FCC Zwift Rides are held throughout the year. You don’t need to be a member of the FCC, but we’d love to have you join! Find out more on the FCC Zwift Rides PAGE.
Reports by Monica (unless otherwise noted)
12/31/2025
We had 5 riders on Wednesday as we headed to France to tackle this week’s climb portal challenge. At just 1.8 miles, it seemed deceptively moderate, but with grades up to 23%, it definitely was not!
Matt pre-gamed it and warned that it was challenging, but he did it a second time anyway at a blistering pace, beating his first attempt. Rulon also did it twice, once at a moderate pace and second besting his time as well. The rest of us thought once was enough.
To celebrate the New Year, we all made sure to don our fancy hats for the ride. Suzanne and I also made sure to wear our Fire socks so we could lay out a blazing trail of fire as we conquered the steep climbs.
I think it helped make us faster. After our climb attempts, we cooled down in the sunflower fields and hot air balloons of the French countryside.
12/28/2025
We had 4 riders on Sunday. With temps still freezing cold, we headed to the always sunny NYC to take a bite out of the Big Apple. Our route today was Double Parked, and included just about every sprint, power surge, and loop that’s available in NYC. The only segment it didn’t have was the Brooklyn Bridge KOM, and that was just fine with us!
All of us snagged PRs for our power surge segments, and Suzanne and I even sported some sprint jerseys for a short period.
As good as the green looks, we all know Suzanne prefers the purple jersey! One of her power surges gave her the best effort of all riders on the course, and she was super stoked to earn that.
12/24/2025
We had 5 riders on Wednesday. We decided to do our ride a little earlier in the day, due to the holiday. Since our Wednesday rides always have a little bit of elevation to them, and the climb portals were a little too spicy for us, we picked the Hilltop Hustle for our route.
You get a nice little warmup and a sprint before heading up the Grade. Matt hit that sprint so hard that his w/kg stats were flashing red, putting out close to 11 w/kg, setting a massive PR, and earning a green jersey.
With our legs all warmed up, we started our ascent. The Grade is broken up into 10 equal segments, and we took turns telling bad dad (and bad santa) jokes to try to distract our legs from the effort. One by one, we reached the top of the summit, went through the turnaround, and then raced down to the bottom.
Usually we schedule our rides for an hour duration, but in this case we made it for the route distance. We didn’t want anyone to feel like they had to hit the climb again.
12/21/2025
8 riders on Sunday
Between the frigid cold temps and the start of the Race Across Alaska Winter Challenge, we had more riders than usual on Sunday. We are trying to spread the word of our ride schedule with other cycling groups in the state (and with RAAWC) so we hope our ride base will keep growing.
We picked Zwift’s flattest route for maximum mileage gain, so we headed to the popular Tempus Fugit route in the Watopian desert. We welcomed back riders we haven’t seen since last winter, had a couple Anchorage / Eagle River Zwifters join us, and even a brand new baby Zwifter out on his first ride!
Glenn’s first ride saw him nab a handful of achievements, including a route badge, kit unlocks, and leveled up! We hope that’s enough of a dopamine boost to get him to come back for another ride!
We encourage all of our riders to join our discord server, as chatting to your fellow riders definitely makes the time fly by faster.
Join the Fairbanks Cycle Club Discord Server!
We share our upcoming ride plans on Discord as well as Zwift Companion in the Fairbanks Cycle Club group. Please join us!
12/17/2025
4 riders on Wednesday
In our pursuit of elevation, and just general lunacy, Wednesdays have become our climbing rides. Happy humpday, indeed. This week we tackled Poggio.
According to our calculations (and yes, we created a spreadsheet), this is the second easiest climb portal on Zwift, so some of us figured we would probably make multiple runs at it.
Matt and Suzanne actually pre-gamed it as a “warm-up” ride at 100% and then joined the meetup. Any climb you do at 100% unlocks a 125% hero mode, so their first ascent in the meetup was at the highest difficulty. Marc and I figured 100% was tough enough.
We pushed to the top, and then headed down. At the bottom, there was a decision to make…do the climb again (and select the difficulty) or just finish out the time riding around France. To be fair, the scenery is much better in France!
