Last year at this time, I was test riding bikes outside. This year, riding outside is only a dream with every road a snowy, icy mess. So, I’m riding the trainer and enjoying virtual rides in Zwift. A number of my club mates have also started Zwifting, and we were discussing it at the service school this weekend. The question was asked whether or not we had ever seen each other online, and we hadn’t. There’s normally over a thousand riders on at a time, and you can’t see more than those who are around you. Also, we all ride whenever there’s time, and there’s lots of time in a 24 hour day.
Tommy suggested that we try a group ride, so I started a comment thread on Strava. There were a lot of comments and suggestions, and in the end, we agreed to tonight at 7:00, and I set up a Discord server so that we could talk to each other while we rode online.
Tommy, Francois, Derek and I all met up, and it went off without a hitch. We did two laps of the Richmond VA UCI Worlds course, and it was fun and engaging. It’s a challenge to stay together, but with the ability to speak to each other, we managed it. It was cool when we managed to come in second through fifth on the Broad St. sprint (I was the one in second). It was also cool to compare with Derek and Tommy, who are 66 kg and 75 kg respectively, compared to my 100 kg. The game takes weight into account when you’re going up and down hills.
Looks like a fun group thing to do and not get wet and dirty.