Zwift event link: https://www.zwift.com/events/view/5320375

RWGPS event page: https://ridewithgps.com/events/438758-ncc-new-year-s-day-zwift-ride

Discord for voice/video chat: https://is.gd/nccdiscord

Happy New Year to all, and hope to see you tomorrow on Zwift!

Tonight marked the eighth and final night of our fall season riding in the WTRL Team Time Trial series. We marked the occasion with the largest team we've fielded all season -- Carson, Dusty, Jamie, Melissa, Michael, Shawn, and me.

The big team should have made for an easier workload, but the course tonight was very challenging -- two laps of the Tour of Tewit Well, which is basically all of the hillier parts of the Yorkshire course without any of the flatter downtown sections. The course has four significant climbs each lap, so we were always either going up or going down, which makes it super-hard to coordinate everyone's efforts.

With seven starters, the fourth rider across the line determines the finishing time, but my goal was to get the whole group of seven through at least one lap together. We just about made it, as everyone hung tough through all four of the climbs on the first lap, before Michael fell off just as we were cresting the last hill. Carson did a lot of work on the second lap, patrolling the back of the group and helping anyone who started to falter. Jamie finally slid off about halfway through the second lap, leaving a group of five to power through to the finish.

We finished all together with a time of 36:42, which currently has us in 16th place in our division out of 166 total teams, in the 10th percentile, which is by far our best finishing position of the season. Thanks to everyone for their hard work, tonight and throughout the season!

We're going to take the next couple of weeks off over the holidays, and then resume both the Tuesday night TT/HC series and this Thursday night TTT series the first week of January. Hope everyone has a great finish to their riding season, and we'll see you in the new year!

For this year's winter Zwift season on Thursday nights, we are participating in the WTRL Team Time Trial. This is one of the largest racing series on Zwift, with hundreds of teams competing every week, on a variety of courses.

Teams consist of between three and eight riders, and can be mixed-gender, with mixed ability levels. We can enter multiple teams if we have more than eight riders interested in participating in a given week. All riders on the team ride together, alternating pulls, with a goal of achieving the fastest possible time. Races are on Thursday nights, and usually last between 30 and 45 minutes.

This week's race will be on Thursday December 18 at 6:25 PM Eastern. The race is two laps of the Tour of Tewit Well course in Yorkshire, for about 14 miles total. This is a challenging course, featuring one big climb per lap, along with continuous rolling hills the rest of the way. The sign-up link is here. (https://www.wtrl.racing/RacePass/eWRac3lST3pFZC9VN3ZaOFh4RzR4ZTY1Wk9vUDJPUmhRUzIxUllNNDBTTT0=)

To participate, you need to take the one-time step of creating a free account at WTRL (https://www.wtrl.racing/ttt-home/). Once your account is set up, follow the link above to register for this week's event. Then you just show up in Zwift and enter the event as usual, and you will be placed on the starting line with other riders on the team. We use Discord for voice communication during the race, which is super-important in a TTT to coordinate pulls and race strategy. You can access our Discord channel here (https://is.gd/nccdiscord).

If you have any questions about participating, feel free to post here or email me at jonathan.okeeffe@gmail.com.

Tonight's TTT took Melissa, Shawn, Dusty, and me to Watopia for the Coast to Coast route, starting in the southern coast and finishing with a quick climb and then a descent on Jarvis Island. The excuses started flying while we were still in the starting pen -- a volleyball game yesterday for Melissa, a six-mile run for Dusty. Don't these people know how to prep for a race by sitting on a couch and eating donuts??

Despite all the excuses, we set a fast pace out of the starting gate, trying to hold off a hard-charging Brazilian team behind us that was nipping at our heels for the whole race. Melissa was hurting by the halfway point, and pulled out of the rotation, but still put in a huge effort and managed to stay with us the rest of the way. Her effort turned out to be a lifesaver, because Dusty started sliding off the back on the lower slopes of the Jarvis climb. With a four-person team, the third rider over the line determines the finishing time, so we were very fortunate to still have Melissa with us at that point. Shawn put in a big pull over the top of the climb, I took over on the descent, and then we sprinted for the finish line.