Marc chose France, and the rest of us decided to climb again, decreasing our difficulty. So I headed up at 75%, Matt and Suzanne at 100%. We all managed to earn some polka dots for being fastest in our tier.
After my 3rd run (50%), Matt and Suzanne had one more climb to go, so I headed to France for some flat riding to cool down. It was a great ride and we were all very happy with our efforts.
12/14/2025
We had 3 riders on Sunday
Oh the weather outside is frightful
And inside is so delightful
But since we still want to stay fit
Let us Zwift, let us Zwift, let us Zwift!
We headed to the Watopian desert today for the Flat Out Fast route, and for 66% of us, that’s because we needed a recovery ride from the day before.
Suzanne and I had joined another group on Zwift for their weekly “Sufferfest” and took on the Three Sisters. Three massive climbs (with bonus suffering up the Radio Tower). See that little red detour there? So great.
All that elevation put Suzanne within 100 feet of her bike upgrade, so she had to ride a little longer to get it.
17-18 miles of a flat zone 2 ride on Sunday was the perfect recovery. Our determination to keep our pace was sorely tested when one of the Robo Pacer bots came into range. It’s hard not to try to hang with them, they bring out the competitiveness in all of us.
We finished the route, giving us a nice little badge and XP bonus (we are all about the XP) and then continued to ride until our hour was up.
12/10/2025
3 riders on Wednesday
The FCC Zwifters did a double ride on Wednesday, when they tackled the Route of the Week and then headed straight into the Climb Portal for some more elevation.
Loopin Lava was added as a route last fall when Zwift went retro and brought back their OG Jarvis Island. A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, that was the only route on Zwift…a 2.5 mile loop with a little climb in the middle. From one route to over 100, Zwift has really grown in the past decade.
After heading around Jarvis Island, our fearless riders headed up the Volcano KOM, then enjoyed the downhill recovery before making a sharp turn to the Climb Portal. They were teleported to Australia and Old Willunga Hill.
Zwift rolled out bike upgrades this year, and you have to either get a certain number of miles or feet of elevation. This climb helped towards our upgrades.
12/07/2025
3 riders on Sunday
We tackled the third route of Zwift’s Big Apple Challenge, the Spinfinity Ultra. This route starts and ends in Times Square, with another lap of Times Square in the middle of the ride. You get to go over Manhattan Bridge and Brooklyn Bridge twice, once in each direction.
Suzanne is addicted to purple jerseys, which can be earned by having the highest wattage on the power surge segments.
I managed to snag a PR on the Times Square circuit, and clearly there weren’t many female riders on the course as I got an orange jersey for a few minutes.
12/03/2025
4 riders on Wednesdays
We have somewhat unofficially turned our Wednesday rides into climbing rides (I blame Matt Layral), so we headed to England this time and Cheddar Gorge.
After a short lead in, we entered the climb portal and began our ascent. It’s a relatively short climb, and less than 600 feet of climb. We all did it at 100% effort.
If you are going to go up, you may as well enjoy the well-earned downhill. Suzanne and I decided to turn around at the bottom and climb it again at 100%, while Matt elected for 125%. Marc decided that riding around France was a much better way to finish out his ride.
One of the fun features of Zwift is your “ghost” avatar. If you have done a segment before, you can race against your previous pace. As a competitive person, no one wants to lose to themselves! So I started out my 2nd attempt a little hot and got about 10m ahead of my ghost and then worked my butt off to stay ahead and increase my lead even more.
As I was about halfway up, another challenge presented itself. Matt had finished his 2nd climb and was heading up a 3rd time. Could I stay ahead of him? He’s pretty doggone fast. As I pushed myself harder and harder and he got closer and closer, I eventually lost out as he passed me just shy of the last segment gate.
My positive takeaway was that I beat my first attempt by just over a minute (I think it says 9% faster in the display). And then I found out that Matt was using his 3rd attempt as a “cool down” and only 50% effort. So I didn’t feel too badly after that for not being able to beat him to the top despite my initial lead.
Our quest for 26 climbs before the end of 2026 is off to a great start. Not every climb is available every day, so we’ve started building some spreadsheets and ranking the climbs based on distance, elevation, and gradient to try to line our rides up with what’s available at any given time. Who doesn’t love a good spreadsheet??
