Rode over to the shops to buy my son some poweraid as he had the spews last night. Rode pretty hard to Govnors for a new PB from my house. Straight onto a 12:50 up Dyers. Bought said drink turned around came home. Dyers Colombo to SOK managed 16:53 (5:10 split to the cup. 7:50 to SOT) into a headwind with fatigued legs. But don't know what was going on with the wind as it was a headwind up Teddington straight biking into town, so I expecting a nice tailwind up to the SOK on the way home. But instead got a bloody headwind.

Nice warm night to go for a bike ride though

Nice cruisey ride with my Wife around short bays this morning, not too hot and pleasant conditions for a coffee at Mudfish on the way home

I rode with the shop group again but on my 904 as my SS needed work.
They split us into faster long group and slower long group.
Funny that at the top of the first climb there was myself and two other guys all on Merida bikes a long way clear of the rest We should have done an add for Merida
The pace stepped up today and by our stop at the top of Annandale climb my average was 28.9kph.
I went off to collect something (up a friend’s VERY steep, concrete drive – bottom gear with chest heaving… ) and left the group to ride back.
I managed to catch the slower group later and ride with a couple of them until we stopped to help a woman whose rear spoke had broken.
I pulled it out of the wheel, reset the brakes etc = nice to help
I then rode home down Crow’s, Swanson etc home.
61kms

Went around the block - Akas loop from paraparaumu. PB on the Paekak hill climb, was feeling good out there. Came to Haywards which is the part of the ride that I just don't like, only to face the hill with a headwind and rain. Slow careful descent. Heading up SH2 there were lots of cars passing with MTB's on the back heading to Karapoti. More ominous clouds were on the way...

A little more dampening down up to brown owl corner, including being passed by a mate who yelled a gidday. then around the corner I got to see this:

Then it was off past Karapoti where the traffic was just a mess!!! Lots of cars, lots of people, and lots of these funny bikes with suspension and wide tires.....Not far up the road I came to Jock Aitkens falls, and had always intended to stop and take a pic one day, and today was that day....it kind of sucked, but the waterfall is actually really pretty if you ever feel like stopping.

Then it was off the the final climb to the top of the Aka's. It was an eventless ride, but once over the top I got a pleasant surprise...near the top on the way down the Waikanae side there has always been about 1km of pretty rough road. This has now all been resealed with hotmix tar and at the moment it is all perfect, flat and smooth. Should make for some quick descents on the Kapiti Cycle Challenge on 21st. If you haven't signed up yet....then get on with it. (www.kapiticyclechallenge.co.nz)

Got home having done 100km in 4 hours, had drunk less than 1 bottle, and had only take 1 bite of a bar. It suddenly hit me, kind of like bonking badly only after stopping riding and it's taken about an hour or so, and about a litre of drink to come right.

What a day !!!
Our Sat bunch ride was a full LeRace run to Akaroa, with everyone doing an individual sprint from town to bottom of Gebbies and then re-grouping for a full bunch to Little River, then again doing your own pace to the finish.

But on the decent down the bastard one of our group had a horrible crash on the middle cattle-stop, resulting in a complete KO, with the helmet destroyed after nasty head impact After what seemed ages he came round but was not well. Pretty scary moment for all of us seeing an unmoving friend in the middle of the road. The Ambo staff on the end of 111 got us the chopper which was awesome and our patient was air lifted to hospital.

We decided to finish what was started and regrouped at Little River for the final assault. Let the legs loose up the HillTop and mashed my round to the finish in under 1:30 from Little River. At hm now and the legs are stuffed, God knows how I'm gonna get up tomorrow and do the Dyers TT. Got a txt and the patient is now home but pretty sore.

Oh and the driver back from Akaroa... 6 of us and our bikes on the roof of a ..... Hummer, quite poetic I though after all the news regarding bikes and hummers !!

Rode the Le Race course from Little River to Akaroa for the first time. Climb to Hilltop not too bad. A bit depressing to see Akaroa just down over there (points) and the road you're taking going wayyyy up there (points in the opposite direction). Endless hills. Decided I can cope with 10-11% gradients OK, but 13-15's are not good. Then there's Long Bay Rd, definitely sphincter puckering. Don't want to be around anyone on that downhill. I read on my computer (before it lost the data) that there was 1100m of climbing. Think it took me 1h48. Was cool on the tops there, so knees were a bit sore. Might be knee warmers for Race Day. Stopped at the Little Akaloa to put armies on and eat a Banana. Couldn't bring myself to do a "sifter" and eat the bit that fell off and landed on some cow poo though.

Nice 1 Spyder
I am feeling a little tired now.
Broke my 100K mark this morning (first time in 20 years). .... Well I would have if I had remembered to push the start button .
In the end I logged almost 97K's and 800 meters of climbing. Not bad for a fat boy!
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/26273848

m-r-h wrote:What a day !!!
Our Sat bunch ride was a full LeRace run to Akaroa, with everyone doing an individual sprint from town to bottom of Gebbies and then re-grouping for a full bunch to Little River, then again doing your own pace to the finish.

