I thought a difficult choice of racing the Tour de Zwift Stage 4 or biking outside was coming but by 11:30 AM the weather outside made the decision for me. The overcast sky with 57 degrees meant staying inside. Today was the last chance to ride the Tour de Zwift Stage 4 with stage 5 coming tomorrow. I chose Group D which looked like where my w/kg capability stood the best chance.

Lining up for the 12:13 PM start I jumped back off the Blue Norcross AL to turn on the ceiling fan, move the desk light, and turn the computer monitor. I got back on the bike with 4 seconds to the start. Poor planning but I needed the ceiling fan because this race would put out a lot body heat. I had no idea about the 20% climbs on the course; we went up the same climb twice. Not that would change my mind but maybe I would’ve saved a little bit of energy before I got there.

The big climb about 3.8 miles into the lap and lasted until the 5.1 mile point when we raced back down onto some flat roads before going back up to finish at the top.

Overall 4 groups 407 racers signed up with 174 in my group, D. I finished 80th in 1:06:56 averaging 159 watts. The distance came in at 15.43 miles at 14.0 mph average speed. The climbs killed my average speed but I did get up to 54 mph going back down the climb. The profile of the course looks like a two hump camel on my Strava activity page. The SportTracks activity shows my speed going back down.

Tuesday Stage 5 begins. The weather forecast looks like I will be inside racing stage 5.