Coached Athlete's Points Race 2
On the 15th of March, Tri Training Harder hosted their second Zwift Points Race for coached athletes. Here coach Jon gives us a quick recap of how the race unfolded. Check out his analysis and excellent video, which goes with it and don’t forget to drop us an email if you want to join in next time!
Some of the TTH Athletes training in their group workout.
Two evenly matched teams were picked for the points race. TTH Titans sporting the Zwift kit and the TTH Trailblazers in the ‘bumble bee’ kit. For the second edition of the points race, we had a restructured points system and handicapping system:
Handicapping
To make things more interesting, riders were allocated a bike to ride for the race. One rider on each team was given the Zwift Mountain Bike, 3 riders were instructed to ride Zwift Gravel bikes, and the others were allowed to use the fastest bike they had in their garage.
The points system
The big change for this points race was that points were now available for the fastest times on each segment as well as the first across the line. Points were available for the first 3 across the line but the 10 fastest riders through both the KOM and sprint segments. This meant that riders that had been dropped by the front pack could still score big points by going all out on the segments.
The bonus point system remained unchanged. Category B (3.2-3.9w/kg) riders would score double points, and Category C (2.5-3.1w/kg) riders could score triple points. This gave the faster Category A riders a choice - sprint away to claim fewer points or hang back to help bring Cat B and C riders into the higher positions.
The points race took us back to France, this time racing on the Casse Pattes course for a mixture of sprinting and climbing segments over 26km.
Points were available on the following segments:
Pave’ Sprint Reverse
Aqueduct KOM Reverse
Petit KOM
Marina Sprint Reverse
The race
In the last points race, some riders were dropped instantly due to the staggered nature of the meet-up start; this time, coach Kevin would lead a neutralised roll-out for the first 2km. A simple task, one would think, but trying to hold back 12 raring triathletes at 7 am seemed to be a tricky task. Despite the threat of picking up 10 penalty points for their team, several athletes failed to control their watts and surged ahead of coach Kevin. Brannigan Barratt was down to his final warning before he finally sank back into line. Once all athletes were eventually behind the lead-out, the flag dropped, ‘GO GO GO!’. The riders were unleashed.
Rather timidly, the peloton rolled out at a sedate 2.5w/kg. The first segment was another 10km away. The crowds watching on fan view wouldn’t have been blamed for rolling over and going back to bed. Coach Jon, following behind in the team car acting as directeur sportif for the Titan’s had had enough. He ordered a team break away. With 5km still to run to the first segment points, Al Chappelle, Will Davey (on a mountain bike), and the heroic Brannigan Barratt (Cat B) punched out on the attack. Callum Pinder and Gareth Petts of the Trailblazers thought they had the break covered but couldn’t quite hang on.
Would the brave move pay off? Or were the Titans writing cheques their legs couldn’t handle so early on in the race? Gareth Petts made a second attempt to bridge the gap to the breakaway but crept back again to help his team-mates. A few kilometres later and the move by Titan’s seemed to be paying off. They managed to hold onto a 7-second gap approaching the first banner, the Pave Sprint Reverse. Clear communication between the Titan riders allowed the two A riders to pull Brannigan to the line before dropping back to allow the B rider to take maximum points. Branigan earned 20 points for crossing the line first and set the 3rd fastest time through the segment thanks to a strong pull from Al and Will, another 16 points. From the chase pack, Matt Redford (B) managed to produce a stunning sprint for the Titans to claim 18 points with the second-fastest segment time. The Trailblazers clawed back some valuable points, with Gareth Petts (A) taking the fastest time overall, Becca Fellows (A) came in 4th on her Mountain Bike, whilst Callum (A), Phillip (B), and Harriet (B) all picked up some tidy points ahead of the Titans lead out men Al and Will.
Titans 76 Trailblazers 41
The next banner came only a few kilometres later, the Aqueduct KOM. There was nothing the Trailblazers could do here. The Titans used the same tactic and even managed to draw the gap out to 12 seconds. They claimed huge points. The Aqueduct KOM climb is barely noticeable; it’s more like a sprint. Yiannis Gopoulos (C.) used his huge power numbers to his advantage and smashed home the fastest time for the segment, winning the Trailblazers a massive 30 points.
Titans 137 Trailblazers 94
Next, it was time for the Petit KOM, a much longer climb. The Titans breakaway had managed to pull out 28 seconds on the peloton approaching the foot of the climb. Gareth Petts of the Trailblazers waited until crossing the start of the segment before launching another ferocious bridging attempt. Titans DS, coach Jon, was monitoring Petts closely and began screaming in the ears of the breakaway group. Petts was timing his attack perfectly; he reeled in Branigan and caught Will and Al with 300 metres to go on the climb. The Titans weren’t done yet, Will and Al immediately attacked again in an attempt to drop Petts after his effort to bridge the gap. The entertainment value was now rivalling a Tour de France Queen stage. Will and Al opened up a small gap and thought they had it. However, poor course recon by the Titans' DS meant that the KOM banner was a further 300m further up the road than the course road book had stated. Petts was unstoppable. He charged through and took both the first across the line and the fastest through segment points. Will Davey's mountain bike had steam coming off it as they crested the climb and attempted to catch back on to the Trailblazer for the descent. Meanwhile, in the peloton, Martin Dickson managed to put together a well-paced effort to come home with the second-fastest time in just over 6 minutes. The on-form Brannigan outperformed his category B competitors, adding more points to his haul. The Trailblazers kept the pace up to fill the remaining spots in the top 10, with Callum Pinder putting in a solid effort to pip Will Davey into fourth and Cat C Yiannis picking some more valuable points.
Titans 184 Trailblazers 139
All was calm for a few minutes as the teams recomposed themselves for the final flourish. One more sprint to go and then the final charge to the line for the overall finish position points.
At the front of the race, Gareth Petts was still fending off Will and Al from the Titans, with a gap of around 5 seconds going into the Marina Sprint. Al launched his attack here, setting the second-fastest segment time and managing to jump back onto Petts wheel. Petts had a different tactic; he waited for Chappelle to expend himself on the sprint then launched his attack in an attempt to take the overall stage win. A fine move. The Titan’s were outsmarted. Will Davey kept his mountain bike going as fast as he could to cross the segment line in 3rd position but had nothing left for any form of a sprint. Martin Dickson put on another sprinting masterclass, this time taking the win, beating Al Chappelle by .25 of a second. Great work Martin. The Trailblazer sprinter, Yiannis Gopoulos, put in one final punch to claim 3rd spot. Whilst Titans Cat C rider Amy Godfrey pushed hard to knock both mountain bikers out of the top 10 and claim some hard-earned points for the Titans.
Titans 232 Trailblazers 194
There wasn't much anyone could do to turn the points around with the gap down to 38 points, and the riders spread out on the road after a chaotic sprint fest. Martin Dickson allowed his Cat B teammate to cross the finish line first to claim the greater points. No such niceties in the Trailblazers, Callum Pinder (A) pushing ahead of Coach Philip (B) by a few seconds, the game was done. The final riders pushed to the line, Becca Fellows’ (A) beautiful bright pink mountain bike may well be left in the garage for good after being lugged around a tough course. All 12 riders finished, and the tension built as coach Jon frantically tried to tally up all the points.
In the end, the grit and determination of the Trailblazers couldn’t match that bold, early attack from the Titans trio. That move made all the difference.
Titans 282 Trailblazers 244
Until next time.
We have many more exciting in-house races coming up, including:
Handicap TTs
Live Duathlons
Cat and Mouse Races
Epic and Volcano Mountain TTs
Speak to one of our TTH coaches if you would like to get involved. 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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