We ended up finishing in 38:55, about one second ahead of the team behind us, and one second behind the team in front of us (which is why every second counts in a race like this). We're currently sitting in 29th place out of 183 teams with a few west coast teams still wrapping up, and the fastest overall of the 24 four-person teams in our category -- one of our best results of the year. Great work everyone!

We will race again next Thursday night (keep an eye on the website for the sign-up link), and then take a couple of weeks off during the holidays before resuming in January.

For this year's winter Zwift season on Thursday nights, we are participating in the WTRL Team Time Trial. This is one of the largest racing series on Zwift, with hundreds of teams competing every week, on a variety of courses.

Teams consist of between three and eight riders, and can be mixed-gender, with mixed ability levels. We can enter multiple teams if we have more than eight riders interested in participating in a given week. All riders on the team ride together, alternating pulls, with a goal of achieving the fastest possible time. Races are on Thursday nights, and usually last between 30 and 45 minutes.

This week's race will be on Thursday December 11 at 6:28 PM Eastern. The race is one lap of the Coast to Coast course in Watopia, for about 17 miles total. This is a long flat course through the southern coast, finishing with a moderate climb and descent on Jarvis Island. The sign-up link is here. (https://www.wtrl.racing/RacePass/RHIrUTV5UWdlRm9NUmlnNUxsbTBiZ2UvYTFmd1NkMjZnU2ZsOFNSMHppZz0=)

To participate, you need to take the one-time step of creating a free account at WTRL (https://www.wtrl.racing/ttt-home/). Once your account is set up, follow the link above to register for this week's event. Then you just show up in Zwift and enter the event as usual, and you will be placed on the starting line with other riders on the team. We use Discord for voice communication during the race, which is super-important in a TTT to coordinate pulls and race strategy. You can access our Discord channel here (https://is.gd/nccdiscord).

If you have any questions about participating, feel free to post here or email me at jonathan.okeeffe@gmail.com.

Tonight's race took us to Innsbruck for three laps of the Innsbruckring loop through the downtown area. The loop is mostly flat, but the sharp ascent up the "Legsnapper" hill, and the fast descent afterward, makes it challenging to keep a group together.

We had our biggest group of the season so far, with seven riders signed up. Steve had some registration issues and couldn't get into the race, so we started with our usual suspects of myself, Carson, Melissa, and Shawn, joined by Dusty and Jamie, both riding their first TTT of the season.

Having a team of six made for longer breaks between pulls compared to some of the races we've done in previous weeks with just three riders, but it still was a lot of work. The longer breaks are nice, but that means that everyone pulls a little harder, so you're working harder at the front during your pulls, and getting a little less recovery during the breaks.

I must have gone into oxygen debt right from the start, because by the time we got to the first hill, I totally scrambled the pull order, leaving everyone looking around wondering whose pull it was. Sorry about that, guys. We got it straightened out on the descent, and resumed a nice organized formation for the rest of the first lap.

The Legsnapper claimed its first victim on the second lap, as Jamie took a final big pull going into the hill, and then slid off the back, telling us to go on without him. We carried on with five after that, and decided to raise the pace slightly for the final lap. Melissa hung on up and over the final climb and then dropped back after the descent with about 2K to go. She did a great job with a strong solo TT effort the rest of the way as a backup for the four of us left on the front (the finishing time comes from the fourth rider over the line, so it's nice to have a Plan B when you're down to four, in case someone has mechanical or network problems). Carson, Shawn and me carried on with shorter pulls on the final run-in to the finish, pushing hard to try for a negative split on the final lap, which we got easily (12:35 on the final lap, compared to 13:06 and 13:07 on the first two).

We ended up with a finishing time of 39:28, which currently has us sitting in 40th place out of 171 teams in our division, which I'm very happy with. It was great to see some new riders -- looking forward to even more next week. Come join us!

For this year's winter Zwift season on Thursday nights, we are participating in the WTRL Team Time Trial. This is one of the largest racing series on Zwift, with hundreds of teams competing every week, on a variety of courses.

Teams consist of between three and eight riders, and can be mixed-gender, with mixed ability levels. We can enter multiple teams if we have more than eight riders interested in participating in a given week. All riders on the team ride together, alternating pulls, with a goal of achieving the fastest possible time. Races are on Thursday nights, and usually last between 30 and 45 minutes.

