Velo Vietnam Zwift Series Race 1 Report
It was hard, quality racing from the gun in the first Velo Vietnam.cc Zwift Series race of 2021, with riders from Vietnam, England, Wales, Scotland, Australia, Italy, Brasil, the US and more making up the international field.
Mr Jabberwocky was the early animator, chipping off the front with an attack, but a number of riders responded quickly to bring him back, notably T.Minh, Fernando Brasil and Marc Mendoza.
Other short-lived, but potentially leg sapping moves came from Nick Pilgrim and Kenny Bench.
T. Minh then came to the fore, laying down the watts on a 5% section and pulling out a decent gap.
However, it all came back together, with Mendoza again a key rider reeling it back in.
Minh's move did some serious damage, stringing out the lead pack and dispatching several riders out the back.
For a time it looked like a standard bunch sprint was on the cards, but Marc Mendoza had other ideas at around 3km to go.
Marc Mendoza, the men’s winner
Despite the work he’d already put in, he was able to put out a burst of 7w/kg, get a gap, then make it stick.
At 1km to go it looked like he had the win very safely in the bag, then Mr Jabberwoky came back strong and Kenny Bench rounded out the podium with 3rd.
“I knew I wasn’t going to win a sprint so I had to go. I set my best 5 min power in those closing Ks,” Marc said afterwards.
The women’s field was smaller so the racing was more split up.
For a time Helen was working well with Linh, but Linh saw a chance to move away on a slight rise and took it. In the end, Helen was a DNF - perhaps hanging too long with Linh and paying the price.
The women’s winner, Tô Phương
T Pham (Tô Phương) , known as one of Vietnam's strongest female amateur cyclists, came home for the win after leading from way out , with an average of 3.16w/kg. Her fellow Vietnamese rider, Lam Tuc Ngan (one of the nation's top amateur female triathlete) was second (3.06w/kg) riding in her Garmin kit. Vietnam's Linh Le took third.
𝑰𝒕 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒃𝒆 𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒏 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒑𝒊𝒄𝒆 𝒖𝒑 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒅𝒚𝒏𝒂𝒎𝒊𝒄 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒏𝒆𝒙𝒕 𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒆 - 𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒍𝒆 𝒁𝒘𝒊𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒏 𝑽𝒊𝒆𝒕𝒏𝒂𝒎!
