Zwift Racing League // Race 1 - Douce France Team Time Trial

[Music] [Applause] [Music] n [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] well hello and welcome to zwift live this is our weekly Community show I'm Nathan gar your host and this week it's the zift Racing League kickoff R round one race one if you want to jump into the zift Racing League you can join a t a team anytime it's open all season for joining a team round one team registration itself has closed but round two is now open for team registration but if you're an individual who wants to get involved in the zift Racing League from September 10th through October 15th we're going to have six rounds every Tuesday in the largest weekly racing event in cycling in the world right here on zwift with wl. ring/ swift Racing League head on over there find a team and get involved as an individual you can still join well joining me as usual it's the host with the most it's going to be Dave to my co-host today Dave good to see you I'm excited for another zwift Racing League and this will be the perfect course for our teams to really test themselves as we get the new season underway so yeah cannot wait to get everybody out on course Nathan yeah it's going to be great to see all the athletes out on course it's going to be all about whether or not they've honed this skill because it is definitely a skill the team time Tri now let's hear a little bit though from the founder of wtrl and one of the men who makes all of the zrl happen Martin Karu a little about how all this got going so Pro rugby player gets into cycling starts swifting and then somehow becomes one of the leaders behind the largest weekly cycling event in the world how does that transition take place I mean I've always had um interesting computer games I've been a PlayStation user for many many years and going back into the old Seas Nintendos all that kind of thing so the crossover with Sport and video gaming kind of suits me quite well and developing Sports developing games developing competition that collection and that bucket of uh interests is is what has spawned W TRL to become what it's become the team functionality that exists at w TRL kind of helped form the idea of teams in general across the entirety of the virtual cycling landscape I would think uh that without the TTT the reality of teams might not be even close to as strong WT originally uh came from setting up some Saturday races here and there usually in collaboration with another another club um and then from there we were particularly Keen to get more team racing involved and more meaningful team racing so rather than just five six seven eight however however many people just show up to a race and you all wear the same jerseys from the same Club this was to make uh make the racing a bit more meaningful which is where the team time trial was developed and um you know back in was the 2019 I think when we initially launched the the team time tral with uh the seven initial teams that took part having done years and years of sport it is far more fun if you can call it fun to suffer as a group of people than it is to sit on a bike or sit in any sport suffering on your own uh if you've got teammates there to motivate you or to uh tease you or to help you or to support you to coach you uh you generally you realize a bit more of your potential you have a bit more fun doing it and the um experiences that you have are generally a lot stronger and that's been one of the really rewarding things to w2l is to hear the stories coming in from people in the TT who maybe um they've jumped on Swift they really want to get fit or want to improve at cycling or whatever the reasons are um they get hooked up into a team and then the stories that come back is it's really helped me get through my cancer treatment or it's helped me through periods of loneliness or it's really helped me with motivation to want to race or to work for my team not just for me it's been a really really heartwarming experience um not without its challenges but it's been been an awesome experience so far great to hear from Martin we'll hear more from Martin later on in the program but let's take a quick look at the course it is race one of the of the zrl it's a team time trial do safe France one lap 24.8 kilom 136.6 M of climbing points of interest out here today are going to be those first little intestines it's kind of windy in there it can be difficult to hold on to a wheel and find the right wheel as it twists and turns as you try and hold that straight line in team time trial formation The aqueduck Climb lot of speed over there and continuance over the top is going to be all about hitting the flat sections as you hit that France Village in the cobblestones and then into all of the sunflowers nothing but flat on the back end Dave yeah you know Nathan I love this course it really is pure to the discipline of Team time traving but it throws just enough at you along the way to keep things relatively spicy I mean in a good team time trial race it doesn't need to get that spicy because the intensity of just trying to moderate your effort work within that team Dynamic this really is what swifting uh is all about when you talk about racing so you're not going to win the season here you're probably not going to lose the season either but you're going to get yourself off on one trajectory or another that's for sure team Vibe is critical and Nathan if there's you know you can just jump right into zwift racing and find success right away but with Team time trialing you really do need to do that work and that probably happens with wtrl on Thursdays where you really the learning curve is so steep I mean what is it Nathan three races together as a team before you really start to sync up yeah I would say it's gonna be I would say three races about first race you're just kind of trying to figure out how things play out but let's head down to the pens actually I want to give everybody an idea of exactly what it looks like when you're getting a start going everybody hangs out in these pens and waits for their turn to go lined up as you can see the team's all in their team kits loving to see exactly how this plays out you wait for your your your section so you're not going to interfere with each other you don't start as a main group some people may be unfamiliar with how this works D this has been quite the progression to get to this point hasn't it it really has I mean this is so incredibly organized and this really the man that you were just interviewing Martin has built this from scratch and it's incredible so this really gives you a feel watch that clock you can see the countdown 25k of racing as we're about to head out on course here all right Oni guys and so watch how quickly Nathan that their plan goes into play as