Sunday spin 10th May 11.05am

The Orwell no-drop group ride on Zwift this Sunday 10th May at 11.05am will be the "Tour of Fire and Ice" . The second half of this route is a climb up the Alpe du Zwift, modeled on the Alpe d'Huez. This is the only public road in Watopia that our club spins haven't been on yet. It's a long steady climb, but hopefully we can convince some of the club's young guns to go to the front of the group while the rest of us sit near the back taking advantage of Zwift's no-drop assistance.

I estimate our ride will take about 90 minutes. You can drop out during the ride if you're short of time but you can't join the ride after it has started. Please allow plenty of time to get set up and do a bit of warmup - don't get left behind!

All welcome, no matter what level of rider, and from Zwift first timers to hardened old hands. Zwift's "no-drop" function means the group will stay together no matter how hard you ride on the front or how easy you take it on the back. If you need help getting set up for Zwift look at recent posts here in the forum, or just post a question below. We're here to help.

Registration

Please fill in this form to join the meetup:

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Registration will close 30 minutes before the scheduled start, or when 100 riders have registered.

Ride banter

We'll be using Discord for voice chat during the ride. Almost all Orwell riders are using it during spins, races, and fund raising rides. If you haven't tried it yet give it a go this time. It adds hugely to your ride experience, and it's really easy to set up - just install the software, create an account, and click on the link below.

If you've already joined the Orwell Discord channel then all you have to do is log in to Discord again before the ride. This is the same Discord channel that is used for the club races, so if you joined the voice channel for that then you only have to log in again..

If you haven't yet joined the Orwell Discord channel, then install the Discord app on your computer or phone, create an account for yourself, and then click on this link:

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If there's a choice, select "open with Discord". If required, select "Join". Click on the Orwell yellow O icon. There is a text channel and a voice channel. To get to the voice channel, click on the menu icon (3-lines) if necessary, then under "Voice channels" click on "Group ride banter". If requested, grant Discord the permissions it needs to use your microphone and speakers.

Reconnect to the Discord channel before our ride starts by logging back in to Discord and selecting "Group ride banter" as above. There's no need to keep the Discord app displayed, it will work perfectly well in the background or with the screen off.

Headphones or earbuds + microphone are strongly recommended. You'll hear better, and others will hear you better.