I could’ve rode outside today but I chose Zwift instead. The rain came before sunrise and left about as quickly. The temperature was in the mid 70’s and cloudy. The wind returned though. I wanted to ride in Zwift to use the virtual shifting with the Kickr Core trainer and ride stage 8 of the Tour de Zwift. I didn’t want to ride the stage during the make up time. I need to ride stage 6 then.
When I started Zwift and paired everything the next screen asked if I wanted to use the virtual shifting with the Play Controllers. I answered yes and clicked on continue. Opening up the event the current gear showed up below the other sensors in the upper left. Pushing the shift buttons changed gears quickly. I got ready for the stage to begin shifting to gear 6 since I wasn’t sure how much effort that would take. After the start I shifted to gear 10, tried that for about a mile then to 11 for a couple of miles. Most of the ride I used gear 12 shifting higher on the downhills and lower on the uphills. The change was almost immediate and I felt the difference. On my Blue Norcross bike I moved the rear derailleur to the 5th cog on the 11 speed cassette. I didn’t hear much noise while riding but I had earbuds on listening to music.
Stage 8 covered the Watopia Big Flat 8 route with 19.6 miles and 537 feet elevation gain. The name tells the story, flat, with the elevation changes coming in small pieces as you can see in the Strava map profile. Zwiftinsider.com says, “Originally created as a Rebel Route in November of 2021, the Big Flat 8 was created because we wanted a long, flat route on Watopia without riding over the same tarmac repeatedly. At 3.5 meters of climb per kilometer of distance, this is Watopia’s flattest route apart from Tempus Fugit and Tick Tock. And it’s much more scenic!”. The route is an event only route. Another reason I didn’t want to miss it today.
Not a large group on the Group B ride. The nearby showed just over 400 and the ZwiftPower.com results put me at 255 out of 262.
