Today was planned as a Zone 2 recovery-ish endurance ride. Probably on Tempus Fugit. Something nice and steady. And flat.
Instead, off we went to Yorkshire, tackling the Royal Pump Room 8 route, which is basically the full Yorkshire map in both forward and reverse. All 28km and 480m of fun. Lovely.
The reason I went for this one is that whilst the Tour de Zwift this year features 8 separate stages, each one is only available for a really limited period of time.
Stage 1, for example, is only open from Monday to Thursday this week. As I’m planning to do the longer routes for each stage I need to schedule them so I’m not doing them back to back.
Being a massive Tour event, this ride was super well attended. If you’re not an active follower of the Zwift community you may have missed this video:
So I don’t know how many Zwifters will be online this year. What I do know is that finding 1,200 other people online for a ‘random’ event on a wet and rainy Tuesday lunch time is pretty much unheard of. At least, for most of the rest of the year.
That said, not all 1,200 were taking part in the Longer ride. That was the total across all four(?) rides, which I think also includes a short and medium ride, and a woman’s only event. But don’t quote me on that, because I’m not that observant.
Anyway, Yorkshire is a pretty gruelling map. As above, 480m of climb, admittedly not all in one go. But still, it’s the equivalent of a trip up the Innsbruck KOM, and then another 80m on top.
It never feels flat. In fact, mostly it feels like it’s always 7%. That’s either 7% up, or 7% down.
And at its hardest we get treated to a brutal 18%, which I think is among the hardest / steepest sections in the game. Thankfully that does come after a little descent… which I was going to say “unlike the Radio Tower”, but then I guess you could argue there is a little descent just before that utter monster.
With such a big group of people it should always be possible to find a wheel. And today was no exception.
What I did think was odd was that there were Robo Pacers / pace partners in the mix today. But beyond the start line I didn’t see them. However, at one point I was sure I saw three different A Category bots, which I thought was really weird. Maybe the constant stream of sweat pouring from me had blurred my vision.
I found myself in amongst a small group of riders who were really keeping me pushing. After yesterday’s race I do wonder if I went a little too hard on myself. There were multiple times, too many to remember honestly, where I was in danger of being dropped.
Heck, actually I did get dropped maybe two or three times. But because of the sheer number of riders, we were always able to form a new little bunch and work our way back on.
Now, I do put that down to the fact that this is not a race. It’s a group ride. Just a very fast one. With a sprint finish.
One of the ways I found myself getting dropped today was on the descents.
That’s not particularly uncommon, but today’s was slightly different.
Often I’ll crest a climb with the bunch, or worse, off the back. Then, because of Zwift factors such as weight and momentum, I can find myself falling off as the heavier guys drop like stones.
But in today’s event, particularly in the earlier half of the ride, I was frequently first over the rise. And then I’d sit up, waiting for the guys behind to group back up. Only when they came through, they passed so quickly that then I was on the back foot, having to stamp on it to catch up.
I do sometimes wonder if the whole 100% trainer difficulty plays against me.
Anyway, happy to see this one through.
And definitely ready for my easy ride tomorrow.
It was great to see such a well attended event, even on a cold and miserable weekday. It’s a great success for Zwift, no doubt about it. For all those who joined at Christmas it is a really strong intro to the platform, the community, and in this case, some of the more challenging routes.
I think next up, Stage 2, is 2 laps of Richmond?
So that should be fun.
Something for the weekend, anyway.
