Beating a path

To celebrate the anniversary of my first breath, I coerced others into repeating my ride from last Sunday. Only this time, the weather didn't play ball, and as we entered the forest the heavens opened.

I could write endless verbage about how much fun it was, and how truly grubby we got, but I'll let the pictures do the talking.

After we had cleared the forest we rode the gravel road to the Woodhill MTB carpark to nab a coffee, there we were treated to odd looks, bemusement and wonder. But we were grubby and very much alive.

Thanks Mikeal, Doris, Greg and Tony.

Cornfed

Damaged beyond fixing with clearcoat and duct tape, methinks. These were the major casualties from last week's lie down.

On the up, the frame, fork and steerer are all unblemished.

While I'm sitting waiting for the meat pie on my hip to heal, it's immensely frustrating that the Classics season has kicked off, and I can't go and pound around similar roads in empathy. Sunday's KBK was superb, and a great ride from Rolly for fourth. I liked the bit in the race report that described the riders as struggling to go 20 kph due to the ferocity of the head wind. Watching the video coverage was just pant's wettingly good. Well worth checking out Steephill.TV for all the belgium video and photos.

My own experience of these sorts of conditions has always been at the bottom end of the South Island, and there were several times like that. Being in a race that's doing 16kph one way and in the 60s the other with driving rain is good for the soul. The cross wind sections were just hang on for the ride.

In honour of these races, I'm planning an epic myself, the route is in the final stages of being announced, likewise a date. It will be approximately 120kms, have around 35kms of metal and quite a few nasty little hills. Apart from 6 kms of a main road, all the rest of it will be on back roads. Tentatively I'm thinking mid April, for two reasons. One, the area is damn hot and dry at the moment and provisioning is limited on the route. Two, the roads need a damn good amount of rain to shift some of the loose metal. It will be a drive to start point type ride, but the drive is less than 30 minutes from Auckland.

Here's a tease:-

The Human Speedhump

Last night I raced in B grade at the BioSPORT crit.
Again, good numbers on the start line and it was reasonably steady. The average speed until 500 metres to go was 42.2 kph, not bad given the wind.
All was going peachy, until the final lap and second to last corner. There, a rider decided to try and enter the trunk of a car that had been parked there all race.

Then two others who managed to pull up and avoid the vehicle decided to ride across the pack at zero mph. I was about 10th wheel and feeling frisky, suddenly I am facing an impending T bone. So I grabbed a handful of brakes, bike bucked and suddenly I was sitting on the road. In the panic stopping I had blown out the front tube and rolled the clincher...
Horror moment as I realised that there were approximately 50 riders still behind me. So I assumed brace position and copped 115kg man in back along with his bike. Then another one after that.
The chap who hit me, made excellent use of me as a crash pad, and walked away unscarthed. Unfortunately his frame not so, and it was unmarked, apart from a big crack in it.

Me, bark off hip and elbow, cut finger, bruising and a bit sore today, but nothing broken.

Bike, broken Kestrel bars, both wheels bent (rear one from someone riding over it), front rim is knackered with a kink in the rim wall. Right shifter scuffed, RD scuffed, saddle scuffed. Otherwise all okay.

Bibs wrecked, glove torn.

I'll hopefully be back on the bike in a couple of days and racing again next week. There's going to be some yummy scabbing!

Thanks to Mikeal, Doris and CTB for lightening my spirits afterwards, even if I did drink enough ethanol and tell enough lies to ensure a solid night's sleep.

Larus dominicanus

First up, an update of sorts from Sunday's ride.
Here's the route, Doris's Day of Destiny . I've taken it from the Lincoln Road, Universal Drive intersection in Horrenderson and finished it at the end of the new motorway at Maioro St in New Windsor.
Here is the profile, it is from Balmoral, back to Balmoral, so includes the NW Bikepath, etc.
I have also discovered today, that one of the riders on Sunday is a scavenger, like a seagull. On arriving in Titirangi, said rider raced over to the Hardware Cafe where Warren and Serge sat,
and grabbed the portion of brioche that Serge was yet to consume. They then, in their own words "Scarfed it". Interesting behaviour, I do hope that they don't adopt other seagull like habits.

I raced tonight, in the bioSport Crit. I rode B grade. It was great fun, and I had a blast. Thanks to Greg and co for organising these races. A good size field, fifty eight riders, reasonable pace, and thoroughly enjoyable. Unfortunately, I also proved to be inadequate for a member of the female sex.

I had mentioned to Gael, from Solo, that I could lead her out for the final sprint. Gael is a damn good rider, and had won the previous week in the face of some stiff competition. So, tonight I rolled around the race mid field, comfortable and happy. With two laps to go, I made the move through a lap to get much closer to the pointy end of the race. As I passed Gael around the start of the final lap, I told her to jump on board. All good, so far. Turned into the finish straight, position, not bad. Gael yells "Go, Go, Go" and I mentally respond, my body doesn't. I was completely tapped out, and going a speed that wouldn't be out of place at a Senior Citizen's Zimmer Frame Race. It was appalling.
Faced with that handicap, Gael did very well to get around from behind the lumbering behemoth that was me, get up to speed and run it very close to finish second.

Well done Gael.

Mental note to self, be gallant with things I can manage - doors, puddles and seating.