though that's what five seconds and they've already sorted out their line good job here well done by dpack here as you can see definitely a team to be watching out for out here today D Fabi devola that we're looking at he's a very familiar Rider to us six did they show up with the maximum of six they have 1 2 3 four 5 six so a total of six riders that can show up on the day and as you can see immediately getting into that formation Dave yeah Nathan I'm trying to figure out who the sixth was and I think I just saw the name pop so oh here we go so it's going to be the Austrian pettinger Daniel pettinger David Pacho from Portugal the two Belgian Sebastian lebone and then we mentioned Fabi and devola I would say that is one of the more recognizable names that we're gonna have out here racing today and this team very well setting a benchmark out here we're going to have splits as you can see coming up at 612 and 18K into the race that should tell us quite a bit this is a good look at all of the teams that we've got some very familiar squads it really looks like a who's who of Team time traling out here so start with six obviously that fourth Rider left is going to be critical when you look at where you stop the clock not all six riders need to get to the Finish to get a time so you'll see the best teams Nathan might even have role players out here today riders that aren't even planning on making it to the Finish but uh this is not ideal well you've talked about the intestines yeah up front we talked about the intestin being a difficult one and as you can see right from the Geto here our mins off the front just a little bit here and that's I mean the instigation to the rest of the team to go faster is one thing that people could be thinking but Dave the reality is it's not going to help a lot when they have to burn matches in order to catch back up with those team members yeah absolutely so this is actually bad on both end right now as you can see they're welding this back together on the front but still the tail is so this is exactly what I'm talking about Nathan to be fair I'm going to guess that these guys haven't raced team time trials all that much we'll have to dig in a little bit and find out but this is exactly what you get when you're learning on the Fly they're right now kind of in the air building the plane at the same time yeah kind of all over the shop here as you can see uh one two three Riders off the front I think you know there can be one of those situations where there's just a little bit uh you're you're excited to get the racing going you're excited for the ZL we're gonna win this time around and mutant here I think that's what's going on with them is they're extremely excited most likely you know and it's uh looks like it's a tough one here though to keep everything together 40 m off the back already from some of the Riders they need four to finish Dave and they're down to three at the front and Nathan this is the perfect time to talk about the role of the director sportif right that is critical much like in rowing where you have the Cox Wayan well here you really need somebody who's telling the Riders on the front you got to back off a little bit let these two rejoin even if you get that group of four together it is way way too early to just push uh the dump button on two Riders out here so you know I hate to focus in Nathan on a tough start like this but I do think that this really helps uh give a good example of how challenging the team time trial is on paper it sounds much easier okay we start with six the time takes off of the fourth rout or everybody should just stay together and work but as you said the excitement in Nathan how many times have we had this discussion Through The Years about the different mindset uh of racers where someone I mean I think it's been fairly well documented you yourself you like to go out hard ride aggressively and if you have Riders who are maybe struggling at the back how it's been a traditionally a challenge to figure out how to get the most out of them without completely cracking them yeah 100% as you can see here now back in we're going to see if we can move back just a little bit we were with dpack just a little bit ago and all together here with dpack but a little ways behind them bz3 looking good solid together here see if we can get a top view this is always gives a good view of how play how Riders are trying to hold that formation look at this intestin we said that this was a point of interest and see how difficult it is to make sure your avatar is timing everything correctly and your the power in the pedals becomes if you've ever played any console games with a controller it becomes the controller with the little bits of movements with the power in the pedals to just aim that Avatar exactly where it needs information without overstepping the Avatar in front of you without going behind though too much where you lose the wheel and when you're on the front well set it to where you're not dropping your team and it all stays conducive behind so nobody is falling off Pace right and that is a fine lot this team is doing a fantastic job here though Nathan as a matter of fact we haven't seen anybody quite this dialed so far today I'll be it we've only looked at about 10 minutes of racing but this might not be perfect but it is definitely the closest that we've seen they are flat out pinning it right now so let's watch out so bz3 we got a tremendous number of belgians jumping in with this time zone here most uh well represented Nation outside of Sweden I would say but this is one of the peer Belgian squads and they've got their act together out here we're going to be looking for that 6K split to be coming up the first part of the course out here again we're in France the world that was built back uh for the tour to France actually it's so cool that this time trial course or excuse me the team time trial course that we're racing on has become a Cornerstone of the racing so looking forward to seeing what we've got that 6K split's going to tell us a lot about what we're going to see out here today so that'll be a great indic indicator going out hot Nathan I think that's probably the technique that most of the top teams will be using today to tell you the truth let the chips fall where they may in that last it's flat in the finale but here is where you might be able to squeak out a quarter second and half a second uh just by being like bzr right now very very dialed in with your Technique yeah it looks like uh you know it's a slow it's a fast course right like a really really fast course and it's short it's not like it's going to be an hour long or anything essentially you've got a 30 to 40 minute full gas effort for these a Riders so I think they think they can afford to you know use a little extra