I admire the altruism Phil but there are easier ways to improve your w/kg than chopping bits off you know!

Good to hear you’re on the mendacious hope the recipient is doing well.

Running….

And there I thought you were a fairly smart chap.

so doing champs ellyse in a few minutes!
At least it ticks it off!

DrP

I think you zoomed past me. Wasn’t a bad ride for me, only had a few rides since my chest pains from November’s COVID have subsided. If anything I think I was too cautious and feel way better for getting back on the bike the last couple of weeks

I admire the altruism Phil but there are easier ways to improve your w/kg than chopping bits off you know!

I was going to say the same!! Well done Phil and I hope you are back on board soon.

My TdZ ride last night got postponed because I broke the bike 10 mins before the start…. Luckily nothing too bad and with a bodge I was back on this morning, all went quite well and its going in the right direction in terms of improvements.

Not sure if I’ll be inside or outside this Sunday, if there is a planned “Hills” ride with the group.

Surrey this week if you’re about Craig, all being well Sunday will be NB[ride]D as well as Sunday hills but I imagine due to the cold weather I’ll not manage all Saturday in the garage and it’ll still be NB[build]D

Thanks Brian, if I’m not outside then I’ll be there.

Thanks to whomever approved my membership. Continued my Tour de Zwift this morning on the Champs-Elysees ride using it as a threshold effort at 2w/kg. Hit the wrong button afterwards though, and got dumped back to France for my cool down and that was what got shared to the club :-(. I’m not a lazy git just doing 2 miles, honest!

Intending to do TdZ Stage 4 B ride on Saturday at 10am as an easy, will sit with the Bernie pace bot. And then the TdZ A ride on Sunday at 10am also with Bernie.

Hit the wrong button afterwards though, and got dumped back to France for my cool down and that was what got shared to the club :-(. I’m not a lazy git just doing 2 miles, honest!

We’ve all used that excuse [/S] been there

Please tell me its not the alpe for stage 4. lord that was awful.
Hit the bottom a bit hard then rapidly discovered my snotty nose and can’t get warm from the last few days is a actually bit of a hindrance when I do cardio.

Still, last time I did that was two years ago for the tdz according to zwift and I took 8 minutes out of that and I’m carrying a few kg more today so maybe its not the snot just plain old hard work that’s got me feeling like I’ve over done it!

So bit of a change of plan for Sunday hills – I’m going to pull the club ride this week as stage 4a of the tdz is Surrey Hills anyway and jump on there Sunday morning instead.

So anyone who fancies joining me I’ve signed up for the 8am start 4a on Sunday

Tour de Zwift 2023 | Stage 4 | Ride https://www.zwift.com/events/view/3359264

So bit of a change of plan for Sunday hills – I’m going to pull the club ride this week as stage 4a of the tdz is Surrey Hills anyway and jump on there Sunday morning instead.

I was going to suggest the same, seems daft doing it twice!

I’ll LITERALLY be riding my REAL bike back home through the surrey hills area on sunday Am..
Might see your avatars at some point I guess…??!

DrP

Just did the B route of Stage 4, pipped in under 45 mins.

How long do we think the A ride would take?
I need to have Jnr at the swimming pool by 0950 so would need to leave home by 0930
If I could do the ride in around an hour/hour & 10m I’d love to join

If anyone is interested I was also planning on riding the B course tomorrow morning probably 9am version

Best bike split recons an average of 1.34, it’ll be quicker in a bunch but 1.10 might be a push – I could possibly be convinced to do the 7am instead but I will probably hate you for making me get up before 7 on a Sunday 😉

I don’t think I could convince myself to be out in the garage at 7am so you can rest easy!!

I’ll do the Saturday edition of the B and then see how plans go for Sunday AM, could join for a bit of the ride if time allows.

I’ve just plodded round in about 1:30 and in the top third of the riders for that session. You may find yourself tight for time. Don’t forget you have Fox Hill first as a lead in before the official “start” of the recognised route/badge, which is means a slow first few km 😉

Well, as long as I get out of bed I’ll be jumping on the A ride tomorrow at 7am.

It looks very, erm…..uppy-downy 🤮

Are you nearly there yet?

Just up the next hill and round the corner! 🙂

Plodded round the Stage 4 B ride yesterday in an hour and fifteen. Psyching myself up for the A ride at 7am, another plod so expect a couple of hours at least, which is fine for a steady Sunday morning.

Gonna need the heater in the garage, and unlikely to need the fan today!

Well as I had no known company I treated myself to an extra hour in bed and picking up the a route a bit later this morning

I did the A course yesterday morning for the TdZ4 ride.
Apparently it was the first time I’d done Surrey Hills as I got the route complete banner at the end.

