Simon, Shane and Nathan are back with another of the weekly round-ups of all matters Zwifty.
The podcasters kick off with a brief discussion on the Ineos Weekend – and the loss of the legendary First Attempt-Very Intens Strava segment, thanks to the ride logging app’s clean-up.
Owen Newbury talks about his awesome scheme to project Zwift on the side of his house, then the chaps have a light hearted discussion on whether Zwift CEO was “caught” sandbagging before Zwift Insider’s Eric Schlange gives his reaction to the early tests of the measures.
There’s further discussion of the Ineos events and streams before an interview with Keith Jardine who was taken by surprise when the police were called to him Zwifting in his garden shed.
Finally Simon talks to acclaimed ride leader Sharron Yaxley on passing her 100,000kms on Zwift milestone.
2018 Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas has taken on the challenge of riding 12 hours a day for three days straight on Zwift, mirroring the typical shift of a National Health Service (NHS) worker. He’s taking on this massive challenge in a bid to raise £100,000 to support NHS workers across the UK, at a time when they are needed more than ever.
His first shift begins tomorrow (Wednsday) at 7:30 am BST (11:30 pm Pacific tonight, 2:30 am Eastern).
Zwifters are invited to join Geraint for as much of the riding as they’d like, and thousands of riders have already signed up! His shifts will each take place on a different Zwift map (first Watopia, then London and New York). For each shift, 6x 115-minute events have been created, each on a different route.
Expect a moderate-to-fast pace, depending on the time of day. All events are in double draft mode, so riders can sit in at a much lower effort level than those on the front.
A new race series has just been announced, and it’s the first of its kind on Zwift: a series just for pro triathletes!
Dubbed the “Z Pro Tri Race Series”, this weekly series kicks off tomorrow (Wednesday, April 15) with a two-lap 23 km race around the Astoria Line 8 circuit in Zwift’s New York. The women take to the start line first starting at 4:00 pm CET, followed by the men at 4:45 pm CET.
This race series will be live streamed on Zwift’s Youtube and Facebook channels, with Matt Lieto and Sean Jefferson providing commentary.
Watch the first race:
“The best triathletes in the world are on Zwift, and while some of them have been getting their competitive fix taking on the road cyclists in Zwift, I’m excited to get to watch them race their peers on the platform for the first time”, says Eric Min, Zwift CEO & Co-Founder. “It will be interesting to see how the rivalry between the long and short course athletes plays out. I’ve no doubt, there will be no holding back!”
Who Can Enter?
These races are open to the Zwift pro triathlete community, which is over 200 strong. Some athletes rumored to be starting include Lionel Sanders, Tim Don, Marten Van Riel, Holly Lawrence, Lucy Charles-Barclay and Flora Duffy.
I’ve written quite a few race recaps in this “How the Race Was Lost” series, but today’s takes a novel approach: combining my perspective with that of a teammate who raced the same event.
Mike Lister is a B like myself, although he’s ranked significantly higher (1,536 to my 3,030). He’s a level 36 Zwifter who rides on Team DIRT (as I do) and has over 140 races in his ZwiftPower profile.
We didn’t plan to do this article, but when we happened to choose the same race and finish in very different places, the idea came together. Call it serendipity! The P Race: 2 laps of Watopia’s Waistband, with double draft engaged. Let’s race!
Warmup
I woke up at 6am and went through my standard race prep: weighing in, kitting up, a piece of caffeine gum and some PR lotion on the legs. Then I opened up Zwift and scrolled down the list of active Watopia riders until I found one Michael Knudsen, who I knew was out on Tempus Fugit in the middle of a 24-hour record attempt. He was trying to ride 1000 km in 24 hours, while also fundraising for medical expenses for a friend’s son. 1000 km in 24 hours is no joke, and he needed the help of other Zwifters to ride along and lend him a good draft.
All aboard the Knudsen train!
So I joined Michael’s group for about half an hour, clocking in around 13 miles with a few sprints in their to break the ice. Mike Lister hopped in and rode with me, so we warmed up together in the desert.
The Start
Our B category had 131 riders – quite a large field! And I knew from glancing at ZwiftPower and riding in recent races that we had a fair amount of riders who were, let’s say, “undercategorized.” Given the very flat course, I knew we’d see a steady, hard pace from the beginning as the strongest riders went to the front and pushed watts to string out the group and create a selection. My plan was to race as conservatively as possible so I had as much left in the legs for the final desert sprint.