gas here we do see some of those fire socks throwing down you're going to see a lot of over threshold for those that do have those fire socks on 120% and you know what that rider was just doing that we were just looking at that Rider on the back is doing the sink and Sprint method you go to zero watts per kilogram or around there go backwards as quick as you possibly can and then jump right back on so you're not interfering with the line at all to make sure that the riders that can all hang out exactly where they need to yeah and is that the technique you recommend Nathan the other flat I'll be racing tonight and I'll 100% be I don't because I know what it's like to be on the other end of that I know exactly what it's like to be on the other end of that where you are trying to hold a wheel in front of you and someone starts floating floating backwards into the line and you have to push past them while you're trying to rest you use all of your effort to fight for a wheel that's supposed to be used on the front of the pack totally not what we want that's why the sink the sink and Sprint's not about you the sink and Sprint is about your team it's about making sure your team is not wasting energy because you're in the way actually yeah it's sort of well it's definitely a a binary go noo type of move on off of the front and you can see that's what the top teams do out here no doubt about it so all right as we watch a team that really does have things dialed in right now there's the fire socks that Nath what triggers that again Nathan the fire So 20% I believe it is 120% is what we're looking at for for that actually right can you imagine I mean if you have exactly what we're seeing from bzr where uh I mean that's the first time that we've seen even a micro gap opening up here in the last couple of minutes and if you can hit fire socks every time you have a new Rider putting their nose in the wind and you were right on with that 30 second I mean it's like hit the front hit the gas not so hard that you blow the team apart but hard enough they're just goosing a little more speed out of this team this is going to be I mean we'll have to watch other teams out here but Nathan this is a Command Performance that we're looking at here in the early going 25k to go but this tells tells you a lot about you know they brought their aame today they they're racing to win and take top points here in race one first race of the Season here a lot of excitement around the globe to get the zrl kicked off Nathan I love that waking up here in the United States the number of riders that are putting up their first race post of this season and here are the splits and it is really really close I mean the fact that this isn't the fastest time that we're looking at dpack Elite with a 730 w at 6K 9 seconds quicker than bzr here that tells you that this is going to be an absolute Donnybrook out here today in France that's mutant with a 744 only 4 seconds off of that fastest time what do you think Nathan at 6K do we even see 30 seconds from tip to tail out here talking about I mean will we have a team go over eight minutes at really high Lev teams here that we're looking at mutant versus I mean these first three teams even that were looking at are some of the top in the world but we still have no pens r3r men to come through we've got cesu which is a top level bl13 is in here and they've got their their top top game Squad in here as well so I you know I this is super super competitive it's a great Point actually Dave I think we'll see somewhere between 30 to 45 seconds on the splits and it's interesting too remembering that dpack Elite with that 731 that might not be the fastest time that we've got at this 6K split but also you know know that technique of going out just blistering Pace that can burn you in the end as well especially when you have teams uh with so much depth out here not saying that's the case at all as I certainly like the technique and that's that's what we're witnessing here more splits will be coming in it's going to be really great to get this data out here in today's team time trial teams absolutely will love being able to really figure out what they need to do in the finale today because that's what it's going to come down to I'm anticipating less than 5 Seconds between our winning team and second today it'll be that close yeah and we can see here mutants really gotten things together I think they chilled out quite a bit here now before things were looking pretty rough weren't they uh and now at this point it looks like all back together they didn't actually lose anyone through that Mayhem which I'm a little bit surprised at actually Dave you know the reality of how much well you know being only quarterway in getting the regroup is definitely important and then they can just kind of throw down right Dave yeah absolutely I mean that's that's really well put I think that applies to a lot of racing on zwift is going out hard and you really do get that first indicator of whether you've got it or not here today this is a tough spot to be in here we have to watch the rotation as well you just witnessed a stellar performance being put together by the bzr team and this is a little icer back here Nathan when you look at it yeah it looks like you know looking a little bit behind this Rider here we'll see if we can get a better view of how mins is doing and looks like pretty solid pretty steady here from mins as he continues on snail there at the back for the actually riding for vcrt in it says in his name but definitely a mut and Rider I think he's separating himself with that little Jersey change up though to say that he's a guest Rider it looks like to me so it's interesting Nathan we were just on a little bit of a kicker there and this is where you want when you talk about it's not o and that's going to be it unfortunately you can see how hard this is but when you can how did you pick that up good call there Dave you totally saw that coming yeah I mean and now this is tough because as they hit the aqueduck K it's going to be four for them and this is sub ideal but at this point now you Soldier on with what you've got so that's what the Situation's going to be here for TNT it looks like as they come up and over the aqueduct K this feature uh we've talked a lot about the history of Aqueduct but right now for this team this is not a joyous moment as they have lost a couple of Riders on the aquad K clim they probably won't be the only team to have this happen to them out here today but now it's TCB taking care of business for these four here going to be watching now for our next uh the next time we get a look at these splits too will 731 hold up as the fastest time at checkpoint one my guess is no to tell you the truth Nathan when you look at the quality of riders that