An underrated feature, to be sure!
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Of course we should make an effort to keep or fun group rides going over the 2025-2026 winter. I’m pretty sure that we’ll have the same or more participation from my Barrington Bicycle Club friends, but first and foremost the Knight Rides were created for Sufferlandrians. As in any endeavor you can never please everybody. So, I’m going to suggest that we listen hardest to the most regular participants from last year in terms of choosing a platform/ride types/banding, etc. After all, they are the nucleus around which the rest were able to enjoy our little invention.
By the way, have you all had a good outdoor riding season? Here in Chicagoland we are rapidly approaching Fall riding season with apple cider donuts and crisp temperatures.
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Fall here in Las Vegas means the high temperature is now in the mid-upper 90’s instead of being 100+ (at least on most days). I’m looking forward to October when the high temperatures will regulary be in the 80’s (F) and lows around 60F. We won’t get crisp temperatures until November. My son and I have been riding around our neighborhood more often this month. We actually rode for 30 minutes once this week instead of our usual 10-15. Will be nice to ride around more in the next couple months.
If Zwift is chosen for the winter Knight Rides (and at this point I expect that will continue to be the place for most of them) them I might pick up subscription for a few months. But I can also create some group rides on Training Peaks Virtual for any Sufferlandrians that are interested there, as well, and then gauge the interest level as we go along.
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I’ve been looking into the icTrainer and thinking of giving it a go. You can have live webcam streaming in group rides, ride on irl locations, upload your own video and gpx, custom workouts, runs on all platforms, all the cool features at a fraction of a price. 29$ a year(!) or 2.99 a month with a free 30 days trial. The UI isn’t polished like zwift, but the features are really nice. Can’t wait to try it out
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Why Z when you can GTA5? 
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Good morning beloved Knight Riders. I had meant to come here and post that with work and training plans, I didn’t think I’d be able to manage and host another season of Knight Rides on Zwift. I’m going to be incorporating Rouvy into my sessions this fall instead.
That said, with the rise of WahooFascism this week, I’m regrettably signing off from this forum going forward. Can’t sit and watch these “hooligans” slowly erode everything I enjoyed about our shared space. Wish you all the best and hope to see you around “out there”. I am (unsurprisingly) CPT A on Strava, feel free to look me up there, and hopefully we can connect.
All the best. (and FU Gareth).
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Sad day….Better than You!!
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You can never leave.
That being said, the royal we will miss you something fierce. We tough love you, captain.
We’ll see you out on the virtual roads and lanes of Sufferlandria.
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These are dark times for our nation. But even in the most bleak seasons there was hope the Knights would ride again. Cleansing the land with their holy water, bringing tears of joy and shredded chamois.
When one Knight falls, another has to take up the shield (not literally, we all know Sir @CPT_A’s shield is way to heavy for others). Sadly I am no Knight to do so, but as a Citizen at least I can strife to become one day a Minion.
While I cannot replace Sir @CPT_A I would try to take up the organizing thing, which should be doable with a bit help. I cannot do a Knight ride alone, being a Citizen, but we had great fun even in small or smaller company.
My suggestion would be to start out on Zwift at 2 pm UTC / 16 MESZ / 10 am EDT / 7 am PT / … (I hope I didn’ mess here up) this Saturday. Except with time shifts that would be the time to go for - for now.
It will not be October, but almost, so perfect time to have a warm up.
I’ll try to figure out how to get us a event link for the Knights of Sufferlandria Club on Zwift for convenience and post a proper invite here.
I hope to have the pleasure of your friendly company soon again and see you in content suffering.
One reminder: Zwift 20 free km refresh each calendar month. So joining with free km on Saturday doesn’t take the October km away. In my tries it was in addition possible to stay with a group ride even after the km expired (as long as it was the same ride). So you probably should be good even if you run out of free k.
@Medina81 Is it to early for you Sir yet, how is the weather for you guys?
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I was going to say 6am PT, but 7am is probably better with rides lasting anywhere between 45-90 minutes. Maybe 2 hours on occasion.
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@emacdoug I tried to push the time as late as is doable for me to see if it is not maybe possible for another timezone or two to join in. With time changes in autumn all around things might change up anyway.
For now my idea was to go for 90–120 minutes so it is possible to do a big Z2/Z3 session (with our without intervalls), which is usually the hardest thing to do indoors. Also everyone can always join later or leave sooner as fits the day, having to continue alone is less great I think.