As it turns out, I didn’t have any choice but to sit in, because the pack was flying. Someone at the front was pushing the pace, and it was all I could do to maintain a position as a tailgunner in the front pack!
Mike shared my experience, saying “Being a long race I planned on trying to sit in on the flats to conserve energy which was just as well as the race went off like a rocket. Checking out the segments after the race showed I achieved a PB for Fuego Flats Forward although my power output wasn’t over the top.”
Our starting group averaged just under 30 mph on Fuego Flats, and by the time we hit the short rise into the redwoods the front was whittled down to around 60 riders. This is where the next major selection of the race occurred. Mike says:
“As we approached the incline out of the desert I moved up the pack to give myself a bit of breathing room to glide through the pack. As we went up and over the pack split into two large groups with a 6-second gap in between. I expected the groups to coalesce back into one super blob but whether it was the determination of the front of the race or the effect of the double draft, this didn’t happen, leaving a leading group of around 30 riders.”
Unfortunately, I was caught on the wrong side of this split as the pack hammered its way over the top and down through the redwoods. A stupid mistake, because I know the group always strings out and riders get dropped in this section. But some combination of my legs not feeling strong and my brain not thinking quickly led to the screenshot below, which no racer wants to see:
The deadly gap
That’s a strung-out pack right there, and that’s a gap that we would not close down. Race over for me – I was now in the chase group!
The Middle
The miles flew by, and up the road, the effort required to hang with the front group began to wear on Mike as he worked to complete his first lap of Watopia’s Waistband:
“As we went through the switchbacks, Italian village and Volcano my legs were starting to suffer. My participation in the DIRT Sprintalooza the day before was fun but might not have been the best preparation. The speed was so high I took a minute off my Waistband PB, which I’d set in January in a single lap DADurday race. However, today I had a second lap to go!”
The middle portion of my race wasn’t particularly interesting – we settled into a more doable pace, and our group of 15 or so slowly grew as we gobbled up riders who were being dropped from the front of the race in ones and twos. (With double draft enabled it’s nearly impossible for a group of 1-3 riders to stay away from a group of 10 or more.)
On Mike’s second lap he succumbed to the group’s high pace:
“As we headed back into the desert I managed a bit of respite in the pack but soon the terrain started rolling again and riders started to drop off the back. Unfortunately, as we entered the Italian Village for the second time I found myself at the back of the group and a gap formed a couple of riders ahead of me and we lost contact with the front. I kicked myself for not being further up the pack, but in reality, I was suffering and that was the real reason I was at the back of the pack. I did attempt a half-hearted sprint to try and get back on but even a 4-second gap was too much for me. “
I stayed off the front of our chase group, except for one little dig on the climb snaking up from the fishing village in our second lap. My legs just didn’t have it today, but I decided to make it a “race within the race,” pretending like my group was the front group and I needed to conserve for the final sprint.
The End
Nearing the final sprint
Mike’s ending would come 2 minutes sooner than mine, and although he was no longer with the front group, he was happy with his race so far. “A top 20 finish from 131 entrants was in the cards which I was pretty happy with considering it was my first race over 40 km in 6 months.” Mike would finish in 17th according to the in-game results, but 8th according to ZwiftPower.
My chase group had swelled to around 25 riders by the time we turned off of Ocean Boulevard and hit the long drag up to the desert finish line. The wattage ramped up a bit, but the pace was still very doable. I sat in, riding near the front but out of the wind, planning to grab onto the wheel of whoever jumped first! (Without a powerup to help I didn’t fancy my chances at a longer attack.) My plan worked well, and only one rider from our group finished ahead of me. 36th place in-game, 18th on ZwiftPower.
I’ve ridden the P race many times over the last year, since it fits nicely into my Saturday morning routine of riding 60-80 miles with a longer race effort somewhere in the middle. It’s interesting to compare the data between this P race and those I’ve done in the past. Same route, but more riders – and more sandbaggers!
Even without sandbaggers, as a general rule in Zwift races, overall speeds increase as pack size increases. But this race also had some significant sandbagging going on: check out the power numbers from the front finishers!
My other takeaway from this race was a lesson I apparently needed to re-learn: that I can’t tailgun into an attack section and expect to come out of it in touch with the front group. I have to force myself to get closer to the front before these sections begin, so I avoid the gaps which will open and I can stay in touch even if I drift back a bit in the group.
What About You?
