Team Time Trial!
On Thursday 14 May, at 7:40pm, two club teams will be racing on Zwift in the final event for the British Cycling South East inter-club Zwift competition.
This competition has been running over the past six weeks and the club has had some excellent results. It’s been helping to scratch the competitive itch that many of the club’s racers have been experiencing due to the lack of on-road events. It’s also been bringing in some first-time racers too, due to the easy of entry (just get on your turbo trainer and race!). There will be a full report in due course, including from one of those first-timers, but right now let’s concentrate now on this blue riband event, which will close off the series in style.
Many of you will know that a team time trial features often, though not always, in the Grand Tours. It involves a team of riders in close formation in a time trial-style maximum attack event, racing against the clock to try and achieve the best time compared to other teams.
This particular race is for teams of between five and eight riders. The club has one team of seven and another team of six racing. For each team, the time that will be counted is that of the fourth member over the finish line. So it’s very much a team effort. There’s no point someone going off the front for the glory, since the fourth racer is the one who’s going to stop the clock. Each team needs to do everything they can to keep a steady pace and maximise the drafting effect (i.e. sheltering from the wind – and yes, Zwift does simulate this remarkably well) by keeping all but one team member out of that wind and rotating frequently.
You can get involved and watch this race in real time in a couple of different ways. Firstly, the organisers of these events on Zwift (WTRL) have their own coverage, since these are very popular events and they have a lot of experience in running and sharing them. See https://wtrl.racing/ttt/TTT-ZCL-Broadcasts.php for links to their broadcasts on social media and popular streaming platforms.
Alternatively, if you have a Zwift account, then you can follow the race on Zwift as follows. First, start a Zwift session on Watopia (the world that will be hosting the race – this won’t work if you’re on a different world) and then open up the profile of one of the club’s team members (e.g. time trial road captain Vernon Schutte, or road race secretary Luke Stratford) and use the “Fan View” button in the Zwift Companion app to see them in real time (you can also change the camera angle via the Zwift button for this).
Good luck to both teams!