The Move that Made Kulchinsky U.S. Champ
Blog #6
Kristen Kulchinsky put on a masterclass in small-group attacking tactics, and Hayden “FarmWatts” Pucker1 ran away from the men’s field to secure gold in the U.S. national championships on Sunday.
For Kulchinsky, it was her second consecutive national championship, tying her with Jacquie Godbe for most all time. For Pucker, it cemented his status as the best American eSports cyclist after an incredible season that has featured an Echelon Racing League GC win and a top five finish at the UCI World Championship.
Below, we take a look at how both races played out. The focus is more on the women, since frankly it was a more exciting race and the series of events that broke up the front group on Lap 3 was absolutely fascinating. Also, I had family in town this weekend, so I wasn’t able to watch the men live 😂2
Race Format and Course
First though, let’s take a quick look at the race format and course. Both the men and women raced four laps around MyWhoosh’s Hudayriyat Dust Trail (42.2 km/684m). The course was pretty flat, with small punchy climbs throughout that were ripe for attacks.
Overall, the format was good: simple scratch races are always fun. But I do have some gripes with USA Cycling. If you are going to put on a national championship, please put some effort into letting people know it exists? The USA Cycling Twitter page didn’t mention anything about the championship on race weekend. Official start lists before the race were nowhere to be seen. And the USA Cycling website provided zero information about how to watch the race. Like, c’mon! This isn’t hard stuff. I’m not asking for anything crazy here. But at least acknowledge that these races exist!
The Women’s Race
Let’s get into the racing though, because it was really good. The women went first, with a small group of eight riders competing for the championship. Even though it was a small field, it was a deep one. Going in, we thought that six of the eight had a chance to win:3
The big news at the start, as noted by Gabriela Guerra in the broadcast’s comment section, was that Kulchinsky had been battling an illness in recent weeks. It was hard to tell how this would affect her early on though: the first lap was functionally a warm up, with all eight women staying together. Kulchinsky put in a minor test attack at the end to get everyone’s legs going into lap two, but it didn’t really challenge anyone in the field.
Lap 2 is where things got serious. Kulchinsky kept up a series of mini accelerations on the rollers early in the lap that kept the pace high. Meyer followed with an attack of her own, dropping Em Nyquist and bringing the field down to seven. At the bridge - one of the steeper climbs towards the end of the course - Kulchinsky led an attack that dropped Jennifer Real and Melissa Aitken, and so only five women entered Lap 3 in the front group (Kulchinsky, Van Houweling, Gallegos, Meyer, and Snover).
It was midway through Lap 3 when Kulchinsky made her winning move. But before we get to that, it’s worth pausing for a second to look at the race situation. Of the five riders, Van Houweling and Snover probably have the best sprint. They would’ve both been comfortable rolling to the finish with the group intact. Kulchinsky, Meyer, and Gallegos, however, are all punchier riders whose best chance was to make the race hard and roll away from the group. So the incentives here were very different for these two groups of riders: Kulchinsky, Meyer, and Gallegos wanted to be as aggressive as possible, with Van Houweling and Snover happy to sit in and wait for a sprint.
And this is exactly how it played out. Midway through the third lap, the broadcast cut back to the front group only to find Gallegos out front alone - we’d missed the attack. Only Van Houweling could get back initially, and for a second it looked possible that the two riders would splinter the group and ride away to the finish. But that isn’t what happened: Van Houweling got back to Gallegos’ wheel and sat up. Gallegos, realizing that Van Houweling wouldn’t work with her, did as well. And so the five regrouped.
But right as that happened, Kulchinsky went over the top. And as the other four followed, all of a sudden the chasers were just three. Gallegos was nowhere to be seen. She’d suffered a dropout at one of the worst times imaginable.4
Just brutal luck. But Gallegos falling away completely changed the race dynamic. Previously, when Kulchinsky, Meyer, and Gallegos were all employing similarly aggressive strategies,5 it was really hard for any one of them to break away. When one attacked, there were always two to follow. Three when you account for the fact that Van Houweling was pretty active in chasing down attacks as well. But with Gallegos gone and only four riders left, the numbers had shifted even more in favor of whoever wanted to go on the offensive.
And that’s what Kulchinsky did. Keep in mind that she had been raining micro attacks on the group since the end of the first lap. None of these were all out efforts. They were tests, really. She was making the group work to pull her back, and sitting up when they did. Just pushing the pace to make the race as hard as she could.
When she attacked again shortly after the Gallegos dropout, Meyer seemed caught by surprise. Initially, only Van Houweling could respond. I can only speculate as to what Van Houweling was thinking here, but to put it in American football terms I think she might have gotten deeked. None of Kulchinsky’s attacks up until then had been sustained, full out efforts. I’m guessing Van Houweling didn’t think this one would be either. She stopped her chase before she had gotten back to Kulchinsky’s wheel and effectively said “someone else cover this.”6
But Meyer had gotten deeked as well: she thought Van Houweling was covering the attack, and that she could just follow Van Houweling back to Kulchinsky’s wheel. So when Van Houweling sat up, Meyer wasn’t in a position to get back to Kulchinsky either.
And that was that. Meyer kept it interesting, staying between three and five seconds of Kulchinsky into the fourth lap. But the gap widened ever so slowly as they made it to the finish.
I think Kulchinsky’s winning move might be one of the more interesting ones we’ve seen all season. Setting aside the Gallegos dropout, it shows how beneficial small-group attacks can be in virtual racing. I’m not even sure Kulchinsky was fully committed until she saw the indecision play out behind her. And it was all her halfhearted earlier attacks that made Van Houweling and Meyer think she might just be crying wolf again. By the time they realized she wasn’t, Kulchinsky was gone.
The winning move ⬇️
The Men’s Race
My intent wasn’t to give the men short shrift here, but the intricacy of the tactics just weren’t as complicated. Coming in, Hayden Pucker was the heavy favorite. If anything, our predictions were too kind to the rest of the field’s chances.
The race was quick. Pucker attacked within the first kilometer, and initially only Fryett and Duffy could follow. About half of the 17 rider field eventually got back, but that just made Pucker go again. Pretty soon, it was just Pucker and Fryett. Fryett hung on for dear life for a couple more attacks, but on Lap 2 he was dropped and it was over.
This felt like one of those Pogi Giro mountain stages from last year when he was so far and away better than the rest of the peloton. Not a lot of suspense, just a question of when he would ride away solo. Pucker is that good right now, and at a certain point tactics give way to watts. There isn’t much more to say.
Easily the best nickname in virtual cycling, and it’s not even close.
For the below chart: in 2018 and 2019, Zwift put on their own national championships. USA Cycling’s first eSports national championship was the 2022 race.
Sydlik did not start.
For the record, I still think Kulchinsky would’ve won this race. But Gallegos looked reallyyy strong.
It’s worth noting that Kulchinsky was by far and away the most aggressive of the three.
Honestly though, I have no idea why Van Houweling sat up. It’s pretty puzzling. Maybe she was just cooked?