New Smart Trainer Day (NSTD). I replaced my Wahoo Kickr Snap smart trainer with the Kickr Core last week. I didn’t know how soon I would have an opportunity to put it into action and today was the day. The Kickr Core is quieter than the Kickr Snap and my Blue Norcross AL bike sits a little closer to the floor. Before the ride I did a spin down to calibrate the smart trainer getting the speed up to 23 mph and coasting down. I thought it might be real hard to get to 23 mph but I went through the cassette gears and shifted to the big ring up front pretty quickly. Connecting the sensors to the Zwift companion app required a couple of attempts but after that they remained connected for the whole ride. I used the power and cadence sensor from the Kickr core. The setup went quicker than I thought. The opportunity for the NSTD came from the rain that started around 4 AM and continued to when I started the Zwift event.

With the setup out of the way I joined the social ride I found earlier in the companion app. The PETA-Z Social Ride started at 11:30 AM on the Greater London Flat course for 61 minutes. 175 riders signed up but during the ride the count was 154 as you can see in the video. At the finish the “race” results showed me in the 41st position.

The Kickr Core adjusted the resistance to correspond to the 348 feet of climbing and the descent. I used the towel often to wipe sweat from my arms. Strava reported 2 bronze medals for the ride. I rode this route once earlier this year and three times in previous years. I rode with other Zwifters most of the time until the last third of the time.