Watts Up in Watopia: LA Bicycle Academy

Zwift stepped up to sponsor the Los Angeles Bicycle Academy’s new shop that will serve as a physical location for the academy youth to learn bicycle education, safety, skill development, maintenance, and career exploration.

LA Bicycle Academy is a minority-founded and led organization with a cycling team and bicycle education program that seeks to help youth from underserved communities in Los Angeles access the sport of cycling. 98% of the Academy’s participants are BIPOC youth.

Zwift has provided five of their new Hub trainers and accompanying equipment and youth subscriptions that will provide the opportunity for the LABA race team to train and race on Zwift. Riding on Zwift will not only supplement their outdoor training but will also help keep them connected to each other through the Zwift Companion app.

From their press release, Damon Turner, founder of the Los Angeles Bicycle Academy, stated, “We’re very excited that our partnership with Zwift will help bridge the DEI gap by providing our athletes access to cutting-edge training. Our new space serves a lot of purposes – from bike repair and retail, to providing youth with bicycle education and nutrition programming, to bike workshops for the community, we want to continue the effort of raising bicycle awareness. I’m looking forward to seeing our race team train on Zwift, as well as how this elite level of training transcends their performance during competitions.”

The LA Bicycle Academy will open its doors to the general public tomorrow, Tuesday, Oct. 18. The store is located at 3105 W Jefferson Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90018. Hours are 11 am to 6 pm, Tuesday-Saturday.

Check out this short video about the LABA Youth Cycling Team and their Earn-a-Bike Program:

Here’s what we at Slowtwitch have planned for the rest of the week.

Guest World Schedule

Here’s this week’s guest worlds, so you can plan to earn some of the route badges you are missing:

Monday: Innsbruck & Richmond
Tuesday: Richmond & London
Wednesday: London & Yorkshire
Thursday: London & Yorkshire
Friday: France & Paris
Saturday: France & Paris
Sunday: France & Paris

Slowtwich Indoors Event Preview (All Times Eastern)

Go to Zwift Events to sign up for these rides and runs.

Monday 100/100 Group Run, 7:00 AM & 7:00 PM
Join us for a group run on the virtual track of May Field that will kick start your week. Don’t forget that each of the five ride workouts and five run workouts have a short and long option. Rather than canceling a workout when you are crunched for time, you can complete the short version and still reap the benefits of the program.

Tuesday Ride of the Valkryies Workout (Women Only), 6:00 AM
This event is by and for women. It’s an almost no-drop, rubber-banded Structured Training workout, featuring a warm-up, set of intervals, and a cool-down.

Tuesday Structured Training, 7:00 PM
Our Tuesday ride features triathlon-focused cycling workouts written by coaches and pro athletes affiliated with Slowtwitch. The workouts last 60 minutes and will help add variety and interest to your weekly training schedule.

Wednesday Group Run, 7:00 AM & 7:00 PM
A more scenic group run on the Quatch Quest course.

Thursday Rise & Grind, 5:35 AM
This workout is an early morning bracer for the East Coast crowd. Get your work done before heading off to work.

Thursday SWIFT Ride, 6:55 PM
The newest ride to the Slowtwitch Indoors family, Slowtwitch SWIFT (Strong Women, It's Fun Together!) is here to bring another women's only ride to a slightly friendlier time slot. This ride will focus slightly more on strength-based work so bring those climbing legs. But even if you're feeling more like Mark Cavendish in the mountains of the Tour de France, so long as you keep the pedals moving, you'll stay with our group.

Friday Festina Lente, 9:00 AM
This structured training workout is designed to get you geared up for the weekend. Roughly translated as “make haste, slowly,” Festina Lente features a workout that will get your engine running but still leave some in the tank for the big rides and races you have planned for the weekend. This ride is led by members of the Kanberra Cycling Team as lead beacon.

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