Thank you all for the excellent first ride of the Knight season! Definitely feels different when I’m not doing The Omnium on repeat in the background. 
I missed out on most of the rides last year due to my struggles with long COVID. I was happy to be riding at something at least close to full strength this week.
Was a nice pick for our first route and some good company.
Looking forward to riding with you again - and a few more - over the next few months!
Sufferlandrian Octoberfest
Sufferlandrian Octoberfest, sometimes simply called Octoberfest or Oktoberfest, (German pronunciation: [ɔkˈtoːbɐˌfɛst]; Bavarian d’Wiesn)) is nowadays a huge festival held in Agonia on the big square beneath the Castle of the Knights. It is a big festival that is most prominently annually celebrated in October leading up to Sufferlandrian National Day.
History
The tradition was originally documented in groups of immigrants from Bavaria to Sufferlandria. Over the time, and because the mindset is astoundingly similar to the natural sufferlandrian spirit, this festivities became widely adopted in many parts of Sufferlandria.
Customs and important overlapping elements
While the exact form of celebration differs over Sufferlandria, the main three customs stay untouched since the first recordings
- foaming pain shakes
- grilled legs
- shredded chamois dance
While the main celebration is the festival in Agonia, all over the country smaller and larger groups of Sufferlandrians are known to come together for a spontanous Octoberfest all around the year.
The Sufferlandrian Octoberfest in Agonia
The annual celebrations in Agonia are an important touristic highlight for visitors of the Nation and Agonia. During the three-week festival on the main square the festivities are also accompanied by the activities on a great number of prepared flogging stations.
As a very special highlight each year the Minions bring out some of the personal flogging stations from Grunter von Agony and make them freely accessible even to Citizens and visitors.
During the festivities The Knight Ride is also a special highlight, held each year on the first Saturday of October. It is a rare occasion to join with the Knights and enjoy the rarest form of glory through foaming pain shakes and grilled legs.
Be sure the to reserve your ticket here:
( www.zwift.com/events/view/5127038 )
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!
Sign up here:
( www.zwift.com/events/view/5127038 )
(Powered by Citizens of Sufferlandria)
Superbe writeup/advertizing as always, @Blackwater
Do you have a background in creative writing?
Glad that you had fun reading it, I surely had fun writing it. 
No, I don’t have any serious background in writing stuff, maybe some limited hobby stuff if at all.
But as they say:
As I don’t have the legs, I need to use my head. 
Looking forward to Saturday already with old an new friendly faces!
I’ve posted this to the Sufferlandria and Knights fb groups.
Thank you very much for your help Sir!
The tickets are “selling” nicely as it seems, but luckily there is always enough space for any Knights, Citizens and tourist to join this special parade.
Hello my Knights Ride pals. In the post from Rupert about the SUFtober challenge, he mentions the end of the month National SUF Day three-hour extravaganza. We should find a way to incorporate that challenge into our Knights Ride so we can tackle it together. Are you guys interested in doing that? It’s a long time on the bike for some, but I bet it’ll seem shorter with good company.
That was actually something I had in mind to talk about on the next rides, too. There is a sneakily placed hint about that idea in the last announcement.
It is more of the question if there is the interest doing so, as after this Holiday I understood the workout will be “changed”. So I was not sure if there is more interest in “enjoying” the vid for the last time or joining up for good company.
It would be else a great date to put a route in that is usually too long (some pretzel route eg.).
For this longer ride the time should be considered as well, depending on the Knights and Citizens to join up it might (or might not) be a good move to make the ride one hour earlier on the old Knight Ride timeslot.
I’m wondering how to handle that, too.
I typically dual-record when I do that. I’ll run SYSTM on my phone and then put Zwift on my PC and letting SYSTM control my trainer while Zwift just reads my power. So I can do a Knight Ride for all of or the one or even in the middle of KS if need be.
But it also makes sense to start the Knight Ride earlier to allow for a longer ride for those that want to do a group ride the entire time, which would be a great idea IMO.
I’m not that familiar with the Zwift group rides and how they work. Can people join the group ride at any time? Or only for the first 30 minutes? It would be helpful if we could do a 3 hour ride that anyone could join at any time so it would be available for everyone regardless of their choice to do KS or get a badge or not. But maybe we have to make a decision and not be too accommodating. #TUHNTF
I see only dual recording as possible. Joining is only up to 30 minutes possible. You can only turn this feature on or off, not open up the window for a longer time.
It also is not possible to put a individual group workout in, you can only choose from a rather tiny list.
So I see only the technical way to start a normal group ride on a longer course (or more laps etc.) and everyone starts together or when ready the workout who wants to do so.
Most importantly, that way everyone con to the workout or just join socially and cheer on.
Yeah, that’s what I figured. So probably just need to create a longer route or one with loops like you said that can be ridden for 3+ hours.
