Catch-up Time

Well it's been a few weeks now since I last wrote something so just thought I'd do a little catchin up.

Yes I did manage my ride upto Pukekohe although it was into a strong Norwesterly for most of the way & then when I got over the Waikato River & started on the Glen Murray Rd it got worse. It was about 60km to go from here & I'd been doing ok, but this back road is very undulating & into the wind, VERY HARD. Then to top it off the afternoon heavy showers came in & it was accompanied by Hail & Thunderstorms. So being out in the middle of nowhere one must just push on. Was very happy that day to get off the bike & find a hot shower. For the record it was 225km in 9hrs 5mins.

The following day was the Bauer Express in Pukekohe & I had the job of lead vechile for the 50km race. The day had it all with Gordon Macauley turning up to take the win, numerous crashes due to the strong winds & a record field ( despite the weather there were heaps of late entries )of over 1300. Well done to all.

A quick trip home & out for dinner for my 9 year old twins birthday. What a weekend !!

Now whilst this was all going on my work was in the process of moving. We had done the office on the Friday. This was to go on for the next 2 weeks & make me extremely tired. Luckily it is all over now.

The week 19th - 25th I very little training. Just a few little bike rides. Come Thursday night I drove north to Auckland with other crew members to sail in the Coastal Classic ( Yacht race from Akld to Russell, BOI ). The race got underway at 10am Friday with a nice 18knt Souwesterly blowing. So up went the spinnaker & we sailed the next 120 nautical miles with it up. Very good sail & finished around 1am Saturday. Some of us then drove home about 10am & finished back in Tauranga around 5ish. Then once again straight out for Kathy's dads birthday dinner. BUSY, BUSY.....



Not us, but taken just after start.



So after some good nights sleep I moved on with the next week of training. Monday saw an easy 80km ride over the Mount, then my normal 45km Wednesday morning ride, followed that afternoon by another 45km ride. Both these were good & wanted to do more even though it was very windy. Damn wind!!!!! Is it ever going to stop. Thursday saw the normal am swim of 2500m.

So onto the weekends long ride.

Where do you go for 250kms ??? My plan was to go via the direct road ( Pyes Pa Rd ) towards Rotorua but go over the top of the lake through Hamurana past Lake Rotoma & on to Whakatane. Then head back home through Matata, Te Puke & the Mount. Now I hoped to be home by 5pm so as to go out with the wife & kids & friends for a kids Halloween dinner at Bureta Park.

So up at 4.30am & out the door by 6am. Things were looking great with no wind & the sun about to come up & eventually warm the day. How things change. Going past Pyes Pa school ther was still no sign of the wind & I was going great guns. %kms further up the road I was just thinking, Oh F#*k Here we go again !!!!!!!! A bloody strong headwind AGAIN.. So as one does they just put the haed down & hope for the best. 2hrs into the ride I had come through the Mangorewa Gorge roadworks & heading for the lake. Well a km up the road I had my 1st flat for 100's of kms. Stopped outside a farmers drive & started to fix it. He soon turned up & asked if all good. I said " Yep just pump this up & I'll be off " . Well that is if you don't snap the valve !!! Next tube & the farmer tells me he has a compressor, so luckily with the adaptor I carry we took the bike on the quad bike 400m up his drive & fixed the puncture. After a wee chat I was off 30mins lost.

So back into the headwind but now heading for Rotorua as to get some replacement tubes. Thanks to the guys at Rotorua Cycle Centre for letting me fix you up on Monday with a couple of tubes. Back on the bike & for the small trip out to the Whakatane turn-off I had a tailwind. Once on this road & going past the Lakes the wind was back in the face & swirling round. Up & over the hill & past Kawerau I was beginning to look at the time of day & whether I would make it back in time to go out. Some quick calculations told me that if I proceeded to Whakatane I wouldn't have enough time to ride that 105kms, so I took the next left turn & started to head for home. A cross tailwind for about 20kms so finaalty some relief. Next thing to do was stop in Matata for a pie & coke.

Now for the last 70km home. Easy I hear you say the winds a strong southerly. Yes it was in Matata but the forecast was for afternoon sea breezes ( 8-10knts / 10-15km ). Yes this did happen 5km up the road so I was now looking at riding the next 60 odd kms into a strong NE wind. It wasn't no sea breeze!! Around about here I was starting to think where I might get to before pulling the pin. I had told myself long before that if the wind did change then I would just stop right there. But I didn't !! I wanted to get to aleast 8hrs. So I carried on only to get attacked for about 3 minutes by the same shitty Magpie which attacked me last time I went this way. I was really pissed off about now. Just outside of Te Puke I finally made the call to Kathy & asked her to get ready to come & get me. I finally struggled my way to Baypark Stadium at 4pm for my totals of 204kms in 8hr 5mins.




Man I was glad to get off. It felt like I had ridden 300+ kms. So on reflecting on this ride I'm glad I stuck it as long as I did but hugely dissapointed I didn't get up to the 250km mark.

Sometimes Family must come First