The latest season of the Zwift Racing League just finished last night. As I am still recovering from my knee injury I withdrew myself from the race team, knowing I would not be able to race properly as I could do further damage to my knee. I was asked, however, by Aeonian if I wanted to captain the team I am in, the Diva’s.
You can read more about Aeonian Race Team here. I love being a part of this team and so I was very keen to contribute despite the fact that I could not race. I had never been captain to the team though so whilst I thought I knew what was involved I was keen to make sure I was doing all I could to help the other ladies in the team before, during and after the races in the schedule.
E-Racing Team Captain Responsibilities
As always Aeonian are super helpful and more than happy to share their knowledge so I was soon up to speed and knew what my role would entail.
- Be aware of all the rules/regulations
- Communication to team members on a regular basis
- Facilitating training sessions
- Ensuring all team members have up to date race category/height/weight on Zwift Power
- Sharing race pass information from WTRL for those racing to sign up and making sure all are signed up in advance of the race date
- Completing route recce’s every week for the route that is upcoming on the race schedule
- Sharing notes from the above recce with the team, including route, distance, elevation, areas to note, where points could be gained, best bike choice
- Acting as directeur sportif (DS) to the team
- Encouragement – lots of it as motivation helps a lot!
- Sharing of results
- And repeat each week
Before I was captain I found a very funny article on Zwift Insider about the role that you can read here (the images with chat messages are hilarious).
Directeur Sportif (DS) Role
I know from racing that having a DS is so useful for the racers. The DS can see overall where everyone is in the race and provide advice, especially in the TTT where they can inform if gaps are forming or you are approaching teams to overtake.
The DS can provide encouragement and push riders to perform their best. When you are head down, teeth gritted, sweat pouring and giving it your all, it is easy not to know who is around you. Knowing someone is just ahead or just behind can motivate a rider to push more and can ultimately make a big difference in points for the team, whether that be finishing points or on a segment.
The DS is essential for the team time trial (TTT) but equally as valuable for the individual points races too. For the TTT, as all races, you are looking to finish as high as possible and whilst you start with 6 riders you only need to finish with 4 and so you also need to be the one to make the tough call to cut riders if needed for the good of the team.
Although I was not racing I still kept every Tuesday evening free so that I was logged on for the team as they were racing.
Is Being Captain Enjoyable?
I won’t lie, I was nervous taking on this role. I am always happy to ask the stupid question though, although hopefully I didn’t have too many. I didn’t want to let any of the ladies down but by being captain I did feel that I was still contributing even though I couldn’t race and I actually really enjoyed it. This is mostly in part to the ladies in the team who make it so easy!
Thank you Aeonian Diva’s!
Lastly I want to thank the Aeonian Diva’s who were an absolute dream to captain and who were consistently awesome week on week. Where did they finish you ask? Oh they won…..
Leave a Reply