Great ride today!
Or should I say… it’s my third favorite 
Thanks for the fun morning!
Heart pancakes for the family makes for a nice recovery.
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The BBC folks were absent from today’s Knights Ride because it was the first time in months that it was nice enough to ride outside. The temperature was a little below 50 F/10 C and not too much wind. Your winter pals Tom (BBC jersey), Marie (red helmet), Tina (not in the photo) and me (La Boulangere jersey) had a nice time seeing each other in person. We send you our greetings from Illinois.
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What a great route with good company. Short hills, sprints, and a long hill. All sorts of suffering for all sorts of Sufferlandrians. Tomorrow I’ll be outside, like Sir Ruben was today. 50f/10c in February means I have to go outside.
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With the winter on hold on some places, it was still a strong group of 11 that headed out, dauntless of the the hard day awaiting them.
(Here we go, not everyone is here yet, but it’s filling up nicely!)
The mood was great from the start. We were highly motivated
and had quite the strong engines to push the small peloton along in good speed. As usual, we didn’t just coast and shoot the breeze (well, we did that a bit, too of course). There were 3 sharp punchy climbs with a sprintable line on top and shortly afterwards a flat sprint each time.
(First punchy climb and now the sprint done. Hello legs, are you there?)
After a good hour the main course a 35 minute grippy climb was waiting for us. That didn’t mean we were hanging about and saving ourselves for that. Like on every Knight Ride, if it has a line, you can sprint it. And that we die in splendor!
(Planning out the ride, including typos. Sir Rich @rrutis having subversive suggestions meanwhile.)
Even if Knight Rides are banded and group rides, we often weave in challenges for us, not only sprints. On rides with terrain calling for it, we often put in a bit of a stealthy workout. But in a fun and usually painful way.
On this one the short climbs simply called for AC work. After warming up we really hit them hard. Then when cresting it it was pushing the legs even more for a small sprint to the line. Without enough time to fill the legs up completely, the flat sprint was due. What a fun way to work on repeated efforts while having a good time.
(Crest done, legs screaming, quick descent and then off to the sprint again!)
As we have no real coach and we do this for the ride, and not the work out, it is not a high quality workout like the SUF ones, where there is no “random”. But at least for me the Knight Rides are helping me with keeping form and in parts building it, even as key (and often only) session in the week. This ride had for me spanning 1 hour 45 minutes, 2% NM, 17% AC, 19% MAP and 62% Base Endurance. I wouldn’t want to do this without the company of all of you!
(Quick breather, time for The Sip™, the long climb is calling!)
We had The Sip™ briefly after on hour, as the final climb was calling. We commited to climb, trying to chase our (a bit hopeful) times we had set. With 3 Hard efforts and 6 Sprints in total the legs were not fresh. Still we headed for a strong sub-treshold or over-under effort.
(Foot of the climb, no hiding place anymore!)
(Strong engines at the front! Sir Jacob @JacobPilgaaard in outstanding form!) (Suffering in good company is best. Chris @Chris_Wright now taking over, after crushing the sprints, now showing his climbing prowess.)
It were long, but short 35 minutes, enough time to empty the tank, and then again. But there was a line coming closer and the time was still ticking.
(Sufferlandrians do what Sufferlandrians do. Can you feel the burn?)
(To the line! Chris crushing us in style, no legs for real sprint left for me.)
It was a brilliant day out, one of the best rides this season. And we had many great ones for sure. With burning lungs, gasping for Thin Air, it was time to descend down and spin the legs for some cool down. It was laughter and happy faces we took from this ride, and maybe some sore legs for the not so strong riders, like me.
If you think you missed a special ride, you certainly did!
So for those of you, still reading, and on the line if to join, here is a quick list of 10 things, why you should join up next time.
Great company
The SUF-place to be
Everything goes, go easy, go hard, bring your own workout
Bad jokes
Get to know the local weather, around the globe - in real time
Get a long indoor ride in the bag, without even noticing it is long
You can sprint Chris
If sprinting Chris is too hard, you can sprint the rest of us
GvA-approved
Only 6 Weeks left for this season!
Join us for the grand final weeks. Join us when it is yet again time for - The Knight Rides!
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Zwift said I hit a 90 day PR for my 5 second sprint. So I’ll take that for a good day out.
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I’m glad to hear we have some weeks left; in a couple weeks, I am moving to an exciting new workplace…and a schedule which could allow me to join the rides without too much pain and lost sleep.
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That sounds awesome Brann! I hope you have a great start in your new job.
While my invitations lack decorum because of lack of time, the rides are in a really great place right now. They will be even better when you can join up again! Really looking forward to this!
Right now 6 more Saturday rides and one Sunday (Tour Special) are planned. Depending on weather and demand, I would not rule out another Saturday yet. We will see what the weather around the paincaves will do.