It was a good route but bloody hard!

That, coupled with up and down a ladder to finally take down the Christmas lights from the roof and then an hour of tobogganing with my daughter at a birthday party she was invited to has left me with very achy legs so having a rest day today.

Bloody hell. 2:55. That was definitely Type 2 fun and not a route I’m likely to repeat in a hurry.

Wasn’t last mind, there were two behind me 😀

I thought I liked that route. I was wrong.

I got a PB on leith hill descent but was way down on the climbs – 20 seconds off up fox first time round, 2 minutes slow up the second time. A minute down on Keith.

Still, got the blood going for the day and accounted for some of yesterday’s cake with a bit of luck.

I did the Stage 4 C ride on Friday, just to get that task ticked but found myself with some free time today so jumped onto the A ride in order to grab the Surrey Hills route badge. Again, I found myself midway between the Maria and Miguel bots and with no group of riders around. Loads of PRs (up and down), though they aren’t routes I’ve ridden much anyway. Completed the Stage in 2:02 and then freewheeled down/cycled across the other side of the river to ensure I got over 1,000m of ascent.

Oh – I also got my Garmin Year of the Rabbit badge.

Well I’m ready to move on from London now! Did Surrey Hills as a high Z2 session in 1.48 and rolled over Fox Hill to make it up to 2 hours. Wasn’t sure whether to get more base miles in today or give it a bit if a nudge. Did the latter. B ride went well. Started in the front group, slid to 66th by the top of Keith Hill but found a good group and rolled in about 60th. Not full on race pace but a nice ‘spirited’ effort. It’s a brutal start having the hill so early on that route.

Ended up doing the B twice. Once on Saturday and again yesterday evening.
1.30 quicker up the hill on the second attempt and about the same quicker over the whole course.

Let’s see what R5 has to offer this week!

Let’s see what R5 has to offer this week!

A high intensity 30 minute sprint session around Gotham Grind (C route) for me tomorrow morning.

Easy hour on the B route in Wednesday and then another high intensity session on the C route on Thursday.

I see there are a few of you signed up for the 18.00 tonight.

If I’m home in time I might join one or other of you, though as empty as my legs were this morning I think it’ll be a push to make it home for 6 and if I do, likely just the short one for me!

B for me yesterday, whinced when I realised it was going to be hill first followed by the flat portions. Skinny me would rather the other way round but worked out fine in the end. A looked good, but made the mistake of continuing to the top of Ventoux the other day so just couldn’t be arsed with that much climbing (and time).

Anyone else very “meh” about NY? Never really enjoyed it

Wow, @phil56 .
I hope everything is going OK (for both of you). Looking forward to seeing you back in zwift when you are ready.

@mashr I’m with you. The whole “skyway” thing feels awful and the KOM is unpleasant as a result.

I’ve not done the A route so will be on that, probably tomorrow. I guess it’s slowly getting me nearer my Tron.

Yeah, the new York map is an odd one, the park is actually pretty good and makes for some nice flat ish short loops. The great glass elevator on the other hand is bloody awful.

Given they put box hill a hundred yards from tower bridge I’m not sure why they didn’t have it loop out to the catskills or something.

Heck, Scotland is likely to put the whole of Edinburgh in Glasgow.

Heck, Scotland is likely to put the whole of Edinburgh in Glasgow

Stage 8 is “Rolling Highlands”, given that the map is meant to be based around the World Champs course (ie Edinburgh to Glasgow via the Campsies) I’m fully expecting Nessie to make an appearance

TBF Zwift have said that the scenery is “inspired by” Scotland. I’m not expecting any of it to be geographically accurate. It wouldn’t surprise me if the reported GPS coordinates are all in the South Pacific.

What I do expect…

Loch Ness monster

Kelpies

Castles

Forth Bridge

Ballieston Crane

Roaming haggis

Any other suggestions?

I’m fully expecting Nessie to make an appearance

I’m fully expecting to see the blarney stone and stormont Castle.

Any other suggestions?

Fish shops. Lots of fish shops. And flat roofed pubs.

I’ll be disappointed if the Dunmore Pineapple doesn’t make an appearance. Purely to confuse non-Brits 🙂

RE Ride 5….
I’ve put myself down for A (Everything bagel) tomorrow for 8am… It should be about an hour I guess…
Ideally they’d do a half 8 start, but hey ho!!!

DrP

Half hour starts would be great but for whatever reason they don’t. I guess it’s so the pace partners aren’t double booked or having to finish in 29 minutes, you’d have been upset following the D pacer up ventoux at that!