There's two scenarios that compete in my brain for the title of "Hardest I Have Ever Ridden a Bicycle."

The first is in cyclocross racing. The second is Zwift racing.

Both call for an incredible amount of power at the start, holding on for dear life, and then surviving the inevitable attack at the first hill (whether you're having to run that hill is another question).

I am, by my own admission, terrible in both scenarios. I need to work on it. Based on conversations with fellow 'cross riders and Zwift racers alike, it sounds like we all could use a primer on it. So, with that in mind, this week on Slowtwitch Indoors features rides that will put your legs to the test.

Ride of the Valkyries
Our Women's only ride this week will be all about the attack. If at first you don't succeed, attack and attack again! That said, as one of our structured training rides: so long as you keep the pedals moving, you'll stay with the group. You can also dial down the intensity of the workout by reducing the percentage of FTP the workout is based off of, if needed, within the Zwift Companion app.

Tuesday Structured Training
To put you in the proper mood for this week's ride, we're headed to the Richmond UCI course! This week this ride will focus on the efforts necessary to chase down a break late in the race. It'll force you to recover quickly after some very heavy efforts.

Rise & Grind
You're going to want to make sure the coffee is flowing before this ride. Although we're going to be on a flat course this time out, this is a ride that starts out hard and only cranks up the intensity from there. The double-draft is on, so fight like tooth and nail to stay with your group! Please be sure to register for the correct ride category, as we do turn the fence on to help keep groups together.

Hilly Vanilli
Our chase ride is all about trying to stay away or trying to catch the group up the road. The Ds ride 70 minutes, the Cs go 65, and the Bs are on the clock for 60 minutes. For this week, it's all on the Astoria Line 8; this will be a challenging loop that will force groups to work together to either stay in the breakaway (Ds) or to reel the breakaway in (Bs and Cs).

An early preview of next week for all rides: be prepared for hills...