I’m a bit of a masochist. Putting myself through a painful race in Zwift has been surprisingly enjoyable, but… I know it will be so much better if all the effort can result in a win… or something close. 

The something close at the moment is just to stay in the lead pack so that I can even contend for the win at the end. There’s a long way to go. That’s why I started this four-race project where I aim to “Close the Gap” whenever it emerges and analyze my performance to make improvements each week.

Hopefully, by the end of these four races, I’ll either be able to keep up with the lead pack or, at the very least, figure out what I’m doing right or wrong. I want to understand how far I am from reaching that goal and what training I’ll need to do to get there eventually.

I call this Project: Don’t Get Dropped. 

Let’s begin. 

Chapter 1: The Ups and Downs

Race: Stage 1: Race Like A Champ (C) – Rolling Highlands in Scotland

The race started off really fast. I had to hit over 300 watts to catch up with the lead group. My strategy for this one was to focus on a high cadence and hopefully that will make it easier to maintain higher power. Let’s see if it works. 

After catching the peloton, my focus shifted to conserving energy wherever possible. Still, the pace was fast and I constantly teetered on the edge of losing the pack, so I was really saying my prayers at this point. With two laps, this race was going to be a grind and didn’t want to blow up too early. 

At the 6:45 mark of the race, the pace increased as we went up an incline. I spun as quickly as I could but the lead was getting away. A minute later, the lead pack was gone, out of sight, and I was left with a small group chasing.

There were about 10 of us and we got nice and cozy with each other. It seemed that we were all content hitting this pace. I was far from content, I was at my threshold. I’m really kicking myself for pressing so hard to chase the lead pack up that hill because now I’ll need to exert so much energy just to keep with this small group. A lot of wasted energy in this race already, but at least I wasn’t alone. 

My current objective was to secure the highest possible position. This meant outlasting the racers beside me, so I accelerated when necessary and conserved energy whenever possible.

In this course, there were a few hilly sections. Based on my experience of getting dropped at the beginning, I understood that these hills would be where breaks occurred and my fate would be determined. 

When I got a feather power up, I saved it for the bigger hills coming up to attack, namely the one that came at the 18:39 mark when we had to climb up into the castle to end the first lap. Now I knew, a hill will certainly decide my fate, and while I hoped I’d be attacking at the very end, I was also preparing myself to defend as well. So I stayed in the group, not wanting to make any dramatic moves. 

Then it happened. Around the 24-minute mark, I sensed that the group was beginning to struggle to stay together. When the elastic stretched, it really stretched, giving me the impression that some individuals in the group were fresher than others. To be honest, I was feeling generally good. Not great, but I still believed I had the energy to keep going. I could indeed attack! 

When a break occurred at the 25-minute mark, I moved to the front and then let the group catch up. I played this game for a bit where I surged ahead and then allowed them to catch me. My aim was to gauge the strength of the other racers and entice them into making a move with over 6 kilometers to go. However, they didn’t take the bait, so the 10 of us stayed together.

Then we began catching racers who were ahead of us, including those who had been dropped from the lead pack. We were swallowing them. And this felt good! This was really motivating and it really helped me push to another level. So I was like, “good bye, group, I’m going to start eating the rest of them.” I’m using each person ahead as a little carrot to chase and so I went. 

At the 30-minute mark, I’m climbing up the hill, using my feather power-up in an attempt to break away from the chase pack once and for all. It’s every person for themselves now. We are chasing going as fast as we can, and I start moving up the ranks. Then, I find myself alone at the front. It was a mistake. Now, these two guys are riding my wheel, and there’s nothing I can do about it.

I’m pushing hard, leading the way, and I’m a bit frustrated because this guy is using his draft power-up on me. I knew I had to keep going, but I felt taken advantage of. To make matters worse, the guy who used me moved ahead and started receiving Ride Ons. All I could do was laugh.

The race was really on now. It was just me against these three guys. They seemed to have plenty left in the tank as they powered up the hill. This was it, the moment where the game would be decided. I pushed hard up the hill, using my feather power-up. 

