Week 8 Results: NCC Zwift Winter Hill Climb/Time Trial, 2/22/22

By Michael Bello
Published 02/22/2022; Updated 02/22/2022

For the eighth week of the NCC Zwift Winter Hill Climb/Time Trial Series, we travelled to Virginia.

This week, our challenge was the Richmond UCI Worlds course from 2015. This 10.1 mile course includes 198 feet of climbing, which is concentrated in the final three miles.

During warmups, I pointed out that Kathryn and not Melissa held the green jersey. There was an audible gasp from the group. This only served to motivate Melissa as she improved her best time trial performance for the route.

Ben won again tonight. He put up a very impressive time of 23:00.

Henry Weis, our series leader, prepped for tonight’s event by climbing the Alpe du Zwift. Many, including Henry, questioned this tactic; however, his fifth place finish tonight still has him in the series pole position with three weeks to go.

The closest two competitors were Henry Wheaton and Andy MacDonald. Henry finished seventh overall, besting Andy by one second.

Kathryn and I battled for the coveted eleventh position. She had the better time on the first of the three hills, but I was able to push hard on the final two climbs to finish 11th.

For those who participated in the race on January 27th, the possibility of a PR on the Richmond course was very slim. After all, we benefited significantly from the draft in that race. Today, Ben, Henry Wheaton, and Kathryn put up PRs, which on a TT bike, is phenomenal.

Here are today’s results:

1. Weinberg, Ben; Time: 0:23:00*; 23.6 mph; 12 points
2. King, Dusty; Time: 0:24:04; 25.1 mph; 11 points
3. Ryan, Patrick; Time: 0:24:18; 24.9 mph; 10 points
4. O’Keeffe, Jonathan; Time: 0:24:23; 24.8 mph; 9 points
5. Weis, Henry; Time: 0:24:37; 24.6 mph; 8 points
6. Guo, Zinj; Time: 0:25:07; 24.1 mph; 7 points
7. Wheaton, Henry; Time: 0:25:24*; 23.8 mph; 6 points
8. MacDonald, Andy; Time: 0:25:25*; 23.8 mph; 5 points
9. Warwick, Melissa; Time: 0:25:36; 23.6 mph; 4 points
10. Bailey, Charlie; Time: 0:26:09; 23.1 mph; 3 points
11. Bello, Michael; Time: 0:27:54; 21.7 mph; 2 points
12. Kothe, Kathryn; Time: 0:28:19*; 21.4 mph; 1 points

*Strava PR

Here are the series standings:

1. Weis, Henry; Event(s) 8; Points: 111
2. King, Dusty; Event(s) 8; Points: 107.5
3. O’Keeffe, Jonathan; Event(s) 8; Points: 104
4. Ryan, Patrick; Event(s) 8; Points: 101
5. Pazmany, Andrew; Event(s) 6; Points: 81.5
6. Guo, Zinj; Event(s) 7; Points: 72
7. Weinberg, Ben; Event(s) 4; Points: 70
8. Warwick, Melissa; Event(s) 8; Points: 62.5
9. MacDonald, Andy; Event(s) 6; Points: 59
10. Downey, Tim; Event(s) 6; Points: 55
11. Bailey, Charlie; Event(s) 8; Points: 48
12. van den Broek, Henry; Event(s) 7; Points: 46
13. Wheaton, Henry; Event(s) 5; Points: 37
14. Eckman, Mark; Event(s) 6; Points: 35
15. Bello, Michael; Event(s) 8; Points: 24
16. Krause, Ross; Event(s) 1; Points: 13
16. Cunniffe, Lauren; Event(s) 3; Points: 13
18. Clarke, Jeb; Event(s) 2; Points: 10
19. Wilson, Donna; Event(s) 3; Points: 8
20. Krause, Ashley; Event(s) 3; Points: 7
21. Page, Zachariah; Event(s) 1; Points: 5
21. Kothe, Kathryn; Event(s) 3; Points: 5
21. Armen, Chris; Event(s) 1; Points: 5
24. Goodwin, David; Event(s) 1; Points: 4
25. Fentin, Gary; Event(s) 2; Points: 3
26. Streeter, Keith; Event(s) 2; Points: 2
27. Tauscher, Julianne ; Event(s) 1; Points: 1

Next week, we will do a hill climb of the Epic KOM in Watopia.

Participants in the Hill Climb/TT series may ride any time during the day or participate in the group ride version at 6:00 PM. Please visit the NCC Zwift page for the series rules.

Here is the NCC Zwift schedule: