Damn... Clearly the Volcano CCW 8 is a good course for me.
Looked like ~80 Cs in the pen today. I noticed one rider who will remain nameless, but whom seems to consistently hit the podium and who is also a bit obnoxious in complaining about riders that will DQ, drafting off other groups, etc. If you've done a lot of C races, you'd probably recognize the name. So the plan was to try and stick with him for the entire race. The theory being if I'm with him, then I'm very likely to be in the lead qualified group. In front -- then I'm pushing too hard. If behind, then I need to bridge up to a faster group.
Given the size of the race, I figured starting hard was going to be necessary. It actually felt easier than the slower ramp-ups I've been doing lately. I found my target without an insane effort and tried to settle in for the ride. it was a tough pace, but no worse IMHO than others on the same course. My target had started whining about the over wattage folks before we even left the pen and it continued once the race started. Then some complaints about drafting off other groups being lame. It's a bit annoying. I may need to turn off in-game messages.
We had a fairly large group -- enough that we didn't fit on the "riders nearby" list, so keeping tabs on my target was difficult at times. I did some verification with the ZP live info to see if we were in the lead group of likely qualified riders and it seemed like we were. At some point a group came flying by, presumably the As. I increased power just in case someone in our group was going to try and hang on for a good draft. Most of the other riders I was watching seemed to be there after the As finally departed. Except I was having trouble finding my target! Turns out he must have drafted the As. Maybe he drafted another C that drafted the As or maybe he directly drafted the As. I don't know. Thankfully he was only about 10 seconds ahead, so I hit the gas and jumped to the faster group.
We're in a smaller group now, so it's easier to identify my target which is good. Somewhere near the 15 minute mark the Bs came flying by. And again my target got away. This time zwift reported him nearly a minute ahead when I finally found him. Damn! We had a little group of strong Cs but I figured my target had gotten away. His w/kg went down significantly as we approached the 20 minute mark -- I guessed he might be worried that he was over category limits. Suddenly he was less than 20 seconds ahead. I'd scored an aero power-up as we past the lap marker. I used it and hit the gas. No clue if I dragged anyone with me, I just wanted to take advantage of the opportunity and latch onto him again.
His group had a couple that looked like they were going to be spit out the back. I barely caught them right before the little downhill and the three of us caught my target on that little downhill. I tried to bring my HR back down so I'd not get dropped when we climbed back into the volcano -- with success. We were small enough now that I could see my target most of the time. So I settled in. I figured I was near my limit, so I didn't take any pulls for the 2nd half of the race and tried to never be in a position to have to go hard to avoid getting dropped.
As we approached the climb on lap #7 I went pretty hard to help ensure I didn't get dropped as that's been a problem before on this course. Norry (I think) dropped me a ride-on after we crested which helped as well. I was with the likely winning group on the final lap! Nothing terribly eventful through the final lap. Everyone seemed to be content to wait for the final climb into the volcano. Everyone went pretty hard on the climb, but I was still up with the group. Then folks went really hard. I tried to go with them, but only had a few seconds in me and I got past by a few, including my target.
In the end my target took the win for C group. I placed 5th out of about 50 qualified riders, just 3 seconds behind the winner. Lowest w/kg in the top 25, so clearly depending on me to take pulls in a race group isn't wise. I'm sucking wheels and looking to sneak my way onto the podium :-)
Anyway, I know I can stay with the winners on that course. Now I just need to do so with enough in the tank to finish strong.
so get yourself a direct drive trainer 