Have you ever lost a race due to ill-advised tailgunning? Have you noticed that Zwift pelotons have swollen in size and increased in pace lately? Share your thoughts below!
Video: How to Start Riding on Zwift: The First Ride – New User Tutorial
Our favorite Aussie Lama Shane Miller has put together a video walk-through of Zwift from the perspective of a new user.
He doesn’t talk about setting up your bike, trainer, etc (although Shane covers those topics in depth elsewhere on his YouTube channel). He walks you through getting going on Zwift, beginning just after downloading the software and creating your account.
Along the way he covers pairing your equipment to Zwift, doing your first ride in Watopia (with added overlays to better explain things!), and some user setting optimization at the end for a better in-game experience.
If you’re just getting started on Zwift, this video will give you the orientation needed to Zwift like a seasoned pro. Ride on!
Video: How To Livestream Your Indoor Ride – Online Streaming Basics
Livestreaming appeals to many Zwifters, from top racers wanting to share their passion with the world, to newer cyclists who simply want to show their friends how much fun indoor cycling can be. And while livestreaming is taking the gaming world by storm, it can be a bit daunting to get set up if you’ve never done it before!
Never fear: our favorite Aussie is here! Livestreamer and video tutorial guru extraordinaire Shane Miller has put together a cracking tutorial covering the basics of livestreaming your Zwift ride.
Shane covers the basics of his livestream setup that uses OBS Studio on Windows 10. He includes all the hardware, software, and configuration details for a high-quality single scene stream before going live on Twitch to show it all working in real time. (Once you have OBS Studio configured you can stream to almost any platform – YouTube, Twitch, Mixer, and Facebook.)
Here are links to most of the hardware used in Shane’s own livestreaming setup:
The Haute Route events have been described as the closest you get can to being a pro without actually, well… being a pro cyclist. Renowned as much for their top organization and experience as their difficulty, Haute Route events are the ultimate test for many amateur riders. The traditional events are usually held over 3 or 7 days, although for the bravest it is possible to undertake the Alps, Pyrenees, and Dolomite tours back to back for your own Grand Tour experience.
Like many cycling companies, Haute Route saw a valuable opportunity in pairing with Zwift to promote their product and unveiled the first virtual 3-day Haute Route event on the platform. True to the real-world events, there would be plenty of climbing and it would be no stroll in the park.
Prep
Launched to much fanfare back in February, the event had fallen off my radar until a few days before. As someone always keen to push myself I signed myself up to all three stages and began a few days of prep. Due to the lockdown, my fitness wasn’t a problem, so my preparation actually meant tapering for a few days beforehand. To give my legs a little test I undertook the Tour of Watopia Stage 5 Long Ride up the volcano on Thursday, the day before Haute Route Wataopia. I felt in good shape but as I went to bed I wondered if I had overdone it.
Stage 1
The stages were being run on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, over three different routes and with multiple start times per day. I opted for the first event of the day at 8am Friday. This worked well with my normal routine and would give me the maximum rest time before stage 2 the following day. I joined the event as soon as I could, due to wanting to be near the front of the pier pens – with over 4,000 signed up I didn’t want to spend 5 minutes getting to the course!
I went into the event with fairly high expectations, as a B rider I have had some good results recently and according to my race ranking on ZwiftPower I was in the top 50 entrants. This was a fool’s metric, though! Most of those ranking points had come in shorter, flatter races where my 80kg of weight is less of an issue and raw watts at the finish can make a big difference. So, bearing this in mind, I set myself a target of finishing in the top 10%.
The Friday course was Three Sisters, a punchy 47.8km route over the original three Watopian climbs; the KOM, Epic KOM, and Volcano Climb for a total of 879m of climbing. As expected, the start was fast, frenetic, and straight up the KOM! No lead-in, just boom straight up. Sure, it’s just a little bump in the scheme of things but I didn’t want to ruin my legs in the first couple of clicks so I paced myself but made sure I stayed in a small bunch for the descent to the base of the Epic KOM.
I crossed the start of the climb in around 200th position but as the route ascended, my position descended, down to 400th and outside of the top 10%. Not feeling despondent I reminded myself this was a marathon, not a sprint and we were less than 20km into a 150km event. I also didn’t know how many of the riders around me were targeting all 3 days – as a free to enter, virtual ride there would no doubt be those just doing 1 or 2 of the stages due to other commitments so I reminded myself this was about my time at the end of the event, not my position on the day.