11/30/2025
Just one rider on Sunday
In the search for fun events on Zwift, we stumbled across Dino Racing! It’s totally unserious cycling… today we ride big wheels instead of bikes, and every rider was wearing an inflatable dinosaur costume.
The route was 7 laps of LaGuardia Loop in reverse for just under 14 miles (including lead-in). Each lap ended with a sprint segment, and awarded 2 special boost power ups. The power ups gave you a 1-2 second power surge, which came in handy for holding off attacks, making moves, and tackling climbs.
I ended up in 7th place in my category (which to be fair is the slowest one). It was fun, and I definitely want to try it again.
11/26/2025
3 riders on Wednesday
We headed to Italy for the famous Cipressa climb. At 4 miles and 750’ of elevation, it has an average grade of just 3.5%, making it one of Zwift’s “easier” climbs.
After a very short warmup, we entered the climb portal and began our ascent. We all decided to hit it at 100% (which puts us on the Strava leader board).
We didn’t get a lot of feathers (which would make you lighter, increasing your w/kg, and therefore making you faster), which was OK as there weren’t too many steep inclines. There were only a couple red sections, and I think 11-12% was the highest we saw. The finish was almost completely flat, which actually made it a bit more challenging.
One more climb checked off our list!
11/23/2025
Two riders on Sunday
Marc and I decided to head to merry old London and take part in the (Virtual) World Brompton Championships.
As I’m sure you’ve guessed from the name of the race, all the riders were on Brompton bikes. There was also a pretty formal dress code, so we wore our best tweed for the occasion. Ok, ok, the tweed jersey was our whole reason for doing this race… completing it added the virtual jersey to our garage. #swag
This also seemed like an excellent opportunity to test out my new fire socks. Apparently, if you go more than 150% of your FTP (Functional Threshold Power), you can make flame tracks come off your back wheel for up to 12 seconds.
In this case, it also caused my poor bike to sink into the pavement a bit so no wonder it felt like I really had to work hard to make those flames!
It was a fun little race… I placed 15th and Marc was right behind me in 16th. Yes, there were more than 16 riders (but only barely).
After doing the Climb Portal last week, we started looking at how many climbs Zwift had added, and at this point they are up to 44! So we’ve decided to make a little side quest to tackle 26 (at least) of them by the end of 2026.
11/19/2025
Three riders on Wednesday
We decided to do the Climb of the Week as it was an “easy” route. We teleported to France for a half mile warm-up and then entered the climb portal for Col des Aravis.
Suzanne and I opted for 100% difficulty, and Matt went for 125%. The climb is only 5.2km with an average grade of 5.1%. It has been featured in the Tour de France 42 times, most recently in 2023.
It has 3 switchbacks in it, and grades reaching up to 22%! While the scenery is definitely more picturesque IRL, the climb portal matches the color of the “road” to the grade, so you can see exactly how hard or easy a certain section will be. And honestly, when you are putting out serious watts and huffing and puffing, who has time to take in nature anyway?
This was my first 100% difficulty climb, and I’m really proud of myself for not dying. Hills are definitely a weakness of mine. As Matt reminds me, the only way to get better is to do more climbing.
After reaching the summit, we headed downhill and then finished up the hour riding through the French countryside.
11/16/2025
Just Suzanne and I today. We headed back to New York for the second route of the Big Apple Challenge.
Watts the Limit is a great name for the route as there were 8 opportunities to push the limits on power output! We started in Central Park and headed south. We were still in warm-up mode when we hit the first 2 power spots (5-second and 10-second), so we didn’t really push it.
As we approached the 20-second power spot, we decided to go all out and set PRs. Zwift shows you a 90-day and a 1-year PR so we had some targets to hit. After all the power spots, we took the Manhattan Bridge to Prospect Park, and then headed back the way we came.
I set a nice PR going back over the bridge, and Suzanne had such a nice 20-second power surge that she ended up with the best wattage for a female rider currently on the course. That meant she got a fancy purple jersey with a lightning bolt on it!
As we approached the first of three power spots heading north, we realized our 5-second wattage was lower than the PRs we just set for 20 seconds. So we ramped up early and hit the 5-second arch going as hard as we could. Suzanne hit 400 watts!
