Reflections on the Tour of Sufferlandria 2025

[Heretic]

As we finish this year’s Tour, it is time once again to reflect on our experiences.

I will start out with my traditional post:

To all those who started, even if they did not finish, to all who finished, however they finished:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

Theodore Roosevelt

[Eric]

I went into the 2025 ToS knowing how I wanted to ride it but, in the back of my head, I knew how it would most likely go and that’s exactly how it went.

[Glen.Coutts]

I will say only that I’m so incredibly proud of Dame Cristy for starting the SUF National Team and of the Team itself for blowing the fundraising out of the Great Lactic Acid Sea! Over $25k raised with almost 70 fewer team members than last year!

Oh, and @Heretic’s generosity really is something!

[Mikejeff]

Do you think people are leaving the platform in their droves? Or is it just the old SUF guard but new users are being recruited? Somehow I doubt it.

[Glen.Coutts]

I don’t think people are leaving the platform in droves. There’s still nothing out there that even compares to the variety and value offered in SYSTM.

That tour participation is down is likely due to the decisions The Company has been making for the past 3 years.

[Heretic]

Here are the number of participants in the Recovery Drink Poll over the years:

2022-36
2023-34
2024-37
2025-28.

I do not know if this is statistically meaningful or not.

[IsiSchneider_KoS]

Sufferlandrians
have you suffered today?
as I refuse to identify with an event for *ooligans, Wa or not, I just finished an alternative route:

Prologue (intended to be stage 1 but for obvious reasons it wasn’t): Rollercoaster
Stage 1: Team Scream
Stage 2: Power Station
Stage 3: Angels (2010)
Stage 4: DAYT (SUF, not un-SUFfed)
Stage 5: There’s NoTry
Stage 6: Fight Club (Vintage)
Stage 7: Local Hero
Stage 8: The Hunted / Joyride
my donation went to a local charity that supports children with cancer

HAIL SUFFERLANDRIA
IWBMATTKYT

[Fantom]

A constructive suggestion from me. I’d like to see better use of the one minute add-on for the DPF. That same video after each workout was a missed opportunity. We could have heard something different about the work of DPF in each one.

[emacdoug]

@Fantom

missed opportunity.

I think you hit the nail on the head and this is the key phrase to describe this Tour.

With more respect and more attention this Tour could really be something. There is so much potential. But Wahoo continues to let it and the app flounder with inattention and ignoring all comments made about it (including the continued use of the name that will not be mentioned - yes I will keep kicking that horse).

I don’t have stats to back this up, but it does feel like there isn’t enough new users to make up for the old guard SUF users that continue to trickle away. I don’t know if more are leaving than new arrivals, but the new arrivals don’t have the same commitment to the app and the cause that the old stalwart SUF guard did. And that may not be the only factor, but is likely a big factor in the decline in participation in the Tour. And Wahoo contributes to it by giving the Tour little help or attention while driving away those have long been committed.

So, much potential, and so many missed opportunities.

[Heretic]

Even the comments to this thread, which had parallel threads in previous Tours, are down.

[Brann_Mac_Finnchad]

I write this as I enjoy my first, celebratory drink since the beginning of January–I cut out alcohol in preparation for the tour.

First things; I did not manage to finish my–admittedly insane–Tour de Sufferlandria. Today I finally cracked mentally on ISLAGIATT and closed it 40 minutes in, to go and attend other things. Those long threshold efforts, and especially the extra long workouts which involve them are a nemesis for me–there just seems to be no end in sight and it wears mentally. Going to try to do some outdoors.

That said; over the 9 days of the Tour I did 19 of the targeted 21 workouts for the Tour de Nutters, almost entirely at 100% of my numbers, and almost certainly need to do a new Full Frontal. I am looking forwards to having time to ride outside again, given the current nice weather and dry roads. And not having to eat so much sugar…you don’t want to know how much maltodextrin I went through.

I rode for a total of (roughly) 17 hours. 335 (trainer) miles. 14,700 calories. One of my biggest weeks ever; I’ve done the Festive 500 in years past, and while the distance is about the same (leaving aside Zwift usually calculates higher speeds), the effort levels involved were nothing like. Last year’s tour was nothing compared to it, and I had trouble finishing that one at all (although granted, I was also commuting via fatbike through snow on top of it). The banter, griping, and kudos were motivating. And I’m looking forwards to wearing my new Sufferfest socks on the road.

Physiologically I feel stronger, and am really proud of nailing my morning routines so I would have time before work–that was the part I worried about the most. Slight uptick in estimated Vo2max, although it is still short of where it should be. Max effort hill reps needed for my goals. I noted an improvement in my recovery time between intervals, with my HR dropping back to zone 2 faster than prior to the tour; likewise the “performance condition” metric mostly stayed in the positive even through the second workouts of the day nearing the end.

Next Mt. Sufferlandria is possibly a knighthood attempt if I feel ready soon; if I run out of time it’ll be the Palmer Spring Classic fondo, and KOM hunting–completing that is no problem, leaving aside last year’s crippling knee pain…but I’d like to crush the A group for the full distance, and finish in under 6 hours.
Now I can go do some cross training with trail running, since I don’t have to worry about having severe DOMS leading up to the tour. And sew a bike bag or two–I got in the fabric to make a set of Carradice style bags; appropriate given all but one bike is steel and more classic in lines than modern.

Slainte and Suffer on,
CoS Brann