Zwift Classics: Crit City Slam
Yesterday, the Indoor Specialist team took on third and final race in the Zwift Classics: Crit City Slam. The Zwift Classics were three standalone events: London International, Richmond Challenge, and Crit City Slam. Each event presented different formats; whether it was a team race, a scratch race, or a points race—the changing format made each event unique, challenging, and incredible to watch! This week’s race in Crit City was a scratch race, meaning first across the line wins!
The Competition
The Men’s Zwift Classics featured both the strongest amateur community teams on Zwift and UCI-level professional road teams, Olympic athletes and medalists, and some of the strongest professional triathletes in the world! Bringing together amateur eSports teams and professional athletes shows exactly why racing on Zwift is so unique: the racing is a skill that takes time to perfect! While strength on the bike is very important, the demands of racing on Zwift are different and the game mechanics play a massive role in determining your success in each race!
The opportunity to line up against the other elite amateur and professional teams is incredible! We love the challenge of these Pro-Am events — the bar is raised every time we line up and we're loving how much the series of races are pushing the sport.
Indoor Specialist racers who took on the Crit City Slam event were Matt Curbeau, Aaron Coles, Holden Comeau, Matt Gardiner & Ryan Larson.
The Course
The thrid Zwift Classics event took place on Crit City’s Downtown Dolphin course. The shortest circuit in the game, Downtown Dolphin is 1.94km (1.2mi) of rolling roads, tight corners, and incredibly fast racing. The one feature on course is a short, punchy cobbled climb which slowly forces riders off the back of the group as the race wears on.
The format for this event was pretty simple: first across the line wins. No primes for sprints, no KOMs; just 15 laps of fast and furious crit racing!
The Race
Having raced Crit City countless times since it’s release, our team was well-prepared for the effort ahead. While criterium racing outdoors is punchy, fast, and dangerous — crit racing on Zwift is fast, painful, and only dangerous if you decide to race on rollers.
Crit City’s feature “climb” on course is a brief kicker of cobbled roads which pushes the pack over threshold just enough to make each lap more painful than the last.
As the race wore on, few racers dared to go off the front — with the pack blazing around the circuit at an incredible 33 mph (53kph)! Each lap saw racers fall of the pack one by one, beginning with 130, the pack whittled down to around 70 racers by the final lap — setting up for one of the largest field sprints we’ve ever seen.
Our racers fought to move to the front of the race with a mile remaining. Matt Gardiner, Ryan Larson, and Aaron found the top-15 just when the flurry of aero power-ups were deployed. The mad dash for the finish launched and before we knew it, the race was over!
The (Provisional) Results
Top-10 finishers
We are so stoked to finish off these Zwift Classics with a strong result. As the only team to successfully place 3 racers in the top-15, we couldn’t be happier with the effort today. In the finish, only 9 second separated 1st place from 70th place — showing just how insane the finish was. Our racers placed as follows:
Ryan Larson — 5th
Matt Gardiner — 12th
Aaron Coles — 14th
Matt Curbeau — 40th
Holden Comeau — 42nd
Link to the provisional results can be found here!
The Data:
All race data for our racers in the Pro-Am races is publicly available below: dig in!
Matt Curbeau
“That was a straight up sufferfest for 30 minutes. Tactics be damned, every man for himself fighting for the front of the pack. Luckily the IS boys can suffer and we held our own against some really classy riders.”
Matt Gardiner
“Having raced on Crit City many times, I knew the effort today would be more akin to a time trial than a criterium — I was so painfully right. The regular surge on the cobbles was a slow boil which made each lap increasingly unbearable. I knew if I could just suffer more than others with 1 kilometer to go to get into the top-15 that I’d be able to hold onto my position to the end. I found the front and went all in with 500m to go. So stoked on 12th place in that field. The whole team killed it with Ryan in 5th, and Aaron in 14th to put 3 of our riders in the top-15!”
Aaron Coles
“Really happy with the result for the team and myself today. The pace was fast and furious and never let up. It was amazing to see so many quality riders put everything on the line today. From the last KOM to the finish was a bit of blur but I just gave it everything and tried to position myself well. Pretty stoked to finish 14th in that field and amazing job from Ryan, Matt G, Holden and Matt C. The only team with three riders in the top 15!”
Ryan Larson
“That race was really hard, but the effort suited me well. I knew how to play the finish and found the front just at the right time, launching my sprint and hoping for the best. To come away with 5th place in that field is incredible. The team raced awesome and Matt Brandt kept us all in check throughout the race through Discord. Happy to end the Zwift Classics on that one!”
Holden Comeau
“The race was 35 minutes long and I averaged 395 watts. I had lifetime best power peaks from 25-35min. That's 10 whole minutes of riding stronger than I've ever been before. From that perspective, I guess you could say the race was a once-in-lifetime experience. So I'm really glad I had the chance today.”
