Cycled the Lake
I surprised myself that Saturday in November, after a crazy morning just trying to get organised for the race start for the Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge.
Of all things I forgot to bring with me for a cycle race was my bike helmet! I hadn’t even realised until I went to go put it on that I realised it wasn’t there. So I biked down to the race start, found some helpful helpers that directed me to the Avanti bike shop and bought myself a new helmet.
Then I snuck into a faster start group once I got back after being told it was too late to change my start group, which was a good decision. Half the people in the “faster” group were too slow anyways, so ended up passing many in the beginning. Note for next year: don’t underestimate how well I might do.
I passed a few people I recognised, and got quite a few comments about my cycling dress, some thinking it was a netball outfit, grr! And despite a few minutes at a drink stop to refuel, I managed to finish within five minutes of my goal time! I was so impressed with myself to get there in the end. Was feeling nigh on impossible at the seemingly slow speed for the first half of the ride.
Next year, I definitely need to aim for a time under five hours, and in the meantime you can find photos of me riding around the lake.
The Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge
Two days out, and I feel achy. The weather is getting crazy mad with dark overcast skies, and painfully strong winds, and rain forecast to pour down in the weekend. I’m not feeling entirely confident of doing well this Saturday.
After my Sunday ride, my thighs were worked over a little too much; could barely squat, and sitting down and getting up were painful tasks. That pain has mostly gone away, but my legs feel almost like jello after attempting to beat my personal best for the individual time trial last night.
The wind was so horrible, I managed a measly 24km/h average from home out to Kairanga School for the meet. It’s only 9.5km away! I fared a little better in the time trial, about 30 seconds slower than last week. On the upside, had a nice tail-wind home, averaging an insane (for me) 35.6km/h.
However, I probably should’ve taken it a bit easier home, trying to spin rather than push. But I don’t like spinning that much, unless I’m coasting along in a bunch, as it’s very hard on my knees. Maybe that’s caused by bad technique, I dunno.
Anyways, originally I was aiming for a five and a half hour finish; now I feel like I’ll be lucky to do it in under 6 hours. Still, I have two days to try and recover… should’ve stayed home last night!
Tour de Manawatu
I have never ridden so far, or for so long without a break—116 kilometres non-stop in just under four hours.
The weather was very nice, mostly sunny with the occasional spot of cloud; just an annoying head wind for the final few kilometres to the finish line when I was already spent.
I got dropped twice from the bunches I was in. The first time was a silly mistake not pushing towards front of the bunch before starting up a small but potent rise after the very long Cheltenham straight. The other was between Feilding and Bunnythorpe where I just didn’t have the juice to keep up—mainly due to biking by myself for a long while after dropping off the first time.
So that was my first of hopefully many rides of the Tour de Manawatu!