I was really feeling it, with music pumping in my ears, giving it everything I had. But my two nemesis were ahead. I tried my best to catch up, and with 800 meters left, I managed to pull even. But it was short-lived. They zoomed past me again. It was heartbreaking. I’ve burned a significant match. There was no way I could reel them back in now. All I could do was hold onto my position. That’s all that mattered in the final 500 meters — not letting anyone pass me. So, I dug deep, pushing through the last 300 meters with a cadence of 138, determined to maintain my place.

This was one of the most intense efforts I’ve ever pushed myself through on Zwift so far. So much so that I had to shout at the very end. It took everything and the punishment felt good. Despite being dropped during the race, I managed to claw my way to a result that I consider respectable. I finished 35/83 and 27/46 on Zwift Power. Respectable. 

However, it also dawned on me just how difficult this project is. After all, I was only able to keep up with the lead group for just under 7 minutes, which was less than a third of the race. Therefore, my goal for the next race is clear: I hope to stay with the lead group for a longer duration.

Chapter 2: The Hangover

Race: Stage 2: Race Like A Champ (C) -Richmond Rollercoaster in Richmond

This was the first race that I didn’t want to do. 

The night before, I was drinking — and although you’ll never be able to tell — I woke up slightly hungover. With all that being said, I was not expecting a stellar performance. 

Look, I take these races as seriously as I can, but one thing I want to make clear is that I’m not trying to be some professional athlete. I want to be an athlete that is able to do everything. A dilettante-athelete of sorts. I want to be able to go out drinking and wake up the next morning and still race the best race I can under those realistic circumstances. Now that the excuses are out of the way, let’s get to the starting line. 

The race took off and I felt pretty good. But that feeling only lasted about 2 and a half minutes. That was when we started to ascend this hill that went as high as 11%. My strategy of maintaining a high cadence wasn’t effective. Similar to the last race, I found myself struggling on the climbs, and despite my light weight, this aspect is becoming my Achilles’ heel. Whatever approach I’m currently using to tackle these hills isn’t working.

Although I managed to recover from being dropped on the first hill, the second hill caused the race to stretch out too much. The lead pack had disappeared, and despite my efforts to descend quickly, even with my aero power-up, I couldn’t catch up with them. At least not today.

I was pretty frustrated by the time we got onto the straight stretch leading into the fan flat section. I allowed a small group of Canadian and German riders from behind to catch up with me and the six of us rode together in hope of picking off a few stragglers such as this Polish rider at 12:29. 

Perhaps there was a chance to catch up with the pack that was about 10-15 seconds ahead. I believed that if we truly worked together, we could have closed the gap. However, there wasn’t much collaboration within this group. It seemed like most of them were content to maintain the current pace.

I was frustrated because I wanted to chase… but I knew I couldn’t do it alone. Every time I surged to the front, I could feel them drafting behind me, especially Schuster. If I pushed too hard on my own, I’d risk burning out, and they seemed all too happy to let that happen. 

At the 18:21 mark, we lost our chance to catch up, and seeing them comfortably enjoying my draft only made me angrier. Fine, I thought. We won’t chase. That’s when my attitude turned vindictive. My goal shifted from merely avoiding being dropped to beating Schuster. It was the first time my frustration had blinded me from forming any real strategy.

We all stayed together right until the final kilometer. I bided my time, keeping a close watch on Schuster. The break occurred with 500 meters to go, and it was intense. The Polish rider made a move, followed by Schuster. Unbelievable! I increased my pace, and for a moment, we managed to reel everyone back in. Then, with 300 meters left, Hemming and the Polish rider pulled away. It was just me with the other two Canadians, and Schuster trailing behind.

With 200 m left, I dug deep. My cadence soared to 134, and my watts peaked at 338. That effort propelled me across the finish line, second to last in the group… beating Schuster. I felt good for only a short moment. I realized that hey, Schuster was probably suffering as much as I was, and there was never a reason I should have been frustrated with him. While he was the one riding my wheel at that moment, the whole group ended up beating us. I was focused on the wrong person, and that was a mental mistake.

