I was back to France for today’s Zwift bike ride. I rode with ZHCC TGI Flat Friday group E. The route was the France R G V for 60 minutes. I wasn’t sure how I would ride because my body was sore from crawling around in my attic yesterday afternoon putting foam insulation on water pipes. I rode the Cannondale Evo bike with the Shimano C40 wheels. The ride description said the pace would be 1.3 to 1.5 w/kg but I’m not sure if that was true. It seemed many times I was above 2.0 w/kg. I stayed with a large group through 1 sprint but the second sprint they were faster than me. A group of 13 got ahead of the fence and were deleted from the group according to the leader’s message. After the second sprint I rode alone with the sweep behind me. The sweep, Eric Bonner, rode near me for the last several miles until close to the end of the ride.

The last time I rode this route was January 20th of this year. When I started today my goal was to ride the same distance as that ride, 18.17 miles. I did better than that with 19.58 miles and 469 feet of climbing. Of the 5 times I rode France R G V today was the third longest miles and fourth highest average speed.

France R G V was Released with Zwift’s France map for the first-ever Virtual Tour de France, the R.G.V. route covers the upper, larger loop of the map in a clockwise direction. The first 12km is pan-flat, while the back half includes a timed KOM and some rollers along the river. “R.G.V” stands for route grand vitesse, or “high speed road”. A fitting name, since this route is definitely one for the sprinters. Though only 24km in length, it includes three timed sprint segments! (from ZwiftInsider.com) One lap is 15.0 miles with a .6 mile lead-in so today I rode more than 1 lap. Each lap includes 351 feet of climbing. The profile is mostly flat but there are several lumps with the biggest one at 8.1 miles. I didn’t change gears going up the hills so my legs handled them better than I expected.

This morning when I got up it was 14 degrees outside after a strong cold front blew through last evening. That was why I crawled in the attic. It warmed up to 30 when I finished today’s ride but still very windy. This is not the Houston weather for outside biking. Around 17,000 Zwifters were online at the start and 13,000 afterwards.

While I was riding in France I listened to SiriusXm The Message channel.

Strava results: PR on Pavé Sprint Reverse (32s), 2nd fastest time on Start Pens Lead-In to Marina Sprint Banner (1:33), 3rd fastest time on Ballon Sprint Reverse (35s).