START LINE 23.07
Solo win on virtual Tour summit finish shows Canadian’s return to form,
It’s a long time since I’ve ridden a 10-mile time trial. Might even be two years. This thought dawned on me as I sat on my turbo waiting to start our virtual club 10 on Zwift last Wednesday evening. It might have only been a virtual event, and a bit of fun, but my competitive nature is still alive and well, and the butterf lies always come back.
It was then with a growing sense of tightness in the pit of my stomach that I remembered how much the next 24 minutes was going to hurt. Funny how you block out those memories right up until your start time.
At the start I was right at the front, and before I knew it I was off, trying not to get carried away in the first few minutes, but in full knowledge that a couple of hundred people were behind and about to chase me down.
This wouldn’t normally bother me, but remember anyone who caught and passed me would see my name printed above my avatar’s head. There really was no missing me.
Thankfully it was only Dr Hutch who took a screenshot of the moment he passed me. He texted it to me within a minute of finishing, with the note: “In case you missed it.” I think he enjoyed that. Hope to see you next Wednesday on the London circuit.
Michael Woods fired a warning shot across the bows of his rivals for the hilly Classics this season, producing huge power numbers on Mont Ventoux at the virtual Tour de France.
The overall competition was won by rival team NTT but it was Woods’s stage win that marked him out as perhaps the top contender for the race for Strade Bianche, Milan-san Remo and Il Lombardia just a few short months after a careerthreatening leg break.
Woods dropped all his rivals to win solo atop the virtual mountain in the first race where it has featured in Zwift.
To do so, he rode at a highly impressive 6.65 watts per kilogram for 20 minutes. In the early part of the climb he was riding at 7.03W/kg. Domenico Pozzovivo, who finished second, sustained an even higher power-to-weight ratio, averaging 7.9W/kg. However, it seems Woods’s affinity with the game gave him the edge he needed to cross the line first.
Stephen Gallagher, director of coaching and sports services at Dig Deep Coaching, who analysed the numbers, said: “I think for anybody who has physically been part of the race – for example, Domenico Pozzovivo – it’s going to be in their mind that Mike Woods has dropped them in the virtual Tour de France. If they go head to head in August, that is going to stay with them.”
“Woods won solo atop the mountain in the first Zwift race where it has featured”
Woods had already impressed with his performance on the early climbs of stage two but lost out as the group came back together for a small group sprint. But this uphill test suited his abilities to a T and he capitalised in full. Pozzovivo and fellow NTT rider Louis Meintjes were second and third respectively.
However, there have been questions over how much one can infer from Zwift racing about a rider’s chances on the road, especially when races are so short; Gallagher emphasised that being able to repeat such an effort was key to success in a longer race. Just last week, Woods’s own manager Jonathan Vaughters said the discipline was a bit closer to running – Woods’s background – with its shorter format and higherintensity efforts, than the ebb and flow of a long road race.
Gallagher agreed the data from Zwift races only shows part of the picture but said it could still have a psychological impact.
“The biggest thing will certainly be confidence and confirmation that he’s as good if not better than a lot of the riders. That doesn’t always translate to the real world but it can only be a bonus,” he said.
Indeed, after the race, Woods himself spoke of how his crash at Paris-nice in March – he broke his femur– still haunted him.
“I think the hardest part of this crash mentally was actually lying on the side of the road right after the crash,” Woods said. “The crash was so significant. It was so traumatic. I’m still impacted by it. Still think about it. And lying on the side of the road seeing the condition that my leg was in, made me worried not just for the races to come but my career in cycling in general. It was terrifying. And yeah, for sure that was the lowest moment because I knew it was broken the minute it happened.”
He added: “Each day my life just progressed. Each day I worked my butt off with a physical therapist based here in Spain. I just saw improvements each day and that made getting through this really dark period actually nice, mentally it made it something positive.”
The Canadian added that he had been “sparring” with British team-mate Hugh Carthy at a training camp in Andorra last week and that had also helped show him his form is good coming into this season.
Gallagher pointed out that the fact that all pros are now in a heavy training phase ahead of a return to real-world racing also allowed Woods to take some confidence that his form could be carried forward into road races where riders’ legs are sure to be fatigued by the time they reach the crucial moments.