kickr headwind – snap snap, grin grin … say no more

Zwift Tour of Watopia Fall 2024 | Stage 4

Tim — Tue, 05 Nov 2024 20:09:44 +0000

Zwift’s 2024 Tour of Watopia continued with Stage 4. The Standard Ride was Mayan 8 which was a new one for me. The elevation was only 241 metres but it turned out it was condensed into a fairly short section of 6 – 7 km which meant it was quite hard gong at times. Then the descent was a long incredibly straight drop when I hit a max speed on 82.6 kph. At some point I must repeat that route as I reckon with a good effort I could maybe break the 100 kph barrier.

Route	Mayan 8 in Watopia
Distance	26,1 km
Time	49:11
Elevation	255 m
Average Power	243 W

Zwift Tour of Watopia Fall 2024 | Stage 3

Tim — Sat, 02 Nov 2024 10:56:32 +0000

The Standard Ride for Stage 3 of Zwift’s 2024 Tour of Watopia is Sand and Sequoias. This is one of my favourite routes as the section on either side of the hill is great fun when using Wahoo’s KICKR Climb. Oh and it has dinosaurs. Having ridden this route a few times previously I was pretty confident I would hold pace. I did, until about the last few km when I really started to struggle. Still I levelled up to Level 37 and armed the Tour of Watopia ’24 Bikepacker Cap (sponsored by Cactus Cafe and Hank’s Oil and Gas apparently). Woo!

Route	Sand and Sequoias in Watopia
Distance	22.5 km
Time	40:08
Elevation	181 m
Average Power	237 W

Zwift Tour of Watopia Fall 2024 | Stage 2

Tim — Mon, 28 Oct 2024 18:38:59 +0000

Based on last week’s levels of exertion I decided to stick with the Standard Ride for Stage 2 of Zwift’s 2024 Tour of Watopia. This meant the route was Serpentine 8 which was actually ridden on a mountain bike. This was the first time I’d ridden one of these on Zwift and on the gravel surface it actually made a difference. It’s not a route I enjoy but I stuck with it and even got to use the steamroller power up in anger.

One thing I noticed from last week’s ride is the improvement in graphics in the current version of the app. I run Zwift on an Apple TV 4K, but it’s hooked up to a 1080p screen so I don’t get the full effect. Even so the graphics were very impressive. This week’s ride had massive amounts of dust coming from the rider in front during the gravel sections.

Route	Serpentine 8 in Watopia
Distance	26.7 km
Time	52:48
Elevation	241 m
Average Power	234 W

Zwift Tour of Watopia Fall 2024 | Stage 1

Tim — Mon, 21 Oct 2024 20:19:30 +0000

So for the first time in two months I got on the bike in order to take part on Zwift’s 2024 Tour of Watopia event. Normally I would have signed up for the Long Ride but given how I was feeling and the long pause between regular rides I knew my fitness level wasn’t up to it. In addition to that I had only returned from holiday the previous day and had endured 16-hour overnight flight without sleep. So, Standard Ride for me on Stage 1 of the Tour meant the Figure 8 route.

The lengths of the Long and Standard rides were the same but the elevation was 682 m versus 234 m. It turned out it was the right decision – I was dying well before the end of the 30 km and especially on the reverse climb over the hill around the 21 km mark. Still it got done and it felt great to have achieved it. As a bonus I unlocked the Tour of Watopia ’24 Cycling Shoes. Woo!

Route	Figure 8 in Watopia
Distance	29.8 km
Time	1:15:20
Elevation	254 m
Average Power	123 W