’s team brought a similar level of energy early on, with Brian Hodges blasting to the front on the first ascent of the KOM before the official start of the KOM. Hodges let up on the first of the two steep kickers and quickly dropped back through the group.
Things stretched out a bit on the descent off the KOM hill, but by and large, most of the field maintained contact with the lead Zeloton.
The section between the first and second climbs was perhaps a bit spicier(?) than expected. Dutchman Rick Ottema made a concerted effort to break off the front, and the second time he made a move, Japanese rider Tomoaki Takasugi obliged and bridged across. They still had 25zm to go and only an 8-second gap, but you only race Zworlds once, right?
The second time up the climb, Australian Jay Vine took the lead early on before riders settled into a more comfortable 6-7 watt per kilogram pace. Basically a casual ride through Central Park. The lead group stayed together pretty well, and when the camera cut back to the chase group it revealed a lonely Ottema by himself. To be fair, the man got his camera time, both in triumph and defeat.
One of the challenges in creating compelling racing on the Zwift platform is the power of the draft in what folks refer to as “the blob,” or the Zeloton, as we have apparently been calling it. Draft effects multiply in the pack, leading to incredibly fast speeds that are difficult for any one rider to overcome. We saw this in effect in the Elite Women’s race, where the Americans launched several attacks that were swallowed up relatively easily when the pack decided to get moving.
In the Men’s race, spectators were treated to honest-to-goodness breakaway. Classic, if you will. In the Spring, IDK.
Fittingly for the day, it was an American who got things started. With 17zm to go, Spencer Seggebruch put in a big dig and got a quick gap. German Martin Maertaens was the next to jump across. Canadian Leandre Bouchard jumped across, as did three other riders. A legit break of six was on order.
The group worked well together, deploying power-ups effectively and taking turns keeping the pace up at the front. The countries represented were the U.S., Canada, German, Belgium, Austria, and Norway. One notable absence was Australia, who came into the race with strong aspirations of winning. To be fair, they were racing at like 4am, so maybe it is a bit understandable why they missed the move.
The break of six had significantly better luck than the solo Americans, keeping the advantage around 15-18 seconds as the zilometers to the bottom of the final KOM ticked by. The group hit the bottom of the climb with about a 12-second advantage on the field. Sizeable, but certainly not not-overcomeable.
Once on the climb, Belgian Jay Pirotte made it clear it was an every-man-for-himself situation when he broke free shortly before the official start of the KOM. Austrian Rainer Kepplinger was the first to respond before deciding that he was going all-in from the base of the climb. He unleashed his feather power-up, accelerated to 10+ w/kg, and embarked on the longest 2 minutes of suffering of his entire life.
With 1.0zm to go, Kepplinger held a 5-second advantage on Pirotte and Maertaens and upwards of 13 seconds on the rest of the chase group. There was a long way to go, but it looked like the Austrian might just have a shot at pulling off an incredible win.
Kepplinger poured everything he had into his hero-ball move. He pushed 9, 10 w/kg up the first kicker before it flattened out onto a shelf with about 400 meters to go.
Unfortunately for Kepplinger, the New York KOM is not a straight climb to the top. After the first kicker, it flattens out for a few hundred meters before the final steep climb to the finish. While it is no doubt a nice respite following the steep section, it also means that the pack draft dynamic takes over.
Coupled with Kepplinger running out of gas, the Austrian’s bid for a heroic win ended with 300 meters to go, as the pre-race favorite and defending champion Jason Osborne of Germany—the former Olympic rower—bridged across and took the lead. Behind those two, it was a group of three Aussies—Freddy Ovett of L39gion, Jay Vine, and Benjamin Hill—who were back from the dead after missing the break.
Osborne hit the final kicker with a sizable lead. For a hot second it appeared he was going to pull off the repeat. Then with Osborne meters from cresting the final kick, Vine came flying literally out of nowhere at 11.5 w/kg [*doing the math … doing the math … THAT’S BONKERS] to pass Osborne with the finish arch in sight.
A Vine performance, DeVine intervention, however you want to describe it, the Aussie pulled off an impressive finish to take home the (fake) rainbow stripes.
Ovett passed Osborne to take 2nd, and the German finished 3rd. Hill of Australia took 4th, and one of the pre-race favorites Lionel Vujasin of Belgium rounded out the wide-angle podium.
Thus concludes this series of Offseason Blogging. Mountain Biking, Gravel, Road (?), we have to keep the writing skills sharp until #crossiscoming season, so we’ll be covering whatever non-cyclocross disciplines strike our collective fancy this spring and summer.