nwood wrote:

m-r-h wrote:Checked Met Service... predicting Nor West !!! uuuggggg

Going to be a LONG day!

Hamner to Chch race :-)

FTW, year I rode break on Hamner to Christchurch we averaged 46kph for 130km and scratch 48kph. That was f**king awesome!

Fergie wrote:FTW, year I rode break on Hamner to Christchurch we averaged 46kph for 130km and scratch 48kph. That was f**king awesome!

Will give a free entry to the whole bunch if those kind of speeds can be reached ChCh-Hanmer !!!! I'm assuming you enjoyed a NW that day.
Weather forecast is average - Westerlies round to WNW most of the way, overcast 15deg up to 22deg, little chance of rain in the morning but otherwise clear.
We do have a mark 2 handicap scheme up our sleeves to cope with headwinds to give more minutes, especially for front to middle marks. Will decide on the day.

Numbers looking good - after tonights usual peak for entries it's looking like 90+........BUT you guys are keeping pretty quiet when it comes to helping us run this classic race. I am not going to put my neck on the line by running it with corners unmanned, so................get in touch pretty quick please (and thankyou to those of you who are already helping )

A very big thankyou to the BIG team helping me run today's race - Registrations, Timekeeping, Commissaires, Marshals, and Afternoon Teas - we can't run events without your ever valued contributions. A very special thanks to John McBain who stood in at the last minute as STMS to replace Andrew Jones, who fractured his clavicle in a training ride during the week. With a 5am start and a 13 hour working day - a big well done.

After a very cold morning start at Eyreton Hall (4degC at sign on), racing got under way on time at 9am with all the bad weather behind us and the prospect of good weather developing during the day. Slight breezes throughout, leading to a slight tail wind and 22degC at Hanmer Springs for the finish.

James Mander fired an attack with about 5km to go, but never got more than a few hundred metres ahead of the chasing bunch, mainly from the 16 minute mark. With just a couple of km to go the chasing group bridged the gap and a group of 12 raced for the finish. The sprint was eventually taken out by Rob Wilson off 22 minutes in a time of 3:43:11. Also in the finishing bunch was Josie Giddens (26 minutes) who took out fastest woman for the third year running in a time of 3:47:16). Just tailed off the back of this group in a time of 3:37:25 was Simon Acker (16 minutes) to win fastest junior. Fastest time was won by Michael Vink off scratch in a time of 3:30:16, which must be regarded as a course record and the time to beat next year, as this was the first time the race has been run over todays course and a longer distance of 140km. We wish Michael best of luck, departing next week for a season racing in Belgium.

Full results are now up on the Pegasus website.

Great to see Rob Wilson get the win. He was in our bunch and was looking strong in our quest to catch the bunch in front. Anyway for some reason he went off the back just before the three bunches came together at Waipara. Obviously in no trouble as he got back..

My day started to go wrong on the climb over Weka Pass where i clipped wheels with someone and just about went down. Had to sprint up to get back on the bunch. Came to the feedzone and collected my bag. While i was messing about with that and getting it sorted the bunch were riding off in the distance. In the end the bag was cast aside and i chased but to no avail. H/R was up in the 170's in doing so. Stupid ,stupid error which cost me dearly and i won't do that again. Rode the rest of the way in a dejected bunch of about 10. 15kms to go my derailier slipping to the point of not being rideable.. Pulled over and end of race.

Quite a few lessons learned for me today..

A huge big Thankyou to all of the organisers and back ground staff that made this event possible... Think Pual must have had his worst nightmares come true with that huge bunch on the main highway. There were some pretty pissed off motorists behind you...

Many thanks to all the workers on the day, a great event with some high speed racing.

Our little group of 7 started well, with the pace between 40 - 45km/hr all the way to Amberly where we caught some riders. Tom Kissell needed a "nature" stop so I backed off and waited and then we had a hell mission to chase down the bunch and finally caught them at State Highway 1. In hindsight we would have been better to wait but hell it was actually fun working together at 50km/hr chasing them down During the climb up Weka we were joined by a larger bunch and worked together until the feed station.

At that point someone put the hammer down and the pace went up, I was in near top cog all the way thru to Culverden, with some high speed turns at the front, A massive bunch flying down the Culverden straight with lots of yelling and weaving until we finally settled down after Mouse Point when I drop down to the back for a rest and found the bunch had shrunk significantly.