I finished 29th in the race, but on Zwift Power, I placed 23rd. It wasn’t a bad result; in fact, it was my best in Group C. However, this race didn’t unfold as I had planned. The Richmond Rollercoaster, being an event-only route, wasn’t one I could preview beforehand. While I anticipated some hills, I didn’t expect them to be so challenging. 

Not good at climbs. Not good at hills. This race was an eye-opener for me. If the goal of this project is to avoid getting dropped, then I really need to focus on the climbs, because that’s where I’m losing the group. 

Now that I know this, how I use this information is crucial. I’m throwing away the high cadence strategy. Instead, I’m going to concentrate on generating more power at a lower cadence, particularly when climbing hills. Let’s see if this adjustments make a difference. To be continued.

Chapter 3: The Race That Almost Didn’t Happen

Race: Stage 3: Race Like A Champ (C) The Muckle Yin in Scotland 

This race almost didn’t happen. 

Allow me to get things going and then I’ll tell the story. Off we go. 

Two days ago, when I was getting ready to ride on Zwift, I ran into a problem: my bike couldn’t connect properly to the app. I tried restarting the bike computer, deleting and reinstalling the Zwift app, even downloading Zwift on different devices. But no matter what I did, whenever I tried to connect the Power, Resistance, and Cadence to the bike, it would start glitching out, turning itself on and off. I reached out to the bike company’s customer support, but all they offered was to send them an email. Either way, I was pretty choked that I might not be able to continue with this project.

Then the next day, I continued troubleshooting the bike with a fresh mind. I returned to Zwift. I turned on only Power, and it worked. Next, I added Cadence, and it worked too. However, when I attempted to activate Resistance, it didn’t work. That’s the problem. Apparently the Resistance was causing the bike to trip out. Why? I don’t know. Could it be related to the clicking sounds in the previous video? Maybe. Eitherway, I didn’t want to troubleshoot it any more. Everything works except that I can no longer use the Resistance feature. Well, there you have it. C’est la vie.

Needless to say, I was relieved to be able to ride this race, and that I’m on Zwift at all. 

Anyways, back to the action. During my test ride of The Muckle Yin, I discovered that there will be two big hill climbs in this course that can absolutely blow up the race. My plan this time was to grind hard on the hills, give it full power with a low cadence. During the last race I found that high cadence and lower gear didn’t give me enough. So this time let’s try the opposite. 

I’m pretty pleased with how I managed to keep up with the pack this time, especially during that first decent-sized climb around the 4.5km mark. It’s actually the longest I’ve ever managed to stick with the lead pack in Cat C, but… I wasn’t feeling great. My heart rate was already over 180 bpm, and with two big climbs still ahead, I knew I was in trouble. My plan to push as hard as I could up the big hill might not even be doable. Still, I hung in tight, allowed myself to chill a bit and give it my best shot when the climb came. 

And it happened around the 13 minute mark. I did exactly what I had planned: lower cadence, bigger gears. I pushed as hard as I could, even activated the Featherweight power, and suddenly found myself leading the pack. My power shot up to 280, but then, as I turned a corner, I made a fatal mistake. I eased off the gas. That gave the racers at the back a chance to catch up. To keep up with the pack that was now pulling away, I had to burn a big match, pushing myself up to 300 watts. Although I managed to hang on for a bit, I knew deep down it was over. Slowly but surely, the race started slipping away from me. I was getting dropped on the descent.

The elastic band stretched out, and just like that I found myself at the tail end of it. I’m rapidly losing positions. I had once been ahead, now I’m in 26. And those climbs just kept coming. I pushed hard, but I’ve been burning matches since the climb began. My heart rate is at 185, and now I’m all by myself. I could push as hard as I wanted, but there was no catching the lead group. The saga of me riding solo continues.

The funny thing about this race was, there wasn’t even a chase pack trying to catch up with me. It felt like everyone was spread out so far, and unless you were right up front, you were pretty much on your own. Three of these lone riders managed to pass me along the way: one at the 18-minute mark, another at 20 minutes, and finally one more at 29 minutes. But other than them, I was alone the rest of the time. 

