Oh! For the love of Zwift!

Precovid (and we’re only using it as a marker, the following rant has nothing really to do with covid) I was personally completely against Zwift. It looked ridiculous to me. I didn’t understand it. Why weren’t people riding their bikes outside? Why were half the maps underwater? What is this madness?

Well it’s safe to say the worm has officially turned. Now regular readers of the journal will know that we’re not made of sugar here in The Duckhouse. Just scroll back through the archive if you’re in any doubt. But Zwift has become art of our staple diet of bikes. But pre-covid times were a bit different. Alongside The Duck I was racing regularly, joyfully self employed as a bike guide and without dependence. Well that has changed. And with change brings, well, change! The first lockdown brought two important things into my life that provide pleasure and pain in equal measure. My daughter and a Wahoo Kickr. An entrance into the real world some might say.

Outside of my little microcosm it is absolutely clear that winter bike riding has also changed and this can be looked at from the wider industry down or indeed the other way around. Whether it be the state of the roads, the dangers whilst out and about or anything else it certainly feels like less people are out when the days are shorter than they used to be. My Strava feed backs that up. The draw of indoor riding is simple. The quality and convenience on top of the ability to race without the fear of crashing and ruining yourself and your equipment. No one really wants to be riding their bikes in their garages. But it is February, life is life and time waits for no man.

Bikes, whilst not being free as such, are still the best way of being free. Cycling life is still the best life and we certainly adhere to that. An active lifestyle is best for a plethora of reasons. Outside is always free. However that might be one of the last bastions of freedom. This week has shown us that cycling, like every other sport, is also no longer free. Gone are the days of GCN and now fucking Eurosport has Brexit'ed. As a result another subscription is added to the list. Alongside Zwift. And Strava (!)

 Zwift £18pm, Strava £9pm and now watching cycling on TV is going to lump another £30pm. Best part of £60 in related subscriptions every month. Although a bit of that is clearly also subsidising a fair amount of football and cricket. The industry is struggling but they still know how to bleed every last bit out of you! (Bit rich coming from you I hear you cry…).

Riding has changed. Life also. And these are all tools. They are all just tools. Maybe we’re the tools! We’re punters too you know. Well don’t fret. We won’t be polluting these pages with anecdotes of 45min Zwift races but we will be doing them and consistently finishing outside the top ten. And I really like Strava and I watch a lot of cricket as well as cycling so it can be justified. Not like we’re out and about too much these days is it!

February is always the worst month though. The momentum you took into Christmas, maybe even the effort put into the F500 is a month old.. It’s a bit colder, still dark enough to restrict any meaningful activities. March will soon come though and touch wood we’ll see the light (literally in many ways).

So our outlook has changed as has life and we’re happy to have been proved wrong.