Prudential RideLondon & Zwift

Many of us will soon (Feb) find out if we have secured an elusive place on the Pru Ride London (28-29 July 2018) and I’m also considering the Tour de Yorkshire (3-6 May 2018) earlier in the year, as one of my main events. I certainly need something to get my cycling mojo back on track and an awesome event is normally just the tonic.

“London” was added to Zwift in 2016 and I was always quite amazed to find Box Hill in Battersea, Central London (ish). Still, Zwift saves performing a much longer real-world ride to get to the real hill. Box Hill is a rather beautiful part of the world and the road was resurfaced for the Olympics in 2012. Luckily Southern Electric, British Gas and Virgin don’t have any cables going up it and so the road surface is still mostly pristine. BUT, and it’s a big but, whilst the Hill is described as ‘iconic’…it’s not actually that hard. Made easier by the surface.

Leith Hill, on the other hand, elicits far more choice words from those cycling up it. Leith is the new addition to Zwift and the real world Leith is harder than Box, definately a good time to use my spinny Shimano gears. Leith forms a particularly nasty part of RideLondon…get some practice in.

My current bike build is nearly complete (story to follow) and I’m hoping that lots of nice, upgraded, high-end Shimano bits and pieces will help me up Leith the next time I go there. My hill-fit friends tends to leave me trailing on Leith so, let’s see. If we ever come back from the Surrey Hills via Richmond Park then I’m much more at home there and can usually more than hold my own on my home, undulating territory. Apparently Richmond Park is now, at least in part, in Zwift too.

Leith Hill will join Box Hill as two of Prudential RideLondon’s most iconic climbs on Zwift. While Box Hill is famed for the spectators watching the Olympic Road Race in 2012, Leith Hill provides riders with more of a test. Also new to the Zwift route is a Richmond Park-inspired section. The three newly added Zwift courses are; Surrey Hills (25.8 miles, 2,924ft), Greatest London Loop (16.1 miles, 1,172ft) and Triple Loops (25.5 miles, 1,854ft). Source: RideLondon/Zwift

As part of some of Zwift/Pru Ride London’s recent announcements, Zwift are delivering RideLondon focussed training events on their platform with structured training in groups. It’s not quite my kind of thing but if you are planning to ride a relatively hilly 100 miles for the first time then it’s a REALLY good idea to get more of an idea of the right kind of training that you need to do. So checking out those events might well be a good idea … getting a training plan is CERTAINLY a good idea.