The last year most rides were 90 to 110 Minutes which seemed to be ok with most. We need to get rolling literally and will hear from the guys joining.
Give me about two more days to post the invitation link, I’m still need to work out the details a bit.
I’m really looking forward to ride with you again Sir and hope to see many of the friendly faces from last season again!
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Esteemed Sirs and Dames,
dear fellow Citizens,
allow me to present this invitation to you all.
The Knight Ride! Warm up (on Three Little Sisters)
Saturday, September 27, 4:00 PM GMT+2
Join The Knight Ride!
Everyone’s welcome, Knights and Citizens.
We warm up for the new season of suffering.
Guaranteed 100% GvA approved and Couchlandrian free.
Feel free to do low Zone, low Watts or do a workout in the background. Or go all out.
More than you!
Join us here:
zwift.com/eu/events/view/5122827
(Powered by Citizens of Sufferlandria for now 
)
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Hi @Blackwater,
Thanks for stepping up and preparing the new season of Knights Rides. I truly appreciate your willingness to organize us. The crew here in Chicagoland is still probably almost a month away from joining you indoors unless we get some terrible weekend weather. Have fun on this first one and don’t worry about the turnout, the Barrington Bicycle Club folks will help boost the number of riders before you know it. The 4:00PM GM+2 you suggest translates to 9:00AM Central time (Chicago) which will be fine for us. Do you want to do the Facebook post or would you like my help with that?
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Hi Sir @Medina81 ,
glad you have some good weather left! I wish you guys great late season rides and you know where you find us on a rainy Saturday. I’m looking forward to hear all about your rides this summer when it’s time for indoors for you guys, too. The plan for now is to go strong till next spring, so plenty Saturdays to come.
And as always it’s not the number that matters, but the quality of company. And that will be great like the last seasons.
It would be most kind of you if you could repost the invitation to the facebook group. Could you maybe help me out doing so the following weeks, too?.
Greetings to the guys and until then suffer well!
Yours
Citizen Blackwater
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OK the September 27 Knights Ride is posted in the Facebook Sufferlandria group. Please send me the next ones a couple of days early so they can get posted with a few days notice. Hope all of you are well and that you’re enjoying watching the World Championships in Kigali Rwanda.
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Thank you Sir very much for your help!
I’ll DM you the links as soon as they are ready, a few days in advance.
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That’s the first outing of this Season done! With a fiery sprint at the line the Warm Up of The Knight Ride concluded.
With a strong group of 6 we started out good 90 minutes before, cheerfully with what’s to come.
The road found as soon chatting away like there was no summerbreak at all. From favourite moments of workouts to the best tattoo (of course the origial COA) the miles and the three climbs on todays menu faded quickly behind us.
With 1 Hour and 7 minutes we together took a commemorative Sir @Medina81 sip from the bottle. Which I failed to capture on picture of course.
On the top of the Volcano (Mount Sufferlandra zwiftlandria pocket edition) we had our first sprint in which I am happy to report, I managed to keep my 95 week-streak Zwift Squirrel. From then on it was easy rolling downhill and we eyed our backs. Luckily the laser goats were doing a separate warm up with Fluffy and we managed to go to the line safely. There the last thunderous sprint of today concluded our splendid day out (Won by @Chris_Wright if I managed to spot correctly from far behind this time).
Thanks to all joining for this great start. While we might be a bit reduced bunch next week due to Races and vacations I’m already looking forward to the next rides and the following weeks.
If you feel you might have missed out (Yeah, you did!), keep your eyes in this thread for the next invitation to the Knight Ride on next Saturday.
More than you!
Citizen Blackwater
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That was an excellent first KoS/CoS ride for the ‘start’ of the 2025/2026 indoor season. The post ride cool down was a nice added feature as it didn’t put us into Watopia immediately. And yeah, I may have been trying to make you use the SUF bucket on the Volcano KOM sprint…
As far as this season. First thank you for taking up the gauntlet of setting up the rides in Zwift. The 90 minute ride duration seems to be a good target based on my experience last winter. It can work as a stand alone training day or be a good warmup for a longer indoor or outdoor session. Banded rides work well for everyone as it keeps us together (barring technical difficulties or Sir Alan’s desire to do an individual TT to catch up) while allowing some ‘competitiveness’.
As I mentioned, the next two months will be hit or miss on Saturday mornings depending on what events I have on my schedule. Thank you again for organizing them!
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