Today, I had the honor of leading our mighty GGCC squadron through the virtual cobbles of the legendary “Champs-Élysées”—yes, we went to Paris without leaving the house, courtesy of the Zwift riding platform. We knocked out a five-lap training ride, complete with an optional full-lap mini-race at the end for anyone who hadn’t yet suffered enough.

We kicked things off in the lead-in at a very civilized pace of about 2.6 W/kg—just enough to feel sporty without regretting our life choices. From the lap banner on, I tried to lock in around a steady 2,8W/kg, pretending that consistency is my superpower. By keeping things smooth, the sprinters could focus on doing what they do best: saving their legs and plotting how to humiliate us on the line. We had some seriously fast finishers with us today.
I kept trying to tow the group along at a slightly higher pace, mostly so the sprinters could sit in, drink virtual coffee, and enjoy a premium draft. Today it got really tight at the top.
Let’s see what kind of numbers we managed to squeeze out of this suffering session:

Congrats to Style for going in green 🏆

Now the “sprints” were done and dusted, and so were most of our legs. We rolled into a more relaxing lap, a bit like a cool-down disguised as actual training, before our optional mini-race (optional, but somehow everyone “optionally” lined up). I went at a slightly lower pace to herd the group back together, sheepdog style. The speed was still high enough to make it feel like a proper race start though. As we approached the start, I kept nudging the pace up and up, and at the same time I took the fence down to 2 seconds—because who doesn’t love living on the edge? Naturally, the pace completely exploded on the last lap.

We had a small group going at full speed from the start line. For a short bit we stayed together for the best drafting effect. Before the “climb” up to the arch some went away at a very hard pace. End the end everyone went at his own pace good for having a nice lap number.
In the end we had the podium, let’s see:

Congrats to Syle 🥇, Martin B.🥈 and M. Filippov 🥉 on the podium.

Thanks to all riders for coming and riding with us today.

For more details, check out Zwift Power.

We also have the time for the last lap: