Hairshirt

Matt chasing a bit of skirt on Sunday morning.



From his photo blog, which if you ferret through my links you can find. Sadly he is living up to his link name.

The plans for this weekend's madness are coming along well, Mikeal has had a bit of biff from a four wheel drive door in the weekend, but that doesn't appear to be an impediment to the looming adventure.

This is the route, and yes, that is the 309 Road. I'm thinking, and my ego is sufficiently large already, that I'm going to be the first man to ride a regular road bike over the 309 Road. If this isn't the case please disabuse me of that notion. Mikeal will be on his cyclocross bike, with knobbly tyres. Me, just some 25mm regular road tyres. Upside of this is that he will be crying for mum by the time we hit the Thames Coast again. Downside is that I'm picking he'll sit on for all the seal.

I did engage in a little rig testing yesterday with Warren. We tackled Kiwitahi Road, then Inland Road. Both have unsealed sections of at least sixteen percent gradient, plus a miserable eight percent uphill into a howling Easterlie. The wind was sufficient to shake the road markers wildly and Warren reckons there should be some way of calculating wind effect on gradient, a little like windchill if you like. By his reckoning, the eight percent on gravel with headwind was more akin to a thirteen percent seal section.

Kiwitahi road is one of the more solid and constant climbs around, one and half kilometres with a ten percent average gradient. When it was entirely unsealed it was more a feat of concentration so steepness wasn't quite so apparent. Now that it is sealed almost to the top, it's true nature is apparent. The final two hundred metres are very steep, approximately sixteen percent and unsealed, that is the icing on the cake. Inland Road is just a beast, with very steep stairsteps and a short, very rough metal section, but popping out on the top in a familiar spot is truly rewarding.

Here's the profile Here's the route

http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/new-zealand/waitakere/880125351644027153