A couple of guys tried some attacks on the run to the Hamner turnoff but never got very far. After hanging on and chasing some of the sprints into Hamner my legs died with about a km to go and I watched the last of the bunch ride to the finish. Great day really enjoyed the racing. Avg speed for the 140km, 37km/hr !!

very long day for me, rode in the 26min mark and felt good all day till the feed station where i got my bag and did someone gun it? i was near the back and then it was left to a small group the rest of the way, richard quested and tony_11 and myself to get back on. finished tho. hopefully a better showing in le race for me

That was a challenging race, I rode in the 47min mark. Was a small bunch to start with (6) and we lapped well until about the turn off from SH1 when a couple of guys felt the pace a bit and either just hung on or dropped. As a group of three we lapped reasonably well until about Waikara where we were caught by the main bunch. I held in to that for about 15km until Culverden where I slipped off the back of the bunch while having a drink, pushed hard to catch them but they just drifted into the distance

Spend about the next 15km solo before another bunch of about 10 caught me and joined in with them, worked well until the road works just before the Hamner turnoff where I found the line with all the pot holes! Body was feeling it at this stage and they got away from me. Pushed hard solo for the rest of the way to the finish line to finish a long day in a net time of 4:23:08

Good effort to all others that competed and a big thanks to all the officials, marshals, time keepers and everyone else involved.

Details of my ride : http://connect.garmin.com/player/26816492

I think the hammer must have went on at the front of the bunch at te feed zone. Good tactic really as a lot of riders were pre-occupied with getting drinks etc. Been kicking myself since making that silly error, i'd had been feeling good all day and all in the 22min bunch worked hard...

Did anyone else missthe turn at Rangiora? There was a left hand turn that took you to the River on the way out of Rangiora.. For some reason we missed it and carried on. Probably cost us a minute in catching the group in front and the bunch behind catching us.

tony_11 wrote:I think the hammer must have went on at the front of the bunch at te feed zone. Good tactic really as a lot of riders were pre-occupied with getting drinks etc. Been kicking myself since making that silly error, i'd had been feeling good all day and all in the 22min bunch worked hard...

Did anyone else missthe turn at Rangiora? There was a left hand turn that took you to the River on the way out of Rangiora.. For some reason we missed it and carried on. Probably cost us a minute in catching the group in front and the bunch behind catching us.

Yea, our bunch did that. One of our riders stopped for a loo stop with the intention of sprinting to catch us again. 10km down the road we caught him!

I'm still not exactly sure where the turn was that we missed....

nwood wrote:

tony_11 wrote:I think the hammer must have went on at the front of the bunch at te feed zone. Good tactic really as a lot of riders were pre-occupied with getting drinks etc. Been kicking myself since making that silly error, i'd had been feeling good all day and all in the 22min bunch worked hard...

Did anyone else missthe turn at Rangiora? There was a left hand turn that took you to the River on the way out of Rangiora.. For some reason we missed it and carried on. Probably cost us a minute in catching the group in front and the bunch behind catching us.

Yea, our bunch did that. One of our riders stopped for a loo stop with the intention of sprinting to catch us again. 10km down the road we caught him!

I'm still not exactly sure where the turn was that we missed....

Take a close look at the mapmyride map of the course from the event info on the Pegasus website - which as all good riders you studied prior to the race. Notice you should have turned left off River Road onto Cones Road taking you directly to the Ashley Bridge. Turn was marked with Cycle Race signs and should have been marshalled according to the plan.
Also note (highlighted in some of the previous comments) that racing etiquette dictates that attacking at a feed zone is frowned upon.

You did ask at the start Derrick, is everyone familiar with the course? Obviously some weren't...
I live in Rangiora and use that River Road all the time so was quite confused when we went striaght past. I did point it out to a couple of the guys that we were supposed to turn off.
The pace definately went on at the feedzone....We were cruising on the first steep section towards the feedzone then at the feedzone it'self the pace went up.. I certainly won't get caught out again, that's for sure.

DerrickN wrote:

nwood wrote:

tony_11 wrote:I think the hammer must have went on at the front of the bunch at te feed zone. Good tactic really as a lot of riders were pre-occupied with getting drinks etc. Been kicking myself since making that silly error, i'd had been feeling good all day and all in the 22min bunch worked hard...

Did anyone else missthe turn at Rangiora? There was a left hand turn that took you to the River on the way out of Rangiora.. For some reason we missed it and carried on. Probably cost us a minute in catching the group in front and the bunch behind catching us.

Yea, our bunch did that. One of our riders stopped for a loo stop with the intention of sprinting to catch us again. 10km down the road we caught him!

I'm still not exactly sure where the turn was that we missed....

Take a close look at the mapmyride map of the course from the event info on the Pegasus website - which as all good riders you studied prior to the race. Notice you should have turned left off River Road onto Cones Road taking you directly to the Ashley Bridge. Turn was marked with Cycle Race signs and should have been marshalled according to the plan.
Also note (highlighted in some of the previous comments) that racing etiquette dictates that attacking at a feed zone is frowned upon.

We missed the turn as well... oh well sounds like the race was a bit longer for just about everybody

As mentioned above I thought the attack at the feeding zone was a bit off. I had no choice but to go after it and managed to just make the tail as the speed really started to wind up.

Bad luck to Tom Kissell, we worked so hard to re-capture our bunch. He gave me a call last night to say he punctured at the feeding station and pulled the pin, bugga

Going off course added around 700 metres.
Bear this routing in mind - it is also used in the Round The Gorges and in one of the Benchmark Homes Series rounds.
It was also used in the recent Charity Classic.