It was a glorious day that brought the Celebration. A group of eight Knights and Citizens that had come together to cheer the valeros Sir Evan @emacdoug. The ninth? It was no other than the Knight himself that had achieved what few could even dream about. It was the start of a glorious day with heated sprints in th harsh season if winter.
After the hardships of the last day, Sir Evan was only joining for a shorter time, but alone the determination to even show up was a feat worthy of praise - even for a Sufferlandrian.
The ride for today, while being mostly flat, was not for the faint of heart. With 11 sprints, two being KOM-Sprints, it was packed. As Citizen Chris @Chris_Wright was not here, the new uncrowned King of Sprints, the one to beat, was of course Sir Ruben @Medina81. The first of those sprints was still a bit less sorted, but being the Knight he is Sir Evan took also up the gauntlet, forfeiting the rest that was due.
If you think many sprints are hard, how about chaining a triplet of sprints right one after each other? The crackling electricity in the ride and the suffering was magical.
I shall not withhold, that Sir Ruben did not win all sprints. Just almost all of them. We challenged him with mighty power, relentless in style.
After the first four sprints it was time to catch breath. Lower my max heartrate I had hit and look forward to the small climb we would ascend on both of the 2 laps.
Dame @Isa was by then enjoying no less then three green jerseys, a price she would hold all the way to the line.
After the hard efforts there was finally time for chatter again. Secrets were revealed and two of the great minds that had gathered today discovered the same truths at the same time. This moment revealed gravity.
It was a cheerful mix between plans for the next summer vacation, the joys of suffering and astounding feats of alien languages.
The sprints stayed strongly contested, an all our battle of force. A pure demonstration, that Sir Ruben had not only the mastered of power, but impeccable timing.
Soon it was time for the second lap.
(630 Watts in a longish sprint? Nah, no near good enough to beat a Sir Ruben on form.)
The sprints were so intense, that even The Sip™ was recorded at 1:14 hours in the ride, as the 2nd triplet of sprints was blocking the proper time.
We discovered each sprint, that the “last” sprint you felt you had, was just the one before the next one.
Having lost a few to chores, our group was finally down to 5. That was when a new plan was made: How about finishing the course in under 1 hour and 40 minutes? Would that not bring a quick grin to GvA’s face? So from sprints we went to Timetrial, with sprints inbetween.
(Relentless in the Night, now it is a TT. After 10 all out sprints.)
After leaving so much on the road already before, we went again for it. It was doable by calculation, but pretty close. All we had to do was keeping the pressure on for a bit more than 15 minutes. Sounds easy? It isn’t after that many sprints.
But lead out by the power of Sir Ruben, now in his usual role as engine room of the ride and with the very strong power of Citizen Alex @wmalexmann and Sir @Azrine we closed in to the line. The last sprint (TT into Sprint? Ouch!) was messy. There was not much I had left in the legs.
As true to every Knight Ride, we gave our all. We crushed even that, with 30 seconds to spare.
Thank you all for joining this Celebration in true sufferlandrian style! With your help we honored this achievement of Sir Evan with a special ride.
I hope to see most of you (except the relentless and valiant sprinting Dame Isa 
) next week again, when it is yet again time for
The Knight Rides!
this was the ride for me! See you all when life and the budget align once more 
That was all Zwift rubberband. I averaged 40w for those 17 minutes. 
. Also kudos for admitting that he was just riding banded in the sprint and preserving the integrity expected of a Knight of Sufferlandria.
