By Jonathan O'Keeffe
Published 11/09/2020; Updated 05/29/2021

Tonight was the second week of the fall Monday night Zwift race series, two laps on the Champs-Élysées, which is a great course for racing. Charlie, Zinj, and I raced in the B group, and Michael was with the C group. Unlike last week, where the categories were mixed together, tonight each category raced separately, which creates a much more consistent and realistic race situation, imho.

Fields were a bit small, with 18 starters in the B group, and as a result the pace was a bit more restrained than in some of the larger Zwift races. The two laps flew by in the B race without any real drama, and ended up with a bunch sprint at the end. I waited too long as usual, got stuck behind a few stronger riders, and ended up 5th. Zinj and Charlie were just behind me in 7th and 8th.

We settled in to watch the end of Michael’s C race on Discord, and were treated to what looked like a 45-minute final sprint, with Michael out of the saddle forever in a lung-busting, vein-popping rush to the finish line. His huge effort turned out to be worthwhile, as he ended up first on ZwiftPower with an awesome 3.2 w/kg effort.

Results for tonight:

1. Michael Bello – 1 of 5 – 100.0 points
2. Jonathan O’Keeffe – 5 of 11 – 63.6 points
3. Zinj Guo – 7 of 11 – 45.5 points
4. Charlie Bailey – 8 of 11 – 36.4 points

Overall results after two weeks:

1. Michael Bello (2 races) – 166.7 points
2. Jonathan O’Keeffe (2 races) – 163.6 points
3. Jeremy Coleman (1 race) – 100.0 points
4. Zinj Guo (2 races) – 99.3 points
5. Kevin Weinman (1 race) – 92.3 points
6. Charlie Bailey (1 race) – 36.4 points
7. Melissa Warwick (1 race) – 33.8 points