Did a Zwift race last week because I had no motivation. Took me from 7pm to 9pm just to get around to getting on the bike. So I did whatever race was next. It was a short (25-30 min) race 4x around the Volcano flat route. There is one 20 second climb at 5% and the rest is flat.
80 riders were in the race, mostly from Asia and the Americas because of the time, and it was a mass start so, being a B group rider, I tried to latch onto the A group and hold on as long as possible. 21 of us were in the lead group. My average power increased each lap and I kept expecting to blow up but never did. The first time into the very short hill was a surprise and I almost got shelled off the back because I wasn't paying attention. The other three times I made sure to be at the front so I could drift back. The power increase didn't seem that high (increase from 310 to 415) but my legs didn't really want to respond.
Three people eventually rode off the front. Since I have no sprint I ramped up the power over the last few minutes hoping to drop as many riders as possible. Power over the last five minutes was 286, 290, 321, 357, 433 and I ended up 7th overall. I did not sprint.
Checking ZwiftPower the three people who rode off the front weren't there so I finished 4th, second in the B group by 0.5s and 2s off the A group winner. Total race time was 28:07 and my FTP went up from 283 to 303, which was a complete shock. The B group winner saw his FTP increase by 12W.
So hooray for a race that put all Cats together and hooray for the idea of riding with people stronger than you.