It took 2 tries to ride the Tour de Zwift stage today. My first attempt began at 12:02 ended around 2 miles into the stage when my computer lost connection. I tried to rejoin but it only let me begin a “free ride” on the Richmond UCI Worlds route which Group B rode. So I had to wait about an hour to attempt again. At 1:02 PM I was wary but no problems. This is the first time I have lost the connection since I changed internet providers back in the spring last year. Before that I lost connections frequently. Glad I lost the connection early rather than later in the stage.

My wife and I were in Richmond in September 2015 for the worlds. We saw Peter Sagan win in a sprint. In Zwift I think I saw where we stood. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for the ability to bike.

Now connected this would be the third time riding the course since I began Zwifting. The last time was way back on December 2, 2020 when I rode 20.69 miles, slightly more than today. The other time I rode 10.46 miles, 1 lap. Today stage 2 covered two laps for a total of 20.4 miles and 850 feet of climbing. That is less climbing than the stage description said which was fine with me. I checked the number of people online before my first attempt and it was over 13,000. The first time group B was over 1,000 but the 1:02 PM stage was less, I think around 700. Strava didn’t match the previous rides with today for some reason.

The climbing came towards the end of the lap after being flat and downhill. Some of the climbs on the turns hit 24% but only for a few feet. I got out of the saddle once on a climb but the rest of the time I shifted gears and pedaled slower. The blue image is from ZwiftInsider.com for 1 lap. On that steep downhill I hit close to 40 mph and those little blips in the valley was a taste of the climbing to come. It was cruel to end the laps on an uphill. The next image is from ZwiftPower.com showing my 357 position out of 369 group B riders. Not great but not last either. From ZwiftPower.com Group A 421, Group C 339, and Group D 21 (women only).

Since Strava didn’t connect my previous rides I got a bunch of top results.