RIDERS! The moment has come. Please join Grunter Von Agony, the Minions and Sufferlandrians around the world in celebrating the Official Start of the Tour of Sufferlandria . Stage 1 - the ProRides Giro d’Italia Donne 1 - is open for the next 50 hours. May the Laser Goats trouble the comfortable and leave you be.
It’s also important to say - Sufferlandria stands with Ukraine. I’ve added the Ukranian flag to my race bib in solidarity.
The first stage is complete. But I don’t feel any satisfaction, happiness or pride because my thoughts are elsewhere. Abroad my country is real War. Real fkn War. In this situation, I am ashamed to call what I am doing here “suffering” …
Not calling it suffering today, but happy to finish Stage 1 without big damage. Honestly, it was my longest cycling effort so far 
.
Some evolution from start, the half and finishing line .
BTW,
Nuclear straight through, hard times at 1:18 and 1:35 onwards 
My ToS poster arrived an hour before I started. Wish it brought good legs with it 
That stage absolutely crushed me, had to dial effort down to 90% for last 40 minutes.
Good to get started though.
Best of luck to everyone else still to do it!
I’d forgotten how good Giro Donne is, taking to the brink of what I think I can do and nudging me a little further.
Stage 1 complete, still on target for nuclear all the way
Just finished the first stage. Taking advantage of the 50 hour window to also take a rest day on Monday.
I’m doing the focused approach, but I think these ProRaces are best served at 100%, so that’s what I did. Enjoyed struggling at the same time as the rider I was following. It got so immersive that I threw the bottle on the last climb 
Still, my mind kept switching between the racing and the war in Ukraine. Living in neighboring Romania, this hits literally too close to home. Wishing Ukraine strength and power. Their president is an inspiration. Hoping to keep having them as neighbors in the future 
I also struggled at the end. I felt great until the last 30-40 minutes, but had to lower the intensity when Clara faded. I probably did not fuel properly in the first hour.
What a beautiful ride. My second time riding try this one. Had to dial it back to finish this time. I was totally identifying with Clara as we watched the peloton ride away. But we bridged back to the group and finished strong. Ukraine is in my prayers.
Dear minions,
are you still minions at Wahoo Systm? Or is it now minns?
You should be called “race commissaire” during the ToS, with highest respect.
Anyways, for stage one today I downloaded the file for Giro Donne and went into start. Apparently 1 minute early. But I did not pedal! I swear! I did not jump the gun.
I had a very good ride an suffered truly, in particular the 2nd hr lets you dig deep, chasing the peleton!!
Now it look like it does not show as progress in the ToS progress report on my App. Can you fix that? Please, please, please… Sir Cody? Dame Rebecca? Help?
Or do it again. You’ve got plenty of time:japanese_ogre:
Stage 1 done, was a great ride to start the Tour with and surprisingly felt good today…maybe down to missing 2 days of the normal 80km round trip comute helped🤣…got a Yorkshire Reli Ride tomorrow so not sure i will feel good on Stage 2🤪
Psst, dont give them ideas ;-). I know it would be the Sufferlandrian way to solve it, but I am bit tight on time, so it would screw up my race plan.
Have to wait till 8 a.m. EST, Sunday. Working today.
First time tour rider, so what the hell, figured I’d give it a shot at nuclear. Stage 1 done. I wondered at first if it would bother me to be called “Clara” for 2+ hours but it actually grew on me. Pretty sure I’ll answer to “Clara” for a while. I was pissed when she/I got dropped. Worked too damn hard to get dropped that near the end so it was great to see her/us dig deep and finish strong!
Stage 1 done. Laptop ran out of battery with 30 min to go, had to plug in and restart the laptop, to my surprise I did not loose the session. Kept going without the fan (had to use that socket for the laptop charger) which created a puddle under the trainer.
That was such a great ProRide-these are rapidly becoming my favorites!! I started to fade about 30 min from the end but managed to pick it up for the finish.
OMG that was so, so hard.