This week's race will be on Thursday December 4 at 6:28 PM Eastern. The race is 3 laps of the Innsbruckring course in Innsbruck, for about 17 miles total. The sign-up link is here. (https://www.wtrl.racing/RacePass/Z0VmSWgweC9ReWFwOHZ0QmN1ZGJhaktuM1FUYkNOeTVhc1d6ZTZNNitlUT0=)

To participate, you need to take the one-time step of creating a free account at WTRL (https://www.wtrl.racing/ttt-home/). Once your account is set up, follow the link above to register for this week's event. Then you just show up in Zwift and enter the event as usual, and you will be placed on the starting line with other riders on the team. We use Discord for voice communication during the race, which is super-important in a TTT to coordinate pulls and race strategy. You can access our Discord channel here (https://is.gd/nccdiscord).

If you have any questions about participating, feel free to post here or email me at jonathan.okeeffe@gmail.com.

Quick update on tonight's Zwift team time trial effort. Shawn, Melissa and I travelled to New York to take on the new Green to Screen route from Brooklyn to Times Square and back, through subway tunnels and back and forth across the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges. The subways were a particular challenge, with the escalators at the exits shooting Melissa up rapidly while Shawn and I struggled to keep up. But we made it work, and despite having only three riders, turned in a solid time of 42:15, good for a 55th place finish in our division out of a total of 193 teams, and finished with the fastest time of any of the three-person teams.

Next week is Thanksgiving, so we'll take that Thursday night off from racing, and resume on December 4. Please come and join us if you're looking for some Thursday night racing action!

For this year's winter Zwift season on Thursday nights, we are participating in the WTRL Team Time Trial. This is one of the largest racing series on Zwift, with hundreds of teams competing every week, on a variety of courses.

Teams consist of between three and eight riders, and can be mixed-gender, with mixed ability levels. We can enter multiple teams if we have more than eight riders interested in participating in a given week. All riders on the team ride together, alternating pulls, with a goal of achieving the fastest possible time. Races are on Thursday nights, and usually last between 30 and 45 minutes.

This week's race will be on Thursday November 20 at 6:15PM Eastern, with one lap of the "Green to Screen" course in New York. This is an 18-mile loop that hits most of the newly-released roads in New York, starting in Prospect Park in Brooklyn, and including some small climbs over the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges. The sign-up link is here. (https://www.wtrl.racing/RacePass/UCsrMU5MWlFvWE8rSTZtNnd1YVRad0VYTlp6RGtxeXd3V3diUnF0Sm5hVT0=)

To participate, you need to take the one-time step of creating a free account at WTRL (https://www.wtrl.racing/ttt-home/). Once your account is set up, follow the link above to register for this week's event. Then you just show up in Zwift and enter the event as usual, and you will be placed on the starting line with other riders on the team. We use Discord for voice communication during the race, which is super-important in a TTT to coordinate pulls and race strategy. You can access our Discord channel here (https://is.gd/nccdiscord).

If you have any questions about participating, feel free to post here or email me at jonathan.okeeffe@gmail.com.

Tonight's team time trial took us to Watopia for four laps of the Two Bridges Loop, about 18 miles total, with a short sharp climb on each lap. We were hoping to field four riders, but Michael has been plagued by internet outages for the last couple of days and couldn't make it, so it was just Melissa, Shawn, and me at the starting line.

Our plan was to target 3.7 w/kg for our pulls, and we started out very close to that pace, turning in our fastest lap of the day on our first lap at 10:44. It turned out this wasn't quite sustainable, though, so we backed off at the end of the first lap, looking for something more like 3.5 w/kg. We settled into that pace quite nicely, turning out very consistent times of 11:00, 11:06, and 11:02 on our subsequent laps.

With only three riders on our team, we had to bring everyone to the finish line together, and we worked well at the end with a strong push over the last kilometer, finishing in a group within 0.1 sec of each other, with a final time of 44:25. We were all pretty spent at the end, so I think that counts as a good effort. The final results confirmed that, with a finishing place of 58th out of 175 teams in our division, putting us in the top third, and behind only two other three-person teams.

We'll be racing again next Thursday, and we're always looking for new team members, so come out and join us!