we've got in this race yeah it looks like we've got some data coming through here for the Riders nearby you can actually throw down those Rons always great to see people getting those uh on the right hand side of the screen uh as you can start seeing some of the wates are throwing down cough here as we take a look at him 415 Watts 6.1 watts per kilogram right now 159 beats per minute coming from him great to see but only four Riders left the suffering on the back here that's the big question that we have over and over again here with mins uh as we were seeing where is he at Rich mins here look at the difference though Dave on the downhill how much you can actually Reserve Richmond's two .8 watts per kilogram while cough on the front is throwing down six watts per kilogram everyone who's wondering about how to TTT this is it right here you reserve the energy everywhere you possibly can no great catch there Nathan so that when you look at that's Chris Kaufman who's taken that monster pole but if you do have a rider that's a little bit on the ropes what a great time to let them recharge their battery just a little bit there definitely don't take a pull and just stay in the wheels here and let's see if you can come good it's 25k of racing and there's definitely going to be you know every Rider is going to have that moment where they feel like they're just at their limit as this is uh TNT really showing us over the last couple of K how you know they're starting to organize as we roll through the French Village here looks like a big carnival big party going on for zrl kicking off the season I get the excitement 100% absolutely love it that they've got the party going on this section actually is interesting because the amount of speed that you can pull through in this section Dave it definitely can change things up a little bit about how and you can see look at the separation that's happening because the speed slows down just a little bit you got to push that little bit extra to hold the wheels look at everybody's watts per kilogram look at how they're having to press through as BMS here makes his way to the front and that's where an experienced team leader Nathan can really make a difference by understanding that because what you don't want to do is fight against your own team right if you're closing down gaps it's there's two sides to every story right and that Gap opened up for a reason and what we need to do is not let that happen again uh it's it really comes down to the micro gains that you're looking for out here but again you don't want to be fighting against your own team like right now this Rider trying to rejoin on the back that's the and this becomes an interesting question with the time taken off of of the fourth Rider here and Nathan you've dealt with this dozens of times right that question of do we wait or do we push on is the value of keeping that Rider here going to pay off later in the race and also there's the risk reward where if some something happens to a rider here in the back half of the course if you've only got four you have no wiggle room by waiting up and maybe giving up a half second but keeping that safety of that fifth rider in the group is is it worth it Nathan so situational isn't it you'd need about 10 more data points before you could make that call but the problem is you're not necessarily going to get them out here animal Instinct kicks in in wtrl I mean how many times have you been there critical decisions while you're completely at your limit heart rate at 177 and someone's asking you do we go or not yeah it's a good question I mean with this looking at the Press here do we go or not it looks like K off here is now letting us know exactly whether or not he's going to be going 5.6 448 Watts giving you an idea of exactly what they're throwing down in this a level out here on zift now read to the front though you can see the change up there coming from Kenny now pressing forward but only 383 and that really gives you an idea of the differences between the Riders doesn't that I mean k off they're having to throw down up into almost 500 watts well Stefan there from Ireland little bit different situation but 397 you know the it's not always about the raw wattage is it Dave no absolutely not the Finesse is such a huge part of this so Stephen Kenny team captain there Christopher Kaufman is the British Rider along with Rich mins on this team as I mentioned Irishman Stephen Kenny and then the suffix snail I love that name but I think we lost the suffix Snail out of this uh formation right now well they here's the current situation A 731 is what we're looking at uh let's see if we can get some of the fastest times so far out here it was actually zson watch out for the Underpants loving the name there coming from these guys they came through with a 726 Dave it looks like at that 6 kilometer marker so that's the fastest that we've got out there so far some of the Front Runners here taking a little bit easier the big question was it too much because look at the 12K from DPAC you know sacrifice that 5 seconds to gain a few later on I think is a better TTT usually Dynamic play that you want to make out there yeah risk reward is what we talk about so much Nathan in cycling but this is more risk management I think when you've got team time trying there was a quicker time than that 7:31 look at Zed Sunder pants Nathan 726 at that 6K check so we'll be watching for them at 12K they might even be the next team through they started right in the middle of this Donnie Brook that's for sure so fastest time remains with DPAC Elite but it'll be interesting can they slide in 1445 Nathan can they get in quicker than that really at the midpoint of the course here this is the familiar kit of zedon that we're looking at yeah it's good to see them having a good ride out here so far it looks like to me uh taking a look at Pritchard now 42 Watts as he sits in at 402 Watts Dave this is a strong team they're not even halfway through right now but they're on the aqua climb they're starting that that climb now a little bit so I think that has a little bit of something to do with it it seems to me as it's going to be still six riders for zson as they start up the aqueduct the fastest time through at the 6 km marker but what will they have at this next 12K that's going to be the big question it's going to be John here at 6.3 watts per kilogram up on the top the aqueduct and this is a point of interest for sure because it's speed over the top of this you can climb it fast but the question is will you carry that fast over the other side because you can get up to speeds of 60 plus kilometers per hour on the other side of this climb John biley was the ryer Nathan who just finished up that monster pull very well put it's the continuation right this is this race