The Journey to the 2023 Zwift World Championships
The Kristen Kulchinsky Story
Funny guy Will Ferrell’s character once said “if you’re not first, you’re last.” Kristen has subscribed to that idea so differently over her Zwift racing career. Some time in 2019 she was telling me about her Zwift race that she did that day. She said “Josh, I was in first place for so long. I was winning the whole time! Then, at the very end, everyone blew right by me?!” Kristen grew up watching her father and brother race triathlons and was very surprised to learn about drafting and how she gave everyone in the race the longest lead out of their lives. In her mind if she wasn’t in first place then she wasn’t winning, just like Ricky Bobby used to say. Afterwards we noticed that she averaged 4.4 w/kg for 20 minutes. I said “Kristen your power is already really high. If you trained instead of exercised and you learned how to race you could be one of the best in the world on Zwift.” She decided to give it a go and see.
By summer 2020 she was a 5.3 and 5.9 w/kg twenty and five minute rider and her race tactics had improved significantly. She was one of the best racers on Zwift. This was perfect timing because Zwift seemed to be really taking off on account of the pandemic. One of the teams she was racing against at that time was Twenty20. It wasn’t long before team owner Nicola Cranmer reached out and asked if she would join the team. Is there a better women’s cycling program? Of course Kristen said yes.
It didn’t take long for Kristen to get on the podium in Zwift’s Premier Division in the fall of 2020. That December she placed ninth in the inaugural Zwift World Championships. Around that time I joined Virginia’s Blue Ridge Twenty24 as the Zwift race director. We immersed ourselves into all the details. We recruited. We made videos and spreadsheets for new riders to learn from. Nicola recently described it as “Zwift school” on The Wrap. Kristen and the team have been ranked number one on zwiftpower more days than not ever since.
This process of building the team made Kristen an even better Zwift racer. Her power leading into the 2021-2022 season improved more. All of this, along with the correct bike choice, led to her first Premier League win in November 2021. Twelve days before the 2022 Zwift World Championships she finished just behind the reigning World Champion Ashleigh Moolman Pasio at the top of the Reverse Epic QOM. This made her one of the favorites for Worlds.
Up until this point Kristen could show up to races with no outside expectations. Now she was one of the favorites to win and a lot of her energy was taken in that direction. She was asked to take photographs for promos, answer online interviews, and make video recordings for the race that would receive 150,000 views. She was so distracted that she plugged the wrong cord into her trainer she was required to use for the race and it started smoking! Looking back it’s a little funny to think she almost set her trainer and house on fire but at the time she didn’t know if she would get a replacement in time to race. Luckily she did but not before a ton of stress, frustration and lost sleep.
Heading into the race she believed (and rightfully so) that she was a contender. On race day she was so stressed out from the build up that she was running on fumes. When the final hill came she obviously didn’t have her usual power. The moment that the front of the race started to go up the road she admittedly gave up and finished a distant 21st place. Because of the hype she really believed that if she wasn’t first, she might as well have been last. After the race she had a tough time coping with the fact that she wasn’t at and didn’t give her best when it counted.
Some time passed and she decided that she was going for redemption in 2023. In 2022 we knew she had the power and the race smarts for a top result. What needed to change was her mindset. So for the 2022-2023 Zwift racing season we kept doing what we were doing well. The team continued to improve. VBR Twenty24 scored the most points in the WTRL America’s East Division and was undefeated in the team time trials. We finished the Zwift Grand Prix regular season in third place (March 3rd, 2023 will be the finals). Along the way Kristen set new anaerobic power bests and improved her sprint thanks to that WTRL Tuesday league. Just like last year her form and strategy were improving right on schedule.
Throughout the season Kristen, whether she liked it or not, was challenged to practice chapter one of Epictetus’ The Enchiridion. Chapter one says that things either fall in our complete control or they do not. Long story short, Epictetus says we are better off focusing on and desiring only the things that are in our complete control. This is the only way for lasting satisfaction and to get through setbacks without wasting time and energy.