But on the decent down the bastard one of our group had a horrible crash on the middle cattle-stop, resulting in a complete KO, with the helmet destroyed after nasty head impact After what seemed ages he came round but was not well. Pretty scary moment for all of us seeing an unmoving friend in the middle of the road. The Ambo staff on the end of 111 got us the chopper which was awesome and our patient was air lifted to hospital.

We decided to finish what was started and regrouped at Little River for the final assault. Let the legs loose up the HillTop and mashed my round to the finish in under 1:30 from Little River. At hm now and the legs are stuffed, God knows how I'm gonna get up tomorrow and do the Dyers TT. Got a txt and the patient is now home but pretty sore.

Oh and the driver back from Akaroa... 6 of us and our bikes on the roof of a ..... Hummer, quite poetic I though after all the news regarding bikes and hummers !!

That crash sounded terrible. I hope he’s ok and able to get back riding.

I did the group ride this morning at 7AM.
It’s funny how some guys are so fast on hills early on (which made me think I was going to get dropped ) and yet later I’m passing them no trouble…
Lots of other Roadies out – about 40 came the other was as we were going up the Upper Harbour Bridge cycleway.
Down to Albany and then I led three others up all the way up the Albany Hill to our regroup point at the petrol station.
Along to Dairy Flat turn off, up and over the hill at Waitoki and then lapping it out as we tried to catch the bunch that had got away on the hill.
By our stop at the Rock near the Peak Road start my average was 29.1 (another guy – who hadn’t ridden to the off, his average was 31.?) which is darned fast for me
Our speed on the flats (certainly not the uphills) was aided by the guys on the tandem.
We then headed up Peak Road in the side/headwind.
My bike wasn’t feeling as it should’ve been and as I passed the last of the front markers coming up to Taylor road (a regroup) I noticed I had a flat on the front.
An ‘expert’ helped me to sort it and we were off again.
I raced the tandem down into Waimauku = not a good idea. I was head down, spinning at 70+ kph and they still bet me
Then along HW16 ( ), around the back of Kumeu into the wind but it was left to about 5 of us to lap it out at the front.
As we approached Tunnel Hill I pulled out from my lap, the guy behind me moved back but the guy behind him clipped his wheel and went down
He hit the tarmac hard but even though there was copious amount of blood from his arm and leg his main painful problem was cramp in his leg
We saw that he was ok, someone rang for a car to come and we headed back.
After leaving the shop (ave still 28.8) I made my way more slowly into Ponsonby to meet my wife….to recover (clothes etc in the car)
116kms

As my bung shoulder is keeping me from riding anything with the slightest amount of terrain variation, I played roadie today and went round the bays on an extremely inappropriate bike. I want a road bike now. Carbon frame/Ultegra bikes for 3k at my work...hmmm

the world is going to end.

A few laps of Miramar Peninsula followed by part of a lap of the bays and then home. 110km all up. Must have been a good ride as I considered painkillers when I got home

Went and did the Little River Akaroa loop again today, as was working yesterday. Due to a reasonable headwind was already over a minute down at the bottom of Hilltop just after Cooptown from last time. A minute slower up to the top again mainly due to the wind I think. Was 3minutes down on that steepest bit just a bit before Okains bay. I would have hated to have deep dish wheels on those crosswinds today though! Worst ever, and was getting blown all over the road going down to Okains Bay, and had to put the brakes on to slow myself down to about 40kph just to keep safe.

Got to Long Bay Road in just under an hour from Hilltop. But the trouble with this training ride is that you're a lot fresher than on the day, so you can push it a bit faster up some of those last hills. Long Bay rode was a bit blustery so didn't push it too much getting a top speed of just over 80kph.

But 3:30minute down at Akaroa Felt better on the last half than a few weeks ago though and made it to the bottom of hilltop still about 3:30 down. But felt waay better today and wasn't fading as badly. Got up to the top in just over 24min, or 2min30 faster than last time (wasn't as hot and better wind probably). Finished with a tailwind instead of a headwind which was good, so ended up just beating my last time by 20sec so was really stoked to have made up those 3minutes in the end.

2hrs40:30 for the loop (including the sprint to the imaginary finish line at Akaroa )

Spyder wrote:Rode the Le Race course from Little River to Akaroa for the first time. Climb to Hilltop not too bad. A bit depressing to see Akaroa just down over there (points) and the road you're taking going wayyyy up there (points in the opposite direction). Endless hills. Decided I can cope with 10-11% gradients OK, but 13-15's are not good. Then there's Long Bay Rd, definitely sphincter puckering. Don't want to be around anyone on that downhill. I read on my computer (before it lost the data) that there was 1100m of climbing. Think it took me 1h48. Was cool on the tops there, so knees were a bit sore. Might be knee warmers for Race Day. Stopped at the Little Akaloa to put armies on and eat a Banana. Couldn't bring myself to do a "sifter" and eat the bit that fell off and landed on some cow poo though.