Congratulations to Alexander Stavrinides who just set a new 7-day virtual record in the follow categories: Male – 18-49, upright bike, virtual.
Alex rode for a total of 72.77 hours out of a total possible 168 hours. His total Virtual mileage of 1241.67miles is based on his actual power output based on his 4 riding positions against a real world Cd*A test on the exact bike on an outside road course.
Riders Summary
First, the blurb stuff.
Record attempt: 7 day solo virtual (indoors) riding.
Name of Rider: Dr Alex Stavrinides, or “Dr Stav” although often found as “a. Cyclist” on Strava and Zwift. I’ve run a modest blog as “TestSubjectOne” for some time too.
Start time and date: Started at 1000 BST on the 25th October 2025 (or 0900 UTC)
Location: I won’t be too specific because this was from a shed in the back garden of our home, but I live in West Bridgford, Nottingham, UK.
Conditions: Outside was a very pleasant autumnal week which I could see from the window, with leaves blowing around. However the inside of the shed went through some variations! At the start of the week, the shed was very warm and cosy for riding and officials alike. By the end of the week and seven days of various foods, creams, sweat and body odours……..well done to all who survived it! Being indoors has the advantage of controlling the conditions, but also the threat of cabin fever. As I found out, conditions in the shed were always entertaining – jokes and laughter – even if the end of the attempt was a world of pain. On the Friday night with early Bon Fire night fireworks shows going off in the surrounding area, we had a mini disco in the shed instead with disco lights and glows sticks.
Why? Why not? Motivations came from various long rides and seeing both WUCA 12 and 24hr records but not a week record, and various claims of longest Zwift rides but without a unifying set of rules or stipulations. I saw this as an opportunity to bring an official category to the WUCA awards with a 7 day event similar to the track or road versions. I did a 1,851km ride on Zwift in 2022, but with Zwift having the power to change Watopia bikes and conditions on a whim, this appealed as being a more scientifically and accountable way. I hope this inspires others. With being indoors and the position I was in, a number of people asked me then too.Part of it is the opportunity to some day in the distant future being able to be the old man on the side lines and say “I did that”.
Equipment used: I had the option of either a TT bike or an endurance road bike with bar extensions. In the real world aerodynamic testing session before the virtual ride, I had better CdA values with the TT bike, however for long endurance riding, my Enigma has already been fitted to me and used on various long distance events with proven comfort, even if it does have a CdA penalty. I agonised for some time between lower CdA with less comfort or a higher CdA but more comfort. In a previous 2x11hr test, I found that although the TT bike was an option, the Engima would potentially be a better long term option and not destroy me after four days. I have used the Engima on London-Edinburgh-London, 400, 600 and more audaxes and various other long distance or multiday events. Other than that, I was using an Elite Direto turbo trainer, Favero pedals, all data was recorded onto a Garmin 830 head unit and PC’s hosting Zwift as a guide and stimulation. And being indoors and riding on the Friday night, we had a disco lightbulb and glowsticks because riding indoors, you can!
Food & Drink: Plenty of it and never enough. I was consuming shepherds pies, lasagna, mash and gravy, custard, Kendal Mint gels, flapjacks, isotonic drinks……. Hardest parts were the flavours being mixed and trying not to get taste fatigues. With this being an indoor and virtual event, the kitchen is never far away so there was always an option – even if my body had other ideas. Talking with nutritionists before the attempt, it was agreed that breakfast would be whatever could be digested and worked on that morning, so if it was lasagna for breakfast, it was lasagna! There was the usual audax and endurance staples of food choices too, along with plenty of mash and gravy and crumble and custard. Digestion and hydration was a hard balance to find.
Best part – so many! For an event which nearly everyone would fear for getting cabin fever and going crazy, I had a fantastic team around me both physically and virtually. To be in a shed with so little social mixing with others (compared to being on the road), the social contact and sharing with friends and officials was the event highlight. The Twitch broadcast had no audio being broadcast which was probably a good thing – in the shed we had so many laughs and chatter about life, historic adventures, career advice, stories of adventures gone wrong which may have put us in difficult positions to explain to a wider audience and had a great time! Many hours slipped by without a thought or dragging at all due to the conversations. One of the Officials was my Best Man from our wedding and we’d not caught up for some time so when Pete was on duty the greatest risk was to the crew (my kids) learning stories from when their dad and Pete used to live and kayak together……. I loved the dedication of people watching and sending their support through the various messaging apps too. I had feared feeling contained, isolated or caged and on show, whereas such a great surrounding of people broke that feeling instantly.
Hardest part: First was the energy deficits and reawakening to fire up the legs and get back onto the bike, especially on the last night. Throughout the week, the repetition and staticness of the bike built up the saddle sores and by Day 6 these were eye watering. As long as I stayed in a limited set of positions I was good. At the same time, it was clear that my achilles tendon in my left foot was going. This really took a toll on my power output but at least allowed me to start eating again. Keeping the motivation and determination to see it out and fight the pain was tough. The Officials organisation of time checking and chunking to break down the windows to “focus on the next 40 mins to get to the hour, then there’ll only be 40 hrs left. 40’s a nice number!”
Incidentally, I knew this was going to be tough, gruelling and I was daunted by the prospects of “what if’s” and “but that could”. I was expecting muscular stains and damage across my shoulders and neck, hot foot, compression of the nerves in my wrists and far more severe sores from the saddle. By the end, saddle sores were painful, but with a good saddle, planning, hygiene and creams, that “hardest part” didn’t go to the max I expected. The bike fit, familiarity of the Enigma and bar extensions supported my shoulders far better than I expected – even if the padding in the cups of the extensions needed replacing!
Anything unusual?
Exact finish location: Exactly the same place I started!
Exact time: I finished at 0900 GMT/UTC, 168hrs later. As the clocks in the UK changed at 2am on the 26th October, I did exactly the 168hrs even though I finished an hour earlier.