is going to be one right here right now to tell you the truth if they can the continuance a word I learned from you and I love Nathan they are still six solid these are the Gladiators of Team time tring that we're looking at right now and I tell you what that was a tremendous indicator that this is the team to beat Zed sun is back and they are in Full Effect this is a team time trial Clinic that we're looking at as they come down the backside of the aqueduct K so Nathan uh John here John Bailey this is one impressive ride Roy Rosas Steve James Stuart leelo so this team has a couple Welsh Riders a few Brits as well and then the Dutch Rider Dan Gus so very very impressive job they very well could take a gold medal back from France to their respective home countries here that's one of the things I love about virtual racing uh but this crew Nathan it might be virtual racing from around the globe but they know each other well this is a well drilled team time trial effort that we're looking at from zedon they had the fastest at the first check by 5 Seconds if I remember correctly Nathan I'm going to say that they're going to blow this out of the water a 1440 I think they go sub that with what we're looking at at check 2 we'll see if I'm right or not that 12 that's are you looking at it oh man give me a second see if I find it for you here because that would be insanely fast real quick just highlighting this pole they were coming through it's come down a little bit though you know they're not pulling six through the back end here really well maybe Siri is the one who we need to take a look at because sir Siri is like absolutely flying here actually we'll see if we can get in with him because I have a feeling he's coming through with crazy wattage Roy now five seven watts per kilogram from Zed Sun okay they're definitely pulling harder than I thought they would through this section here as ta just tries to hang on through the cobbles they're catching Riders up ahead here zson with quite the ride I love seeing that watch the fem on the trust there they have really spruced up France that's for sure okay let's see here 1445 for Zed Underpants Zed Sun Underpants I'm not saying that very well Zed suer pants for that's how they Gob smacked I am 1445 fastest time at that split it's 3 seconds quicker than dpack Elite and then everybody is just bunched right in there Nathan between 1504 1505 so only 1 second separating the third quickest time and this will update not everybody is already through at 12K and that shows you as they are all over France we got teams left right and Center three teams have already gone past 18K everybody's past 6K but we still are waiting for no pins and Vel Velociraptors there to put their 12K check up on the the board this is going to be back with TNT yeah I want to make sure that we're catching the back end of the race that already passed all the checks so far let's take a quick look at what those checks were back in with Tom burms he's taking another pull in the front they're down to four Riders Dave this is the tough part right every time we've come here we've seen pretty much almost the same Rider on the front and so what ends up happening is you end up in a Solo TT or a one two TT While others are just hanging on and I think this has a lot to do with what we saw early on in the race from these Riders there was so much separation in the intestines everyone ended up blowing up and now you just have Riders who have already used so many matches just to hang on and you've got Mayhem here Dave now they're having a good time still it's not like it's a bad time but the level that you know mutant writes at I think that they're going to be a little disappointed with their ride today I would agree I mean one thing's for sure they're not going to be disappointed with their effort but I do think that the Precision is what's lacking I mean this is Brute Force wise tremendous seriously that's a good call in the force Dave really seriously yeah and so this is what almost I'm I'm thinking a boxing analogy right but once they work their craft a little bit they're going to be really tough to beat out here and it's funny Nathan you see them in in just pandemonium and then they settle right back into what looks like a nice Rhythm here so that's just the problem is you need to keep this TNT going the whole time it looks like Steven's actually the one that's making his way to the front Kenny they're taking really short PS actually so it's almost difficult to get the right Rider on the Highlight here as you can see but up into 400 500 watts there for just a moment and Dave that's what starts happening at the back end isn't it you start taking these shorter pulls 30 seconds 30 seconds 30 because that's really all you've got left in the tank is a little kick hold on and then right to the back again and Nathan this is really where you can highlight who the strongest or stronger Riders are on your team are is now is where you start taking double hes if you are that Rider right and uh but you make a really really good point and and that's one thing that you'll definitely hear at the highest level is if you can't keep the speed up get off the front the worst thing you can do is bogus down yeah it's true and as you can see here Dave I mean the back the backing off um of the of the speed from these Riders at this point look at the heart rates they're really trying to control them I think is what's happening here because you know I I I just get the sense that everyone's just completely on their limit if you get a look at and the only one who's getting recovery here I think off is going to be the next one to come through and I love how we got the data here to kind of get an idea of like where the rhythm is coming through and how they're pulling through with each athlete it gives you a whole new insight here with these uh data points to see when people are actually working and what they have to hold consistently just to be a part of the conversation well Nathan as we make our way into this this uh highly anticipated zrl season I'm going to be watching out for Christopher Kaufman in a Solo break weight this guy's an absolute monster in this format it's a little bit harder to show that but he has been tremendous on uh throughout the day so look how perfect they are right now is they're going to be ready to bring this one on home into the back end of the course very very close three seconds separating our top two teams out here Nathan that's exactly what we anticipated this is going to be one of the most competitive the open EMA that's Europe Middle East and Africa West Southern division one with uh tens of thousands of riders you see how amazingly intricate it becomes trying to organize this league a shout out to you Martin that's for sure waiting for this Zed