Just a warm-up this morning by znomit's standards ... http://www.strava.com/activities/118552152

120km around Makara, over Moonshine and back home again. I had been planning to go a bit further to Te Marua and back down Whiteman's Valley but turned for home after breaking a spoke coming down Moonshine. Had a pretty wobbly back wheel for the last 40km or so.

Great work, Znomit!

and not a bad Makara loop Tugboat

More craziness with kiwirandonneurs this weekend!

With 12 days rest I figured why not try a 400k.

Down to Martinbourough with Mrs Z and enjoyed a rare night out without the kids.

Up at 4am and met the eight other riders in the square for a 5am start. Led the bunch south out of town at a ludicrous speed for 10 minutes and then settled in at the back for a bit, and then slid off the back. Headed around the bottom of lake Wairarapa as the sun (and wind) came up. Stopped at the excellent french cafe in Greytown just after 8 for coffee and a couple of rolls, one then and another stashed for lunch.

Stopped at the Z in masterton to get my brevet card signed and downed a freshup. 100km in 4:30.

From here the course took backroads through to Alfredton and the school made a good spot for lunch. I lingered a bit here and was just about to leave when another rider showed up, followed soon after by two more. Turned out Craig, Simon and Ed had a leisurely breakfast in Masterton. soonish we were on our way again, headed down Route 52 for Pongaroa.

Theres a few hills along 52 and my legs really started to hurt through here. Possibly I was getting carried away by an uncommon tailwind while I briefly headed west. I buttoned off a bit and they came right. The roads were quite a mess from the earthquake but generally the cracks were filled and the larger bumps were spray painted. Only got caught out a few times coming back in the dark. Coasting down from the highest point I ran into MadAndrew doing a solo 400, chatted briefly and then continued down to Pongaroa.

We regrouped and had a rather long afternoon tea at the Pongaroa pub, nachos and coke hit the spot. 190km in about 10 hrs.
Back on the road with a few stops on the way up to Dannevirke. The climbs weren't quite as bad as I remembered and it seemed the westerly was easing somewhat.
Got into Dannevirke around 8pm and stayed for well over an hour, cheeseburger and coke, plus a bit of junkfood stashed for later.
Reapplied chammy cream here and this seemed to aggravate the skin on my left sit bone a little…. then a little more… then a lot. On the road again at 9:30 we were pleased to find the wind had vanished. Less pleased that the last 60km had taken 6 hours. Now keeping an eye on the clock as we had to cover 170km in 10:30 sleepy hours to beat the 8am cutoff.

We had a nice gravity assisted run down SH2 for a few km and then hit the backroads again. Spending a lot of time out of the saddle by now, appreciated the smooth road surface. We had a few fire engines zooming up and down the road, not sure what was going on but they were almost as wide as the road and in a hurry. We were soon back on SH2 and rode past Tui HQ and into Pahiatua around 11pm… dreams of pies and hot coffee were dashed by the 24hr gas station that wasn't

As we loitered at the closed gas station I remembered had a small tube of bepanthen (I think it was a taupo freebie), a large amount got smeared over my saddle sore which eased my pain to manageable levels. On the road again, next stop Alfredton, but plenty of pauses along the way as I dug warmer and warmer items out of my cavernous revelate bag.

I reached Alfredton around 1:40am, and found Simon and Ed lazing around. We waited for Craig who zoomed in, filled his bottles and zoomed out. 6 hours to go and around 100km.

We trundled up the road and hit the dreaded Dryers rock road. I walked up the hill. It wasn't as bad as I had been led to believe but I enjoyed the stroll. From there it was a long downhill into Masterton and McDonalds at 4:30am. A cheese burger and a coffee I had been craving since 11pm.

Sprinted out of town to warm up again and enjoyed watching the sun come up for the second time on this ride. Kept up a good pace initially and then eased off as the required speed dropped. Arrived back into Martinbourough with 20 minutes to spare.

418km in 26:40 (only about 20hrs ride time).
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/457502281

Astounding.

It was great meeting you out on the Wairarapa roads Znomit, and not only because it was an excuse to stop. You were looking pretty good. Nice catching up! This is my report of the 400 km ride I did. Cheers, MadAndrew
http://andrewendurancecycling.blogspot. ... -2014.html

Manawatu Country Road classic today.
Nice to see the legs can do a little hard work still.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/465199100

znomit wrote:Manawatu Country Road classic today.
Nice to see the legs can do a little hard work still.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/465199100

Could not make it to the start line this year, but looking at the results, the field looked rather small.
Must be a bit of a disappointment to the organisers especially so soon after the Kapiti Cycle Challenge
was cancelled due to insufficient entries.

Yeah, it was a bit lonely for the second half. Hopefully we get more in next year, the ride will run through Rangiwahia (if the road ever get its last km sealed), spectacular scenery.

The start is too early if they started at 10.00 you could drive up from Welly in the morning, easier, cheaper (no accommodation), moar betterer!! There was scenery? All I saw was my stem and asphalt !!

You're riding in the wrong bunch.

A beautiful day on the Kapiti Coast - a great day for a ride.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/472545205

2 km of pave -proved a bit difficult going uphill on Waterfall Road - corrugations, gravel and 8% gradient in places.

no news here, apart from what a lovely couple of weeks in the capital, including a surprise tailwind home last night!

Monday, she who must be obeyed went to visit family, not easy to get out of so said I ride over...

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/483996040

Did alright until the 3 lanes on Wainui Hill dropped to 2, truck & trailer was coming up along with half the inhabitants of the region so I took the option to unclip and scrabble onto the bank. To dam steep to get moving again so walked the final couple of bends.
But... I am old, fat and due for another hip replacement so can't stand when climbing... thats my excuse and Im sticking to it!

I'm not sure if this belongs in here because
A) This was no 1000KM epic. It was not even 100KM. All told it wasn't much over 20KM
B) I was riding a mountain bike and a few of those KMs were on dirt footpath

But, i the spirit of adding a little non-NZ variety to Vorb, here is a short write up of my ride through San Francisco this weekend.

The plan was a simple one. Take the train into SF rent some bikes and ride along the bayfront for a bit before coming back. Strictly speaking I didn't need to rent a bike, I have a couple that would have done the job and the trains are fairly accommodating to cyclists but one of the friends didn't have a bike and blazing saddles were having a special, rent 2 bikes for $36USD, so it was just easier to go with the flow.

And that's how I found my self astride a cheap mountain bike in the middle of San Francisco.



If you've ever watched Bullitt, you know SF is a lumpy town so we decided to head straight to the waterfront and ride all the way around the Embarcadero. It was longer but much less hilly.
I was concerned with the prospect of riding a bicycle through the heart of the city but it was Saturday afternoon, so traffic was light, and besides, they have fairly well marked cycle lanes.



We rode past the official home of the Americas Cup and onto the cobbles near Pier 39



Running into a tourist was a far greater risk than picking up a puncture or getting hit by a car but soon we were past the crowds and riding towards the marina.



The tarmac gave way to dirt as we chose to stick close to the bay. Of course, we were in San Francisco so it wasn't long before we had to stop for some free hugs



I don't think we started our ride much before 4pm so, on this occasion, we didn't make it to the Golden Gate. The Sun was getting low in the sky and so we turned back. I have done this ride before on my own bike and that time we made it over the bridge which is an experience



It was a short ride on an unremarkable bicycle. It would be very easy to regard the outing as quotidian but I can't, because, at the end of the day, I got to ride a bicycle thorough San Francisco and I think that's pretty cool.

Very cool, cheers!