We set great PRs for the 10-second segment as well, and when we hit the final 20-second segment, we went all out, beating our previous wattage.
11/12/2025
We had three riders on Wednesday who did the Mountain Mash:
(The mountain mash)
Our legs are smashed
(We did the mash)
Matt made it up in a flash
(We did the mash)
We did the mountain mash
We did Zwift’s Route of the Week tonight, which was a tad on the short side, just under 4 miles. But what it lacked in distance, it made up in elevation with 1100 feet of climb packed in there.
We huffed and puffed our way to the KOM arch, looking forward to some downhill coasting. Matt decided he didn’t do enough climbing, so after the arch he flipped a U-turn and headed up to the radio tower, adding another 700ft of climb.
Suzanne and I both declined that option and headed down the hill.
11/09/2025
We had 3 riders on Sunday as we tackled the final stage of Zwift Unlocked.
The Double Borough route is one of the few non-looping routes on Zwift. We started in Central Park and the rode south through Times Square and the subway (giving us a chance to hit our 5 and 10 second power segments again), before taking on the Brooklyn Bridge KOM.
Both Marc and I hit a PR on the bridge, so that was cool. We enjoyed the downhill before looping around to go over the Manhattan Bridge and back north.
Since it’s a point-to-point ride, we did wonder what would happen once we completed the route, and now we know. You end up in an endless loop of the Times Square Circuit. You just keep riding around in a circle until you are ready to call it quits.
11/05/2025
We three riders headed to France for the Climb of the Week, Col du Rosier. This 5km climb is located in Belgium, and is a staple in the Liège-Bastogne-Liège classic.
After a 1.5 mile warm-up, we entered the portal, teleporting to the climb. It has a rather steep start, and then a more gradual incline with a rather flat finish. When you hit the portal, you can select your difficulty. Matt and Suzanne both went with 100%, and I did 50% because I’m a wuss.
The climb is broken up into 10 equal segments and the “road” color is determined by the gradient. At 50%, the incline is half as much, so the elevation gained is as well.
We hit the top, rode down, and then hit the climb again. Matt took it at 100% again, and Suzanne and I went with 75%.
At each segment, you get a boost. Either XP or a feather, which will make you lighter and therefore increase your watts per kilogram, and make you slightly faster.
We finished up at the bottom of the climb after the second ride up it. I decided to ride just a little bit further, as I was so close to leveling up. 2 miles later, I hit level 50 and earned myself the most important wardrobe upgrade… a pair of fire socks that will set the road on fire behind my wheel if I go a certain wattage. Wouldn’t we all love to have that in real life?
11/02/2025
We three headed back to NYC for the 4th stage of Zwift Unlocked, and rode the Spinfinity route. Some of it was similar to last Wednesdays ride, so we were able to try to better our times. All 3 of us PR’d our power segments and our KOM.
Zwift is nice enough to track your max power over the past 12 months, so you can see compare to your best effort.
10/29/2025
Zwift rolled out 12 new routes and 32 km of new roads in New York City, and a Big Apple Challenge, so we four decided to head east and check it out. We rode the Green to Screen route, which started at Prospect Park in Brooklyn. We rode north, entering one of the three Subway sections. There’s a 5-second segment to test your power output, so we gave it our all.
Then we went over the Manhattan bridge, dropping in to the next subway section. There was a 20-second power segment there. Finally, we came out in Times Square, an iconic NYC location. The route loops around, heading back to Prospect Park, but this time we go over the Brooklyn Bridge, which is a nice little climb with a KOM segment.
Since it was our first time trying out the new routes, everything is a PR!
10-22/26-2025 -- Yes to the Route, No to the Climb; Watch for the Squirrel!
We had 4 riders on Wednesday. Matt tried to talk us into doing the Climb of the Week as the Route of the Week was a pretty easy one. But we all vetoed him and headed to Watopia for a lap around Tick Tock.
Each week features a Climb, Route, and Workout of the week, rotating through challenge difficulty, and awarding XP (250 to 1000) based on the difficulty. The Tick Tock route was definitely the least challenging option last week!