Cicero told a story about an archer to illustrate this concept Epictetus called the dichotomy of control. Imagine you are the best archer in the world. You have acquired the best bow and the straightest arrows. You’ve practiced your entire life. When the moment comes to hit your target you aim perfectly and release the arrow only for it to be taken off course by a sudden gust of wind. Does that mean you’re now a terrible archer? Or are there things that you can’t control? If you based your satisfaction on hitting the target then you set yourself up to be unsatisfied. If you based it on executing on every aspect under your control then you not only gave yourself the best chance of hitting your target, you also set yourself up for satisfaction no matter the outcome. Kristen learned this lesson the hard way in the previous world championships. As time passed she realized it wasn’t so much that she didn’t win that made her upset, it was that she didn’t give her best effort. She wasn’t at her best because she spent time and energy on things she couldn’t control and didn’t control the things she could.
Kristen did a fantastic job with this over the 2022-2023 season. When she was beaten, she congratulated her competitors and asked herself what she could have done differently. If she won she gave herself a pat on the back for a minute then started focusing on the rest of the day. Yoga, quality food, sleep. When there was gossip she asked herself “does it pertain to me?” When she was sent a defective trainer for world’s she sent it back and calmly waited for a replacement. When she was feeling stressed, instead of a glass of champagne or instantly getting upset, she put her ten minute peloton breathing video on. (She says she played that video many times a day haha). On the day of the race she knew she was the archer. She had a goal and a plan. Her goal was to do everything she could to put herself into a position to win the race. She didn’t want to finish like she did last year by giving up. Win or lose she would be satisfied if she was smart and emptied the tanks.
At the 2023 world’s race one ended with a sprint. Top thirty moved on to race two. She comfortably finished 11th place thanks to all of her sprint practice.
Race two finished up a short challenging hill, Kristen’s bread and butter. Top ten moved onto race three. She comfortably finished in 2nd place.
Race three was full of sprinters on a criterium course and the winner would be crowned world champion. Even though Kristen’s sprint had improved over the season it still did not match the other racers who advanced to race three. Kristen and VBR Twenty24 had raced this format previously in the Grand Prix Racing League. In that round’s race three Lyndsey Cassie attacked early and soloed away to the win. We knew with Kristen’s power profile, especially against superior sprinters, that this was her best chance to win. Unfortunately for Kristen the men’s winner earlier in the day won by doing exactly that. He attacked early and stayed away. So any element of surprise Kristen may have had was ruined when the women watched the men. Still, when the USA Cycling directors asked Kristen and her USA teammates for volunteers for an early attack Kristen and I volunteered her for the job.
With a minute to go on the start line Kristen reminded herself of last year’s disappointment. It wasn’t that she didn’t win, it was that she didn’t leave it all out on the course while trying. As soon as the race started Kristen attacked as hard as she could and got a couple of seconds off the front of the group. The wind is outside of the archer’s control. Whether the group responded to Kristen’s attack right away was outside of hers. If the group hesitated Kristen probably would’ve soloed away and won. Unfortunately the eventual winner, Loes Adegest, sprinted to a sustained 10.5 w/kg and pulled the group back to her. Kristen tried one more attack but it didn’t work. In the end she finished 9th, right where she finished in 2020.
Of course we are not robots. You can’t repress initial feelings/impulses nor should you try. For five minutes Kristen felt disappointed when her race ended. We are not our feelings though. Marcus Aurelius said that our soul is dyed by the color of our thoughts. After some thought she was overcome with gratitude and satisfaction. She didn’t win but she did everything she could do to win. She couldn’t have prepared any better. She couldn’t have pedaled any harder. In an alternate universe her competitors hesitated and she did win. She didn’t take herself out of the race before it started and she got the best possible result on the day. She took control of what she could and didn’t worry about the wind. You either win or learn. She will keep on doing both.
Chapeau to Kristen on letting go. This is the path to both contentment and victories.
Five minutes post 2023 Zwift World Championships