thunderpants time to come in 2154 the quickest time it's been DPAC Elite with either the best or the second fastest time at all of our checks this is the third and final check before we go into our finale and at 18K well 1.5k to go here they're finishing right here they're finishing right here coming in for uh the mutant team 2232 they came in with way behind on that dpack leak dpack leak they've got 1.5 they're actually catching I think looking behind I I bet you we might be able to see them off in the distance perhaps here as DPAC are pretty close to where we're at with this mutant team but uh mutant about to finish up it looks like here solid result I think I don't know I think they're going to fall down the leaderboard as these other teams come through that 18K though don't you Dave yeah um again it's such a stacked field that uh unless you have a fantastic ride you really can't anticipate finding yourself in the top five with so many quality squads out here but they're ready to bring this one on home squat s right hand turn through the watch def F and then we'll make our way back to Deep pack to see how things are playing out for them nice job the mutant finishing up oh see they were right there they were right there I had a feeling that dpack were right on their tail and there it is the Finish there for dpack will'll get their times in in just a moment we're going to have them rapid succession now also within the last kilometer here now at this point and this is going to be the bzr team coming in let's take a quick look at what's going on with them zets in thunderpants green cross the board absolutely insane but Belgian Swift Rider Eagles 3 that's who we're currently looking at who has a 2219 right now well only two seconds so it just got even closer there from 12 to 18K this could go down inside of 1 second here at the Finish Line it's going to be absolutely incredible these teams have left it all out on course these really are the Gladiators of the team time trial and some of these teams I mean if you're coming in with five at this point that's a real luxury having five here now Nathan should get you an extra quarter half second over any team with four as you can sacrifice a rid or just bury it put that accelerator down on the floorboard here is this is it right here right now the effort is almost over this is where races are won and lost 100% this really is the like you can lose the the race if you do not put every last inch that you've got into this has to be everything to the line at this point seriously the Power full gas 6 S8 sprinting over the top you're screaming at each other in Discord to try and make it happened and now to the line bzr Eagles they're going to take it looks like a pretty solid top five I have a feeling Nelson here behind this is going to be UT the Swedish team with kinberg toward the front it looks like of This Crew so solid effort here coming in from them let's take a quick look at what their splits are as uh it looks like it is going to be out bore coming in at the last check mark they were in seventh place at a 2256 still Zed thunderpants there coming on through now the finish time is they're not finished yet so still the fastest time as you can see in the green there all the way through zson holding down DPAC do sit currently in first with mutant in second the average speed for almost every team here is going to be faster than Eddie MKS or Franchesco moser's hour records back I guess that's a few years ago but it certainly is impressive to see all these teams well over 50 km per hour on their average speed on it's uh this course is no gimme here in France do say France 25k done and dusted we're going to bring this on home 2923 the fastest time but well we're going to see inside of 2930 no doubt for the win here uh yeah I think you're right we've got 29 23 out there will they go even sub 29 that's sub 29 right that man Zed Sun where are they at they've got to be pretty close here bl13 are also out here good to see that the Swedish team though outb nice uh by them ABR now in with them that's going to be the AB cycle team they've got a solid 2313 as they're finishing up out on course good for them to show up and I like their kit there the bicycling magazine kit as uh not super familiar with this team I think they're jumping into the deep end a little bit this team as uh Sam Vin or S van wickern uh is gonna be the ride that we're jumping in with good for them I mean you know they certainly found the highest level of competition in zrl and you don't just fall off the couch and get into this level of racing either as you can tell by these guys are very well organized effort out here but Nathan I have to admit I not familiar with AVR cycling team as well Ben mackinson Fabian Joe sen is the American on the squad Fabian German and then from the United Kingdom is Ben mackinson Carl Norris Carl Norris vtta I'm gonna have to dig in and figure out what that is all about then you mentioned Sam Whitaker as well with Sebastian van wickern making up that AVR team so we'll look forward to learning more about these guys in this zrl season there's always going to be that situation Nathan teams that you have to meet we've got six weeks of racing to look forward to if you include this week which is already proved to be a barn burner out here this is going to be an incredible season for these guys Nathan one thing you love to see is parody you know if you have one team racing two minutes faster than everyone else here you know it's not going to be much fun this season you're going to see utter domination 100% 100% hey let's uh real quickly as these teams are the back end of the racing here let's hear a little bit from Martin actually about how things are run and uh his uh future outlooks on the zift Racing League you and zift have this conversation about a zift Racing League with team racing and it's going to launch and flip the switch and I hope it goes well how did that first season kick off right like was there a little bit of nerves of like is anyone going to show up so we were we were really excited to see how far it could go and I think in that team that that that first season that we we did I think we had something like I think it was like a thousand teams or something something like that 800 to 1,000 teams uh and it's just grown and grown and grown and grown um to the point last year uh we were seeing 23 2400 teams I think in total it was something like 35,000 unique Graces that took part across the last three rounds the last season how do you strategize to keep things competitive when people are racing against each other well obviously the big thing is forming up the leagues and the divisions to start with um we use a number of uh different metrics to be able to rank a team so we can pretty much work out how we think each team's