February weather is fickle. After three days of mid 60’s to low 70’s today it refused to get out of the mid 50″s. Inside I went and created a Zwift meetup after checking the other events. Those events were on routes I recently rode and I wanted something new. I chose the Makuri Islands Countryside Tour. This was my first time riding this route though parts of it are familiar. I earned the route badge at 9.8 miles. I should’ve checked the route description at ZwiftInsider.com first to learn there is a significant amount of climbing in the 9.8 mile lap and I set the meetup distance at 16 miles. That meant the end of the ride was going up the big climb. I enjoy meetups because of all of the other Zwifters on the route as you can see in the video thumbnail above.

The brief description of the 9.8 mile lap from ZwiftInsider.com, “Introduced in Zwift’s May 2021 Yumezi launch, Countryside Tour is sort of a reverse Chain Chomper with some extra flat road at the beginning.” The route basics: Length: 15.8 km (9.8 miles), Elevation: 185 m (607‘), Lead-In: 0 km ( miles). The climb is shown as a Cat 4 on ZwiftInsider.com.

Before the ride I adjusted the tension on the Ultegra 8000 pedals because I really had to twist my feet hard to exit them. They are much better now. I don’t plan on any quick exits like a crash (which never happens in Zwift even when avatars ride through each other).

994 feet of climbing is the most I’ve done in awhile. The last 2 miles were slower than the first time up. The climb is mostly gravel or dirt. Maybe I should’ve changed to a MTB or gravel bike. Since it was a meetup no penalty or losing the pack if I stopped to go to my garage to change.

Looks like the weather forecast says Sunday will be another Zwift ride day after church.

Some top results in Strava, probably because of not riding this route before.