During last weeks Sunday Brunch group ride, as I was, as usual, riding close to the fence but I rarely go past it and if I should stay, I do all that I can to get back as soon as I can.
At some point during the ride, I saw the warning message and slowed down expecting to fall back onto the ‘good’ side of the fence. The countdown kept doing just that.
I slowed right down, just pedalling to keep moving but I never managed to return and after a minute on the dark side, I was booted.
I was not alone, as after posting a message to the effect that this was a first for me, a number of other riders posted the same.
However, I continued to ride the course with a small band of fellow booties, finishing the course and, luckily, getting credited with the full distance.
The fence is known to be a bit glitchy at times so this must have been one of those times.
No harm done but I did miss the banter which stopped shortly after getting kicked off the ride.
Last night, before going to bed, I noticed a Wobble cycling club banded ride for this morning at 09:00. Being banded meant that as long as I kept pedalling, I wouldn’t get dropped.
I was up in time to take part, so after feeding the menagerie, I climbed on board ready for an easy Saturday morning ride.
As the ride started, I glanced up at the top right-hand corner of the screen to look at the ‘overview’ of the course and was a little concerned by the long incline at the end.
Oh well, I thought, it can’t be too long, or bad – all I have to do is keep pedalling.
The first ten miles or so was easy enough and then the slog started. A new map appeared with the climb split into twenty one sections. I was starting to think that this was no ordinary hill.
I dug in, kept pedalling and slowly ticked off the sections. As I rose further up the ‘hill’ with the terrain changing from jungle to snow lined roads, it slowly dawned on me that I might be going up the (in)famous Alp du Zwift (Zwift’s interpretation of Alpe d’hues). What had I let myself in for ?
What I had expected to take under an hour stretch past that, past the hour, and hour and a half with us, finally, summiting nearly two hours after starting. The actual Alp took 1:21:29 ! I HAD JUST RIDEN UP THE ALP DU ZWIFT !!!
After a short circuit of the summit, it was the pay off with a 7.8 mile down hill at an average speed of 42.8 mph (compared with 5.6 on the way up)
Well, that was a nice start to the day. What I thought would be a nice gentle wake-up ride certainly woke me up and I achieved a climb that I wouldn’t have considered doing. The banding helped along with the usual Wobble banter.
For the rest of the day, my knees reminded me of what I had done but I’m glad that I did it – who wouldn’t be ?