Tuesday Night Zwift Ride (3/23)

[Michael T. Bello]

On Tuesday at 8 PM, I’m planning the Duchy Estate route in Yorkshire (https://www.strava.com/segments/21748097). This will be a 60 minute 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 rides 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]

We returned to England tonight. Last week, we rode the Queen's Highway route. This week we rode the Duchy Estate route, which is the reverse of the Queen's Highway.

We had five riders this evening (Charlie, Henry, Melissa, Zinj, and me). In our 60 minutes, we covered approximately 18.2 miles with 1,298 feet of climbing.

On Discord, everyone was tired from last night's race. We can only imagine what Jonathan is planning for next week's series finale. Zinj's ability to inflate his tire twice and then finish the race with a flat was remarkable. 

Charlie filled us in on his first ride on the new gravel bike. He plans to ride more gravel this weekend.

We had a conversation about Varia radars. Melissa is trying to figure out how to mount her Varia with a saddle bag. I just ordered one, so I was interested in the discussion. We talked about the bike lights we have previously lost and Henry topped us by telling how he lost and then found a drone.

Henry has been making a lot of cookies and liquorish. He even shared a photo of his most recent creation on Strava.

Charlie, Henry, and Zinj earned the Duchy Estate route achievement, which doubled their XP points for the first lap.  Zinj also completed level 27 and earned his avatar Polka Dot socks. 

Here is the current NCC Zwift schedule, which will be changing a bit next month:

- 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)

- Sat 9:00 AM - Social Ride (invite required)

Follow Michael Bello on Zwift for invites to the invite-only rides.