On Sunday, 3 of us headed to Scotland for the 3rd stage of Zwift Unlocked. We picked the short route, which was 4 laps of the Scotland Crit followed by a mile climb up the Sgurr Summit. Each lap was about 2 miles with one small climb and one short KOM section. Strategic use of feather boosts was key to putting up some PRs.
Zwift loves their “After Party” routes, which basically means the route ends at the top of a hill. We of course kept riding to enjoy the downhill we earned, and then continued to enjoy double XP as we did our cool down.
You might notice there’s a little something poking out of my back jersey pocket… that’s just Scotty, my little pocket squirrel. He’s a nice little bit of swag that Zwift has put out to award riders. Over the weeks, Scotty will get bigger and more animated, so stay tuned!
10-12-2025 -- Spice on the Sgurr!
We had 3 riders this morning as we headed to Scotland for the first stage of Zwift Unlocked.
Zwift has put out 10 new routes for this event, a long and short route for each stage, and some unlockable swag for completion. For finishing stage 1, we got a beanie added to our virtual garage.
The short route was only 8 miles, but it packed a punch. There were rolling hills and two small KOM’s to conquer, before the route culminated with a spicy uphill finish on the Sgurr Summit.
Since the route was a bit short, we decided to coast on the downhill (since we earned it) and then test whether we would continue to accrue double XP even after route completion (and the answer was YES!). We did between 12 and 13 miles and decided to call it good.
Next up - Wednesday 6pm for the Route of the Week. It’s Spiral Into the Volcano, yet another route with an uphill finish.
10-05-2025 -- Earning Sweat and XP
We had two riders this morning on the Tempus Fugit route in Watopia. Tempus is one of the flattest and fastest routes in Zwift, which makes it popular for rides and workouts.
The currency of Zwift isn’t dollar and cents, but rather XP and drops of sweat, both of which are in high supply on Tempus Fugit. XP racks up per mile, and flat is fast. Drops of sweat are multiplied by friendly “ride ons” from the multitude of riders on the route.
The two of us had a good, solid ride this morning, racking up 17 miles during our hour long ride. No flat tires and no traffic!
Our ride on Wednesday will be the Route of the Week, Mayan 8.
10-04-2025 -- The Zwifties are Back! FCC Zwifties, That Is
After a summer hiatus, the FCC Zwifters are back in action with two rides a week for the winter months.
On Wednesdays at 6pm, we will be doing Zwift’s Route of the Week. (It’s all about the double XP so we can level up faster and get cool swag).
On Wednesday October 1, which was also the kickoff for Trifecta Training’s BRR-BER Challenge, we headed to Watopia for the Loop de Loop. It’s an almost 8-mile loop with a nice sprint section, a few little rollers, and then a trip up Zwift’s KOM. At the sprint, you’ll pick up a power boost, and we were all lucky enough to snatch a feather for the upcoming climb.
A feather reduces your weight for 30 seconds, so it increases your power and speed, a nice boost for pushing it towards the top of a climb. We coasted down the other side, debating our life choices that put us on our trainer bikes, sweating it out over VR routes. Marc decided one lap was enough for him, so Suzanne and I bid him farewell and headed around for a second lap. We also debated doing the KOM again, and decided to let the Zwift gods choose our fate.
We made a pact that if we got feathers at the sprint point again that we would tackle the KOM. And sure enough… Zwift gave us feathers.
There is no invite required for the Wednesday rides; just select the Route of the Week Challenge from the main screen and ride. Pop on Discord and chat while you ride.
Our Sunday rides are at 10am and they do require an invite. But that’s easy to get. Join our discord and/or our FCC club on Zwift Companion.
04-23-2025 - Inside Out and One Last Wednesday Ride for Now
We had 3 riders on Wednesday for the second of Zwift’s Inside Out workout program. Suzanne and I elected to do the shorter ride and Matt did the longer workout. I did feel a bit like a sissy taking the “lite” option, but honestly, listening to him say how difficult it was and reading his Strava post afterwards has not really changed my mind. 😂
At least this time, our workout ended just after we crested the KOM segment, so we were able to enjoy an extra downhill and flat cooldown.
