Saturday Morning Zwift Ride (1/23)

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Michael T. Bello

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Jan 17, 2021, 1:48:41 PM1/17/21

to NCC Discussion Group

On Saturday at 9 AM, I'm planning the "Volcano Climb” route in Watopia (https://www.strava.com/segments/16425130). This will be a 30 miles ride.

If anyone is interested, just follow me on Zwift (Michael Bello - NCC) and I'll add you to the invite. If you follow me, please send me a note.

A few recommendations...

Zwift now allows late joiners to Meetups, but it does not always work. Give yourself a few extra minutes to join the ride anyway (on Zwift 5 minutes before the ride would be ideal).

Please wear the NCC jersey. This makes it easier to recognize who is in the group. On a computer, log into Zwift, once riding, press “P” on you keyboard and enter NCCMAKIT. After that, you can use the jersey on any device running Zwift (laptop, tablet, phone, etc.).

Our previous ride were enhanced with conversations on Discord. After installing Discord, ˙˙use the NCC invite to join the conversation: https://discordapp.com/invite/uXdHm7m.

If you are new to Discord, I recommend this article on ZwiftInsider: https://zwiftinsider.com/using-discord/. Please pay particular attention to Step 4: "Discord automatically places you in the text chat channel, which isn’t where you want to be. Click the hamburger menu (3 lines at top-left) to view all the channels on the server. Click “General” under voice channels, then click “Connect to Voice” to join the general voice chat."

I also recommend testing Discord out prior to the ride. Feel free to contact me if you want to test Discord.

Michael T. Bello

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Jan 23, 2021, 11:46:20 AM1/23/21

to NCC Discussion Group, Michael T. Bello

On a cold Saturday morning, we had nine participants (Amanda, Ashley, Charlie, Joe, Melissa, Mike, Tim, Zinj, and me) in the group ride in Watopia.

We rode two laps of the Volcano Climb route in 91 minutes. In total, we rode approximately 30.1 miles 1,351 feet of climbing.

It was nice to have Amanda join us for her first NCC Zwift ride.

On Discord, Joe filled us in about cross country skiing. Up north there is about a foot of snow on the trails. The latest Zwift update included a new hairstyle, the fro, which Charlie may try. Zwift still does not offer a long pony tail. From reading online, it appears that avatar heads and torsos are programed independently and the long hair would interfere with the torso. Despite the group ride, Charlie and Melissa could not contain their competitive spirit and battled for the top Volcano Climb time on both laps. We talked about vaccine rollout plans, colleges, and k-12 schools. The conversation also covered the hill climb from Thursday.

Zinj is on a quest to earn the Lightweight Wheels, so he rode up the Alpe du Zwift. Since he was on Discord, we were able to encourage him. At the top of the Alpe, there is a prize wheel. We all were predicting his prize, with gloves being the popular choice. Zinj did not get the wheels and the group went wild when the prize wheel landed on gloves.

Ashley earned the Volcano Climb route achievement, which doubled her XP points for the first lap. Ashley completed level 13 and earned dotted socks. Mike also got socks, stripey socks, by finishing level 16. Joe unlocked the Trek Emonda bike for completing the equivalent of one time up Everest. He also earned the You're Famous badge (30 ride ons in one ride).

Here is the NCC Zwift schedule:

- Mon afternoon - Road Race (times will vary between 5 PM and 7 PM EST)

- Tue 8:00 PM - Social Ride (invite required)

- Thu 5:30 PM - Time Trial / Hill Climb (solo effort, TT bike required) (invite required)