@Rupert Do only SYSTM activities count towards the badge? Or do activities recorded in other apps count? E.g. outdooor rides recorded in the Wahoo app, or virtual rides in Zwift or Strava that are shared to the Wahoo Cloud?
Only SYSTM recorded workouts count toward any badges right now.
Thanks for the clarification! 
What a celebration and a start to the Month of Suffering we had today. A very strong and able group of 6 Sufferlandrians had assembled to honor the tradition.
The festivities today started out soon after the starting line with two harsh sprints. It even took less though to get into friendly chatter with old and new faces in the ride.
After we caught our breath again we only a short while later arrived at a “gentle slope” at the feet of Mount Sufferlandria. I can report generous suffering and foaming pain shakes. Sir Alan @montgoma now in the real knightly mood dropped back after a technical and finally got the Season started for real with a trademark Sir Alan Timetrial to catch us. It was glorious suffering all while Citizen Brann @Brann_Mac_Finnchad shot our group up the hillside. Supposedly his powermeter broke down on this climb as it couldn’t keep up with his Watts.
Even with starting out with a close to 90 second gap Sir Alan caught us soon after the climb again in a truely eyebleeding effort . Saluting his sufferlandrian spirit we made our way further around the slope and had most of the climbing done.
Of course I messed up with making good pictures, again. I will report to the appropriate flogging station as soon as I figure out which is the right one for this neglect.
With being slightly on the shorter side in distance today we made our ride count until the ending line. With a thunderous sprint we celebrated our nation crushing this ride all the way. Foaming Painshakes and grilled legs were the reward for the the winner and all other contestants.
It was a great ride with much laughter (and some cramps) which makes me looking forward to next week already.
Thank you again for the ride today Sir @montgoma, Sir @Luka, Sir @emacdoug, Citizen @Brann_Mac_Finnchad and Citizen @TakoGonzales!
See you soon on
It was my pleasure to join the group this week; I really enjoy the Knight rides, but the lost sleep has a deleterious effect on my next week’s training. Thank you for Hosting, CoS @Blackwater
I did take a few pictures as we went through the Mayan ruins and approached the finish line.
The racing season is open! This weeks Knight Ride features the first autumn classic of the season. One of the oldest races in the history of Sufferlandria it is proudly known as Paincave – Agonia – Paincave or just lovingly called PAP (spelled P – A – P).
After the end of the summer more and more Sufferlandrains now are exchanging the roads all over the countries to their Paincave. Having raced relentlessly for the nation and having gained Honor, Glory and Victory far and near over the summer it is time to finally return to see the lava flows of Mount Sufferlandria again and feel the blood ash rain on the skin.
The race starts right inside the Paincave of each Sufferlandrian on the annexed territories that are now part of Sufferlandria. From there it is one of the big unfathomable mysteries how all Sufferlandrians reach though the harsh planes of the heartlands at the same time.
The splendorous route leads then up through the Long Strait of Loneliness, where always a strong headwind is a companion of deeply satisfying suffering. Beholding the sights of the Great lactic Acid Sea the route then turns to the left opening up the sights to harsh beauty of Agonia with the Knights Castle above the City grounds.
As it is the great month of suffering the race only leads to the outskirts as the Center of Agonia hosts the great festivities and is packed with Knights, Citizens and even occasional tourists.
From there on the way back to the Paincaves on the right hand side the call of the magic Valley of the Nine Hammers beckons, but the regret of missing out of the splendorous boons there soon makes way for the great joys of climbing a side arm of Mount Sufferlandria.
The route ends usually in a sprint of a smaller group in which only the best riders have prevailed. The victory is granted Foaming Painshakes and is celebrated with harsh cheers as is the tradition.
In other countries this race has been to some lesser success been copied as a belgian spring race called KBK. But even with the eager recreation it cannot stand up to the true gem that APA is.
It will be only a small group of riders this weekend to dare the suffering. Will YOU pin on a number for the nation, too?
Join here The Knight Ride! PAP!
From the race statutes:
This race is won by suffering, so it still will be a banded ride.
Eligible to pin on a number is every Knight or Citizen that can offer up a starting place for this race in a Paincave that has been properly annexed for the nation of Sufferlandria.
Every participant is free to do low Zone, low Watts or do a workout in the background, or can go all out at his or her own discretion.
More than you!
Very sorry, I messed the link up. If you were not able to join up to now, please try again. It should work fine now (soon).
I’m very sorry for the inconvenience! I’ll report to the next flogging station immediately!
So great to share the pagne. My first sprint basically resulted in my foot slipping off the pedal in a small gear and throwing my lumbar out. Been suffering for a week now. But can ride easy 
tomorrow. Looking for link please.
Chapeau,
-AM
Here you go:
See you tomorrow!
