Saturday Morning Zwift Ride (2/27)

17 views

Skip to first unread message

Michael T. Bello

unread,

Feb 21, 2021, 1:47:07 PM2/21/21

to NCC Discussion Group

On Saturday at 9 AM, I'm planning the Tire-Bouchon route in France (https://www.strava.com/segments/24690941).

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

unread,

Feb 27, 2021, 1:10:27 PM2/27/21

to NCC Discussion Group, Michael T. Bello

After a few nice days, the rain arrived this morning. Fortunately, it was nice weather in France.

Our twelve riders (Ashley, Brant, Charlie, Chris, Dusty, Joe, Kathryn, Kevin, Melissa, Tim, Zinj, and me) rode the Tire-Bouchon course. In our 115 minute ride, we covered 38.8 miles and ascended 1,661 feet.

Our group did a nice job of staying together this morning. We were in meetup only view, so we had the route to ourselves. A few times, the peloton got strung out, but we regrouped and drafted off one another. Chris went for the fastest time on several of the sprints, but the pack caught up to him afterwards.

Everyone was on Discord this morning. We all were watching the elevation carefully as Melissa was on the verge of completing the Everest Challenge and unlocking the Zwift Concept 1 bike ("the Tron bike"). It takes 50,000 meters of climbing to earn the Tron bike (https://zwiftinsider.com/unlock-the-tron-bike-in-zwift/). Her goal was to earn it by the end of the month, so she ascended Ven-Top last night and warmed up this morning by climbing the Volcano. The final ten miles of today's route were very, very flat. Charlie kept updating the group on Melissa's progress. We were concerned that our ride would end prior to the achievement, but with 0.2 miles to go, she unlocked the bike! Melissa is now a member of the ever expanding NCC Tron club. Recently, Dusty and Zinj completed the Everest Challenge as well.

Zinj was on his own quest. He climbed the Alpe du Zwift again in an attempt to earn the Lightweight wheels. He will have to complete the quest at least one more time, probably many more times, to be successful. At least he will have a nice helmet to ride in next week.

We also spend time discussing last week's race and time trial. Charlie offered a Zwift excuse, which prompted discussion of other popular Zwift excuses. Zwift Insider recently had an article about Zwift excuses (https://zwiftinsider.com/lucianotes-excuses/).

The topic of cycling books came up. Several of us recommended Phil Gaimon's books. I recommended "Wheelmen,"" while Kevin suggested "Slaying the Badger.

Brant, Joe, and Kathryn earned the Tire-Bouchon route achievement, which doubled their XP points for the route. Ashley completed level 14 and earned her avatar the Level 15 Kit. Kathryn is flying through the levels and received colored socks for moving to level 7. She also got the Marathoner badge for completing 40 kilometers in one ride. Joe moved to level 20 and now has the Level 20 kit.

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)