Covid is forcing us into our homes and away from our cycling mates. That doesn’t mean your riding needs to become less fun or you need to ride alone. Sign up for The Breaks Indoor Racing Tour and be virtually united with riders of similar ability to you. Compete for GC & daily stage wins in a community of like minded cyclists trying to make the most of these tough times.
The Breaks is a Zwift indoor racing series on Zwift with races every Monday to Thurs brought to you by Sportive Breaks & Pearson. You will compete against riders of similar ability to you in categories with a variety of stages to suit all rider types. The aim is to have an hour each night to catch up with each other and enjoy some friendly competition while we are restricted to spending time in real life with our cycling mates. You can choose to join as many races per week as you like. Routes will be between 20 and 40km on mixed terrain with some sprint stages, rolling terrain & summit finishes. There are points for each race based on where you finish:
1st place – 25pts
2nd place – 20pts
3rd place – 16pts
4th place – 13pts
5th place – 11pts
6th place – 10pts
7th place – 9pts
8th place to 15th place – 8pts to 1pt
Your top 3 results per week will count towards the monthly GC.
To sign up, complete THIS FORM. We will then send you a link to join the Facebook & Strava group for your category where you can meet your fellow races. Jan’s grand tour saw 50 riders take part and some very tight battles. Feb’s grand tour starts on Monday 1st Feb but you can join later in the month.
You will receive the routes for each week’s races on Sunday in the Facebook group & by email. Races are every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday at 6.30pm, typically lasting about one hour.
Monday’s stage is over mixed terrain – ideal for someone to win from the break.
Tuesday is a climbers stage normally with a summit finish.
Wednesday is a quicker, sprinter’s stage where you will need to work together and then leave something in the tank for the finish.
Thursday’s race is a handicap with Ds starting first a few minutes ahead of Cs and Bs further behind so it should be very close at the end.
You can see race results in Zwift under your activities. Sportive Breaks will publish the stage & GC results in the Facebook & Zwift groups. At the end of each month, we will send the final GC results, if you have consistently ridden above your W/KG you will be promoted to the next group. We do not use ZwiftPowerm we trust our members are riding in the spirit intended.
What Equipment do I need? – You will need a subscription to Zwift, the Companion App so you can chat during races and sign up to events & most importantly a smart trainer (Wahoo Kickr or Snap, Tacx Neo or Flux etc).
How do the Races Work – You can sign up to the races on the Companion App. Log onto Zwift before the race (we will send a recommended warmup) and you will be prompted to join the race 15 mins before hand.
How are the categories worked out? – In Zwift, you will have an FTP in watts (if you are new to Zwift you can do an FTP test). Categories are worked out by your FTP divided by your weight in KGs. This enables you to race with people of a similar ability. We will move people once a month if they are consistently racing above their normal watts per kilo.