Overall Standings

1. Hayward 26' 12"
2. Joel 06' 04"
3. Derryn Hinch 00' 25"
4. Lynskey 00' 45"
5. Caffeine 00' 54"

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Stage Winners

PROLOGUE - Petone -> Ngauranga 4.9km : Joel
STAGE ONE - Korokoro -> Korokoro 7.3km : Hayward

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Jersey Holders

Yellow - Hayward
Green - Joel
Polka Dot - Hayward
White - Hayward
Grey - Joel

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Stage List

Prologue - see page 2.
Stage One - see page 5.

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How it works:

Inspired by the Port Hills leaderboard and the Tour de France in general I have formulated a plan to keep training/sifting interesting for all those banging out miles. The idea is that i've come up with 10 classic Wellington "stages" that occur along the course of well known road rides. It'll be set up in Tour format with the overall time being taken and deficits/advantages from each stage factoring into the overall standings. It's mainly centered around climbs but with a couple of flat stages to even out the field a little. The leaderboard will be updated regularly on page 1. You may update your times as you post faster ones and for the solo standings no drafting is allowed. If there is enough interest I will start an open leaderboard where drafting will be allowed. The overall time will be taken to establish the yellow jersey, the hill courses will be assigned points for placings to establish the polka dots, sprint points will be factored into flat stages for the green jersey and whoever has fastest overall time and is under-25 will hold the white jersey. Post a response in this thread or PM me with your time for a stage and I'll update the standings.

great idea! i am in.

Good idea, you should be able to put together some good stages.

To make it like the tour and interesting for different types of rides, I think have a couple of flattish/rolling stages, a long TT (round the 30km mark ) and at least 1 or 2 mountain stages with a Mountain top finishes, i.e. finishing up in Howokiwi

What stage length are you looking at?

At the moment I've got it down to 11 ideas. I'm open to suggestion but its generally like this...

Flat stages: 3 (Prologue, out to Eastbourne & the classic Bays TT; 5km, 40km & 35km)

Hill stages: 6 (Taking in Moonshine, Blue Mtns, Paekak, Korokoro, Makara & Wind Turbine) - they'll be a bit shorter obviously but finish on top - except Korokoro which involves a little descent skill.

Rolling(ish): 1 - Karori -> JVille (maybe carry on round to Karori tunnel so it takes in Ngaio, Crofton Downs etc?)

Big stage: 1 - Akas loop (to really sort out the men from the boys).

In terms of keeping it fun for everyone I figured some sort of sweeper was in order, like say you have to be within 200% of the leaders time from each stage. If anyone drops below this then another grade gets created and they can have their own glory - not everyone's a beast. Also drafting would be permissible on all but the Prologue and Bays TT, to keep it real interesting.

Any suggestions?

A "sprint" competition of really short blasty bits of existing stages, such as errrrrm, um, like maybe between the Maranui surf club and the dog pound.

personally i would like the akas loop to start finish somewhere like puahatanui roundabout or bottom of haywards. helps for those who did not live central to wellington city

Yep, Akas should be a loop. Perhaps starting at the Haywards traffic lights, riding clockwise. Otherwise there's only 1 decent sustained climb (Paekak).

The Karori > J'ville one... that's from Makara hill to top of Ironside Rd I assume?

Also, I think there should be NO drafting at all, for any of these. Why?

I jumped in behind a truck on SH2 from Ngauranga on Tuesday morning, and sat at a fairly sold pace the whole way to the Petone turnoff.

If you need a hand with anything let me know Lynskey, I'd be happy to help GPS any routes if you want some numbers/data.

If you're doing any sort of race around the block (aka's) do not attempt to do so clockwise. Too many right hand turns at traffic lights and crossing SH1 (bottom of Paekak) etc. Also you will need to keep up with the road works happening and bridge / road closures. I am on the mailing list for the road closures and will post details on Vorb when I hear about them.

Sounds like a great idea though. Not sure I'll be in because of the whole coming in from Kapiti thing, but anything I can do to help, I'd gladly do.

jeyboi wrote:Also, I think there should be NO drafting at all, for any of these. Why?

I jumped in behind a truck on SH2 from Ngauranga on Tuesday morning, and sat at a fairly sold pace the whole way to the Petone turnoff.

Fun Police

I guess it's an honour-based system and it'd be up to the riders involved to determine if their actions were OK (say, drafting behind another cyclist for a little bit) or not in the spirit of the competition (say, drafting a truck for 10kms).

Just off topic, a good place to see roadworks/closures is http://maps.aa.co.nz/traffic/roadwatch

To add some climbing before Brookland, you could add heading round the bays but including climb of mt vic, up to the prison, Beacon Hill, Houghton Bay and possible up through Vogel Town.

Nice idea

The beauty with loops is that they're loops? So, why not make Makara loop and Akas able to be started from anywhere on the loop? You could consider having two times for the Makara loop, clockwise and anti-clockwise...

I think if you started the Akas in Waikanae, and hit that main climb fresh you'd do the loop faster than if you'd started at Haywards Hill rd (Paekak isn't as much of a climb as a false flat most of the way, and Haywards is short enough to bluff your way up even if you're knackered). I've hit that Akas climb after 130km and hated life for 25 minutes or so...

I was going to suggest a there & back as part of the Makara route - cos surely we'd have to include Makara hill somewhere in the "tour"!

I reckon Horokiwi needs to be in there somewhere.

If every stage is a loop then it shouldn't matter too much where you start from (within reason, see Jeyboi above). That way people wouldn't have to ride too far to the start.

Wind will affect times, but I guess that will just be part of the fun?

Lynskey wrote:Big stage: 1 - Akas loop (to really sort out the men from the boys).

Any suggestions?

We could include something a bit bigger too (I think Akas as a loop is only about 90km or so?). How about something like Welly > Featherston > round the lake (either direction) > welly ? That's a decent 260km or so, and a very pleasant ride. Yes NZMATTO, I know there are a couple of right turns in that one. I like to live dangerously.