I was fried at this point. Even though I had dropped my watts significantly for the last 10 minutes, I just couldn’t catch a second wind. All I could manage was to keep the fourth guy from passing me. That was all the motivation I had at this point, but NO! Literally. He caught me at 33 min and then dropped me as we climbed the second big hill. So, in the final stretch of the race, I couldn’t afford to think about the people ahead of me. It was all about damage control now. I had to fend off Santos and Stickman, who were hot on my tail just 3 seconds behind.

At 35 minutes, Stickman suddenly surged ahead of me. I pushed harder—I couldn’t let him slip away. I even deployed my featherweight power-up. But no matter how much effort I put in, he kept getting smaller and smaller in the distance. How many more matches did I have to burn? Just one more? I knew I had to save that one for now.

As we entered Glasgow, I was more than ready for this race to be over. It’s funny how that works sometimes with endurance sports. I was so worried I wouldn’t even get to participate, but now that I’m here, I’m just eager for it to end. That was how I felt going into the final two km of this race. I spent so much of it alone and just killing myself. I just wanted it to be over. That’s what fueled me. The faster I go, the better chance I have of beating Santos, sure, but also the sooner I can stop altogether.

In the final stretch, I felt the urgency and use up that last match I’d been holding onto. Even though Santos was 10 seconds behind, I pretended he was right on my tail. I pushed harder. I was just done.

What an absolutely grueling race. Possibly one of the toughest I’ve ever endured. The crazy part is, it began so promising but ended in disappointment. Yet, the results weren’t all that terrible: unofficially 28th out of 65, and 22nd out of 38 on Zwift Power. Maybe I deserved a better outcome, but truthfully, I just didn’t pace myself correctly. I pushed too hard early on, burnt myself out, and couldn’t bounce back, so it was pure agony for the remainder of the race.

While it seemed like a solid strategy to go all out on the hill, it turned out I wasn’t quite ready to pull it off effectively, so it’s back to the drawing board for me. Pushing as hard as I could for as long as I could just isn’t possible. I had to break the race down into parts, keeping gas in the tank, and just tackle each hill at my own pace. A lot to think about before the next and final race in this series. I really want to see an improvement. 

Chapter 4: Interval Training

Stage 4: Race Like a Champ (C) Knickerbocker in New York

I was quite annoyed by this Series, not only did they have all these hills, exposing a weakness that I didn’t know I had, it also cancelled a race that I had scheduled. 

Zwift had initially stated that the Race Like A Champ series would run until March 3, but on Feb 26, any races from this Series after Feb 29 disappeared without warning. 

Alright, fine. No big deal, I thought. I just had to reschedule it for a Wednesday evening. It wasn’t the most ideal timing, considering I’d have already worked a full day, but adapting to unforeseen circumstances is just part of this whole project. Yes, I was getting dropped left and right, both in-game and out.

Anyways, after the terrible experience last race, my main goal this time was simply to feel better during the second half. I needed a clear plan that would keep me competitive but also allow me to survive the latter part with some energy left. 

There were several challenges I faced. First, the race wasn’t scheduled at an ideal time, as I mentioned earlier. Plus, the course featured a massive climb right in the middle. That climb would ultimately determine how the race went for me. I realized I needed to change my mindset. Instead of viewing it solely as a race, I had to approach it more like a workout. After all, I knew I could get through a workout.

The race began, and I managed to stick with the group. Great! Now, it was time to put my plan into action. I wasn’t racing; I was doing interval training. I’d push hard for 15-20 seconds, then give myself a moment to rest, reassess the race situation, and then push hard again for another 15-20 seconds. If I do this the whole way through I should be able to survive.

At 4:30 in, as the lead pack approached a climb, I timed it perfectly to push hard just as we hit the incline. However, the front of the pack still broke away with about 15 riders, leaving me behind. “Not again,” I thought. I could have kept chasing after them, but that would have meant abandoning my interval training plan and likely burning out quickly. “No,” I decided, “I will stick with my plan, and when I come to the big KOM at the middle of the race, I would be thankful.” 

