By Michael Bello
Published 12/21/2021; Updated 12/21/2021

With the Fall Hill Climb/Time Trial Series wrapping up last week, we had a social ride this evening. Even though it was a social ride, we still climbed quite a bit.

We rode the new Climbers Gambit route. The route was launched in August as an event-only course, but last week’s game update released it for general riding.

We had eight riders this evening (Charlie, Henry, John, Jonathan, Melissa, Tim, Zinj, and me). This was John’s first club Zwift ride. Next time we will get him on Discord.

Zinj and I had some Discord challenges tonight, but we were able to rejoin the conversation each time it froze up on us. Charlie and Zinj compared notes on moving houses.

Despite the name of the route, Climbers Gambit, Zinj kept asking if we were going to climb. We ascended the Titans Grove KOM Reverse and the Epic KOM Reverse, the latter climb being the big one. Jonathan keep torturing Henry throughout the climb. Each time Henry pulled even with him, Jonathan surged ahead. It was amusing to see and hear the comments on Discord.

Since the route ended at the top of a mountain, most of us went down the other side. Towards the end, one of Melissa’s daughters grabbed her phone and we saw her holiday decorations.

A few of us are planning the Four Horsemen route next week. From the survey responses, we will ride at 9 AM on Wednesday, December 29th. We will have an old fashioned meet up so we can see other riders on course and draft off of non-NCC riders in case we get separated. If anyone is interested in joining us, please let me know.

John completed level 13 and earned his avatar the Zwift patterned gloves. We all earned the Climbers Gambit route achievement, which doubled our XP points for the route.

In total, we rode 17.4 miles with approximately 2,200 feet of climbing.

On Wednesday at 8 PM we will have a flatter social ride on the Wandering Flats route.

The NCC Zwift Hill Climb/Time Trial Series and Zwift Race Series will resume the first week in January.

Check the NCC calendar for full details on all events. To learn more about the NCC and Zwift rides, please visit our Zwift page.