going to do how they might do against each other and and this is all softwar driven now it started off as a manual process so we just literally sit there with hundreds of spreadsheets and work it all out so we try to get the teams into competitive divisions um so that the races remain pretty competitive and it might not be that you're fighting everyone's fighting for the top spot and that's the Great thing with leagues is you're generally setting a Target somewhere so yeah team a wants to beat the team that's going to be two or three positions above them that's their target so they'll be building strategy on that so you got lots of little battles going on but then we also mix it up um because it's Sport and Sport different formats different skills different strategies um then allow different team members to be able to shine as well you can have your team time trial Specialists um you have your points races your Sprint Specialists your climbing Specialists uh and then obviously we had the root design competition so this allows RFS to assemble together their roads to form what would become the ZL route and everybody has voted for their favorite turned out to be uh breakfast or breakfast crits and grits which will be Race Six brand new course specifically designed by by a Community member for the Swift Racing League Race Six scratch race so yeah there's there's lots of lots of elements that we we use to try and keep as everything as competitive as possible what is the most exciting thing to you about the future of the zwift Racing League the most exciting thing is bringing zwift Racing League to to more people to more zwifters to see racing not just in zwift Racing League but as a whole uh across multiple organizers um to grow across Swift Martin it's been great talking to you thank you so much for your time here on zwift live thanks Nathan it's been great talking well great to hear from Martin Dave The Man Behind the what created the team time trial actually out on zwift and uh one of the favorite ways in order to get people interacting know and it's really developed Right started with TTT then it was like okay what other ways can we do team Dynamic competitions points racing starts coming in there I mean it's it it really was this awesome development we've seen over the last five years or so I couldn't agree more one of the things I love was the uh getting the participation of the Riders to help design their own route as well so but hey Nathan here we go these Riders right now will be bleeding through their eyeballs won't they four together but a solid formation as they're ready to bring this one home this is our no pins that we're looking at one of our last teams this might be the last team out on course actually I think it is our last team out on course actually so uh we'll see see how they end up well Vos might be a little ways behind we might be able to jump in with Vos actually and see how they finish up on the day but they're going to be throwing down this last little bit here to try and get the best time they possibly can before they finish up let's take a quick look how things stand for them no pins r3r came through it is uh in N they were sitting currently 2227 at that 18 kilm split so they're going to have to really press it here at this moment you know Nathan I want to go back the look at bzr the Eagles 3 they did fade going out so hard they had the fastest time at 6K and they'll fall to Fourth there so just goes to show you that there is a price to be paid for every effort that's a good point there definitely is every single effort matters I used to go out so screaming hard in the uh zift Racing League or the ttts and that has changed up a little bit I start I still go we still get up the speed real quickly but it's not a full gas Sprint right from the get-go I think you can temper a little bit because you need that for later on yeah and you know the last thing you want is to already be uh you know oxygen Deb or lactic Deb is you're just one minute into the race and having to start talking about recovering so these two teams that are left no pins r3r and velociraptors and right into the Finish about here this is coming in pretty quickly here for the Velociraptors so they you know the it's not so much about the one Rider off of the front because that's actually going to be another team that's a cesu rider that had done their work earlier so they're all together here few hundred meters left loving the Welsh AK it's going to be Michael Paxton Josh Medina and a few others here across the line how many do they have left here for Vos it looks like they're going to finish with four we've seen a lot of riders actually finish with four so I think that's been the tactic out here today so far hasn't it to just burn a couple of riders up front do everything they possibly can let them fall off and uh it's one tactic that can work to have an okay time yeah there's that old saying about if you want to go fast go with few if you want to go far go with many and I think four is the number look at Scotty the squirrel going bananas over there so that it's establishing their time so but yeah Nathan you're right I mean the thetically finishing with four I would want to know when your fifth Rider exited stage right like perfect RAC is probably they bury themselves and take you down to 500 meters to go or so so but if you're finishing with four it's either a really good sign or a really bad sign I guess depending on what your team mindset was yeah and I mean it's fast I mean that that was quick these are crazy times we had sub30 minutes Dave for we touched on 299 2030 we'll see what some of the finals here are 296 there for Z Sun said thunderpants there you know there was some Mayhem up front that we saw from mutant uh I think a lot of riders here that are looking at this and wondering okay how do we attack this course I have a feeling that there's going to be um a lot of looks at that intestines and wondering okay how do we make sure we stay together keep it consistent then through the flat sections and then Aqueduct a lot of speed and then just hold on to the Finish Line with full gas TT through the back end I know a lot of people jump into this community zrl broadcast specifically just to know how do I take this on what how do I learn and uh that's another thing Dave I think is that you can jump in and do ttts every week can't you yeah absolutely on Thursdays with wtrl there's a saying Nathan that repetition is the mother of learning right and that is really true with Team time trialing as we were talking about at the beginning of the broadcast you know about the third time that you race together as a team is when it really starts to click but I mean I'd also say maybe for the first 5k out here a little bit less might be a little bit more in the end for