Saturday Morning Zwift Ride (1/30)

[Michael T. Bello]

On Saturday at 9 AM, I'm planning the "Surrey Hills” route in London (https://www.strava.com/segments/16786868). This will be a 28 miles ride.

Note: Few of our regulars have the Surrey Hill route achievement badge.

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]

With the frigid temperatures this morning, we rode the Surrey Hills route in London. We had fifteen riders (Ashley, Ben, Charlie, Chris, Dan, Doug, Dusty, Ed, Greg, Joe, Melissa, Mike, Tim, Zinj, and me).

It took us approximately 2 hours and 8 minutes to complete the route. Our 28 mile journey had us climb 3,242 feet. If there was a hill in London, we climbed it as we went up Fox Hill (twice), Leith Hill, Box Hill, and Keith Hill.

Welcome to Ben, who joined us for the first time.

In our two hour conversation on Discord, we covered a lot of topics. Zinj was with us on Discord, but was actually climbing Alpe du Zwift in an attempt to earn the coveted Lightweight wheels. Alas, his quest was not fulfilled. He did ride on his new electronic rollers and he did not even fall off. He did stop to put air in his tire, which is a rare sight when riding on Zwift. 

We collectively discovered that Discord displays users in alphabetical order by screen name. It only took us a year and a half to figure that out! We learned a surprising amount about chickens. Melissa and Ashley both have chickens. Melissa's chickens must have their bellies rubbed prior to going to sleep each night. It apparently keeps them warn.

I had an early grocery delivery from Stop & Shop this morning. Everything was extremely cold. Mike prefers Whole Foods since their delivery time windows are more realistic. There were many opinions on grocery delivery, Trader Joe's, and which grocery store is best. Market Basket in Athol received many positive reviews for reasonable prices.

Melissa and Dusty discovered that they both worked at a Conway bike camp back in the day. We heard about outdoor skills camps, including children learning about fire and knives. Ed told us about his prep school cycling team and the life lesson of learning to roll into a fall. We also discussed racing in the early days of helmets.

Ed may be challenging Henry vdB for the nicest Zwift set up. He showed us the projector that turns his wall into a giant Zwift display.

Dan, Melissa, and Tim are getting close to earning the Tron bike. They look to be less than a month from achieving that goal.

Ben, Charlie, Dan, Doug, Dusty, Ed, Greg, Joe, Melissa, Mike, and Tim earned the Surrey Hills route achievement, which doubled their XP points for the ride. Ben got the Daredevil badge for breaking the 50 mph barrier. He also completed level 8, which earned his avatar the Camo Kit. Doug finished level 7 and earned colored socks. He also earned the You're Popular badge (10 Ride Ons) and the Marathoner badge (40 kilometers 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) 
- Sat 9:00 AM - Social Ride (invite required)

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

Check the calendar page at www.nohobikeclub.org for full details on all events.