By Jonathan O'Keeffe
Published 03/17/2022; Updated 03/17/2022


We wrapped up the winter season of the Thursday night series tonight with a Tour of Watopia stage featuring a finishing climb up the Alpe. We had six NCC racers in the field, with myself, Dusty, Melissa, Michael, Tim, and Zinj. Melissa was nursing a cold and planning a “mild” effort, a plan which lasted about 45 seconds into the race.

We had around 250 starters, but the field quickly broke up on the small early climb up the Dirty Sorpresa and then the larger climb up the foothills of the Alpe. Dusty was in front with the lead group that included KBH and other elite riders. Zinj and I were in a chase group about 20 places back, followed closely by Tim and then Melissa (on her “mild” ride), and then Michael, who wanted to make sure we knew there were another 100+ riders behind him (most of whom are not part of the official ZwiftPower results, unfortunately).

Those placings held through most of the climb, until Zinj dropped me emphatically around turn #8, leaving me with a mostly solo limp to the finish.

The general consensus was that our second ascent of the Alpe in three nights was Not Fun.

Results for Week Eleven:

  1. Dusty King (B) – 20 of 113 – 174.7 points
  2. Zinj Guo (B) – 21 of 113 – 172.8 points
  3. Jonathan O’Keeffe (B) – 23 of 113 – 169.1 points
  4. Melissa Warwick (B) – 47 of 113 – 149.4 points
  5. Tim Downey (B) – 36 of 113 – 145.0 points
  6. Michael Bello (C) – 98 of 113 – 36.8 points

Final series standings:

  1. Jonathan O’Keeffe (11 races) – 1010.3 points
  2. Dusty King (11 races) – 876.4 points
  3. Melissa Warwick (11 races) – 748.2 points
  4. Tim Downey (9 races) – 713.3 points
  5. Zinj Guo (8 races) – 675.4 points
  6. Henry Weis (6 races) – 501.7 points
  7. Patrick Ryan (7 races) – 416.7 points
  8. Michael Bello (7 races) – 387.5 points
  9. Henry van den Broek (5 races) – 354.5 points
  10. Charlie Bailey (7 races) – 304.9 points
  11. Jay Gump (3 races) – 291.8 points
  12. Jeb Clarke (1 race) – 90.9 points
  13. Jamie Pair (2 races) – 46.8 points
  14. Henry Wheaton (1 race) – 43.8 points
  15. Kathryn Kothe (1 race) – 13.3 points
  16. Lauren Cunniffe (1 race) – 9.6 points

The Tuesday and Thursday night Zwift racing series both concluded this week. We will take a week off from racing, and then start the spring (outdoor!) season on March 29 with the first race of our Tuesday night TT/HC series. The social Zwift rides on Wednesdays and Saturdays will continue for the next few weeks, weather dependent; check the NCC calendar page for details.