TTH Coached Athletes Christmas Points Race 2020
On the 21st December Tri Training Harder hosted their inaugural Zwift Points Race (the Christmas edition!) for coached athletes, here coach Jon gives us a quick recap of how the race unfolded.
Two evenly matched teams were picked for the Christmas showdown:
Santa's Sprinters sporting the Christmas jumper Zwift kit and the Mistletoe Missiles in the ‘bumble bee’ kit.
After a solid warm-up, course recce and a tactical briefing by their respective team captains on the team discord channels, the athletes were primed and ready.
The final Christmas jumper selfies were taken for some crucial bonus points and the riders were released from the pen at 07:20. The teams charged out of the gate onto the cobbled streets of Paris. The course would take in 3 and a half laps of the Champs Elysees circuit (23km) with 2 opportunities to score sprint points on each lap and big points awarded for the first riders across the finish line.
One twist in the points scoring system was that Category B (3.2-3.9w/kg) riders would score double points and Category C (2.5-3.1kg) riders could score triple points. This gave the faster Category A riders the choice - sprint away for the win or hang back to help bring Cat B and C riders into the higher positions.
Each team also had a super domestique by way of a TTH coach - Philip Hatzis and Kevin Smith. Seeing as coaches weren’t allowed to score any points, their role was simple - give everything they have to protect the lower category riders.
The first sprint points came at the start/finish banner, just 3.5km into the course - Josh Lahiri (Cat B) got Santa’s Sprinters off to a flying start by launching himself early for a surprise attack catching TTH stalwarts Al Chappelle (Cat A) and Will Davey (Cat A) napping - a great start for Santa’s sprinters - already up 7 points to 2 after the first banner. 5 to go!
The Mistletoe Missiles mounted a comeback charge on sprints 2 and 3 with Callum Pinder (Cat A) and Becca Fellows (Cat A) taking home the points for the top 3 across the line. Josh Lahiri was at it again on the 4th sprint picking up some nice bonus points for 3rd spot.
After 2 laps - Santa’s Sprinters 17 - 11 Mistletoe Missiles, could the Missiles bridge the gap on the final two sprints?
With a lap and a half to go the Cat A riders started to put the pedal down shaking off the remaining Cat A and B riders from the front pack - Helen, Becca, Callum, Josh and Martin Dickson formed a solid second group on the road with a mix of Santa's Sprinters and Mistletoe missiles.
Meanwhile, we had a great battle going on with coaches Kevin and Philip working well with the Cat B and C riders battling for the double and triple points. Kate Johnson (Cat C) had Yiannis Gopoulos (Cat C) firmly in her sights as she used Philp’s wheel to bridge the gap back to Yiannis and Kevin.
As the front pack entered the last lap we had a breakaway of 3 Cat A’s - Will Davey, Phil Lester and Al Chappelle for the final lap showdown. Al Chappelle launched a huge early sprint to take the top points on the final sprint banner. The front trio recomposed themselves for the final few kilometres. With 3 strong riders in the group, 2 from Santa’s Sprinters and 1 from Mistletoe Missiles who would take home the win?
With 3km to go, Will Davey from Santa’s Sprinters went for a long-range attack, instantly pulling out a 10-second gap on the others. Will kept the power down and crossed the line a full 17 seconds ahead of Al who managed to pull ahead of Phil Lester. A great win for Will Davey and big points for Santa’s Sprinters taking 1st and 3rd.
Santa’s Sprinters now had a commanding lead could the remaining Mistletoe Missiles bring home any bonus points on the final charge to the line?
Santa’s Sprinters 49 - 25 Mistletoe Missiles
The chase group weren’t far behind.We had a great sprint off between our two Category A females Heather O’Neile and Becca Fellows. They were joined by Josh Lahiri and Callum Pinder, had Josh burnt too many matches with his early sprint points?
The ladies showed the guys how it was done with Heather just piping Becca on the line, closely followed by Josh. Callum Pinder hadn’t read the race brief and stopped his sprint too early - the floating meetup finish banner was sneakily positioned 100m past the normal start/finish banner. Lesson learnt! Big points again for Josh Lahiri coming in as the highest placed B rider, Josh racked up a massive 20 points in total for his team with his stealth sprinting skills!
It wasn’t over in the third pack on the road with lots of points up for grabs for the B/C riders. A garage malfunction by Jason Walkley left him on the course on his TT bike - his only choice was to go for an early solo break away from the B/C pack with 3km to go. He managed to hold off the others by 10 seconds, crossing the line in 8th place. Yiannis managed to hold off his Cat C rival Kate to come home in 9th. Despite a strong start in the front pack, Martin Dickson was unable to hold on to the high pace the A riders held, he put his head down and finished in 10th, holding off a persevering Kate Johnson. Despite technical issues and a possible small lapse in concentration on the start line causing her to miss the groups, Jaime Sim performed an honourable solo TT effort all the way round to ensure she picked up her point for the team. She also sported a great mini-Christmas tree selfie for an extra point.
Final points - Santa’s Sprinters 87 - 55 Mistletoe Missiles a great battle, very well done to all that raced!
We have plenty more of these fun style in house race events coming up on the TTH race calendar, the more athletes we can have involved the more fun it will be, speak to your coach if you would like to take part in the next one. If you think ‘you aren’t fast enough to race’, you are wrong! We have events to cater for all. In the next points race, we are going to reign in the A - riders by handicapping them with Steel bikes!
Other exciting in-house races we have coming up include:
Handicap TTs
Cat and Mouse Races
Epic and Volcano Mountain TTs
If you have any other events you would like us to run please do let us know.
Jon has been coaching with his local triathlon club in Hertfordshire around his full-time job as an airline pilot for several years. Unfortunately, Jon lost his pilot’s licence for 11 months in 2019 due to being diagnosed with testicular cancer (read his story here). He used the time off from flying to complete his Level 2 and Level 2 BTF diploma qualifications as well as a L3 Personal Trainer qualification. With his new coaching qualifications under his belt, Jon was able to join Tri Training Harder as a coach in 2019. He has now recovered from cancer, started flying again and is training hard for the coming triathlon season.
Jon has a flexible approach to coaching and training, from his own busy lifestyle he knows how to balance training around family, friends and social commitments. Jon loves to utilise the knowledge gained on his Personal Trainer course and finds incorporating well-structured strength and conditioning sessions vital to triathlon performance.
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