It’s raining out, so another one for Zwift. I chose the Watopia Mountain Route. This was the first time I road my Madone since I bought my Emonda. I tried to mirror the position as close as possible. In practice, it felt like the reach was shorter. Otherwise, I was comfortable. It took about 11 minutes to reach the base of the climb. I kept the power around 3 W/kg or less. After crossing the bridge, I settled into a tempo that I knew I could sustain till the summit. I was doing in and out of the saddle efforts while keeping the tempo as steady as possible. The miles went sufficiently quick. I was a bit impatient to start. After reaching the tunnel, the morale felt better. I was doing the numbers in my head. I had my Halo Partner going. I was ahead most of the way up. We were within a few seconds of each other most of the way. I placed somewhere in the middle of the pack when I reached the summit. From there, I did the bonus climb. Mostly steady tempo and not so intense. I was doing around 3 W/kg plus or minus a few tenths. I stayed ahead of my Halo Replay to the summit. After the summit, headed down the mountain and was able to recover from the effort. As I made it to the main land, my Halo Replay caught up to me. So, I upped the tempo a bit. I was able to stay ahead till the finish. I put in a moderate dig through the sprint zone. I placed higher than I anticipated. After crossing the finish line, I shut it down and cooled down for a few minutes till the HR reached 112 BPM.

Concentration was good. I was eager to see how the Madone felt after all these months not having ridden on it. Balance and form felt good. Nutrition was good. No hunger signs. I have to drink colorless Gatorade as I have a medical procedure next week. It’s the cherry flavor, so not so palatable. I was diluting it with the other bottle of plain water. Ailments were minimal. The usual numb hands while out of the saddle for extended periods. The right knee was hinting on soreness on the last half of the ride. It never escalated nor detracted much from my effort. Gear worked perfect. The bike felt good. I think I have to move the saddle a bit back, as the reach was bit cramped. Other notes, there were over 4500 riders when I hopped on the Watopia map.