CU you hopefully soon!
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The Knight Rides! Who Dares (on Chasing the Sun)
Who dares to join this banded ride?
After last week’s hard climbing it’s time to go fast again! How many sprints will we have in this 99 minutes of riding on the lapped course?
Find it out in stellar company, only on this Knight Ride!
Everyone’s welcome, Knights and Citizens. Even if you are not Chasing the Sun because you like winter.
Guaranteed 100% GvA approved and Couchlandrian free.
Every Saturday until the Spring sets in.
This episode of The Knight Rides is sponsored by PainStation.
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The Knight Rides! Sufferlandrian Tapering (on Mountain Route)
It was a splendid ride we had this Saturday! With peaking at a full 16 we had a blast.
It was tons of jokes, sprinting, more sprinting, a punchy and a crunchy climb with a KOM-Sprint, even more sprints and a hard TT to empty the tank. What more could you wish for? How about the next ride?!?
As we are heading into Tor-Week we start out our only double-weekend of the Season with a shorter ride for tapering.
We will Taper ourselves up the Epic KOM and the GvA-favourite Radio Tower before shaking the legs out with a sprint and the sprint to the line. Sounds like a plan?
Let’s do this!
We ride banded, so everyone can taper as much as he wants to!
Do the Tapering Sufferlandrian Style - HERE!
Not enough fun? That’s right. We do overtime on Sunday. If you prefer to suffer the first day of the Tour in good company, that is the one for you:
The Knight Rides! Tour Edition (on Douce France)
Join up for the joyful Sunday. On a looped course, flat but green, the first Tour beckons to be done Agonia-style.
No matter if you are participating or if you are just supporting - this one is for you. The first Stage starts with the Ride, the second will be announced in the ride after all/most are finished.
Of course we will ride banded. Suffering together is best after all.
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The Knight Rides! Queen Stage (on Lutscher)
It is the final day of the last Tour, so naturally it is the Queen Stage.
No matter if you ride for the Honour of our nation or if you are a spectator watching the spectacle - Join us for the grand Finale!
We will start stage 7a with the start of the ride, the start of 7b will be together after a short break in between to make it possible to get in sync again.
Not doing the Tour? No problem, we will have fun all the same and can either join the Suffering in proper or just ride as hard or easy as it feels good.
To make things even better we will have Sir Ruben who will riding with us while doing a live stream. There you can enjoy him living out is Couchlandrian side with eating donuts (mind the spelling!) and his Sufferlandrian side with giving his all at the hard stages.
The donations of course go to Sir Joe’s Davis Phinney Foundation fundraising team.
Honour! Glory! Victory!
Join for this grand Finale HERE!
Watch Sir Ruben suffer eating Donuts HERE
Zoom Meeting ID: 894 5353 1545
Passcode: 241593
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Thank you for setting this up, Sir. Am I correct that the ride will have some rubber banding engaged?
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Yes, rubber banding as per usual for the Knight Rides.
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Dir Sir,
I just double checked. Yes rubberbanding is active - like it should. Not that I ever forgot to activate it … 
CU on the ride!
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Hope everyone enjoyed the last stage together. I had to skip today’s ride. I need to suffer through nine hammers alone. I am never a pretty sight after that ride. See you next week.
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Dear Sir,
you missed a friendly, but more on the quiet side ride. There was much focus on the individual workouts and Sir Ruben destroying a box of Donuts.
Looking forward to see you next week when we start the final countdown for this season.
Have a great Sunday and week!
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Yes. Was great watching Sir Ruben devouring those donuts like a Sufferlandrian wildebeest attacking a box of pain suckers.
I had Zwift on one screen, Kitchen Sink (after fixing my tech issues) on a second, and was watching Sir Ruben on a third. So between Sir Ruben’s donut chewing and my stem chewing I had only small breaks for chatter. 
As always it was a nice time riding with fellow Sufferlandrians.
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@emacdoug Sir Evan, I am consistently amazed by your relentless quest for suffering and shenanigans- @Medina81 too. Today, Sunday March 8. was the last day of my unofficial Tour of Sufferlandria - with Watopia prologue. Cobbler is still fantastic and, with all the long intervals below FTP, an ”easy” finishing day. While riding it the last two times, it occurred to me that it is a bit too tough on Wout VA. He sure wasn’t cracking on the arenberg pave, and that recovery from his arenberg mishap was amazing. That year’s race was great. I only hope something similar can be created in the future. Finally I have the 2020 ToS poster’s list of stages. It was the true final ToS.
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No one is a pretty sight after doing nine hammers! That just means you’re doing it right!
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What time are the rides currently set at after DLS? I have a new job and schedule, and have a chance of attending now.
(Photo of the fridge at work!)
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