So I kept going, pushing hard and then giving myself a rest. I’d push all the way into the upper 200s and then ease off, dropping back down to the lower 200 watts and allowing my heart rate to come down to the 170s. This approach was proving effective, as I managed to secure 12th place at the start of the KOM. I considered this to be a respectable position. Anything more now will be a bonus. 

I stuck with my strategy: push hard, then ease up. I’m genuinely amazed by how well it’s working, and it’s incredibly satisfying to catch a few racers along the way. It would have been tempting to keep pushing hard, but whenever I felt like I was nearing my limit, I dialed it back. Before I knew it, I found myself in 10th place, feeling energized. Climbing suddenly felt more manageable. 

At the 16-minute mark, I caught sight of Blake and Castro. They appeared to be really strong riders, and I was amazed that after the initial break, I was able to catch up to them. Now, I was determined to stick with my interval training. Even if I let up and they passed me again, I knew I could surge and catch up with them. That’s exactly what I did with Blake—and then Castro. With them now in the rearview mirror, I felt good. But what next? The next rider was over 20 seconds ahead, and the climb was over. My hope was that I could make up some ground on the descent. This posed a new challenge for me because I needed the descent to recover.

I activated the Anvil power-up. Never having used it before, I thought the best time for it would be during the descent. However, I soon learned that might not be the case. By the time I reached the bottom of the climb, I hadn’t closed the gap on the rider ahead at all. At this point, I was kind of mad at myself because once again, I found myself all alone. This sucks. While my interval strategy had worked, it seemed this was as good as it could get me. My effort was waning, and being alone after such an emotional climb left me feeling a little discouraged, especially since I could feel Blake and Castro hot on my tail.

At the 25:50 mark of the race, the two of them caught up with me. The big move I made on the climb to drop them now didn’t matter. They clawed their way back, and they were pushing harder than I wanted to. I returned to my strategy. Intervals. 

Just like before, each time I caught them on a hill, I’d push past them. Then, on the descent, they would catch up. My goal was for them to try to keep up with me on the climb, allowing me to wear them out before I exhausted myself. This course was full of these little climbs on the last stretch, and each time I pushed hard, I felt like I was a boxer throwing a punch at an opponent. 

However, each time they pulled ahead, I felt like I was backed against the ropes. It almost seemed like Castro and Blake were teaming up against me. I understand—I’m the one trying to outpace them on the climbs.

On and on we went, attack, counterattack, defense. Defense. I was fading as we closed in on the last mile. No more intervals; I needed to prepare myself for the final sprint. It happened at the 300-meter mark: the two of them pulled away together, and they both activated the Anvil! What? I didn’t even think to use that power-up at the sprint. It was a rookie mistake. I should have saved that power-up, and if I had, I might have caught up with them. I pushed all the way into the 400s, but it wasn’t enough.

I finished 10th out of 32 and 9th out of 17 on Zwift Power. Very respectable results. But somehow, losing that sprint at the end left a sour taste in my mouth. I nearly executed the plan as perfectly as I could, but an unexpected detail cost me the race. I should have done more research on what the Anvil power-up did and how to best use it. 

Props to Castro and Blake. It was nice racing against other riders who clearly have a different set of strengths. And that’s something I’m learning from these races; it’s not just about riding as hard as possible. You need to adjust according to everything that’s happening, and pushing too hard at the wrong point can be costly.

There you have it Project: Don’t Get Dropped was a failure, but not without a lot of valuable insight and experience. I have a pretty good idea of where my weaknesses are now, which is pretty much everywhere, but with that being said, I’m also seeing progress. I’m trying things and iterating. This has been a really fun experiment this way, and it’s nice having the data to validate what is working and what isn’t. 

While there are some takeaways I can apply to my next race, I recognize that what I really need is more practice and training. A game plan can only take me so far. When it comes to sports, sometimes you just need to be more fit.

Shortly after this project, Zwift stopped connecting to my bike. According to the bike company, due to some software update, Zwift thinks the bike is a treadmill. Until another update is available, I will need to use another indoor cycling app.

So, to be continued…

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