dare2ride tt race 4: road to sky

On Saturday March 20, the 4th and last race of the Dare2Ride TimeTrial competition was held on the "Road to SKy", zwift's replica of the famous "Dutch Mountain" climb to Alpe d'Huez from Le Bourge d'Oissans, France. With a 5km run-up to the 12.44 Climb and an average incline of 8.5% a serious finale.

After the start signal, half of the field bursted off, like racing a short distance sprint, but after 1.5km the riders settled into a bunch and formed a leadgroup, riding in each others draft, to ease back and settle in for the climb.

Passing the "gate" that marks the start of the Climb, the riders from the lead group cranked their Watts up, and the lead group litterally scattered on the foot of the mountain.

Lorenzo Arena and Bart Pinkse taking the lead, with right after them Michiel Broeksma, Niels Stehouwer and Nicolas VanderBruggen to follow. As Lorenzo and Bart pushed over 330watts and managed to keep this power, it was clear who would battle for the day's win...if they would last to the finish line off course..

Fighting for the lead, Lorenzo slowly pulled away from Bart, taking and expanding a gap. Behind it was Michiel Broeksema who hammered 300 Watts to hold on to 3rd place. Niels Stehouwer on 4th place looked like he could not follow, but this proved to be good strategy..
As half way the race, Niels could add some Watts to his average, while Michiel needed to consolidate some. The battle for 3rd place lasted for more than 30min, with Michiel pushing the pedals harder when Niels reached his rear wheel. Batteling untill approx. 2km before the finish, Michiel needed to let go, and Niels could even put one gear up.

In the middle of the field, all riders were suffering, grouping into couple's, to bare the intensity of today's climb and hang on. Ingrid Hissink with Harry Biemans, Paul Henning, Michel Uittenbroek and Djien Tan really fought their ground.

In all, a great race to watch, and to be in, as you can really follow what's going on in the front, middle and back in the race, while you're part of it yourself.. one of the great assets of Zwift..

The podium of the day : 
1. Lorenzo Arena          52:22 minutes (42min Climb time !!)
2. Bart Pinkse               56:23
3. Niels Stehouwer   1:00:07

Overall Classification podium:
1.  Niels Stehouwer   355 points
1.  Michiel Broeksma 355 points
3. Ingrid Hissink  340 points 

This week all earned competition points will be transferred into lottery tickets, and we will draft for the Fuego 1.0 Smarttrainer!

Thanks for joining the competition everyone, and maybe till next competition!!