The View from the Cheap Seats: My Über Pretzel Experience

I’m not famous or well known, but I think others can learn from my longer ride of Zwift Insider’s Über Pretzel event.

A little bit about me: I became active later in life, and road biking is very new to me. I’ve had a mountain bike for years, but used it only occasionally. In the spring of 2019 I purchased my first road bike, and in July I went for my first ride on it. I was instantly hooked! Long story short, I still consider myself fairly new in the cycling world. Also, I’m not a writer!

Starting the Über Pretzel

I’m one of those “completeness types” in real life, and this translates into Zwift. I have been crossing off badges and recently earned the Zwift Concept bike. I knew as soon as I saw the article on this event that I wanted the badge, regardless of where I was on my training. My hope was that tenacity would get me through the ride.

I prepared food and drinks (both water and Nuun) the night before. Hydrated like crazy for the two days prior, with a good night sleep before the ride. I felt that it would take me about 7.5 hours based on some prior rides, and really felt ready.

My plan was to start slow, warmup, then settle into a group and take advantage of the double draft. My first mistake! People shot out of the gate, and immediately I was rapidly falling off most groups. If I had to do it again, I would have warmed up prior to the ride, then started the ride faster to find a group that I could draft in. As it was, there were limited options for groups (just a line of riders that started a bit slower), so I found my pace and kept at it.

The Discord Advantage

I joined the Zwift Insider Discord channel, and that made a major difference on the first half of the ride! The talk was lively, and there were a lot of good questions that Eric and others patiently answered.

The one lesson that I did learn from Discord was that, as much as this was a massive event with lots of people, rider placing still mattered to some riders. On Discord, people were really excited to move up places by switching to mountain bikes in the jungle (information which was useful to me, as I took advantage of the mountain bike later in the jungle).

Later in the ride, the hardest part of Discord was hearing riders completing the ride while I knew it would be a while before I finished. 

If there is an option to join Discord, take advantage! It adds another element to make a ride go by quicker.

The Ride

Once I warmed up, I enjoyed the Epic KOM, and even the radio tower. Down to the jungle, switch to mountain bike, feeling good so far. Volcano climb, then my first break of the ride at 2 ½ hours. I wasn’t off the bike long, and when I came back, there still weren’t a lot of groups. I did occasionally find a small group to tag along with, but with everyone having different plans for breaks, the groups didn’t last long. 

I do remember hitting the desert for the first time, and seeing large groups of riders already coming back the other way. Not sure why, but I thought it wouldn’t take me long to do the next sections, and I would be coming back to leave the desert. Turns out, I was wrong by a lot. I didn’t really pay much attention to the details of the route, but it was an hour and a half before I left the flats for the final time. I continued on, taking breaks when needed. For the second time in the jungle I stayed with the road bike and I immediately regretted this choice. I remembered how much easier it felt the first time through the jungle on the MTB!

Saddle Problems

Prior to the event I found that rides over 4 hours were hard on my undercarriage. I thought a tweak in saddle position might help for the ride, so 3 days beforehand I adjusted the saddle a bit. I did one test ride two days before the Über, and the saddle did feel better.

Well, turns out I didn’t quite tighten the seat bolt enough, and during the ride the saddle very slowly started drifting backward. It took a couple of stops to get the bolt tightened correctly, and the saddle to stay at the right spot. Big lesson learned here: don’t think about equipment changes this close to a major ride! Either that, or get stronger with the tools!

The Alpe (and another lesson learned)

I rolled up to the base of the Alpe, just shy of 6 hours. Like many others, this seemed like a logical place for a break before starting the last effort. Right here is where I once again realized I should have listened to others and had a new kit to change into. I’ve been biking for a short time and thought 2020 would give me lots of opportunities to pick up a spare pair of shorts/bib and extra jerseys by signing up for some IRL races, but Covid changed things and I stayed with what I had. In hindsight, I believe changing here would have made a big difference for the last 2+ hours for me. I did change out my socks, and that did help a bit. 

I’m currently using a CycleOps Fluid 2 trainer (dumb trainer), so effectively going up a hill is similar to riding on the flats. But in my mind, it feels different. The slow speed, the relentless hills all play tricks on me, and going up really becomes a grind although it shouldn’t feel different.

I was really saddle sore at this point and ended up taking a break from the bike on 5 more occasions. When I got to turn 4, I started to push hard just to get the ride done. I ended up stopping once again just shy of turn 2, taking another break, then made that final push. Yet another lesson learned: don’t push hard too early. 

The neatest part of the ride to me: somewhere on the Alpe a rider that was higher up than me decided they were done, and said something to the effect in chat. My mind was pretty muddled up at this point, and I thought about typing something out but someone beat me to it. Some others convinced that person to keep plugging away and finish. There were a few other people throwing out positive comments to help others on the hill, which did make a difference. 

Wrapping it up

What I did right: Food, water, electrolytes, hydration before the ride.

What I could do better: warm up for the ride to take advantage of drafting groups, a second kit to change into, and leave the bike setup alone prior to the ride.

Discord was really good to hear all kinds of tips and advice.

Hardest part of the ride: thinking about the ride up the Alpe and knowing it would take over 2 hours.

On the whole, I’m grateful to have done the ride. Grateful for the Zwift community (the Herd in particular) for all the great advice and encouragement over the past year as I was grinding out badges and the Zwift Concept (Tron) bike.

I also want to call out a group of riders that go out every Saturday as the “DaveT longer ride meetup” for their help on my Zwift journey.

Finally, thanks to Zwift Insider for putting the ride together! To be honest, I was dreading doing this ride, and this event was exactly what I needed to get it done.

How about you? 

I finished 2508 overall, and I know there were others on the hill after me that were going to finish! Were you one of them? Let me know in the comments!