The Tour de Zwift Stage 3 went live sooner than I expected. The Group C ride was not long enough so I signed up for the Group B ride on the Central Park The 6 Train course in New York City. As the clocked ticked down to the 11 AM start 1398 riders showed on the information board. I wasn’t expecting to stay near the front with the flyers. The ride was 4 laps totaling 16.37 miles and 915 feet of climbing. At the start I was in the 1090 to 1098 group but after a lap or so I fell back to 1150 to 1160 and at the finish I was 1172 out 1399.

When I looked at the route on ZwiftInsider.com it showed 200 feet of climbing per lap and I exceeded that. Most of the climbing was in the 5% to 7% range but one climb hit 11% on the first lap but the other three laps the max I saw was 10%. Not sure where that 1% went but I didn’t miss it. I rode the 10% climb sitting down for 3 laps but stood up on the last lap. That improved my position about 3 or 4 places.

Checking Zwiftpower.com I was 643 out of 692 Group B riders. Group A had 1592 riders, Group C had 642 cyclists, and Group D (women only) 63 for a total of 2,940.

A number of years ago my son-in-law and I rented clunker bikes in Central Park and rode a couple of laps. I’m not sure if we rode the same roads though.

Two personal records in Strava: PR on The 6 Train (11:39) and 3rd fastest time on The 6 Train (12:16). I previously rode this route on 2/3/2021 but only 3 laps.