Festival of Cycling 2011

The 2011 Festival of Cycling was out at Waipara, using the same figure 8 course as the Waipara Classic. 90 kilometers of road racing in fine conditions around North Canterbury with the first section on state highway one and another section on state highway seven. The course was undulating without any very challenging climbs (the two steepest were category five climbs).
 
The 2010 Festival of Cycling was a bit of a disaster of a race for me. I did a huge amount of training focussed on this event and got a puncture 10 kilometres from the start. My pump failed to inflate my spare tyre. so given that it was quite close to home, so I ended up walking home and not finished the race.

In constrast, I got a puncture five minutes before the race started. Horror! I thought it had gone all pear shaped again! Luckily me and Caz managed to change the tyre in about two minutes flat and had me ready to race on time.

I started off in the middle of the field and by the first cat 5 climb on State highway 1 had closed in on the first bunch. From there on in I sat in the first bunch for the entire race. We kept a fast pace for the entire race and even caught up with the elite women's race. I was involved in the sprint finish (video above) at the end. 2 hours 27 minutes for the 90km. 

Sefton Classic 2011

This was one of the first club races that I did. 4 laps of a 16km course. We had a bit of a plan to make a break on the first corner on the 4th lap. It worked but only two of us instead of the four as planned made the break. We ended up getting caught by the bunch, which gave me a chance to catch my breath and recover to come seventh in the sprint finish.

(That is me is the yellow jersey)

Grape Ride 2012

The week following my 4^th place in the Waikari Classic was the Grape Ride, So me and Caz made our annual trip north to Blenheim for the race on the Friday night and picked up our race packs. We caught up with our friends, JM and RJ who we had convinced to join us for the weekend’s racing. JM and I had half a jug on the outcome.

Another early Saturday start. We arrived well in time for an 8:30 start and found lots of keen roadies had been lining up since 7:45 to start close to the front of the peloton. I started with John (who I race with a bit) towards the back of the sub three hour group. When we got away in our bunch, I quickly made it clear that I was not going to settle in with a sedate bunch by charging away out of my seat at 50km/h in the run down towards Blenheim. John joined in and we were joined by three or four other riders. My lungs burned as we charged past a number of bunches ahead of us and then some very big bunches beyond Blenheim.

Following state highway one to Picton, we did not let the pace slow and two or three of us would just cycle past some of the big bunches, leaving them to ride as a group. We hit the hills keeping pace with Steve Gurney, dropped into Picton and then climbed up again into Queen Charlotte Drive. At the top of this, my self-preservation instincts kicked in again and I took it slower down the descents and lost a number of places. This was despite having improved my descending over the last few months!

Into the headwind towards Linkwater I lead a small bunch, working hard with John to try and close the gap with a larger bunch ahead of us. This was ultimately unsuccessful and we carried on in our bunch while collecting a few others. I caught my breath for twenty minutes or so sitting in, as we went through Havelock and back to Renwick. I then started to try and work out time and speed combinations to what sort of time  I was going to do.

At this stage, I decided that I was going to have to average over 41km/h for the last section to go under three hours. I pushed on to the front of the bunch and broke away a couple of times, joined by a few others including John. We took turns leading at the front and were joined by three tandems who were racing for places. They were great to draft behind when we were out of breath. We charged into Renwick and finished in 2 hours 48 minutes, well under three hours which goes to show that my calculations were a bit out. I managed to reduce my time from 2011 (3 hours 6 minutes) by a substantial 18 minutes.

Caz came well up in the stakes in the 43km race beating her time from last year and RJ finished about twenty minutes behind her.  JM finished an hour after me in the 101km race.

Waikari Classic 2012

I did this race as the second in March which was a month of big races. I thought that this would give me a bit of fitness before the Grape Ride and Le Race. The course was a 25km block out at Waikari which took in a category 5 climb on state highway 7 going north out of Waikari. Four laps of the course and it was a handicap race to boot.

I started in the 28 minute mark and we quickly caught the mark ahead of us. With some extra riders who were a bit slower hanging on,  we had a bit of a clear out twice a lap, firstly between Hawarden and Waikari with the norwester behind us. We hit 50km/h and aimed to hold it for 7 or 8 km and then on the cat 5 climb on s/h 7. This was quite successful as each time one or two riders would struggle to stay with us and slowly drop off the back of the bunch.

Between John and me, we rallied everyone to work hard, pointed out that we were in the lead and yet to be caught. Each lap we reminded everyone of the same and did not see any other bunches until the last 10 km when we saw a bunch of 4 or 5 of them about 500 metres behind us. This spurred us on to ride even faster and keep our advantage. We sprinted into the finish and I came in 4^th place to win $100.We were well clear of any bunches behind us. I finished the 100km in a total time of 2 hours 52 minutes and was a little dehydrated given the warm day and the norwester blowing. Everyone felt that it was a very hard race, given the distance, warm conditions and blustery cross winds.

Le Race 2012

One of the benefits of Le Race is the start is less than a kilometre away from my house. So an early start for Le Race this year with an 8 o’clock kickoff isn’t too bad. There was a bit of a rain shower at 6:50 in the morning which lead me to think that it was going to be the same as last year, wet and miserable. So I  wondered what clothing to wear. However the weather picked up and it was a cool and slightly foggy morning. The tops of the Port Hills were clear of cloud which was a good sign.

I set off from the back of the field and was two minutes down from the start of the race. I climbed steadily past a procession of cyclists up Dyers Pass Road and lost a few places descending carefully down the bastard. My desire to be in one piece at the bottom of it was utmost. We then formed up a large bunch and picked up speed heading out on the flat in  foggy and still conditions.

On passing another large bunch, a rider ahead failed to hold their line and swung wildly into my line and clipped my wheel taking me and several other riders down. When I got up my left brake and shifter unit was at a funny angle, I had scraps and road rash everywhere and no skin on a very sore knee. I jumped back on the bike and carried on. We were soon caught by another bunch and sat in with them for a while before dropping them and climbing up to Hilltop.

From Hilltop, it was a procession on constant climbing and short descents. Expecting to hit the last climb, I was disappointed as there was always another climb to follow. Finally I hit the last descent and with my brakes not that easy to grip I took it easy on the seven kilometre ride down into Akaroa. After getting a beer, I got myself patched up by the St John’s Ambulance crew and was pleased with my 3 hour 29 minute time which was 16 minutes quicker than in 2011. We had rented a house in Akaroa with friends for the weekend so spent the rest of the weekend with them having a relaxing time.

Retirement of the Speedo

My speedo died after the Grape Ride so I have had to replace it. It had done 9714.4 kilometres, so it was a bit sad to see it go. However I did replace it with a Garmin 500 Edge which is much more fun.