As I descended the Epic KOM, I made it into a nice blob which worked together to keep the speed high until we reached the volcano climb. Having completed the climb, the day before I knew this would be around 8 minutes of climbing. As we went up, I lost touch with my group. With one eye on the next two days this didn’t worry me. In hindsight, I could have been better positioned going into the climb and maybe pushed over the top with the group. This would have allowed me to be in a larger, quicker group for the final run-in to the line. As it happened, I finished 30 seconds back on this group with a final time of 1:19:00. This gave me a position of 239th out of 1,624 on Zwiftpower, not quite the top 10% but I expected this to whittle down over the weekend.
On a real Haute Route, riders are presented with access to top nutrition and massages after each stage but I had to settle for a protein shake and cookie and hope that would be enough to recover me for stage 2.
Stage 2
At 27.6km, stage 2 was shorter than the previous day but featured barely any descending and plenty of climbing, with a jaunt up Alpe du Zwift on the agenda. Like the previous day I got into the pen nice and early and then got swamped by riders speeding off as the lights turned green.
The ride to the foot of the climb was very fast, essentially one long train. I have only completed the Alpe twice before and knew there would be very little respite. Prior to the stage I checked out my average power from my PB – 284W – so as we started the climb, I set this as a target. (This might have been optimistic as I was concerned it might leave me fatigued for the final stage.) Regardless, I smashed out the first few sectors at around 320W. This soon caught up with me and I found myself in the middle third doing everything I could to keep each sector’s average above 284W.
Once again, I was being passed by a stream of riders but I wasn’t racing them, I was racing myself and my time. As I neared the top, I realized that my earlier efforts meant I was on course for a PB and this buoyed my efforts, giving me the lift needed to push on for the last couple of kilometers, raising my output back up to the 300W mark.
I crossed the line in 1:15:39 for the stage but more importantly I had taken 3 minutes of my Alpe PB. I was cautious though: was this just down to the draft from all the riders on the course? Later inspection showed that my power was 14W high for this effort so it was a genuine improvement.
As I rolled back down the 10minute descent, my thoughts turned to Stage 3. At 73km, this was as long as the first two days combined and featured the Epic KOM in both directions. I had my usual protein shake and cookie before fully intending to put my feet up and rest my legs all day. Unfortunately, my wife remembered my promise to mow the lawn and assist with the garden, not what my legs needed!
Stage 3
The final day filled me with a few nerves as I got set up for the 2pm ride. I plumped for a slightly later ride, giving my legs just a few extra hours of rest – my version of marginal gains. I’ve not ridden the Pretzel before but looking at the profile I estimated it would be a 2-2:15 ride, so filled up two water bottles plus a backup pint glass and placed them with some snacks on the workbench next to me.
Whether it was adrenaline, excitement, or stupidity I set off at speed making the most of the draft and raced towards the foot of the Epic KOM. Having completed the climb a couple of days earlier, I expected this to take around 23-24 minutes and for my early position to drop like a stone. To my surprise I managed to hold steady! Perhaps there was a general feeling of fatigue in the pack or I suspect those who had gone all out on day one hadn’t lasted the distance. Regardless, this was once again a race against myself and I felt good, powered up the climb and knocked almost a minute off my PB.
Had I just blown it? Am I going to regret this very soon? Time would tell. First I had to get back down the mountain. After learning from the first stage I pushed hard to catch a decent-sized blob which I knew would make good time around the main island and two ascents of the original KOM.
Initially, I found a nice rhythm but after an hour of riding I started to struggle and as we made our way down the switchbacks on the approach to the Epic KOM reverse I was not feeling good. I attacked my snacks, some Haribo and several digestive biscuits. I was not looking forward to the next 45-60 minutes and felt like I had blown it, angry at myself for attacking too hard early on.
The first switchbacks up to the bridge were a struggle. My power was around 250W – respectable, but below the 300W marker I set myself for the climbs. But by the time I had crossed the bridge, the biscuits had started to work their magic! My legs awoke and I found the missing watts and pushed myself on. A quick water refill from the team car (aka wife) kept me going and despite my slow start I bagged another personal best.
Secretly I had hoped for sub 2 hours for this ride and that target was on a knife-edge right know. I can’t remember the exact numbers but I had around 16km to ride and 19 minutes to do it. It was time to find some eager riders and blob up. We started well, the descent giving us a fantastic speed boost and the riders around me got on board with the idea of sub-2. Time and distance checks were announced, this was going well but it was all downhill!