This workout had 2 (or 4 if you did the long version) 10-minute power blocks with the wattage increasing every 2.5 minutes. It was a tough workout, but Zwift kept reminding us that suffering now would make us better outdoor riders. We will see…
The workout plan gives an outdoor ride suggestion for each weekly workout, and week 5 includes climbing. After the ride, we were doing a little brainstorming on Discord for some route ideas. Riding up Ester Dome was one suggestion.
Next Wednesday will be our last official indoor weekday ride for the summer. We will continue the Sunday rides as long as there is interest.
04-20-2025 - Hell of the North
We had 3 riders on Sunday for a ride on another of the New France routes, Hell of the North. It starts off deceptively easy. Nice and flat with 4 sprint points, and then ends with the Petit KOM. It’s just 1.7 miles and 345 feet of climb, but it packs a punch.
The “hell” comes at the top as Zwift has the option of making a turn to make a loop or sending you straight into the Ventoux climb. I’ll let you guess which choice Zwift makes for you 😉
We decided to exit the meetup at that point, do a quick u-turn and turn the ride into a 17-mile loop instead.
04-16-2025 -- Preparing for Summer Riding!
We had 3 riders last night. Zwift knows it’s almost time for outdoor riding, so they’ve started a 6-stage group workout training plan to help with the transition. The workouts get progressively harder each week. The group workout format is really fun, everyone is kept together, but you are riding at your own individual effort calculated as a percentage of your FTP.
Zwift offers a long and short option workout (56 minutes or 32 minutes) to help you squeeze it into your schedule. The workout can be done “on demand” whenever you feel like it, or you can join one of the group rides offered hourly. This workout had a warm up, 2-4 “ramps” depending on if you chose the long or short option, and a cool down. Matt did the long workout while Suzanne and I chose the short one.
The nice thing about a workout is that you don’t “feel” the elevation of the route you are on, it’s all about the watts being produced. And so on the short route, Suzanne and I were juuuuuust about to the top of the Volcano KOM when the workout ended, so we went from a nice zone 1 cool down to a 10% uphill grade! We decided to push to the top so we could free ride the downhill (because what psycho would quit before going downhill??)
04-14-2025 -- A French Carbo Ride
Report by Monica
Zwift rolled out 8 new routes in France last week in conjunction with the Paris-Roubaix race, and we had 4 riders today checking one of those routes off our list. We rode laps of the Croissant 🥐, a little 5ish mile loop, complete with cobblestone sections, just like the famous race. We rode for an hour, which was 17 miles for me.
As an added incentive for riding the new routes, Zwift has a Route Chaser challenge you can sign up for, with bonus XP for completing each route. XP is how you level up in Zwift and unlock things like new bike frames, etc. Which reminds me, I actually bought a new (virtual) bike this week, for the low, low price of 1,750,000 drops (Zwift’s virtual currency). It’s a Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL8, which is currently the fastest race frame Zwift offers. In real life, that frame would cost about $13k! You earn drops by riding, with bonuses for going uphill, getting “ride-ons”, leveling up, etc.
Fun fact, some of the bike trainers available on the market today will actually vibrate slightly on the cobblestone sections, so you get close to the real feel of them. It won’t knock your teeth out or anything, but it certainly does lend an air of realism to indoor riding.
We had some great conversations about retraining and getting fitness back after a short break, and we all agreed it was absolute BS how quickly we seem to lose it, which of course only gets worse as we age. We also talked about supplements and the importance of staying hydrated. I think that’s why coffee stops and beer stops seem to be such an integral part of cycling. We are really doing it for our health.
04-06-2025 -- A Sweet Ride
Three riders yesterday on the Sugar Cookie route. It’s a 21-mile loop that starts with a nice downhill followed by about 13 miles of mostly flat roads with 4 sprint segments. Then it’s time for the climb… just at the start of the epic KOM, thankfully, and not the entire thing! Once you hit the base of the KOM, you take a bypass that links you back to where you started, with a nice downhill section to finish the ride. We ended with 25 miles total.
03-26-2025 -- Zooming Around the Waistband
We had 4 riders last night on Stage 4 of the Big Spin. The route was Watopia’s Waistband, which is just like it sounds, a circle around the middle of the map of Watopia. It was a fairly flat and fast route, so we did 18-19 miles in about an hour. You can go pretty fast when you don’t have to worry about vehicles, pedestrians, or pets.
