Ha!
The porcupine is Geri, the bobcat is Felix, and our coyote is Atlas - though he’s not in any of these pics. Fritz is our red fox, who sadly died of old age this winter. And the fennec fox stuffing her nose in my ear is Padme.
She’s awesome! We have two bearded dragons: Cheeto and Aughra. I put roaches in Kong balls for them and they’ll pace around the hole waiting for it to pop out. It’s like Russian roulette/musical chairs.
Technically, coming from that direction, the castle is on the back side, AFTER the tower…
Are you certain these are not photos from recent Knight Rides? I recognized myself (turtle) immediately.
Well, I upped my membership just so I could join for the full ride… then was 40 minutes in and had to answer the door. When I got back I was off the back for good. And so far back I lost chat contact. At least the first 40 minutes was fun!
TIL next season then…
Glad to have you there even if it was just for 40 minutes. How was the ride otherwise?
The rest was a long slow slog while riding Cash Register 3 times at 85%.
I saw a couple of your chats, but no one replied to mine. And then it went silent, so I knew I was outside of chat range.
When I got back on the bike I was 2.5km behind. That went slowly up the 3km. Then when you all finished the radio tower climb the gap quickly ballooned.
I managed to get to the top of the radio tower right as the third video ended. Then I started Recovery Spin for the downhill. And my coach (* cough * son) insisted I finish the entire route. So I did.
You all finished the Epic KOM in 37:05. I finished it in 55 minutes.
Was great to be back with the group. Always a fun time with you all.
Bam! Done and dusted! That is a wrap on this season of The Knight Rides. And what a season it was.
We started out today with a strong field of 12 Sufferlandrians. You could feel the anticipation from the start. Even though it was quite early for some the happy chatter started from km zero.
For some of us the weather was not too outdoory at all, but even the fair weather and the promise of an outdoor ride could not keep away some steadfast Sufferlandrians, just to celebrate this final adventure together.
While Sir @CPT_A had not made it yet again we were happy to see Sir Evan @emacdoug finally in the peloton again.
The ride today had almost everything we have come to love on the winter group rides. Suffering, more suffering, deep knowledge (we learned why Fluffy and his kin only wear sandals), a trademark TT by Sir @montgoma with catching the peloton even before the endsprint, a sip of water (it was recorded at 1:13:54 in annals of this ride) by the immortal engine @Medina81 and much more laughter.
I botched my try to stay Z2 miserably by too many white lines. Seemingly I was overconfident when saying I would resist the siren call of sprints.
The route itself was demanding, but nothing we couldn’t handle with such a strong group. We chatted away the Epic KOM, all the way to Radio Tower. Afterwards Sir @rrutis sent us flying down the mountainside. Not even the buggy coffee-break function could stop us today.
After the last few Ks it was time to head into the last small climb that would lead us to the finish of the ride.
And what a finish it was.
While it was technically a short climb, no one says you cannot sprint that one, too. So we did.
In all fairness, Sir Ruben propelled us up most of the climb with a number of powerful riders putting in strong bursts as well. So like usual on the Knight Rides, Sir Ruben would have left us in the dust, thank GvA for the rubberband.
When we closed in to the line it was an all in sprint which Citizen @Chris_Wright defended at the finish line.
It was a worthy Finale to the season. Thank you for all joining up today and all the season!
If you missed out this season, look closely in the fall for the call of The Knight Rides Season 2025/2026.
I will see you there!
Citizen Blackwater
Adding a couple photos I took during the ride. Thanks so much for the great write-up Citizen Blackwater!
Link to Facebook Reel on Sufferlandria page commemorating our final Knights Ride of the 2024-2025 season. Thanks to all the Sufferlandrians who participated these past months. Fun group with a lot of people who did the rides almost every Saturday.
Sirs, Dames, and everybody not sitting on a cushion…we have GOT to do a Knight ride on this route when they restart.
or we’ll be taunted a second time! Love it!
It’s perfect. In a roundabout way.
Oh IKR? Practically handed it to us. I’ve started working through the new roads this month.
Banged this one out today, as part of Zwift’s Paris Roubaix weekend. Good route! Spiky!
And goats!
