Vuelta Tranquilo - Click here for details on the Rouvy website
I have long been a user of Rouvy as my go to training app. Not just for the winter, I use it all year round when the weather or my schedule dictates.
What it does brilliantly is blend computer avatars with real world video and I love the fact I can be in Lincolnshire in reality but back in the Alps or Norway virtually and on my bike.
They also do events really well on the app. The current Vuelta series has racing, exploration and workouts across all levels from pro down.
I have entered the Tranquilo series which covers 4 stages of the actual 2023 Vuelta with the last 30km or so raced in a time trial format.
Unlike an organised, mass start event you can ride the stages whenever you want in the next 30 days with your combined time being compared to all of the other entrants in a general classification.
I have started before work this morning by riding the stage to Granada beach which was minimal elevation but pretty fast and furious.
There were a lot of other riders on the course who were chasing me and my chasing them. As you can start the ride whenever you choose there were bodies all of the route which made it really fun as a challenge.
There were two Strava segments thrown in as well where the current KOM presented as an avatar to "chase" and try and beat.
Virtual racing on a turbo trainer should be fun in my view (as well as painful!) so I chose my tactic ahead of starting.
That was to ride about 75% of my max for the whole ride with maximum efforts on the segments. The first being 2.5km the second 1km.
In between the segments, I just wanted to hang on and try and recover as I raced. My elevated heart rate showed just how hard it was to keep momentum despite the lack of climbing.
At the moment my time is in the top 150 for that stage (my overall is much lower at 840 due to not having ridden the other three stages as yet) which I am pleased with.
Although shipping almost 8 minutes to the leader in 25km didn't make me smile too much and leaves me under no illusions that this will be three more difficult stages before completing the challenge.
This event is brilliant at getting me motivated at this stage of the season when the nights start to pull in and the mornings get colder.
It is also great to be able to bore the family when watching the Vuelta by saying "when I rode this corner the other day I was at 300 watts".
Good luck to any other participants reading ! I will keep you posted as to how I get on.
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