A good time was had by all on this morning’s “Festive Ride with the Erics” event hosted by Zwift co-CEO Eric Min and myself.
410 riders joined us for 4 laps of Richmond UCI Reverse, a route with a few climbs in the first half of each lap, and a flat second half. Although Eric and I had ride leader beacons over our heads, this was an open-paced group ride. A strong group jumped off the front and stayed away to the finish, quite a few hung with the Erics, and a good number of riders were grouped up behind the beacon group as well.
We had a nice time chatting on Discord, too, with around 50 riders in voice chat.
This wasn’t an easy social ride – the beacon group(s) took nearly 2 hours to finish! Since riders were required to finish to be eligible to win the Zwift kit, it felt like one of those “whoever keeps their hand on the car the longest wins it” sort of endurance contests after a while, as various riders messaged “work calls, gotta go”, “dropped my chain”, etc.
But hundreds of riders held on to the end. Chapeau to all!
Negative Splits
Eric and I held a pretty steady pace around 2.4-2.6 W/kg for the first three laps – a bit higher on the climbs, a bit lower on the descents and flats. But somehow, each lap got just a bit spicier, as evidenced by our E Main St climb times:
- Lap 1: 3:54
- Lap 2: 3:45
- Lap 3: 3:26
- Lap 4: 2:40
But Eric was getting his last ride in before a few days off the bike, and he wanted to stretch his legs a bit… so on the final lap he went to the front and pushed harder, especially on the climbs. I hung on until the last climb up E Main St, when I sat up and let Eric go away up the road… because I’m a helpful red beacon and wanted to help the stragglers. (The huffing and puffing you heard on Discord must have been someone else! 🙂)
My final lap times:
- Lap 1: 27:42
- Lap 2: 26:51
- Lap 3: 25:59
- Lap 4: 24:18
Drumroll, Please…
As promised, two finishers (one man, one woman) were drawn to win Zwift’s new kit bundle: the Expression jersey, Core bib shorts, socks, cap and bottles (see them in Zwift’s online shop). And the winners are:
- SHELLYBELLY (Wales)
- PETER BRANDT (Denmark)
Thanks everyone for joining the ride today!
I participated in this one… Absolutely one of my best group rides in 2022 – great ride, great vibes in the chat and overall great fun 👍😀
And I think Eric Min should send a third kit to that guy saying “only 2,5 laps left” in the chat when the rest of us was almost done – if he finished he definitely deserves it 💪
BooX
It’s been a great pleasure today riding with you, the two Eric’s and 410 crazy Zwifters. Thanks for the organization and regards from Germany.
Thanx a lot for a great ride. On the first lap my laptop died on me (due to me not plugging it in 🫣) I was up and running after a mere 60 seconds which left me with a lot of work to do) It took me a laps hard work, mostly on my own, to close up to the Erics where I stayed until Eric Min powered away from me with 6km to go. 💪
Really enjoyed the event and much prefer that way round the Richmond UCI although those two climbs in the first half are pretty testing. I managed to get in the front group to kick off but was dropped the second lap on the climbs when everyone seemed to have feathers, hung on to a group from 30-50 but the hills hit again next time again and I was down to 70th place, The Erics group came calling as I hit the hills for a final time and I went from 70th to 150th in like a second (nom nom nom) as they piled by at supersonic speed. New Badge, level 44 and tired legs today.