Soon we were on the flats and the switchbacks. The slight incline felt like the Alpe again but we pushed on – this was going to be touch and go. The kilometers ticked down, I nearly lost contact on the cobbles in the Italian village – mentally I hate those cobbles but amazing through it all we stayed together. One final climb out from the sprint bridge and through the Esses before the descent to the line. Unlike Stage 1, the finish was at the banner but those extra 250m didn’t matter as we crossed the line with 19 seconds to spare. A fantastic effort from Team Sub-2 as we had named ourselves.
Closing Thoughts
What a great three days of racing this was. Highs and lows, determination, stubbornness, and personal bests. In the end, I finished 895th out of 7,506 finishers. A little outside my top 10% target but as I discovered on the Alpe this wasn’t really about everyone else, it was about me. With personal bests on the three biggest climbs in Watopia I had plenty to be happy about.
A few days later my legs were still feeling the effort I had put in, and I was still feeling pleased with my performance. There were lots of positives to take-away and where there were a few issues Zwift acted quickly to address them, including staggered starts and more start times. It would have been nice to see the results broken down by category so I could see how I did against other Cat B’s but that’s my only real (small) complaint. (I’m sure there will be more multi-day events, so hopefully this is something that could be included in the future.) All in all, a great event that pushed me mentally and physically.
What About You?
Did you complete the Haute Route series? Share your experience below!
With 500,000XP being needed to reach level 50, surely one needs to ride 25,000km at 20XP per km or 16,667 miles (26,816km). Or do they? I’m Zwifting proof that it’s entirely possible to reach 500,476 XP with 19,843km of riding. That’s 25.22 XP/km (40.58 XP/mile)!
So, what tips does someone who has gained 25% extra XP over 20,000km give?
Put yourself into km rather than miles (you’ll get 7.3% more XP this way).
Get gamified and go seek achievement badges. Throw a U-turn, do a workout, be a fan, watch people and complete a workout are pretty easy ways to get a little XP bonus.
Tour the courses and get the route achievements. You pretty much get double XP for the first time you ride a route. Ensure you select it as you start up Zwift and keep riding until you get the success banner!
Look for events giving double XP (they are very rare). The 2020 Tour of Watopia was a prime example of this, giving 40XP per km rather than the normal 20XP. If you get a route achievement on one these stages, that’s as good as triple XP.
Ride the Alpe. Ride it a lot. Yes, it’s slow XP on the way up, but the XP on the way down is pretty easy. 13km 260XP in 10 minutes. Plus, there is an XP bonus at the top once you have the gloves or don’t get the wheels.
Ride a time trial bike – you’ll get XP bonuses through each arch instead of powerups.
Get into a pack in a group ride. Ok. It doesn’t earn any extra XP per km, but you will cover more distance within a set time if you’re traveling faster thanks to the increased draft.
Do some workouts. Feel free to craft your own if you want, but you do get more than 20XP per km.
But the biggest keys to gaining XP are to ride your bike, have fun and be social in the Zwift community.
Think it’s going to be a quick trip to Level 50? Whilst it’s proven possible to gain 25% extra XP over 20,000km, it will still take you ~700 hours to do so. Enjoy. Ride On!
What About You?
Have you managed to reach level 50 with less than 20,000km of riding? Share your experience and tips below!
With more big events than ever happening in our virtual cycling paradise, it’s easy to miss some really cool rides! Here are 5 events this weekend which we think are especially important to share with the community.
If you find this post useful, please comment below. We may make it a weekly habit if there’s enough interest.
See you on course!
Michael Knudsen’s 1000km in 24 Hours Attempt
You may remember Michael from his crazy 5000km ride on Zwift back in November 2019. Now he’s taking on a new Zwift ultra-endurance challenge, for a great cause:
I will attempt to smash the 1000 km mark in 24 hours next Saturday and fundraise some money for fellow zwifter, Phil Reckless’ nephew on 3 years, William who earlier this year suffered from a sepsis shock and had both legs and multiple fingers amputated The little hero is exactly same age as my son so it hit me a little hard.
I’ll start out at 0830 with a 200 km group ride and then free ride the rest. I’m gonna need the Zwift community to rally behind again like they did for the 5000 km indoor RAAM project in the mall to keep my average on + 42 kmh.
