We opened our Thursday night winter race season tonight in Watopia, with one lap of the Tick Tock route, 11.9 pretty flat miles. We had all the usual suspects, joined by Chris in his first Zwift road race. It was a big race, with about 150 starters in the B group, and slightly fewer in the C and D groups. In the B’s, the flat course kept just about everyone together in a giant pack until the first tiny uptick in the oasis, where we shed a couple dozen riders. The biggest rise came as we left the desert, not much of a hill really, but the group really hit it hard, knowing that this was the last chance to get any separation, and indeed we took the main group down to about 60 riders. These stayed together until the end, a gigantic mass sprint that would have been chaos in real life, but fortunately nobody crashes on Zwift. When the dust settled, Dusty took the honors with a 13th-place finish, followed closely by Zinj in 19th.
Based on conversation during the race, it sounded like the dynamics were pretty similar in the other groups. Tim and Charlie both easily managed top-half finishes in the C group, and Chris just missed the podium in the D’s, with a fourth-place finish in his inaugural race, scoring enough points to give him the win in our NCC results — great job!
Results from Week One:
- Chris Stratton (1 race) – 91.9 points
- Dusty King (1 race) – 86.5 points
- Tim Downey (1 race) – 80.8 points
- Zinj Guo (1 race) – 79.8 points
- Jonathan O’Keeffe (1 race) – 76.4 points
- Charlie Bailey (1 race) – 74.4 points
- Henry van den Broek (1 race) – 66.3 points
- Melissa Warwick (1 race) – 43.8 points
Season standings after Week One:
- Chris Stratton (1 race) – 91.9 points
- Dusty King (1 race) – 86.5 points
- Tim Downey (1 race) – 80.8 points
- Zinj Guo (1 race) – 79.8 points
- Jonathan O’Keeffe (1 race) – 76.4 points
- Charlie Bailey (1 race) – 74.4 points
- Henry van den Broek (1 race) – 66.3 points
- Melissa Warwick (1 race) – 43.8 points
