Roll with Castelli – November Epic with Jason Osborne Announced

November 28, 2021

LAST UPDATED November 26, 2021

It’s time once again to “Roll with Castelli” on their monthly Epic Zwift adventure. This time they are tackling the Alpe Du Zwift… and Team Castelli are not doing it alone.

On 30th November, the team will be led up the mountain by Jason Osborne, the first Esports World Champion. If you want to ride with a champion, come along! It will be paced between 2.5–3.0 w/kg, so expect the ride to last around 80 minutes.

Ride Details and Signup

For those of you not familiar with Jason, here is a bit about him…

Jason Osborne

Jason has a strong sporting background: originally a rower before transitioning to cycling. He won silver as part of the German team in lightweight double scull rowing at the recent Olympics, a step up from the 2016 Olympics where he also competed. He also won in the men’s quadruple sculls at the 2013 World Rowing Championships in Chungju, Korea.

On 9 December 2020, he won the first edition of the UCI Cycling Esports World Championships, organised by Zwift. He is now signed as a stagiaire for UCI World Team Deceuninck–Quick-Step.

In the Esports World Championships, Jason used his immense strength to power away from the group on the short climb to the finish, holding sustained power of 12 w/kg. For those that watched, it was incredible to see and highlights can be viewed below:

During the race Jason beat some biggest names in the world of cycling, including Tour de France stage winner Thomas De Gendt, who came in 53^rd position, Norway’s Edvald Boasson-Haggen (35th), and Britain’s Olympic Mountain Bike Champion, Tom Pidcock (31st). That gives you an insight into how high the level of competition was.

I appreciate that was a year ago, but Jason is still good and recently he was won 5 out of 5 races at the Digital Swiss 5. This is a digital cycling event for national and international professionals and a limited number of amateur athletes from Switzerland and abroad, on a different platform to Zwift. In conclusion, he’s pretty good at Esports.

Giveaways

As customary on the Castelli Epic rides, those who participate have an opportunity to win some high-end Castelli gear. To have a shot at the prizes, be sure to stay close to the beacon when a snapshot is taken. As always, the closest to the beacon will win the prize, which is announced on Catelli’s Strava Club site, which riders are welcome to join.

This month, Castelli are giving you the opportunity to win the Alpha RoS 2 Light Jacket. This is a premium product that would normally retail for €249.95 / £250.00 / $289.99, so it’s a substantial item of clothing and the product features are extensive.

The jacket has wind protection on the front-facing surfaces and breathable fabrics on back-facing surfaces. It repels water and offers wind protection through lightweight two-way-stretch fabric. The fit is close to body so there is no fabric flapping around. This is Castelli’s best jacket for mild conditions.

Over the years I have spent a small fortune on Castelli clothing, because it is comfortable, fits me well and is high quality. However on this occasion, Castelli have kindly sent me the Alpha RoS 2 Light Jacket to test and I can personally confirm that it is deluxe item of clothing. It’s so deluxe, it has its own waistcoat built into the jacket, which adds this layer of warmth around your core. You could probably just get away with wearing a base layer and the jacket. I know some people who wear their base layer, jersey and then their jacket but with the waist coat I don’t think it’s necessary. Furthermore, the jacket itself has three large pockets at the back and a handy zipper on the left-hand side to store your keys, so there is space for storage.

The jacket has reinforced seams so don’t expect any water to seep into the coat. And it’s not heavy, weight-wise. It has long cuffs which will fit into your gloves so no chance of getting wet or cold, if combined with a nice pair of gloves. I have the red coloured version, which looks very smart with black tights and most importantly makes you visible on the road. You won’t be disappointed with this item so join up, ride and be in with a chance of winning this.