By Jonathan O'Keeffe
Published 02/08/2021; Updated 09/04/2021

For week four of our winter road race series, we wrapped up our Tour de Zwift participation with a fast and furious five laps around London’s Classique course. We were joined by David in his first-ever Zwift race, working through the nuances of Zwift drafting and pack dynamics and powerups. He did seem to immediately grasp the idea that the start of the race is like the holeshot in a CX race, although I’ve never seen a holeshot that lasts the two minutes or so of the typical Zwift race opening pace. There were close battles throughout the field. I kept trying to dump Dusty out of the lead group, but he kept moving easily to the front after every attack. Zinj hung on in chase one less than a minute behind the lead. Michael and Melissa were together most of the race, I think they connected with Charlie at some point but then Charlie pulled away, leaving Michael and Melissa to sprint it out at the line. One of them floated the idea of a hand-holding, solidarity finish, but that dissolved immediately as the rest of us egged them on, with both of them giving max effort at the end and Melissa pulling ahead at the line.

Week four results:

  1. Dusty King (B) – 11 of 378 – 102.2 points
  2. Zinj Guo (B) – 28 of 378 – 97.5 points
  3. Jonathan O’Keeffe (B) – 29 of 378 – 97.2 points
  4. Michael Bello (C) – 94 of 378 – 94.2 points
  5. Charlie Bailey (B) – 47 of 378 – 92.2 points
  6. Melissa Warwick (B) – 93 of 378 – 87.4 points
  7. David Goodwin (C) – 251 of 378 – 42.3 points

Overall standings after week four:

  1. Dusty King (4 races) – 392.2 points
  2. Zinj Guo (4 races) – 373.9 points
  3. Michael Bello (4 races) – 345.4 points
  4. Jonathan O’Keeffe (4 races) – 331.0 points
  5. Melissa Warwick (4 races) – 329.3 points
  6. Charlie Bailey (3 races) – 272.0 points
  7. Henry van den Broek (2 races) – 191.8 points
  8. Henry Weis (1 race) – 123.0 points
  9. Kevin Weinman (1 race) – 104.2 points
  10. Joe Lellman (1 race) – 88.2 points
  11. David Goodwin (1 race) – 42.3 points

Here is the NCC Zwift schedule:
– 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 (invite required)

Follow “Michael Bello – NCC” on Zwift for invites to the invite-only rides.

Check the NCC calendar for full details on all events. To learn more about the NCC and Zwift rides, please visit our Zwift page.