Thanks to some nice XP bonuses, Ginny leveled up to 27, Marc to 42, and Monica to 47. We all scored some cool swag when we got to the spinner at the end of the ride too. Marc got the BMX bike, Ginny got fancy TT wheels, Suzanne got a new helmet, and Monica got a new 00’s themed kit.
Here’s a great pic of Marc, Ginny, and Monica getting ready for the final sprint to the finish with 1 mile to go. Suzanne was about two minutes ahead of us.
03/23/2025 -- Island Time
Report by Monica
We had 3 riders today as we headed to the Makuri Islands to ride the Country to Coastal route. It was 21 miles and 950ish feet of climb. The route starts out on a climb, which just seems sort of a rude way to get started. But after a couple miles of uphill, it’s got a nice downhill and flat segment. There’s a small hill in the middle, which means the majority of the elevation comes at the end of the ride when you are nice and tired.
There are 4 sprint points on this route, so no shortage of places to try to earn PRs. The best part of setting a virtual PR is that Zwift throws you your own little ticker tape parade, complete with confetti. And the surrounding riders can see it as well, so most will often give you a virtual thumbs up as well. It’s so gratifying to get so much recognition on a ride!
03/19/2025 -- A Sweet Ride!
We had 4 riders last night as we tackled Stage 3 of Zwift’s Big Spin. It was about 16 miles and almost 500 feet of elevation on the Douce France (sweet France) route. It’s mostly flat with one tiny KOM in the middle. It’s a visually appealing route as you travel through fields of sunflowers, hot air balloons, and can catch a glimpse of the famous Mont Saint-Michel in the distance.
Suzanne rode the BMX bike she won in stage 1. At the end of the ride, we all had a chance to win cool prizes again. Suzanne actually landed on the BMX again, so she won 25,000 drops instead (Drops are Zwift’s currency for buying new frames and wheels, which gets you into less trouble with the spouse than buying them in real life). Marc won some new fancy fast wheels, and Ginny and I won a new jersey.
03/05/2025 -- Disco and Prizes, including a BMX Bike!
We had 5 riders on Wednesday get their 70’s groove on for Stage 1 of Zwift’s Big Spin. And what better place to celebrate the decade of disco and bell bottoms than London, baby?
The Greater London 8 route does a nice flat loop of the neighborhoods of Chelsea and Westminster (look kids, Big Ben! Parliament!) before heading across the Thames to Richmond Park (think Ted Lasso) and a challenging ascent of Box Hill. Personally, the worst part of any of the London routes is almost at the end when you are coming out of the tube station to get back to ground level. It’s a 15% incline up the escalator of doom. Pretty sure I could walk up it faster.
Anyway, this route ends with a prize wheel, which features random unlocks as well as 70s themed kits. Our riders won a good variety… Matt did the route twice and got headphones and a helmet. Marc got a jersey. Julie is dipping her toes into racing, and she appropriately scored some groovy TT wheels to help her go faster. And Suzanne join won the BMX bike!
03/02/2025 - PRs and Increased FTPs!
On Sunday we had 5 riders as we tested our FTP on the Elevation Evaluation. We had done this ride in mid-December, and decided to ride it again to see what improvements we had made during the 7-week long Tour de Zwift. After a short, flat warm-up, it’s 2.2 miles straight up, but broken up into 10 equal-length segments. Each segment is timed so you can see your previous PR (and try to beat it).
Once you reach the top, it will give you your elapsed time and tell you if your FTP increased. FTP is your Functional Power Threshold, and it’s a measurement of the wattage you can hold for a significant period of time. All of Zwift’s workouts are based on using percentages of FTP, so testing it occasionally is a good thing to track progress.
No surprises here, everyone who redid the route from December had an increase in FTP and set PRs on the course! We enjoyed a nice, fast downhill and then a fairly flat finish with 2 sprint segments to keep the legs nice and loose.
02/26/2025 - Danger Noodle!
We had 3 riders last night as we took on a brand new route, the Danger Noodle! I mean, doesn’t the name alone want to make you ride it? The route is 20 miles with 1355 feet of climb, with 2 KOMs and a lot of fun rollers.
