Today I had the dubious honour of leading our GGCC team through the virtual streets of Scotland on the “Loch Loop” course on the Zwift riding platform — five laps of pretending we’re fitter than we actually are, with an optional mini-race (for the truly delusional) as a full final lap.
Huge thanks to Paul for going into the red, and to Tim, Dicky and Jam for keeping the wheels turning — top work, you glorious suffer-fest legends

We eased into things at a slightly lower pace to convince our legs that this was a warm-up, not a cry for help, before heading into the Breakaway Brae. Here it’s crucial to keep the power up through the steep section so you don’t slide backward through the pack like a shopping trolley on a hill.
Our “sprinters” then had three glorious chances to snag the dotted jersey and eternal bragging rights. Here are the results:

Congrats to D. Jardine for getting the KOM 🏆

The fourth lap was more of a chill-out cruise, just convincing our legs to please, kindly, get into race mode. Even on the climb we only went at around 3.0–3.2 W/kg, easing off a bit toward the lap banner so we could regroup and give our racers a fair, drama-free start.
From the banner, the racing group—which was quite large, like a rolling party—suddenly decided fun was over and went at a much harder level. Up until the Breakaway Brae climb, the bunch behaved and stuck together. But from there, and on the other shorter climbs, some racers hit the gas like they’d seen the finish line early, blasting away from the group. The last hill toward the finish line absolutely shredded every racing group, and every rider went full hero mode, trying as hard as possible to nail the best lap time they could.

Not only do we have a podium, but also the orange jersey for the fastest lap:

And here we have the podium list from the race:

Congrats to D. Jardine 🥇, J. B. 🥈 and C. Jensen 🥉 for the podium.

Thanks to all riders for coming today and having fun with us.

For more details check out Zwift Power.