you when you look at uh your efforts out there is establishing your rhythm is critical in a team time trial right just like in a band everything goes back to the drummer or the bass player but someone has to control that Rhythm and that's the job of the team captain or the director sportif to do that once you've established the Rhythm then you can start to play around with the tempo yeah and it really team time traving really is all about a solid Rhythm knowing exactly the speed one thing that we do just another tip for those that are looking to get involved uh when I'm I'm in a team time CH we have like a set speed we want to hold yes if you focus on speed you can kind of get out of control a little bit if you don't know your efforts and know how to have a good uh solid line how to make sure that you get the right place hold the wheel don't overlap wields don't make people waste energy once you get that down though we try and aim at a very specific speed to stay really consistent after enough practice you start to know in the AA pluses we're right around 49 to 51 is where we're at and if we come under 50 we're like all right now we got to press the envelope but if we're going way over that we know oh how long can we go here we going way under that we might not be in contention today so every category kind of has its speed limiters and you try and use the energy that you have in order to get where you need in order to get the that most speed out once you've gotten that straight line TTT pack Dynamic down though it's kind of like a step-by-step process of practice yeah absolutely one thing I'd like to say not just thanking Martin Karu but how about all the team captains out there Nathan the folks that help organize their own individual ual team's uh effort here in the zrl there's a lot of work and passion that goes into that so big thank you you don't get to the tens of thousands of racers that we have without a bunch of Heroes out there doing that work to help uh build up the foundation so big thank you it looks like a great start lot of racing to go for folks maybe Nathan that aren't familiar with the zrl and how the the pattern is laid out there's racing all day long at all the different levels when you look at Z r l i can't even keep track of how many time zones that we race in now but uh it it's truly a global phenomenon when you look at zrl so great job Martin all right let's take a quick look at the results we are waiting for a couple of the results to still come in uh but uh we're going to need to keep on moving here so we're going to go with our top eight at this point it's going to be Zed thunderpants here coming on through Dave at the top uh with a solid time of 2916 yeah and you're going to see that they score 16 points for that so 296 really quick but eack Elite was right there Nathan second place only six seconds back and what's important is it's a linear Point structure so only one point down cesu racing this is I'm have to get this right to help me out where I go wrong makota it's another one of the cesu teams had a great interview with Matt Jansen on the zift uh cast that I'd recommend folks go back and listen to cisu in at third Belgian Swift Riders the Eagles 3 for fourth today mutant Y in fifth bl13 zzp rockets in sixth outb seventh AB cycling team in eighth and we're going to hold on no pins r3r and velociraptors but you can always go to wl. rcing to find out more about what's happening with this race or any of the hundreds of Team time trials that are going on today for our Racers that's a great shout out as we wrap up out here today's Rift racing leag you can join at any time it's open all season you got to find a team that's currently registered but you can still get involved next race is going to be on September 17th a points race on sugar cookie day of that course oh man that's a good that's a good one use the whole coast and then they kick up toward watopia Mountain across the cliff side and back on down for solid finish into the jungle so it's sugar cookie it's a great one next week points race there's going to be a lot of new sections of points competition that we've never seen before actually on this race so definitely a one to check out next week get on a team get involved now if you had a little bit of a struggle in the team time trial out there today well every Thursday home to the world famous weekly W Tri team time trial takes place every single Thursday in Partnership was with you can find almost all I mean pretty much all day long there are divisions that are going out all day long that you can jump into a team and uh on the weekly basis there's no series to it so there's no closing of registration other than the day before you got to have a team registered so Dave we've covered team time trials for I think almost two years actually one of the best team events there is out on zwift it's where it all begins and it truly is I mean when you talk about Community which is one of the cornerstones of zift Well Community is what wtrl is all about the accountability the amount of fun how many long ing jokes Nathan go back to wtrl I was just looking at Mona's uh result the other day and I saw that cookie and that reminded me well that's a good old wtrl thing that's for sure so so many great memories and yeah you want to get better at something you've got to engage it full on 100% you know the reality is I think uh a lot of people with this first TTT they'll be looking toward race number four in the zrl for this round number one thinking okay how did that go where did we go well where can we improve if it was a total bombshell for the team okay how do we improve let's go do some Thursday ttts right that's going to be the best way to get that and you almost kind of get into this routine once you get into the zrl season where you try and find those places where you can practice throughout the week so that you're ready and and ready to go and really sharpened up for those Tuesdays the Thursdays can do that for ttts and then you find somewhere to get your Sprints and points and scratch racing in to practice for as well just becomes this awesome routine as we hit into the season yeah there's only 10 million races a day on Swift you shouldn't have too much trouble finding one I wouldn't think you're never more than one minute away from another race start yeah that's awesome well we'll be back for that points race on sugar cookie next week thanks everybody for tuning here on zwift live definitely go and sign up over at wl. ring be on the watch out for the zift World Series streams as well they're all scheduled here on the zift live channel so you can go ahead and hit your notification buttons for those but we will see you next week sugar cookie Round One race number two points race for the zrl from Dave and I as always right on