We started out with a fairly flat warmup and a sprint segment to get the legs warmed up, and then headed in to Titans Grove. Coming from the north, this section starts with tar pits (like La Brea) and dinosaurs, and then morphs into giant redwoods. It’s a beautiful section of road, and there are a few Easter egg graphics to look out for, like Jarvis the Bear climbing (and falling out of) a tree.
Hitting the KOM in this direction is short and steep, and over quickly. We all pushed hard and set new PRs! We got a chance to recover on the downhill, and then hit the LAX turnaround to head back and take on the KOM in the opposite direction. This time, it’s a longer, more gradual grade, and your legs are a bit tired from the first one. Some more PRs were set, and then we finished out the ride in beautiful downtown Watopia.
We’ve got some great rides planned for March! Zwift’s Big Spin event is back, so on Wednesdays we will be joining those group rides. At the end of each ride, you get to spin the prize wheel and have a chance to win some cool swag, including a BMX bike! If I win that, I’ll be riding it on every ride for the rest of the year! On Sundays, we will be testing out endurance, starting with the Elevation Evaluation on March 2nd, and we are planning 25 laps of the volcano (which can potentially earn you a few badges, including a metric century badge!) later in the month.
02-23-2025
Two riders on Sunday as Suzanne and I continued our quest to ride every single available Zwift route (which currently stands at 179) by completing the Mayan 8. The route starts with a fairly flat lead in, with a couple of small bumps just to remind you to warm up the legs for the big climb later.
Bike choice is a real thing in Zwift, just like real life. You don’t want to take your road bike on gnarly mountain bike trails! I was riding my Tron bike, which is a good all-around choice, but Suzanne realized she had a more aero set up, so before starting the back-to-back KOMs, she did a bike swap to a better climbing set up. Our friends at Goldstream Sports would be happy to hear she chose a Trek Emonda.
The Trek was a good choice as Suzanne PR’ed both KOM sections, while I was a bit slower than my PR on the first climb, but knocked a little over 20 seconds off my best time on the second (and bigger!) KOM. Guess all that riding for Zwift’s Ultimate Challenge these past few weeks is paying off.
With the tough part down, we got to enjoy a nice steep downhill and a couple flat miles to finish out the route.
February 19, 2025
We had 3 riders last night as we tackled the NYC KOM After Party, which was about a 24 mile ride. Graphically speaking, it is always a crisp, fall day in the NYC world map. The trees are peak fall foliage and the sky is almost always blue. It is also a blend of current and future as there are roads and paths at ground level and then an expansive sky road network well above the ground.
After 3 laps through Central Park at ground level (with each lap having a sprint segment to try to better your previous time), we had gone almost 20 miles and had almost 1000 feet of elevation. We then headed up to the sky road network with a brisk 15% grade that made it feel like pedaling through quicksand. Once up on the elevated roads, the course flattens out a bit until it’s time to tackle the NYC KOM, a gnarly climb almost a mile long with gradients up to 17%. And of course, as the route is called “After Party”, the route ends at the top.
If you kept riding, the route would just loop you around to do the KOM again, because Zwift is programmed by some sadistic cyclists, but if you were quick enough, you could turn off and get another mile of downhill getting back to ground level. Here’s a pic of the start of the KOM, and you can see the gradient in the color map below. I also took a video, as when the gradient is over 10%, red just isn’t a good enough indicator. The colors actually flash, a lot like the light bar on the ambulance you’ll be calling because your legs will collapse when you get off your bike at the end of the ride.
February 16, 2025
Six riders this morning across a few different courses. The beauty of virtual riding and voice chatting on Discord means we can still have a social ride, despite route choice differences.
Three riders (Suzanne, Marc, and Monica) took on the Shisa Shakedown, a 33-mile ride with five sprint sections and back-to-back KOM’s. It was the longest ride of the Tour de Zwift this year, and I think it’s safe to say we are all happy to be done with it!
Two riders (Julie and Don) were on the other Tour de Zwift Stage 6 routes. Julie was on a mission to go hard on her ride, while Don was taking it easy on his ride. Evee opted for the Beach Island Loop in beautiful Watopia for her first ride on Zwift since October.