Join Michael when you hop on to ride (follow him in the Companion app, then click to join him). Let him benefit from your draft as he tries to ride 1000 km in 24 hours! His attempt begins at 8:30am his time (Copenhagen, Denmark), which is 6:30am GTM Saturday, 2:30am ET Saturday, 11:30pm PT Friday.
Hells 500, the keepers of the Everesting and vEveresting rules and hall of fame, are holding a “World Lycra Party” on Zwift Apr 10 at 12:30 AM – Apr 13 at 11:30 PM UTC+10. They’re trying to stake a claim on a new vEveresting world record (most vEverestings) and you can be a part of it!
There are 12 accounts on the calendar this weekend with the #ridewithpro tag. Want to ride with some top of the top men and women in the cycling world? Hop into one of these rides! See full #ridewithpro ride list >
The most popular #ridewithpro events this weekend are with Team INEOS, who are hosting their first major team event on Zwift! Three different group rides scheduled for Sunday, with almost 9,000 riders already signed up!
Watch INEOS Race the Alpe
Speaking of INEOS, we’ll get the chance to see the team’s riders go head-to-head as they aim to win the inaugural Team INEOS eRace at 5pm BST on Sunday. The riders will duke it out on Alpe du Zwift and Eurosport’s Rob Hatch and Matt Stephens will guide you through the action, with exclusive rider interviews throughout the live broadcast.
Watch it here:
Jan Frodeno Tri At Home 180km
Jan Frodeno is the current Ironman World Champion and course record holder, an Olympic gold medalist, and a 2-time 70.3 World Champion. Join him Saturday as he completes the second leg of his home challenge to swim 3.8km, ride 180km and run 42km. He’ll be riding between 3-3.5 wkg for the full distance and he is looking for some company on his long day.
Comment below if you’d like to see a sort of “events not to miss” post before every weekend. If even people find it useful, perhaps we’ll make it a habit!
Editor’s note: Monica has undertaken the “Couch to Route Hero” challenge of riding all 67 “free-ridable” Zwift routes (and getting all the badges) in 11 weeks. Each week she shares her story of the previous week’s struggles and accomplishments. Follow along on her journey, take the challenge yourself, and be sure to give her a Ride On if you see her on course!
This week was a bit of a let down mentally. I don’t know if it’s the Shelter-in-Place orders getting to me (we’re on day 20-something), or the fact that the challenge was already supposed to be done but isn’t. Either way, it was a blah sort of week, to be sure.
The Week Lined Up
I rode three routes this week, making my badge total 64. So close! I rode 62.9 miles with 5,413 ft of climb in 5 hours and 6 minutes.
After the high of finishing London’s PRL Full last week I really had no interest in riding my bike ever again. This is how it’s been every time I do some amazing feat on my bike. “Okay, I’ve done a lot. Now I’m done!” I couldn’t stand the thought of not having anything to write to you all though so I forced myself to ride one route on Tuesday and two routes on Saturday.
Rising Empire
It felt great to ride this at my full capacity. I pushed myself up the climbs and sailed through the flats. And it’s funny, because now that I’ve done much bigger things it wasn’t so daunting to go up both sides of the KOM in New York.
Achterbahn
For the first time in this challenge, I had to do the world hack to get a route done. This was pretty much inevitable, even though I had carefully planned out each day before the real world stopped. There just aren’t a lot of days where Innsbruck is available, even now with the choice of 2 guest worlds.
The downside to a world hack is not having a lot of company out there. At the beginning of my ride there were only 34 of us in Innsbruck. I’ve realized more and more that these routes go by so much faster when others are riding… even if they’re not riding specifically with me! So, if you can do an Innsbruck route while it’s on the calendar, do it. It may be far more interesting!
Figure 8 Reverse
I didn’t want too many rides looming over my head on my last week so decided to do a second ride after Achterbahn and some lunch. Someone told me later that it was amazing I did two rides in one day. It didn’t seem like some amazing thing at first but then I thought about this journey I’ve been on. Monica on week 3 would have been hard pressed to do a 4 bidon and a 2 bidon on the same day. But Monica on week 11+1 isn’t the same gal! A 4 and a 2 ain’t no thang! And gosh, am I proud of that!
Next week
I have three routes left! Watopia’s Out & Back Again, Innsbruck’s Lutscher CCW, and Watopia’s Road to Ruins. Let’s be real: your girl here, the one who did the Uber Pretzel is NOT looking forward to Lutscher CCW and doing that KOM Reverse climb twice. Haha. Silliness. I’ve done much more difficult things!
