Well that’s unusual. You feeling ok Sir @emacdoug ?
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Lol. My mom came to visit for 2 weeks. So I took the opportunity to get some extra sleep and carb load. 
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So I finished tonight with Ventoux. Happy with how it went but please, do not interpret that as enjoying the ride. I did not. 
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Well done on getting through July! August is just round the corner, not sure what we can do about kinder though 
, here is a a sneaky preview:
EARN YOUR STRIPES
14 Vise Grips
UCI Centre BMX
The Omnium
UCI Centre MTB
(full post coming tomorrow)
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I’m in! Looks like the the challenge of champions 
The UCI BMX and MTB are pure gold, 14 Vise Grips is in my top 68 Sufferfest vids and I haven’t done The Omnium since, I’m almost ashamed to say this but, the 2019 Tour of Sufferlandria. I guess it’s time to strap myself in and grab the bull by the horns
Woot woot!
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Isn’t it just the way? I hadn’t done The Omnium in about a year and a half and then it showed up on my plan just this past Friday! It was really difficult to get through. But I’ll still do it again in August! Ready to meet the challenge!
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I know how you feel Sir. I have Tour of Sufferlandria 2017 on tap for August. I was hoping at least one of the rides from that tour would be part of the August challenge. Two birds with one stone and all. But no.
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Mont Ventoux–pardon my french–poutain! Probably not the best idea to try the ride shortly after a heavy brunch, but was the only option to fit in the 2+ hours of riding. I flipped it into level mode for the last 20 minutes and was probably a couple percent down overall but I managed to dig in for a pretty strong final minute.
Excited for the August challenge, really looking forward to giving Omnium my first ride since 2020. There’s no suffering I dread more than a kilo-style one minute all out.
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I cant believe how addicted I’ve become to these monthly challenges! What has SYSTM done to me???
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Glad to hear I didn’t suffer alone on Ventoux. Here are my notes from the rides:
100% until last 13 minutes of the race - no way could my legs hold FTP for about 10 minutes! Down to 90% - still hard but didn’t stop! HR okay in top Z4 or low Z5, legs hurting!
Now I think about it, entering a whole world of suffering from Chalet Reynard mirrors my memories of riding Ventoux in person. Production of Holy Water was off the charts both on the mountain and the TT!
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Almost done…
Thank you for the chance on a swag bag, otherwise I would not have been able to motivate myself this month to ride “this much” despite building our new house!
I did “Mt. Ventoux Dénivelé Challenge” at the end of June so was really looking forward to do it again 
At first I rode G.O.A.T. for the GOAT this month!
There is no Try was an easy fix and quickly in the bag.
The first try at Mt. Ventoux ended after 21 minutes where I gave up. It was already very late and fatigue was too high. To much digging, slitting and stemming in the house.
One hour into the next try my Laptop had a blue screen. Boy did I wish for a resume functionality in SYSTM… But it was almost midnight so I went to the next flogging station seeking for an easy fix and am looking forward to doing it all over again. What a great way to suffer even more!
Finally finished it this night after a 5h family hike carrying our little daughters 
But I have to admit it got kinda boring after one hour and I finally started watching Secret Invasion. That has never happened to me before in SYSTM but I tend not to repeat Pro rides. Especially not 4 times in the span of a month.
Sadly the “Surge” Sound Effect is in the Music and not in the separate “SoundEffects” Track. So those were always some kind of ERG Surge surprise
This time I even noticed some things after crossing the finish line. I totally missed the video last time due to not trying to collapse to the floor.
Now I have to fit Wolfpack insider somewhere into today. As I understand the FAQ I also have an additional 12 hours thanks to my timezone until “today” ends anywhere on earth.
When can I complete the Challenge?
Any day during the given month regardless of time zone
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Out of curiosity, when will the winners be announced?
Not a fan, I assume?
Omnium looks like a FF in disguise to be honest.
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Actually I love 14 VG, it really is a favourite. I was just being silly. As for The Omnium it’s been ages (Jan or Feb 2019) since I last did it and it was actually in my Knighthood Quest at number 2 between AVDP and Thin Air.
I’ve got no good reason why I haven’t done The Omnium since ToS 2019 except that it just hasn’t come up in any of the MANY plans I’ve started but not finished
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July is a wrap, congrats to everyone who completed the challenge! The prize draw winners will be announced later this week after they have been notified via email.
Here is everything you need to know for August:
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I found this one the hardest!!
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@Rupert I think you forgot to remove hash prefix from July challenge name in Awards list in application 
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I thought I’d get a head start on the pro rides and for some reason it seemed smart to start with the longest one. That is, the Hammer Climb. Not only was it not smart, I only made it about 30 mins in before bailing and that was after dialing it down to 90, then 85 then 80 then my head just said no. DNF. Lesson learned, I can confirm I do NOT like the Pro Rides. This really is gonna be a challenge. Will need to crank my own tunes and up my mental game 
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Oof. Start with Giro d’Italia 1. It’s a short time trial.
When I did the Ventoux challenge last month I thought I was going to need my own music, but next thing I knew I was nearly done and I didn’t miss the music.
But headphones help a lot, even to better hear the ambience and the riders chatting.
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